A Very Special Experience

Following the Best Western disaster (see earlier in the week) some lovely friends of ours took all six of us to a michelin star restaurant last night. We were given the usual options but what we finally decided on was "The Tour" which turned out to be a 17 course meal in which we all had to participate. Each person got the same thing.
Every course that came was a theatrical performance and included sorbets made in nitrogen, icecream on a stick and a consomme that came iwth a syringe of egg to squirt into it. It was just like playing and every course arrived with an Oooh from every one. There were noen fo the course that you would have attempted at home, there were none more special than the others.
What was really good out of this wonderful experience was the fact that we all ate the same thing together at the same time. We were able to share the experience in a very real way that made this have the same feel as a night at the theatre together.
Perhaps it is that sense of a shared experience that is so missing from our communities today.

what's your thing?

Back to the chocolate factory in the tiny village of Orton. No umpa lumpas but good service and yummy food and a window on the factory (a room where chocolate is made) we bought Cartmel toffee sauce made by an equally small village nearby, because sticky toffee pudding is their thing.
Finding your thing, your unique selling point is the key for community survival iin these rural communities.
So Cartmel has sticky toffee pudding, Orton has a chocolate factory and Mytholmroyd has dock pudding...
Hmmmmn!
Time to find another unique selling point?

one horse power

To Durham to pick up the last of our party my very grown up son and his wife and my daughter.
The journey was quite eventful as we passed loads of travellers with their pied horses. They were gathering for the Appleby Horse fair which is happening next week. It was odd to be driving down the fast dual carriageway of the A66 with warning signs telling us to watch out for horse drawn vehicles.
It was a reminder of earleir days when life went at one horse power 50 horse power and you didn't need a petrol station, only a grass verge, and a lot of patience.

WELCOME

A simple task like finding a restaurant for our grown up night is complicated by confusing local guidance and unimpressive front of house staff.
A particualr low point occurs when we arrive at the Best Western near Shap. Names have not been changed to alert the innocent to the guilty.
Things begin badly when we approach the desk and the phone rings and without a smile or an apology the person behind the desk picks up the device and turns her back on us.
As we wait it's hard not to notice how quiet the enormous place is. It has something of the atmosphere of the old people's home I visited last week.
Finally her conversation ends and we ask if they serve dinner. Not now is the stern reply it's 2pm. No for tomorrow we come back with and the phone rings.
Mid sentence she turns her back again and starts to talk on the phone.
Mentally we turn away too but British reserve keeps us there until five minutes later and after presentation of a lack lustre menu we leave never to go there again.
It would be easy to talk about british hospitality but the girl we were talking to appeared to be german or dutch.
The person you meet first is so key to how you feel about stuff you would have thought that by now they would have realised that.
There is an old tradition amongs travelling saleman that if they go to a place and find it not up to scrath they write: "I'll certainly tell my friends!" in the register as a warning. So Best Western I'll certainly tell my friends.

The grace of a plastic train driver

To Lake Windermere, it was wet!
Not just the lake but it rained a bit too. We had trouble getting there with lots of traffic queues and so eventually in a car park a long way out we struggle out of our three cars and fourteen people are locked in one of those pointless quests to work out what we doing.At that point it arrived... The road train.
Basically a tractor dressed up in a plastic shell. We all laughed at its inherant naffness. We all got on board to a ten minute tour de force from the tractor driver as he went through his routine. Touching on the genius of self deprecation of a Jack Dee or Eddie Izzard... He took ten minutes to heal the wounds of our journeyand to literrally make our day.
Grace is such a rare commodity in our communities and often is accompanied by gentle humour.
I hope the plastic train driver knows how important he is...

an old flame

The first barbecue of the year and despite our new man credentials the men gather around the fire and the women make salad. The burning of food is actually carried out by one of our older teenagers... We stand by admiringly as the flame is literally passed to a new generation.
This year has been all about that passing on with many of our children now involved in their own churhces... Beginning to catch that vision of transforming the church, transforming the world.
Unlike with passing on in the relay type way we now burn together. The spreading of a flame, we burn brighter, old and new together.

Rebirth

It's Sunday and so vicars on holiday go to church. A little village church in Orton. The place was decked out like kind of weird theme park as they were having a festival. The theme was the world, which gave plenty of scope... Highlights included a half sized polar bear under a sign that said:"Iceland" and a plane flown by a rabbit, all made out of balloons. Not sure what that had to with anything but it was spectacular.
The preacher preached on bringing the spiritual world and the physical world together. At least I think that's what he preached on... I was distracted by a display on Tutankamen's burial relics.
John 3:16 was the text and he spoke well but with no conclusion a surprise given that it's the classic text about the need to be born again. It's the classic text about spiritual regeneration. I wonder if it works for physical renewal?
For it struck me that regeneration and born again are close together as concepts.
You need to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. Our towns villages and cities need to be reborn, regenerated to...
I'm not sure what the promised land is...
perhaps simply to be btter.
the other vicars have gone to another service but I prefer the stillness of s spring evening by a babbling brook for my regeneration.

Easter Holiday

To the Lakes for my Easter holidays, (All vicars get a week off after Easter but not all are able to take them at easter) with long time friends from theological college. We've been going away now together for ninetteen years so what was three vicars, three vicars wives and two babies is now seventeen people. We talk alot, we eat alot and we laugh a lot, we even pray a bit and on ocassion we have cried abit too. It's all in that easy way people do when they have been through it together.
We've been here for less than two hours and already the fact we haven't been all together for year melts away as we all slip into the familiar comfortable clothes of our relationships.
It's a little bit of heaven now.

Imaginary Friends

I have just discovered tonight that somebody is reading my Blog! I just assumed that I was talking to myself and so will have to be a bit more careful. It's a funny feeling the idea that you don't know who your audience is or where they are but in fact it is the usual situation for anyone in public life. You never know who is listening.
When the internet was very young I was a university chaplain in Huddersfield, I did alot of counsellling. Quite often i would ask people to draw a picture of the network of supports that surrounded a peson. One of the people I cared for drew their picture and then said what was baffling then: "Of course I don't really know their names or even their sex but they are some of my closest friends."
Once I had discounted imaginary friends, not all that uncommon I have discovered, it turned out these were a part of a network group on the internet. When I quizzed the person about their friends they said: "It's easier to be close to someone you don't see."
These virtual friendships are part of all our lives now... on the whole I think we are better for them but i still worry that they offer fulfilment in a kind of safe intimacy, which we should rightly find in the very unsafe intimacy of love.

Relay

Confirmation tonight and ten candidates confirm promises made on their behalf mostly many years ago. It's an unusual thing this concept. You lay down a promise that you hope they pick up later. It's a bit like a relay race. Before you hand over a baton you run together for a short time... This is what is going on with confirmation.
I wonder if we could use this technique in other works of life... It's like the old idea of craftmenship and apprenticeship.
Who could you run with in your line of work before you hqand over the baton.

Still Storming

It's 8.30 and after an hour the council has just accepted the minutes! These first meetings are always tricky as the newly appointed mayor finds her feet. She is trying to be fierce which is probaly as good a technique as any. Committees are funny things all forming storming and norming and hopefully eventually performing. There is a moment that comes when we work as a team and a tension till we get there.
Blessed are the peacemakers and we await their arrival!

scaling up

PCC tonight amd much excitement about the potential new square. Puzzlement about the enterprise centre... But the beginnings of a glimmer of a shadow of understanding... The vision begins to be shared.
Somebody said: "it's just geting so big... It's a bit scary."
Initially I thought she meant the building itself but in fact she just meant we were scaling up.
Scaling up is what happens after regeneration has begun and we are learning it's a bit scary.
I wonder if there is any help with it... I'll ask my friends at Yorkshire Forward.

More Regeneration Talk

Tonight I spoke as Rural Dean to all the chruches form the Deanery it should have been the Archdeacon but he is ill... so they got me banging on about Regeneration
This is what I told them, or what i intended to anyway.

Regeneration: Transforming Deaneries

Introduction

Many of you will know that I am about to start out on a an adventure of a lifetime, beginning on the 28th June with a trip to Yemen, followed quickly with a trip to Adelaide, and America.All this for a boy who up to three months ago had never been on a plane since I was 17 years of age.
I have already learnt a good many things about travel…
1. Going on a plane is not as easy as catching a bus
2. In Amsterdam: Not all Cafes are the same…
3. That if you are Sweden you simply have to say:” I’m very sorry I’m English,” and people will respond sympathetically in you own language.
4. After an added overnight stay without baggage, always carry a spare pair of pants.
I’m sure many of you have been to far more exotic places than I have and think I am a bit of a wimp.
(cue heroic music)
But I have been travelling in worlds where many of you have not been yet and I want to at least encourage you to take a few steps into this world because many of the concepts that are being talked about in this world are vital to the transformation of this deanery.
I want you to boldly go with me into the world of Regeneration.

Planet Partnership
The first planet I want you to visit is the planet partnership.
A key question in regeneration is who are you but who are you with?
On planet partnership no one is expected to work alone but to look for people to work with.

1 Partnerships with community and business
Andrew Mawson – Bromley by Bow
The beauty of partnership is that you can have an interest in what people are doing which goes beyond how much rent we can make out of them.
Partnership buys you and interest and visiting rites.
The weird thing about partnership is that it invites others to join to.
St Michaels is already beginning to experience the fruit of partnerships.

Benefit 1 on Planet Partnership - Training
At a basic level we benefit through our work with Yorkshire Forward through the training they have provided for me and others in our church that are in the regeneration business.
They are funding my sabbatical and this has already had an impact through the learning mentor they have attached to me.
Benefit 2 on Planet Partnership – Money and professional time
The future holds out many more fruits as we seek to walk alongside those who share our common aim to build community and to make our neighbourhoods a better place.

Benefit 3 on Planet Partnership – Gospel credibility
It’s difficult because partnerships are always complicated, ask anyone who is married!
However if we are to reach out to our community, partnerships are clearly the way to go.
Not so much “Come and join us!” but also “can we walk with you as we seem to be going down the same road?”
And as we walk down the road people will listen to us because we do stuff.


2 Partnerships with other churches
We are getting better at this.
Since we started negotiating share together we are also starting to make partnerships with each other… but there is so much more we could do.
Sharing good practice
Sharing our problems: if only we knew
Sharing our vision and pooling our resources.
Joining together in evangelism and resources
Planet partnership is one of the universes we need to walk in if we are to begin helping God in his great project of transforming our deanery.

Planet Outcomes and Outputs
The second lesson of regeneration is more difficult.
One of the more unpleasant aspects of working with people in regeneration is that they are always asking about Outcomes and Outputs.
It has taken me a long time to get a handle on this but, I think:
an outcome is what you intend to achieve
an output is something measurable that you intend to achieve.
These are a real challenge to those like me who like things to be open and illdefined.
Also you can tend to feel at times like you spend more time weighing the pig than feeding it, to quote Gervais Phinn
However they are a great tool for us as churches because they force us to ask the question of anything we are trying to do: “why are we doing this?”
They force us to ask the difficult question in a world of many things we could do:What should we do?
You would do well to look at what you already do already and to do this you need to measure like they do on Planet Outcomes and Outputs
On Planet Outcome they are not afraid to ask questions… Jesus said: Seek and you will find…
Planet Engagement

The third planet in the Regeneration is Planet engagement…
Our basic calling as Christians is to be “in the world but not of the world.”
We have to engage with the communities to which God has called us to deal with the place he has sent us in such a way that we maintain our distinctiveness but don’t make that a reason to turn our back on our communities’ needs.
We are often only visitors to this planet
We need to really live alongside them
If nothing else it give a credibility when it comes to sharing the Gospel
If we listen to that community, especially in its official capacity we sometimes some interesting thing that they are listening to.

Community Resilience meeting
Felt the challenge of being the first on the scene of a disaster
Planet engagement means we have to turn up…
As surely as the Good Samaritan turned up and didn’t turn away.
Planet Sustainability
The final planet in the regeneration universe is planet sustainability.
To create structures in such a way that they continue we have made great strides forwards in this but we are still not there.
Finances are still not secure in any of our churches, many of us are working a bit too hard and need space to reflect and renew our weariness.
This question is one which our diocese is facing and we need to ask hard questions about.
Sustainability also includes whose who work in churches…In order for us to be sustainable everyone has to work together

Conclusion
Play the Star trek Music:
To boldly go where no one has gone… a new Universe of Deanery Regeneration
Planet Partnership
Planet Outcomes
Planet Engagement
Planet Sustainability

Why should we bother?
I was facilitating a meeting in our area a few years ago when a piece of church land was under discussion.“They never come to us so why should we do anything for them. “
Three reasons:
1 God wants us to be a blessing“through you I will bless all the nations”
2 It’s part of being a good neighbour
3 It is the most effective way to credible live and preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
May it be said of us as it was said of the early church
43Many miracles and wonders were being done through the apostles, and everyone was filled with awe. 44All the believers continued together in close fellowship and shared their belongings with one another. 45They would sell their property and possessions, and distribute the money among all, according to what each one needed. 46Day after day they met as a group in the Temple, and they had their meals together in their homes, eating with glad and humble hearts, 47praising God, and enjoying the good will of all the people. And every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.

Facilitate

"Do you know anyone who can facilitate a meeting?" a question that lead me to help out the lovely congregation at Norland avery small village near Sowerby Bridge. It consists as far as could see with a school, a church, and a working men's club.
With an average congregation of 15 on paper it was hard to conceive of it's survival, but for the dozen or so who gathered this afternoon it was hard to conceive of it failing. They weren't deluded or mad, just confidently pressing on despite all that seemd against them.
Big plans and dreams emerged including opening a post office in the church, and forming partnerships. Perhaps even daring to dream that they might create the centre that the village lacked. "So much potential" their priest whispered to me as I left the building, but niether of us could see how the situation was sustainable, however neither could imagine that ever going to waste.
Let's hope today is yet another chapter for this kernal of regeneration

Not for the likes of us

A busy Saturday which is a problem as I am supposed to use the day as Family time. So it was in a JIT (just in time) moment that I arrive at Brighouse to do a seminar on Prayer. It was great to see nicely restored and redeveloped church. Not so many gathered to study prayer but it was Saturday afternoon and it was the FA cup final… not sure who organised it then but maybe they were praying at the time and hadn’t thought it through.
From there to an old people’s home, a good one I guess, certainly the staff seemed to be kind, and welcomed me to sit and wait with the residents as the lady I had gone to see, finished her tea. This proved to be a long wait and I ended up watching a bit more of the FA cup final. An old lady across from me with all the professionalism of a TV pundit simply said: “Football, it’s a bit rubbish isn’t it!”
The lady I was visiting told me that she didn’t like the food but that the place was nice. She reckoned that she had been spoiled by having good food all her life. Others there were used to the bland and so could cope with it better.
I wondered whether it really would have been better to have had a worse life so that you could tolerate the mediocre.
“Not for the likes of us.” Or them for that matter has been an excuse for tolerating all sorts of stuff in our communities that should have the best we can give them or they can get.

Temporary Accomodation

Out pounding the streets this morning with Christian Aid envelopes. This took me up Banksfield a post-war development of a homes for heroes. Originally council property now it's half and half. Sadly those who bought there houses are now suffering because after the initial flurry of selling the council replaced corrugated iron and concrete with brick and tile. So those who bought are now stuck with rusting walls whilst their neighbours have what amounts to a new house.
The irony is that this was temporary housing which is now over fifty years old.
I wonder how many iconic buildings were originally temporary: I think the Eiffel Tower was for example was.
Which reminds me of a maxim we as itinerant clergy have always lived by: move in as though you're going to be there forever because there's no such thing as a temporary appointment.

can regeneration really bring everyone together?

Todmorden is a wonderful town, and I've discovered full of wonderfully regenerating people. A great deal of talk at their town team about the things they are doing, the skills they have. They are a great bunch including a great deal of professional people, business types and councillors.
It reminded me of a number of regeneration groups i've met who are good but not inclusive.
I suspect Royd Regeneration is mainly community
Does that matter, I am not sure?
Perhaps regeneration can only work amongst likeminded and like skilled people.
But what if we could get them all together...
Is it possible?

I think they would get on...

A triple whammy tonight, three meetings and a hand shaking job.
Meeting one is Upper Calder Valley Renaissance Steering Group, and fairly high powered... Though slightly undisciplined despite my bestish efforts as chair. Because of this my next meeting Hebden Royd Churches Together lovely people arrived and appeared like creatures from another planet. I cannot work out why these people don't know each other. I suddenly realise how separate the regeneration world and the christian world are in my community. This matters because they both need each other. The regeneration people need the contacts and the building resources of the christians. The christians need the visioning and management resources of the regeneration people.
I also think they would get on.

I finally went to the mayor making with a brass band, a minutes silence for china and Burma, and the crowning of our lovely new mayor, a blogger.
From this I had to go and shake hands as President of the Amateurs at their splendid show "Calamity Jane."
Four different groups of people in one community and yet as separate as cultures from different countries.
I suppose what brings them together is geography, is that enough?
Not sure...
I think they would get on.

Sticky Flu

I'm on the train back from a scary meeting about flu pandemics. This was a gathering of various voluntary groups who might be needed in a disaster. I felt pretty out of it untill they told us and I quote: "when the pandemic happens 150,000 people will die 50,000 in Yorkshire."
Still although it's a bit scary not likely to affect me... Then they said it would be over a period of three months and that there would be so many funerals that we would have to consider mass graves.
Hmmm!
Now I am listening and thinking and planning and wanting to tell others. I suppose its only when a crisis impacts on us that it moves from their crisis to my crisis.
Malcolm Gladwell? In his book The tipping point talks about sticky messages. Flu pandemic is now a sticky message for me.
I wonder how regeneration becomes a sticky message?
Perhaps that's why people get so upset by losing car parking spaces... That is something we can touch. The trick is to make the positive stuff stick as well and this we do through story and imagination.

The missing Blog

It was only last night when I finally sat down to write my blog after a usual busy Sunday that I realised that I had missed my blog on Saturday. What is surprising that I had managed to write it everyday for three months, including two trips to foreign parts and numerous other busy days. So what stopped me this time... white out.
White out is that feeling when you are so tressed that your brain kind of white outs, it can take no more and it feels abit like it shuts down. it's a kind of tiredness, a kind of stress, a kind of... well it's hard to describe so white out will have to do.
The scary thing about white out is that in tis state of mind I still took three services, a confirmation class and a youth group. Thank goodness it was only temporary.
I suspect quite alot of people live their lives in a kind of permanent white out, desperately in need of stopping and probably a cup of tea.
Talking of which...

Locally sourced food

Sunday and a special treat: the famous world champion dock pudding breakfast. In my case an extra special treat from one of our local farmers a double yolk goose egg fried egg. The yolk was the size of a saucer and bright orangey yellow and was the best egg I've ever tasted. Add to this that rare local delacy sweet dock pudding, a green slimey substance with a unique and delicious taste it was all great.
We talk glibly about locally sourced food and this was all that and some. I think when we talk about localfood we often in this country are looking for locals to grow the food we like... Instead of finding what grows well in our area and shaping our cuisine around that.
I'm sure they do that in other countries... Mind you I mentioned my idea to someone and they said: "in that case we need a cuisine built around slugs!"

take your pick - no thanks

Errrrhgg...
I have just returned from a brilliant meal at an asian restaurant. Unfortanately it was a buffet, and so I have eaten too much.
I am wondering why it is, that if we are given a large choice we eat too much. "A little bit of each" is my downfall. Perhaps its that we don't like to make a choice. Like the old joke about:
"How do confuse an ...?
Put three shovells against a wall and say "take your pick."
They do say that people don't like making choices... If you are involved in regeneration you know this. Perhaps its because we have too much choice.

All Property is Partnership

I think it was Marx who said all property is theft, and some of my discussions today have left me thinking about who owns things, especially the land. As I’ve talked about before, we are trying to turn the church hall car park into a new Square for the village thus transforming Mytholmroyd into a new market town. The land we want to transform belongs to the church, is leased to Calderdale, and is used by commuters who see it as their car park.
So who owns the land?
The vision of the Church of England is that they and by extension the buildings exist for the nation, or the community that they serve…
“The earth is the Lords and all that is in it.” So there you are it belongs to God.But Calderdale maintain it …and the car owners, “own” it, it’s their car park.Perhaps it would be better if we saw all ownership as a partnership. Property is not theft but exclusive property may well be. All buildings all land development is a partnership… and so together we need to work out what to do with it. And that discussion is what regeneration is all about...

Teach a man to fish and he might teach others

The book I read yesterday, I gave away today and told another person about it tonight. That’s the way I am with new knowledge, I’m not satisfied with having it until I have passed it on to someone else.
Now I’m not sure why I do this… it could just be that I am a generous person, but I am not sure that is not what it is. It could be that I am doing it to put others down, you know: “look at me, I’m clever I read books and everything!” I don’t think that I am clever enough to play games like that.
No, I think in my head that passing something on is the end of the learning process. If I learn something new, I don’t feel I have really learnt it until I pass it on to someone else.
Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime and with any luck he will probably teach somebody else, and before you know what a community is fed.
It would be good if those involved in regeneration really followed through this idea by allowing those who have learnt how to do it to share their knowledge with others.

What if unfair is fairer?

Tuesday is my day off which is usually occupied with stuff that has crept into it from other parts of my life. So with a genuine day off I suddenly felt a bit low. They used to say about ships that when they come into port the stuff they have thrown overboard follows them in. Anyhow into port today and then the rubbish flowed in behind and in the darkness the shining of a great book to lighten my day. Also the fact that the sun shone and I was able to sit in the garden to read it, cover to cover as it happens.
The book was called the Social Entrepeneur by Andrew Mawson. It's a great book the kind of thing you want to buy lots of to give to people. It's a story of a minister coming to Bromley - le - Bow in the East End and discovering h0w to form partnerships and to get invovled in fostering entrepeneurship. It is an impressive story with some startling ideas.
Most startling is his idea that fairness means that stuff can't happen because fairness dictates that if you have ten groups in a community you have to give everyone the same amount, so ten million means a million each despite the fact that if one of the groups has a proven track record of changing their communities giving them ten million would be a better prospect.
His strongest analogy was that of the scientist who is given money to distribute to research cancer. They wouldn't give it to every scientist they would look for the ones most likely to find a result.
In regeneration he argues we should give money to only some in the community, not everybody, which although it's unfair could result in the revival of that community.
I need to think about it a bit more.

Beam me up Scottie, or should we take the car?

It's about time somebody invented one of those transporter devices that are used on Star Trek. I love going to Durham to visit my daughter but the A1 is such a boring motorway/dual carriageway type thing. If only you could be turned into energy and beamed down the phone lines to home.
Mind you cars are an interesting place for sorting things out. Catherine and I often have some of our most in depth conversations in the car and the children trapped and bored will often talk about the stuff that really bothers them, or interests them, or makes them laugh.
Today we were trying to get to the bottom of where and exactly why I was going on my Fraser Teal sabbatical. It's not very straight forward because as well as the bomb that went off in Yemen this week, the other person I know who knows the middle east, not the one I am going with, reckons it's a dangerous place to go for a westerner. We didn't solve the problems in the car but we did air the issues.
I remember when I was a University Chaplain my car was almost a mobile confession with students asking for a lift home and then taking the time to tell me their deepest darkest secret. Maybe it’s because we don’t have to look at one another that makes a car the perfect place to talk about difficult things.
So perhaps having a transporter thing like on Star Trek might not be such a good idea, but just another excuse for not talking.
“Don’t beam me up Scottie, we need to talk!”

Durham Night Life

To Durham, again tonight to see my daughter, and after a fine pizza, to her church. This is by the market place infact as worship went on we, the hundred plus mostly young congregation, were treated to a passing display of the flotsam and jetsam of the streets of Sunday night Durham. Two girls with short skirts and long hair sheltering from the rain until they spotted the many worshippers singing in their direction. Another reaction to the discovery came from two young men who treated the unshocked worshippers to a great view of their unmasked buttocks.
It was a busy night in Durham, outside the church people partied whilst inside the people worshipped and recommitted themselves to changing the world... beginning with themselves.
And people wonder why I think faith communities are vital to regeneration.

Motto Sunday

Tomorrow is motto Sunday, not a national or even international festival… come to think of it, it’s not even a local festival it’s one I made up. Every year on this Sunday, since I started, I present a verse from the bible for us to carry through the year.
Tempting though it is I have not chosen “Everybody hates us, we don’t care…” but instead I have been lead to “Pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ took hold of us.” This verse from Philippians is about keeping going.
I think what this message of pressing on is encouraging us to do is to just keep going.
Often we want a new direction, a new project, a new “master plan” but what we need to do is to press on, to keep striving towards the initial project.
So in all our projects this year I will have that phrase “Pressing on…” stuck in my head.
It might help, who knows.
If you want to borrow our motto….
Pressing on...

Get your own!

Sometimes there is smoke without fire

“I understand that you are selling the church.”
It was one of those out of the blue statements that rock you back on your heals.
For a while now we have been trying to redevelop the hall at Cragg, with a failed lottery bid and no prospect of raising the £500000 that is needed to make it DDA compliant. Three years ago one of our older members called us all together to say what many of others of us were already thinking, “It’s time to sell the hall.” So here we are a few years later poised to sell the hall to provide the money to turn the church into a multipurpose community building, fit for the twenty first century.
“I understand that you are selling the church.” This sensible person had heard a rumour, and assumed that there is no smoke without fire. Despite our reassurances, despite one hundred and seventy years of faithful service to our communities… why let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Rumour is a funny thing, it gives a smoke screen and it’s difficult for anyone to see the truth when the rumour smoke is swirling.
The problem is that sometimes there is smoke without fire.

investors in people

Today I had my action set facillitators training with Tom Herbert, which was a surprisingly sad affair. I think we ha d all suddenly become aware of how much we had learnt from Tom and each other. The sessions had begun with a fairly hefty four week stint of weekly input sessions outlining some of the skills of facillitation. Where things became much more valuable when we started the action learning sets which were a kind of peer review group.
We all talked today about what we had learnt from one another, helped by the fact that all of us in different ways were involved in regeneration. However what I had got most from was that each of us had grown through the investment put into us, simply adding value to our self worth.
If only all education could be viewed in this light.