a blog by howard jameson @ gatheringgrace.org

Sometimes you simply forget...

Lovely to catch up with old, old friends this week. We walked (sadly the dogs came too) and we dug out a pub we hadn't been to for years and enjoyed food and a beer. We got round to discussing work (inevitably).

"Do you manage to get your day off every week?", they asked caringly.

"Usually, although last week we did some work in the evening - but its ok because it was fun".

"It is allowed to be fun sometimes", they corrected me.

Lovely then to discuss some plans for next year and how fun and play seem to be so off our agenda that it is actually scarily unhealthy.

Christmas notices

(Inspired by the frequent pre-match reports in football I am daring myself to publish the following notice in the lead up to Christmas)

Concern is mounting over the availability from the Ministry Team for the traditional Christmas Home Derby. The injury list is causing some concern with the Vicar (took a funeral and so came into contact with a deceased person and so is ritually unclean) and NSM (doubt) probably out until the New Year. We will have to field a much younger and inexperienced side, therefore Christmas Communion will be taken by Sunday School.

Exit strategies (or exciting strategies)

Staff prayers this morning got off on a discussion about the current state of the Church of England, and I think I said that we need to have a way of informing the local Churches of what is going on without some of the media hyperbole that they probably see and read.

At the start of the discussion was the sad news that somebody with local historic connections appears to have resigned from the Priesthood and I am assuming this has some connection with the recent offer from Rome to those who are unhappy with issues on the agenda at the moment in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

So I am going to stick my neck on the block in a couple of areas as I try to communicate something locally. First of all we have the question of Women Bishops. I am satisfied in terms of Scripture and the history of the interpretation of Scripture based primarily on the names of people listed as Apostles in Romans 16:7 and the discussion concerning the mention of a woman called Junia, and the subsequent substitution of her name with that of Junias, the male form, but this being a name which was exceptionally uncommon. Women were, I believe, treated as equals by Jesus and as Apostles and substantive church leaders by Paul. The Church seems to have tried to cover this up somewhat by changing a name to suit its own reading of history. I know some women priests and don't doubt their vocation or gifts. Does God do glass ceilings?

If I periodically pull a face whilst there is mention of women Bishops this is not meant to be a rejection of the idea. I am simply extremely allergic to Christians (and Clergy in particular) jockeying for position.

The second issue causing great concern is that of gay Clergy, which is hugely more complicated. The debate continues to be highly polarised (a situation which again rarely does God's name any great service). For what its worth I do not feel that the arguments against the Biblical passages condemning homosexuality have been anywhere near as conclusive as some of their proponents seem to think. I read recently that Bishop Spong no longer discusses homosexuality because the case is made (in his view) and the Bible passages have been contextualised and examined and explained away, so there is nothing else to discuss, whereas I believe there is an awful lot to discuss. I would not reject a gay Priest, just as I would not reject a gossiping Priest (or a Priest who committed any of the other things which Sodom was accused of doing - can you guess them?). I would like to be able to discuss openly a new way of working with these issues which sought to bring Grace and a true picture of all of us ministering from our weaknesses into the equation.

Into this heady mix of questions we have the recent offer from the Pope for a special category within Catholicism for Anglicans to move to his jurisdiction but maintaining some of their Anglican identity. There are quite a few jokes doing the rounds about this, as well as some apologies from Catholics somewhat embarrassed by the perceived insensitivity of the Papacy. Quite how this offer will work out in the longer term will have to remain to be seen - as somebody said in a different context 'the grass may be greener on the other side of the hill, but it still needs mowing'.

Quite a lot of heat was generated in this move by the apparent snub of Archbishop Rowan, but he seemed to be hugely impressive when he went to Rome and delivered a gentle but challenging lecture.

But this is not the time for Exit Strategies. The Church (and I think this is broader than simply Church of England) is being forced (I would argue by circumstances but with God's hand behind them) to reconsider seriously and urgently how it engages with the world around. For me a move to Rome is a step back from this challenge to one seeking reassurance of the status of Priests in Church and Society, and a ducking of the challenge to have to think about some difficult questions. Just so that I am not seen as being un-Ecumenical I ought to say that big gathered styles of Church (usually inhabited by middle class people in middle class parts of town) duck the same issue as well - they just make their mass critical enough that they don't have to answer it...yet.

Now, therefore, is the time for Exciting Strategies! How do we grow Church in today's society? How do we make mature disciples? How do we live outside Church as if we were still in it? How do we worship inside Church as if we really belonged to the world outside it?

Difficult Questions and Exciting Strategies indeed.

Mission's log supplemental

Brain - tired

Head - sore

Neck - stiff

Eyes - aching

Need to finish glass of Highland Park then sleep until Thursday, if possible.

Apologies to little LM for whom this morning's act of baptism meant dozy Vicar poured water on her head at the precise moment she should be heading off for her morning nap. Not a good combination.

Praying for patience!

With several vacancies arising in local significant Churches there is a sense that there is a once in a generation opportunity to restructure the whole Deanery. Inevitably this means change, which is never a popular topic in Church circles. A meeting tonight for representatives of Churches from across the area will now have to discuss a little more detail in a document which has been batting around for a while, but previously has been easy to ignore when given some distant future time scale - sadly the moment is now upon us.

So I am praying for patience because it is in these situations that issues and needs are discussed with Clergy present, but at which Clergy are frequently overlooked in all this - as if somehow changing boundaries or responsibilities doesn't effect us in any way.

There is a bit of a buzz caused by a Times article concerning a Parish in Canterbury Diocese who are being asked to pay £40K+ for a part-time House for Duty Priest. The question is asked

How can a part-timer possibly do newsletters, chair two boards of school governors, do house visits and everything else required for four busy parishes?

which invites the reciprocal statement

if that's what your Priest is thought of as being asked to do then no wonder we are all in the pickle we seem to be in.

My prayer for patience is about 12 hours too late as I was button-holed by a retired senior Clergyman last night who bewailed the state of things. I wanted to tell him not to blame my generation for this, but possibly to look closer to home...

Fed up with a Church Times article...

...and no, it isn't Word from Wormingford this time.

This week's centre page spread is taken from a new book A history of the Mothers Union: Women, Anglicanism and globalisation 1876-2008 by Dr. Cordelia Moyse. (Its about £50 from Amazon so I will be venturing no further - even if the article encouraged me to). I am not really quite sure how to clarify my thinking about this. For example, Dr Moyse has no compunction about stating that

the Clergy often feel no shame in articulating hostility to the MU

although no evidence is quoted, but so that I am not seen to be articulating hostility let me say that I think there are some good things in the MU; the work in the Third World is excellent (we locally support work in some quite poor places through an MU personal link) and our local branch does a good job of bringing some people who would otherwise be on their own together for lunches.

There are several other points that cause me concern too. Dr. Moyse credits the MU for having 'contributed to the notion that what makes an Anglican is being a communicant at a local Church'. Sadly, I think this is nothing to be proud of, and seems rather at odds with her claim that the MU is devalued because the Church focuses so much on its Clergy. Membership (whatever that means) is based on being baptised into the whole Church. The simplistic fixation upon the continued receiving of bread and wine alone has done the Church of England more harm than good because it has devalued laity as people who can lead full, complete and satisfying acts of worship themselves and it has also created a culture of dependency upon a fixed pattern of worship without any need for the person receiving something we regard as a token of God's Grace to grow and display any of that Grace at work in themselves. Yes, Communion is very important, but it is meant to be the engine room of change and growth in the people. Surely even my colleagues with a much higher theology of what happens at the Altar Rail would be unhappy with such a description.

MU members are praised by Moyse for their involvement in things such as Church Fetes and so on, which is true as far as it goes, but I understand the MU restricts their members involvement in fund raising to things which support only MU projects.

I would love the MU in this country to engage fully and clearly in Mission (as part of the wider Church), and I would be interested to hear ways in which this is happening (lunches for people who would be alone is one good example). As Moyse describes until fairly recently the MU was seen as a rather moral reactionary organisation with its opposition to divorce, and even so I find some of the MU prayer material difficult to use because it portrays a rose-tinted view of marriage and relationships. (Having said that I think their material for bereaved children is excellent).

Perhaps some of my Clergy colleagues could chip in with their opinions and experience on this, or perhaps MU members might want to clarify some of this.

Surprised that I am once again surprised by grace...

...I know I shouldn't be.

I had been wresting with what the right thing to say this week was going to be. I knew that, in some way, I had to offer a microphone round and let people respond verbally to what I said, not just in some pre-defined action but real, live, unrehearsed response. Yikes.

I also had an inkling of what I had to say, but several goes had never made it quite hang together as it sounded in my head when out running. I needed to give a glimpse, I felt, of the next few steps for us as a community together - what might our Church look like if Christ was allowed to be King?

Several strands of what this might be were in my head, but it felt like pulling teeth to make them comprehensible. In summary, therefore, I wanted to describe a Church which;

a newcomer would enter and encounter people whose Church life was characterised by joy and liberation, and

those who have been coming for a long time are encouraged to become mature disciples

I described how often our Church life seems to be made up of quite a few sub-groups who each buzz round in their own activities, and I spoke of how I would like to do an Alpha Course. I have been talking to a group about this, but don't want to do something like Alpha if it merely feels like another group doing another thing. Rather we need to engage in an act of Mission in such a way that it unites us in the doing and supporting and celebrating.

On the way over to coffee somebody spoke of this sense of distinct groupings in the Church and how this had been something my predecessor but three ago had wrestled with. This person was glad that I had brought this issue out into the open - and the fact that it came from this person in particular felt like a real act of grace. Thank you.

There was also, for me, some grace in the way people responded to my offer of a microphone...

somebody encouraged us to be thankful (which we then went on to do)

somebody read some verses from Ephesians to encourage us

somebody told us of the gentle welcome they had encountered with us and how much that had been appreciated

There was also a significant amount of grace in the opportunity to have a sleep this afternoon as I was done in by the end of it...

I love the internet when...

...I get an email from somewhere else asking for permission to use some material I have produced.

So prayers for blessing on those planning to walk an Advent Labyrinth in Milwaukee. I've asked for a photo if possible to see what they make of it.

Doing a lot of work for charity...

...but we don't like to talk about it.

Great night in, although we were out. We were in Church for our Children in Need Joint Youth Clubs Talent Show - and boy did we see some talent. Awesome guys - I think we raised a couple of hundred to send in, which seems to be more than many of the people being interviewed by Wogan and co.

What do you really want for your children?

Another snippet inspired by last night's session at School.

His first question related to what we, as the parents, wanted for our children. He had a list of possible answers about succeeding and achieving which we all, of course, nodded with in agreement.

But this was the sucker punch, as he then went on to describe more of the learning skills that children need. Ultimately, though, he returned to his first question with a pretty provocative statement. I didn't write it verbatim, but it went something like this;

think of those things that you have achieved that have been most important to you - and which of these things hasn't been achieved without there being a significant element of distress and failure along the way

therefore, what we want for our children is the ability for them to learn how to cope with the distress and occasional failure so that they are able to dust themselves off and grow by giving it another go until they achieve for themselves something that is really important to them.

If I remove the age element in the equation I think there is a real parallel here with how we are called to Pastor our congregations so that they grow into Disciples (mature, resilient and so forth - all the values we would love our children to inherit or learn) whereas by trying to make them as comfortable as possible our children will not learn these things - so why should members of our Churches?

Is that an unfair thing to say? One person reading this will probably be aware of our conversation recently where they (you) said almost this exact thing.

Our session yesterday finished with a quote from Goethe

too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them

and so I think it is reasonable to make a parallel here with the work of the pastor. It might sound uncaring, but we are in such desperate need of disciples!