Easter

Dawn in the Watling Valley

Up early for the dawn service at St Mary's in Shenley Church End. Nick led us in a communion service with bread, fish and grape juice - followed by an amazing breakfast in the church with porridge, croissants, cereal and more...

We lit the six candles for the five churches of the Watling Valley plus Christ the Sower School. It was a wonderful parable of unity since people had to help each other keep their candles alight. And as someone from St Mary's pointed out - they were slow but burned brightly when they got going...

Happy Easter everyone!

Egg Rolling

It wouldn't be the Saturday before Easter without the annual egg-rolling and decorating event - including the annual opportunity to target Rozi with boiled eggs - and the usual controversy over what constitutes "doctoring" an egg. In the past there have been attempts to gain a small advantage by freezing, painting or rapping - but this year it did seem to be a fair fight!

Isla was absolutely delighted to win the over 16's competition - and longest overall roll I think - not that there's a prize for this...

The entertainments were supplemented this year by a raffle and a treasure hunt in aid of the renovations. Roger sent us on a tour of the graveyard for £1 each - raising nearly £100 overall which isn't bad.

This year's egg decorating competition was as serious as always. My entry was a Eggstra Terrestrial.

There were a number of really clever entries, including the wonderful "fried egg":















Iona made an eggsclamation mark:

But which cam first, the egg or the chicken leg?












Izzy won her age group with an eggstremely big giant:














...and Isla won again with a wonderful Chancellor of the Eggschequer - identified as Alistair Darling through the clever use of black and white paint...












All in all a wonderful way to spend Holy Saturday and a good example of why All Saints' is doing well...

Act of Witness in CMK

Every year there's a procession from Christ the Cornerstone to CMK where we sing some Easter songs and have a bit of an act of witness. It's organised by Cornerstone, but not particularly well advertised so it tends to be a fairly small and select group.

This year David Tattem pointed out the oak tree at the middle of the shopping centre which is slowly dying. He linked it with the economic crisis and offered a challenge to our consumerist life style...

All in all, a good event, but it would have been good to have had a few more people there. Perhaps those of us who know about it could help spread the word next year...

Back to Work

Today was my first day back after the Easter Holiday. I hope to insert some missing days soon to fill in some of the gaps...

I had to get up early for the 8 o'clock service, which turned out to be a good thing since I picked up a notice sheet which informed me that Ken had died on Friday. He will be greatly missed. It was certainly useful to know this before going to Holy Cross where he had served as church warden.

The mood was quiet and reflective at Holy Cross. I presided at the 9 o'clock communion and then preached at the 9:45. The hymns were strangely appropriate even though I'd picked them over a week ago, and the story of Stephen had wonderful resonance. Both Ken and Stephen were people who sought to serve in practical ways, reaching out to people on the edge - often with food. We gave thanks for Ken this morning.

It was a bit of a shock to the system to leave Holy Cross and go to St Mary's at 11am for a big baptism service - a high energy show! The church was packed with visitors who needed to be given a real celebration - which we seemed to deliver. At 2pm I had to do the same at All Saints - three families, four children. It was important to deliver a BIG event for the five baptism families and their friends - but a bit of an emotional rollercoaster after the two services at Holy Cross...

I had three hours at home this afternoon. We all sat down for dinner and I watched last night's Doctor Who with the girls. It was a fairly blatant story about the very human habit of slavery - in one form or another - but it worked pretty well. After all, you can't go wrong if the episode has Ood in it. We learnt today that Ood have three brains: one in their head, one in their hands and one that they share in a collective consciousness. This is a great image to play with! They must cooperate and trust each other because if you are holding your brain in your hands you are pretty vulnerable... To what extent are we like Ood? There's a question to think about...

Growing Disciples was at 6:30pm. Mike's away so I had to lead it by myself. We all missed Ken's presence. He had been really enjoying this course. We had a good discussion about the cost of discipleship and went home. It's now 10pm and I am starting work on Voices. I must finish by tomorrow morning...

Oh I am glad to be back...
(And my sabbatical starts in 11 days...)

White Easter

Dawn on Easter Day: There I stood with guitar in hand singing Abba Father as the snow fell... These are memories I will not forget in a long time...
What a day! Seven Paschal Candles lit, communion celebrated three times, Easter celebrated... Lamb eaten - and chocolate...
A White Easter enjoyed by all...

Egg Rolling

On Holy Saturday All Saints' Loughton held their annual egg rolling and decorating competition. Numbers were a little low with the bad weather, but we all had a great time. Izzy won the egg decorating competion (ages 5-9) and Iona won her rolling heat. Two more chocolate eggs to their stash...

Good Friday

We don't really have a good place on the west of the city where we can hold big open air events or services, but the City Centre is a very good public space and it belongs to us all.
This Good Friday some of us joined Cornerstone and Woughton in their Act of Witness. The band was good, Duncan was a very convincing centurian and hot cross buns were dished out on mass... Next year we'll try to push this event and pursuade more people from across the City to take part...

Maundy Thursday

On Maundy Thursday I had did a special Easter service at Killkenny House, and then met with Richard from New Life North.

In the evening we had a Maundy Thursday Service at which three Nelseys were appropriately dressed...

Tuesday

Team Space - lots to discus.
Holy Cross Team - reorganised AGM Sunday.
Lunch with Mike Archer from St Mary's Bletchley.
Corporate Communion with Mothers' Union.
Compline at Servant King.

Still working on Easter services...

Monday

Ran home from school. Three miles in 27 minutes.
Spent the morning working on Easter services - nearly there...
In the afternoon we had a Voices editorial meeting. Liz Morris is doing the April edition - her first.
In the evening I went to Woolstones for a meeting that turned out to be very significant.

Thursday

I've been feeling rough for the past couple of days, but managed to run to school with Izzy and around the wood with Isla. Not sure if this was a good idea, but managed to get round in a reasonably good time.

Easter is rapidly approaching and there are some services to plan. I worked with Jeff this morning on Easter Day dawn. We think we have a good plan. We just need to make it happen.

Met with Alastair Wood at lunch time. We had a good conversation about Pioneer Ministry and he's going to give me some possible Fresh Expressions contacts for my sabatical.

Popped into Kilkenny House this afternoon. They weren't expecting me for Communion but it was useful to have a chat about next weeks Easter service.

In the evening we had our final Viewpoints session. It went very well, but didn't feel like a tidy end, which I supose is what we wanted - sending people off on their own journeys. Two recruits for next years "Growing Disciples"...

Sunday 25th November

7:30am - 9:00am Service at All Saints (ASL +1.5)
Really didn't want to get up this morning (hadn't slept well). Woke at 7:20am. Threw clothes on and ran for it. Service seemed to go well. Tony's wife Pauline and Son Michael were there - following his funeral in the week. Was good to see them and seemed like a good way of marking the day...
9:00am - 11:00am Service at St Mary's (SMS +2)
Unexpected Baptism, building still in chaos, no amp - but heating was working. Love the new tiles in the loo - which still lacks a loo - but it's going to look absolutely phenomenal when it's finished! Building work still on target (ish). Beginning to pulg celebration in January.
Turned out to be a good high energy service. Good connection with Baptism family. Very pleased.
11:00am - 12:00noon Service at Servant King (SKF +1)
Enjoyed preaching at Servant King. One of those services that really gelled. The Sunday Club were building roundabouts for the Christmas servicese - look forward to seeing the results...
12:00pm - 2:30pm Meeting with St Mary's 11:00 (SMS +2.5)
Very good meeting. People are feeling a bit shaky about Richard's departure, but there's a real sense of vision for the future. If this group can get it together, this congreagtion could really grow...
2:30pm - 5:00pm Service Planning Meeting (WVEP +2.5)
Planning servicese from here to July 2008. All now updated on http://www.wvep.org/
Also spent time planning Easter - always a tricky discussion but we came to a reasonable common mind... Good group - really makes a difference...

Went home for tea after the SPM - Organic Roast Chicken, mushy sweatcorn, rubarb crumble and custard - well worth waiting for. Thanks Isla! Always good to be home!

Total Hours Worked: 9.5
Hours Worked for WVEP: 2.5
Hours Worked for ASL 1.5
Hours Worked for SMS 4.5