Pubs and Churches

 

Looking through the newsfeeds earlier this week I was struck by one reporting that two pubs will close in England and Wales this week, as they have done now for many months.  Apparently 230 pubs shut up shop in the last quarter, compared to 153 the previous.

So, it appears that life is changing, not just in churches but in High Street shopping patterns, diminishing audiences at classical music concerts and now in the relentless closure of the country’s pubs.

Maybe it’s our shifting concept of community that is behind many of these trends. 

Last Saturday, on the train to Baker Street, I couldn’t help but notice that in our crowded carriage 80% of passengers were looking at their ‘handheld devices’!  Even the boyfriend and girlfriend opposite us stopped interacting with each other by Chorleywood and spent the rest of the journey communing exclusively with their respective phones! There was a slight glimmer of interaction at Harrow on the Hill, but it petered out by Finchley Road!!

Of course, ‘virtual’ community is still real community, and for many of us has been a wonderful blessing.  Yet, I suspect, by and large it’s the lack of necessity for us to physically meet, which has led to a drop in numbers attending pubs, football matches, concerts and, of course, churches.

It's probably one of our biggest challenges now; how to both value and build community.

'It 'aint half hot mum'!

 

Last week’s heatwave broke September records.  Saturday felt similar to a winter’s ‘snow day’; we went out early with the dog and then hunkered down enjoying a cool indoors for the rest of the day.

This summer’s weather has been full of extremes.  We had a blazing June followed by a very soggy July.  And the very week the schools returned the sun came out and blazed away for half the month.

Friends have been telling me that it was upon their return from holiday, sometimes even from the Mediterranean, that they encountered significant heat, walking off the plane into a sultry Heathrow.  It all felt the wrong way round!

We are beginning to realise that Climate Change really does seem to be bringing extremes of weather at both ends of the spectrum; more snow, rain and heat and not necessarily in the months or seasons we’d expect.

Throughout September through to the beginning of October the Church observes and celebrates the Season of Creation.  All of that seems highly appropriate as we also regularly hold our Harvest Festivals at this time of year.

Yet, as well as giving thanks for all the blessings we enjoy living in a world of such bounty and potential, we recognise both the increasing fragility our planet is experiencing, because of manmade warming, alongside the fierceness of the natural world, resulting in devasting events such as the Moroccan earthquake or the Libyan floods. 

Someone gave me a little ditty the other day called The Gardener’s Hymn.  It’s opening lines go…

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

But what we never mention, though gardeners know it’s true
Is when he made the goodies, He made the baddies too.

The drought that kills the fuchsias, the frost that nips the buds
The rain that drowns the seedlings the blight that hits the buds…

Or as Tennyson once said: Nature’s red in tooth and claw.

In many ways I think Harvest Festivals and the Season of Creation are quite a challenge theologically, ecologically, and sociologically.

Returning to last week’s heatwave, I’m conscious that the Bible was written by those who lived in a hot country.  Hence all those references to the Lord being our shade and protector from the noon day heat.  So, God’s blessing is predominantly expressed using the imagery of flowing water and cool running streams rather than blue sky sunny days.

After this year’s heatwaves in Britain of June and September I’m beginning to feel a new respect and appreciation for our more usual temperate climate.  ‘Good weather’ can also mean cool days with grey cloud and light rain showers, for such days really are a great blessing too!

Hello/Goodbye

My own Induction at AFC

  I don’t usually attend many Induction services       for ministers; but I have been to all of my own!

 Last Saturday I attended such a service and then,   on Sunday, I was present at a minister’s farewell.     On Saturday it was all about ‘hello’, whilst on   Sunday there was a muted atmosphere as a   congregation said ‘farewell’.

 Induction services are full of expectation.  The   truth is that neither minister nor congregation   really know each other at this stage, so there’s   also a bit of anxiety!

 Saturday’s induction was a splendid occasion   with a full church and wonderful music.  The   neighbouring Parish Church was well represented   with choir members and Vicar taking part.  And   there were many present who knew the incoming   minister from previous pastorates.  It was a joy to   be there.

Sunday’s experience, although tinged with a certain sadness, was also a joyful one. There was a busy lunch with cakes being cut and some deeply moving speeches afterwards in the church along with presentations.  It all marked the end of a significant chapter in the church’s life and the beginning of the outgoing minister’s retirement.  The sense of a job ‘well done’.

What struck me on both days is that ministry is never just about one person but the fusion between pastor and congregation.  It’s a partnership and consequently both services were just as much about the church members as the minister. Indeed, in any church the minister is never a permanent member!

So, wasn’t it strange to have these two occasions come side by side last weekend.  Both churches, and ministers, will stay in my thoughts and prayers and it was a real privilege to share in services that said hello/goodbye.

Coffee - part of God's Rescue Plan

 

After Service Coffee at AFC July 2023

Towards the end of last month the news bulletins were full of the dramatic rescue of six children and two adults from a stranded cable car in Pakistan.  The children were on their way to school and often took this one mile journey, 900feet up in the air, thus saving themselves a two hour road trip.  This was the fifth trip of the cable car that morning, before it became perilously dislodged.

Just a week before, whilst on holiday in the Austrian Tirol, we had used cable cars over a dozen times.  They can indeed be thrilling and nerve racking at the same time!

What struck me most about the incident from the Khyber valley in Pakistan is that when the official helicopter rescue ended at dusk, with six people still stranded in the dangling cabin, the locals mounted their own successful operation using zip wires.  One of the passengers, a young boy, seeing the helicopter depart said he thought: well, this has been my last day. Yet to the cheers of the crowd the other side of the mountain, he was safely rescued along the zip wire later that night.  He now, hopefully, has many days stretching out before him.

Those villagers never gave up on the rescue.  They showed a wonderful spirit of hope.  And the result is eight precious lives restored.

The Bible occasionally uses the image of God as Rescuer. Whether from a dark pit or a valley of despair, the idea of that God lifts us up and helps us live another day.

Recently day a friend told me how difficult it was to go through a bereavement just as the Pandemic dawned.  In the days of isolation that followed the usual support and passing words of encouragement that would usually have come from casual encounters just never happened.  And that made it so much tougher.  The ‘rescue’, as it were, didn’t seem to happen.

That’s why I’m always so thrilled to hear the buzz of conversation over coffee in the church hall after morning service.  I sense that such good work is going on at every table as people share news of the week, news of every shade.  And in the sharing, the conversing and the simply ‘being together’, God breaks through and comes among us.  Love touches our lives, and we are made just a little bit more whole.

Just drinking coffee and chatting?  No – it’s much more than that.  It's part of God’s ‘Rescue Plan!  

The Car Park Parable

 

We have recently installed new controls in the church car park, and it’s felt like quite a significant moment in our life together.

The truth is we have been talking of doing this for years, if not decades, and at a recent Church Meeting the time just seemed right to grasp the nettle and give approval for the new scheme.

Our church’s car park is a blessing, and we must not lose sight of that.  I know of more than one congregation that has been forced to close because of a town centre location with no car park.  Yet, the truth is that our car park has been open to abuse.  It’s particularly unfair when some people and businesses pay for yearly permits whilst others, who have no connection with AFC, just take a chance every day to park without making a contribution.

Recently one of our Elders discovered that the only description of our church on a local website was that of being a car park!  That, perhaps, explains part of our problem.

Well, now the cameras have been turned on, the notices erected, and the touch pad installed for user group members to enter their registration numbers.  The Elders have done sterling work sitting by the signing in portal for the last few days, gently encouraging people to enter their details.

In the process of all this we’ve learnt that car parking companies sometimes employ theological terms as they talk about ‘grace’ periods for dropping people off, or ‘forgiving’ a certain number of fines per month!  It’s also been ‘interesting’ to gauge the public’s reaction.  Some people forgot the number of their car because it’s the family’s second vehicle (something of a First World problem there perhaps).

Currently, as we make our way through Matthew’s gospel in the lectionary cycle, we are in the middle of many parable stories told by Jesus.  They are coming thick and fast in these middle chapters.  So, I occasionally wonder how our Lord might have used the Parable of The Car Park?  Maybe it would have carried themes of justice and equality and of trying to be considerate of others who need the spaces after us.  It could become a parable about just how difficult it is to ‘permit’ and ‘not permit’. And I’m sure the themes of grace and forgiveness would find a place in it too.

I love the ‘stories of Jesus’ and it’s not a bad exercise to ponder the type he might have told if he had been teaching in the 21^st century.

The Blog will return in September, hope you have a good summer.

Is unity in disunity possible?

 

The Church of England recently held its summer Synod at which the Archbishop of York made a keynote address.  Although it hit the headlines because he raised the rather well-rehearsed idea that calling God ‘Father’ is not always helpful, the main thrust of his talk was about the growing disunity within The Church of England.

Here's a line from his speech:  We remain stubbornly unreconciled, appear complacent about division, and often also appear all to ready to divide again.  We have got used to disunity.  We think it’s normal when in fact, it is a disgrace, an affront to Christ and all he came to give us.

Well, maybe looking over the fence and commenting on another denomination’s synod may be considered bad form, but I have to say Stephen Cottrell’s words touched me, especially the idea that disunity may even now be considered the norm.

The context of the Archbishop’s message was not so much ecumenical disunity but the strife that is tearing the Anglican Church apart at the moment, cantering especially around issues of sexuality.  The same critique could be made of many Churches, including The Baptist Union which is struggling hard to find a way forward. 

The next few years may see various denominations splitting over this issue.  Perhaps we will not be able to all sign up to one view on sexuality.  The challenge will then be about how we respect our different interpretations of scripture.  If it’s not too confusing a thing to say, I pray for a unity even within our disunity; for there is still so very much that holds us together. 

We’ll see, we haven’t reached the end of the road quite yet, but hard and difficult decisions are before every denomination.

A hymn, by the United Reformed Church minister, John Campbell has an opening line which reads like a wonderful prayer: 

                                    A body made of many parts,
                                    diverse, yet all together,
                                    where each is valued, each required,
                                    and all are one forever.

May it be so.

Wise Words

 

This weekend many of us who followed the Revised Common Lectionary will touch on the theme of ‘Wisdom’ in our sermons.  That’s because, as we follow Matthew’s gospel this year, on Sunday we reach the passage where Jesus talks of God’s wisdom often being found in unexpected places and spoken by unexpected people.

Our neighbours in France are going through turbulent times following the shooting of Nahel.  As with so many issues this one is complex and generates deep emotions.  Following the shooting of this young man we have seen numerous protests and riots on the streets of many French cities, and we have been saddened that the response has generated considerable anguish among so many citizens.

The right to protest is a commonly accepted one in liberal democracies, yet when it escalates into violence and threatens the loss of more life, we long for a word of wisdom to come that will help re-settle society and enable different factions to find more common ground.

With that in mind I was so impressed to hear such wise and proportionate words spoken by the captain of the French Football Team last week, Kylian Mbappe.  He issued a statement, on behalf of all the players, which ended:

…we understand what’s at the core of the anger, but violence does not solve anything, even less when it inevitably turns against those who express it…you are destroying your own properties, your neighbourhoods, your cities.  The time of violence must give way to that of mourning, dialogue, and reconstruction.

What helpful and inspiring words from the players of France’s national team, Les Bleus.  And, perhaps, it appropriately underlines the truth, which Jesus teaches in this week’s Gospel, that often wisdom is, indeed, found in unexpected places.