Journal: not the !*€'*! caretaker

So there I was with a day off and very little dome in the way of work (other than a few funeral calls, some pastoral stiff and a late night foray into the rainy night to overcome some welfare state/health service inadequacies). I potters a bit, tidied the study a bit, played with electronics, had brunch with the other half and watched a film.

Rushed out to do a quick call and on my return found a van (which I assumed was for the group meeting there later) parking up - so I left them to it. A little later one of our children popped into the church building to find something and was replaced by one of the other children as she also looked. Bottom line - I ended up going in and, as the caretaker, was challenged about not having opened up  and stuff.

So, I (nicely) point out that I'm not the caretaker and how the group have a key holder and how it's their responsibility to be there to open up and all that sort of thing. Seemed the group had been told that the people doing the whatever it was needed an hour to set up and no one had arrived. The rest is history (like the wallybean who has broken the heater controls in their desire to have the building heated to twenty-one degrees if I find them).

But you know, it's interesting how duplicitous people are - when they think you're the caretaker they know their rights, when you're the cleric they become different again! Fortunately I explained the issues and (kindly) left them to set up. But the tide is going out and the joys of living over the shop are diminishing as quickly as the mould grows!

Lord, You came as fully man as a servant to all - why isn't there just one story where you are mistaken for the caretaker of the shoveller of (You know what) so we can find a way forward with biblical integrity attached. Should I turn over the tables and use the whip I've made to drive them out? Perhaps I should just remain silent or ask them a cutting questions using the blatantly obvious?

It's not easy trying to pick up the cross at times is it?

Journal: Week Off - day one

Well it wasn't the seaside!

The cherry on today's cake goes to the person who asked whether I was enjoying my holiday and, "Was I at the seaside?" Today has been, according to a colleague, "Like his normal day!" and ironically perhaps I found that to be rather helpful and perhaps it can help me to set my high water mark for the rest of the year.

"Living over the shop means that the only way you can take time off is to go away," said another person (who lives almost two miles from their church); and they were probably right as I found myself engaged in pastoral matters which could neither be put off or done by anyone else (and I mean that - I'm not clinging to stuff or being a martyr). But the results and the conversations on the way made it a great day indeed.

So what have I learned today?

Sometimes you need to act boldly, stand in the gap, pray your socks off, and take a bit of control to see a solution take shape. Much like the 'God's garden' comment - you should have seen it before I got working in it! Poor old God, gets all the blame for outcomes where we have been inactive, doesn't He?

Paperwork will, like the poor, always be with us.

People will always expect you to do things, regardless of the label you've given the day!

God will always shine through.

So it wasn't a day off - but I can move that to next week - but it was a day to be thankful for and to celebrate encounters, successes and blessings. Feeling chilled and looking forward to a final day of paperwork.

Hallelujah!

Last Day of Christmas

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