This was my Journal at College… That story is somewhere in the archives!!

How does that work then???  Apparently, according to last nights youth service, you mould the pipe cleaner into the shape of the person you are praying about.  Hmmm, reverse voodoo then?

I bent a few into prayer attitudes instead!

pipe cleaner people

We celebrated with Ruth last night as she was ordained into the Church of Scotland as a ‘Minister of Word and Sacrament’  at Lochmaben.  It was her father’s comments to which the title alludes as he preached with reference to Exodus 1:15-21 (Midwife) and Mark 10:35-45 (Servant).

Enabling the congregation to fulfil their potential is a birthing process, a process that requires the skills of a midwife, but one who is also the least of all and servant to the people.  A wonderful image of a minister, one who enables the (re)birthing of peoples skills time and talents for God’s kingdom.   It was great to be there for Ruth’s ordination, if not a little saddle sore after a 6 hour round trip!!

These are the three things that Ian Bradley in Colonies of Heaven says that we need to do in worship suggesting that:

We need above all to have more sense of heaven in our worhip and to make the places where worship, whether churches or homes, colonies of heaven in which earth and heaven meet, the glory shines through the grey, ordinary things are rendered extraordinary and hope keeps breaking through.  Then perhaps people will come to worship with a sense of excitement and expectancy rather than out of a sense of duty.

Stirring Stuff…

“The Summit of Snowdon:  Here you are nearer to heaven”

Catchy sentiments; and maybe, but still a long way off, were my first impressions.  I think I’ll have to sit out on the theological arguments about that one!!  Later thoughts might have contemplated things along the lines of this: Climbers and walkers are among the most generously spirited folk and the camaraderie of the mountain climbing fraternity has something to offer to an often mean spirited world, perhaps a glimpse of heaven? Well, to the world of a popular (or perhaps less so) religion, I guess it is easier to have heaven as a place out of reach to even those who chose to climb an average-sized mountain.

However, the new building looks great and sits well on Yr Wyddfa, (something the old cafe never did, but I’ll miss the Guinness)

Hafod Eryri opens on June 12th weather permitting!!

I was gardening.  Just that.  Strimming the overgrown grass, revealing the flowers that had been planted along the labyrinth path in the churchyard.  It always had a queer sort of fascination with the locals, seeing someone tending something new, something unexpected and many would stop and chat, poking good humoured fun or questioning why.  On this particular occasion, I was supposed to be sat in the ‘vestry’ waiting for baptism applicants and the like, but the grass really did need cutting.  So I was just gardening.  I say ‘just gardening’ because some might suspect the old Chaplaincy method of ‘lurking with intent’, but I was definitely just gardening, I was even dressed as a gardener so there would be no confusion.  As I strimmed and plucked blown-in rubbish from the path, an image from John’s Gospel came to mind.  Mary Magdalene by the empty tomb.  She does not find Jesus laid out there.  She turns and speaks to who she supposes to be the gardener.  Mary is searching for someone, for her Lord, friend and companion.  Jesus does not stand up and say ‘here I am’ but waits quietly, gardening, one presumes.  She is weeping.  Concerned, he asks her what is wrong, and she asks if he knows where he is laid.  The gardener calls her by name, and she recognises Jesus.
I think I’ll continue gardening, ‘without intent’ and if someone happens by and asks those searching questions, then I can point them in the right direction.

I was clearing out the virtual desk and found this from our last college revue, it certainly made my afternoon!!

Essay Feedback:  What they say: And what they mean!

… and the magazine letter is late. (as usual)

Fear is in the air, you can smell it!
You can see it as well, the shop assistants giving out adverts in the street for their latest offers, the new signs going up pointing to various retail establishments, information about flu precautions.
We used to be afraid of Nuclear Weapons, Global Warming and Sea level rises, then we were afraid our energy supplies would run out.  After that came the fear of financial ruin at the hands of the global recession, now of course it is the turn of swine flu.  Every so often nature gives us something to think about, to re-asses our place in the world, to challenge our assumption that we are the dominant beings, in control, subject to nothing.
Imagine an abandoned motorway…
The cars have long since gone from this place.
A barren waste monument to the automobile that once was king.
A healthy breeze drifts along its length carrying with it dust, grime and dirt mere ghosts of the heavy traffic that once flowed along this artery.
The old tired road stretches out like a panoramic picture as far as the next bridge, stoops under, and is gone.
The surface is rough in places, smooth in others where wheels once turned.
A dead, decaying place you might think.
Here and there, among the un-seeing cats-eyes, a small mound of tarmac is raised up, a slight crack at its centre, no more.  A blemish on the smooth charcoal grey surface.  Yet there in the midst of all this bareness and waste ground is the glimmer of life, a small gap leading down to the earth below hoping for a little light and a drop of rain.
In the dark of this crevice a timid green spear points skyward reaching desperately for the light.
How far has this shoot pushed up from? How many months has it taken for this one leaf to emerge from the dead road around it?  How many other shoots died on the way to the surface creating the food for others to build upon? Days of growth? Weeks of struggle? Years of death and decay built up the nutrient for this one solitary shoot to push above ground.
What would it be like to be that one leaf, the shoot that strikes the air, the first in that place to feel the breeze on its slender leaf and to remember that thousands like it never made it to reach the surface, hundreds of shoots pushing upwards didn’t make it out, yet all joined together in the effort for this one shoot.  First one, but then afterwards many stronger, larger shoots, a flower perhaps, blooms in the wilderness and a garden is re-born from the earth.  Nature takes back what is rightly hers swallowing the grey with green.  As we celebrate re-birth and resurrection there is nothing quite so optimistic as a desolate place.  Remember the wilderness, the place where God was to be found.

E.F. Schumacher said that:

“Any fool can make things complicated, but it requires a genius to make things simple.”

Satish Kumar quoted this in Resurgence Then went on to say that

“Simplicity requires less ego and more imagination, less complication and more creativity, less glamour and more gratitude, less attention to appearance and more attention to essence.”

On the basis on E. F. Schumacher’s thinking there have I guess been a very small number of geniuses in the world of religion, George Fox perhaps, a Desert Father or two, oh and of course our dear Lord Jesus!  Looking forward to next Sunday’s Gospel reading, John 10: 11-18 and indeed the Genesis reading, a good dose of simplicity would suit all around!

As we enthrone our new Bishop Gregory on the Feast of St. Mark, I wonder what the marks of his ministry will be?  Brevity?  Telling an unfinished Story?  Or perhaps as the Gospel of Mark begins, ‘The beginning of the Good News…’  You might find some photo’s on the diocese website, and if you are really unlucky, one of the new Bishop with his chaplains…

I had the chance to be away from the pulpit today and grabbed it with both hands, well, grabbed the bike and rode before anyone could stop me!!  I was confronted by the usual low-sunday features, small congregation, (no hope of hiding then) quite reflective service, the Gospel was of course about Thomas who I notice Maggi calls ‘Honest Thomas’, a theme I like.

I however, was confronted during the sermon by the arrogance of the church.  I’m sure it was not intended to come across as it did, but to me it sounded as if the preacher was digging hopelessly at those who choose not to believe.  ‘Despite the doubt, it is still true, no matter what you say.’  I’ve an image in my head of someone with their fingers in their ears screaming ‘lah lah lah lah lah’ just not listening because the others view does not fit their understanding of the world.

I think we need to listen to those who doubt, those who say it is untrue, those who find it impossible to believe and instead of replying, ‘Well, no matter what you say, it just is’ perhaps start to question why we believe in the way we do, and to examine our certainty, perhaps becoming a little more humble.  Then perhaps we can reply to those who cast doubts upon faith with a little grace, asking instead, what they do believe in and why.

Perhaps I should have said something, but perhaps, as usual, it was just me…  So I slipped out the door and rode for the hills!