Reflecting on Bideford

Some of my congregation suggested I should keel over and fake my demise on Tuesday.  That’s because a group of us from South Street were on a fascinating tour of the Houses of Parliament and just at the end our guide told us of the odd (and as far as I can recall never practiced) rule that if a person dies in Parliament they are automatically granted a state funeral!  That prospect became even more remote when he said if any of us did actually keel over we would be rushed round to St Thomas’ hospital and be pronounced dead there rather than in the hallowed walls of Westminster!

Well Tuesday was a great day.  We had an early start and late finish but a great day never the less.

On the way up some folks were reading the paper on the coach and it had a headline about the militant secularisation of Britain.  This is in response to the court ruling last week that the practice of saying prayers before the Bideford council meetings has been deemed unlawful.  Interesting to note as we went through the House of Lords lobby there was a notice to say their Lordship’s session at 2.30pm that afternoon would commence with prayers offered by the Bishop of Litchfield – for how long, I wonder, will that be considered ‘lawful’?

As we gathered at the foot of Big Ben to board the coach back to Somerset I picked up one of those wonderfully free copies of the London Evening Standard and read an article by the cabinet minister Baroness Warsi, a Muslim, entitled We must put religion back into public life. Of course such sentiments follow on from the Prime Minister’s assertion that we are still a Christian country...discuss!
There is no doubt that a debate about the place of faith in society is going on.  On the one hand the current movers and shakers (often around my age) seem to be pressing ahead with a certain militant secularisation, whilst others – especially those used to the privileges of establishment – are fearful of where it will end if God is left out of our national equation.

I wonder if any of this should surprise us.  Isn’t it just a natural consequence of the plain fact that most people under fifty have never, even nominally, bought into the Christian story – they have neither been regular members of a church congregation or readers of the bible and now, as ‘powerful’ people in politics, education or the workplace, they see no necessity for ‘doing God’.  None of this means our liberty in free assembly, debate or conscience is in danger but what it might mean is that all the privileges of establishment such as council prayers, armed forces chaplaincies, school assemblies (not to mention Songs of Praise!) may indeed be up for grabs. 

As Baptists we have known, perhaps too far back in our history, what it is like to be at ‘the margins’ of society.  There is little doubt that we are beginning to experience that once more for we are a minority (Baptists) within a minority (Christian).  Our young people know that especially for within their peer groups admitting you even go to church is felt to be beyond the pale. 

I don’t think we should complain too loudly about losing our so called ‘privileges’.  Although we would want to celebrate, and own, our nation’s Christian tradition, our future doesn’t depend upon council prayers or bishops remaining in the Lords but in the church fearlessly proclaiming a counter-cultural message in which Christ’s values will often challenge those which are thought of as fundamental to the 21^st century.  It strikes me we have much to say and contribute – we just need to find alternative routes into society to say it.

Personally I don’t want a privileged slot in this market place of ideas, For I believe the integrity and authenticity of the Gospel is such that – put us alongside any other faith (or as Maureen Lipmann used to say ‘ology’) – we have a message, based on the cross and resurrection, which can touch any individual’s heart with grace and bring about a spirit of love and justice in both church and society.

This weekend The Revd Dr Ivor Hughes will be leading morning worship at South Street and Mrs Linda Lovell will be leading Holy Communion at 6.30pm
With best wishes,

Ian

On 'Seeing' God

On Sunday we held a ‘Question Time’ evening in the Chapel Lounge.  It was a coming together of our evening congregation and members of our Solid Rock youth group; a real and beneficial blending of the age spectrum within our church community. 

The youngsters had spent the previous Sunday night cooking up some fascinating questions for our panel of wise ‘elders’!  Kate, Jackie, Roger and Keith did a splendid job in answering the light hearted enquiries such as ‘What is your favourite sweet?’, or, ‘Are you any good with modern technology?’  And they also offered helpful and thoughtful answers to more profound questions such as, ‘When did you willingly start going to Church?’ or ‘Why did you become a deacon?’ 

One question that made an impact on me was the one that went: ‘How do you see God?’

Kate kicked off and told us she liked to think of him as the loving and supportive ‘hands’ that carry us through life.  Other members of the panel talked of ‘seeing’ him hazily in the present yet more clearly in the story of the past, or as a friend who would always be there.

Sunday evening was terrific and if you came along I hope you feel as positive about it as me!

Christians have always ‘seen’ God in very unique and personal ways.  To some he is a loving heavenly father yet others might shy away from that imagery and find the picture of a shepherd more helpful. 

I myself, if I’m honest, rarely think in terms of ‘God’ but more readily view the divine through the prism of The Lord Jesus Christ – the Man for others.  Christ’s teaching and example in the gospels is what fires my faith most of all – it’s that gospel image of him encountering, confronting, inspiring and comforting the individuals and crowds around him that gives me a picture of God I can understand.

So...I wonder...how do you ‘see’ God?

This weekend we look forward to welcoming The Oddments Theatre Company to morning worship.  Oddments have a ministry of drama which they take into schools, churches and prisons.
With best wishes,

Ian

The Eve of Jubilee

Next Monday the Queen will begin her Diamond Jubilee year and this week the BBC are everywhere, it seems, trailing Andrew Marr’s three part documentary about her life.

In the congregations in which I’ve served there have always been ardent royalists, fierce republicans and a lot of indifferent people in-between. 

Although I recognise monarchy wouldn’t be the obvious choice for any new democracy, I myself believe what we have inherited from the past has, in recent years, served us well.  The Queen, along with her parents and grandparents, has been an example of duty and service done with a certain grace and style. 

The Old Testament concept of Jubilee is all about a 49^th or 50^th year, in the Sabbatical Year cycle, being celebrated as a time for slaves to be freed and debts forgiven.  It was announced, not by the trumpeters of the Household Cavalry but by the priests blowing their Shofars, or rams horns.  A year when mercy was shown and God’s character of grace celebrated.

Today I received a magazine from one of my former churches with an article in it reflecting on last year’s Queen’s broadcast on Christmas Day.  The writer said he was thrilled and surprised by the Christian content of the message with phrases such as: God sent into the world a unique person – neither a philosopher nor a general, important though they are, but a Saviour, with power to forgive.  Even with droopy eyelids after too much turkey, I too noticed how Christ-centred that speech was.

So on Monday – as the gun salutes are made in Hyde Park and the Tower of London, as the BBC begin their landmark documentary series and as a year of celebration begins – I think we can all give thanks for the Queen’s example of service and duty, much of it, I suspect, founded on her genuine Christian faith and discipleship of the King of Kings.

This weekend I’m particularly looking forward to Sunday evening when members of our youth group, Solid Rock, will be asking questions of four church members about the life of faith.  This Question Time event will be held at 6.30pm in the Chapel Lounge and everyone is welcome – do join us if you can!
With best wishes,

Ian

The Danger in Ticking Boxes

I’m writing this week’s blog on the train coming home from a study day in London; we’ve just passed Woking!

Today feels quite significant in that we have handed in our first essays.  Mine was on euthanasia; a moral dilemma much in the news earlier this month with the publication of the Commission on Assisted Dying.

This afternoon’s session was the final one on Theology and Ethics and it’s tempting to file away the notes, pack up the books and quickly move on to the next assignment.  Yet surely that’s not what it is all about.  Moral dilemmas regularly turn up, normally at inconvenient times, in the life of any minister and church.  I hope some of what I’ve learnt in recent weeks will be of help for the rest of my ministry.

It is, however, so easy to get into the habit of simply ticking the box.  We’ve just has The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and some of us (I know it’s a minority sport!) have attended services and meetings in other churches which will have delighted and challenged us, hopefully in equal measure.  But ecumenism can’t be done in a week! Relationship building takes time and truth-telling between Christians of different traditions only happens when we’re in it for the long haul.

In fact there’s no way that our faith pilgrimage, or life in general for that matter, can be lived simply by ticking boxes, superficially addressing the immediate, and then swiftly moving on having learnt little and be challenged by even less.

My Christmas present from the family last month (and this was very loving considering one of them absolutely hates casseroles!) was a slow cooker.  It’s great!  Cooking times are double or triple the norm – put in the food after breakfast, let it cook slowly all day and it’s ready by supper-time.

Much of our thinking and living cries out for the equivalent of a slow cooker rather than a quick stir fry in a wok!  Now I know I’m mixing my metaphors here but patient listening for God in prayer, open-minded struggling with ambiguous bible texts, ecumenical co-operation, sticking with a family member in trouble or holding the hand of a friend with a terminal illness are not issues that come anywhere close to simply that of ‘ticking a box’. It takes time – precious time.

Well, we’ve just pulled out of Basingstoke, maybe I ought to put down my pen and start reading up for the lecture in a fortnight’s time – or perhaps, rather than rush on,  I should practice what I preach and slowly linger over today’s lecture - at least until we get to Salisbury!

I thought last Sunday’s Joint Morning Service of Holy Communion at St John’s was super.  Tomorrow evening we have our first Church Meeting of 2012 and then it’s back to South Street for morning worship on Sunday – with a further opportunity to worship ecumenically at Vicarage Street Methodist Church on Sunday night at 6.30pm.
With best wishes,

Ian

Two Funerals and a Conversation

Today I stood in the crematorium vestry before my first funeral of 2012.  It was there that I met up with the lady vicar from Sherborne who had just officiated at the service before mine.  We chatted and she told me that no family members had been in the congregation of the funeral she had just taken, only care workers.  The reason, apparently, was that the lady had suffered from dementia for years and everyone seems to have lost touch with her as she went through that ‘long goodbye’.  My clergy friend, however, said she was pleased to have had the opportunity to officiate and gave the best service she could for the lady who had died, recognising her as a daughter of God, made in his image and holding, even in her most fragile moments of living, that sacredness that belongs to every life.

I pondered her words and was moved by them – and wondered what might have been the story of that lady’s life before she slipped into dementia.

Then it was my turn.  My turn to do one of the most privileged tasks of this calling – to lead a funeral.

There was a fair number at this service, which was lovely as the lady we were remembering was over ninety.  I had been given some biographical notes by her son and I used them as the basis of the tribute.  I could almost hear a number in the congregation say, to themselves rather than out loud – ‘well we didn’t know that’, or ‘what a surprise she lived there’. We learnt a lot – much more than most of us knew during the last five years she has been worshipping with us. 

What I discovered was just how active she had been in various churches in her younger days and the fact that all through her life she has been a regular worshipper at her local Methodist church – until she moved here and attended our Baptist church because it was literally next door!  I was thrilled to discover such faithful loyalty to Christ and his gospel.

‘My story’ didn’t begin the first time you met me – neither did yours the first time I bumped into you!  God has been at work in the narrative which is our past – and in those struggles and joys I, like you, have discovered something of his love and grace woven into what I did, who I met and where I went. Indeed, although I wouldn’t want to be captured by my past – and are not all of us grateful for new beginnings – it does belong to me and in many ways has shaped my present.

That’s what we were celebrating today at the funeral – the divine companionship and activity of God – present with from the cradle to the grave.

This weekend, as we’re in the middle of The Week of Prayer for Christian Unit, Sunday is a little different with a united service at St John’s at 10.30am – then at 6.30pm we’re having a Bible Study evening in The Chapel Lounge looking at The Epistle of James (Study Sheets on the Christian Education Leaflet page of our website – but rest assured there’s no exam!)
With best wishes,

Ian

Fortissimo!

On Sunday I sat just in front of four wonderful singers!  It was our monthly Parade Service so the Girls’ Brigade was occupying the row near me with the youngest girls from the Explorer Group at the very front.  Some, I understand, have just learnt to read so at this service, especially during a couple of contemporary songs, they looked up, read the words on the screen and seemed to sing their hearts out – fortissimo!  It was a great sound full of enthusiasm and brought a lump to my throat.

Over Christmas we watched a compilation programme about the Military Wives choir under the baton of the indefatigable Gareth Malone.  It was heart-warming to see their progress from a group of untried and unconfident singers to a coherent choir able to sing in honour of their husbands at The Royal Albert Hall in front of The Queen.  Music can be a great force for good.

Christians have been singing the Good News for thousands of years and hymns have been particularly important to non-liturgical traditions like ours because they often contain some of our best cherished creedal statements.  Much of what we believe was probably first communicated to us through song!

So I’m a great believer in hymns (and good songs!).  A hymn can do so much: praise God, tell His worth, help us confess our frailty and need, spur us on to service and encourage our prayers and faith.  Actually I simply can’t imagine worship without hymns and hearty singing.  So thank you girls – those six and seven year olds – for praising God so enthusiastically in song last Sunday!

This Saturday we look forward to the first Men’s Breakfast with former Mayor of Yeovil and Chairman of The South Somerset Council Mr Ian Martin.

With best wishes,

Ian

What are you seeking?

Yesterday I went into school and led the Communion Service at the start of the teachers’ In Service Training Day;  it’s always a privilege to do this.  During our time together we had a short reflection on the Lectionary reading from John 1, the story of Andrew leaving behind his discipleship with John the Baptist and taking up with Jesus.  At one point in the passage Jesus asks Andrew that most penetrating of faith questions: What are you seeking?

That line of enquiry would be appropriate for a Career Advisor chatting to a young person but it’s also a relevant question for anyone reflecting on their personal pilgrimage.  What are we seeking?  What do we desire in our walk with Jesus Christ this New Year?

There is a much loved prayer by Bishop Richard of Chichester which goes a long way in answering that sort of question.  Richard was born in Worcestershire and was offered his family’s farm.  By accepting he would have become a man of means and influence.  Instead he decided to become a scholar and a priest, ending up as Bishop of Chichester in Sussex, he died in 1253.  It was wonderful that his prayer, from such a different age, should have been woven in so beautifully to the Godspell musical of the Glamour Rock seventies!

In its simplicity Bishop Richard’s prayer encapsulates the longing of any committed follower of Jesus Christ of whatever age or century.  It is, surely, a fitting answer to Jesus’ question: What are you seeking?

                                      Most merciful Redeemer, Friend and Brother,
                                             may we know you more clearly,  
                                              love you more dearly,
                                            and follow you more nearly,
                                                         day by day.
                                                             Amen.

With best wishes,

Ian
ps I wonder if you might be reading this on our new Church Website?  We are so grateful to Stuart Way for all his help over the last three years or so with the old one – he gave of his time and talents generously.  Our hope now is that our new site will be helpful to all who come across it deliberately or by accident!