Fifty Acts 29. Please Stop, my Ears are Bleeding.

I would like to think that,  somewhere in the world this morning, someone delivered their entire sermon in the form of a haiku.

That might serve to balance out the forty-seven minute monologue I sat through this morning.

With Powerpoint.

Fifty Acts 28. Another Evensong (Sort of)

York Minster is one of the main tourist attractions in York, yet it's still a Minster, a Cathedral (that contains at least two cathedra, possibly more if the Archbishop has another chair) and a church.  It all gets a bit confusing.

Every day there's usually four services, along with a short prayer every hour or so, and the other day we went to Evensong.  Except the minster choir is allowed time off for good behavior at half term, so the evening office was spoken instead. 

The service was pleasant, spiritual even, in the side chapel of this great cathedral space, but I'm just not organised enough for Anglican.  I get all in a muddle working from a prayer book, so I do seem to lose the moment.  But the normal congregation followed along fine, and the preacher did give instructions on how to follow along for those visiting.

The image above is the chapter house at York Minster

Fifty Acts 27. When to finish

Last week I sat myself down in front of the PC to write a service.  I had agreed to do pulpit supply for Fieldside and Lane End, and I was basing the service on the lectionary.  While I'm sure there's loads of topics  would like to preach upon, using the lectionary as my base means that I am challenged to explore the readings rather than have a rant about my pet theme.

So I got started off into the temptation of Jesus in the desert.  And as I wrote about Jesus in the desert, I had to keep going back to correct myself, as for someone on a fast, he often ended up in the dessert.  

And then I got on a bit of a roll.  Over the course of the week, I kept going back to the sermon and moved things, removed things and inserted things.  It was the insertions that I was most aware of.  While I don't think I went too far, anything over 15 minutes and a CofS congregation gets twitchy.  I have sat through a 45 minute sermon before, illustrated with handy annotations on a whiteboard, but the congregation as used to a long sermon.  In fact, many of them were taking notes as they went.  Somehow I don't think I could get away with that, especially since the Lane End service follows on after Fieldside, and there's roadworks, potentially requiring a considerable diversion.

So when do you stop?  Well I suppose the obvious answer is "when you are finished" but it's knowing when that finish is that's important.  I suppose that, if the topic was good enough, if I had a regular preaching role, I could do an occasional series of services based around a central theme.  But I'm not confident enough to do that yet, especially in Lent, and when I'm only covering for a friend.

I'd like to think that, in some way  God is giving me a bit of a steer as to what to say, but I'd also not like to be leaving out the bits he would like me to get over.

I need practice.  Bring on a placement.

Familiar?

Is this how a week as a minister starts?  Looking at Starters for Sunday (or similar) and trying to pad it out to three prayers, a children's address and a sermon?

I need to bodge together the running order today.  The sermon will require that I seek divine inspiration.

Looks like I need more tea.

Fifty Acts 26. Too Much Information

I've been to a number of funerals since I've started this project.  One, which should by rights have been the fourth of the Fifty Acts has never been published because I found the service to be too uncomfortable.  It's taken nearly five months to write this much.  There was nothing actually wrong with the service, but some of the content just didn't sit right with me, and I know it's probably down to me trying to say farewell to a friend, while at the same time observing one of my future colleagues doing her work.  I'm sorry if this is a bit vague, but that's the way this is going to stay.

I can see this blog closing in the not too distant future.  At the moment I'm one step removed.  I'm not really a "real" candidate in training.  All I'm doing is a couple of university modules, I'm not on placement.  Things become "real" in the autumn.  I'm going to have to be even more careful what I write. At the very least I'm going to move the pastoral stuff into my private journal, and keep more of the reflective stuff on here.

And that's why the fourth of the Acts will never see the light of day.  I'm not happy about publishing anything that could be even remotely personally identifiable. This journal is for my benefit, and hopefully for the benefit of those who are contemplating training.  It's not for entertainment, so I don't want to hurt people's feelings by publishing anything even remotely sensitive.  It will destroy people's confidence in me and the organisation I hope to be a part of.

And I'm very much aware that blogging isn't anonymous.  Anyone with a bit of savvy could work out exactly who I am, and from that work out roughly who I was writing about.  The same goes for anyone online.  The flip side of that is, I know exactly who reads this blog, where in the world they are coming from, what computer or phone they use, which operating system, their IP address, what they looked at and for how long.  There is absolutely no privacy online.

A few months ago I tried to make one post private, made a hash of it, and blocked the blog for a few hours.  (I was surprised that people actually noticed.)  Even though the blog has a privacy setting, anything that is published could still be copied onto one of the internet archives, and it's there for good.

So the bottom line is, if I wouldn't publish it in the local paper, or in the parish newsletter, it's not going in here.

Fifty Acts 25. Ten Thirty

 "So, have you been baptised by the Holy Spirit?"
"oh yes." says I

"I didn't think there were many who had been born again in the Church of Scotland...  Are there many like us training?"

"I'm sure there's about a hundred or so, at varying stages..." says I.

So there we were, the last song is being played by one of the most skilled musicians I have heard on this trip, and my pew mate leaned across and asked his question.  As I'm a visitor at this independent congregation, I'm not really wanting to cause a big stooshie over the merits of infant versus believers baptism.  What I do know is that there's a lot of people who believe that the infant baptism I received some time in 1976 probably isn't that valid, and if I want to be a REAL CHRISTIAN™ then I've got to be baptised again.  Not me.  The first time was good enough.

And I didn't want to debate the validity of the baptism of my fellow candidates.  I'm sure they are all fine.

But back to the start.  There's a few congregations I want to visit, and they all seem to start their service at 10.30, which leaves me little time to get a brew down my neck after the 9.30 in the City Centre.  So yet again, I received a warm welcome at the door, and was led inside to be introduced to a number of people including my new pewmate.  The music was excellent, all new tunes to me, but the band really knew how to play, although from out of nowhere, somewhere in the middle of the congregation, a tambourine appeared.  Are they still officially banned in the CofS on grounds of taste and decency?

But it was the practical help that the community offered that really got me.  While many congregations may offer prayers for someone who was in vulnerable accommodation getting a new council flat, they went the extra mile and asked if anyone could help transport a washing machine, lift it up the stairs, and if anyone knew how to plumb one in, then even better.  It's wee things like that which could make a congregation a community.

And you have just got to sing Happy Birthday to the birthday children.  It's the law.

The First Day

Today I got up late, Mrs G having gone into the city centre without me.

For nearly the past 10 years we have been going into work together, then work/uni together, but today I'm officially on holiday.  I'm on holiday until the end of March, then I'm no longer a Civil Servant.

For the past couple of months, I've been doing a bit of web design.  This is something I was singularly unqualified for, but managed to pull off, mainly because when it all goes wrong in computing, it's pretty easy to Google for the answer...

It's a bit odd, not having a job to go to, and it's something I don't want to get too used to.  So I've started looking for a new job.

The main thing I'm wanting to do however is get out on my bike, and if things go to plan, I'm aiming for 23 miles today.  Lets see if I can do 1000 miles by easter. (like that's going to happen!)

So in the meantime, if you have use for an under-employed Gerbil that can bluff his way through the creation of a wiki then I'm all ears.

Fifty Acts 24. An Evangelical Church (Part Two)

So having enjoyed the evolution sermon this morning, I decided I would like to attend a "normal" service at the Evangelical Church, and as luck would have it, they were having one the same evening.  I was surprised that Mrs G agreed with my invitation to come along, as I wasn't sure it was her thing. 

So after a pleasant afternoon that involved ice cream under the Forth Bridge (Try ice cream outdoors in a Scottish winter.  Invigorating) I returned to E.C accompanied by Mrs G.  After renewing some acquaintances from earlier in the day, worship started.  It was led by one of the congregation members, accompanied by a small praise band.  Unusually for a praise band, they only played pairs of tunes, rather than the customary three, and they were quite inconspicuous.  After a few hymns and prayers, there was an act of communion.  Rather than the worship leader blessing the bread, the congregation were asked if someone would bless the bread.  After a short pause, someone prayed for a blessing on the bread before it was distributed.  Then a slightly longer pause before someone blessed the wine.

The sermon followed, delivered by someone other than the worship leader, and while I think the content could have been abbreviated, his message of congregations perhaps losing their enthusiasm and focus after a couple of generations is one to remember.  Independent congregations (Not just independent IMHO) may start off with vim and vigour, but after a while they get a little too comfortable.  we all need to reinvigorate, and renew our enthusiasm.

What followed was a period of open worship.  A period of reflective silence, punctuated by a few people from the congregation saying prayers.  I wasn't sure how this would go, because it took 75 seconds before anyone said anything. it sounded like one person had prepared something, as it flowed and rhymed too neatly, however it didn't feel out of place.


So one congregation, two different services. 

(And I hope Mrs G will be along with her take in the comments section.)

Fifty Acts 23.5. A musical interlude

Yesterday, the short nature clip had a bit of reflective music played over it.  I liked it, and I tracked it down.

What scares me is that Me of all people went looking for Christian music....

I had never even heard of GodTube before.


MercyMe - I Can Only Imagine (LIVE) from mercymemusic on GodTube.

Some days, I even scare myself.

Fifty Acts 23. An Evangelical Church (Part one)

I had been to this particular church a long time ago, when a friend asked me along to hear a particular speaker.  Twenty or so years later and I've finally made a return visit.  You shouldn't rush these things.

I was welcomed at the door where I was told that today wasn't a normal day, as once a month, they focus on one theme for the whole service.  The most important thing, for me at least, was that they started with tea and pastries.

I was taken in to be introduced to a few members of the congregation, so there was no chance of anyone feeling unwelcome.  They certainly know how to admit a stranger into their midst.  Like many congregations I have visited, they are between pastors, however the new pastor takes post pretty soon.

The topic for the morning was evolution, so the service started off with a video showing the wonders of creation (I think it was the trail for the BBC "Africa" series) before the pastor started his lesson.  He had said that he finds it hard to believe that we are descended from apes, and used a number of examples of how he believed this was improbable.  At one point there was an image showing the timeline from the big bang to present.  The pastor said that he did find trouble understandig some of this, and for a lot of the science, I can't say I blame him.

Mid way through the presentation there was a video where Richard Dawkins was asked to explain how bacteria could evolve into something as complex as an ape.  Dawkins gave some possible examples of how complex life could have evolved, and he gave general examples of how life could have evolved.  It's hard to compress billions of years of life evolving into a few sentences, however Dawkins gave a good account suggesting this could have happened.  But it was this pretty insignificant uncertainty that was latched upon as supposed proof that Science is wrong and only religion is right.

One thing I did agree with him though was when he said there's a lot of people who won't approach God because they feel they are too imperfect.  God loves us just the way we are.

 I was chatting with the pastor afterwards, along with a few members of the congregation and I found them to be very nice people, and I would like to go back.  I'm not convinced that he prepared for a talk of this magnitude.

I have given a lot of thought to our existence, and I do like hearing about the physics of the big bang, and evolution.  This doesn't shake my faith, it only makes it stronger.  I thought the evolution "debate" was mainly confined to Kansas school books, so it's not something I expected to encounter directly in the UK, a developed nation.

The thing about a scientific theory is that it is an idea that is used to explain a set of observed evidence.  The evidence is the facts, not the theory.  So when a scientific theory is explained by someone saying "we believe that X happened..." religion jumps on this by saying "you aren't sure, so it must be wrong.  Only the Bible is fact!"    All the person that proposes the theory is saying is that this theory fits observations.  come up  with a better set of observations and the theory may be changed.  Even gravity is only a theory which we are not entirely sure of.

The thing is, I don't see anything wrong with a universe of  nearly 14bn years old, and evolution.  If God kicked off the universe with a big bang, it's his playing field, so he can set all the rules leading up to this point.  What if it turned out that God really did make us the pinnacle of his creation, but he used a chimp as a prototype?  Let's get over it, and remember we're loved the way we are.

To be continued.