New Kid on the Blog

The sermon I will be preaching in about forty minutes! As always click on the Bible links for the full texts and on [more] for the complete sermon held at New Kid Deep Stuff Year A Pentecost (2008) RCL Principal John 20.19-23 1 Corinthians 12.3b-13 Acts 2.1-21 Jesus Loves the Church I recently found myself in a conversation with a minister who is Chaplain to an Anglican Church in Paris. There were lots of good things that came out of that conversation, but quite early on in the process he came out with something that really made me think. He said ‘I love Church, Church is why I get up in the morning.’ It’s not a sentence I hear very much. Not even for those of us whose life and ministry is lived around the Church… Actually perhaps for those of us who are involved in the Church to a greater degree we are more likely to criticise and complain – to be honest – because we have invested so much in the life of our Churches. I promise you, you never want to spend any great length of time i...

I seem to have got out of the habit of posting my 'letter from the Vicar' on my blog. As it sometimes gives something to comment on, here's this month's! There are lots of funny (both in the amusing and peculiar sense) ideas of what or who the Holy Spirit – or Holy Ghost in older versions of our Bibles and Services – is. Some I have spoken to actually seem to think that God seems to hang about wearing a bedsheet and floats over services and some people think that the Holy Spirit is a religious version of ‘Santa’s little helper’ who zips around the place helping people do good things. [more]

Not really had anything to say for the past few days, and not sure I do now! I've not really been quite sure how to say how things are.... Over this past week or so I have felt very tired, knowing there is so much to do and yet not having the energy or time to do half of them. So it's been a bit of a restless week, and though I have done all that I needed to do, and looking back I've actually got quite a lot done, it hasn't felt very productive. One of the difficulties of being in this kind of work, sorry 'ministry', is that there isn't really any end to stuff that needs to be done. People are always dying, wanting to be married, getting baptised, and being ill, services need to be planned and arranged, people get ill, some people want 'a visit from the Vicar' with no real agenda but just feel its a right that they get very disgruntled if they don't get to exercise! I have problems keeping up with the demands, and sometimes I can just let them...

All sorts of things going on, so not much time to blog, am preparing for a Baptism and a more meaty service tomorrow evening where I have to put together some thoughts about a subject not yet decided! So here's the sermon I preached on Thursday evening at a very enjoyable Communion service - we even had a rocket from Kimbolton Fireworks to celebrate the ascension! Ascension Day 2008 Year A RCL Acts 1.1-11 Luke 24.44-53 Goodbye, God bless Ascension day seems a funny day to celebrate. A strange time to have a feast (which of course our Communion is here this evening)! Because, if you think about it, it’s a celebration of something quite difficult. Have you ever had that feeling of saying goodbye to someone that hurt so much it made you ache? Sixteen years ago Jo and I, who had had an on-off relationship for a few years, found ourselves living in London and York, and at the end of a weekend together we would have that awful goodbye as one of us got onto a train to leave our respectiv...