The Worship Song...

This is something I wrote to use in our local Infant school. After our last SIAS (Statuatory Inspection of Anglican Schools) it was found that though our collective worship was good, the kids weren't able to articulate what we were actually doing when we worship. So I wrote this, sung to the tune of Sing Hosanna

We gather and greet one another,

say hello to the God who cares,

say hello to our sisters and brothers

when we join to share our songs and prayers

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We will listen to stories God‘s given

Saying thank you for God’s good word

Open hearts, open minds, sharing vision

We will think about what we have heard

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We will pray for our world and our lives here

Saying thank you for the all that’s good

We will ask for God’s help with the hard things

God will help us live the way we should.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

We go on with our teaching and learning

thinking always of God met here,

ekep God’s love light inside always burning

in this season and throughout the year.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

praise and worship knowing God is near.

Praise and worship, praise and worship,

happy we are gathered here.

God's Family - Our Family

I was asked by some of my parishioners to post my sermon from Mothering Sunday (which was nice of them) - so here it is. 

As we meet today we celebrate 3 things – we celebrate what we know as Mothering Sunday, we celebrate the baptisms of Isabel & Elanor and we celebrate our Eucharist – the communion feast of bread and wine.

Those of you who have been hard at work giving something up for Lent, chocolate, wine, unkind words, might be relieved to know that the real name for today is “Refreshment Sunday”. It’s a chance for refreshment in the thoughtful and perhaps challenging season of Lent – and a chance perhaps to indulge in the things you've been fasting from.  So you can have sin free chocolate today. You can toast Isabel & Eleanor’s celebration without guilt – but if you want to use unkind words I’d be glad if you could wait till you get home from church and just shout at the telly.

We've heard two bible readings this morning – stories which can break your heart – about Moses mother giving her child away to save him from death – and about Jesus on the cross giving his mother into the care of a friend. Sad readings perhaps – but also readings which tell us something about what it means to be family, what it means to love.

These stories can be really helpful to us today as we all, Shelly & Matt as parents, Kay, Charlene & Simon [needs correction - some godparents missing] as godparents, and all of us as the community who will support these girls as they grow, make promises which we want to keep, we long to keep, but which we might sometimes fall short of because we are human.

Our first reading from Exodus tells us that complex families are not the invention of the late 20^th century.  Moses ends up with a mother who he knows as his nurse maid, a birth family who watch him from afar, he is saved by a woman who should be his enemy – but shows compassion and mercy and love  - not just saving him but bringing him up in a role of great importance, great privilege.  There is great heartbreak in this short story – but there is also life and love, flourishing despite all circumstances which should have squashed them.  Sacrifices are made, sacrifices which we might look at and say "such sacrifices are beyond my strength".  I remind you today of the challenges that each parent here has already faced.  I ask you to listen carefully when we pray the prayer over the water in a few moments which reminds us of the time after time after time that God has offered his strength and love to his people when things seemed impossible. As we assert that Isabel & Eleanor are not alone but have God with them – remember that you have too.

The second reading we heard is about Mary – Jesus mother, as she stands at the foot of his cross – witnessing something no parent ever wants to see in their lifetime. And what Jesus tells us from the cross as he speaks to his beloved disciple John saying ‘this is your mother – this is your son’ is that what God is calling on all of us to be to eachother is as loving parents. We need to know that the best love and care we can experience in our families is the goal that we are reaching for in how we treat all our brothers and sisters  - the people we meet every day. It is our goal when we promise as a whole community to encourage Isabel & Eleanor as they learn and grow, to pray, to know God.

Today we celebrate the gift of motherhood, of parental care, knowing that our real lives and real relationships are often complicated and difficult. For some of you today is a day of celebration – for some a day of mourning good things past – for some a day of regret and misgivings for relationships which haven’t worked or don’t work as we’d like them to.

But we are not alone – Moses family, Jesus family – neither simple.  Jesus had a step-father Joseph, a good man who accepted him in the most difficult circumstances.  He had many half-brothers and sisters who he grew up with who loved him but were hurt, confused and rejected at times when he taught that his other brothers and sisters in this world were just as important to him as they were. And he had a mother – who knew her child was special, the most special child who all Israel had been waiting for, but who had been told that an arrow would pierce her heart before his story was at an end.

When I think of Mary at the cross I am always transported back to watching The Passion of the Christ – the Mel Gibson film – to the moment when Jesus, carrying his cross to Calgary, staggers and falls under its weight. His mother, watching, sees in her mind’s eye the little boy running in the yard of his step-father the carpenter’s house, stumbling and falling – and she rushes to comfort him, to lift him up, to rub his knees and make everything better with her love.

The purpose of this morning’s short gospel reading is to show the other side of that coin - that even in the midst of the hardest times – God’s love is there for Mary and for each of us. Jesus is making provision for his mother – thinking of her and her needs despite what is happening into him.  In what he does on the cross he makes provision for all our needs and offers us love which has no boundaries, no exceptions.

Today we celebrate with Isabel & Eleanor and family as they take the next step in their journey in God’s church, our mother church.  We might perhaps think about God our parent creator – how God, so often referred to as father though of course without gender, can also be thought of as mother – and how this might help us better understand the God who loves us and gives us life.  And we remember that through the waters of baptism, and sharing in the feast of bread and wine at God’s table in our Eucharist, we know that whatever the good or bad of our earthly family, we are brothers and sisters all in Christ’s body, part of the family which God has created, and which in Jesus he gave his life to show love for. Amen.

Wrong kind of progress

I knew when I decided to vote againt the proposed reorganisation scheme for the Dioceses of Wakefield, Bradford and Ripon & Leeds that I would instantly be branded as backward thinking, anti-change, pro-status quo, deluded  - and those are just the kinder things which have been bandied about since Saturday's vote.  As I have this blog though I thought I'd take the opportunity to explain how a forward-thinking, pro-change, shaking up the status quo and clear sighted person might have found themselves voting as I did.

I did not vote 'no' as a sign of support for my Bishop.  In fact the idea that people might have suspected me of toadying to the senior team could almost have been enough to make me vote 'yes'. Neither was I bullied or intimidated by anyone on the senior staff of my Diocese, depite the assertion on social media of those who should know better that this has been the case. I intend to work in this area for many years to come. I am fully invested in the mission of the church in this place in every way.

Our Diocese needs change. We need a sense of our identity, of belonging to a Diocese which is engaged in mission not in managing decline. We need structures to change, smarter working, we need the structures of our church to acknowledge and support the reality of ministry and mission for clergy in our present and future.

We need strong local leadership, archdeacons and Bishops who know the people they are dealing with, both lay and clergy, and who have the time to be both strategic and pastoral in their approach.

We need streamlined administration which is creatively and flexibly managed and outsourced when necessary. We also need administration with strong local knowledge, and a deep understanding of the true priorities of the church.

We need to show by action not just words that we are mission focused, and we need to back up our clergy when they try to do this, not simply pile on more expectation of administrative and organisational tasks.

There are those I think who would tell me I have just voted against a scheme that could deliver this.  The point is none of the talking, none of the mountain of paperwork, none of the canvassing and preaching was able to convince me that the proposed scheme could deliver any of this.  There wasn't even sufficient of a whiff of this for me to trust that God's will might be at work and to take a leap of faith.  The only thing it could guarantee was years in which all senior and support staff were engaged in little other than re-organisation - inward looking, fretting about committee structures. It couldn't even guarantee me the local area Bishop's so much touted, let alone the central funding for them (much left to the discretion of future Diocesan Bishop and Church Commissioners kindness). 

After all the time and effort the scheme simply wasn't good enough, and I was not prepared to vote for change for it's own sake.

My longing for change, and my deep desire to find God's will in all this remains.  I am ready to be part of the progress and change my Diocese needs. I am looking forward. Perhaps as I look forward what I will see is the Archbishop of York telling me that this scheme is the only scheme. We will see.