New Kid on the Blog

Where do I begin? It was quite a weekend. Friday, as previously mentioned, was a trip to London with my daughter, apart from my philosophical misgivings about city life the trip was fun. Having promised her a treat we spent a bit of time with me revisiting my old stomping ground of South Kensington where I was assistant Priest and chaplain to Imperial College School of Medicine. I showed Kat, my baby girl, where we used to live and we then went around the Science Museum and the Natural History museum, followed by a trip to Pizza Hut (she was determined that that's where we were going to eat, and who am I to argue with a beautiful woman!??). Saturday was a pretty normal working day, wedding interview, visiting, sermon preparation, and a very enjoyable trip to friends for a barbie! Sunday was a good celebration of Pentecost - not a great turnout at my morning service, but a good service nonetheless. The main focus of the day was a Confirmation service for some of the members of...

I don't live in a city any more, and a trip to London yesterday with my daughter brought up very mixed feelings for me. I still enjoy the noise and the activity, to a certain extent, and I liked going to see a few of my old haunts, but the day left me with more of a sense of discomfort than I expected. Part of me thought that my transition into country boy had come to completion, and that I was just more at home in the fields than I have been before. But another part of me realised that there are lots of things about cities which make me think about life generally and some of the parts of life which disturb me, or cause me concern, or something. What struck me most was what a misfit I was - having lived 13 years in London it was a bit odd feeling a stranger in a place which was home for a third or so of my life. But I was aware of how trendy everyone seemed to be, or rather what a huge proportion of the people around seemed to be fashionistas! I don't have a problem with pe...

My body tells me that things have got a bit much lately, I had to go to the Doctors today with a siezed up shoulder and neck. He says its a strain to the muscle along my shoulder, probably exacerbated by tension - I've got some strong anti-inflammatories and orders not to overdo things. As I had to be tagged onto the end of the morning's list, I had to wait until the other visits were over at the Doc's, so had 45 minutes just to read, and quite enjoyed that, despite not being able to get terribly comfortable whilst sitting. The book I am ploughing through at the moment is a very good one by Brian McLaren called The Secret Message of Jesus which has a great DaVinci code ring to the title, but really goes over the message of Jesus that the Church is so very good at missing! In the chapter I read this morning he talks of Jesus' signs and wonders as pointers to the kingdom, which most Christians probably know, rather than 'miracles' to show off his power. They r...

Things are very hectic indeed in our patch of South Cambridgeshire - hence the lack of postings over the past week or so. I'm finding that when I do have the chance to look at a few blogs I don't even have the energy to leave comments let alone think about putting something together to write here! So, apologies, i know that there are a few people out there who come to read and leave comments, normal blogging will be resumed as soon as possible!

Not had time to write much this week, and this evening has been spent putting together services for tomorrow, so here is one of the sermons I will be using tomorrow... Again, a taster, and if you do want to continue then click at the end... Year C Easter 7, Sunday after Ascension, 2007 Ezekiel 36.24–28 or Acts 16.16–34 Psalm 97 Revelation 22.12–14, 16–17, 20–end or Acts 16.16–34 John 17.20–end A Time of Promise Ascension day, which was on Thursday just gone is an important time in the Church’s year. It’s one of those feasts which members of the Church often overlook., but I believe it to be a valuable time when we remember the reason behind who we are asChristians. Now many people have problems with the very idea of the Ascension – in our sophisticated technological world we wonder about the mechanics of it. We now know that the world is not flat with heaven ‘up there’ as our early Church brothers and sisters believed. Images of our Lord rising into the clouds to be received into ...

Having scoured my previous posts, not terribly vigourously, admittedly (just used the search box at the top of the page) I couldn't find any explanation of what Holy Joes is, so here's a very inadequate summary, tied up with my history of HJs in the 18 years or so I have been involved in one way or another... HJs started (or so folklore dictates) when Dave Tomlinson left one of the Charismatic Movements of the 80s (Harvesttime? Pioneer ? I think it was the latter) where he was in leadership, with the general feeling that the Theology of the movement was inadequate and he wasn't so keen on the style of leadership. I hope this isn't really misrepresenting the situation, but this is what I picked up on the way. Dave and his wife Pat decided that they wanted a place to explore faith which, apart from anything else, their kids (who were young adults) could get to grips with Christian faith, and which offered a safe place to believe, or not, but to examine and consider ...

First of all thank you for voting - I am now just above the poodle and dog blog in the Blog Village top 100! Next, a quick explanation of why I am so absent from the blogging world at the moment. We are down to two full time Clergy covering this thirteen village area, with very able help from two voluntary (ordained) ministers. One of our colleagues is on maternity leave, and another is signed off sick (long term) so having lost two very able ministers we are finding ourselves tied up with lots of cover and things which need doing - most of which is as valuable and important as all the stuff we were doing in our own 'patches' within the team anyway, so we don't want to neglect that and see it suffer for lack of clergy. It reminds me just how valuable the lay involvement in our parishes is, but also how much needs attention from those of us who are freed up to serve the Church full time. Anyway, that was a longer explanation than planned, but I don't seem to be able t...