New Kid on the Blog

The title says it all really! It's about 1.40am and I have just got back from the last of my 'midnight' services - which started at 7.30pm! It has been a great evening, with lots of people taking part in the celebrations. As you might have guessed, the last few days has been very busy, so apologies for not posting, the next few days may well be quiet too as I gently conk out and spend some time recovering. But to all of you, a Blessed and Peaceful Christmas to you and yours!

It's continued busy, but it's going well, the feedback from the events & services we have put on in the Mission Community has been very good, and people seem to be enjoying our Christmas celebrations in these Parishes. Tomorrow sees three more carol services led by myself, one of which is shared with our Methodist friends in Dalwood (there are two other services in the Mission Community, presided over by other Clergy), then next week sees four services I am taking (with two I'm not taking as well) on Christmas Eve (one Crib service, three communions for Christmas) and two on Christmas Day I am leading (three being ably handled by other ministers). We do Christmas big time in these Churches, but then that's how we always did it in PapworthTeam as well, so its not a surprise. Yesterday was a good day too - I had Christmas lunch at the local primary school, then a very well supported and enjoyable carol service at Stockland in the evening, followed by a fun eveni...

This was the sermon last week (10 days ago, this Sunday was Christingle, so I spoke about Christingles and being lights to the world in our own ways) ... Some of it was recycled from a previous year, which I rarely do, though I did rewrite much of it. It seemed too good a theme to waste, really! It was incredibly cold on the way to church that morning, as previously related , (not cold compared to some of my blogging buddies around the world, though) with frozen roads making it all very exciting! Here's the sermon, I leave it up to you to decide if it was worth recycling Year B (2008) Advent 2 Isaiah 40.1-11 2 Peter 3.8-15a Mark 1.1-8 Preparing The World This week I watched a movie about Father Christmas which I enjoyed very much, it was the third one in the series known as ‘The Santa Clause’ movies – called the ‘the escape clause’ and had a very positive message about love being the focus of Christmas, and that the true magic of Christmas wasn’t about toys or commercialism, bu...

It's been a while since i swiped a meme, as usual it comes from Dr John who in turn got it from everything and nothing 1.Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper 2. Real tree or artificial? Real, both at home and in all the churches I serve 3. When do you put up the tree? Mid December for Churches, when my wife nags me to get it sorted at home 4. When do you take the tree down? Epiphany 5. Do you like eggnog? I like eggnog latte, but not sure I have ever tried eggnog itself 6. Favorite gift received as a child? Bicycle 7. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, a very nice carved olive wood set from Bethlehem 8. Hardest person to buy for? My lovely wife 9. Easiest person to buy for? Mum 10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I couldn't bring myself to be ungrateful for anything, people are so generous! 11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Both 12. Favorite Christmas Movie? A Muppet Christmas Carol or It's a wonderful life 13. When do you start shopping for Chri...

Having posted the video Christian vs Christ follower pt 1 , I probably gave the impression that I agreed completely with the whole 'Christian no more' idea which says, it seems, that the word 'Christian' has become so debased that those who seek to follow Christ need to give up on it and find another way to describe ourselves. Well, i agree that 'Christian' has been devalued, but I don't subscribe to a 'throwaway society' approach that says 'if something doesn't work then we dispose of it'. I think that the character in the video who is 'the Christian' is probably more of a 'Churchian' - of whom I have met many in my life. For them the culture of Church, particularly the Conservative Evangelical sub-culture, is where they find a sense of identity and even self-importance. This identity is built up with Christian books which re-enforce certain attitudes, with Christian music, with the way they dress, wit Christian media ...

It's Christmas morning so MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE have a great day! PS It would have been 'me wish you a merry christmas' in the post header, but i thought it sounded a bit pastiche patois - so it will have to be the 'royal we'.

Got it done! Nothing new, but then what can one say that is new about Christmas? Isaiah 52.7-10 Hebrews 1.1-10 John 1.1-14 The Word Made Flesh I have a love of theology and philosophy. This might come as a surprise to many of you, as i do have this image as a generally genial person who likes a laugh and enjoys being with people! There is an image of philosophers as kind of miserable, slightly depressed, maybe a bit gaunt, and often fond of strange recreational substances, but i obviously buck the trend in this respect – gaunt and depressed aren’t really my way of doing things and the recreational substances I prefer have more sugar or caffeine in them than anything else... But it’s true, i love philosophy and theology. And we’ve done, or will be doing., some of that tonight. The carols that we sing have some very deep, and quite difficult, bits of theology in them. Take this line ‘veiled in flesh the godhead see, hail the incarnate deity. Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus o...

A packed Church, and a sense of joyful chaos, were the foundation of our Crib Service this afternoon. We had a wonderful knitted posada set, Mary and Joseph have done the rounds of our parish and the locality since Advent Sunday, and started the assembly of the crib scene which took place over the course of the service. Following a reading from Luke we had the kids singing 'little donkey' and the Holy Couple and our knitted baby Jesus were placed on the scene, then another reading from Luke followed by 'while shepherds watched' sung by the congregation saw three shepherds and a lot of sheep joining the tableau, then after a third reading from matthew we saw the magi arrive to the sound of 'we three kings'. After this everyone in the church was invited to bring a star (which had been handed out at the beginning of the service) with a name written on it (by them), or a picture if they were more 'visually minded', to represent a prayer for someone at...