Sunday

My Sunday started with a trip to All Saints' Loughton for the 8 O'clock Communion. I passed the church warden, David Thom, in his home made car. He and Mark Featherstone were off on a car rally finishing with a picnic at Silverstone. It was a great day for it, so I hope they had a good time...

After the BCP Communion Service (which the Prayer Book Society think we don't do) I headed over to St Mary's Shenley for Holy Communion with Baptism.

As you can see from the pictures, the choir are sitting in the congregation at the moment because the organ is broken. The repair bill is around £4K but people are working hard to raise the cash. In the meantime it's quite good to hear them leading the singing from the nave...

The baptism went well although I found their current order of service a bit wordy with lots of additional text. I had to depart from the script a couple of times to concentrate on the family. I'm wondering if it would be a good idea for the worship leaders to look at producing their own order of service for a baptism service...

It was a great celebration although there are clearly issues about baptisms on a Sunday morning: a large proportion of regulars stay away but we still do a full service to meet the needs of those who do come; we have many guests but give them a very churchy service that makes some of them uncomfortable.... There are some serious missiological issues to raise here... I really wonder if Sunday morning is the best time for baptisms... The problem is exacerbated at 11:00 but there are real resource issues if we do anything different - on the other hand the cost of not changing our ways may also be high...

After Shenley I headed over to St George's Wolverton for their St George's Day service. As I arrived the beavers, cubs and scouts were busy researching St George. This was Jeremy's lasts service before his sabbatical so I wish him well for the next three months - particularly for his plan to do some serious guided reading. He tells me that if he follows the reading list he will need to read a book a day. All I can say is good luck with that... and remember to enjoy some rest!

I was there to give Mark Hurley his licence as an NSM assistant curate. It was good to be able tto do this on a Sunday morning and for the congregation to show their support. Many blessings and good wishes to Mark - particularly during Jeremy's sabbatical...

After St George's I headed off for the scouting jamboree for the Great Ouse district over at Willen Lake. On the way I popped in to Woolstones and said hello to the people there. It was good to see them again and to see Cathi settled in.

When I got to Willen Lake I turned my phone on and discovered that Isla had dropped the kids off and gone home... oops! Back in the car and home for a late lunch before a quick trip to Dobbies for a cup of tea. Buy some plants. Pick kids up. Back home. Early tea. Back out for the Watling Valley AGM at which my only duty was to play a video...

This was the last Watling Valley AGM for Alison as Lay Chair. She was given a plant and a round of applause. Alison has been a very organised Lay Chair, which is what we needed after several years of rapid change...

Unfortunately, after an away day that called out "Steady as she goes!" we may well be into a period of rapid and chaotic change again (not that the last three years have beed dull!)

Watling Valley is facing serious challenges on the money front - particularly in relation to the deficit at Servant King and the need to support three full-time ministers. There are also long term challenges about pastoral care, worship, communication and more... Nick Adlem described these as the icebergs which may sink the SS Watling Valley if we keep ploughing on as we are...

Watling Valley is now on at least three parallel plans. We have a pattern of vision days which are supposed to clarify what we want to do, we have an application in process for a URC minister, and we have a new process in place to make a decision about Anglican deployment. They're all interelated but not in a particularly linear way... Going to be fun!

(I have often suggested that we need to look at our ministry needs, look at our available resoures and then decide what staff we need to fulfil our mission/vision. Hopefully this is what we will now do.)

And finally home... couldn't sleep so ended up playing Guitar Hero - I rock!