New Kid on the Blog

Again, another break since my last blogging session. I do come back to see if there are any comments to read, but haven't felt up to writing anything, for a variety of reasons. Part of what has been going on in life is a bit of reflection - a subject tackled in detail with my spiritual director this afternoon. If i may offer some advice to anyone who is reading this - if you don't have a spiritual director/soulfriend/advisor/mentor then i would recommend you get one - the chance to spend an hour talking about nothing but where you're at spiritually is invaluable, incomparable and just plain wonderful. Perhaps part of the joy is being able to talk things through without strings attached - without an agenda or goals but just where the Spirit leads. Anyway reflective spirituality is part of why my blogging has been sparse (or even non-existent). Another part is that i officiated at my first ever funeral of a baby - nine years in this ordained ministry lark and this ...

well the webpage is up and running www.fracme.net is my new domain and home on the net, at the moment it is still very much under construction but i have managed to get the thoughts about 'Faith Hope and Love' that i promised upon a page of the same name under 'recent writings'. The webpage exists really to promote my ongoing writing and speaking work, this exists alongside my ministry as a Vicar in these wonderful parishes of South Cambridgeshire. I love my role as pastor and priest, but value the discipline that writing and speaking need. I hope to continue and develop this part of what i do, indeed, what i am. If anyone is any good at webdesign and stuff and would be willing to offer tips and tricks with regards to what i have thrown together i am happy to receive suggestions - just use the usual email or web@fracme.net

Tomorrow is Remembrance Day - the Sunday nearest Armistice Day (Nov 11th for those not in the know - World War One, the Great War of 1914-18 formally ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month). It's the day when those of us in ministry think hard about what we are trying to do with this yearly occurrence - we don't want to glorify war, but we don't want to skirt over, or around, or under the sacrifice that so many made for us in the two major wars of the last century, and indeed in the ongoing conflicts of our world where so many give up their lives in the name of freedom. It strikes me that no matter what we feel about the conflicts of recent years that occur in our name - the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq - we are bound to those who those who fight for the ideals that we hold so dear. We may not agree with the means, but the end of 'peace and justice' is surely a shared ideal... I am caught in a dillemma because i hold dear the freedom of speech, ...

November 6th and most of the local villages and towns are having their bonfire night fireworks tonight - though there were a few who did it properly yesterday on the great feast of Guy Fawkes night. For those of you of a USA or international persuasion then Guy Fawkes night, or Bonfire night, or even good old November 5th is the night we remember the thwarting of a plan to blow up the houses of parliament about 399 years ago (we British have long memories and really know how to hold a grudge) The fact that Fawkes was part of a Roman Catholic Conspiracy in early Protestant(ish) England offers even more chance to make this time of year divisive, though fortunately most people don't take the original basis of the festival terribly seriously. In Lewes though they still burn an effigy of the Pope on the 5th November - again, though, not many people know what that means. It's all a bit like Christmas in modern western society - most people enjoy it, but very few have an idea...

There was an election on the USA this week Sad but true Thought I'd pop the thought in there in case anyone was wondering about my connection to reality, or whether I related to reality at all.

Have i mentioned that i write? I write for a magazine called eChurch active ( www.echurchactive.net ) and have written various bits of poetry and prose for special events and one off magazines. I am still very much clambering up a steep learning curve on this, but it is fun and gets the old creative juices going. When i get around to setting up my website i will post my articles there, but for now here is my latest submission - before publication no less - for 'McCollum's musings' I am a blogger! This is very new and very exciting for me. I have a weblog page which contains my thoughts and grumbles and perhaps even a few profound thoughts. It was the result of a friend called Steve www.svfoster.blogspot.com/ recommending to me the Holy Joes weblog http://holyjoes.blogspot.com/ and inviting me to become a part of this particular online community. I don’t visit it or update it very much, I haven’t quite decided what I should be doing with it or whether it should have some k...

Should have written last week but found real life intruding on my blogtime - very incosiderate of reality if you ask me. Last week was a trip to holy joes which was a great way to spend a tuesday evening - now meeting in a little place called 'the greencoat boy' in London which is in Greencoat place. New venue, same old vibe, it was fun to be back in a venue that felt a little bit 'dingy' rather than 'shabby' which was the feeling of the 'bag o' nails'. Anyway, good crowd, good conversation. For those of you who haven't checked out the website yet www.holyjoes.com is still worth visiting, you can also check out their blog which is just starting up on http://holyjoes.blogspot.com . The hope is that this will be an online version of HJs conversations of the deep and profound type we have on Tuesday nights. Having said that blogger wont let me sign in to make comments at the moment so i will have to try again later. The conversation a coup...

It feels like ages since i've posted anything, and has been a while... It's just been a case of real life getting in the way of my blogging. things never get any slower or quieter do they? We say to ourselves 'I'll get that done when i have a quiet moment' or 'I'll get round to it when things aren't so busy' but they always are so busy. So i thought i'd better stop in just to leave a line or too for the sake of appearance. I see that i have a comment (apart from the nice 'welcome to blogging' comment from Steve in my first post) and am most grateful to scog blog http://blogsprogress.blogspot.com/ for it. Contact via our shared admiration for Martyn Joseph - singer, songwriter, activist and good bloke ( www.martynjoseph.com ) . The only time i ever met him he came to speak and share some songs with Holy Joes ( www.holyjoes.com ) and whilst we had supper together in a group before the meeting he was gracious enough to look at all the ...

I realised looking through my previous postings that there is no indication at all of me having a sense of humour i do, so there it may not be very obvious, but let me assure you - i have hidden shallows. Anyway, this is all in order that i can write out this line which i picked up from an advert for a Comedy Club in Cambridge - two days after reading it I still keep laughing at unexpected moments due to this wonderful line from Milton Jones 'When my Grandfather got ill my Grandmother greased his back. After that he went downhill quite quickly' hahahahahahahahahaha normal service will be resumed as soon as i get around to it. I am debating whether or not to go to the Greenbelt after festival 'do' in London tonight, but if i was going to go i should really have set off by now.

Realise that i have left a few threads drifting aimlessly on this blog and profile that i should add a bit more too, or at least promise to add a bit more too, for anyone who might possibly read this and think 'what is that all about??' Anyway - Greenbelt which i mentioned earlier is a Christian Arts Festival which takes place at Cheltenham every year and is a wonderful expression of all that can be good in Christian life and faith (and all the mistakes and stupidity that Christian's excell in too, but that is all lost in the creativity, the spirituality and the humanity of all that is there). I will say more on this at another time, as it is such a good thing and has had more effect on me than any other single thing in my Faith Journey) Well worth Checking out www.greenbelt.org.uk Holy Joes is likewise a great expression of Faith which challenges, excites, infuriates and inspires as all expressions of faith should! It is a group of peopl who meet in a pub in London ...

After a couple of days of trying to get head together have decided to pop on line and say hello to my lovely blog... have fiddled around with settings, and downloaded picasa etc in order to post piccies (hence couple of postings just now with some pictures of my daughter and i from nearly three years ago) Have discovered a tendency i have to want to express myself for good or bad in this blog - not that i am giving away deep dark secrets, but saying things without necessarly engaging the usual censor in my brain. I am determined to stick with this though, so bear with me. Have that heartsickness today that can only come from feeling there is too much and i am too little - in a metaphysical sense, in the physical sense i could never be described as small! I think this is the back to ministry after a couple of weeks break thing - working with people, and performing a role that is, above all, about the well-being of others can feel like quite a responsibility and coming back to t...

this is me and babe close up

When my baby was very small!

Yawn back from hols - licking wounds? Anyway, on reading old blog wondered if i had said too much or been too introspective and decided that if i am going to give this blog a chance i have to be honest with how i feel as i go along... honesty still best policy methinks, besides - i'm pretty sure that this goes out into ether anyway... if not then 'hello out there' should probably say that issue with regards to last posting is in progress, at least in my head, and i am thinking about rights and wrongs of my reaction, as well as working on some moving on in that. where too next? We open ourselves up to others and are vulnerable and find that so much of what we do can be misunderstood. At the same time of course we misunderstand others and end up in a feedback loop, spiralling in against each other until something blows it can be an instant - it can happen over years. Enough deep stuff - bit of light heartedness to explain absence. I've been away for a...

What a month - a move (from one tiny Village in Rural Cambridgshire to another not-so-tiny but still not big Village in Rural Cambridgshire) a huge Christian Festival (Greenbelt Arts Festival) and a new impetus to get writing. A bit of a depressing experience recently as well. What i mean with regards to the new impetus is that i am meant to be a creative writing type, but have been a wee bit lax in the past few months. I've started a book called 'Radical Orthodoxy' but i needs a lot of work, which i have been avoiding. In the past few days a friend has taken on the role of 'arse-kicker' and is motivating me to get on with it. This is a good thing. The depressing bit is that i was quite hurt by someone i thought a friend being offensive and thoughtless towards me, and dismissing me offhand whilst i was just trying to say 'hi, let's talk'. I know that these blogs have a tendency to get into a certain lacrimosity, but i rather like the idea of ...

This is my first blog, be gentle with me please... am embarkificating (as Pres. Bush would say) on a brave new adventure - have known about and read blogs for ages, but due to prompting from friend Steve http://www.svfoster.blogspot.com have decided to try this this might be my first and last post, we shall see