Tuesday

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

The Bishop and the Quaker

This evening I had to drive all the way to High Wycombe to take part in the rehearsal for the ordination on Sunday. For the first part of the service I was required to play the part of Liz (who was in the air somewhere over Africa).

Her husband, Robin, arrived in time to give the bishop a head to practice on. Here is the moment of (pseudo) ordination itself...As a good Quaker, Robin wondered how much he would have to pay me to keep this image to myself. Apparently, my price was too high...

All in all, it was a good evening and it was great to catch up with a few people. The ordination promises to be a great event, so please pray for Liz, Dave and all the others as they prepare for the big day.

Monday

Have a cold, so didn't run today.
Spent a productive morning sending emails - yawn...
Had lunch with Ernesto.
Bought a new watch.
Took a funeral.
Went to High Wycombe...

I needed to buy a new watch because my latest (cheap) market watch beeps every hour and drives Isla mad! It must die! It's also rubbish.

I used some birthday money to buy a watch from an actual shop. I was torn between one that records multiple lap times (ideal for running) and one that receives an acurate time signal from a transmitter in Rugby (ideal for services and meetings - work in other words). The sports watch was too fiddly and wouldn't have been practical on the move, so I opted for the work model - so at least I will now know if services really start on time - or meetings go on too long!

I had one of these watches before and got quite addicted to knowing the exact time down to the closest millisecond. In a funny kind of way it makes you feel in control, although, of course, you're simply going along with what the Rugby transmitter claims the correct time to be...

If I was the kind of person who likes to make create sermons out of cans of peaches(!) this would be an opportunity to create a Gospel message about God as your spiritual Rugby. You need to keep tuning in on a regular basis and keep yourself on step with him... but since I don't go in for that sort of thing, you've nicely avoided a sermon...

Discovering Priesthood in Rubbish

When I was a student I used to spend the summer holidays with my parents in Milton Keynes. Lacking transport, and needing some exercise, I would often walk into town along the red ways - the cycle paths which criss-cross the city.

On one occasion I was walking along consciously trying to listen to God. I felt that he was telling me to pick up a piece of litter. I resisted for a while, thinking this was just my mind distracting me from the task in hand, but eventually I decided to do what I was told. I reached down and picked up a small chewing gum wrapper.

Holding this in my hand I sensed that God wanted me to pray, and so I prayed for those who produced the materials, those who manufactured the paper, wrapped the gum, transported it to the shop, sold it, unwrapped it, chewed it and then dropped it on the ground. This one tiny wrapper was linking me with a whole host of people that I had never met, and yet I knew that my prayers were meaningful. I didn't know anything about these people, but God did.

And so I spent an extremely valuable and productive afternoon, walking along the path, picking up litter and praying. Putting my pile of prayer-rubbish in a bin eventually had to be done with a certain amount of love and respect.

Looking back, I realise that this "prayer walk" was a form of priestly ministry. Each piece of litter provided a sacramental opportunity to connect heaven and earth, to do business with God and to bless a wide range of human beings. Priesthood is realised in the connections we make with the ordinary stuff of human existence, just as it is in the grandest of cathedrals. Whether we break bread and pour out wine, or lift up the crumbs of everyday life, we take what is normal and offer it to God, receiving it back transformed and enlivening.

Opportunities for genuine priesthood are strewn at our feet each day of our lives. The trick is to hear God's voice and to allow him to transform the lowliest of moments into the kingdom of heaven.

Rubbish!

We took the girls for a walk this afternoon and ended up in our local park up in Grange Farm. As always, we were annoyed by the vast quantities of litter strewn over the path and the grass.

Finding an abandoned Budgens bag(!) I quickly filled it with litter, including drink bottles, sweet papers, sandwich boxes, chip wrappers and so on...

The only problem was what to do with it! - There is, of course, no bin near the park.

Although some of the litter had clearly come from Sams (the chip shop) I was convinced that most of it was Budgens' snack wrappings. It therefore seemed sensible to take it round to them - and they have a bin.

Unfortunately, my little bag wouldn't fit in the narrow slot. I debated whether I should offer it to the assistants but decided they had enough to cope with. In the end I left it on the bin.

I know I've only removed a few items of litter, but it did make the play park look a bit friendlier and less like a public tip. There's still plenty of rubbish up there if anyone else wants a go...

There used to be a poster showing a picture of someone dropping litter as they said, "This one won't make any difference."

The message of course was that each piece of litter dropped may not matter on its own, but combined with all the others produces a horrible mess.

Perhaps the same applies to picking litter up.

How many times do I walk past a piece of litter and think, "Should I pick it up?" and then fail to do so because one piece of litter wouldn't make any difference...

If we all did it, of course, there wouldn't be any left!

I am reminded of an experience I had a few years ago when I felt God calling me to pick up a piece of litter from the path. I picked it up and found myself praying for the people who had produced it, carried it, sold it and dumped it. One piece of litter becoming a moment of intercessory prayer...

I wonder if it would be good to try this again: pick it up and pray - one a day - or something like that. If I was an entrepreneurial evangelist, I'd start a campaign!

Back to Church for Harvest

Motorcycling bishops on breakfast TV? Helium balloons outside church? It can only be Back to Church Sunday!

As last year in the Watling Valley, BTCS is combined with harvest - which means that there is something definite to invite people back to. This is a good occasion to make contact those who have been involved through Christmas, baptisms or weddings - or who have just expressed an interest.

At All Saints, Derek and Ruth produced an extremely competent and professional service which demonstrated how a service can be both welcoming and meaningful. The children produced a fairtrade logo banner and dry/canned goods were donated for the food bank.

All in all it was a good event, and a few people did come back to church and hopefully had a worthwhile time. (All Saints' is frequently 80% full anyway, so further congregational growth is challenging...)

I note, however, that the real challenge of Back to Church Sunday is to listen to those who would like to come but for a wide range of reasons find it difficult. Some of these people simply need to be asked (and I wonder how many of the personal invitations were actually given out?) but others find the Sunday slot difficult, unhelpful or inconvenient - no matter how welcoming it becomes...

As Bishop Alan has been reminding us lately, a huge proportion of the population would like to come to church - but not necessarily when we are in it!

I've been thinking a lot about fresh expressions lately. These are forms of church which are created primarily for those who don't yet come. To a certain extent, our "seeker" focussed services already do this for some - but what about the rest? What forms of church do they need?

Cornerstone

I was free this morning so decided to pop down to Christ the Cornerstone in town. It cost me 50p to park but I noticed a few ladies arriving in taxis, so this maybe the way to do it...

Terry Oakley, the URC moderator was visiting and preached about authority. Some authority is derived from above, some from below, but Jesus' authority is based on love - if that's a reasonable summary.

It was interesting to take part in a service which was liturgically formal, but also inherently ecumenical - like a mixture of St Machar's Cathedral and Iona Abbey... I was pleased to see that my sight-reading was up to scratch, enabling me to sing along with the responses.

I'd like to see what the second service is like...

Dunstable Downs

Went for a walk this afternoon on the Downs.

Relevant?

I've been thinking quite a lot recently about the "relevance" of what we do and say in Christian communities. Having read Tim Leeson's "Angry Rant" I feel the need to blog... or have my own rant...

At Greenbelt I was struck by the comment that we need to deal with the questions that people are actually asking - and these questions often appear through mass media. Hence, some of the more interesting Greenbelt seminars (at least for me) dealt with film and television: Lost, Doctor Who, etc... I came away with a new sense that my interest in popular culture should find a place in my "professional" communications...

During my sabbatical I was struck a number of times by the discord between church life and daily life. Churches should support their members in ordinary life, rather than draw them out from reality. After the welcome for some new ministers in Milton Keynes, a colleague and I reflected on the way our public focus on clergy effectively devalues the ministry of all members. I am feeling the need to find ways of reversing this process...

As I continue to reflect on the global economic situation I am concerned that a sensible and realistic but visionary voice needs to be heard. The social order we have constructed since the industrial revolution is slowly destroying the planet and we are facing a major change of direction. Big businesses and politicians find it easier to talk about "business as usual" but it would be more sensible to take a long cold look at reality and put in place policies for significant but steady change...

...and that's before we take account of some of the other issues of justice, peace and the integrity of creation...

Oddly enough, the Local Shared Ministry Project and the difficulties posed by deanery finance and deployment give me huge reasons for hope. The unsustainable models of church and ministry which were set up when Milton Keynes was founded have been on the rocks for a while now and a number of us have set out to develop more collaborative and sustainable approaches. This may sound like moving deckchairs on the Titanic or a desperate attempt to find ways to survive, but I think our attempts to build sustainable Christian community will help us develop ways to encourage sustainable human community. A genuine local shared ministry community could be a sign of hope for the whole world...

When I said I had a vision for a sustainable, growing church, I was criticised by a good friend for using the word "sustainable" - but I increasingly believe that this word "sustainable" is central to what the Church could offer to a commercially dependent, consumerist society - such as we find in MK.

This has not been an "angry rant". I recognised long ago that the Gospel is not just about the "spiritual" world, but is for all creation. Hence, we are called to proclaim freedom to prisoners and good news to the poor, to be good stewards in creation and to continually expand the circle of hope.

But how do we do this? Can Sunday Church, such as we have it in MK, create space for deep reflection and engagement on these issues? If we have "seeker" sensitive services, can we also debate homosexuality, economic theory or community development? And if we can't what do we actualy have to contribute to this world?

I don't think I've got an answer here. As a pneumatological democrat and a believer in collective decision-making, I'm extremely warry of standing up in church and expressing a personal opinion, since I'm not sure I actually have the right - particulalry if there is no room for debate. Traditional forms of church encourage a didactic approach, but challenging issues are better dealt with by communities. Which brings me back to Rolland Allen's "tell it to the church" and the reflection that leaders can only impose short term "truth".

In order to deal with some of these tricky issues we need forms of church that create space for debate, and enable us to engage with real life. For many of us, traditional church just can't do this. On Thursday night I met with some of our worship leaders for a time of reflection. On these occasions, we often find ourselves saying that we don't give ourselves time for deep reflection, but get bogged down in commities and activities which often drain our energies. Oh for a church where this is not the case!

I agree with Tim Leeson's rant and would happily have written it myself, but I think the answer is closely related to the issue of how we do church. Can the "emerging church" do better?

EOG

Members of the Ecumenical Oversight Group looked at the Mission Partnership Review this morning. This was a good opportunity to flesh out some of the details...

Getting the word out...

Today has been a day about communications and organisation.

I finished editing this month's Voices this morning. This will be my last, so I'm sorry to say I won't be going out on a bang with my best edition - too much else going on to give it proper time.

I dropped off the memory stick before heading over to the Team Leaders' meeting where I was supposed to be selling LSM. Unfortunately four members of this group were LSM project group members, which left Mike M, Mary C and Alan. I did, however, plug the Fresh Expressions Vision Day as well, so the word is getting round...

In the afternoon we had a Fresh Expressions MK projetc group meeting and sorted out most of the details for the Vision Day. Tim C suggested I do a workshop on LSM and Fresh Expressions - which should be interesting...

Christ the Sower Governors meeting in the evening, followed (!) by the Holy Cross Church Council - how I like to bilocate!

The Exec and the Review

This evening the Mission Partnership Exec received the Review Report. This recommends some fairly major changes to the way the Mission Partnership is run, which may sound quite scary but may actually be really good news:

1. The Mission Partnership is going to become a partnership of diverse groups who are working together in mission - rather than an attempt to build an alternative ecclesiastical structure. This may sound like "deconvergence" and on some level it will be, but it's fundamentally about widening the circle so that more partners can join in.

2. The LEPs will continue and there will be some form of "sponsoring body" but decisions will be made by those who are legally empowered to do so, rather than by big MK wide committees. There will be a new "trustees" group which will include the presidents and will have defined powers.

3. There will be a new "mission strategy" which will consist of those ecumenical projects that we agree to support together. There will be some form of coordinating group which will make sure that things happen.

4. The Assembly will become an annual event rather than a burdensome converged council. This will be an opportunity to come together, celebrate, learn, tell stories, etc...

5. The denominations will need to take more responsibility for their own affairs. This means that there will need to be a revamped deanery synod (meeting more than once a year) and the URC/Methodist joint district will be formalised.

I think this is a brief summary of the salient points - we had a large document to look through. There will be more presentations over the next few months and a lot of tidying up to do.

Basically the exec thought that the thrust of this proposal was good, but more work would need to be done.

Whoosh

What an evening...
after a bowl of soup with Tim, I had a session with Anne H at CtS and a funeral visit before Isla headed out to work. I had an hour to spend with the kids which they grabbed onto with enthusiasm. This gave me five minutes to do the dishes before heading out the door... I had cancelled a wedding interview which gave me time to eat...

The kids made me play Zelda again after a long gap. The secret with the Reekfish, apparently, is not to try picking it up, but to turn into a wolf and smell it... Well why didn't I think of that before!?

Fresh Expressions at World Vision

After weeks of negotiation and discussion we finally have a venue for the Fresh Expressions Vision Day on the 15th November. We've booked the World Vision building. Tim Clapton and I had a wonderful tour and were introduced to some of the work they do. We were particularly impressed with the way they attempt to link projects with donors so that genuinely transformational relationships are established. All good stuff!

Anyway, we now have the Fresh Expressions Vision Day to organise. The venue will be great with a super space and four large break-out rooms. Just what we need! We decided that we would need a "venue manager" and I immediately though of John RJ after his Greenbelt adventures - and he has agreed to join us. Hooray!

We also have a web site (thanks to Tim) - www.freshexpressionmk.org.uk and can take bookings through an on-line form. I've produced a very quick flier which we're going to circulate...

Lots to do, but it all begins to look achievable and is going to be really exciting....

I'm back

After a few fairly pathetic runs, I set out on an eight mile after school today, finishing in 78 minutes - which isn't too bad.

People

Had a visit from Norman Critchell (ALW - formerly of the Salem Project) who is now working as a free-lance evangelist. He wants to make himself available to deaneries and parishes.

Had some good time with a few other people who are wanting to develop their ministry.

Spent the evening at Alastair Wood's support group.

Pitching the Tent

I took services at Holy Cross and St Mary's this morning. In both churches I put up a tent and talked about the challenge of dismantling our camp-sites (in this world) so that we can set off in the direction of the kingdom. This worked well with the baptisms...

Power Walking...

Now that summer is here (!) it seemed like a good idea to get out in the sun and enjoy the great outdoors a bit. With our friends, the Solloways, we decided to go for an adventurous circular walk. Our chosen walk (see guide) took us on a 4 1/2 mile circuit from the medieval Thornborough Bridge across the fields and back again.

It is interesting to note how different these walks are in different parts of the country. In tourist country (Dorset, etc...) you can usually expect fairly good paths and often encounter other walkers. Even in South Bucks you feel that there is a path to follow. When we go for a walk up here in North Bucks we often suspect we are the only people to do the route this year.

This walk had such a feel. The paths were overgrown. The fields had bulls in them. We passed some anglers on a river who looked suprised to see us.

Having said this, the path was well marked, so we headed off into the wilds of North Bucks (about five miles from where we live) to explore...

It struck me that energy use could be seen throughout our walk. Twice we passed beneath huge pylons which hummed with the electrical energy now feeding Milton Keynes. This energy is, of course, largely dependent on our oil based economy, but we saw signes of earlier ages...

The Buckingham Branch of the Grand Union Canal cuts through this land and we spent some time walking along its former route. The greatest monument to this is the remains of an old lock which is being restored - although presumably not for actual use.

The creation of the canal network enabled more ecomomical transport of goods and fuel across Britain, powering the industrial revelution and driving the development of modern society.

The Buckingham Branch was opened in 1801 but was already in decline by the 1850s as the railways began to take over. The last comercial traffic was in 1932 and it was abandoned in 1964.

Here in a little-known corner of Buckinghamsire stands a monument to our industrial past. Canals were superseded by railways, which were superseded by roads as we become more effecient in the way we used our fossil fuels...

But this walk also gave us a chance to see relics of an even earlier age.

Long before the canals and the railways helped kick-start the industrial revolution the country was littered with windmills. There were thousands of them, pumping water or grinding grain - using the "free" power of wind.

We saw at least one old windmill on this walk, but there would probably have been many more at one point - not that long ago. It seems strange that there are so many objections to the "view pollution" caused by modern windmills given how common they once were...

The reality, of course, is that we are rapidly coming full circle as the cheap energy of the industrial revolution rapidly disappears. It will not be long before we are forced to depend on sustainable sources of power whether we like it or not - and this will cause a change in our society as dramatic as the industrial revolution was in the nineteenth century.

So it was good to see that Thornborough Mill (mentioned in the Doomesday Book) is slowly being brought back into service. It's now turning nicely and the owners hope to use it to power four local properties.

Although this walk seemed to take us off the beaten track it actually took us through the development of western society over the past two centuries. We could see human resourcefulness and our use of energy past, present and future. I wonder what relics people will spot in fifty years time...

And here's a couple of photos to show that our walk also involved the history of transport:

New Run

Tipped off by my friend Nigel, I went for a run around Caldecotte Lake while the kids were at their activities. Good run - with too many jumping dogs...

Fresh Expressions

I had to go to Oxford today for a Fresh Expressions meeting. Yes, I know this is my day off, but this dosn't happen very often. I took Isla with me and she had a shopping trip in town.

This was a good meeting and we discussed Cutting Edge Ministries, the new plans for MK, and I shared some of my sabbatical experiences. It feels like the whole Fresh Expressions thing is coming together very nicely...