Today, being Candlemas, is the last day of the Christmas season and as we leave this happy time we look to Lent and the long (is it really only forty days?) road to the cross.
As I got out of the car this morning, one of the local British Legion members was approaching and, without breaking step or stopping, asked me what I thought of the 'revolting Vicars'. My mind immediately starting searching through the directory of those I know when he added, "Them that wants gay weddings!" I have to say that my mind was on very different issues and so I merely turned the question back to him and asked him what he thought. "Load of bloody loonies," was the stern reply and with that he carried on his way; conversation done!
I do love living in an urban priority area and 'living over the shop' such that once out of the car (or the front door)I find myself readily available for a variety of encounters ranging from the brief (although the record goes to the man on the bicycle who engagement with me was the pronouncement, "Them Vicars in London need stuffing!" No conversation, just his assessment of OLSX and St Paul's) encounter through to the 'I'm already stretched for time and this isn't helping' conversation.
The problem is that having worked hard to get the people to realise that I'm there for them I really have to be there for them and it is funny how many generally unchurched or dechurched have an opinion and how often that opinion sets them further away from church. It is amazing how many people will come and engage me in conversations that seem to want me to absolve them from putting 'going to' and 'church' together as a declaration of state.
Other conversations will assume that I am an information office, street warden, police office, litter-picker (I kid you not, had a lady who saw me getting out of the car and crossed over to inform me that 'people' have been throwing beer cans in the car park and that 'someone' (presumably me) ought to do something about putting them in the bin) and more besides.
I am the personification of all that is wrong in the church and the reason they don't go any more.
I am the conduit that provides information to, and from, Rowan and, once told, can make 'the loonies, those in ivory towers, the hypocrites and many others prick up their ears and conform to that which is so obviously right.
I am the one to bear the brunt of the 'and he said he would baptise the baby' clerics and the one to bear responsibility because 'the vicar wouldn't marry us because they said . . . . ' scenarios.
Yes indeed - Christmas is over and now it's all about sacrifice, obedience and submission - or you can write an open letter or merely hide behind the hedge and wait for me to come out (of the car - no need to write to the newspapers!).
Hey ho
2 comments:
Excellent - wish I had your problem but being rural all I get is a load of cows, pigs and heaps of aromatic dung. I sometimes yearn for the ability to engage and be engaged with.
Great blog.
A question. Why do you post the daily readings?
I post them for some of the people I know who are starting a discipline of daily prayer and it's a 'Daily Office lite starter kit' in that it doesn't have the other additions which often prove to be a bit too much for those setting off.
Once they're hooked I'll supply harder stuff (err, I mean prayers).
Rural ministers get my admiration as they often seem to work in quite challenging isolation. You're welcome to come and play here any time - give me a call.
V
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