a blog by howard jameson @ gatheringgrace.org

Keeping an eye on the Masons...

Slightly spooky moment this morning. Popped into town to collect some stuff from a hall (had the key to let myself in), but the other half of the building is used by the Masons...and their door was ajar...I stuck my head round to check whether it had been left unlocked by accident, called out 'hello', but no reply. I didn't want to go in any further.

So there was this room with a big table and a big portrait of a man and wood panelled walls, all sort of tidy and polished. Not sure whether I should really be publishing this in the public domain...there can't be any harm in it, surely...

...aaargh, no, no...the eyes, the eyes.....aaarrrghhhh!...the eyes....

Back To Church Sunday - how was it for us?

Well I guess we have to give BTCS some good marks because (for whatever reason) we had new people at all three main services (one was a Harvest Evening one so we didn't push the BTCS idea too much for that one).

I am not sure how high over the horizon the BTCS advertising and air play was seen or heard, but the important element (for us at least) is to encourage people to actually take the time and care to invite people any time, not just BTCS. It is really amazing how unwilling most seem to be to doing this. We made a real effort to encourage inviting when we rejigged our Carol Service a couple of years back and lots of folk were brought, but then people said they thought there were too many there so didn't invite people the next year (or assumed somebody else would).

I loved the simplicity of the invitation process ("here's something I love, will you come with me?") but it would be a shame to think we do that on BTCS.

Having said all that one or two absolute pearls - the lovely older lady who invited the younger mum next door (we'd already had contact with her through one avenue, but into Church was good too). 

We will be doing some more encouraging to invite in the weeks ahead. Let's make BTCS every week!

Thinking cap urgently required

Doing Collective Worship at the Secondary School this week, which means five pretty much identical stints - by Saturday what I have to say is honed to virtual perfection.

The theme I have is Harvest, but not sure what I said last night is quite as transferrable as I had hoped - so need some inspiration...

...pretty quickly...

...like, er, now please.

This is what I like to see!

(Don't get too excited by the title).

Actually reminds me of pulling into the carpark near the Church in Wareham in the hearse on the way back from a funeral. We passed a lady leaning into the back of her car to get something at which point one of the bearers said something like...

"I could do with some of that".

He was actually looking beyond her at the plywood on display outside the little hardware shop. I digress.

This is what I like to see!

It might not look much to you but this is the new (temporary) layout at the front of one of my Churches. The pews have been moved to make more space and the floor has been cleaned up, repaired and polished. Looks stunning.

Reasons I like this.

1. investing time and effort (as well as our money) is important - for the buildings and for us.
2. this particular Church had a reputation for being a bit stuck in the mud (may have been once but is actually very sweet)
3. none if this was my idea
4. none of the labour involved was mine
5. they just asked my opinion and then got on and did it

(the small print - I did do one thing which was to apply for the correct licence from the Archdeacon to fiddle with things, so it is all legit as long as we do the paperwork before the next 18 months is out).

It was lovely to use the space this morning as we looked at various images of Jesus that I placed around the walls.

Another surreal Sunday

The occasion quirk of the rotas means that at 10am ("prime slot") on a Sunday morning I am doing a bit of meet and greet at the Church (School this week) door before coming home to get ready for 11am.

This always feels a bit strange and surreal - even funnier when you bump into people who wait until 5 past to sneak off to the shops or out into the garden thinking nobody from Church will spot them. Perhaps I should post some photos...

Harvest time again

A couple of repeated Harvest quips in the pipeline as I start the annual shindig.

I am unable to introduce the hymn 289 (in A&MNS) 'Come, ye thankful people, come' without mentioning F's dad. The hymn contains the line 'all is safely gathered in', and as he would usually still have some crops out waiting to be harvested (silly choice of week for a Harvest service) then he would refuse to sing the line.

I also always say something about sitting down to try and write a Harvest talk different from last year, but I can't because Harvest has to be about gratitude. Well, it doesn't have to be, but our lifestyles have insulated us from a dependence on the Harvest, which bizarrely has succeeded in making us a set of most ungrateful whingers...

"I couldn't make the guacamole dip because there were simply no avocados worth having in Waitrose"

But Harvest in the readings set for this year is not just about crops. I am still trying to work out how I can make the Joel reading mean anything. People without gratitude have little inclination for the hope that makes a reading about God changing the world so that the crops never fail so powerful.

The Matthew reading is more clearly pertinent in terms of a direct call to those who are comfortable already, and hence more concerned with the anxieties of losing what we have.

This is one of the struggles with Harvest, having sat through enough Village Harvests to know the impatience when anything non-agricultural is mentioned (I would want to recognise the debt we have to our farmers, but it isn't just that) and yet reading in Scripture where Harvest is a metaphor for much more; justice and a calling to account, for example.

Bring on the wall!

While we are on an insect theme I thought I'd share our humourous on-going gag throughout the summer...

Its our Bring on the wall! style fly swatter. If the fly is able to hold the position of the little fly shaped cut out in the swatter then it will escape scot free - and good luck to it.

No silver lycra body suits allowed, thank goodness.

Or orange presenters.

Shelob's lair: a metaphor for life?

Two mornings ago this spider scared the pants off the children queuing to come into Church for School Harvest. The web was between the Church gatepost and a footpath sign a couple of feet away...

(I was going to put a photo of Tarzan as played by Johnny Weismuller stuck in some enormous web, but I can't find one)

Then yesterday morning the sun shone and the mist drifted, and the web became a magical design...

Sorry. That sounds really twee now I've written it...

Thinking about camping

I have tried Googling stuff to see what other people's ideas for ideal camping set up are, but without any significant inspiration, so I am going to try the opposite approach of airing my questions on the off chance that somebody might have an idea.

So my ideal would be something like this...

a) it needs to be attached in some way to the Land Rover (so that I can persuade Soul Survivor and/or Greenbelt that it qualifies as a camper van). This might possibly the use of a camo tarp as an awning (add a couple of poles one side and attach the other to the roofrack of the Landy) which would give us a "field kitchen" (the car acting as one side wall) with ready access to 12V off the battery. I like the idea of a large cooking and dining area for bigger parties, but that is one of the things I really love about camping.

b) I like the idea of a roof tent that would look like a dormer type of camper van rather than the safari sort that extend over the side (not practical with our roof rack I think which I need for the frequent transportation of multiple mountain bikes).

c) therefore some decent quality tent which would allow standing room in the middle and with (I think) two 2-man inner tent bedrooms (so that I can leave one out when I'm on my own and need extra baggage storage).

d) what advice is there about using a toilet tent? Seems to be a significant precondition of somebody coming with me, I'm afraid.

Am I missing anything?

A Clergy pay freeze?

Some interesting discussions about various ideas being floated for a freeze to the Clergy stipends this year. It would seem that there are 101 reasons for this along the lines of solidarity with Parishioners who are suffering a similar (or worse) plight - and of course none of them are to do with money, right?

Ok if you came into Ministry for the pay and perks then you're on a hiding to nothing. Five or so years ago we had a Diocesan review where every conceivable factor which might cause the Parish Share to go up was considered and the increase for that year was calculated accordingly. One of these factors was the then still to be agreed proposal for a larger than usual increase in Clergy stipend. Well wouldn't you know it, the increase was reduced and as a result the Parish Share increase was below that which was predicted. Galling it was indeed to sit in a meeting where people were cock-a-hoop at the Share not going up too much - nobody thought to consider how the Clergy present in the room might feel about it. Let's be clear - the Church of England is strapped for cash not because of the Church Commissioners, but because the level of giving as a whole is scandalously low.

So I am not in favour of a pay freeze, although like many bankers I am willing to forego any possible bonus that may be considered (ha ha - as if). I would be happy to pledge any rise in stipend to support some charity working with those suffering most from the current financial situation (as long as that isn't Porsche salesmen) - and I guess I could then Gift Aid it too (tee hee - cheers Gordon).