Church rejects crucifix!

How horrific does a crucifix have to be before it makes sense to take it down?

For me this is another example of the tension between being inwardly focussed and outwardly focussed. I, and I suspect many others in the church, find the hope that the vicar wants people to find in the symbolism of the cross - the willing submission of Jesus to such an horrific death.

And yet to those outside the church that is not an obvious message - at least not until they have crossed the threshhold and had things explained. So at one level I can understand what the vicar is trying to do, but at another I too want to complain about the dumbing down of our faith - without the crucifixion there is no Christianity.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1106651/Vicar-takes-crucifixion-sculpture-scary-depiction-suffering.html

Keith Ward

Just been reading Christianity - A guide for the Perplexed - a number of the congregation have mentioned Keith Ward to me and as I hadn't read anything by him and it was on the church bookshelf... I did wonder about the impact of reading it on the train in a clerical collar, but hey...

It had lots of thought provoking bits, but the piece I found most inspiring was the piece on prayer, and in particular Prayer of Reception where he suggests using the fruits of the Spirit

(the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Gal 5:22-23 http://bible.oremus.org/) and after giving examples of how this might work goes on:


"In outlining the fruits of the Spirit, I have wholly ignored the complexities that inevitably arise in real life — dilemmas about when we should forgive, when we must exercise compulsion to avoid great harm to others, or when we cannot be kind. The Christian life is not one that ignores the realities of evil and conflict in society. Thus mention on these fruits must always be individual and particular, and cannot be encompassed in any brief and general list like the one I have just provided. It must be a self-examination of a unique life and situation in the presence of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. This is a difficult discipline but it is vital that these ideals are contemplated, that we attempt to conform our lives to them as far as possible, and that we ask for the power of the Spirit to enable us to do so. This is the prayer of reception, of receptivity to the Spirit of God. It could be called 'confession', since it involves self-examination. Yet it does not concentrate on our sins and failures. It rather concentrates on the positive characteristics the Spirit will give to us, and on the possibility that we may become instruments of the Spirit of God, in a real if always imperfect way."

The value of determination and perseverence?

Perseverance is needed to win the prize. At a sales convention the manager said to 2000 of his firm's sales force, "Did the Wright brothers ever quit?" "No!" they responded. "Did Charles Lindburg ever quit?" "No!" they shouted. "Did Lance Armstrong ever quit?" "No!" they bellowed. "Did Thorndike McKester ever quit?" There was a long, confused silence. Then a salesperson shouted, "Who in the world is Thorndike McKester? Nobody's ever heard of him." The sales manager snapped back, "Of course you haven't - that's because he quit!" Quitters never win, and winners never quit. From http://www.thevine.co.nz/word/archive/2009/01/02
This set me thinking - before I was ordained I worked for nearly 30 years in management in the food industry and the importance of determination was something that was often talked about, and all "good" management books quote stories like the one above, including Abraham Lincoln's life story http://www.snopes.com/glurge/lincoln.asp - interestingly this web page debunks the story!

But is it even true? Of course at one level it is unfalsifiable, if you haven't succeeded it is because you haven't tried hard enough. However it is prone to the fallacy demonstrated by Derren Brown The System - you only hear about the winners. It is also falsifiable if you can find someone who has "won" without trying - but as with Lincoln there is always some adversity which can be coopted to prove the point.

In business I also found it harmful at times - people who had the "wrong" idea, but who persevered, making everybody elses life a misery in the meantime.

And what are we to make of the ethos which defines winning as the most important thing? I wonder whether the man from Gallilee would have been seen as a winner?

Alternatively is it a truism? That if we know what we want then we will be determined to achieve it - it is just that most people don't want the kind of success that most of these stories refer to.

I have no answer, but I sometimes wonder whether most of the people who "succeed" in life are in some way psychologically drawn to the life they lead - perhaps we are all psychologically drawn to the life we lead!

It reminds me of this quote which I love "The will of God for us is what remains of a situation after we try without stint and pray without ceasing to change it." from this book Insights for the Ages, which is serialised on this web site http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

M&S Advertising

Do you think the standard of biblical knowledge is going down?

I saw M&S using "Eat Drink and be Merry" as an advert over their food fixture. Somehow I think that they might not have done if they knew it continues "But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?" King James Luke 12:19-20.

Or would it be too cynical to suggest that they might have known but decided that their public didn't?

Christmas Thoughts

Christmas was different this year. For the past 29 Christmases I have been employed in the food industry and found advent a time less of waiting than of celebrating Christmas - office decorations going up at the start of December, talk of the office party and secret Santas. I will even admit to having a CD of festive music - not carols but all those perennial Christmas songs you hear on the radio - which I would listen to in the car on the way to and from work.

But this year has been different living and helping lead people through advent with weekly meditations, 10 days of Compline before Christmas and sermons on waiting to be written. Of course there have been the odd few carol services, but not as many as some churches not too far from here, and I found John Saxbee helpful on that http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/content.asp?id=67443.

So helping at the crib service and seeing and somehow sharing in the wonder of the young children and then presiding at midnight, with a short walk home in which to wonder at it all gave me a new way of seeing Christmas - hard to put into words - but it felt like a celebration at a birth - rather than several weeks afterwards!

But how realistic is it for the church to want things our way? Society has decided that Christmas starts in early December (if we are lucky - earlier if not) can we and should we fight against it - or is there some way of working with it? I think for me this year has changed me in that before I would have said work with it - the impact of advent had passed me by for so long, and yet now, although I want to introduce the joys of waiting to others I still recognise the difficulty of the task - and wonder how it can be done without having the message diluted. Answers please on a postcard...

I discovered the following song in a track from Audiopot which I played on the radio (if yuo want to know which one it was this one https://www.audiopot.org/track.php?do=detail&linkid=1350 - members only) - I liked it so thought I would share it.

Final Show

Well, its all over for me - at least this time round. I was amazed at how easy broadcasting was - but then perhaps the difficult bit is doing it well! Those who have spoken to me have been kind, but then almost all have been friends. The question on my mind is whether to keep the blog going or not - I have little idea whether anyone is reading it - and if they are whether they are getting any value from it! Right now my inclination is to put odd posts up occasionally - but if anyone out there wants to encourage me to do more then please let me know!

From todays show there are a few links worth passing on:

John A.T. Robinson wrote Honest to God and Where Three Ways Meet which I think is the book which contains the sermon about his cancer, but I'm not sure.

Richard Holloway wrote Doubts and Loves: What is Left of Christianity which is the book I think I referred to!

Dan's dad works for http://www.tearfund.org/ and I forget why, but I mentioned http://www.christianaid.org.uk/

If you want to know more about YSL which Dan talked about http://www.stleonardscb.org.uk/homepage.htm and click Family/Youth

Or his football team http://www.kingschurchamersham.com/community_focus.html

More about Healing at St Michaels can be found here http://www.stmichaelsamersham.org.uk/healingministry.htm
Dates for 2009 should be available soon, but I know that there will be healing at the services on Sunday 25th January at 8.00am and Sunday 22nd February at 10.00am as I happen to be presiding at both.

Links to Church of England information on Healing
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/parishes_encouraged_to_develop_their_ministry.html

Doh - talked about so much in last weeks show that it was only as I started to prepare this weeks show - yes - it is prepared - though as I write this on Saturday you perhaps get some idea of how much - that I realised I hadn't posted any links about weddings.

I talked briefly about how anyone living in the Parish can be married in the church - and there have recently been some new rules which allow people with a connection with the parish to marry in church too Rules for marrying in a CofE church.

This site talks about what is possible and has help for planning your wedding: http://yourchurchwedding.org/



One of the things that we were told when the web site was launched was that many people disqualify themselves because they think that as they don't go to church they can't have a church wedding - well, you can, do ask - the worst we can do is say no - and if, reluctantly, we have to we will do it nicely!

Some people may be put off by the fact that our church looks new from the outside - the photos show what it looks like inside - the top one shows the main body of the church where weddings would take place - and the bottom one is from the Lady Chapel which is where the register can be signed, and where photos can be taken.