Music for all

We had a very splendid evening out with the Solloways and Catherills tonight at the Derngate in Northampton. We saw the Northampton Symphony Orchestra perform "Music from the Films" including the Dambusters (twice) and the Indiana Jones March - it was all stirring stuff - with only six John Williams numbers...

The host did comment about the fact that orchestral music is often regarded as "high brow" although many millions of people go to the cinema every week and enjoy high quality original music.

He's got a point of course.

Composers have always had to work for a living and have often produced their most creative work to order. Once upon a time the church paid - so we got music for the mass. Music has always been a comercial product and cinema music is merely the latest form of paid work - it's that or adverts.

All forms of music have a "high brow" form, whether that's orchestral music, thrash metal or rap. There are certain pieces of music that you can only appreciate if you know the conventions, rules and culture of the genre.

There's nothing wrong with "high brow" or "popular" music of any kind - snobbery is a waste of time - so bring on the dambusters for one more flight.... wings out... goggles on... and away we go! Na, na, na, na na-na-na, na....

String Trio

Izzy has been learning the cello for four weeks. Iona has been learning violin for eighteen months. Isla bought her own violin from Netto - and has been trying to keep up. Here they all are in their first string trio:

Doing the rounds

William Sutton House this morning. Wished happy Birthday to a man who's going to be 90 this month. Seemed fitter than me!
Met with Veronica and Margaret to choose hymns. We got up to June...
We had a Taste and See planning meeting this afternoon. We are reasonably on track for the Easter Labyrinth.
Team Meeting this evening. We discussed appointments, away day and pastoral care...

Songs for Children

Isla and I were discussing "All things bright and beautiful". It was great to hear the children sing it on Sunday, but to be honest, we weren't sure how many of them know it. The truth is, it's not sung much these days on occasions when children are present. It's not sung in schools and it's not sung in all age worship. It tends to be sung at weddings and baptisms by people in their thirties and forties - and also gets chosen by older people who want a song that children will know(!) There are various other hymns and songs that have a similar place.
There is no canon of "children's songs" in twenty-first century britain. This includes Christmas songs on the whole. Every school (and church) sings a different selection of contemporary songs. I suspect that by 2020, we are really going to struggle to find widely known hymns for baptisms and weddings...
This isn't a moan, just an observation.

Being Awake on the Second Sunday of Advent

I rarely sleep before an 8:00am service. It's partly because I'm worried about getting up in time, and partly because I'm worried about waking everyone else up... I was woken early at 3:00am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. This gave me some extra time to contemplate three very different services - which required three very different sermons...
(Last night Isla and I calculated that I have preached between 60 and 90 "Advent" sermons in Watling Valley... How do I say something new?)

Services this Morning:

8:00am - Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer) - All Saints'
It was still fairly dark when I headed out to All Saints'. The 8 O'clock congregation have become a close knit group over the last couple of years - Ann and Roger have been particularly key in building relationships - providing a good example of a "Care Circle". The closeness of this community was demonstrated during Tony Knight's recent illness, death and funeral.
This morning's service was quiet (appropriate to the season) and I preached a fairly somber sermon... (Not one of my best, but gave me a chance to explore some themes...)

9:00am - Holy Communion - Holy Cross
A very different service at Holy Cross. In theory, this is the quiet communion service which takes place before "all-age activities" at 10:45am. In reality this is a fairly all age communion service with children and a wide range of people in the congregation... Christmas decorations were up and there were a number of visitors. This service therefore required a fairly high energy all-inclusive approach which I hope I was able to deliver. This service felt positive and fun - and I thinks the congregation were in good spirits...

10:30am - Holy Communion - All Saints
By the time I got to All Saints' I was completely exausted - mentally and physically - not only because of the day, but also because of the week and the long crisis and project filled term. I'm finding it difficult to cope with three morning services these days - must be getting old...
I had decided to try a more challenging sermon here, wanting to respond to critisisms from certain members of the congregation. To be honest, I was too tired, time was too tight, there were too many things going on, and I'm really not sure this is the right time or place.
Couldn't finish the service within the hour - which is a disaster for visitors and community development. Not a good morning...
I've tended to think of ASL10:30 as a "seeker service" where the emphasis is on the visitors and fringe members - on baptism families, wedding couples and those who drop in from time to time. These people need brief, engaging, simple but relevant sermons that communicate more by the way they are delivered than by their content. I can just about deliver this if I hype myself up on adreneline and get on with it. Content based expository sermons targeted at church members just don't work - and I haven't got the time and energy to write or deliver them. I think I'll write this morning off as an experiment that was never going to work and stick to the "seeker" agenda. I believe in it - and I can just about pull it off...
The question that remains is how to encourage the congregation to meet their own needs through the other opportunities on offer...

Night out with Crowded HouseWe don't get out much. This was our one night out this term and we were determined to enjoy it! Duke Special and Crowded House at Wembly Arena! What a night! Good to see DS although they were relatively tame compared to their wild performance at Greenbelt. Crowded House were phenomenal - they kept playing till 11:00pm! Great gig, great evening!

They'll soon be going back to New Zealand - a place very much on my mind since we have family there and Local Shared Ministry is big news... Shame it's so far away...