An inside edge on my week thus far

And we've only just reach Wednesday!

I woke up this morning and my body said, 'Monday!'
My brain said, 'Friday!'
The alarm clock (for the mortals in the house) read, 'Wednesday!'

So I climbed out of bed and got on with it. Paper work done - emails answered and diary filled just that little bit more (now booking into mid-2105 for some stuff). It's been an amazing week - so full that I haven't managed to blog and yet full of stuff that has challenged, blessed and incensed me. Here's just a glimpse of the first two days:

Was surprised to meet a vicar of the female persuasion who confided that she'd be glad when 'that' vote was over and we could get back to, 'Doing what we should be doing rather than getting bound up in all that's been going on over it!' I wasn't surprised that she was was a woman with that view but at the fact she shared it (I barely know her).

Went to meet with someone I was sure would have been all for a 'Yes' vote and found them bemoaning the rift it would cement between Roman Catholicism and the CofE (something I'd not really given much thought to). A fascinating insight into the situation and the thought that, having come from a positive engagement with Francis, Justin might encourage slowing things down to see how Rome (with an apparently professed 2% of paedophile priests in their midst who will have to go) might look towards women's ministry and try to get some coherence. Knew that was never going to happen though!

Had a friend (and colleague) write:
'Women bishops aren't going to be any better (or worse) than male ones. Remember the woman Prime Minister? And the first black President hasn't exactly lived up to all the hype and hope. So, no, I'm not "#excited" or whatever. I'm long past caring on this one. God bless 'em all and I'll just carry on as before i.e. by lying low and staying out of their way. "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." But better not to meet the boss at all if you can help it!'

I was surprised by the many (male and female) who were quite ambivalent towards women bishops - although more surprised by the women because I though there was a party line on the topic.

I was happy for those who were happy over it and sad with those who were saddened by it - I don't have an axe to grind either way and since I don't like the world of rights and inequality; or as I said to one lovely lady what might never talk to me again - positive discrimination has the word 'discrimination' and I'm never for that word - you perhaps do because you're the one hoping to be positively discriminated towards. Needs to be thought out that one I reckon. I'd rather see equality on the basis of the inability to differentiate on anything other than calling and ability (and that covers colour, sex, gender and anything else you might like to think of). It should be about righteous and right living - a quick and lively faith and the desire to preach (and live) Christ in and out of season. Anything else is religion (and probably politics).

Met a cleric who has decided to get on and do it all themselves after yet another Sunday came and went and the people who had taken jobs supporting, and in, the service failed to deliver. They made the very valid point that some of those who never do took great pleasure in moaning about stuff being wrong or not done well and the recipient of those moans was, of course, the cleric. So, they thought, 'I'll just do whatever needs to be done and then it'll work and if it doesn't then at least the complaints are rightly mine.'

Bumped into three people who had found themselves at odds with the 'We have to support Israel' brigade because they have the view that 'Palestine needs to be protected from Israel'! Also bumped into two who are trying to defend Israel by pointing to Syria and other places where, 'Even more atrocities are happening!'

Now that's some defence - don't deny that the nation is doing wrong but deflect criticism by telling those who criticise to look at someone else because they're worse - how cheap is that? Bet God loves that one ;-)

Apparently those who support Israel have the view that Israel is a spiritual nation and yet all I see is an increasingly secular state whose stated intentions of 'getting them before they get us' using the shoah* as some sort of defence+ denies everything that the God of the Jews calls Israel to be. I'm all for praying for the peace of Jerusalem and Gaza and Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and  . . . .  . but I would like to see Israel be peacemakers as well (and I know the views that it's a small nation surrounded by people who wish to conqueror and destroy - been like that since always - not an excuse!).

Are you busy Vicar?

Had a fantastic time with 50+ young men and women who having donned military uniform got to hear about the spiritual realities of being Green and the Values and Standards that make our Army one of the very best in the world. To see so many people with a quick and ready mind and the enthusiasm of youth take up spiritual themes and be willing to consider, examine and discuss (not always positively) them and the resonances they might bring was a heart-gladdening event indeed.

Had a good meeting to harmonise baptisms around the parish and are moving on to do the same with weddings.

Got excited about the prospect of offering Mission Shaped Introduction and Mission Shaped Ministry across the diocese.

Got even more excited about the 24/7 prayer as it enters its last week of a four week offering (four locations across Tamworth) and at the people who had committed time to find (or rediscover) the joy of praying for more than four minutes during a Sunday service!

Got more excited still about the young woman who is fired by God to 'do something new' for God and is seeking to make this a reality (such joy when people hear and do).

So there we are - a brief insight into the first two days of the week - Praise God or what?

Now I need to go and pray about them all - perhaps some have touched you and challenge you to pray too - hope so :-)

* shoah Hebrew word for desolation, used in favour of the word 'holocaust' which means a burnt offering (often in the context of a sacrifice to gods/God).

+ The defence goes: 'Look what they did to us before - everything we do is defence as per the Bible's command 'Get them before they get you!'

Sea Sunday and Abandoned ships

Yesterday our church celebrated 'Sea Sunday' - an opportunity to look at the work of the mission to seafarers (and those engaged in the wonderfully broad world of merchant maritime activity).

The focus of the the service was that of 'abandoned ships' - not something that results from a 'Women and children first' scenario but something much more sinister and concern making.

Let me explain:

Depending upon source we live in a world where 86-90% of the goods and foodstuffs that enter or leave our nation (the UK) do so by means of shipping. One result of the financial downturn has been an increase in owners abandoning their vessels, often because of expensive failures or just because the cash has run out.

Imagine the situation when a land-based company folds. The management come in and tell the workers that they've gone bankrupt and then they turn off the equipment, send the workers home and then lock the building up.

Now transpose this to a maritime setting. What happens when the fuel oil runs out and the engines and generators fail? No propulsion or electricity, air conditioning, pumps and stuff to support life on the vessel! Even if do have enough fuel oil to make port, when you get there there's no money to pay for the pilot or a berth, so you're stranded and holding off. There's no money for food or water and you're not being paid - so what do your family live on - and if you do manage to land, if you're on a vessel with a 'flag of convenience' you will probably be blown off by your own consulate or embassy staff too. The situation is hopeless.

The ILO's 'Abandonment of Seafarers Database' contained almost 150 abandoned vessels a couple of months back - and this is a shocking and often unknown situation if you aren't in this world (or have relatives who are affected). And this is where the Mission to Seafarers comes in foir the visit ships, provide Bibles, support for those in abandoned vessels, help for those who otherwise wouldn't be in contact with family and friends for months by providing mobile (and internet) communication, assist with medical emergencies and more beside.

So, can I encourage you to have a look at their website and perhaps consider:

Support them financially  - because this is people taking God's love to those who work at sea.

Pray for seafarers - because it's an area many of us take for granted and are ignorant of.

Give them an invite - to come and talk, lead a service and help you (and your congregation) become better informed.

ILO - International Labour Organisation 

Smoke and Mirrors: 'Flying Care Visits'

Last Saturday, passing a parked ambulance and fearing the worse I stopped and banged on the back door. Finding no one at home I went to check on one of the vulnerable people I knew in the block it was outside and found my worst fears realised as the front door was opened by a paramedic. After a quick chat with the the soon to be hospitalised person I left wondering how we might provide some more consistent care for them.

That afternoon I received a call from someone asking me to pop in and visit their ageing relative for a chat as they were struggling a little now that they were on their own. Of course I said I'd visit and this made me think about the earlier ambulance thing. Amazingly, yesterday at the Parish church I was asked whether I remembered one of the former members who was there when I was Curate. Having responded in the affirmative I was regaled with a tale of woe regarding their situation at home and the circumstances that led to their eventual move to an old people's provision.

It is right and proper that we help people to remain as independent as they can be in their own homes and yet this is a costly exercise that the state cannot, no - will not - pay for and so we come up with this touching base exercise, the twelve minute visit, that has attracted the label 'Flying Care Visit'. The person starring in the Saturday Ambulance visit was in receipt of this but had had the visits cut because of funding, a situation that meant they were due to be seen to be alive in the morning and again in the evening but the middle of the day visit was to be gone. Now, fortunately for them, they were poorly when the early visit was made and so help was quickly forthcoming but what would have happened had they been taken ill at say, eleven?

I'm concerned that we are engaging in the kneejerk response here and missing the point, which is that if we are to encourage and support those growing older or suffering from severe medical condition to stay at home then we, and here whilst I mean society knowing it will end up as Church, needs to be engaged and active. The provision of but a few different people looking in and checking on a more regular basis will provide companionship and a check in one and will avoid the situation before us - and I know that the funding isn't there to provide more visits and the desire (and ability) to pay is non-existent too - but perhaps the desire should be ours (the church).

The Bible leaves me in no doubt that I am responsible for the care and welfare of those around me and I know that if everyone who has tutted at the reports of Flying Care this morning committed themselves to be involved, to check on family, friends and neighbours we'd see an end to these stories and have a community too.

I write this knowing that I am as guilty as the next man (or woman - nothing sexist here) and would like to challenge those who are members of churches (and especially those who lead them) to call their fellowships together and see how they can make real what today they are bemoaning as lost.

James 1.27 talks about what 'real' religion (which is relationship and not rules) is in this way:

'If you think you're 'religious' because you use the right words and talk a good game then you're wrong. It's nothing more than hot air and has no value before man or God. What has value before God, and man, is that you reach out to the homeless and loveless; the old, infirm and the shut-ins as they live out their lives. And as you do, watch that you do not become, as the world is, hypocrites and seekers of a good self-image'

The reality is that the way we provide care is wrong and the greater truth is that it will not get better unless we use action rather than words - sounds like a call to the Church to me.

Or will we use smoke and mirrors too?

Couldn't Fault a Word - yet

Came away dry and frustrated by this morning's Radio Four worship.

All the right words and a sound sermon and yet dry and turgid to the extent that I lost the will to live as I listened to it.  Don Carson was as you'd expect him to be, the music was solid and professional and yet there was something missing. Hard as I tried it was an uphill struggle and since I am someone who has the opinion that worship is about giving, why on earth couldn't I? What was my problem and why did I struggle?

Everything was there and yet, like an unconvincing painting which although photograph like leaves one cold, the Grace Baptist Mission offering from Solihull aired this morning left me unmoved and whilst intellectually able to say 'hallelujah' left me behind a glass window - untouched and unable to connect. emotionally or spiritually.

Oh dear!