I've been archived!!

Every month or two we are delighted to receive, through the post, the current magazine of some of the previous churches where I've served as minister.

One arrived last week and I chuckled as I turned to the back page.  Under the title 'From the archives' there was a photo of me!  It came from the early 2000's and showed a group of us just about to set out on a Good Friday Walk of Witness through Malvern.  It was a super picture full of great people I once heard the privilege of working alongside.

I suppose, in one way or another, we have all been achived.  Technically speaking our 'footprint' must be on many official documents gathering dust in government and institutional buildings.  More than that, however, is the emotional, even spiritual, footprint we all leave behind.

Paul, the letter writer, sometimes wrote to those from his past saying, 'I thank God upon every remembrance of you...'.

As I say, upon seeing that picture from  Malvern taken early this century I chuckled with delight as I looked at the faces of folk who brought much commitment and joy to the companionship of church life.

Not a bad epitaph really, to be a good memory in a person's life, so when they think of us - they smile.

Lenin's Fish and Chips

Last Saturday, as is our wont (!), we did a London walk; this time following the route of the River Fleet (now totally underground) from St Pancras, through Clerkenwell and eventually to Blackfriars where it joins the Thames.

En route we wandered passed King's Cross and down the street where, between 1903-10, Lenin and his wife lived.  We learnt from our guide book that the Lenins loved London's fish and chips and we passed the site of the shop from which they bought them.

This rather mundane fact about his eating habits has somewhat changed my perception of this influential Russian who changed the course of 20th century history. It's rather like knowing that Churchill adored the weekly delivery to Chartwell of his favourite fruit cake from Fortnum and Masons.

I was once gardening in the front of a former manse when a church member drove up, lowered his car window and called out with some mirth, 'Oh, you can mow the grass then?'.  It was obviously a revelation to him that the person he usually saw in the pulpit could actually do something as 'ordinary' as push a lawn mower!

All of us are far more than our public face.  Whether we are 'up front' or 'behind the scenes' people we all, inevitably, have an image we perfect and project.  This isn't always helpful because we can misunderstand and misjudge each other too harshly when we fail to appreciate with compassion each other's humanity.  Even our icons enjoy fish and chips, relish fruit cake and, yes, ministers sometimes even cut the grass!

One of the most poignant speeches in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is Shylock pleading for a more empathetic understanding of himself and his race:  He says:
If you prick us do we not bleed?
If you tickle us do we not laugh?
If you poison us do we not die?

That's an understanding based on the mutual vulnerability common to all humanity.

In such a light it somehow makes it worth knowing that Lenin loved his King's Cross chippy!

Beauty and the Beast

Last Saturday's Harvest Lunch

Last weekend at our Harvest Lunch we were entertained by an extrovert pianist who loved interacting with the audience!  Introducing one of his numbers, he 'dedicated' it to two of our congregation sitting close to him.  This was unexpected and a bit of a risk on his part as the selection of music he was about to play was from Disney's Beauty and the Beast!  The 'Beast' he selected was our event organiser (who took it in good part) and the 'Beauty' was a lady sitting on a nearby table.  'What do you think about that?', he asked her.  In a flash, with no warning but with great theological insight, she responded,'Well, there's a beauty and a beast in all of us'.

I loved her words and thought them both full of grace and insight.

There is so much truth in what she said and it is reflected by the words of St Paul in Romans 7: For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want I do.

The world is rarely divided into that which is obviously good and bad.  Ethical and political decisions are no where near as clear cut as our press and media hypocritically try to suggest; there are shades of grey everywhere and it needs careful, patient and thoughtful discernment to chart a way forward.

So, I'm grateful to our fellow lunch guest last Saturday for her wise words reminding me that all of us need the grace of God and the forbearance of those around us because in every person there are elements of both 'The Beauty and The Beast'.

With Thanksgiving...

AFC Harvest Festival 2018

Harvest Festivals, like the one we are holding this Sunday, are a Cornish invention.  Apparently it's all due to the Rev Robert Hawker inviting his Morwenstow parishioners to a thanksgiving service in church in 1843.

Festivals such as Harvest invite us to make a connection between life and faith.  So, on Sunday, through our hymns and prayers we'll have many opportunities to give thanks for the beauty of creation and the fruitfulness of the earth and sea.

During this Sunday's service members of our Junior Church will also bring a presentation about water and the challenge of there being either too much or too little of it.  Their presentation is much appreciated because Harvest Festival is also a time for us to think about our stewardship of the world.

An active interest in ecology is surely a necessary part of our faith and it's why we are starting to put 'Eco-Church' on our agendas at AFC.

A piece of good news, that I believe is worth celebrating this harvest season, is the fact that over July and August this year the UK energy capacity rose marginally more in renewables, such as wind power, than in carbon based fuel.  A step in the right direction, I think, and a cause for thanksgiving.

Taking a step back

Listening to the radio this morning I heard the CEO of Microsoft talk of the need for those in his digital industry to ‘take a step back’ and reassess the road technology is going down.  He was concerned at the rapid rise of the internet and the use to which governments, industry and individuals have put it, even talking of its ‘weaponization’; using it for manipulative purposes.

Like most of you reading this, I’ve embraced new technology with enthusiasm and enjoy the benefits of communicating using WhatsApp, writing sermons with the ability to reference facts on Google and write articles on a word processing programme that has a built in spell checker!  Yet I am also aware that all this technology has a downside and that schools these days will have sessions on Cyber bullying.  This week an App was launched, supported by The Duke of Cambridge’s mental health charity, designed to help youngsters keep alert and safe whilst on-line.

‘Taking a step back’ means deliberately pausing and reviewing both the path already taken and the one in front of us.  These can be pivotal moments and forks in the road that determine our future. 

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, ‘A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds’.  In other words, there are times when changing our minds and coming to fresh conclusions is a sign of maturity, not weakness.

As I write the Supreme Court, opposite Westminster Abbey, is pondering whether or not the Proroguing of Parliament this autumn is an abuse of the system.  It’s a ‘stepping back’ moment, to pause the tape and take a considered view.

We all need such moments in our lives because, by and large, life runs on at quite a pace and we can be swept up by events.  Liturgically we do this on Sunday mornings in church as we share in the Prayer of Confession.  Confession includes reflection.  We are called to ponder the events of the last week.  In doing so we are all aware of moments things have been done well and occasions we have fallen short.  In the quietness of prayer we acknowledge all this before God seeking his renewal and help for the week to come.

Centuries of worship has taught us that ‘taking a step back’, such as a time of reflection and confession, can be positive and healthy – even good for the soul.

What's in a name?

I sometimes think that in church life September is the price you pay for August!  After a month of virtually no meetings they all come at once.

So, on Tuesday our Elders gathered.

If we met in other churches this particular group would be called by a different collective.  'Modern' congregations seem to have adopted the title 'Leadership Team'.  A term that has a certain 'thrust' behind it.

Other congregations might call such a group a 'Church Council' emphasising that it is in the coming together that discussions take place and decisions are made.

Most of the churches I've had the privilege to serve in the Baptist tradition have had 'Diaconates' - coming from the Greek word 'servant' - and I've always loved that, the idea that 'service' is at the heart of leadership.

At Amersham Free Church we follow the URC and Presbyterian convention of having 'Elders'.  It's interesting that there is always a delight expressed when younger Elders join!  In a sense the term isn't, I think, so much an age issue but the hope that the experience found within the group will prove beneficial.  Most of the good folk sitting around the table on Tuesday evening have met with similar challenges and joys on the agenda before.  We bring that experience and perspective to our current discussions and that's a blessing.

Whatever our teams are called, all of us in church life know that we need God's help as we seek to serve the local church.

Every Queen's Speech in Parliament ends the same way and it's really a prayer - suitable not only for our MPs but also for our; Leadership Teams, Church Councils, Diaconates and Elderships.  It goes like this: My Lords and Members of the House of Commons, I pray that the blessing of Almighty God will rest upon your counsels.  And a hearty 'Amen' to that!

Eurpoean friendships

On Sunday a member of the congregation, a former RAF pilot in his 90's, told me how his thoughts every September 1st go out to the people of Poland recalling their invasion on what was, effectively, day one of World War Two.

Later on Sunday I caught sight of a news report from Poland and the visit there that day by a dignified German President who 'apologised' for his country's actions eighty years ago.

Over the summer it's been a joy for us to visit both Germany and Austria.  In fact, over the last five years we've deliberately (post children!) made various European countries our destination of choice for holidays.

 Invariably we have been impressed by the courtesy with which we've been received and the sense of history and identity we have found in each place.  I've concluded that many of our continental neighbours find it so much easier than us in thinking of themselves as being, say: German, Italian, Danish or Spanish and, at the same time, European.

Our most meaningful contact has been with a German family and it's been wonderful to twice be guests in their beautiful farmhouse home. We first visited last year with a group from church and on the opening evening after supper our gracious host made a short speech of welcome.  He spoke so eloquently about 'friendship'.  It has clearly been his family's deepest wish to take every opportunity to forge bonds of friendship with folk from Britain whenever possible.

As I listened to his speech it dawned on me that such a desire is essentially 'spiritual'.

 It is driven by the deepest faith convictions that we share a common humanity.  In fact, I suspect that for my German friend the European project can be seen, partly, as an act of 'redemption' for the horrors of the twentieth century.  And that, I believe, is something we should better understand, appreciate and respect.