Diocesan Synod

At Diocesan Synod today (in High Wycombe) we had a great presidential address from Bishop John, who shared the beginnings of his vision for the Diocese. We wants to call it "Sharing Life plus" or "Sharing Life: Making a Difference".
He had a set of principles that he thought should be central

• Not neglecting the past but building on it
• Not so much structure as about culture - mission and spirituality
• Not so much about structures as relationships
• Not top-down but local
• Not tragets but directions
• Not one size fits all but flexible
• Not complexity but elegance

He had five priorities that he invited us to share:

1. Sustaining the Sacred Centre
2. Making Disciples
3. Making a Difference in Society
4. Creating Vibrant Christian Communities
5. Shaping Confident, Collaborative Leadership

In order to support the priorities, he suggested that we focus on:

1. Deanery Development
2. Sound Finances and a Steady Number of Stipendiary Clergy
3. Light Touch, Supportive Central Services

Over the next few months, he wants to fine tune and develop this in conversation with Synod, so it will all become much clearer...
Most of the MK reps though this was great - since it all looked a bit familiar to them...

We also discussed Samuel Crowther, the first African Anglican Bishop, who's name we want adding to the list of commemorations in Common Worship. We also had a presentation from the Tomorrow Project, which is a great source of interesting facts. (Did you know, 40% of fresh water in the US is used to cool power stations? And by 2050 our livestock will be eating enough food to feed 2/5 of the world's population?)

It was a long synod and I didn't get home until after three. There were many (including Bp John) who wanted to get home for the Calcutta Cup - but they may have regretted this. (Lots of happy Welsh people around the place though...)

More Rolland Allen...

I've now finished reading "Missionary Methods". It's a great book which I heartily recomend, although it can seem a little un-PC in places.
Two things jumped out at me in the rest of the book. The first was a discussion about mission and the importance of preparing people to share the Gospel. Allen makes the point that Paul didn't have time, resources or personel to give his people a thorough theological education, and yet he felt they were properly equiped to be agents of the Good News in the provinces where they were set. He contrasts this with nineteenth century missions, as we can with twenty-first century church. I have often been told by lay people that they want to do mission, they just want to get it all sorted out for themselves first. Ironically, the Gospel has often been most effectively shared, not by people who had everything clear in their brains, but by people who had caught something simple in their hearts. We need to help our people to understand that it is their relationship with Jesus that is the starting point for mission, not their grasp of theology. Most of us need some simple (non crass) ways of expressing the core of Christian Faith that we can own and proclaim, rather than more sophisticated appologetics...
The second thing that struck me as important was his belief that we should trust local churches in decision-making, discipline and finance. His refrain, "Tell it to the church", is worth repeating again. It's all too tempting to try and sort things out for people, but they will learn and grow most if we allow them to grow with God. He has a lot to say about the need for missionaries to "retire". Those of us in mission/ministry in twenty-first century Britain need to keep this in mind...
A lot of what Allen has to say about mission has come to pass in the history of the global church, but he still has a lot to teach us about how to do church in the UK. He finishes with a moving (and mildly fictional) account of a missionary who was applying the St Paul's "method". The account finishes with a "native" chatechist asking the missionary if he knows what he's doing. The missionary replies that he knows what he thinks he is doing, but wonders what the chatecist thinks he is doing. The man replies, "Sir, if you keep on like this, you are going to found an indigeonous church."
We need to found more indigeonous churches in Britain today. Whether we call them Fresh Expressions, Inherited Churches, or whatever, we need them to be truly local, and that is going to take a real culture change to achieve...

Mothers Union

We had a planning session for the Annual Mothers Union Corporate Communion today. We met in Downhead Park and it was good to see Anne Lumley again.
The rest of the day has been taken up with not particularly exciting admin...

Supervision

Have just started reading Rolland Allen's "Missionary Methods". He writes a great description of the failed attempts by 19th century missionaries to start local churches. He is quite scathing about the habit of giving too much responsibility and money to indigeonous churches without also thinking about how they are supported and overseen. He basically argues that local Christians were set up to fail...
We do much the same to people in contemporary British churches. The pattern is for volunteers to take on jobs, but there is no custom of regular supervision - in fact many of our volunteers would regard supervision as an insult... and yet I am increasingly convinced that good quality supervision is absolutely crucial to the development of truly productive and fulfilling ministry. I have often been made aware of volunteers who are not doing what they were asked to do, but I have no non-threatening way of helping them to develop. I can also think of Lay Readers and NSMs (in other parts of the world) who were serious problems for their communities - because no patterns of accountability or supervision had been established... They became disfunctional.
As I look back over my ministry, I suspect that the greatest growth has taken place when I have been able to provide quality supervision... and this goes for volunteers as well as "paid" ministers. By supervision, I of course mean the model used by the Diocese which includes management, support, mediation and education - not just telling people what to do.
Rolland Allen had a point, I think, and we really ought to have taken note of it by now. Afterall, he was writing in 1912!
The interesting question would be how you would run a church in such a way that everyone received this kind of support. It would require different patterns of leadership and ministry, but just imagine how the Spirit could be released to work...
Another perspective on this could come from another book I've been reading, "Headless Chickens, Laid Back Bears" which discusses how people can become more productive and relaxed by better Time Creation. The writer, Gordon Wainright, discusses a range of different techniques. The first of these is "feedback". He devotes a whole chapter to a discussion of how regular continuous feedback steadily improves performance - although he can't always say why... (This relates to the need for Christians to use feedback/supervision to keep them rooted in reality). He also has a great chapter on "Anticipatory Scanning Techniques"... More on this later, I suspect...

Doing the rounds

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

Songs for Children

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

Hello World

At Team Space Alison encouraged us to pray for the wider world...
I then had to attend the Presidents' Meeting to present our report for Local Shared Ministry which meant speaking to denominational big wigs about what we do, knowing that their perspective is a little wider. This was challenging, because I don't want to end up doing nothing because we're already doing it... (if that makes sense?)
Popped into St Andrew's Bookshop and discovered that Roland Allen's 1912 classic "Missionary Methods: St Paul's or Ours" has at last been reprinted. Alleluia! I'll finally get to read it. More soon...
Lunch time meeting with Ministers West - two very practical new ideas emerged which we may be acting on soon...
Spent the afternoon working through a huge pile of jobs (one of which I'd already done).
In the early evening Isla carried out a number of complicated tests on my brain. Ouch! My Head hurts!
In the evening we have the Deanery Finance Committee... Planning for 2009 begins now...

Oxford

Trip to Oxford today for a Fresh Expressions Oversight meeting. The big challenge is to work out how to create the flexibility that will enable people's dreams to be realised - particulalry Pioneer Ministers. A long way to go for a lunch time meeting, but I was able to get back to pick children up from school...

Mothering Sunday

Today I was also at Holy Cross, where Jeff preached an excelent sermon, which was well structured, thought out and delivered. He preached about "getting out of our comfort zones" and put his message across very well.

I had the joy of providing music today, which I don't often get to do. The only fly in the ointment was that we had selected hymn number 1022. It was only when we came to this point in the service that we discovered that our copies of Mission Praise finish at hymn number 1021! We sang it anyway - "Above all powers" from memory. It actually sounded quite good.

Enlarging All Member Ministry

We've always been keen on lay ministry in the Watling Valley, but today was a high point even for us! The Mothering Sunday Service at St Mary's was prepared and lead by the young people from start to finish. The two worship leaders were simply stunning "front men", the drama (a Mike Geaney special called Spooky Sunday) was performed with Oscar winning performances and every possible role in the service was taken on by our young people. They received a much deserved round of applause at the end! It was a service that could have taught many "professionals" a thing or two...

The key point I take away is that worship so often lives when it comes from the people themselves. Professional worship leaders can give slick performances, but you can't beat the depth and feeling that you get when the worship is "owned" by the people who have the biggest stake in making it real. Yes, some things went wrong, and there were things that could have been improved, but who cares because it was a living piece of worship that everyone appreciated!

1000

Isla was the thousandth visitor, which was great!
Went for a run this afternoon. She managed to do a mile in 8 and a half minutes - well done!

Two Stars

The thing about having Friday as your day off is that it's always when child related things take place, but I'm not complaining too much. Today was an opportunity to see both daughters shine.

Isabelle had the starring role in this mornings class production of "the Trouble with Mum" (The trouble is she's a witch). She was great - continuing the family tradition of drama most recently demonstrated by Iona's wonderful Pilate in JCSS.

But this wasn't the only event of the day. We also had to go to Cornerstone to see Iona in the Music Festival. We were very proud of Vocalis. There were only a handfull of them, but they held their own against the massed choirs of private schools (and one state school I think). It was like guerilla music. There were all these smart rows of blazer wearing disciplined school kids - and Vocalis in their purple shirts - clearly more of a little team... But they did extremely well. Technically I thought they were brilliant. They just couldn't produce the same volume as half a school... They didn't win, but no shame in it.

Well done the girls!

Growing Leaders

I took Isla for a run this morning. We did three miles in 28 minutes.

In the morning I aslo met with Mike to talk through his new role as Team Leader. It felt odd in some ways putting all this time in to support someone in this kind of a role. I seem to remember just drifting into it without any support or clarity. I'm sure this way is much better, but it's another clear indication of how far we've moved in a short period of time. Mike will be a great Team Leader, and I look forward to seeing how it all goes...

At lunch time I met with Linda from the Friday Cell Group who is doing a great job as leader/facilitator of that group. I hope she found the time useful.

In the afternoon I had a funeral visit in Shenley Church End, and I spent som time working on worship material for All Saints' Day 2008 - which needs to be finished by tomorrow.

In the evening I went to the Deanery Pastoral Committee at which we agreed to support the proposal from Water Eaton to develop "a Local Shared Ministry" which effectively means setting up a leadership team which will include two retired priests - with me as Area Dean acting as incumbent. This proposal is intended to give Water Eaton some breathing space to continue their development while waiting for more clarity about a long term vision...
We also discussed a proposal about Deanery posts which we will now be exploring with the Bishop, Archdeacon, and PDA. This was a good discussion and moved things on a bit... We seem fairly clear in our minds that there are three posts we want. The question is how to create them, locate them and whether they will be full or part time. All may be revealed on the 15th March...
Local Shared Ministry was also discussed and there seems to be a concensus that we are moving away from models toward process and support structure...

So much of my work today, as usual, has been about developing and encouraging our leaders. This is where my energy must be put if we are to build a sustainable and growing deanery/partnership. It's crucial that we nurture those who will provide the quality leadership that our churches need. I think most of my "parishioners" still think I sit around (between cups of tea) waiting for the phone to ring for a baptism, wedding or funeral. They probably even think I write sermons... The truth is I spend most of my time growing the ministery of others - and actually quite enjoy it...

Open for Business

Went to the Quarries Scout Camp again today to try to buy a Cub Uniform. Once again found it shut, although we had been assured it was open on a Wednesday afternoon. I finally found a small notice hidden behind a steel grid, which I could just about read, which informed me it was open between 6 and 8 pm. So a third trip will be neccessary...
Isla commented that this is similar to the experience of people trying to go to church and struggling to work out when and where to go. Those who know the secrets know exactly what to. But if you're not "in" you can find it very difficult...

I went back to the shop at 6:30pm and managed to feel even more lost. It wasn't obvious which door to push to get in and when I did get in I didn't know what I needed and found it difficult to ask. The size of the uniform was marked by chest measurement, but I had height. I was lucky enough to come away with a uniform that fitted, but it was an interesting exprience. I have to agree with Isla; it was just like going to church - I feel as deskilled as the average church visitor...

Also today - LSM Project Group, Lunch with Alison Baird and a meeting with someone about the Common Purpose course...
This evening - CtS Governors

Big Bang

I was woken this morning at 1:00am by a low bang followed by a strange rattling of pots. I thought for a moment that it might have been a distant explossion, but it turned out that there had been an earthquake. I think the word is it was something like 5.3 on the richter scale with the epicentre in Lincolnshire. Any one else hear or feel it?

Images of Priesthood

At Team Space this morning we looked at the images of priesthood developed by Bishop John in his book, the Life and Work of a Priest. These range from "Spiritual Explorer" to "Weather-beaten witness". Bishop John's book is a wonderful exploration of what priesthood might involve, and has already become a must read for ordinands, but it does tend to focus on the activity of "professional" priests - which shouldn't be a suprise given the title...

In his introduction he admits that his descriptions are "a bit busy and breathless". We felt that no one individual could really be good at fullfilling all the various images of priesthood that he puts forward, which brought us back to the concept of the priesthood of all believers - with a shared concept of priestly ministry - originating in Christ and expressed in some way through "set aside" individuals.

More to explore...

Tuesday

Team Meeting - Talked about Priesthood
Holy Cross Team Meeting - Planned Services for next two months
Liz Baker Sepervision - Looking at October 12th Evening for first communion...

Isla out in evening. Watched Star Wars 2 with kids...

Thinking Ahead

This is my first proper day back after the half-term week, although yesteday was fairly busy.
I managed to run 3.5 miles on the way back from school, which is always good, and dealt with some of the emails and messages hanging over from the week off. I've managed to work our a 10k route which I may try when I've got a free hour.
The day has been dominated by a meeting of the Deanery Leadership Team which had a fairly full agenda. Whaen we meet, we need to work through the various things that are going on. It's valueable time, and makes a real difference. There's a lot going on at the moment, so this was a fairly full meeting.
We did start to talk about Deanery Communications. One of the issues here is the request that has often been made that we find a way of feeding back what we're learning and also share some of the good ideas that are proving productive across the city. We are going to look at the possibility of revamping the Deanery Web Site (which was really created to diseminate copies of the deanery plan) and create something more interactive. Alongside this we're thinking of a monthly news sheet which might flag up articles on the web site and make sure key dates and information are properly circulated. We're going to look at this again next time we meet.

The rest of the day was dominated by sessions with ministers: Yvonne, Derek and Alastair. Mixed in with family time and odd jobs.

Peg Wars

Iona's half-term project: The cast of Star Wars as peg dolls - next she plans to make a movie...

Back to Work

Back to work today...
I dragged myself up for 8:00am - which felt challenging having sat up till 1:00am planning the day... Preached on the Samariton Woman at the Well.
Went to Holy Cross for the 9:00am Communion - Samairiton Woman again... (shortened version - the sermon not the woman)
Popped back to the house for my guitar to play "Be still" for the 9:45am service at which Liz was preaching - she also needed to borrow some sandles and a baby blanket - something about Moses...
Then back to All Saints for the 10:30am service on the theme of Spiritual Gifts. All in a days work...

Home for bowl of soup.

Visited Tim and Julie. Julie is looking better, but still feeling awful after her car crash.
Then popped in to see Paul and Molly at the Hospice. Delivered copy of Voices.

Service Planning Meeting at 3:00pm: We worked through the plan up to Septmber/October with some thought about Christmas and the Silver Jubillee celebrations in October 2009.

Went home to cook tea - Chiken Tikka Masala with coliflour.
Gils had cooked cake - yum.

Watched Wife Swap in the evening. Pastor's wife swaps with smoking, gambling, boozing fellow Christian. Great to see that we have all sorts in the Church(!) The highlight was when the slightly up-tight pastor blew £63 on the dogs... and then his wife found out... oops...

Bed and sleep. ZZZZZZZ

The Road to Growth

The Road to Growth
by Bob Jackson

Bob Jackson has written an absolutely fascinating book, which attempts to analyse the evidence for growth ascociated with various popular strategies. One of the benefits of this approach is that it produces a wonderful treasure trove of tables, charts and figures. This makes it a perfect book to dip into again and again... One to leave in the loo for a while...
On the minus side, it's worth reminding ourselves that there are "lies, damned lies and statistics". All attempts to pin down the facts about any complex situation are always doomed to oversimplification or omission. Use wisely...
Having said that, there are various observations in this book that I feel it would be unwise to ignore. Here are just a few for starters:
1. Team Ministries (and LEPs) have not had a good track record for mission and growth. Jackson observes that that they require a great deal of time and energy to maintain and therefore have little capacity for mission. (His statistics prove this...)
2. Short Incumbancies are bad news: If ministers stay for less than five years, they won't have had time to get established and won't reach their peak. (He has the figures...)
3. Younger Clergy are generally ascociated with growing churches. In fact, he suggests that ministers are best at atracting people who are within ten years of themselves in age. This would suggest to me that if you want to reach out to people in their twenties and thirties, you need at least one thirty year old on your team...
4. Lengthy vacanices are bad: Long vacncies are not a good idea - he says. Although the recieved wisdom is that vacancies are good times for churches to grow, the evidence is that they generally shrink. Combine this with short incumbancies and you have a recipe for steady decline. (He has charts to prove it....)
5. Alpha Courses (and other nurture courses) don't produce growth by themselves - but they can be productive when they are well established and part of the core strategy of a church.
6. Churches that provide good youth work (and youth workers) normally have growing children's work - because younger children can see that they are being taken seriously long term...
7. Sunday Morning is the key time for growth and evangelism - except amongst teens and twenties...
8. Multi-plex churches are the way forward - provide variety
9. Small churches grow quickest. In fact, he says, most church growth in London has taken place in the small churches, not in the big (and sometimes well known) churches. Which means that we need more small churches...
...and there's much more worth picking out... Perhaps I'll return to this blog and add more...

One of his key observations is that the Church of England is stuck in a cycle of decline based on a continual need to raise shares to pay for clergy who are finding life more and more difficult - and being reduced in number as their responsibilities grow... More generous giving is seen as the main solution...

He contrasts this with a cycle of growth which would focus on church growth. In this cycle, parishes are renewed and fresh expressions encouraged. Costs are reduced and a "pay for what you use" approach taken for shares. Ordained Stipendiary Clergy numbers may go down, but a growing workforce of lay / part-time / task focused people would energise the life of the church...Of course, it strikes me that this is precicely what we've been talking about in the Deanery. The vision is to make Milton Keynes a sustainable, growing Deanery - hence the challenge to pay at least 80% of clergy costs - hence the focus on mission rather than structural ecumanism - hence the desire to change the way we use clergy and deanery posts - hence the Local Shared Ministry project... I may not agree with everything that Bob Jackson says in this book, but the central message is very familiar. We need to get from a cycle of decline to a cycle of growth - from a cycle of greif to a cycle of grace...

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!