New Kid on the Blog

Did a big sermon about moaning which is posted below, as you may wish to read it is all about people complaining, and not getting just how much God loves us, and that our attitude should be one of gratitude rather than moaning. After the sermon my first comment was 'you started the service three minutes late and it went on too long...' hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha Year A Proper 20 (2008) RCL Principal Exodus 16.2-15 Philippians 1.21-30 Matthew 20.1-16 Moan Moan Moan We are all very good at moaning. Lets be honest. There’s nothing most of us like better than a good moan. We might not naturally be inclined to moan, we may be quite happy with our lot, we might be the type of personal who is settled with what she or he has, but if we get the chance, nearly all of us like to really let rip at a good moaning session. PCCs have a reputation for being such events. In your average stereotypical PCC meeting, the Vicar moans about wanting to change lots of things and not being abl...

Well, ye scurvy dogs, 'tis international talk like a pirate day and I be celebratin', a keg o' rum and a boiled parrot, i reckon....

Struggling with Biblical stuff, a sermonic reflection! Year A Proper 19 2008 Exodus 14.19-31 Psalm 114 Romans 14.1-12 Matthew 18.21-35 Set free! One of the frustrations of reading through the Bible the way we do Sunday by Sunday is that we often, like this week, have three amazing, awe-inspiring and challenging readings and then don’t have time to address all of them in the sermon – or rather if I tried to, then we would be here for most of today, if not most of the next week and maybe beyond… Not a great way to be remembered, as the Vicar that went on and on and on and on…. Which of course I am never guilty of – ahem. So it falls to me to try and pick perhaps one theme or idea from these readings and use that! [more]

Life at the moment is a series of small endings, final PCCs, final services in some Churches, last visits to people, a huge amount of sorting out. In the midst of this we had a new beginning, as our new Team Rector took office at a rather lavish ceremony in one of our Team Churches on Wednesday evening, we had the Bishop of Ely , our Archdeacon , the Rural Dean and a host of civic dignitaries come and and mark the beginning of this new phase in the life of our Team. I have tried to avoid talking too much about my leaving until this point, as I didn't want the two to be confused - as I have said countless times, the appointment of a new Team Rector is nothing to do with my moving on, in fact it was one of the factors that made it harder to think about moving as she will be a real boon for the team, and having worked with her for four years I am constantly impressed by her vision, her pastoral skills and her energy and sensitivity in ministry. So we had a great service, at which I h...

Today's word is 'blearghhhh' because that's how I feel - bit nauseous, bit tired, glad I don't have a meeting tonight. I'm not moaning, its partly because I've been trying to catch up on various things, including writing magazine letters, shredding lots and lots of bits of paper I don't want to take with me when I move, meetings (some better than others) and various admin bits - I'm just doing lots of things and have got lots done, not a bad thing at all. Right now, as well as feeling slightly ropey, I've also got a bit of a caffeine overdose which a couple of hours with the children will soon deal with. I do like the fact that being with my gorgeous offspring (I am biased, I know) completely takes me out of myself and I just get on with playing, readings stories, feeding, bathing or whatever needs doing. I think that every now and then (well, most days) I need something that takes me 'out of myself' and makes me just get on with stuff!...

Glad to see that the startup of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) hasn't reduced us all to our constituent molecules or otherwise ripped the fabric of time and space apart. It was quite fun listening to the radio this morning as the reporter sought to make the start up exciting! There is a good, short reflection, on this event (or number of events, as that's what its for - to create a number of observable 'events') from a Bishop in Europe here - and a great rap too (not by the Bishop but embedded from YouTube). May it 'rock you in the head' - as it says in the rap... Or perhaps that should be 'rock thee, verily, in the head' to put it in religious language...

Year A Proper 18 Matthew 18:15-20 Romans 13:8-end Exodus 12.1-14 Being Church I don’t know what your perfect Church would look like!  A lot of people who call me about baptisms and weddings in the team mention how much they want their service to take place in this building or that building because it is such a lovely Church.  And their concern in many ways is about the building… I think many of those who visit our churches, though, are pleasantly surprised that what makes our Churches such good places to be a part of is not how well kept they are, or whether they are architecturally wonderful, or even if they look like Churches are meant to look.  It’s the warmth of the welcome, the genuine love that many of our congregations have for each other, and a desire to follow Jesus that makes our Churches special. [more]

There are obviously hoards of folk out there who are lost without my words of wisdom, so I thought I would get the last couple of week's sermons posted.  Here's the one from 9 days ago, not one of my best, written with brain determined to function but not quite achieving that aim.... Year A Proper 17 Principal Exodus 3.1-15  Romans 12.9-21  Matthew 16.21-28 Struck A few weeks back I talked about how we picture Jesus – some of us seem to be stuck with a ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ picture – all tied up with Victorian Kitsch and nicely scrubbed children gathered around a blue eyed saviour – some picture a revolutionary, shouting insults are the Pharisees, whipping traders from the temple courts, others prefer a more intellectual picture, with Jesus debating with scholars and scribes.  The list goes on – and having preached on this once I don’t plan to save myself the trouble of preaching by just saying the same thing again. One of the points I wanted to make, among others, in th...

To be honest, that last post was a bit useless, so much to say and little motivation - due to the whole 'catching up' thing that sometimes makes holidays feel like and intrusion rather than a liberation. I have actually been back at work for a week, and don't really seem to have achieved much at all - it feels as though I've been paddling madly and getting nowhere... The reality of the fact that we are moving in seven weeks is really hitting home, when we were the other side of our holiday it all seemed a very long way away, now its only a few weeks off I find myself thinking about how much I need to get done before I start packing let alone thinking about packing and moving and starting again. The announcement of my move has had one effect that, though not a great surprise has been quite overwhelming, the number of people who have expressed regret that we are going. I knew a few folk would be disappointed that we were leaving, but the strength and the sincerity of pe...

Just thought I'd let you know