Covid-19 and 2020: Opportunities and blessings (count yours)

How odd life can be - somehow this seems to have been one of the best years ever experienced for so many reasons. Stop to count your blessings; how many are there?

Here's my quick and messy starter with ten blessings:

1.   Stopped care homes but cared in homes.

2.   Took the Word of God (living and written) into peoples homes using technology
      (am I the only one to go, "Oooh, technology!" (in a Homer Simpson voice)?

3.   Got to stream funerals and be creative with way people are encouraged and supported to mourn.

4.   Did virtual military remembrance services (one two at the same time).

5.   Recorded and streamed some services (that said, we've done the majority live)
      This means that at last I can proved I can be in two places at the same time!

6.   Got to shop for people (which we're still doing), started supplying drugs (prescription only, honest
      Occifer).

7.   Had the challenge of three funerals in four locations in one day
      (one church, one burial, two different crematoria)

8.   Was part of pastorally-engaged and effective Church which put aside fees and catered for feelings
      of bereaved and brokenness of our communities.

9.   Managed to continually stream morning and evening prayer, compline, BCP evensong
      (Communion coming) and CW Communion and returned congregations back to buildings.

10. Entered into the world of 'virtual' care home visits where the cleric is passed from one resident to
      the next as they get to spend time with ,e.

The world has become so very different over the past few months - and I thing it is an invitation to blessing and service to me and others around me.

I'm sad at the loss,
                the fear,
                the lack of consideration for others as people fail to protect those around them

Journal: In the Ditch

What an absolutely amazing night - the day was as busy as Mondays usually are with meetings, home Communions and a funeral and then there was the first 'Dying - in the Ditch' - a totally unknown quantity.

Having spoken to people about their endeavours I soon realised that the stand up and hold court, lecture, and the like wasn't the way forward for this event and so it was a beer a low key start as conversations began. But the place was pretty much packed and the noise of conversation and laughter - the topics and the way that people began to engage - had me leave at the end of the night with a big grin.

And so it's onwards and upwards with some planning to be done for the next one and some thinking about what else needs to be done in such a brilliant venue. Ged and Ade, who run the place, were absolute stars for all their help and hopefully this is the beginning of something really effective in the lives of some of Tamworth's inhabitants.

Wasn't a 'godbothering' event - no prayers, hymns, sermons or collections - but an opportunity to bring some sense of peace and healing into a few lives. And I know who I work for.

So Lord, thank You for a stunning day - for those with whom I have engaged a massive Thank You.
Strengthen my arms that the ministry opportunities in this place might be seen and acted upon. Help me to pastor the flock and to steady the wobbly.

Alleluia or what?

Journal: What an amazing week

Holy Week has to be one of the most challenging and blessed weeks of my year as it provides the chance to reflect on the passion of the Christ. This year has been made better by the fact that although the diary is rammed solid, it has space to reflect and ensure that everything is done in slow time - and that makes such a difference.

So today had space to get out to meet and enjoy people, take Communion out, double check the remaining services and do the second stations service of the week. Next up is the tenebrae - always a moving experience.

The rest of the week becomes more crowded and frenetic as the we remember a new commandment  and a Passover meal; and then Good Friday itself is so full on with all that the is.

Lord, have I mentioned how much I love You and the life I have?
I thank You for our family - back together for Easter.
I thank You for the Church family who continually bless and challenge me.
Help me to be the person I need to be for all before me.
To make the right decisions and to never avoid doing what is right.
To recognise the moments when I am wrong and resist, or repair, rather than wound.
Strengthen my resolve and my commitment - helping me to do what I should and not what I can.

We adore You, O Christ, and we praise You 

because by Your holy cross You have redeemed the world.

Journal: Another manic Monday

Today started well around 3am this morning and raced headlong into Tuesday before I had a chance to blink. Almost expecting it to be a day of meetings with a slight chance of pastoral in the early afternoon with a brief spell of Kid's Club before a PCC set in to end the day.

But of course, like Michael Fish and the unannounced storms, the forecast missed a 'bit of a blow' and the day provided some unseen challenges and a brief spell of fog descended turning to confusion and a little pocket of dismayed.

There was an unexpected outbreak of sun as, having only mentioned someone that morning my prayers were answered by a telephone call from one of their family asking me to visit them - now how's about that then? Coincidence or God's provision? I prayed about the person and the fact that they'd been off the radar and apparaently moved away in the morning Office, mentioned them in the Monday meeting, and before PCC could start had been called (on a separate matter) and had the opportunity to re-engage with them through bread and wine (and another cup of tea): Bargain!

How cool are you God? What an answer to prayer - now, about the Premier League ....

There were some interesting challenges over the course of the day - some fires were put out, some fires were transferred to others in the style of the film 'Jeremiah Johnson' - which if you haven't seen it goes like this:

Bear Claw: "Are you sure you can skin grizzlies? 

Jeremiah Johnson: "Just as fast as you can catch them!"

Bear Claw returns and rushes into the cabin followed by a grizzly bear - jumping out the back window with the cry: "Skin that one and I'll go get you another!"

Yes indeedy folks, there are times when I am glad that someone else has taken on a grizzly experience for me - and when it's a long standing challenge which is destined to rung around the ring road of life with the driver happy to drive without any hope of turning off the road, I'm grateful for someone else sitting in the passenger seat for a while; although I know I'm Catarina be back in the passenger seat before long.

Some fires were lit today and they will be Tuesday's challenges to keep my hands from being idle and mu knees from rising.

But today I lay before you my encounters and conversations - may they have allowed to to be seen and heard.

I lay before You all that I did well and stand back, not for praise, by to acknowledge that these were the work and influence of Your Holy Soirit.

I lay before You the things that showed my size eleven feet of clay and the man I would like to be less off - inspire me, correct me and make me your man and more of your image - sorry Lord.

I lay before You the many needs of those around me - You are Jehovah Shammah - we are not alone and You truly answer by fire.

For the food I have been give, the life I have within me and the forgiveness you call me to show others, Lord I bless Your name - bring on tomorrow ...

A day of many parts

The day started with the usual routine of daily Office, usually occurs anywhere in the morning from 03:30 onwards (usually finding itself at 04:30 it seems as the first thing I do when I wake). This is the opportunity to read the Bible and pray, setting up the day that follows as the spiritual equivalent of porridge for it sustained me throughout the day, in the stillness before the dawn aririves.

I blog the readings each morning (there is a growing group of people who use the condensed form I post as part of their introduction to doing the Office) as part of growing discipline in myself and others.  So, Office done, there's some post-production work on a recording to be sorted and then it's into the church building to set up for the Thursday Communion and the drop-in that follows it. Chairs out, orders of service and Bibles on the seats, lay up for the Communion, fill the urn (and turn it on - always important). Then it's the tables and chairs, biscuits and stuff for the two hours that follow after the Eucharist is done.

I rejoice at the Psalm in Communion today (118) it's like a sweet jar full of old favourite sentences and they bounce around my head all day: The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone - Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord - Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Words that sustain.

How sad that we have lost the Psalms as part of our public worship in so many places - sadder still the contraction to just two readings! Jesus, the Christ, is the capstone which holds it all together - Hallelujah! We share the word and celebrate the resurrection and recommit ourselves to shime in the dark places of our town - for we are salt and light.
What does that look like?
How will you use me to make You known today?
Where will my feet take me and what do I need other than You?
So many questions and challenges buzzing, then and now as bed is made my hiding place with you.

The drop-in was amazing, so many people with so many issues, yet laughed and encounter and the joy of being family for those who known the Christ and those perhaps a little far off - just as it shou,d be for first they stop, then the sit and then they recline - aren't people amazing and isn't God great?

Onto a meeting and finding joy in the shape of a nearby church and the steps to be taken there - little steps bring a great distance in the passage of time - the key is to take them! Back to the START course where it transpired that when looking at who our hero is Jesus want mine! Shock or what?
We talk and look at the heroes society has in its sportsmen and women: overpaid, indulged, living wrong lives and et emulated and applauded, is that what a hero is? Move on to great leaders, commanders, businessmen and women: is victory or success the key to making a hero? Nah, when we look past their achievements and their fine words we find feet of clay,

As we talk about why I live the life I do, flawed fallible, excited and generally weird I mention that I am, and do, because Jesus is MY LOVE, and that's the word - it is LOVE, not HERO, that we need to be thinking of and looking to emulate, to please and to follow. How absolutely amazingly wonderfully brilliant is that? His love endures for ever.

Buzzing I prepare and head of to ke a bunch of ten ann eleven year olds around a church building and share some of the wonderful treasures, explaining symbolism and imagery, and making the love of God as seen in Jesus, God made man, known. Making time running around the church and pointing out stuff that is usually missed - making connections - explaining liturgicalbits and giving little hooks  and sowing seeds. How I love this life which so many others seem to think is a job. I'm working, and for, with the person I love - can it get any more wonderful?

And it does - for I find myself in the ditch it's the woman I love, half a pint and a pork pie and some time to chat and meet new people and enjoy the woman whose lives surrounds and sustains me also.

Lord, I am just so very blessed!

All before me was joy today: The engagements, the conversations, the opportunities seen and taken. The written word and the living Word filling and sustaining and guiding me.

Thanks for a great day - same again tomorrow please?

One last school Christmas event

Having reached the end of the journey with the 'Finding Talent' report I am now free to read what others have said on it but there is something of more merit, of more joy and of more encouragement for me as a bit of a low key cleric - the penultimate school service of the Christmas period!

Tonight I will be celebrating Christmas with one of our local schools and as this nears:

I have to say that I have been blessed by tiny children singing 'Glory to God' and telling the age old nativity story through fresh eyes (the eyes of a 'Stable Rat').

I have done Christingle services with children and had the joy of seeing them pass by on their way home with their glowstick 'Christ lights' shining in the darkness (please Lord, may it shine in their homes and in the lives of all who enter them).

I have prayed, read Bible passages, blessed and sung my heart out in the old familiar carols.

I have sung strange songs from foreign lands and been challenged by people who wanted to substitute 'Father' when speaking of God for the term 'Mother' (and one person even wanted God as an 'it'!).

I have endured folk religion and struggled with odd understanding relating to God and His Son, Jesus, the Christ (and not all of it was from the clergy ;-) )

BUT

I have to say that Jesus, the blesséd babe of Bethlehem has shone through and I want to express my Christmas wishes to each and every person who passes by this place of madness that is my blog. So I thought I'd wish each and every one of you a blessed and peaceful Christmas and give thanks for Mary's 'Yes' - God made flesh - Immanuel.