New Kid on the Blog

Thanks to a bit of prompting from three excellent posts The Church Mouse , Charlie Peer and Red I have been inspired to add my bit about harvest festivals and their relevance in today's world.. I would recommend reading the above posts in the order I've put them, and look through the comments too, it's an interesting read. Harvest Festivals could be considered the bane of some Clergy lives! I have done around a hundred or so (by my rough guesstimate) in the past fourteen or so years since I was Ordained. We had a school one and a Church one in my first Suburban London parish, nice and simple. In my second parish in Central London we had a Church Harvest Festival, and I was chaplain to four schools who liked a good Harvest Celebration. Then I moved to a Thirteen Parish Team with four schools who all celebrated Harvest in our 'soft rural' setting in South Cambridgeshire and after eight years there I lost track of how many I covered... I usually did two of the sch...

Hmm, before I say anything else I should say that I might not be typical of most Clergy in what I do with my day off... It's been an interesting day, for some reason I didn't sleep at all well last night and I was kindly left alone for a lie in until 9am! My little girl had a long sleep too as she has been in the local Pantomime, and is staying up considerably later than she is used too. But more of that in a moment. When I did get up I did the usual breakfast/shower/make myself beautiful routine followed by writing a 'Thought for the Week' to be published next week. On reading some headlines about 'The Church' I was struck again how Church only seems to be news when there's a division or a mistake or a disagreement that can be highlighted. So I did a thought about the local church and where the true face of the Church can be seen. I have nearly caught up with 'thought for the week' column on this blog so I may well publish that one on time next...

I have never seen roads as damaged, broken and messed up as some of the lanes around here. It has got to the point that lovely wife and I decided we might need to invest in a bigger vehicle - so we have bought a Land Rover Discovery. Some Land Rovers have something of a reputation as 'Chelsea Tractors' - ie 4x4's driven by people in towns and cities who will never need such a vehicle - but around here the large wheels and 4 wheel drive capability is proving to be a necessity - our Discovery is a thirteen year old slightly bashed workhorse that is designed to be driven through stubborn terrain! And the 'little thing' mentioned in the title is that it is fun to drive! You need to actually drive it, unlike our other cars which despite being 'manual transmission' are simple and easy this one needs thinking about, and is great fun! The 'big thing' is the car itself - it is huge, another reason why you need to be aware of what's going on and carefu...

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...

A few random thoughts, feeling tired after a few busy days so they might not be completely together! After an afternoon tinged with disappointment (only because no samples were brought for tasting) we are considering who should supply the Community Pub at Yarcombe with drinks. We are discovering some tensions because the TV company backing, or driving, the project of having a community pub are under constraints of their own regarding shooting schedules which don't fit in with the lives of those of us who work full time, and don't necessarily fit in with the timescale of getting people up and running for the pub's grand re-opening next Thursday. Someone put it well, we are all trying to use each other (not meant to be a derogatory term, simply what's going on). The TV company are wanting to film a show, the village wants a pub and TV company are helping with that, the suppliers are wanting trade, in the end we all need to get what we can and give what we can for/to/wit...

A quick update, the meeting this evening about turning the Yarcombe Arms into a community pub was well supported, with a lot of willingness to make a go of it. I am quite excited by the prospect of it and looking forward to being involved... For those interested it will be aired on the 'Blighty' channel early in the next year, with the other pubs in the series starting in late December, the program is called 'Save our Boozer' and I am assured that that's not meant to apply just to me.... Will keep you posted, thanks for the messages of encouragement and comments.

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...

As you may know, I think each village should have two buildings at their heart. A Church (well, obviously) and a pub. I know that my mentions of the pub can freak out some of my readers from outside of the UK, as bars are often associated with drunkenness, licentiousness and lots of other ness-es which are not too healthy - but in the UK the pub has traditionally been a community building, a place for conversations, arguments, meetings, plans being made and generally somewhere to get to know each other. Yes there are drinks available, and some drink to excess but on the whole a couple of pints or whatever is considered enough for most and it is as much the company as the alcohol that is the draw. My own preference is for a proper ale, Real Ale, enjoyed with some good conversation and the occasional nip out to the garden for (ahem) a breath of fresh air. Pubs are under threat, though. In city centres and towns many of them do exist as drinking factories, where people go to binge dr...

There's a certain irony in the fact that I resolve to keep blogging and then leave it for weeks before blogging again. I don't have an excuse (not sure I need one) but I do feel the need to say something! It's been an odd few weeks, lots of bitty things needed doing, there were some significant funerals (as previously mentinoed) and life in the parishes of this Five Alive Mission Community has continued apace. We have also been in 'Harvest Season' - and though I've not been out in the fields with a scythe we do take Harvest Thanksgiving seriously in rural areas, so far I have clocked up Six harvest festival services and one harvest assembly - I still have two assemblies to go. My colleague and Associate Priest Anne looked after one of the school Harvest celebrations (having done them all last year). Because my mind has been so focussed on the harvest, along with just keeping things running, I've not really felt reflective enough to write anything. Life ...

Like so many things, blogging seems to have fallen by the wayside in the past few days, not that I can pinpoint any particular reason, just lots of distractions. It certainly isn't because of the snow! Despite most of the UK being covered in snow, and (according to the media) most of the world grinding to a halt, we have had hardly any here in the mild South west. Actually, looking at the weather map it looks almost as if the snow has been avoiding us, and only us - further west has had some heavy snow, and further east, and further north, the south is coast, so there's not been a great impact there - until you get to France where they too have been snowy. So, much to the chagrin of my wife and offspring, the snow has pretty much bypassed us so far (apparently this might not be the case next week!). I couldn't do much travelling yesterday morning, but by the afternoon it was fine to be out on the roads and I scooted off to do Wedding Preparation afternoon with a couple ...

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...

...is the ability to be in two places at once... If you got the idea that things were busy in my last blog posting (which was, I admit, a little while ago) then you ain't seen nothing yet. It's busy here, to say the least, and I am looking forward to a little break after Christmas. I have endeavoured to be at most events I have been invited to, but even then a couple have slipped through the net due to other commitments, and simply not having enough time or energy to do everything. I decided I really had to have an evening with my wife and not be rushing out from the family on Monday night, as I have done every other night for the past week or so, but it meant missing a village event that I would have liked to be a part of. I simply couldn't do any more, or I would probably be little use to anyone when we get to the Carol services this weekend and the Christmas celebrations next week. I am giving up half of my day off to do a carol service and then head off to a local ...