Loft Space

The great Holiday Project is complete. We now have useable loft space Alleluia! Seven bags of rubbish removed. Trip to tip and charity shop. Clear up operation begins...
Have enjoyed having a few days in MK without having to work 24/7. Can see this would be a good thing. Not looking forward to going back to work...
On my death bed I would probably regret giving too many hours to church work. I would also feel guilty for all the things I hadn't done for the church... That's why being a Vicar isn't great for your stress levels... We need a new way of doing church...

Wednesday

Not sure whether we managed to get a break or not this week. All tired. Trying to be off and rest, but proving difficult...

Recycling

This week's project is to finally go through our junk room and get rid of all the stuff that has accumulated over the past eight years. The dream (vain hope?) if to turn this small box room into a useful space. We fought our way in this morning and managed to get rid of three old PC monitors, six bags of rubish, three bags of cardboard for recycling, two bags of old toys, a bag of old videos and four bags of old clothes - scary what you can get rid of when you try! This afternoon I had the delights of a trip to the charity shop and the tip - which is always a treat...
The next step is to see what we can do with the stuff we want to keep...

Home again

Drove back to MK on Monday afternoon. Pizza and salad for tea.
Episode six of Primeval on video.

Sunday in Kent

We went to church in East Malling this morning. It's always good to be there. It's changed a lot under the new Vicar, Jim, who has had to take the church into a multi-parish benefice. On the face of it, it's a fairly traditional set up, but Jim is definitley a "team leader" with a large group of people who function as members of his various teams. It seems to work well...
In the afternoon we headed off to Witstable for cockles and oysters and walk on the beach...

Saturday in Kent

Went to Kent to see Grandma. Set up her new computer, which seems to work.

Friday

Finished Voices in the early hours. Got some sleep. Went to CtS for Assembly. Went to New Bradwell to deliver Voices to printer. Went home. Sat down and worked through all the jobs that need to be done before half term: Planning services, making sure people know what they're doing etc...

Valentines Day Part Two

We had our Valentines night meal (cooked and eaten in half an hour) in time for me to get to Fenny Stratford for a meeting with their PCC. Got there in time for the last ten minutes of Benediction - haven't been to Benediction in 16 years since we used to go the St Margarets on the Gallowgate in Aberdeen (sometimes known as "the Church of the Big Golden Jesus"). The meeting was about Parish Share and was hopefully useful. We tried to be encouraging. It is difficult to pay a parish share if you're a small church in a less prosperous area. I suspect the long term solution to this problem is a change in the way we do church...
I'm now working on this months edition of Voices. I have more material than pages and I need to finish it by tomorrow. If you're reading this, wish me luck...

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...

Wednesday

Strange day... Lots to do but still waiting for all the material from other people that I need before I can do it...
Had a good meeting in the afternoon with the people of Water Eaton, thinking through what they want to put to the Bishop tomorrow...
Parents Evening was fine. We were all tired so we went to the chip shop for tea.
Team Meeting this evening was a little odd. Lots of people didn't turn up. There were only three people for the first half hour. It was one of those occassions when it was hard to have a meeting.
We managed to have a brainstorm in preparation for our bit in the Annual Report., Mike's writing it up, which is great. His first Annual Report. I do feel a bit sad that I don't have a chance to feedback and report on the last five years, but time marches on...
When I got home I was able to put a number of pages into Voices. There are still a couple of gaps, but the real task is now arranging, and filling gaps... That's the job for tomorrow night...

Mad Tueasday

Started the day at Team Space with a long discussion about Pastoral Care systems in the various churches. Great discussion and really valuable, but not much time for anything else...
Then it was time for Ministers West, which was also very good. We spent more time in general sharing than normal, and all learned a great deal...
This left an hour and a half before it was time to collect the children. I though about squesszing in a run. Decided to work instead but couldn't give time to my projects for the week since there were various emails and phone calls which needed doing right then and there. Isla picked up the children and I finished the most urgent emails by 4 when she headed off to her course.
Looked after children until 7. We explored http://www.factory.lego.com/ which is cool, and Izzy made a zoo. We had late Chineese New Year food.
Had a wedding/blessing interview at 7.30. Isla came back soon after 8. Had a fairly undproductive evening and none of us slept well...
Going to be tired tomorrow... and there'll be hangover emails and work from today's dramas...
The work on Voices is piling up for Thursday night...

Mad Monday

The week continues with another fun packed day:
Didn't have time for a run this morning - which is a shame because Monday morning is a good time for this. Started the day with emails and notes...
9:30 - 11:30am: Meeting of Working Group on Deanery Deployment. An intense but productive session. We managed to work through the proposal that will now go to the DPC. Must write it up tonight...
12:30 - 1:30pm: Lunch with Ernesto. Good to catch up.
2:00 - 3:00pm: Voices Editorial Meeting: Very little material to work with this month and I'm editor! Could be some late evenings...
5:30 - 6:30pm: Had a conversation with a prospective LLM candidate with my tea on my lap.
6:30 - 7:00pm: Went to All Saints' to see the man who is running a focus group about the Door, the diocesan newspaper. I think we have between 4.5 to 9 people at this session. I look forward to finding out how it went...
7:30 - 9:00pm: Deanery Finance Committee presentation at Walton LEP: The first of our presentations to parishes about share and deployment. It went extremely well. I hope this will prove to have been a helpful evening. One key thing that came out of this evening was a clear request for opportunities to share good practice in mission across the city. People want to know what works. It would be really good to do something about this, but time is the issue as with so many things...
9:30pm - home and to work. Must do some work on the deployment proposal, Voices and the Team Meeting before I sleep. I wonder when that will be...

11:15pm - just finished work on DPC proposal. Will email it to the group. Next some work on Voices...
Got to bed at 1:00am having tried to do some work on the Team notes and agenda... Couldn't publish because Google Groups weren't behaving...

First Sunday of Lent

8:00am Holy Communion at All Saints
10:30am Holy Communion at All Saints - with introduction to Viewpoints / "Position"
2:00pm Baptism at All Saints
3:00pm Wedding Interview
6:30pm Growing Disciples

King Kong: What is his Viewpoint?

Richard's Re-Tyre-Ment Party

Richard's Retirement was marked with a service, a meal, tributes and dancing... In true Richard style, everything over-ran...
I was struck by the message "The fields are white but the laborours are few". This was a comment on Richard's special ministry. It was also a reminder that ministers can't retire - really - and it was a call to others to help with the work. As we were told, the best tribute to Richard would be for others to hear the same call to serve God in the local church...

Mad Week begins...

Izzy woke us all up at 4:00am worried about snakes under her bed. (No she hasn't been watching Snakes on a Plane, she's too little.) I couldn't get to sleep, so I got up and got on with work. This is a Mad Week (note the capitals) - I have meetings with Walton, Fenny Stratford and Water Eaton, the Bishop, Ernesto and the Deployment Working Party. It's a Team Meeting week - so agendas and updates will need to be out. I'm editing Voices, preparing for the next Service Planning Meeting and picking readings and themes for 2009 for SU. All to be finished by Thursday. Plus I've got Parents Evening, Viewpoints, Team Space, Ministers West, Afternoon Baptisms, Growing Disciples and Wedding Interviews... All in all, I'll be glad when the week is over...

Lazarus not raised

We've decided to rename our our goldfish, previously known as Molly. From now on we'll call him/her Lazarus. Twice over the past year we though he/she was going to a better place. Twice he/she has come back from the edge. He/she was nearly removed from the tank in the last week in a plastic bowl (a fishy coffin?) but pulled through again and is now swimming around as if he/she had never been ill.
We'll keep an eye on Lazarus and hope that he/she doesn't need raising from the deep...

Bishop in residence

Bishop Alan is worried about his carbon footprint, so he's decided to spend entire days in each deanery to allow people to come to him - and avoid some of the long journeys that people need to make to see him... so we had Bishop Alan in residence today. He borrowed a room in our house and did bishopy things. It was an interesting day.

This evening we had an Ecumenical Confirmation in Milton Keynes with one candidate from Watling Valley. I couldn't be there because I was at the first session of Viewpoints, our new discernment course. This seemed to go well although numbers were low. The second group starts tomorrow. I'm hopeful that this will be a really significant tool in our discipleship kit, so this is a project I'm watching very closely...

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...

Pancakes all round!

Having decided to have family pancakes on Sunday, it was inevitable that this would be a pancake filled week....

Team Space was relatively pancake free but Liz, who was hosting, had been volunteered to run the pancake event in Wolverton. Mike, meanwhile, was in charge of pancakes for Deanery Chapter. We finished unusually early, after a productive discussion about the Priorities for 2008 and how we will use them...

Deanery Chapter began in pieces as people arrived from their various pancake events. Jeremy was slightly delayed, having driven (with a funeral procession) through the Olney pancake race - not as competiters, I believe...

Deanery Chapter was good today. Small in numbers again, but a good sense of fellowship. I think it's generally a good thing that Chapter is less formal than it used to be, but it would be good to see more people...

Picked the kids up after school and took them home (tea included more pancakes). Iona has just finished Lego Star Wars (DS) so we celebrated by watching the Phantom Menace. It was interesting watching it with fresh eyes. Most people thought it was a bit dull when it first came out, but the kids just think of it as Episode 1. I'm sure I'll have to sit through Episode 2 at some point. It will be good to watch the whole story unfold as George Lucas intended...

Had some difficulty with my video for Taste and See. More work to do on this tomorrow...

We are Kiwis

Just received an email from my dad in New Zealand. He's keeping a blog of their travels. See http://wearekiwisnow.blogspot.com/ I've asked him to check out some Local Shared Ministry churches, so I may get some research out of this...

Monday Run

Went for a run on the way back from school. Managed three miles in 28 min 14 seconds - which is the fastest I've done it for a while. I'd decided (after weeks of getting moving again) to go for it this morning, aiming to run as fast as I felt sensible. I'm pleased with the result. Of course I have done this distance in 25 minutes, so I've got a good way to go yet...

This is the kind of Monday I need more often - the kind of day when I haven't got hundred of meetings and events. If I'm lucky, I could get some things done today...

DFC

Small gathering of Deanery Finance Committtee in the evening (2) to discuss the presentations we're going to give to parishes. The first one will be at Walton next week. The idea is to give a clear presentation of the facts about Parish/Deanery Share and help churches have a discussion about the implications and what they plan to do.

Sunday Before Lent

I went to Woolstones this morning to join them for worship. Duncan was taking the service and speaking about stewardship. He preached a good sermon, which I would quite hapily borrow.

The congregation were welcoming, as always, and we had a good chat over coffee after the service. Meanwhile, back at Watling Valley, we had our Covenant Service, which Mike lead at Servant King. Apparently the service went well, but the attendance was very low - arround 100. As always, most people seem to see this as a Sunday off...

In the afternoon, Mike and I had Wedding Preparation - Seven couples today. This went well as always, and we introduced a new section about the subjects couples should talk about before getting married...

Once I got home, we had an early pancake day, since Tuesday will be far too busy dort such things...

Iona's Birthday Party

Iona's Birthday Party Today.

We had a party for seven at the snowzone.

Very hard work... but Iona enjoyed it.

Clearing the Decks

Today was the day I finally managed to create enough space to clear the various papers (and assorted other items) that have clogged up my desk, my chairs and my floor in recent months. It feels good to have a bit more control... and papers filed.

While doing this I managed to deal with a couple of issues at a bit of distance which I have to trust will be OK. So much of ministry is actually about handing things over to God in the hope that he will be at work in the invisible edges... It's not always about what you do yourself - in fact it's always about the work of the Spirit in some way or other...

Had a good meeting with Liz B, and planned monthly supervision sessions through till April...

Iona came back from her residential and seems to have had a wonderful time - the highlight was holding a snake.

Using the Book

Today I had was involved in a visit at St Mary's, handled some tricky emails, met Ross and Tim C to talk about Areas 10 and 11, and attended the Holy Cross Church Council. A fairly average day.

One of the more fun things I needed to do today was to visit Ron and Joy Cramp for Communion. This gave me an opportunity to use the Book of Common Prayer they gave me for Christmas. It's a really super edition, with reproduction engravings in the margin. They appreciated me using it, and we had a good time - in the best sense of the word.

Visiting Church

Christ the Sower Year 2 came up to St Mary's today. We had a great visit. They were very enthusiastic and asked lots and lots of questions. They were excited about seeing the new rooms, which gave them a way of comparing old with new. When I asked how old they thought the church was, I had a range of answers from 65, 108 and 256 to one million. I've never had such specific ages before...
Miss Thomas mentioned that she had not been at the front of a church for an unreportable number of years, so this was an opportunity to change that. Here she is:

This group will now be doing a virtual tour of Cornerstone to experience new church, and they'll be back at St Mary's in December when they're in year 3 for the carol service.

Blog out

I've just got home from an evening of meetings to discover that our house is connected to the rest of the universe again! Alleluia! Yes, our (exceedingly slow) Broadband connection has been out for over twenty-four hours... On the one hand, this is a good thing - it stops me from having to respond to all the emails that will have been sent in my dirrection... But it also means that my emails couldn't go out either... In 2008 internet failure can be like loosing your senses... How dependent on it we have become!

There are various aspects of the Internet that I have missed - not least the ability to end a family debate by checking Wikipedia - but I have particularly missed the ability to blog. Partly, I feel a (very very tiny) twinge of guilt that the blog hasn't been updated, causing people to visit an out of date site - but really I miss the daily brain dump. It's five minutes for me to think back over the day and try to extract meaning. Isn't it odd that I need a web site to help me do that. What an odd world we live in...

Perhaps there's something important in the ability to reflect with other people - which the blog makes possible in a non-labour intensive way... There may be something to learn here. Perhaps ichurch is worth plugging? - or we could look again at our thoughts of CyberCell? Someone mentioned to me yesterday that they had started a blog, but hadn't written anything because no-one would read it. Perhaps we need to set up covenanted blog circles of mutual reflection? What fun we could have(!)...

The business of the Church

Today I attended a meeting of Team Space, a meeting to discuss plans for Area 10 and 11, the Ecumenical Pastoral Committee and the Watling Valley Ecumenical Council. These were all meetings at which a huge variety of things were discussed. Here are just a few subjects:

• Expenses for ministers - in particular NSMs and ministers in training...
• What resources do we need for mission in the new areas?
• What is going to happen at the Covenant Service? (smoke and mirrors by the sound of it...)
• Ecumenical Confirmations - particularly the date of...
• Review of ministers in LEPs...
• The appointment of a student Youth Worker in Watling Valley...

and much more that I couldn't (or shouldn't) mention. No one could acuse us of being inactive, but I am also beginning to feel that this activity is achieving something. Sometimes I feel that we (I?) have spent the past eight years on crisis managemant, trying to get us out of a hole - preferably before the hole appears. I am increaingly hopeful that good things are beginning to happen and some of the seeds are beginning to sprout.

Prophet Driven

John and I were thinking about success critria for churches. We noticed that decisions in comercial organisations were often profit driven, we wondered if decisions in churches should be prophet driven.

It's an old play on words, but you could use this to produce some very interesting business plans... Perhaps we could set up an alternative Dragon's Den, with prophetic entrepreneurs passing judgement...

Monday

We had to wave Iona off on her school residential this morning - three nights away! This is suprisingly disturbing for us as a family. I can cope with it on one level by being glad that she's having a good time, but the house doesn't seem right somehow.

Workwise, this was a fairly straightforward day: an hour in the morning with Tim Clapton, an hour at lunchtime with John RJ - both good, worthwhile meetings - interspersed with valuable desk clearing time. I can now see one!

I managed a run before lunch. Three and a half miles in 33 minutes, 15 seconds. Not my best, but a big imporvement on recent times. My hope to run the half marathon in May could still be achievable.

A couple of key emails to write - which didn't go out because of Broadband failure...

The evening was family time, with a birthday to celebrate. We watched Walace and Gromit and went to bed. Asleep by 8:30pm!

This meant that we woke up at 5:00am - so the internal clocks must be doing something...

I do feel absolutely shattered at the moment. Reserves of energy are very low and there are so many demands... This must be the year that changes...

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany

We were really tired after the trip to Kent.
Didn't sleep well.
Got up - All Saints' then Holy Cross then All Saints again...
Absolutley shattered!

Birthday Visit

Went down to Kent for Bruce's Birthday. Bought him a digital camera and took him to Bluewater. Here he is learning how to use the camera.
He had a great day.

More Kiwi Weather

On the 24th of January 1996 a Japanese tourist got lost on Mt Taranaki. He was so certain this was the end, he wrote out his will.
(from my slightly bizare calendar of New Zealand Weather)

Loughton Residents

Vicar's Letter for Loughton Residents Magazine
In medieval times the difference between a hamlet and village was the presence of a church. In the same way that a city had its cathedral, a village had its church. Even today, a church building can be seen as a benefit to a community. Living close to a good looking old church building can be good for house prices - unless you don’t like the bells…
Modern Loughton has undoubtedly changed a great deal since medieval times, and yet some things have remained the same. There is still a real feeling that Loughton is a village – not a housing estate. Many people refer to it as “the village” and enjoy the benefits of being part of this wonderful community. The old medieval church is still here, and many people like to see the tower poking up above the houses – a reminder of our past, and symbol of village identity…
Not so long ago, most people lived in small villages. They knew all their neighbours and they would often travel only a few miles in their entire life. Today, most people live in towns and may not know their neighbours. They sometimes travel hundreds of miles every day and may go on holiday on the other side of the world. Medieval villages were quite small simple communities. Our community is massive and complex. It’s easy for people to feel lost or disconnected… We live busy lives. We work long hours. We struggle with issues that our ancestors wouldn’t even understand…
Some people think that churches are just a reminder of the past, but they can have a very important role in a modern “village”. They can be places where people find space to reflect; they can be communities in which some people find home; they remind us that there is more to life than what we can see and touch; they are meeting places where significant things can happen.
All Saints’ Loughton, like the rest of the village, has changed a lot over the years, but it’s still there, and you are most welcome to share it with us. Come and join us for some of our events. Come and see if you want to be part of our community. You are welcome to spend time with us and with God, who we believe is still here with us in Loughton today and adds value to our lives, just as stone and mortar can turn a hamlet into a village.
Best wishes from All Saints’ Church

Written on 25/1/08

Not sure about this letter, but needed to say something. Loughton is interesting. It's one of our most prosperous areas and it has two churches, a memorial hall, a sports pavillion, two schools, and various other fascilities within easy walking distance. In some ways its easy for Loughton to be a village - but what about some of our settlements without these fascilities. In many ways we ought to be drawing attention to these areas and encouraging the people of Loughton to think about how less well resourced grid squares might develop as contemporary villages - and what they could do to help... although this may not be realistic...

Area Deans and Lay Chairs

The Area Deans and Lay Chairs of Buckingham Archdeaconry met today at the Green Park Conference Centre. The last time I was in Aston Clinton was for our wonderful new year circular walk. The sun was shining today (apparantly) but we spent the day in a windowless room. The food was good and it was great to spend time with colleagues - as always.

This eveing we had the second gathering of pastoral carers in Watling Valley. Most of the Ministry Team came (as agreed) which I hope was an indication of the Team's commitment and support. The only problem with having six ministers turn up though, is that it could give people the impression that we have a lot of ministerial resources to play with... which isn't entirely true. I think it was a useful evening, but I'll keep my ears open for feedback...

This was yet another evening when I needed to start work again after 10:30pm. I had something to write for a meeting next week - which emerged from the meeting today - so I needed to get that done. This I didn't mind, but there were another couple of jobs that came in today and wouldn't wait until next week... So it was another long night at the desk...

It is intersting to think about how easy it is for us to do far more that we really should. Prioritisation is really hard when so many jobs are both urgent and important. I would reflect more on that, but I'm too tired. Time for bed...

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...

500 111

Blog visits pass 500...
This is post number 111...

Staying Connected

I hosted Team Space this morning, which was followed immediately by the Deanery Leadership Team - four hours of solid networking, updating, linking and communictating - after lunch it's off to see the Anne at Christ the Sower for more of the same. I have a pile of emails to write, which are all about passing information, making sure people are in the loop and that they have been consulted... and a pile of further similar tasks to do by voice or in person... Unfortunaetly I couldn't be at Ministers West who were supposed to be thinking about joint mission, because it clashed with the DLT...

It does remind me of the old quote the networking is "not working" and there is some truth in that. You can spend all your time meeting new people and extending your contacts, but, there is also an important truth that friendship is dependent on the time you put into it. Even if we don't spend time building new realtionships, we need to maintain and develop the relationships we already have. In other words, networking is never "not working" if it is the glue that enables life to happen...

There are too many stories of people who had great ideas, and then forgot to tell anyone about them; people who had big plans and wondered why no-one was interested. Ultimatley nothing is possible without relationships, information and a common understanding. Get these things right and there is a great deal you can do. Ignore them and your plans will fail... As Growing Leaders puts it: comunicate as much as you can, as soon as you can, as often as you can, with as many people as you can...

I'm writing this in a five minute gap while I prepare for my next networking session. Looking forward to some time later on tonight when I don't need to communicate...

Spent most of the evening looking after the girls. Went to bed early - 9:30ish - and went straight to sleep. Isla woke me up because she couldn't sleep, so I got up to do some writing for tomorrow's deadlines. Good job I did, beacause I have no time for desk work tomorrow... Finished work at midnight. 900 words to go. Will have to squeeze them in between meetings...

Feeling generally tired, a bit hazy and achy. Probably a bit grumpy... Must concentrate and work hard and try not to miss anything really important...

Fresh but rainy

Drove across to Oxford for the Fresh Expressions Oversight Group. It took over an hour to get there - with traffic jammed up from Biscester to Oxford and flooded fields along the side of the city - but it was a worthwhile and productive two hour meeting. The drive back was slightly quicker, but the rain was miserable...

Had a good support session with Derek in the evening, but my meeting with the St Mary's 9:30 service worship leaders was cancelled - so I was free after 8. A very rare occurance. Watched half an hours telly with Isla and then went to bed. Couldn't sleep so got up and worked. Managed to tidy up some of the papers I want to send out about deanery posts.

Second Sunday of Epiphany

This morning I took the 9:00am Communion Service at Holy Cross. Numbers were up again, which was good and there was a very good atmosphere. I spoke about Growing Disciples and shared the story of the peanuts...
Since (or so I thought) there was a gap before my next service at 11:00am. I stayed at Holy Cross longer than usual. This enabled me to pop in on their Sunday Clubs and have a chat with the young people - something that I'm not able to do very often.
I was impressed by the standard of the teaching - top marks all round! The older group (the teen-agers) are rapidly becoming a junior ministry team, rather than junior church. It was an encouraging visit - although the helpers may not have appreciated having the vicar drop in...
Unfortunatley, I was wrong about having free time! It turned out that I was booked for a 9:00am, a 9:30am and an 11:00am! I'd spotted the 9 and 11, but missed the 9:30 - oops... Never done that before!
The good news is that Ted wasn't fazed and held the service together - even preaching an impromptu sermon that had rave reviews! I must appologise and investigate this sermon a bit more... The 11:00am Service at St Mary's went very well this morning. We had a blessing for a little girl called Emily who sang through the reading and turned round to face me when I said her name... We had fun with the SU material, which included a game about emotions. It was a tie between "Colin's Team" and "St David's" (A name chosen by Arwell with obvious Welsh influence...)
After the service we had a very productive 11:00am planning meeting. We discussed Christmas, Children and Music. This is a great group who really have a good sense of vision and team work. I fully expect this congregation to grow...

Growing Disciples

The serious work of the Growing Disciples retreat began in earnest in the morning and we motored through a very full agenda... We use the CPAS materials for Growing Leaders, and this session was all about Vision: What is it? How do we find it? How do we make it happen?
We've done this retreat before with a different group, but it didn't feel repetitive. This group had their own reflections and experiences. I think everyone found it valuable.
One of the hightlights was the peanut task. The challenge is to move a large pot of peanuts from one side of the room to the other, using the limited range of materials available. It's a competition and the winning group gets a chocolate bar.
Last year the groups got very competitive. They not only created splendid functional designs, they also decorated them - and tried to win points for sucking up to the judges!
This year's winning group decided to invite all the other groups to join them and share the prize. They then lined themselves up as a human chain and passed the peanuts along in a couple of small pots. It was creative, visionary and inspired! What can you say...
A long and full day, but a good one. Since the day focussed on vision, I found myself thinking about vision and the deanery... so I found the retreat useful myself...

Growing Disciples

The Growing Disciples Retreat took place over night at Begbroke. It's a valuable opportunity for those on the course to spend time in more focussed reflection, and it's usually a very productive time.
The evening started with a meal together in the pub. There were serious conversations, and less serious conversations. I've recorded a video of Ken twitching his ears - which may be shown at this years AGM if I can display it...

Thursday

Went for a run with Isla this morning. 3 miles in 31 minutes... slow...

Spent the morning on paperwork, emails and phone calls...
but did manage to transfer one of my old blog databases onto this one, so I now have seventeen entries for 2006 - which looks a bit odd. The interesting thing is to see how the issues haven't changed over that time period. Wonderfully, I actually recorded the meeting at which we agreed to abandon the grand plan building plan for St Mary's and focus on a more practical scheme. It was great to re-read that entry at the very moment when the work is being completed...

Pots and Kettles

I've had a number of comments recently from people who read the blog and think I work too much. It would be nice to publish some of these since they're filled with wisdom.
One of the comments that has struck me most was, "rest isn't a reward for finishing". I appreciated that, since I clearly operate on that basis. The problem being, I never finish...
Which brings me to the issue that I discussed with some fellow ministers this week - how can a minister stop working if there are things that should be done - and there are always things that should be done - and if they aren't done you've failed - and are clearly scum... the voice of guilt-management runs deep...
Lots of issues here. This question won't go away. But if we can solve it, we will produce a much more productive Christian workforce...

Joint Council Meeting

It was the first joint meeting of the St Mary's and All Saints' Councils tonight. We all enjoyed exploring the new fascilities and the Church Room was used for the first time! - by St Mary's.
There was a good energy in the meeting and a general sense on productive concentration... A good meeting(!)
The first half hour was joint, with ministry and WVEC news, then the councils met separately - St Mary's in the Room, All Saints' in the Church. I spent 45 minutes with each. It worked. Lots of synergy...

Fish

Last Christmas we bought a fish tank for the girls. They wanted a cat and we said they could have one if they could look after the fish until September. We still don't have a cat. I think the reasoning is, they didn't look after the fish, I did... Twelve months on, the fish have survived - which I consider an achievement! But I have been a bit worried about Molly recently - the grey one. She's been looking a bit ill. In respnse, I've replaced the water, cleaned the tank and given her a spell in quarantine. She's beginning to look better, but I'm still keeping an eye on her...

It strikes me that working with churches in Milton Keynes can be a similar task. We can clear out some of the muck from the past, try to create a favourable environment - and even give certain congregations or individuals a great deal of attention. If we're lucky, this can work, but there's no guarantee. It's ultimately between the fish and its maker whether it survives or not - the same goes for our churches...

Tyres

Here is the tyre from the car with the knife blade sticking out. I still can't believe someone would leave a sharp knife in a car park - unless it was done on purpose...
I went to Bletchley today and got it replaced.

Wednesday

Managed to run this morning. I really must get back into a good rhythm. I find I need to run three to four times a week to actually make any difference - and there's good scientific evidence for this. I managed to trot round the wood in three ten minute miles, which is OK but nowhere near my best... I must prioritise exercise, since exercise seems to healthy eating and a more relaxed me...

Did some work in the study, answered a few phone calls, signed some papers for St Mary's. Went to Bletchley to get the tyres done...

Spent most of the afternoon in All Saints' with the Patronage Board for Stantonbury and Willen - a very long meeting - talking about the appointment procedures for a new Team Rector. This is relevant to Watling Valley and elsewhere since whatever happens in Stantonbury will be a model for everywhere else...

In the evening we had the first joint meeting of St Mary's and All Saints' councils...

Wet Tuesday

We had our weekly Team Space this morning, during which we planned the Pastoral Care Meeting in January. We came up with quite an exciting plan with brief sessions with Liz (and Derek?) on the Theology of Pastoral Care, with Yvonne on referal and myself on overall strategy... tied to practical input on listening skills and the creation of a contacts list. Should be a good session...

Then I met with Phyllis and Jeff to talk about Holy Cross. This was a great session and I feel I should say more, but I'll check with them first...

In the afternoon I had a fascinating conversation with John Punshon who's the conveener of the Worship Forum and an expert on Quaker History. The Theology Commission are going to do some work on Local Shared Ministry - which should be enormously valuable! There are so many issues connected with local ministry where denominational differences become problematic... I look forward to seeing what they produce...

This evening's Exec Meeting was in Simpson Church - which was a nightmare to get to since the road was closed. In the rain and in the dark I found myself driving round in circles... I found parts of Milton Keynes I'd never seen before - and eventually found the church...

Monday

I was hoping to have a quiet morning - to catch up on some sleep - but Isla rang to say she had a flat tyre. It turns out she had run over a knife in the car park... A couple of students managed to fix it, which saved me a trip...

We have an issue with funerals. The basic problem is that we have fewer and fewer ministers who are becoming busier and busier. We used to have a duty day each in Watling Valley. This is no longer possible. We've tried a couple of alternatives. I'm currently wondering about posting my available slots to the undertakers, so they know when they can book me. The only problem is I can only find four sensible free afternoons between now and the end of Feb, so I hope they can plan the funerals for those days... It will be interesting to see if this experiment works.

Took Jeremy out to lunch. The first victim for lunch with the AD in 2008. I must make sure I take all the anglican clergy out this year. It's a very productive use of time...

Then it was time to meet Alison and Liz to talk about Voices - our first editorial session of the year. It's good to have a plan...

Tonight, I'm meeting Tim H, and then it's time for All Saints' Worship Group...

A short night

I was up until 5 trying to finish some work. I may have misread a dealine and needed to get the job done for today.... oops...

Sunday

I didn't sleep well - I never do before an 8 O'clock - so I got up and finished off the work on the Baptist Service for All Saints'. The idea is to have a standard card for Baptist style services, which gives the general structure, and then to have little book of prayers that ministers can use when they lead worship. This would be particularly useful for those who from a very different tradition. I'm quite pleased with the result. Whether our baptist members appreciate it or not, only time will tell.... (I'm guessing not...)

The 8 O'clock service was small in numbers today, which suprised me because the car park was full. Did everyone take two cars? Or is our space being borrowed?

At 10:30am I introduced the Viewpoints Course at All Saints'. I'd planned to do this for a while, but it's alway different when you get into church. Not sure whether I communicated what needed to be said or not, but there were some signs of interest... I don't think the readings I picked were quite right, but I have some ideas for alternatives...

Took Iona to see Aladin in the evening. Great fun - particularly when the "Five Toilet Roles" got stuck in the lighting rig... Bradley Walsh on top form. He seems to have built up quite an MK fan base, indicated by big blokey blokes shouting out, "We love you Bradley!" To be fair, without his mucking about, it would have been fairly pedestian, which shows what a good front man can achieve...

Saturday

Need to work on Scripture Union material for June today. The deadline is rapidly approaching... I've managed to come up with some ideas this morning, I just need to write them up. I may test drive them next week...
Now getting back to the baptist service for All Saints'...

Friday

Day off - yey!

Let there be light!

Exciting news! There are now lights at St Mary's. They won't turn on though...
And there were buidlers with diggers and big pipes - could be good news on the drains...

Priesthood

I've been thinking a lot about the subject of priesthood recently. Technically, I'm a priest in the Chruch of England, although I've never really felt comfortable with the title: my built in protestantism pointing out to me the biblical concept of the priesthood of all believers - in spite of this I'm slowly realising that there are some really important questions to examine...

The issue came up in the Mission Partnership Exec discussion about Local Shared Ministry. James Cassidy and I continued the discussion by email. I explained my concept of local leadership and he challenged me to look at the patristic concept of the Eucharist making the Church... What is the relationship between Eucharistic presidency and leadership?

Thinking about Local Shared Ministry and the way this may develop raises the question of local priesthood. Should a congregation have a number of priests who share sacramental ministry - this is quite possible with Ordained Local Ministry and Associate Priests... If there are a number of priests (or equivalent in denominations who don't use the title) what effect does that have on the leadership of the church?

Wes Frensdorf spoke of a ministering community, rather than a community gathered around a minister. I'm up for that. It sounds right, but does this ultimately mean letting go of my own priestly ministry in order to become something else?

Then another catholic priest looked me in the eye (during a conversation about lay people taking funerals) and said "we're all priests" - which I think was a reference to the priesthood of all believers - coming back to me from the opposite direction!

What is "priesthood"? Is it the call to stand with Christ in the holy spaces between earth and heaven where human beings encounter God? Much priesthood is therefore often "unauthorised". It's simply part of what we do as Christians in our incarnational, sacramental lives... Ordained priests are those who have been set aside by the church to do this on behalf of the church. They are special, in some ways, and are empowered to act in a way that would be impossible without the authority of the church community - but in other ways they are just like everyone else - visible priests amongst a community of priests... Is this a heretical view?

I've watched ministers thrive in "priestly mininstry". They may not have gifts in preaching, teaching, leadership, organisation or anything else particularly - but when they stand at the altar, or hold the baby in their arms, or pray for God's blessing on a married couple - you can see that they were called by God to do this - magical! There are people who are called to a priestly ministry - but are they called to lead churches? There are people who are called to lead churches - are they automatically called to a priestly ministry?

And yet, the Eucharist does make the church... Steve Coterell has a wonderful chapter in his book "Doing Nothing to Save your life" where he talks about the role of the Eucharist in giving us life. I've even read a paper from an annabaptist talking about the sacred space created by the celebration of the Eucharist in the early church - which stood at the heart of their mission...

I had a converation with another minister recently where we spoke about priestly ministry without celebrating the Eucharist. It's possible. But the celebration of Holy Communion provides an opportunity to express that ministry - and to empower it - to recreate it... A sacramental act for the celebrant as much for the bread and wine...

Much to think about...

Sam Norton posted a very interesting article on the subject of time, clergy workload and priest hood on his blog: Workload, Priorities, Vocation. Worth a read. I stumbled on it while looking for background info for my meeting this morning...

300

There have now been 300 visits to this blog since December 16th. I watched the number change... Who reads this stuff?
(by the time I'd clicked puclish on this entry there were 303 - someone else is up...)

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...

Wednesday

Started the day with a three mile run. Didn't record time, but tried to calibrate a step counter. Managed to get it to record one mile as 1.05 miles by setting stride length to 52 inches (note to self). Am hoping to run the MK half marathon during my study leave, so need to get back into regular runs.

Met with Yvonne to talk about her work at Oakhill STC.

Spent some time working on the Viewpoints Course Material. It's not perfect but is complete enough to circulate and begin the pilot... I had already decided to introduce it in the service at All Saints' on Sunday, but haven't planned this yet... must put some work into the congregational side of the project!

Took the girls to the dentist in the afternoon. It's amazing how quick checkups are these days. We were in his room for only a couple of minutes... I wonder if vicars should try doing our work in the same way. Two minute funerals and thirty second weddings - we could be much more efficient and cost effective...

Had to open up All Saints for the Pastoral Care course this evening. There are 26 people on the course - which is a bit tight for the church room! - but it's really good to have so much enthusiasm! As Peter Ballentine says, things do seem to be happening...

The Team Meeting was good tonight. Jeff was in the chair and brought the whole thing in within two hours - always an achievement! I presented the report on Local Shared Ministry and we agreed to make this the theme of our next Away Day - should be interesting...

Back to the meetings...

After a relatively quiet Christmas and New Year, today sees the return of regular meetings. This is a fairly typical day with four meetings to attend - three of which are primarily about buidling relationships - which is good - but on a day like today, it's hard to find time to do the jobs that need doing. So I'm consciously up at 5:00am and will probably sit up after the evening meeting - otherwise I get behind...

9:00am - Team Space: Only four of us this morning. We all commented that it seems a long time since we last met. It's only been a couple of weeks - but they've been very full!

11:00am - Ministers West: Meeting of the ministers on the west flank of Milton Keynes. Only four of us here too, but good to catch up on what's going on in the other churches...

No time for a lunch break... Beginning to get hungry... good job most meetings have a plate of biscuits on the table...

2:00pm - Ecumenical Oversight Group: Meeting of local denominational leaders. We were joined by the Salvation Army for the first time. A good time of sharing. Questions asked about Local Shared Ministry...

Home for tea. We're all on different diets so cooking was complicated...
Peter Ballentine rang. 26 people have booked for the Pastoral Care Course!! Beginning to get worried about room in the church...

7:00pm - Deanery Finance Committee: Meeting to discuss the presentations/discussions we hope to organise with the three parishes with most challenging share/deployment calculations...

Monday

Isla at work all day, but the kids are still at home. I have a lot to do, so I'm going to try to keep them entertained while I work....

Morning
Worked on the Team Meeting Agenda for Wednesday. This takes quite some time because I need to go through old agendas, minutes and emails; update the information and sharing items; think about what people need to have and attempt to construct an achievable agenda. This month I've set up a Google Group which may provide a tool for managing all of this - and sharing the load. This didn't take much extra time this month, but should simply things next month.
Mary Cotes rang at 12 and we had a long conversation...

Afternoon
In an attempt to do two things at once, I took the kids to activity land with a pile of papers in my hand. My hope was to work throught the Scripture Union sessions I'm suposed to write this week. It was not easy to find any free space, but I managed to find a seat on the edge of a half abandoned, rubbish strewn table, where I managed to do some thinking about the story of Peter and how we can learn from it... The young people, however, soon got tired and wanted to go home...

Evening
Standing Committee for Watling Valley. Isla out.
Took me a while to get to sleep afterwards. Always so much to think about...

A Day for New Beginnings

8:00am Holy Communion at All Saints'
First 8:00am service of the year.

9:00am Holy Communion at Holy Cross
Did the first part of the service at HolyCross - Phyllis did the second. There were quite a few people there this morning. Phyllis, Jeff and I are planning to meet.

10:30am Holy Communion at St Mary's
Big event at St Mary's. This was a joint service to celebrate the new building work. Liz preached, Tim presided, Nigel was worship leader and I "oversaw". We had a big procession arround the building with incence. We blessed the kitchen, vestry, loo and room. Great fun!
Not many people noticed, but we also have six new notice boards in the porch which look great. Michael Nelsey is busy taking photographs of everyone.
The loo still isn't connected, there's no water and no carpet in the church room, but it's a good moment to have a positive celebration. We'll have more opportunities in the next few months...

3:00pm Baptism of Rowan Morris
Rowan's baptism took place this afternoon. I did the prayers, but didn't have long to prepare. I think I spoke in gramatical sentences...

We had a quiet evening at home. Last pause before things really get busy!

Aston Clinton Walk

We went on a walk with the Solloways today. Started at the car park near the Green Park Centre near Aston Clinton, then up into the hills. Along the ridge, across the road and along the Wendover Arm of the Grand Union Canal. 5.5 miles. Only rained during the last mile - wet... Had rung Dave to see if he wanted to join us. He texted us after we had passed Lincesalade and were looking for the car park. Maybe next time...

Saturday

According to my new calendar of New Zealand Weather (present from my sister) on the 5th January 1999 - "Sweltering conditoins over the lower North Island created a 'sea of bitumen' on State Highway 1 between Otaki and Levin, stopping holiday trafic for nearly three kn and delaying repairs by roading contractors."
Not that warm in MK this morning... But I'm sure the delays are just as bad on the M1...

Friday

Isla at work, girls at home...

Jobs for January

January's "to do" List

• Organise blessing of St Mary's new building work: Done (6/1/08). It went reasonably well given how complicated it was. We managed to find the incense, but not the boat. The procession seems to have been appreciated. Mixed responses to the incense...)
• Relaunch Local Shared Ministry Project Group
• Put together proposal for Deanery Posts: First Meeting took place (9/1/08). Papers have gone to Bishop etc... for reflection...
• Organise first joint meeting of All Saints and St Mary's DCCs: This went exceedingly well!
• Organise Team Meeting: Produced agenda (7/1/08).
• Write three weeks worth of Scripture Union Notes
• Organise and plan parish visits by Deanery Finance Committee
• Plan sabatical
• Finish planning and writing Viewpoints
• Organise Local Preachers courses
• Organise meeting of Pastoral Carers

Plus lots of little jobs...

Flat Pack

This morning, I've been working with the girls to assemble two new bed side cabinets - nice pieces of Ikea Flatpack. They had a whale of a time - lots of nice hammering and liberal use of an electirc screw driver...
Flatpack is wonderful stuff - all the bits you need and clear instructions (!) - with reasonable experience, a bit of common sense, and occassional brute force you can build something useful, practical and (if you're lucky) fairly solid...
Planning worship can be a bit like designing flatpack furniture - for an "overseeing minister". In Slough I used to write all the Christmas Services in November and give everyone the "materials" in good time. Last December I produced all the "bits" for the Covenant Service (February) and dished them out before New Year. People need all the elements in good time so that they can then assemble the event - and add some creative flourishes which require a bit of forthought...
Long term worship planning is not being obsesive - it's about equiping people to assemble flatpack - with style!

Dynamic Local Ministry

Dynamic Local Ministry
By Andrew Bowden and Michael West

This is good book if you want a well structured (british) introduction to the development of local ministry.
It includes a wonderfully uncomfortable description of the catalogue of troubles that have beset traditional ministry during the twentieth century, a solid account of the history of local ministry in the UK, and a series of sections dealing with local ministry from different perspectives.
The final section is whistle stop tour of developments in the US and New Zealand - Total Ministry and Local Shared Ministry.
This book is on my mind at the momment because we're relaunching the Local Shared Ministry Project Group in January 2008. I've reread this book and would love to get it into a few people's hands... I may start circulating it...

Pots!

I've just finished working on the order of service for Sunday's celebration at St Mary's. (1:00am)
This morning, Audrey rang from Sutton House to cancel the monthly communion, so I'm now making pots with the kids on their new potter's wheels(!) (10:00am)
Lots of people want me today - 8 phone calls about weddings and people looking for relatives burried in the churchyards (a long time ago).
Once Isla got back from work I did my fees and expenses for December while the girls wrote thankyou letters. All now done! Alleluia! (6:00pm)

Feeling a bit down this evening. It's the usual winter cycle: I have to work hard to get through the long Autumn term, for which I'm rewarded with a Christmas break that can be pretty hard work too, and then it's back to work with a bang in January... I'll need to use all my reserves of energy during this next week to keep the smile firmly in place... All in a day's work...

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to Everyone!
Hope 2008 will be good for you!

Slept until 9:00am this morning. Stayed in bed late - great!
Am now up and working - clearing the desks and the emails after the seasonal chaos...

Waiting for a good wind

Waiting for a good wind
We went for a walk on the Dunstable Downs this morning. There were a couple of men who were trying to through themselves off the hills - with paragliders.
I found myself thinking of all kinds of New Year analogies - launching yourself into the blue, with faith that you'll be held up, etc...
Unfortunatley, they seemed to be having some difficulty. We had a chat with one of them - a sureal experience when someone is tied to a twenty foot kite.
It turned out, they had been chasing winds all week. They'd been in Wales the previous day, The wind on the downs was really too weak, but they were desperate to get into the air.
We watched them try again and again while we walked along the downs and back again. Finnally just as we were getting in the car, the blue paraglider got into the air and stayed there - for at least a minute. It was good to know that they managed something, and great to see their persistance.
Which made me think of the way so much that we do is dependent on having the right cicumstances - the right time, the right conditions, the right wind in our sails... We can get frustrated because we think we should be able to do what we know we need to achieve, but the time just isn't right. We need to keep chacing the wind (of the Spirit) until he lifts us up - and then we fly!
I've seen it happen again and again, and yet I keep expecting instant results...
Moving into a New Year my resolution is to remember that I can't do things by myself and I can't tell the Spirit when and where to act... "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord..."
Let's be like the paragliders and keep chacing that perfect wind...

P.S. Had a good evening with Dave and James who turned up out of the blue. Dave's just back from Russia with stories to tell. We stayed up far too late! Super!

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...

Sunday after Christmas

Today was a significant day in the life of the Watling Valley Partnership. Richard Davis took his final services before starting his period of sick leave, leading to retirement. This morning, he was with Holy Cross and St Mary's where he has been minister with oversight for 8 and 6 years respectively.
Richard's departure begins a second URC vacancy in the partnership - and we could be waiting 18 months plus before a new minister is appointed. In the meantime, Mike and I will be working with three churches each, and "emergency plan B" will come into effect... This involves each congregation having two sundays per month with "their" minister, one with a member of the team and one locally led...
One of the side effects of "plan B" is that Mike and I will inevitably be spending less time with particular congregations, so today was a day of mini goodbyes as well...

9:30am at St Giles

I took the service at St Giles, which is one of the congregations I expect to see less often in the next few months. There were a number of people away, but some old friends in the congregation so it was a good occassion.

11:00am at Servant King

Servant King is another congregation I expect to see less of and I felt particularly sorry to say goodbye to them this morning. I've quite enjoyed my monthly visit to Furzton. Here they are wishing a Happy New Year to you... A New Year will soon begin and it's going to be an interesting one...

Esther and Jason

Congratulations to Esther and Jason who got married at St Mary's on Saturday. They were both teahers at Christ the Sower, so it was great to do this wedding - even if it was on the Saturday between Christmas and New Year...
Iona came with me because Esther had been her teacher in year 2 and Esther's mum had been the TA when she was in Foundation at Glastonbury Thorn.
Unfortunatley this meant that I couldn't get to Catherine's wedding in Essex - which is a really big shame. Catherine, Andrew and I were the Edinburgh Root Group in 1989-90 and this was the last of our weddings. It would have been good to have been there, so many apologies to Cartherine. We'll need a reunion at some point...
Good News: The organ's reconnected at St Mary's! Sounds great!

Celebrating Christmas

During the last few days we've been to Kent and Nottingham. This included twelve hours of motorway driving(!) a couple of Christmas meals and a pantomime - with 3D goggles...

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to you all. I'm taking a break from the blog until New Year. Have a good Christmas. See you soon...

Happy Christmas

Christmas proper began with midnight mass at St Giles. This was Liz's first midnight sermon, and I'm afraid I missed most of it. A lady fainted soon after Liz started. We took her outside and I returned as the sermon was ending. Apparently it was very good... Well done Liz!

Christmas Eve

This was a fairly full Christmas Eve.

I had a funeral this morning - which is unusual for Christmas Eve - although I wasn't the only vicar at the crem this morning...

On the way to the crem I dropped off the six giant crackers at All Saints'. I was suprised to find two white vans, a pair of ladders and a dozen men on the roof. I nearly phoned the police (assuming I had interupted the gang of desperate lead theives) - it turned out to be a team off roof repairers who were doing some work for us...

The 2:30pm service was busy and a bit wild, but the band were great! Best yet! The girls decided to be stars this year...

Giving up Power

This week, two stories caught my eye.
The first was the letter the Castro sent to the Cuban people announcing that he was thinking of stepping down. Whatever you think about Castro, it's clearly a big thing for someone in his position to lay down power...
The second was the sale of one of the seventeen surviving copies of the Magna Carta - for 19 million dollars! The Magna Carta is the first legal document that limited the power of kings...
The issue of power is one of the central ones in our society. Some are trying to hold on to it - others are trying to get it. It is useful because it enables us to get things done - but it has a tendency to currupt...
The Christmas story has a lot to say about power. It's about God choosing not to be powerful, but to be powerless. Not to stop being God, but to be a different kind of God from the one we expect. It's about the lifting up of the humble and the pulling down of the mighty. It's about God with us - and our response.
We all have power - even if it is only power to effect the lives of those who love us. In relationships you loose if you try to win...
Love is only worth anything if we give it away. So is power...

Church for the Facebook Generation

At the recent meeting of Area Deans and Lay Chairs, Bishop John possed a serious of questions. One of the last was about the internet. He mentioned the existing diocesan site and asked how we engage with the Facebook Generation....
Facebook is an interesting phenomena. A product of web 2.0 as the internet becomes more interactive and less static; Facebook is only one of many social networking sites, but it's become enormously popular - largley, I suspect, because of the huge number of silly widgets and aps that you can play with.
There's a group of people at All Saints' who've been using it over the last few months. It's become an interesting extension of the church community as people have poked, bombed, raided and quized each other.
One of the most interesting element of this has been the status reports - "Tim is awake". On occassion these have started conversations and created a sense of continuing community. Facebook has created the possibility of a 24/7 church community which would otherwise be impossible in twenty first century MK...
Which is not to say it's totally wonderful. I have to say I'm logging on less frequently and the gadgets are less appealing as time goes by... The Money Programme did a super special on Facebook last night which raised the thorny issue of advertising and misuse of personal information. Perhaps Facebook will fade away and be replaced by something else...
The interesting thing is to observe how the internet is generating new methods of creating community. Perhaps it would be good for us to be a bit more proactive and theologically reflective - positively using and developing social networking...
Perhaps this should be on our agenda for 2008: Facebook, ichurch, Google Groups, etc...

Nearly Christmas

Iona and Izzy discuss presents with a man in a red suit...

Firday

The last friday before Christmas...
"The Great Christmas Get - away begins" - apparently you'ld be mad to travel at 3:00pm this afternoon....

Quiet Thursday

Have finished six giant crackers - now sleeping in our spare room - they fill a double bed!

Planning Christmas Eve

Big tasks of today:
Planning the Nativities for Wigglies
and a Christmas Eve Funeral...

So far I've made one giant cracker - five to go...
Still feeling a bit under the weather, so may give the prison carol service a skip...
Iona has another Vocalis concert this evening...
(They didn't get back till quarter to 11! - but apparently it was great)

Two Funerals and a Wedding

This evening we had a rehersal for Esther and Jason's wedding which will take place after Christmas. As a pair of teachers they're too busy with the last week of term to concentrate on the wedding yet... not long to go...

I also had two bookings for funerals today - one for Christmas Eve... so much for the quiet week... Took kids into town after school to buy shoes. They had a go on the carolsel.

A Sore Head

I was awake half the night with a sore head, a bit of a feaver and a severely congested head - not pleasant...
Of course, this is the kind of job that you can't really take a day off from. I still need to get the kids to school and I can't really cancel my appointments for the day...
In the past, I have taken a funeral between bouts of dioreah... and a wedding while waiting to hurl... There are just some things you can't get out of... (Although I'm sure this comes under the category of too much information...)
Fortunately, my 11am appointment has just cancelled (because he has a cold) so I can take things reasonably easily this morning. I've got a reference to write and some papers to finish...
Finished Scripture Union themes for December 2008! So now I know what the reading will be next Christmas...
Another Christ the Sower Carol Service this afternoon... Year five and six...

Happy Birthday Bloggers

Monday was the tenth anniversary of the first use of the word "blog" created on the 17th December 1997 by Jorn Barger to describe what he was doing with his pioneering Robot Wisdom web page.
So happy birthday to the bolgosphere!

Christ the Sower Carols

I usually spend Monday mornings working on admin - if I can. I've been working on a memo about a potential archdeaconry post this morning, and a couple of letters that need to be written.

Today is also the day of the Christ the Sower Carol Service at St Mary's Church. They sang very well! Today is the turn of years three and four. Tomorrow it's years five and six. Iona is in the Singing Club, so she'll be there both afternoons.

The man was suposed to come and do the floor in the vestries today. No sign of him when I was there. Perhaps he'll come tomorrow...