Taste and See

Christ the Sower School want some more Taste and See events this term. For those who can't remember, Taste and See is a non-linear worship event with simultaneous refreshments - or to put it more graphically, there are lots of activities going on at the same time and we call it worship.

Taste and See was a valuable fresh expression project last year which drew in a really interesting collection of people. The big issue was making it happen and we were largely dependent on people from within the school. I was also perhaps a little fx-fundamentalist and hoped to quickly develop a team from the non-church community, which was probably too ambitious. If T&S is to fly again it may need a group of church member supporters who will take the lead, particularly in setting up...

Anyway, there will be a Taste and See on November 5th, so we need to get planning... [or not. Apparently Nick's not free so they may be looking for another date...]

Wednesday

Went to an interesting meeting in Oxford today about clergy housing - particulalry in retirement. The basic issue is that because ministers are often required to live in tied accomodation (i.e. vicarages) they can find it difficult to find somewhere to live when they retire. This problem is increasing as the gap between what clergy can afford and the cost of buying a house becomes ever greater. Few clergy can afford to start a morgage at 65, and many find it difficult to get into the house market when they're younger.
Various solutions are being looked at, including greater use of housing allowances and the possibility of allowing clergy to buy into the diocesan housing stock. It will be important for us to find ways of resourcing clergy in the years to come that are both fair and realistic...

Rushed back to MK to prepare for Taste and See. It wasn't the easiest of sessions. Various people were away and a number of items didn't turn up. I finished the session early. Several hours work but not very satisfying...

Compline at St Giles in the evening.

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...

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...

Wednesday

We had a very productive meeting of the Local Shared Ministry Project Group this morning. Nearly everyone was there and we motored through a very practical discussion about the remit and makeup of any new Project Group - should we get the go ahead from the Presidents. I feel more confident that this group will be able to help things function and grow. In terms of time scale, we are still waiting for the Presidents to meet in March and won't be able to put forward a new remit until May at the earliest! But progress is definitely being made and there is now a real head of steam which will not wait...Had lunch with Alastair Wood, and we had a great chat about church, the Universe and everything... Alastair works for Scripture Union and is a candidate for Pioneer Ministry, based at Holy Cross.

Taste and See planning meeting took place at Christ the Sower. We sorted out the event for Ash wednesday. The big issue is still the involvement of real locals, but this is likely to be a long term thing...

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...

Thursday

8:00am - Morning in the house waiting for Sky repairman. Worked through pile of letters and jobs, including:
- booking dates for next years church councils
- planning Sunday's servce at All Saints
- suggesting dates for the Local Shared Ministy Project Group meeting, and...
- asking the Archdeacon about candelit services.
12:00noon - Deanery Chapter Christmas Lunch at Fenny Stratford. (Many thanks to Jeremy)
3:00pm - Christ the Sower Christmas Fair. Lots of positive feedback about Taste and See. How do we develop this community?
6:00pm - Last Ballet session of the year - chance for parents to watch...

Not a bad day all round, but feeling fairly tired at the end of the week. Was a bit fragile this evening...

Busy Day in December

Went to the office at 9:00am to do some photocopying for taste and see. Had a chat with Jenni and Steve about a request for quinqennial inspection reports from the URC. It's important for me to pop into the Office since I am meant to be the line manager for the project...
I then popped into William Sutton House for the monthly communion. Good to see the Audrey and co as always. We chatted about the Queen's visit, prayed and broke bread.

This has been one of my longest standing appointments - a monthly visit since 2001. I started visiting Sutton House as the minister of St Mary's Shenley when I took communion to a couple of residents. We then persuaded the trust to overturn their own rules so that we could hold a service in the lounge. I kept up the visits when I stopped being the minister of St Mary's in 2002 and so it has continued...

After breaking bread at Sutton House I popped down to Fenny Stratford to see Veronica (St Mary's Organist). She, Margaret and I spent two very productive hours choosing hymns for January and February next year - from our new hymnbook - CH4 (Church Hymnary Fourth Edition). It was great to have a good range of hymns to pick from! I'm only sorry I'm not going to be there for all the services...

We didn't quite finish by 1:00pm (another session planned next week) but I needed to scoot off back to Christ the Sower to set up for Taste and See... This didn't finish until 4:30pm... Quick trip home to cook tea for girls. Back out to All Saints for the Hugh Park Charity at 6:30pm... Had to leave before they finished so I could get to Derek's house for Team Meeting at 7:30pm... Didn't get home until 11:00pm - partly because the meeting over ran - partly because Mike's car wouldn't start... As I type this I'm struggling to connect properly to the internet so I can sort out Sunday's service at All Saints...

Long day...

Taste and See - Advent Labyrinth

Taste and See is one of our "Fresh Expressions". It's a Cafe/Alt.Worship style gathering at Christ the Sower School, largely run by a group of staff members - and a few parents. There are two or three church members involved, but a significant number of non-church children and families turn up each time. The children have made this their event and have a real sense of ownership, but it was interesting this time to hear a number of parents say that they would have liked to have come back and done the session again - without the children...

This month we did an Advent Labyrinth - largely using borrowed material. I have to say I was quite amazed by the way the children engaged with this session. Some of them only just completed the walk within the hour! - without parents accompanying them. Previous sessions have involved more supervised "stations", this one was largely unsupervised, but they took to it like ducks to water. It's not that children don't like worship - they like worship that they can get stuck into!

As always there was a lot going on - most of it happening in the coffee area or in the corners of the labyrinth. Lots of positive feedback, but how do we develop this so that it grows as liquid emerging sustainable church?

Tuesday 4th December

This was a fairly busy day...
Preparation for Taste and See - Advent Labrynth. The intention was to do something fairly easy given the team were likely to be stretched. Not sure what sort of team there will be...
EOG - the Ecumenical Oversight Group - met at Our Lady of Lourdes in Coffee Hall. Mary was keen that all churches discuss the "Christian Presences" report... Good news from the Hospital - a second chaplain is going to be appointed...
Supervision Session with Liz - spent two hours working through the list of gifts and competancies for curates. We've agreed a list of around half a dozen "training opportunities" for the next few months...
Visit Saxon Clinic - popped in to see someone. Was good to see them.
Bought Confirmation Register - trip into Wolverton to St Andrew's Bookshop to buy the new confirmation register - which had arived after the last confirmation...
Shot off to Oxford for the Fresh Expression Oversight Group - a new group to oversee the development of Fresh Expressions in the Diocese after the end of the Cutting Edge project. It was interesting to note that fresh expressions have been launched in deaneries with high electoral roles per population - not suprising therefore that MK hasn't had any... It'll be interesting to see how this group develops. I haven't been involved in this since the discussions in 2001... but MK is definitely important strategically and there seems to be an understanding that fresh expressions can't really take off until we've tackled the issue of ministry and church... so this might be a useful discussion to be part of...
Oxford isn't exactly local, so I didn't get home until 7 and then had to rush straight out to...
The Mission Partnership Exec - which received the report from the Local Shared Ministry Group. There was a discussion about the underyling theology of ministry and the Theology Forum agreed to explore this from an ecumenical dimension. The document will now be forwarded to the presidents - and the Project Group has been provissionally recommisioned...
More work on Taste and See in evening. Still up at 1.00am - glad I'm not counting hours this week... although I had a good conversation with Yvonne in the car this evening and we agreed it would be wise to shift all meetings to 7.30 - 9.30pm. I think this may be essential to survival...
Have posted out a new set of dates for St Mary's and All Saint Church Councils... Am hopeful that we will have an agreement soon...

Wednesday 28th November

9:00am - 2:30pm Archdeacon's Visit (Deanery +5.5)
Most of the day spent on visit by new Archdeacon to Milton Keynes
3:00pm - 4:00pm Taste and See (CtS + 1)
Planning session for next Taste and See
8:00pm - 9:00pm Wedding Visit (SMS +1)
Preparation for a Wedding at St Mary's Shenley
plus various scraps of admin not recorded...

Total Hours Worked: 7.5 (plus)
Hours Worked for Deanery: +5.5
Hours Worked for CtS: 1
Hours Worked for SMS: 1