As the rain drizzled down this morning I made my way to
Trinity Baptist Church in Chesham for the bi-monthly breakfast meeting of Bucks
Baptist Ministers at 8am. Today nine of
us gathered around tables that encircled a solitary ‘pillar’ in one of Trinity’s
rooms – it struck me that as it was May 1st this was our equivalent
of dancing around a May Pole!
When I started going to these sorts of meetings they were
inevitably called ‘Fraternals’ – nowadays with the growing, and welcome,
presence of women ministers amongst us (today there was four) they are more
commonly referred to as ‘Ministers’ Meetings’.
We have always seemed to have had them. I remember reading accounts of Seventeenth
century Northamptonshire Baptist Ministers meeting up at Whitsun for this sort
of gathering – interestingly at Inns, these being the days before
Non-conformists embraced the Temperance Movement of the 19th
century.
I think it was at my first such meeting in Portsmouth – I
was then merely a ‘Pre-Collegiate’ ordinand – biting into a tomato and being
horrified that some of its juice and a pip or two spurted across the room in
true ballistic fashion and landed on the most senior minister in the room – a man
who when he spoke, at least I thought, sounded like God – a tricky moment!
Today we were in calmer waters. We ate cereals and toast together, Colin our
host then read a prayer by Martin Luther King before leading us into a
discussion about Nuclear Disarmament, we subsequently shared news of our
churches – from the installation of new boilers, looking for new pastorates and
attending Spring Harvest, before finally praying together and saying our
goodbyes.
Such occasions always seem beneficial to me – just being
together brings about that mutually supportive atmosphere which can bring
encouragement for the journey. I think
here in Bucks we have been very fortunate to have Colin Pye as the minister who
organises these gatherings and acts very much as a positive catalyst among us –
he’ll be much missed as he moves on later this Spring.
Today such experiences are called ’networking’ – I prefer
to think of them in that old fashion term of ‘fellowship’ – and I’m grateful
for them.
With best wishes,
Ian
Ian
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