Hold the front page

To be honest I'm not a regular subscriber to the Church Times for a variety of reasons which I won't bore you with now, however,  this morning's front page made me feel as depressed as a Brazilian football fan at about 9:29 pm last Tuesday.

I'm not sure who decided to run with this picture but as someone who has a role in fostering vocations in the Church of England I fear the front page has made my job even harder. What message does the picture convey? Ministry in the C of E is for white, middle aged people who like to bounce like Tigger while managing to look slightly awkward about it? Strange, because in the Diocese of Chelmsford two weekends ago we held three ordination services at Chelmsford Cathedral with 32 people being deaconed. Something of the diversity of the diocese was represented in age, ethnicity and gender amongst both candidates and congregations, though we've still a long way to go. Don't get me wrong, God calls white, middle aged people to ministry and I'm one of them, though I was ordained in my mid-twenties, but they aren't the only people he calls. It is said that a picture paints a thousand words and unfortunately most of the words that came into my mind when I saw this front page are unpublishable.

Anyway, if you feel you are hearing even an echo of a whisper that God may be calling you to ministry, to use +Stephen Cottrell's phrase, why not have a chat with your local minister or check out Call Waiting.

Little Britain comes to Woodham Ferrers

This is one of the most imaginative approaches to advertising for a vicar I've come across. Normally a church will produce a parish profile; a large document full of facts and figures, job description and person specification. To be honest many parish profiles should be filed under the fiction section of the local library. The only way to get a feel for a parish, the church and its people is to go there. Woodham Ferrers and Bickenacre is a parish in the same deanery where I serve. Here the church has taken a different approach and I think it will pay dividends. Initial reaction to the video has been very favourable and I hope and pray they find the right person to come and share with them in ministry and mission. This is a great example of what can be done using the resources of social media and some enthusiastic participants.

This little tweet of mine

I was getting ready for bed on Tuesday evening when I caught part of a news report that a vicar had been found dead under suspicious circumstances in the South West. Saddened, I offered up a prayer and then my wife asked if I knew who it was because the vicar had recently moved from Witham which is not far from Chelmsford. I asked if she had heard the name and Kate said it was John Suddards. My sadness tuned to shock because I had known John for quite a few years and we were colleagues on a particular diocesan working group. I tweeted a brief message about the news and then went to bed. Here’s the tweet:

Shocked and saddened to learn of the death of a friend and clergy colleague John Suddards on this evening's news bbcnews.

The next day I headed off to Norwich with the family for a few days break and on the way happened to phone the parish office to check on a couple of things. It was then that I discovered the national and regional press had been trying to get hold of me because of my tweet. I didn’t respond to any of the messages as I was on holiday and I didn’t want to discuss the matter with the press anyway. Over the rest of the week I’ve followed the story as it has gained prominence in the news but felt it unwise to comment further about the matter via social media.

So why have I put up a post about this on my blog? Simply as a reminder to me and my colleagues that everything we publish is out there, can be read by anyone and we need to be alert as to who might pick up on it.

I give thanks to God for John’s life and ministry and pray for all who mourn his death; especially his family, friends and brothers and sisters in the churches where he served so faithfully.

killing me not so softly with her song

My first Christmas back in parish ministry and I’ve made it through the various school and playschool carol services and nativities. We have two crib services on Christmas Eve when the church will be packed with families and many of the children will come dressed as nativity characters. I’m just wondering if things are going to turn out anything like this?



h/t Revd Richard Coles

Not so great - Rev

I’ve returned to Blighty after a couple of weeks away to much excitement on the Christian blogs and in the Twittersphere about the return of the sitcom Rev. Clearly many people enjoyed the first series and are looking forward to what the new series has to offer. I have to confess I am rather more ambivalent about the programme.

Firstly I ought to say I think Tom Hollander is a brilliant actor and plays the part of the Rev Adam Smallbone with a well judged balance of empathy and comedy. I recognise some of the characters and scenarios played out in the first series having served in an East London parish. There is a real appreciation of some of the challenges, frustrations and dilemmas of urban ministry. I’ll leave aside mention of some of the predictable inaccuracies which are used to help drive the plot; if you know anything about the C of E you’ll have spotted them.

However, the problem I have is with the ministry offered by Rev Smallbone. Put quite simply, I haven’t a clue what Good News Adam has to share with his parishioners. He seems to live out an incarnational ministry devoid of any sense of joy or hope. Watching the first series of Rev. I was often left feeling frustrated and miserable and the reason is that I couldn’t see where God entered the situation. I hardly ever heard any articulation of the gospel, or a gospel, nor was there much about worship and hardly any sense of Adam’s own relationship with God expressed in a devotional life.

One of the great strengths of the Church of England is that it has maintained a presence in communities that have been abandoned by just about everyone else, but maintaining a presence isn’t enough. The incarnate Jesus came that we might have life and life in abundance. I hope that in the second series of Rev. we might glimpse something of what that abundant life might look like.

I’ve just spent two weeks meeting with Christians living in conditions that make the parish Smallbone serves look like a cosy suburb so perhaps my perspective is somewhat distorted. Yet, having witnessed the vibrant faith and sense of mission of those with so little I’m left wondering why these aspects of ministry are missing from Rev.?

Kenya (5)

Sunday was a big day for our party as we visited St Thomas' Cathedral, Kerugoya for their morning services and then said goodbye to our friends at the church. I was to preach at the 9am service in English and then we planned to stay for part of the Kikuyu service before heading to Samburu Game Reserve for some rest and relaxation.

The 9am service began by following a worship liturgy very similar to Common Worship. As the service progressed the ministry team and members of the congregation led 'presentations'; times of singing and prayer in thanksgiving to God. The choir, having been congratulated for winning the choir competition the day before, were on good form and despite the number of people leading the worship there was a natural flow to the service. Our party were introduced and then spoke briefly about our visit before teaching the congregation an action chorus which seemed to go down well. We also presented various gifts to the cathedral and to the Provost who has been such a gracious and flexible host. My sermon was on the theme of thanksgiving, based on 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 and drawing on the many experiences of our visit to give thanks for the life and witness of the Christians in Kirinyaga diocese and at St Thomas'. Above all I focused on giving thanks for the grace of God which had drawn us together as partners in the gospel. At the beginning of the service there were very few in the congregation but by about half way through the cathedral was full with about 1,000 worshippers. The service lasted over two hours, but this turned out to be only a taste of what was to follow.

After a cup of Kenyan tea, which included sausage, egg, and jam sandwiches as well as the tea, it was back into the cathedral to experience the Kikuyu service. Again the church filled up over the first half hour or so and we were grateful to members of the ministry team who translated the worship as it went along. Then the service took an unexpected course. A couple had brought their recently born child to church to gives thanks for a safe delivery after the mother had suffered a stroke during pregnancy. Mother and child were both well and so they came to the front of church with the father and were joined by friends and family to sing a song of praise and thanksgiving. Provost Winnifred then turned to me and asked me to bless the child and pray for the parents. I was delighted to do so and held baby Edna as I prayed. During the next hymn the Provost whispered to me ' can you remember the prayer to bless the water for baptism?'. I said yes and then was told I was going to baptise the baby! So we headed over to the Font and I baptised baby Edna. I'm not sure who was most surprised by the turn of events but what a joy and privilege to be asked to share in this wonderful celebration. Shortly after we were led by the choir out of the cathedral to the car park and I was asked to plant a tree as a sign of the developing partnership between St. Thomas' Cathedral and our own church, St. Mary's.

While the Kikuyu service continued for another hour or so we joined the cathedral church council members for lunch and to chat about the way ahead for exploring a possible partnership between our churches. Then it was time to jump in the van and head off on the four hour journey north of Mt Kenya to Samburu Game Reserve. I thought I might catch up on some sleep, however, there was too much to look at and take in as we made our way from Embu to the reserve. We arrived at Samburu at the ideal time for a game drive before rolling up at the Samburu Game Lodge just as the heavens opened and there was a torrential downpour.

What an amazing day, full of unexpected moments and with so many things for which to give thanks to God.

Bwana apewe sifa! Niwega nathwani!

- posted from my iPad using Blogsy from Samburu Game Reserve.

Kenya (3)

It's raining heavily as I write this post before getting some sleep. Thursday afternoon was taken up with a visit to St Andrew's School (see previous post) and St Andrew's Theological College in Kabare. The college serves the five dioceses that formed what was previously known as Mt Kenya East. Most ordinands from these dioceses train at the college and there are also business studies and secretarial courses. These are the dioceses that Chelmsford Diocese is formerly linked with and the five diocesan bishops along with the Bishop of Chelmsford met together at St Andrew's to renew their partnership agreement. There was a short, simple signing of papers and prayer but behind this ceremony lies a real commitment to share in partnership in mission for the sake of the gospel.

Later in the afternoon we joined the students and staff at St Andrew's for their Thursday evening Holy Communion. This turned out to be a communion like no other I have experienced, though I suspect Sunday morning in the cathedral at Kerugoya might be just as amazing. Ostensibly the liturgy is not unlike a Common Worship service but with 'value added'. In part this took the form of various groups of students presenting songs and hymns of worship, some traditional and in English, others in Kikuyu and Swahili. The Clash once rocked the Casbah but these students rocked the chapel to its foundations. Bishop Stephen preached another captivating and challenging sermon on the resurrection words of Jesus from John's Gospel and every time it seemed like the worship was coming to an end the students broke into singing and dancing again. The one downside to the worship was the accompaniment by a rather dodgy out of tune guitar, unless there is an African form of tuning I had never encountered before.

Following the communion service we headed for the refectory led by students again singing and dancing. The food was the usual fare of beef stew and rice. At the end of our time the students stood and sang an African blessing to us which included throwing God's blessing at us. I have a segment of the blessing recorded and will post it when I am back in the U.K. I cannot get over the passion and enthusiasm of the students in worship and it was wonderful to experience a community of diverse tribes and tongues committed to studying together for the ministry of the gospel.

Friday morning began with a trip to the slopes of Mt Kenya to visit tea plantations and a tea production centre. Unfortunately the factory was undergoing refurbishment so we were unable to visit inside and therefore didn't get to do the tasting we had been promised. However, we did get to spend time at a tea research facility and were given some insights into new types of specialist teas, including white tea now marketing at $70 per kg. which is not bad considering a normal variety is sold at about $4 per kg. The head of the research centre has also published on the impact of climate change on the tea growers, pest control and the environment around Mt Kenya.

After lunch back at the cathedral we headed to Utugi to see the work of one of the Christian Community Service centres. These centres around the dioceses of Kenya are self financing and seek to help the poor and marginalised in communities develop self sustainable forms of enterprise. It is an exciting initiative developed by the church as a practical expression of the gospel and the centre we visited is having a profound impact on the local community.

Finally, and much later than planned, we moved on to the Utugi Boys Children's Home on the outskirts of the town. This home, again sponsored by the church, works with street children from across Kenya and seeks to provide them with a place of safety, love and learning. The head of the home, Revd Phyllis, is a remarkably lady who has given her life to serve the boys of the home. Of all the children's places we have visited this was most noticeably different because so many of the boys came from such challenging circumstances. When we arrived we were each invited to plant a tree by the staff and boys and then we gave them some sports equipment that we had taken to Kenya. This was another place where young people from St. Mary's had worked and it was particularly good to see that the football pitch they had created a couple of years ago had been put to such good use. The home is still being developed and the hope is that it will house its own school. I would say this visit has had the biggest impact on the group so far.

Another packed couple of days, full of memorable visits and encounters that will take some time to process and reflect upon. So many things to give thanks to God for as we have seen people's lives transformed by the witness and ministry of the church in this part of Kenya.

Time to finish as we have a power cut and the mosquitos are coming out to play.

Asante Sana Jesus.

- posted with Blogsy on my iPad from the Isaak Walton Hotel in Embu.

Kenya (2)

It's been a busy two days and I wanted to post a brief summary before I lose track of some of the events and experiences.

Wednesday morning began with a meeting at St Thomas' Cathedral, Kerugoya the church with which we are exploring a possible parish link. This visit was for 'a cup of tea' but I hadn't realised a Kenyan cup of tea includes much more, basically a second breakfast within an hour of the first! Great for Hobbits, not so good for someone hoping to decrease their waist line during the visit. However, this is just one example of the generous hospitality offered wherever we go.

We then headed for Mutira and a visit to the Mission Church which is preparing to celebrate it's centenary. Interesting to discover the present Bishop of Kirinyaga Diocese, Daniel Ngoru, was vicar there. From this small and unassuming church 108 other churches have been planted so the title 'mission' is born out in the history of the church. The church supports a hospital, small but well equipped with pharmacy and laboratory. I chatted with a couple of mums. One had a two year old daughter with suspected Malaria and she was waiting the result of tests. The other mum had brought her young son to be wormed, a regular treatment for adults and children in the area. I smiled when I saw the little boy was wearing trousers with 'England 1966' written on them. There are also two church schools, a primary and the recently opened Canon Njumbi Mutira Secondary School. These schools are linked to Great Baddow High School from our home parish and it was encouraging to see the use to which equipment provided by the link school had been put. Conditions in the classrooms were very basic and a few of the children were without shoes, yet, it was clear the children took great pride in their school, their work and that they had a hunger to lean. The set up in Mutira reflects the outreach approach of the Christians in building churches, hospitals and schools to serve the local community.

Next to the church schools is Mutira Secondary Girls boarding school and the contrast in facilities with the neighbouring schools was dramatic. There was time to look round and chat with staff and pupils and again it was impressive to see and hear the pride that all involved in the school took in education. A couple of facts stick in the mind. Teachers in the state system are paid the same whatever their position. The head is paid the same as other members of staff and the emphasis is on distinction of role and responsibility but not reflected in salary. Teachers are also deployed by the Ministry of Education and are expected to go where they are sent, including the Head. The girls start at 5am and the day goes through until lights out at 9.30pm. Along with the studies they are expected to do the cleaning and their laundry and all the other tasks required to keep the school running. In general the schools are all very results orientated and there is strong competition between schools and celebration of academic achievement. Walls are covered with internal and external tables of performance and certificates of achievement.

The afternoon was taken up with lunch back at the cathedral and informal conversations with members of the ministry team before a tour of Kerugoya. The Provost Winifred Munene is a very gracious host who has worked hard to provide us with an interesting and varied programme of visits and we will be exploring links between our churches more formally later in the visit.

Thursday was a long day. It began with a visit to the recently opened Kirinyaga Diocesan Office and then attendance at the diocesan clergy chapter held in St Paul's church next door. St.Paul's is a massive building still under construction and when completed will seat 2,500 worshippers. There is much work to be done but the walls and roof and initial internal construction of the church is complete. There are no windows or doors and the floor is still bare earth but the church was a good venue for the gathering. After a Eucharist and welcome to visiting bishops, curates and our party from St. Mary's the chapter meeting centred around a powerful Bible study on Luke 24 led by Bishop Stephen (Chelmsford). The study drew out the shared challenges facing the church in mission in both Kenya and Chelmsford. There was also some excellent exuberant singing and I worried at one point that the worship might bring the walls of the new church down.

The afternoon was split between visiting St Andrews School and the Theological College in Kabare. The girls school is where the young people from our church worked in the early summer and it was a real joy to see the impact their time there had made on the school. As soon as we mentioned the team from St Mary's the children's faces lit up and when three of our party explained they were parents of members of the team the children became very excited. Our young people had helped create the playing field facilities and provided resources for a play area. We managed to get the Head teacher sitting on the playground roundabout and the deputy head on the see-saw for some photos which the children found highly amusing. Each of us had just over half an hour in a class with the students and I spent an enjoyable time chatting with a year 8 class (13) who will be taking their key exams in a few days. We prayed for the girls as they approach this crucial time and as they prepare to leave the school in November. The girls sang to us at various times during the visit and when they shared with us the songs they had learnt from our young people it was a very moving experience.

During the visit to St Andrew's School we presented a few gifts of stationary and were taken aback by the response from the children. The gratitude for being given what most English children would take for granted in school was just one more reminder of the contrast in facilities and available equipment. The most challenging reminder, however, was the group of old small huts at the end of the sports field which turned out to be the student toilets. About eight of these long drop toilets served all the children at this residential school and the staff toilets were not much better.

It was a real privilege to visit the school which has had such an impact on the young people from our church. This is but one example of the way in which our diocesan and parish links with the churches and schools in this area of Kenya are greatly enriching our understanding of ministry and mission.

The rest of Thursday was spent at St Andrews Theological College in Kabare, however, that experience will require a separate post along with our trip to a tea plantation and visit to Utugi Children's Home today.

The only down side to the visit so far is that the television channels seem to have Man Utd's match against their noisy neighbours from last weekend running on a loop. The excellent Tusker beer is scant consolation.

Asante Sana Jesus!

- posted using Blogsy on iPad from the Isaak Walton Hotel Embu.

Kenya (1)

Arrived yesterday in Nairobi after an uneventful eight hour flight from Heathrow. I'm with a group of six others from our church, along with +Stephen, Bishop of Chelmsford, Canon Dr Roger Matthews (Bishop's adviser for mission and ministry) and Rob Fox (Diocesan Director of Education). A group of curates from Chelmsford Diocese also flew out with us as part of their CMD programme. News on arrival was not very good. I was already aware of an explosion in Nairobi before our departure and our driver in Nairobi informed us there had since been a second explosion. I've been wondering how much attention this has received on the news back home.

We spent the night at the ACK Guesthouse in Nairobi and then earlier today transferred to Embu where much of our visit will be based. Lunch and early afternoon has been taken up meeting the Provost of St Thomas' Cathedral Kerugoya, Winifred Munene, who has been planning our itinerary for some time. We have a packed and very interesting programme of visits line up. Part of the purpose of the visit is to explore how we develop our links at St Mary's with the church in this part of Kenya and with St Thomas' in particular. Our young people have been out to Kenya to work on various schools based projects in the last couple of years and I'm looking forward to seeing at first hand the work they have been involved with.

A few brief initial thoughts and reflections:
1. Driving through Nairobi in the morning rush hour is not an experience I wish to repeat in a hurry!
2. Pirates of the Caribbean 4 is every bit as bad as Mayo & Kermode warned me it would be.
3. I was surprised at the large number of churches, chapels and other places of worship on the side of the road on our route from Nairobi to Embu.
4. I have discovered my camera isn't working which put me in a bad mood. Then I thought about the poverty I'd glimpsed during our journey north and felt rather pathetic. I'm grateful to my friend Roger who has lent me his camera for the duration.

A good start to the trip with no hitches or problems so far. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing about the work of the church in this part of God's world and am also open to the unexpected ways he might encourage and challenge us during our time in Kenya.

- published from iPad using Bloggsy

Fig leaf or bay leaf

I attended a clergy study morning on Thursday and was disappointed that most of the material covered was a straightforward summary of the basics of theological reflection with some case studies. Having spent the last ten years teaching ordinands and lay ministers how to engage in theological reflection I was beginning to despair of a wasted morning. However, in amongst the familiar there is usually some gold and it came in the form of a comment that resonated with me and I think several other participants. The speaker related an insight drawn from a particular experience about the use of the Christian tradition in theological reflection. She spoke about the need to move away from using the tradition as a fig leaf to using it as a bay leaf. In other words we should not use the tradition, in particular the Bible, to legitimise or justify our predetermined reflections but allow the tradition to infuse and flavour our reflections. An important reminder and an effective image, so the morning was not entirely wasted. The session ended with an excellent Shepherd's Pie for lunch, though I'm not sure if it was flavoured with a bay leaf.

Not me guv’.

I received an enquiry from a Twitter friend, Ronnie, asking if a newspaper story referred to me. The story was about a Rev Phil Ritchie who had come up with an idea to increase his congregation. The Argus reported as follows:

A vicar saw his Sunday congregation go up by half after warning on Facebook he would give it all up and become a window cleaner if he didn't boost numbers. The tongue in cheek threat made by Reverend Phil Ritchie turned out to be a holy success when 207 people turned up -seven more than his target.

Rev Ritchie normally sees up to 140 people at All Saints Church in The Drive, Hove, but wanted to get the numbers up on the national annual Back to Church Sunday. As well as telling parishioners at the church to ask one at least one other person to come and join them, he also posted a message on Facebook. He said: “I urged people to come along and then said if I don't get at least 200 I would give it up and become a window cleaner- during the summer months only of course!"

“At first I was quite confident and sure that enough people would come along but when it got closer to the day I started to think I was going to end up with a lot of egg on my face. In all seriousness, I would not have gone for a change in career although obviously I've nothing against taking up window cleaning. It would be a great job and I love being in the outdoors. I'm certainly used to cleaning the lead windows of the vicarage so I've had some practice. I also told the congregation about the window cleaning comment and I thought some of them might think that was a good idea and stay away but everyone came along.”

Rev Ritchie, who has been at the church for three years, says he is keen to get the wider community involved. He said: “This was obviously a little bit of fun but there is a serious message behind it. The church is an important part of the community and I would like to reach out to as many people as possible.”

There are a couple of simple reasons for ruling me out of being the brains behind this wizard wheeze. Firstly, I don’t live in Hove and secondly, and more significantly, I don’t like heights so window cleaning is one of the last jobs I would consider. I urge the good folk of our parish not to get any ideas.

By the way, we still haven’t contracted the services of a window cleaner for The Rectory so if Rev Phil Ritchie, All Saint’s Hove, fancies supplementing his stipend…

Rhythm of the saints

I was chatting with a friend at the beginning of the summer and he mentioned that he had noticed how in the preceding eighteen months more of my blog posts had related to the church calendar and particularly saints days and the seasons. He was right and I began to reflect on why that was.

When I began work in the Diocesan Office looking after the lay education and training brief I found it quite a shock to the system in terms of my own spiritual discipline. For the first fourteen years of ordained ministry I had been used to meeting daily with colleagues for Morning Prayer. It was only when that pattern stopped that I realised how important it had been to me. Not just the regular prayer and Bible reading but the liturgical pattern of the year with it’s distinctive rhythm.

For the last ten years I’ve struggled to find a pattern that fed and sustained me in the way Morning Prayer had done. Early on I tried attending worship at the cathedral but it didn’t really work for me. My own personal devotions used a variety of patterns of worship and the one I settled on was Celebrating Common Prayer. During the final year of my time at the office I valued meeting each Monday with some colleagues for a form of Morning Prayer.

When I returned to parish ministry in May I also returned to using Common Worship Morning Prayer for my devotions. In part this was prompted by the iPad I had received as a gift from work colleagues which enabled me to say the office from one source provided on line, rather than having do jump back and forth through a weighty tome from Church House Publishing. However, the one thing that was still missing was the corporate aspect of praying that I had so valued in those early years of ministry.

Before the holidays I explained to the  congregation that from September I would be saying Morning Prayer in the prayer chapel of the church each day and invited others to join me. As part of a team ministry I already meet with colleagues for prayer on Monday mornings so we will use Morning Prayer for this in the future. Most days I will be joined by our associate minister and later in the autumn by a curate who will be on placement with us for a few weeks. We are also hoping to have a stipendiary curate join us next year and I want them to experience what I had come to value during the early years of my ministry. 

Yesterday we met for the first time and I was greatly encouraged that five of us gathered together for Morning Prayer. As I left the chapel I found myself thinking, that’s what I’d been missing.

USB typewriter

Up and down the land in many church vestries and clergy studies still lurks that once essential but now obsolete piece of office equipment, the typewriter. Do not fear, for just as you were tempted to dump the apparently useless piece of outmoded technology comes news of redemption. So now we can cling to the past while embracing the present and watch as parish administrators despair and secretaries throw themselves off the nearest cliff. And there are still some colleagues who have never forsaken the typewriter, convinced that, along with the ubiquitous Filofax, it is an intrinsic part of one's vocation conferred at ordination along with the Bible.

The USB Typewriter is a new and ground breaking innovation in the field of obsolescence.  Lovers of the look, feel, and quality of old fashioned manual typewriters can now use them as keyboards for any USB-capable computer, such as a PC, Mac, or even iPad!  The modification is easy to install, it involves no messy wiring, and does not change the outward appearance of the typewriter (except for the usb adapter itself, which is mounted in the rear of the machine).  So the end result is a retro-style USB keyboard that not only looks great, but feels great to use.  

Directions in a digital age

I took the dog for a walk this morning as we continued our attempt to map out the local area. I can assure my parishioners that I don't 'map' the land in the same way that Bramble does. As usual we got lost. Just an innocent left turn up an innocuous looking path and a few strides later we found ourselves disorientated. I have no sense of direction and the dog simply follows his nose, usually to the nearest message from a fellow canine.

Eventually we came to a clearing and two landmarks were visible above the trees, a church spire and a communications mast. Living in the birth place of radio there are plenty of masts around including one huge redundant construction visible from our bedroom which has a preservation order on it. The church spire is that of St. Mary's where I am Rector and the mast is in a field on the edge of the parish. So we headed for the spire and soon arrived home.


As I used the spire for our direction home I remembered that I had my mobile phone with me and I could easily have conjured up a map which would have displayed my current position and given me directions home. It got me thinking about the changes and challenges facing the church in the digital age.

For generations the church spire has been the most visible landmark in the area, a symbol of permanence and continuity in a rapidly changing world. Now the communications mast rivals it as a marker on the landscape. In some places churches have allowed a mobile phone mast to be sited on the spire or tower, usually for financial reasons, while others have steadfastly refused to succumb to the inducements of the communications companies. I'm not sure what I think about this, though I understand the financial pressures facing some congregations that have influenced their decision.

However, I am convinced of one thing; the church cannot afford to leave the digital world outside the Christian community. It is essential for the church's mission and ministry that we embrace the digital world of communications and social media if we are to engage with the realities of our age.

I'm writing this blog from my iPad, a wonderful gift from my friends and colleagues in the diocese when I left my lay education and training role a couple of months ago. This little marvel has 3G and wifi, applications for just about everything I need in terms of running my office and a plethora of tools and resources including the Bible and various liturgies. It doesn't replace key aspects of my role like listening, praying and speaking with people face to face but it does enhance a lot of what I do.

So my question is this: Are we going to keep the digital world at arms length, on the margins of our life and witness, like the mast on the edge of the parish? Or are we going to embrace the digital realities of the world we live in both offline and online; placing the church and the Gospel we proclaim at it's centre, not uncritically but with Spirit led discernment and wisdom?


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Signing the Gospel

This post was inspired by an initial misreading of a post from the Archdruid over at the Beaker Folk blog. The good lady had written a piece about her experience of worship at a church service yesterday and her bafflement at why they sang rather than read the Gospel. I thought the post was called ‘signing the Gospel’ rather than ‘singing the Gospel’. You can read her musings for yourself.

I want to say a big thank you to all those who give their time, gifts and energies to serving the deaf communities of our parishes through the ministry of Signing. I have over the last few years been involved in training for lay and ordained ministry those who have a particular calling to this ministry and they have challenged and enriched the wider body of staff and students through this distinct vocation. Part of my role with Chelmsford diocese involved planning various major celebration and licensing services in the cathedral and we always made sure the preacher submitted a text well in advance for the signers to work with.

All the main events at Spring Harvest are signed by a fantastic team from Signs of God who make the worship and teaching more accessible for our deaf sisters and brothers. I sometimes sit with the signers in my sight line and am fascinated by way they interpret the speaker. +Pete Broadbent once set the signers a demanding task as he launched into a discourse with some heavy theological phrases around the theme of eschatology during his Bible readings. The signers coped brilliantly  and I’m tempted to say they made it more intelligible for me but I might want a ministry gig in Willesden one day so I will say no more.

Yesterday we celebrated Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the rich diverse multitude of people gathered in Jerusalem (Acts 2). One feature of that great event was that people of different tongues understood the disciples’ preaching in their own language. Signers have a Pentecost ministry as they enable those they serve to hear/see the Good News of Jesus Christ in their own tongue. I’m not sure what I think about singing the Gospel rather than reading it in worship but signing the Gospel is an essential work for the Kingdom of God.

Number crunching

I’ve been settling into my new role in the parish and musing about the various official bits and pieces of communication I have received. The Guidelines for Residents in diocesan houses makes sense, though I’m still waiting for someone to come and sort out the lack of hot water for a bath, having reported the problem a week ago. There’s the legal stuff like assigned fees and the Statement of Particulars as part of Common Tenure (see Ecclesiastical Offices (Terms of Service) Regulations 2009).

However, the piece of paper that really caught my eye was the details of Parish Share for 2011 from the Diocesan Office. The sheet sets out a breakdown of how much the parish has given so far this year and the balance left to contribute and it was enclosed with a letter of welcome. On the back is a breakdown by parish of the deanery Parish Share for the last 5 years. Now I don’t have a problem with this in itself, I think that the Parish Share is important in enabling the mission and ministry of the parishes and the diocese. What I do have a problem with is the fact that this is the only published measured assessment of a parish’s contribution sent to me as I embarked on my ministry. The message it communicated to me was that this was what the diocese really cared about when it came to measuring the effectiveness of my ministry or the work of the local church. I know that is not the case but that is how it felt.

Why no figures about the number of baptisms, confirmations, regular worshippers, vocations to various licensed and authorised ministry, weddings, funerals, pastoral visits, discipleship programmes, home groups, children’s and youth ministries, missionary support, outreach activities, community engagement events and the hundred and one other things that the local church is about? Now I know what most of these figures are because they were clearly set out in the parish profile that I received during the appointment process. But these figures aren’t published or discussed in the detail or with the same scrutiny as the amount of money a church gives to the diocese. So what does that say about where our values and priorities are?

Where are the poet priests?

Today we are asked to remember John Donne (1572-1631), poet, priest and Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral. As I was thinking about Donne’s life and work I started to ask ‘where are today’s poet priests?’. I’m aware of a few, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, but I can’t help wondering whether we have lost something in our understanding of priestly calling and ministry. Part of the role of the priest is to help others to see things in a different light, from an alternative perspective, and in the Church of England we have a rich tradition of priests who fulfilled this part of their vocation through poetry. In all the discussions about the future of the ordained ministry, and I have sat through too many hours of debate about that subject, I have not once heard anyone ask:

'Where are the poet priests and how will they be encouraged, nurtured and sustained?'.



Update: Check our this excellent follow up blog post developing the theme from Changing Worship The Church and the Arts.

Personal or Professional?

An interesting issue has arisen for me about the character and purpose of my blog. On Sunday it was announced that I will be returning to parish ministry and I immediately noticed a large increase in traffic to my blog based on Google searches. I’m fairly sure much of this traffic is from future parishioners so I had a bit of a panic and quickly checked recent posts to make sure I had not said anything I was going to regret. The post about my random album with a naked woman on the front cover caused a slight wobble, but my wife thought it tasteful so I figured there was not a problem.

However, this has made me think about the purpose of my blog and how I will use it in the future. I’ve already noticed that almost subconsciously I post less about my family and tend to keep that information for my Facebook page where there is more control over access. I also notice that I have been putting up more work related posts, particularly in connection with Bible Year 2011. Nevertheless, my blog is still a place where I can fire off my own reflections and observations, not just about faith but about football, culture, politics and whatever else happens to catch my attention.

So the question is this:

Do I keep my blog for my personal thoughts and opinions and roll out a separate blog related to my parish ministry? Or do I merge the two together?

I can see strengths and weaknesses with both approaches and notice that blogging colleagues have taken different stances. I don’t want to lose the character of my blog, such as it is, but I will want to post material related to my work in the parish that may be of little interest to a wider readership. Yet, there is likely to be a certain amount of overlap in material and there may well be things relating to our specific parish context that resonate further afield. 

Thoughts please…

Any excuse!

All change

I have a new job! It is being announced this morning that I’m going to become Team Rector of the Great Baddow Team Ministry. It’s a very exciting and challenging prospect and quite different from my lay education and training role in the Diocese of Chelmsford. This will be a massive change for the family. We’ve lived in our present home for the last ten years, so the children know little else and we will be sad to move from our village church, community and friends in the Leighs. It will also be hard to say goodbye to the fantastic team of people that I’ve been privileged to work with in my present role both in the diocese and at St Mellitus College. Nevertheless, we are really looking forward to what God has in store for us during this next stage of our walk with him.

Great Baddow is a large parish on the outskirts of Chelmsford, with three churches, two team vicars, several associate ministers, and a large team of lay ministers. I will be primarily focused on leading the ministry at St Mary’s and we know some of the congregation, having led a parish weekend for them a few years ago. I also work closely with some of the ministers and congregation through our roles in the diocese and look forward to sharing in ministry with them in a new context.

I’ll be blogging some reflections on my experiences of lay education and training and ordination training over the last ten years in due course. There will also be some observations about the crazy appointments procedures that the Church of England insists on inflicting on parishes and clergy, but that’s for another time.

A date for the installation hasn’t been finalised yet. We would value your prayers for us as a family and for the Great Baddow Team as we prepare for the move over the weeks ahead.

Head down and mouth shut

Anyone involved in leadership in public ministry knows there are times when a decision has to be made that may seem on the surface to be wrong, unfair or unpopular. I can think of times in the parish and in my current training role, for example, when I have had to ask someone to step back or step down from ministry. It may be that the person’s personal or family circumstances have changed, or that they have done something which compromises their ability to minister or that they are suffering ill health, there are plenty of reasons. For the individual’s benefit and for the well being of the wider church a decision is taken.

The problem is that for very good pastoral reasons it may not be appropriate for others to know why the person has been withdrawn. To the congregation, parishioners or their colleagues in training, the action may appear arbitrary and unjust. I’ve known the frustration of seeing action taken against someone and feeling it has been unreasonable, though I may not have been appraised of the full facts. But I’ve also had to take action and keep my mouth shut, even when people are accusing me of being unreasonable at best or a ‘little Hitler’ to quote a more extreme response. I’ve wanted to say to the critic, ‘well if you knew this then you wouldn’t be saying that’ but I can’t and I won’t because it might be very damaging to the individual concerned. This is one of the responsibilities and challenges of leadership in ministry.

I learnt an important lesson early in ministry. When I was a curate and someone asked me something difficult or a challenging situation arose, I had the fall back position of saying ‘ask the vicar’. When I became a vicar I discovered that sometimes I had to say no or to make a hard choice, even if it made me unpopular. I could give plenty of examples but I won’t because it would not be appropriate. Those of you in positions of leadership can fill in the blanks.

So the next time I see a senior colleague, say a bishop in the metropolis, taking flak over a decision or a course of action and my temptation is to fire up the computer and express my righteous indignation in blog or tweet, I hope I can take a moment to remember the times I’ve been on the receiving end. It’s hard to keep one’s head down and mouth shut rather than indulge in bouts of self justification but that’s part of the job.