Yvonne Yates

Yvonne Yates, Chaplain of Oakhill STC finished work today and headed north for her new appointment. Her friends and colleagues in MK will miss her but we are also gratefull for the work she has done with the staff and students at Oakhill.

In the meantime I've been working hard this week to pull together a job description for a new chaplain. We need to make some changes on the basis of Yvonne's feedback and our discussions. With any luck an advert will be placed in the next couple of weeks...

Tuesday

Brief Summary:
Sainsburys opening
Work with Yvonne Yates at Oakhill to review her time here and talk about a new job description
Lunch with Phil Wason to catch up
Local Shared Ministry Project Group - looking at priorities, professionalism and promotion...
Ecumenical Pastoral and Sponsoring Body with discussions about the Mission Partnership Review, ecumenical confirmations, and more...
Up late trying to write a new job description for an Oakhill chaplain...

Not much time for blogging - sorry

Tuesday

School - Jean wants a Taste and See on November 5th
Team Space - Nick helped us reflect on the parable of the Vineyard
Oakhill - Meeting to discuss chaplain's post
Home - paperwork - yawn...
Shopping - Morrisons - where prices are falling...

Ash all round...

Today is Ash Wednesday and I have never had so many ashings to do on one day...

I started the day with a little ash factory at the front of the house. There I was sitting on my little green stool with an old sauce pan in my hand, a bin of recycled paper at my side and a few palm crosses blowing in the wind. Goodness knows what the passers by thought, but I produced three small pots of ash...

Pot One: William Sutton House. Took my first pot of ash to the residents for their monthly communion. I then took this pot to Oakhill STC for Yvonne to use with the trainees.

I went for a run (3 miles in 28minutes 10 seconds) and had lunch with Jeremy Trigg...

Pot Two: Taste and See at Christ the Sower. I took the second pot to Christ the Sower, but the plan was to burn some palm crosses with the children. Pot Two was technically a backup. It took some time to get the crosses going, but we did, so pot two finished with more in it than it started with...

Taste and See for Ash Wednesday went well. We made Ash in the courtyard, then there was a choice of activities. The adults liked the quite meditation (lying down) and the children liked the black and white craft activities - particularly the play dough (most of them twigged the link with ash...)
As usual, it was great to see the children really enjoy church - and the grown-ups get something out of the experience too... The only problem is the set-up time. This "fresh expressions" stuff is all very well, but it would be nice to have an army of helpers... Although of course, since a true fresh expression is tragetted at those who don't attend church, I suppose an army of bright eyed enthusiastic church members would be counter productive...

Pot Three: Evening Service. There was still some left from pot one, since Yvonne hadn't used it. Pot two had been filled up. So there were three pots of ash on the table at St Giles this evening. They'd all been on very different journeys but ended up together for the final event - Holy Communion with the Imposition of Ashes at St Giles.
There was a good mixed turnout. Liz was assisting and I preached.
I commented on the way we sometimes seem to do what the Bible tells us not to. We call ministers "Father" even though that's the one thing Jesus tells us not to call people - and we put ash on our heads when Jesus tells us to do our "acts of righteousness" in secret.
The point of lent is to do things that help us grow. We take on spiritual disciplines, but these disciplines are designed to open us up to the grace of God - not to force us to be better. It is right therefore that they are private actions - since they will be different for each of us...
So what about the ash. We don't want to make a big deal about what we do, but the carbon we put on our heads can still make a point. Carbon is the stuff ot life and yet we are now burning it as we damage the earth for our own ends... Perhaps the ash on our heads is a call to change rather than a claim to be more holy. A personal carbon footprint to remind us that the whole world needs to repent...

Review of the Year

It's traditional at this time of year to look back at the year gone by and reflect on what has taken place. I've been doing that a bit over the last few day. Here are some of the big stories that I think have been important for the church in Milton Keynes (at least from my perspective):

Implementing the Deanery Plan
The Anglicans in Milton Keynes adopted a Deanery Plan in 2006, but this has been the year when the rubber hit the road - so to speak. Key questions have been about sustainability; in particular, finance and deployment - which are related of course... We've had difficult conversations about deployment in Woughton and Water Eaton and a clear conscensus about future clergy numbers across the Deanery is beginning to emerge. The Deanery Finance Committee have been working very hard to tame the share and make it more transparent. We finish the year with a clear Transition Plan with projections up to 2018! Slowly, the process of share allocation is becoming a tool which will help us achieve our long term goals. I think we have achieved quite a lot as a Deanery during 2007 but they are still very fragile achievements. Many people would love to turn back the clock and return to a simpler time when they didn't have to worry about money and every church had their own vicar. The temptation to opt for a quick fix will remain for some time to come. We will need to be strong and determined if we're going to get through the next few years... If we have the courage to face some more difficult decisions and hold our course for a few more years there is quite a bit of light at the end of the tunnel...

The Strengthening of the Watling Valley Partnership
This has been another year during which the Partnership has continued to grow in unity, coherence and capability. Highlights have included Voices (the magazine), the Annual Report, the Special Category Minister application, the development of the Office, Christmas leafleting and the Strategic Plan... Many newer members take this unity for granted, but things have been changing at a phenomenal rate. A clear demonstation of this was the Christingle Project which resulted in fourteen school services led by a cross-partnership team. We are able to do things now which would have seemed impossible only a few years ago...
From one perspective this could be seen as overwhelmingly positive, but there are consequences to this development which I suspect will become more significant in the coming months. For example, a strong centre will inevitably have an effect on the life of the churches. This can be seen most clearly in the uncertainty felt at All Saints' and St Mary's over the role of their own church councils... A few years ago we agreed to work towards being a "Network of Communities". How much do we value the independence of those communities? What role should the "centre" play? These are questions that will need to be asked and I'm not yet sure what the answers will be...

The Growth of Lay Ministry
The development of Lay Ministry has been at the heart of the development of the Watling Valley over the past few years and this has continued during 2007. During the Autumn we have been working on a more coherent strategy for Local Worship Leaders and have begun to work with potential Local Preachers. People who visit us sometimes get quite excited about the level of lay ministry in the Partnership, but...
...there are still some high expectations placed upon stipendiary ministers - who are working hard to fulfill them and support the development of lay ministry in an area with a rapidly growing population and a relatively low number of full time ministers... It reminds me of the familiar comment that if you wanted to get to ... you wouldn't want to start from here...
We are working at the limit of our capacity and we need to change the way we function, and we need to have done it yesterday in order to meet the challenge we're already facing today...
Which brings me to my next point...

Local Shared Ministry
We've been looking at Local Shared Ministry since 2005, but this year we launched a Project Group to seriously explore how it may work in Milton Keynes. This Project Group was requested by the Anglican Deanery Plan and authorised by the Mission Partnership Exec in January. It met frequently through the first half of the year and finnally reported in December. This is an approach to ministry that could really help us deal with our big challenges, but...
Will we have the courage to do it? Will we simply absorb some of the ideas and carry on as usual, or will we find the collective will to actually implement LSM in Milton Keynes? I think this may be one of the big questions for 2008 and I'm not sure which way it will go...

Alongside these "big stories" there have been a number of other significant strands in the past year. Here are a few:

Oakhill STC: There has been a lot going on concerning chaplaincy at Oakhill. It was good to have Peter with us earlier in the year, and sad to see him go. But good to welcome Yvonne in the Autumn...
Christ the Sower: We've managed to put together an application for a new Special Category Minister post which has been accepted. We're very positive about the potential of this post, but the next task is to find a suitable candidate... In the meantime there's been a lot going on with the school - not least the launch of Taste and See, which has become a significant project... How will this develop in the New Year?
Work and Weariness: I've had another year with familiar ups and downs of stress and exaustion. Low points have been (as always) just after Christmas, the Summer and the second half of Autumn term. I rejoice to have survived another year but question whether I can do it again! I thank God that a sabatical is drawing near, but recognise this won't really change anything long term. We need to learn how to do ministry differently! Can I do what needs to be done?
Youth and Children's Work: In Watling Valley we appointed a Youth and Children's Work Steering Group in January. This group has slowly been woking towards plans for a Youth Worker and some new ideas for how we will do things. What lies in store for 2008?

There's a lot more I could add, and I may return to this Blog entry over the next few days...

Friday 23rd November

6:00pm - 9:00pm Induction of New Chaplain at Oakhill STC - Great Event!

Total Hours Worked: 3