Churchgoing stabilises after years of decline, research shows? #dmingml
via telegraph.co.uk
Just how low can involvement in the Church in the UK go? A faint glimmer in one piece of research is contained in this article
Jason Clark
Trying to make safe spaces for diverse and healthy conversations about church, culture, mission, theology and motorbikes
Truly beautiful angels do not think of themselves as beautiful #dmingml
After posting about my reflections on Maggi Dawn reflecting on the Annunciation, I tracked this other beautiful poem Maggi referenced. It's by Noel Rowe, and he explains his thoughts on his composition process whereby:
'I began to think of the angel as someone who entered deeply into an ordinary moment, someone who might almost go unnoticed, messenger of a God as tactful as he was graceful. “The angel did not draw attention to himself.” Claritas, like caritas, loses its integrity if it looks to itself.
Truly beautiful angels do not think of themselves as beautiful. Perhaps I was hoping the angel would remind me that those who want to be fully alive and glorify God need to practise self-forgetfulness, otherwise they are likely to mistake the angel for a guarantee of their own holiness, to grab hold of him and prevent him passing, like beauty, through their veins'
So:
The angel did not draw attention to himself.
He came in. So quietly I could hear
my blood beating on the shore of absolute
beauty. There was fear, yes, but also
faith among familiar things:
light, just letting go the wooden chair,
the breeze, at the doorway, waiting to come in
where, at the table, I prepared a meal,
my knife cutting through the hard skin
of vegetable, hitting wood, and the noise
outside of children playing with their dog,
throwing him a bone. Then all these sounds
dropped out of hearing. The breeze
drew back, let silence come in first,
and my heart, my heart, was wanting him,
reaching out, and taking hold of smooth-muscled fire.
And it was done. I heard the children laugh
and saw the dog catch the scarred bone.
What is the Church? #dmingml
What is the Church?: Hebrew 10:19-25, podcast/audio from my teaching last sunday that tries to respond to that question is here.
Our church community is exploring the possibility of a major undertaking with a facility that we want to develop as a community centre, town hall, worship centre, arts centre, conference centre etc. And our church community is located at a time and place when most people in the UK have little to do with Church, and when a large numbers of Christians think we don't need Church at all. So why do we bother? Is there something about Church that we need and our community needs? What is that? If we are going to undertake this next step as a Church community, we need to revisit this and be sure of what we are doing and why.
I took the text of Hebrew 10:19-25 to start to explore that question, as we seek the welfare of our city/community (Jer 29). Probably most most passionate plea and explanation of how I understand the nature and purpose of Church.
Celebrating my 20th wedding anniversary today
So as you can see from the photo, I have changed very little since I was 21, and my wedding day 20 years ago.
We've reached that stage where jokes about people getting less for murder become possible, but are only apposite for my long suffering wife.
How did 20 years go by so fast, in which we have made a life together, raised a family, planted a church, and with all the vicissitudes and blessings thereof. I consider myself a blessed man, and wonder if we might get another 40 years together, and what the rest of life might bring us.
So dearest Beverly,
Je t'aime plus chaque jour
aujourd'hui plus qu'hier
moins que demain
Are we not like two volumes of one book? ~Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
Caption competition, what's going on here? #dmingml
I love this photo of me talking with Martyn Percy, but it needs a caption. Any suggestions?
The most important talk of my life? #dmingml
A photo from last Saturday night. Me explaining to international friends how to navigate a curry house menu at the oldest Punjabi north Indian restaurant in the UK.
Anyone I can follow on Ping?
OK so I'm going to try out the iTunes Ping service. At present I'm billy no mates, so someone come and keep me company :-)
Apple need to get an easier way for people to follow each than open and search iTunes. Anyhow, want to be my first Ping follow, and I'll remember you for ever ;-)
Beyond the shore of space: The Annunciation #dmingml
Maggi Dawn gave our DMin GML students the background to her stunning new book (an exploration of the Christianity embedded in so much of art and culture that most people are unaware of), before taking us through an exploration of the Annunciation.
What would have been a series of strange paintings, and poems that I might have appreciated for their beauty and colour, and use of language, came alive, as I was able to read/de-code/re-code and enter into the art.
By the time we got to the poem below by Edwin Muir, I was moved to tears. The possibility of an Angel who may have come to Mary after many others had said no, with all of creation and heaven hushed and listening for Mary's answer was palpable for me. And when Mary said yes, the creator of the universe, by the Spirit forming Christ in Mary, a cosmic and eternal event, in the space of the womb of an unknown peasant girl....moved me to worship, and felt myself translated for a moment into a story of the fabric of creation .
There are two pieces of art in this post. One makes me feel the immediacy and intimacy of Gabriel in with Mary, the other furnishes my imagination my love of science, of what the Annunciation might have looked like from a galactic perspective.
The angel and the girl are met, Edwin Muir (1887-1959)
Earth was the only meeting place.
For the embodied never yet
Travelled beyond the shore of space.
The eternal spirits in freedom go.
See, they have come together, see,
While the destroying minutes flow,
Each reflects the other's face
Till heaven in hers and earth in his
Shine steady there. He's come to her
From far beyond the farthest star,
Feathered through time. Immediacy
Of strangest strangeness is the bliss
That from their limbs all movement takes.
Yet the increasing rapture brings
So great a wonder that it makess
Each feather tremble on his wings
Outside the window footsteps fall
Into the ordinary day
And with the sun along the wall
Pursue their unreturning way
Sound's perpetual roundabout
Rolls its numbered octaves out
And hoarsely grinds its battered tune
But through the endless afternoon
These neither speak nor movement make.
But stare into their deepening trance
As if their grace would never break
Social Media Boot Camp fully booked
The Social Media Boot Camp I set up for Saturday is now fully booked.
Sorry if you are trying/wanting to book, and if you are booked in I look forward to see you there.
climate, humour, and the 'terroir' of Church
I'm just listening to Martyn Percy talk with our D.Min GML students about the climate, smell, temperature and 'terroir' of Church life. You can catch the thoughts from Students at our 'Taggregator' site.
I'll post the MP3 and notes later, riveting and stimulating stuff.
