Wednesday

This morning I led the funeral for Audrey Dwan from William Sutton House - who I've been visiting for the past nine years. A sad occasion, but I was glad to be able to do it for her.

In the afternoon I led Worship on Wednesday at Kilkenny with a small group. I brought communion but the lady who most wanted it was ill in hospital...

I then visited my own nan in her nursing home and joined her for "Tea at the Ritz"... She wore a feather in her hat and we tried to talk while the staff paraded around in 20's outfits...

Christ the Sower Governors in the evening - more jobs added to the list...

Wednesday

Today's events included:
Time with Tim Clapton
The first "Worship on Wednesday" at Kilkenny House
Time with Peter Ballantine
Time with Karen Reeves
Christ the Sower Governors Meeting

Older People

I started the morning with my first run in weeks - following all the family illnesses, bad weather and seasonal chaos. It did feel good to have a healthier start to the morning: a cup of rooibos and a banana for breakfast, a 40 minute run and a shower. I ran slowly to prevent myself falling on the ice - but this was probably a good way to ease into a new schedule. My plan is to start work on a steady programme based around the 1/2 marathon distance with three or four runs a week two rest days and a day when I do something else... One of my weekly runs needs to be a more substantial distance but I can usually squeeze something in on a Monday... wish me luck...

The rest of the morning was spent with some older people. I had hoped to see Ron Cramp but only managed to drop a card through his door. I did manage to see Audrey which was nice. I also spent some time in Kilkenny House where we discussed some plans for the future...

Building on some past successes, Linda wants to launch WOW - Worship on Wednesday - with some hymns and an activity - probably an all age "talk" provided by me - followed by Coffee and Chat. This is a fairly good format but does take a bit of preparation. I also think I may need some new speakers...

I was also introduced to yet another new lady who wants to go to church but needs a lift. I'll have a go, but I've never got very far in the past. It's hard to find volunteers...

Work with older people is enormously rewarding and great fun but often low on our priority list at a time when children's work is often seen as our main mission focus. There's actually a great deal you can do and a huge range of opportunities. The great challenge is to see discipleship as a calling for people of all ages. It's important that our older people are seen as the church of today - not the church of yesterday!

Harvest at CtS

What do ministers do on their day off? They watch other ministers at work...

Today we attended the Harvest festival assembly at Christ the Sower Schools (why are all their events on Friday?) Nick was heavily involved in the organisation and we were treated to a brief talked based on his dog (puppet) Scrap who helped him demonstrate that we all need someone's hand in us in order to live...

One of the parents sang a gospel song about God's peace and the children read prayers and the parable of the sower. They also sang all the school harvest faves: Cabbages fluffy, the Lord of the Harvest and there's a song to sing. (Slightly older readers will not recognise these hymns, but in return, the children wouldn't recognise Come, ye thankfull people come - so this works both ways...)

The centrepiece of the assembly was the shoe-boxes for Link Romania. Nick played a video which showed how the boxes were delivered and received. I think this was more effective than words could have been.



All in all, this was a great harvest assembly. Nick did well, the kids did well. It was slick and professional and moving. Well done all!

Wednesday

Saw Alastair Wood this morning.
Spent the rest of the morning preparing for Kilkenny Harvest.
Went to Partnership Office to photocopy sheets.
Walked out of house without my music...
I therefore had to lead singing of Harvest Hymns for a large group of older people without music! (One of them was 100!) The music didn't go particularly well since my voice wasn't up to it and I forgot the tune to Come, ye thankful people come... Good session though (as always) and it was great to spend the afternoon with some old(er) friends...

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"...

Valentine's Day

I always buy cards for the girls, but often wonder what people think when I buy three Valentine's cards. Perhaps they would really wonder if I bought them with a clerical shirt on.
This year, I noticed one high street shop sold cards addressed to "my daughter" so my worries are over!
Although this could be a day for flowers and cards and chocolates and all the rest... there'll be limited time for that in our house. I spent the morning in Great Missenden with the Bishop and the wardens from Water Eaton. It was a great meeting and we've made a lot of progress - although I do now need to attend their AGPM - on a Sunday Morning...
Back to Milton Keynes, I popped into Killkenny where I was expecting to celebrate communion. They were expecting a singer, who was half an hour late. We had a nice time chatting and singing along to old songs. I left before the real entertainment began...
So it was four pm before I even started my own work for Thursday. I'll get a bit done while the girls are out, and then it'll be time for my evening meeting...

Thursday

Up early. We're not feeling 100%. But good to get up and get on, since I have a meeting at 9:30am and still have papers to prepare. This is a meeting of a DPC working group looking at new appointments. I need to make sure we've got the best information we need before hand, so that the meeting is productive. The archdeacon asked about clergy numbers and workload. It would help to have most of this data on the table before the meeting, otherwise we'll spend the whole meeting assembling it...

The meeting went well and there were some really good ideas. It felt like a significant moment. We looked at the whole picture and how posts could be created and moved around. We meet again next month...

Went to Kilkenny House in the afternoon. One or two of the residents have gone since Christmas, which is sad. There was a particularly smiley one who will be missed. It was a subdued and small gathering. Linda and I planned the sessions for 2008 and she has some good ideas for activities. Always a priviledge to be involved here...

The rest of the day was taken up with bits of paper work and emails. Spent the evening trying to work out how to structure the Baptist service at All Saints' and resource it so that any minister can lead it - not an easy task.

Was glad when we called it a day at 9:00pm. Watched two episodes of the Boosh and went to bed... Feeling achey - must be coming down with Isla's bug...

Coffee, Carols and Christmas

Coffee with Greatgrandma
Went in to town first thing this morning. Bought stamps for cards - I intend to send cards to clergy in the Deanery this year. My parents had popped down from Nottingham and had brought Greatgrandma (my nan) into town, so we all had coffee in Costa.

Kilkenny Carols

This morning was also the (now traditional) Kilkenny Carol Service, with Isla on keyboard, Linda on the organ and Colin on the recorder... (and me on guitar) - This year we had a Christams poem on the data projector that we all said together...

I have been doing a monthly service at Kilkenny since 2003. It's been a really super project whcich has had some ups and downs, but is really appreciated by the residents. It would be great to get more of our people involved... My ambitions for work with older people have never quite got off the ground in Watling Valley. The potential is enormous, and there's so much we could do, but it needs a bit of a push...

My link with Kilkenny House began almost by accident, but it has developed over the years. The high point was when they presented me with a copy of their new residents guide...

Coffee Plus Christmas Lunch

I managed to get back to All Saints (a bit late) for the Coffee Plus Christmas Lunch. Coffee plus is a wonderful little group that has become really significant over the years. It has become a partnership group with members from Servant King, All Saints', St Mary's and Holy Cross. About a dozen people had lunch today. Ricahrd and I both managed to get along.

I had some feedback about the Christingle project. It all seems to ne going extremely well...