Funeral Compliments.

Besides family funerals, today was the first funeral that I have taken part in where I have actually met the deceased beforehand.  The funerals I have been involved in have been parish funerals, where the family may have had limited contact with the church, and while the deceased may have visited the church at some point, they haven't been there during my tenure.

Simon was different.  It was actually during my first supervision session at the manse that there was a knock at the door.  Simon's had just moved into the care home down the street, and she wondered if we could meet with her to help prepare Simon's funeral.

And so later that day I met Simon.  We talked about the Six Nations matches with the optimism that only two Scotsmen can use when talking about sport.  He wanted to have the chance to see the local team, but that was weather permitting.

When it actually came to write his funeral tribute, it was easier having a face and a personality to link to the stories that are you hear third party.  I knew he had a full life, and it was easier that other tributes I had written.

The funeral was conducted with my supervisor doing the preliminaries, and me doing the rest, but it was only afterwards that I realised that I hadn't introduced myself or been introduced.  After the service, a man approached me and asked how long I had known Simon.  I had to tell him that I had only met him a couple of times.  HE told me that the tribute came across as if I had known him well, although I confessed that was mainly due to the incredible set of notes I had been given.

Tonight, it's a session meeting.  Parish life continues.

One Thousand

Two sides to the church

Fifteen rows to a side

thirty children to a row - a couple of rows had only 28 adults, but their backsides take up more pew room.

Plus all the flag bearers in the balcony.

Plus the rest of the balcony was full of parents, (with the exception of the bit where they keep the Tardis we made for the nativity a few years ago, and which has never been thrown out) so there were nearly 150 upstairs.

So there must have been nearly or slightly over 1000 people at Lane End church where I got to speak about fun and adventure to a group of enthusiastic Beavers, Cubs and Scouts.  We just couldn't fit them all into Bramblehill.

I am pleased to say that tonight proves that big audiences do not scare me.

The planning for tonight also demonstrated why no experience in your past life will ever go to waste in your training for ministry.  Even if that experience happened to be the time I was judge and photographer for a glamorous grandmother contest...  There is a story here, for another time.

Managing Expectations Tuesday.

I am just about to hammer together the order of service for Sunday coming.


This week is the start of Lent, in case it had escaped your notice.  I had best mention that.


There is also a requirement to do something about Fair Trade.

And having recieved comment from the choir the other week, I need less tunes that are in unison.

They would also appreciate more tunes played in a major key. 

Throw in some intercessions based on topical events, and a children's address that may morph into an opening thought for the adults, depending on whether there are any children.

All this was planned to be done last night, but a failed attempt to synchronise my pc with my tablet resulted in my pc needing a system restore.  That was when I gave up.

First thing first.  I'm going to brew up. This may require a lot of tea.

Rumbled.

I've been found out, and I suppose it had to happen sooner or later...

My supervisor was updating the website for Bramblehill Church today to include a bit about me.  To add a bit of colour to the page, she did a Google image search for Ordained Local Ministry Church of Scotland, thinking that there would be a logo.   Instead, she found a picture of a gerbil - the original Spot the Gerbil, and wondered what that had to do with the CofS.


While this blog does stray off topic from time to time, there's nothing on here that I wouldn't share with my supervisor, or would be worried about them finding.  There are situations that I would never share on a public forum like this, and where they would be useful for reflective practice, they are kept on a word file somewhere on my pc.

I will still be blogging, and I hope to be a bit more regular than I have been over the summer.

And now that my supervisor has brought the idea up, should OLM's have their own logo or badge of office?

Welcome to the Party

I am pleased to say that a good friend of mine has been accepted to train as an ordained Local Minister. 

Your journey (with its accompanying tsunami of paperwork :-)  ) continues, and I hope you are blessed with an interesting, challenging and worthwhile road ahead.

With every blessing,

Spot.

Fifty Acts of Worship. A Review.

I have spent the last year trying to attend as many different acts of worship as possible.  For most churchgoers, fifty acts in a year is not that hard, after all, you will probably attend church most weeks, with additional services at Easter, Christmas, and if you are lucky a wedding, or unlucky a funeral.  The problem I have is that I'm supposed to be training for the ministry, so my attendance at worship is going to be pretty limited from now on.  Next month I start my first placement, and while I will be present during worship, I'm going to be working.  I've been lucky to have been in a position where I can devote a year to observing such a variety of worship.

I'm in a fortunate position to be in the central belt, about an hour from Glasgow and half an hour from Edinburgh.  The time I have spent up north recently has shown that some people take having an abundance of churches for granted. In the central belt, often if you think your local church is too liberal or conservative for your tastes, you can go over the road to another.  Go outwith the central belt, and you may already have to travel some miles to get to a church.  While it is sad to see empty churches in rural areas, I visited a couple of clearance villages over the summer, and these would have had many hundreds in their population, and all attending the local church.  Once the land was cleared for sheep farming, the houses were demolished, the people relocated to the coastal fringes or beyond, and all that is left to show there was once a thriving population is a disused church. 

If the church, and not just the Church of Scotland, wishes to continue to serve the most vulnerable in our society, then it should be ensuring that there are flexible and dynamic forms of ministry that will serve those who are in need of the help of the church.  I'm not entirely sure if I'm being called to a rural area, and in some ways I hope not, but I'd at least like to be able to work with other denominations to bring God's church to our communities.  This year has demonstrated that there are congregations from all backgrounds who wish to work together, not just in rural areas, but in our towns as well.  Street pastors and food banks are operated by churches for the welfare of our entire communities.  It's a joy to see people working as a team, regardless of their faith background.

When it comes to worship, we are not that different.  We may think that the Catholic and Episcopal churches are very structured, and that the reformed churches have done away with all that.  In actual fact, we have our own structures, and there will be complaints if the running order changes from one week to the next..   If you want to keep a congregation on its toes, thrown in an extra hymn.  What about the independent churches?  Well they are roughly the same, and while the music may be more modern, and the songs tend to come in groups of three, you are still prayerfully lead towards a sermon, and remember in prayer those in the world around us.  And somewhere, the offering will be received.

Throughout the year, I've been made exceptionally welcome. In a year where the Church of Scotland has continued its debates on sexuality, the fact that I am a part of the CofS has not caused me to be shunned by those I have met.  I have had the question "Are you saved???" asked of me a few times, and while I have often been tempted to answer with "Well I'll be fracked if I know.  How about you?" I'm pretty confident that I'm not the worst person that will ever approach the  pearly gates.  Perhaps a couple of people may have seemed a little convinced that their attendance at a particular congregation gets them some extra heavenly brownie points, but other members of these congregations as a whole are not so hard-line in their attitudes.

I have seen some great examples of community action.  In a small independent congregation I heard about the mission work they support, but also from within the congregation how they would pull together to give practical help to those in need, in particular with organising a flitting for a young mother who had been granted a housing association flat.  I'd like to take the community spirit that often exists amongst smaller congregations and try to ensure this till takes place in larger ones.  That people can feel a part of a community, without feeling they are in too big a group to be helped.

Church tea is a bit hit or miss, wherever you go.  Honestly, I'm not going to spill it, so please fill my small cup more than half full.  And you will need more than one teabag for that gallon teabag.  Tea leaves are hand picked by hard working women, so their careful effort should not be vain. 

Church pews are often a pain in the proverbials, regardless where you go.  I may invest in a comfy cushion. 

In general though, it's ben a year of hope.  Church attendance may be down, but what is left is a strong core that is a good guide to the local demographics.  I was pleased to attend a church the other week that was full of young families, and the church was at the centre of a new and growing community.  And that's where churches are and should continue to be God's church should be grounded in fait, at the heart of our communities, while reaching out to those on the fringes of society and giving care.  We shouldn't be doing this with an aim to get bums on seats, but instead sharing the love because God first loved us.  Fifty acts of worship later has shown that the worship isn't actually the important thing, but instead it's how we take that message out into the communities, and work together as one church for the benefit of all those around us.

The new project starts in September. Watch this space...

Fifty Acts 47. Pick up Your Church and Walk

The church I was in this morning has a bit of a history.  It's a Tin Tabernacle, one of the many prefabricated buildings that were made out of corrugated iron in the late Victorian era and were exported throughout the world.  It's not just ships and trains that Glasgow exported to the world.  Schools, hospitals and churches were made flat packed and shipped everywhere.  The church I was in this morning was originally located 15 miles down the road, and was moved in the early 1900's.  The church is still very original inside, and is in very good condition.

The church is Episcopal, and the service was a quiet reflection.  Some parts were communal from a service sheet, there was a short reflection on the Good Samaritan, with a long period of silence.  I like being given a bit of time to find my space, and despite the traffic thundering past on the main road outside, and the persistent ticking of the electric meter, it was pleasant.

Afterwards, we had a brew with the local priest.  While we have joked about the size of Mrs Gerbil's combined parishes, Steve is responsible for an area that,(as best as I can work out) if it was a country, it would be larger than many countries that are UN members and who have their own international dialing codes.  This includes (+670) and (+1-242), although not quite as large as (+268)*1.  The City of Edinburgh is tiny by comparison, about the size of (+1-345).

Steve has lived here for a few years and gave us a fresh insight into the community.  There were some things we agreed upon that the local communities could benefit from, and he let us know about recent developments in the community, and how events and decisions taken many years ago still have an impact on a community, and can still be hurtful.  The three of us could certainly see that there are times that all the various denominations could work together within a community, although we also agreed that there were people who may disagree with this approach.

Steve is a genuinely nice guy, someone with a genuine concern for his communities, and someone with vision that it would be a pleasure to work with.

And as we sat there drinking our tea, and discussing God's work, this came on the Jukebox... You've got to laugh...


*1 I worked it out to be 15,000 square km putting him 159th on the list.

Fifty Acts 44. Homeward bound.

Today I had thought about visiting potential placement minister A at church B but instead went to my home church C where I found minister A sitting at the end of pew D of church C on a bit of study leave.  So we passed the time of day, discussing church projects relating to alzheimers. 

It's been ages since I've sat through an ordinary Sunday service at Lane End, so it was good to see the usual faces.  And I've got another idea for a children's address which involves two funnels and 100 foot of garden hose.  While effective in it's message, I'm just not entirely sure how it's going to work when it's on the hospital radio later.

It was afterwards the the conversation got a bit surreal.  I was having a brew with a huddle of little old ladies who were discussing the health of Prince Philip, when the subject of the Queen's coronation celebration came up.  "What i want to know..." asked one lady, "...is how all those old men managed to sit through that service without needing a leak.  Did they all have a bag or something?"  I did note that they would have been forbidden to use the umbrella stand as it is currently the asparagus season.

The conversation then descended, or ascended, into:

•  a graphic account of why peas and colostomy bags can have explosive results.
• The tale of a local lady who was on the throne when a builder stuck a pressure hose up the main sewer.
• The importance to fighter pilots of ensuring you do not mix up your oxygen pipe and your relief tube.
• The necessity of bagging urine and other matter during the Apollo 13 flight, for fear of causing course alterations.
• The legend of someone who was in an aircraft loo when severe turbulence struck, causing them to be covered in blue toilet liquid (amongst other things...)

I'm only taking credit for the Apollo story.

You've got to love the little old ladies!

Fifty Acts 42. WTF? at Airside

OK, the usual bit out of the way first. Nice building at Airside Church, friendly people. Talented Minister with an appropriate and well delivered sermon.  We've been to this church before, so no surprises.

So as the service finished, I saw someone I've not seen for about 10 years.  We were at college together so I said Hi to Brian and we exchanged plesantries about what we'd both been up to.  We were discussing the merits of various bible colleges in Scotland and their apparent theologies when Monday's General Assembly debate came up.  Then the conversation got decidedly frosty, almost hostile.

I was treated to someone with an entrenched position on the idea of gay ministers.  He's considering leaving the CofS because the church may be advocating gay clergy.  Now the first thing is the motion from the GA has not been passed to presbyteries yet, so we've got nothing to debate.  But Brian had a position and it wasn't for debate.  I'll not re-hash the rant, but it's probable you've heard it, or a variety of it.  It was a re-hash of the inaccurate parts of the reporting that followed the GA debate on Monday, which convenieltly fit his position.  It certainly did not reflet the motion agreed by the Assembly.  On top of that, Jesus wasn't Jewish, and  eventually stopped preaching in temples.  Seriously?

I've been to some varied congregations this year,but this was by far the most hostile reaction I've had so far.  I wasn' expecting this from within a CofS building.

My problem is that Brian is an Elder of the church.The Eldership promise in part is "...To seek the unity and peace of the church; To uphold its doctrine, worship, Government and discipline...”  There may be things about the church that I'm not keen on, but I have the option of contributing to the debate, accepting I'll not win every debate and moving on, or I can resign from the church.  Brian made it clear that he did not want to leave the church because he was there at the construction of the church premises.  But he was considering going to another denomination.

Perhaps I tend to take an over-simplified view of the world, but if an elder apparently is not willing to seek unity in the church, or to uphold the Government of the church, then they should not be in the role.  They have ceased to represent me.  In his position, Brian does not appear to be willing to negotiate, and sees his time in the church as in some way making his viewpoint more important. 

At a point in a debate involving young people, someone will express the opinion that the children are the future of the church.  So when are those members of the old guard who have entrenched opinions going to hand over the reigns of the church?  When they have bled the life out of it, and the young are given the drained corpse of a once great institution?  If those responsible for the leadership and pastoral care of congregations are not prepared to engage in debate, then the church has no future.

It is the debate that makes the Church of Scotland the solid organisaton it is.  We don't rush into things.  We talk about them. I accept that people will have firm, well reasoned opinions, on both sides of every debate.  But when the courts of the Church have made a decision, then we have to move on and work together.

So why is it, that there's some of us who are prepared to be flexible, and to listen to the opinions of others, and to work with those who we may not actually agree with?  But on the other hand, why has this issue has caused some people to dig their heels in and not engage in debate?  I don't actually want Brian to leave the church.   I'm not going to wish he leaves.  But I do want him to use his experience to be an effective representative in the courts of the church.  And that means listening, prayerfuly reflecting, contributing based on his knowledge of the facts, and then moving on when the debate doesn't go his way.

Fifty Acts 40. Heart and Soul

Apparently we are all falling out.  Apparently we are a church divided.  Well it wasn't in evidence on Sunday at Heart and Soul.

This being the third time the Kirk has run an event on the General assembly Sunday, Mrs G and I were prepared.  First off to the HIV/Aids programme for a soup lunch.  We had our sandwiches by the Ross Fountain, a very nice bit of cake from Dunfermline Abbey, then of to Church and Society for a brew and Bun.  We declined fudge and cheese from the Orkney stall.  On top of all this, we went out for dinner afterwards.  On Monday I dieted...

After seeing some wonderful presentations from gathered congregations and organisations, and getting to catch up with ministers and kirk members that we have crossed paths with, we hardly had time to walk the length of the event and back before the final act of worship.  At one point we had four bloggers blethering in a circle when a fifth walked by - perhaps there needs to be a bloggers tent.  There really was a lot crammed into the park, including a couple of penguins....

The final act of worship takes place on the Ross Bandstand.  It's a big, public act of worship that is popen to all, and is visible to all in Edinburgh, from the Castle to Primark.  We are a big Kirk, and it's good that a large representative body of ministers and members can gather and show that we have more in common than we have differences.  I'm glad this appears to have become a permanent fixture on the kirk calendar. 

Fifty Acts 36. It's Like The Burlesque Show...

I'll explain the title later...

Today I revisited a church I visited at the start of this project.  To gain an extra perspective on things, I took along select members of the Gerbil Appreciation Society.  My Mum, Mum's friend, my Mother in Law, and my Godmother.

We all agreed that the guest preacher was outstanding.  Clear, with a no nonsense preaching style who was clearly capable of making even the most assured Christian re-examine their chances of salvation and to make them turn from their wicked ways.

And while the welcome on the door was friendly, there was no clear start to the service.  Atr the front of the church, between the pews and the pulpit, the raised floor was fully occupied by two guitarists and three singers, with the communion table shoved off into a corner.  It felt more like a concert than an act of worship.  Now I've seen many praise bands on this trip, and they have mainly been off to one side, or felt part of the worship.  This just felt disjointed.  After each couple of songs, the guitarist felt he needed to tell us what we should be thinking about.  Then after the sermon, he took it upon himself to explain exactly what we should now be thinking after listening to the preacher's message.  Really?  I'll decide what I want to think, thanks very much.

As the Gerbil Appreciation Society put it.  "it was like that burlesque show I went to see.  I've seen it once, and that was enough."

I never thought the comparison could be made between worship and a burlesque show.  I'm glad everyone this morning remained fully clad...

Next week I'm heading north.

Fifty Acts 32. A Week in a Day

This morning started out on a high.  Palm Sunday and a triumphal procession which, while uplifting, was a little bit windswept.  One of the younger members of the congregation was being blown along unassisted in his pushchair, and as we rounded the corner of the church and I looked north to the snow covered hills, I wondered what the weather was like in Jerusalem today.  (22c with a light breeze)  But this isn't about that service.  Instead, it's about the evening service.

Tonight I was "Roadie" as Mrs Gerbil did the evening service.  The service was a reflection on Easter Saturday from the perspective of the women.  Mrs G wanted music played, so I took along my Dad's PA system which comprises of a reasonable sized amp, two CD players, and a small mixer contained in a substantial MDF cabinet.  I remember him saying that he planned on lightening the cabinet, or at least fitting wheels as the thing weighs a ton, but we never got round to it.  At least the church hall has level access, as the process of getting the thing down my stairs and into the car, then back up was backbreaking. You will never meet an unfit roadie...

Saturday is often overlooked at Easter.  It's all too easy to go from the joy of Palm Sunday to the joy of the resurrection on Easter Sunday with out the death on Friday and the emptiness of Saturday.  Basing the service on Mark's gospel, and with reflections from the perspective of the women, we traveled through the Easter story as if told on Saturday.  Amongst all that, the music included a small contribution from the band Nine Inch Nails...

Did I like it?  Yes, and I'm not just saying that because it's Her Indoors that took the service.  It was moving and atmospheric.  And I was able to get into it despite having one hand on the mixing desk.  But I probably wouldn't have liked it last year, at a time when I thought the only real format for a service was five hymns, three prayers, two readings and a sermon.

I think I'm changing.

What have I become, my sweetest friend?

Fifty Acts 31. Bringing it all Together

This weekend I left Mrs G nursing two sick gerbils as I went off to conference.  One gerbil has recovered nicely from ear surgery, while the other is on antibiotics for an unrelated belly infection. 

The OLM trainees don't get out to play together that often, so it was good to get together this weekend.  Gartmore House, where we gathered, was once an approved school, so we fitted right in. 

We had daily acts of worship over the weekend, once in the comfy armchairs in the lounge, while another, the act of Communion at the end of the weekend took place in a circle around the conference table.

It's small acts of worship that I seem to get the most out of.  While we learned a lot about team working and personalities, it's the thread of worship that ties the whole lot together and reminds me that, in a couple of years, it's going to be me leading worship.

But regardless how the weekend went, I'm glad to get back to my own bed. 

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 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.

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 22. Minehead North

Friday and Saturday the snow was very much in the way.  In the early hours of Sunday morning, however, the rain has washed away much of the snow, leaving piles of slush.  It was into this that I stepped out to walk to Minhead North.  Part way there, the sleet came at me horizontally, and I found myself in a bus stop outside the Baptist Church waiting for the worst to pass over.  I got enough of a reprieve to continue my journey, otherwise I would be visiting my third baptist congregation.

Minehead High Street runs uphill, with a railway bridge in the middle.  I am told that you could at one point stand at the bottom of the hill and see the top of the street under the railway bridge.  Due to mining subsidence, the ground level has dropped so much in the middle, that this is no longer possible.  The ground level must have dropped by about 3-4 metres.

While musing on this, it was amusing for me at least to have "Don't build your house on the sandy land" as the childrens hymn.  Surely round here they are aware of having stable foundations.

The Congregation is worshiping in the hall, due to extensive renovations in the sanctuary.  The hall was packed, and it appeared there was a disporportionate number of men present, because the male part of "o for a thousand tongues to sing" was especially resonant today.

The congregation were especially welcoming, and I heard some good stories of people's faith journeys.  One woman, who was particularly new to the faith found getting into the bible to be a bit difficult.  I think because she had started amongst the letters, so I suggested some parts to read, the gospels mainly, and explained which one we think was written first.  Last term studying Mark didn't go to waste.

I'm starting to draw up a mental list of places where I'd like to do a placement, and this was one I would like to consider.  It would be nice to have a placement that is in bicycle range.  My home presbytery is actually the next one east from here, and I would rather not have to trek miles to get to a church.  It can make for a long day after a day at work.  So I'll keep this in mind.

Fifty Acts 20. Choral Evensong

I have been working in Edinburgh for years, and for the majority of that time I drove past St Mary's Cathedral.  There's something odd about the way the wind blows there, because each time I drove past the door, the bike would be hit by a gust of wind, as if it was coming from their doors.  It was pretty odd, but I could predict the point on the junction that it would hit the bike and would be expecting it.

St Mary's is a spectacular building inside, Sir George Gilbert Scott at his best, and I'd like to return to spend some time taking in the atmosphere.

Well on Sunday, Mrs G and I took the bike over to Edinburgh for the 3.30 Choral Evensong. I'm starting to get the hang of Episcopal services, and I'm a bit better at keeping up, although I do make sure I've got people around me so I know when to stand or sit. 

For me, I had a strong feeling that the worship was being conducted purely for my benefit.  That everyone involved in the service was doing it for me.  I always feel part of worship, but this was something different, that they were trying to save me.  A feeling of being minstered to, rather than being ministered with.  That's not to say that I think any other worship is in any way lacking.

What am I trying to say here?  I don't know, but it's my blog and I'll ramble if I want to.

It was...  just.

I'm starting to like the Episcopal way of doing things.