New Kid on the Blog

So, I got married recently...and it was wonderful, particularly as I got to marry a wonderful, super smart, big hearted, beautiful woman. The ceremony was in church, which was not our original plan (Elvis in Vegas, or a Marriage Commissioner on the beach) - but Sabina graciously allowed us to mark this auspicious occasion in a place special to me, amongst a community I love and who have been overwhelmingly supportive of me, in a way that was deeply meaningful to me. This was indeed gracious as my now-wife is from a Sikh culture and has less-than-positive experience of the institutional church having spent time as a child in a Catholic and (not always tolerant) Anglican School setting. I worked with my Bishop in forming a service based on the interfaith liturgy of the Anglican Church of Canada, we were blessed with a speaker who is one of North America's foremost Comparative Religion scholars and who wove together Sikh and Christian tradition in a profound and thoughtful se...

It has been quite a couple of days - just one of those 'meeting to service to meeting to visit to meeting to service to service' kind of thing.  But three things have all coalesced and my thinkings have all come together in a way that seemed to me complementary. Firstly I had the privilege of presiding and speaking again at the 12-step Eucharist which is offered by Christ Church Cathedra l, Victoria.  The Gospel reading for the day and the structure of the service seemed to me (strangely in the case of the lectionary, as you will see if you follow the link) to speak to Grace, even in Jesus' Critique of the religious leaders of the day.  Then we had a wonderful celebration of New Ministry at the Induction of Bruce Bryant-Scott here in Victoria which had a sense of joy and liberation about it which made the whole evening (despite being at the end of a long day) feel very positive.  Then I was preaching and presiding again at our early Eucharist, which remembered ...

Catching up, here's mid January's thought on the fact that prayer isn't just about words.  Forget what you have been told, prayer is whatever way allows you to listen and speak to God... listen to ‘Prayer Thought’ on Audioboo

Actually, this post could also be called 'Falling in love again' (sung in a sultry Marlene Dietrich voice, preferably) because my last week of retreat has been the cause of some enlightenment, some struggle and some joy as I have learnt to stop and pray in a way that I haven't addressed before - or at least not in the way I did last week! My immediate thought was that I must put a gratuitous picture of Marlene Dietricht here, just to add to the visual impact of the post.... even though The Blue Angel from which the song was originally taken is the story of a less then salubrious woman who specialises in seduction.... more details on  Lady Garfunkel's Song of The Day: Falling In Love Again .. Actually prayer being seductive isn't such a bad analogy - really entering into prayer is something that can consume and inspire, it enchants and it can become almost obsessive.  But this is part of a journey I have been on and I am getting ahead of myself.  So let's rew...

Another thought for the week.... catching up gradually... never realised I thought so much! Go to the Midweek Herald for current thought and local news from East Devon.... Pray? Do you pray? There’s an old quip that ‘there are no Atheists in a foxhole’ and I know that faced with difficult times, with nowhere else to turn, people often to try to ‘open negotiations’ with ‘someone up there’ in the hope they might be heard. But prayer isn’t just about asking God for things, like a kind of religious shopping list, but includes praising God for who He is, thanking God for all He’s done and trying to find God’s will and guidance for our lives. That means we can pray with music, with silence, with others, alone, by reading the Bible, by going to church, by walking in the fields, by laughing, dancing, sitting, kneeling, standing. Prayer isn’t about trying to get God to do stuff for us, but about making time to be with God – find your own way to pray, and ask others how they pray!

It has been pretty full on recently - as previous posts have probably intimated, this pub project is taking up a fair amount of energy, mental and physical. On Friday I trained as a licensee and will hopefully find out in the next day or so if I passed my exam, will then get a certificate and have to sign up for my personal license with the local council - this gives me authority to 'sell or authorise the sale of alcohol by retail' and is (rightly many would say) tightly regulated. I was interested to find out that there are very strict guidelines with regards to what a licensee can and can't do. We can't sell alcohol to anyone who is obviously drunk, and a close eye is to be kept on the possibility that alcohol might be sold to children (ie someone sharing their drink with under 18s). We have had to learn the four 'Licensing Objectives' - the reasons that alcohol is licensed: Prevention of Crime and Disorder Prevention of Public Nuisance Public Safety Protec...

My day started with a motorbike ride (waheey) to Church (waheey) for Morning Prayer. Obviously this happened after all the waking up, cup of tea, shower, dressing stuff but as you all know that this is part of the weft and warp of daily life I won't share too many details... As always there were a few to say Morning Prayer together, it never ceases to amaze me that people will turn out on a weekday morning to pray together - not that praying is something that people don't do, but actually coming out of their homes and making time to be together so frequently is not something I am used to! My experience in a suburb was that people would come to midweek Communion, but in the centre of London it was not the case that people would drop in for the Daily Mass or for Morning Prayer, and in Cambridgeshire it was almost impossible to get anyone together during the day any day because people were so busy, or so absent due to working commitments. Here, though, people take time out to p...

Good day yesterday, Sunday, only two services and both were encouraging and energising (which can't always be said about Sunday worship services!) A simple Holy Communion from the book of Common Prayer (1662) to start my day and a contemporary language Parish Communion for our mid-morning service, two Churches not far apart so no rushing about trying to get there on time, both well attended and both with a feeling of worship and friendship and prayer. Like one of the parishioners said about another event a little while ago 'it's like we turned up and God made sure he was there too'! I preached on the Old Testament reading which I had preached on before, it felt right to use some material which I had used previously again, which rarely happens. I'll put that sermon at the end of this post with a link to the full text at New Kid Deep Stuff . Today has been spent mainly in the company of the Rural Dean, who was undertaking the Archdeacon's visitation (ie check u...

A good day today, a couple of services, one of which had four baptisms, and after a quick visit to both of the post baptism parties I then got to enjoy a small but perfectly formed Evening prayer from the 1662 book of Common Prayer. Nice. So here I am getting ready to have some supper and thought that in order to keep up this post a day lark I would get back to basics today. Lots of people ask me about prayer, and it seems to have been a theme at a lot of meetings and in a number of encounters I have had lately. So Christian Prayer for dummies seems a good book to recommend. Of course, as most people probably know, its not really for dummies, in the sense that much of the information in the series is well researched, well written and well presented - at least the ones I've read. This is no different, it actually gives a very good broad brush picture of the variety, nature and purpose of Christian Prayer. It is easy to read, with some good cartoons in! The content is very good...

Book club last night went well. We talked through and around John Ortberg's 'God is closer than you think' which is a great book. I have previously recommended this as part of my post a day for November , so I am going to move on and recommend a book i should be reading TODAY because I want to use it as a basis for some thoughts tonight.... So Prayer is perhaps one of the most difficult things for many of us to get a handle on, particularly when we feel prayers aren't answered, or that we aren't quite sure what the purpose of prayer is. In fact, this is what I am meant to be talking about at Holy Joes this evening, so when I have some thoughts together perhaps I will get back to you on that. From what I have read of this book so far, it has some very good thoughts on the subject. Interestingly it relates to a lot of what Ortberg says in God Is Closer Than You Think , when he talks about when God feels absent and what our prayers do and don't or may or may n...

It has been quite a couple of weeks, and the way that my time works is that this first part of Monday I usually leave clear after Sunday duties, just to give my brain a bit of time to cool off after lots of 'public visibility' and a fair amount of emotional engagement as part of our Worship services. Particularly after a quite draining Sunday such as yesterday. Quilly is right (I'm sure she's glad I said that) in saying that we remember those who are willing to serve in our Armed Forces every day, but (and there's always a but) there is a difference between our own personal feelings and a public acknowledgement of the sacrifice made by many in wartime. That's why I put so much energy and thought into Remembrance Sunday, my sermon this year was quite personal too, inasmuch as it said why I thought it was an important day - I might post it later. One of the things that I have learnt to appreciate over the past few years is that two minutes of silence to mark th...

No, this post title isn't an allusion to my recent approach to blogging. Just a desire to share something from this morning which has pretty much left me wordless. not a bad thing, really! I'm good at talking things through, I can intellectualise, theorise, spiritualise and ...ise generally over many things, including some of the deeper things of life! But words can also be a defence against truly engaging with some deeper meanings too. This week I am engaged on a prayer pilgrimage arranged by one of our local clergy. I went along with the idea partly because, in theory, it seemed like a good idea, and not having seen my spiritual director for far too long I thought the opportunity to reflect with someone about prayer in general and my own spiritual life would not be a bad idea. I should say that this prayer pilgrimage is not actually a physical pilgrimage, except travelling to the venue to meet with a prayer guide. It's setting aside half an hour a day for a week to me...

I might have given a wrong impression about silence generally in my post on prayer! When i said i loathe silence, I was really talking about imposed silence from those who tell us that its the only way to pray. Silence is a good thing, and (I repeat) the older I get the more I appreciate it! So thanks to those who have commented on my prayer posting, short and sweet from all blog spots , a very thoughtful response from sushil , encouragement from reformed cynic Tom , and wisdom (as always) from Quilly . I should also say thanks to those of you who have commented recently who I've not responded to, often its because I can't think of anything to say that I don't seem to respond, but I appreciate the responses and it does make me think! I don't always come out of the other end of the comments book with the same perspective I went in with! So thank you Dr John , Sank , Andrew , Nick , The Old Fart and others who I will now feel bad for missing. I think its worth sayi...

With my 'lads group' last night, though only two turned up (!) we talked, or rather I talked and they got easily distracted, which is OK because I get easily distracted so it was fun too! Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, the subject was prayer, and as I was preparing the evening and digging out some of my old notes (some of them up to 25 years old EEEK!) on prayer I realised how much my feeling about prayer has changed. I was brought up in a tradition which said that praying in Church was good, praying in homegroups was good, but the impression given was that the best kind of prayer was alone either morning or evening as part of a 'quiet time'. Now I can see that a daily discipline of prayer is important, and I love to pray - but quiet times just aren't me. I don't do quiet very well. I like to read, I like to spend time just sitting and thinking, but an extended period of what feels like 'forced' silence just fills me with horror, and boredom, usually....

sorry, that should read Lack of Devotion s It is Holy Week, in case anyone was in any doubt about that, and it is the time of year when deep thoughts should be thunk and spiritual things should be dwelled upon, but I've not got time to think about that as my HW observances mean that I'm taking a service every night alongside the usual meetings and visits which I am trying to keep up. Oh, and a funeral which i finished a couple of hours ago (hence previous thoughts). It's all going well, but there hasn't been the time for meditation and stillness such as we encourage our congregations to indulge in over this time. The service last night (a Holy Communion with prayers for Penitence) was moving and powerful, tonight's Holy Communion with prayers for healing is always a valuable and thoughtful service, so I am feeling spiritually well nourished, but as for quiet and devotional time that's lacking a bit, so if you want some deep thoughts for Holy Week you'll ha...

have been moving so fast I've been a blur lately (with a person my size that's quite an achievement) this has left me pretty tired and when I've had energy to blog I've not had the time, and when I've had the time - well, you get the picture. Apologies to those of you who do make the effort to check things out here regularly and have had the same thought since Ash Wednesday. It is now 4pm here and I have spent most of the day at a 'team prayer day' where we spent some time in worship and prayer and listening to the teaching of a Ugandan preacher called John Mulinde - challenging and thought provoking. It was a good day day and reminded me of a little card i picked up years ago about the Lord's prayer (much of the talk was structured around Matthew 6 and the version of Jesus' prayer found there), the content of which follows: Can I say the Lord's Prayer? I cannot say OUR if I live in a water-tight spiritual compartment or if I think a special p...