Pupal Mush

To Sowerby this morning, one of my Deanery's churches and very lovely it was too, a nice baptism and a fullish church, a challenging sermon amd worship that connected... well that's the mystery worshipper bit over.
I am doing a lot of thinking at the moment trying to clarify and conclude from my travels.
This summer I have been a caterpiller, eating lots of good stuff ready for the the next transformation, all that knowledge turning to soup as I pupate.
Over the next few weeks I will wait for the butterfly to emerge.
No pressure then!

Aging

I'm getting old. Helping my son and his wife move into our house and deposit the remainder of their lives at Grandma's has wrecked my back and pretty much everything else as well.
Manual labour, I'm out of condition, and unused to physical activity. It wasn't always like that. I have moved house or rather council flat in a taxi... I have moved in my own van, but these days I get people to do it for me. I don't even pack these days.
Of course I have too much stuff... It's hard to travel light. It's always fun when we do move when people come into into my study, you can see them adding a few hundred pounds to the bill as they look at all my books.

Charging

Charging around getting ready for my son, his wife and twenty odd guinea pigs which are coming to live at our house whilst they are searching for a home. They are being forced out of London by the rent of over 700 a month which they just can't afford. So back home they come to a new job.
It makes you wonder how many other people are sofa surfing as they call it. I hope quite a lot still find a home with their families...
As someone said: "Home is where they have to take you in."
So charging around but not charging.

Warp Factor

It’s good to be home but there are a number of exciting jobs to be done before settling including filling the mobile home with LPG… a “little job” the man said but one which involved an exciting encounter with a nozzle that looked like something off star wars. It also came with lengthy instructions which I only got right when the man at the garage came and rescued me.
I am sad to be parted with the mobile home it was very exciting to be on the road, to cook and eat overlooking the deer of Tatton Park or today overlooking Little Morton Hall was really special and I think we will borrow a van again.
Little Morton Hall is a lovely Tutor Mini Mansion built out of wood and wattle and more or less in original state. The hall shows signs of the great skill of the Tudors who were able to adapt the wooden structure as it grew and as the wood warped they simply adapted to the warp so that by the time they put the gallery on the top it has a complete wave in the floor.
It struck me that we need that kind of adaptive building now especially in our regeneration work. Adapting what we are doing as we go along and even incorporating the warps and mistakes into the final result.

Geothernal Toilets

We've moved to a new campsite near that well known top tourist place the Nantwich Salt Museum... Second only to a museum we visited in France: the Musee de Granite, the granite museum... Which I thought was an interesting collection of gravestones but my children thought was the most tedious hour and a half of their entire existance.
Despite having the Salt Museum on offer we revisited Tatton Park and saw some ace modern scupture, more of that when I get back.
Equally impressive when I got back to the campsite the toilets were geothermal!
I was really impressed I might return but geothermal gives me the picture of a toilet on a geyser so...

Clean

So its over and back on a proper campsite it's straight to the showers and into clean clothes. Washing Greenbelt away and hoping that I don't wash the good stuff off. A growing consciousness of two needs... To bring it altogether and to discover britain.
Greenbelt has convinced me what I already suspected: that everything I have seen in other countries is beginning to happen here but needs to be scaled up. Little flashes of light need to become a grassroots movement, so that like in america regeneration becomes what people of faith do.
To scale up we will need the skills of Yorkshire Forward and their like, but they need our knowledge of grassroots and volunteers. We also need to learn from the Anglicare experience to be better at partnerships and holding on to our Christian identity.
A manifesto then is growing in my head and I am bursting for a rant... But I have two days away in my mobile home to enjoy.

leaving paradise.

So tomorrow we leave this temporary Christian community with its invisible organising authority and all of us wonder why we can't live like this all the time. As one comedian said tonight "I like greenbelt the labels fall off at the doorway." There is even a programme for atheists if they want it. There is certainly a sense that here is a place where we can air our doubts.
There is no final service or even gathering, it ends with a whimper not a bang as we all leave in dribs and drabs to our various jobs, we will be one of the last to leave.
Another notable idea I heard today: the best consultants refuse to consult but rather get people to find their own solutions and the best leaders refuse to lead so that others can take responsibility for what they should do.

Faith Works

Went to a faithworks seminar... They are a brilliant organisation trying to encourage local churches all over the place to make a difference to their communities.
The new thing they added to my thinking was the idea of the grassroots organisation like antipartheid, like Martin Luther King we need to rediscover christianity as a grassroots organisation. Bottom up and top down making a difference in the everyday and the public realm.
I have a contact to follow up needless to say.
On a more amusing front one of the speakers today had a go at batman who spent the daytime as a businessman making money out of the poor and night time beating up those same poor people, the ultimate capitalist superhero and the antithesis of faithworks.

A very british spirituality.

I think I may have discovered at Greenbelt a genuine british spirituality. This may not be so amazing but honestly people have beem searching for many years. Is it the book of common prayer? Something transatlantic, charismatic, and cheesy? I've even wondered if the word "normal" would define british spirituality.
So tonight encouraged by my older son I headed to the Greenbelt Pub Tent: "The Jesus Arms" for beer and hymns which did what it said on the packet. There was a tent full of people, drinking really real ale, and with a worship leader like "the pub landlord" we sang hymns.
When it came to the choruses we raised our glasses to the king.
Hundreds then gathered, spilling out and singing heartedly, raising their glasses, to the king of kings.
An authentic british spirituality? I'm afraid it is.

Transformation

Day two at Greenbelt and my brain cells are already popping a bit. This morning I got listen to Joel Edwards the recently retired chair of Evangelical Alliance who was surprising... E.g. "Jesus would have disturbed the city brokers more than he would the prostitues of soho."
He was talking about what made Evangelicals important. One thing stuck in my mind was when he said that evangelicals are: "Transforming communities after transforning lives."
It's an important part of transforming communities that people of faith bring to regeneration. Socialists and local government would try to change environment to change the people...
Christians have tended to say change people first but the Bible says change people and change the environment.
like most things it is not either or it is both and.

Hear and...

Greenbelt and after a few scary moments stuck in the mud the campervan is in situ.
It's lovely meeting up with old friends at this gathering of 20000+ people, mostly christians for an arts festival and more...
The more are old friends too as there are contributors from christian aid and many other radical christian teachers. The worry is that we will hear and forget rather than hear and do.
Perhaps the best idea would be to hear and change.

queues

People talk about the M25 as being the world's biggest car park well today I have participated in the world's biggest car park queue. The M6 was absolutely chocker all the way down to Cheltenham making the journey take nearly twice as long.
Reflecting in my hired campervan how it could be made easier I really can't see how except to be really radical.
In theory as petrol gets more expensive the number of people on the road should decrease and public transport become more attractive. There are too many factors involved in deciding whether to drive your car or not and price is just one of them.
So if some clever person can think of a way to do it please send answers on a post card to whoever runs the M6 carpark queue.

Research

I am beginning to worry about writing things up. It's always been a problem of mine, I love research, I hate writing up. Part of the problem is that I make sense of stuff by talking it out and I am not talking at the moment... Which is why I snook two conversations today.
So the next mountain to climb approaches and I am up for it but before I do I am going to a Christian Arts Festival: Greenbelt with some of the best thinkers in christendom, I hope I am inspired and not depressed by their brilliant teaching.

Tunisia via Shipley

Today I have been clearing out cellars (long story) and going to an evening in Shipley from a family who have been working for an NGO in Tunisia. It looked a bit greener and a lot more developed than Yemen, although we were seeing things through ex pat eyes. Eg the children told us at school you learn Englsih, french, arabic and Latin. You learn in French, they ride horses, do fencing, and do swimming etc. They attemd a church in Tunisia which is a centre for the African development bank and so it is a multicultural affair.
The organisation is called: "Association de cooperation en Tunisia" which is an NGO that works with Tunisian partners by building capacity in five areas.
Health - working in paliative care for the government.
Disability and integrating education ...
In.schools
Rural development - working with women and farmers.
At risk - vulnerable women and children.

There are 500 national christians in Tunisia... so it's impressive that they are able to work there with all different bits of the community. They talk about Jesus carefully and are held in high regard... although I did wonder to what extent they are bringing stuff to them rather than partnering with them.
These people are going to be at Greenbelt so I am looking forward to meeting them and their like.

We want a hero or do we?

Went with Joseph my son to see The Dark Knight today another batman movie which has some notoriety at the moment as it’s star Heath Ledger committed suicide a few months ago. Heath ledger plays the Joker who is not the least bit amusing but rather is a psychopath who is only interested in watching Gotham City burn. That apart the film is very dark indeed and is like one of those apparently innocent conversations you used to overhear adults having when you were a child where you suspected they are talking about something else entirely.
They call it a subtext I think but this is about the lengths that you have to go to, to make the world right. Sometimes to put the world right you cannot be the hero. Heroes by definition are popular, whereas sometimes to get things done you have to be unpopular.
One of my great drivers in life is a fundamental desire to be liked, no bad thing for a vicar where being hated would make it difficult to operate, but it is a challenge, especially with building projects to be everybody’s friend. True community champions will always be annoying to someone.

We want a hero or do we?

Took Joseph to see The Dark Knight today another batman movie which has some notoriety at the moment as it’s star Heath Ledger committed suicide a few months ago. Heath ledger plays the Joker who is not the least bit amusing but rather is a psychopath who is only interested in watching Gotham City burn. That apart the film is very dark indeed and is like one of those apparently innocent conversations you used to overhear adults having when you were a child where you suspected they are talking about something else entirely.
They call it a subtext I think but this is about the lengths that you have to go to, to make the world right. Sometimes to put the world right you cannot be the hero. Heroes by definition are popular, whereas sometimes to get things done you have to be unpopular.
One of my great drivers in life is a fundamental desire to be liked, no bad thing for a vicar where being hated would make it difficult to operate, but it is a challenge, especially with building projects to be everybody’s friend. True community champions will always be annoying to someone.

Grace

To St Peters Shipley to a packed church and a confused sermon on a difficult passage Matthew 15:21-28. the one where jesus is rude to woman... seriously have a read.
It's about how we as gentiles should approach God, not by right but by his Grace. It appears to be about faith but is actually about Grace.

Where does grace Come into regeneration? Perhaps when people start to give without expecting to receive. Perhaps when we invest on the basis of potential. There is a relationship between grace and risk.
Too much of what we do has a hidden deserve agenda.

We are the champions?

Something has gone seriously wrong at the Olympics, Great Britain is winning gold medals. We define ourselves as people who lose at things.
What would we be like if we were people who won things?
Apparently according to some programme I was listening to yesterday we are actually quite good at winning things. Researchers have discovered that if you look at all sporting events Britain is third in the world at winning things… nope it didn’t convince me either.
How we see ourselves is a really difficult thing, back to the confidence issue I guess. The stories we tell ourselves define who we are… which is fine if the stories are but what if they aren’t?
What if Great Britain is good at winning?
What if churches and faith communities are thriving and are still an important part of British life?
What if the future is positive?
Nope, still not convinced!

Bursting to tell someone

Spent the day trying to sort out my expenses for Yorkshire Forward which took ages but was quite enjoyable as I relived many of the places I had visited in Australia and America. Also made the mistake of checking my e-mails… all 603 of them, so if you are waiting for a reply, it might be a while. I haven’t dared listen to the answer machine yet.
Some of the e-mails were asking if I would talk at things which I am happy to do… in fact at the moment shutting up is a real problem. This morning Steve who does our garden made the mistake of asking me how the trip had gone and was still being talked at twenty minutes later. The problem is that I believe you don’t really learn something till you teach it to someone else and so the teacher in me is desperate to teach someone else.
But I am on sabbatical so I currently have no outlet.
I need to start writing but I am not quite ready till I have told enough people to feel secure in what I have learnt. I do my thinking out loud.
My poor family!
Still I am off to see my mum and dad on Sunday and so I can tell them…
till then so many thoughts, so many ideas and no-one to tell them too…
be warned!

Telling you in confidence

First day at home and really it’s half a day because we slept for 13 hours. Do you think we might be a bit jet lagged?
Spent the remainder of the day taking my son to Leeds for a job interview and shopping at Sainsburys. It was interesting to compare prices with America. Much cheaper in America but that’s because they are more in recession than we are. At least they think they are which is kind of the point with recession I think, it’s to do with confidence. This is something you can’t measure but everyone agrees you need.
If churches and faith communities had more confidence they would be doing more in the community so I have read or possibly written. That’s why the American churches are so much more able to do things they are more confident.
If businesses were more confident then the economy would be more buoyant because losing confidence in the house market drives house prices down and then people lose confidence and the economy collapses.
If I had more confidence I would run a mile in less than nine seconds and be an Olympic athelete…
My daughter once went to a seminar put on by her school that had them write their life dreams on a piece of paper because if you write something down on paper it will definitely come true.
If so much of our modern economy, schools, sports, religion is based on this feeling: confidence, perhaps we ought to think more about what affects that feeling.
What makes people confident? If you could buy it at Sainsburys they would sell out.

Short night, hopefully long sleep to follow

Just got home and it's cool.
We slept for an hour on the plane and woke up in the morning in Manchester. It was because of the time difference a very short night. It's midday here and would be 7.00a.m. in Michigan.
Time for a sleep and it will be another day before I try and make sense of it all
let alone have the ability to wirte about it.
So good morning and good night.

My kind of town, Chicago ain’t…

My kind of town, Chicago ain’t…
a bit too big and a bit too busy and without the obsessive Michigan cheeriness that we have got used to. It’s definitely a different place. I wonder how regions end up with different personalities?
In Britain it’s definitely a bit grim up north and the accent matches it.
Michigan is “perky” and the accent matches it.
Chicago is big, and has the sinister accent… or have I seen too many gangster films!?
The Tannoy announces that Chicago is bidding for the 2016 Olympics. They will have to import Michigan Residents as greeters if it is ever going to be a success.
Perhaps it’s good to leave America from Chicago, it will be easier to leave than Grand Rapids.
Time to go home…

Lakeside Life

Last day today and a difficult decision, where to go: somewhere new or somewhere we’ve been before. We decided, it was a nice day to go back to the lake and back to our favourite Michigan town Holland. It turned out to be a really good choice, if nothing else we got the chance to see the State Park Beach on a busy sunny day… and doesn’t it look lovely. A light breeze and the boats were out in force as were the sun seekers, it really was very lovely, and the ducks on the lake made for a slightly surreal “seascape”. Fishermen and women were pulling perch from the lake and moaning like those who fish do, interestingly their problem was foreigners. It seems the lake has been invaded by zebra mussels who are making the lake too clean for the fish! We heard a story on the television about them banning phosphates to prevent the lake being overrun with algae. They are working hard to keep it pristine and to our brief visit not doing to bad a job.
Before the beach we went into Holland itself and had an interesting conversation with one of the shop owners. She was really interested in what I was doing and as I explained she said a very interesting thing: “Around here pretty much everyone goes to church. If there is a problem then people do their best to fix it. They get in the truck, put on a trailer and collect the stuff that people need from their neighbours.”
Such a strong sense of community of which the church is a central part, such a strong sense of entrepreneurial get up and get it fixed, is central to how America works.
Oh and of course a general acceptance that government is pretty useless at this means that they have the confidence that they can do, what needs to be done.
I could live in Holland Michigan, small town rural America at its absolute best.

A tale of two churches

We move from Muskegon back south to Grand Rapids for our last stop and a return in the morning to Mars Hill. This time the second morning service of the day sees thousands gathering the converted Mall. Again the service is so different to what we are used to. The service begins virtually without introduction with half an hour of worship, led in a contemporary way but again containing a good number of traditional hymns. There follows just over half an hour of teaching in the round by a father and son team speaking on the Lord’s Prayer. It’s good stuff, practical and clear and grounded in much life experience as the father of the team talks about his prayer life as he battles incurable cancer. Grown up stuff then but no prayerful response, and as the service ends the place clears very quickly, no-one talks and I suspect that they head off like we do to the genuine Mall for some Sunday Trading. It provides much discussion for Catherine and I as it feels to be so lacking in fellowship.
Surely this isn’t the full Mars Hill church life, where is the fellowship?
As far as we can gather there is more to Mars Hill: there are mini congregations, house groups and groups that are helping others. They are building houses with Habitat for Humanity, they are giving fuel vouchers to locals in trouble and they are being supportive of one another. They are not really expressing that in their morning worship: perhaps this is the place where people come when they are not ready to dive completely in. I have a lot more to reflect on about Mars Hill when I get home.
From Mars Hill via Meijrs Supermarket to get a sandwich we head to Frederick Meijr Gardens and Sculpture Park. The two things are connected… apparently the Meijr of the Supermarkets was a big fan of sculpture and on being turned down by a local community for building a supermarket he decided to build a garden and sculpture park on the land. The result is like a combination of the Eden Project and the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and was really a great afternoon out. The gardens have regenerated that bit of Grand Rapids, a testimony to the value of negative planning decisions and in the USA the value of the private philanthropy.
It was a rush but we zipped back into Down Town Grand Rapids to go to church again, this time to a very traditionally American Christian Reformed Church. It was a beautiful modernish building and a vast complex of community facilities. A fairly traditional service with a congregation of well over a hundred for its smaller service of the day. It was predominantly white, very middle class but on chatting with them afterwards (Yes, these Christians talk to each other) they were very active in reaching out to their very rough neighbourhood with practical help. We listened respectfully but thought they were exaggerating about their neighbourhood. That was until we took a wrong turn on the way back and met some of their neighbours: like getting lost on a seventy’s cop show we were glad when we rediscovered 28th street and got back to the hotel. So these very white, very middle class people, were comfortable to bring help to those we locked oru car doors to protect ourselves from.
So two churches, two stories, two more faith communities, each in their own way changing their neighbourhood. But to paraphrase the song “Sisters are doing it for themselves.” Neither of them is really in partnership with government who is happy to let them do it but doesn’t really do more than stand on the side and applaud.
We need to do better in Britain I think as we begin to work more closely with government.

Grown up Christianity

Tried unsuccessfully to find Muskegon’s Town Centre.

It's a weird by product of building out of town Malls that in some communities there is no town centre. We experienced this in Grand Rapids, where there is a business and arts complex but no real shops and few restaurants.

As far as we could see Muskegon hadn’t got any centre at all. Lots of buildinng projects but no shops. They had a nice art gallery and an adequate museum but no where to get a coffee, or even a drink.

Talking to a local youth worker he said that locals were happy because there was no youth problems in the town centre: tried to say that’s not surprising as there is no centre.
This afternoon we went to the Unity Festival in Muskegon, which is a huge Christian music festival, with twenty (plus) thousand people on a beautiful day at the harbour park. The festival has a twin aim, fun but also an opportunity to sign up to do things. It was interesting to see the providers of basic needs and advice and to find out their approach. They were enthusiastic to say the least but also ecumenical and imaginative in what they did. My favourite group was the Suds group who had set up a wash place and launderette for those on the streets or in poverty to get clean.
This was grown up Christianity and the music was pretty grown up to.

I expected to feel very alien and foreign but I felt very at home and challenged to do more.

It would be hard to leave the event unaffected...

At the very least it was exhausting we didn't have a chair!

John Arnold

Today I visit Second Harvest Gleaners north of Grand Rapids or to be precise I follow up a tenuous lead from my first night in the US! Unable to sleep I was scanning the airwaves when I came upon an interview with John Arnold who runs the Michigan food bank, I got in touch with him and as a result of that spent two hours of mind blowing time this afternoon.
Firstly there is the problem. Surveys showed that despite the fact that Michigan is a fairly rural state its principal social problem is hunger with up to 60% of middle class families at risk as the economy dips.
Secondly there is the other problem. Food businesses in Michigan like food businesses in Britain have a huge amount of waste. Much of what they end up with as surplus ends up in landfill and costs the food industry a fortune.
Thirdly there is John Arnold standing in the middle with his food bank team… dealing with the food industry and taking their surpluses in an efficient way, dealing with faith communities and charities that try to feed the hungry by providing some of that surplus in a simple and cheap way.
He spent two hours explaining what, why and how they did it and I suggest you look at the website if you want the detail it’s going to take me a while to digest all that he gave me http://www.wmgleaners.org . Look especially at the scriptural material and the resources section.
What impressed me most is the story of how they scaled up their operation. They started small; with just John and a clipboard (he still uses it.) Knowing of the growing hunger crisis John rang round and was surprised to find that Michigan’s businesses were more than happy to donate their surplices, he ended up with too much stuff and so had to upscale his operation and work with the churches to increase their capacity too. Twenty five years later he contends that there is enough stuff to feed the poor, what stops it happening is that there aren’t enough providers and the ones providing are not doing it efficiently enough. Rather than despair he just keeps trying to make providers more “smart” in what they do. He has research to back up his approach and he’s given me the draft of his book so when I have digested it I’ll pass it on.
One thing they did which we could think about in Yorkshire is they operated what they called the mobile pantry which was a converted beer truck. This tours the villages and towns of rural Michigan and with a church’s assistance parks in its car parks and distributes free food to those who need it.
I can’t help thinking though it would be good to get him to Britain if I could. He has shown me some of the answers to the question I came to America to discover in the same way that Lyn Arnold answered some of the questions in Australia.

I wonder if Lyn and John are related?

A tale of two Malls

Visit this morning to see faith communities in action, with a visit to the Mars Hill house building project. Partnering with Habitat for Humanity it was serious building, with a large number of bodies on site and a determined approach to get the job done they were… very busy. They had brought people in from all over the place, not many had had any training but were handling equipment like professionals. They said that they had also sent people to Britain but it’s hard to imagine them getting past health and safety let alone planning. It looked great and they suggested I get in touch with their British operation when I get home which I will. In the meantime have a look at their website. http://www.habitatforhumanity.org.uk/

On the way back we call at two Shopping Malls; the first a relatively new one is deserted and shows signs of closed shops and the turn down in the economy we have been to ld about. The second one has to be the most bizarre shopping centre I have ever been to. Laid out to resemble Holland, in a kind of Disneyish kind of a way, it had a Gap and Nike outlet and could have been anywhere in Europe apart from the Dutch stuff. Many of the units had yet to be filled and some showed signs of desertion. One of the units was opening as a church in a few weeks time so maybe it will be another Mars Hill. Business is bad except for the churches so it would seem.

Afternoon finds us back in Holland to experience their Street Market Day. Once a year the shops put stalls out in the street and sell sale items. They have street performers and a great party atmosphere which made us happy to spend money on things we probably wouldn’t have touched otherwise. We stayed for a few hours and sent money in local resaurants and shops. You can’t help thinking that the malls haven’t quite got it right, even the one with clogs, canals and a Dutch theme… come to think of it, especially the one with a Dutch theme… sometimes you can try too hard!
It was funny there was no church presence there, there are hundreds of them around I expected at least some sort of visible presence. The only hint that was a town dominated by religion was in the restaurant where on the table where you signed the guest book. A bible with: "If you haven't got one at home please take me!" written on it. Perhaps so many people here do have a bible at home and do go to church they don't feel the need to try...

Another "P" programmes.

Morning on American television is a time for soul searching. So you have Montel, Dr Phil, and probably somewhere Oprah looking at the dark side of American life. It’s very stirring stuff because in the US there is always a story of triumph over tragedy and if they aren’t triumphing they are put in a programme to work things out. This word “programme” is not as commonly used in Britain: and it carries with it the idea of people investment in an issue. Unlike project it has direction but not necessarily an end in sight. A programme brings improvement but not necessarily closure. You might be put in a programme to help with a bereavement, but equally there might be a national programme to improve financial management.
I have been thinking before about Projects and Partnerships, now perhaps we need to add a third “P” Programmes. People here are able to find investment for programmes, not capital investment, investment in people.
All of this might help us to be more subtle and more clever as community groups in how we work in partnerships, projects and programmes with government, local and national.

The Warm Friend

First trip into Holland today which is a lovely little town further south down the west coast of Lake Michigan. We are here partly because it is a small town that is dominated by churches. There are loads of them and it has a very high proportion of people professing faith. Their roots are in Netherlands, hence the name, which has a long tradition of Christian social action through the Dutch Republic.
At first glance it’s really lovely, the street architecture is designed for sitting and talking. They put tables in their small parks at which local youths sit and discuss… why don’t we have tables in small parks? The streets were tree lined and peppered with American artwork and benches which are used to slow everyone down.
The jewel in the crown for us was the Resthaven Old People’s Home at “The Warm Friend.” The building, an ex bank and ex hotel it was right in the middle of the high street. The old people hung about on the street outside talking to passers-by. Teenagers were chatting about their day at school, babies in buggies were cooed at and proudly shown off.
We were invited in by one of the residents who proudly showed us her grown floor apartment, which was sizeable and had room for her collection of pieces of carved wood, made by her recently deceased husband. She loved it in the place and talked of it with real affection. I have visited many homes in Britain as part of my work, many of them have been really excellent, but I have never seen one that was so central to the community, never seen one that was so supportive of faith. The religious basis of the place was explicit but not excudng. It was clear that faith was the added value of the place. If you want to have look, see their web site www.resthaven.org . When we looked at their fees they weren’t too bad so it does make one wonder why we can’t do the same with our old people in our communities. At least we might build our old people’s homes in the middle of our communities.
I wonder if we could do something with our land in the middle of Mytholmroyd to start to address this. Something to pray and think about when I get home.
It was good to be in Holland, tomorrow we visit the house being built by Mars Hill and then in the evening to Holland for their street market.


Before we left we asked if they would consider taking our names for when we retire!

Musical Fountains and Superman Icecreams

The largest musical fountain in the world drew us back to Grand Haven last night, along with a couple of hundred Americans, eating pretzels and popcorn. They were also eating Superman Icecream, which purely in the interests of reasearch we tried. It tastes as weird as it looks!

Grand Haven reminds us of Scarborough and Harrogate and other towns with visitor attractions so how does it measure up?
1. All parking is free and there is lots of it. All the people who visit Grand Haven come by car and so the town has a policy of encouraging people to come by making parking easy. The car parks are designed well and have trees to give shade to the visitors.
2. The museums are also free and cheerfully tell a local story and have a trusting touch based approach to their history. They are also air conditioned which makes the visitor stay a bit longer.
3. The restaurants and tea shops are imaginative. We went into one that had a hat stand and you were encouraged to chose a hat and wear it whilst you drank your tea! We didn’t, we are English after all but it was a fun idea.
4. The hook, the musical fountain, was also free and in a kind of naff way a bit impressive! Every community needs “the thing” that people locally talk about. “Grand Haven? Isn’t that the place with the musical fountain?”
5. Finally the environment: the place is beautiful and clean. The huge beach stretches for miles and the lake and rivers give it a real holiday air. Money is clearly being spent on Rest rooms and tourist facilities and keeping them pristine.
Clearly this is a place for short term visitors and locals and as such they are well geared up to making you feeling at home quickly. I also get the impression it is drawing local people in to use its facilities as well. I overheard one lady, working in a shop, saying that when her shift got off she was headed to the beach. You don’t feel that you are being milked for every dollar but rather in a relaxed way encouraged to spend at the local businesses that no doubt pay for the facilities through the local taxes. The provision of really nice street architecture, especially benches encourage people to sit a while and add to the relaxed feeling.
Maybe the reason we can’t be so creative in Britain is the lack of space, we simply don’t have the capacity to take these kind of numbers. If for example we were to try to take this approach in Hebden Bridge the question would be where would they park? Are we rationing the number of visitors by the charges we make for parking?

It could be even more basic than that as the petrol here is $3.86 a gallon which is about a $1 a litre I think, or 50p a litre? You might think this means that people here don’t care about the prices, actually the price of petrol has doubled and they are really unhappy about paying as much as they do. The reason is that public transport is so bad here. If you don’t have a car, you really are stuffed, and it’s a real issue of poverty. Even shopping is difficult without a car, in some areas impossible.

Where are the churches in all this? Well the enormous reformed church was holding an Ice cream outreach event whatever that means, and around the area there are a lot of churches, but these tend to be out of the centre of the town. A bit like in Britain I guess church members are doing things but the church itself keeps to the business of looking after those who look after others.

So impressed are we by the musical fountain we think Peashom Park should have one and so I will be suggesting Scarborough Town Team makes its plans and bids to Yorkshire Forward! If it's good enough for Grand Haven it's good enough for Scarborough.

I'm not sure whether we are quite ready for Superman Icecream.

Have an excellent day!

Up early this morning for a swim, Catherine’s idea but remarkably pleasant in the warm outdoor pool. Everybody here is breathing a sigh of relief as thunderstorms and tornados pass just south of Michigan. Natural disaster is a fact of life here and something which we are a little cushioned from in Britain I think. Community resilience is a big deal in the States, you’re kind of on your own as a community or at least you are expected to sort yourself out for a good few days. The same attitude goes for those who get in trouble in other ways, if your finances crack it doesn’t take long before you are dependent on the church mostly for food and a roof over your head.
It’s funny because in other ways you are well looked after here… On our way back from the pool we are offered a brown paper bag. The sign says:”Your mom always said don’t go out without eating something.” Inside the bag we find , some apple juice and a banana muffin. At the bottom of the bag is a handwritten note: “Have an excellent day!” It seems significant somehow that somebody would be bothered to sit down and write the note.
Today we go into Grand Haven itself which as Catherine is trying to train me is not the sea but the lakeside. The biggest lake in America Michigan is so wide you can’t see the other side. I can’t wait to go… if it’s anything like Spring Lake, the view from our window it will be lovely or maybe even "Excellent!"

Lunch with Canon Bob

Lunch today with Canon Bob in the northern bit of Grand Rapids. The place was full of victorian (yes they still call it that) houses which are currently being regenerated. Multiple occupancies rentals are being turned back into single family homes as the professional classes move back to the city. Rather than a grand regeneration plan they have an imaginative planning department who have created planning guidelines which are bit by bit transforming the area. The other engine for regeneration is the growth of a medical centre, and research facility. It looks very pretty as I'm sure you'll agree.

The conversation was rather wonderful as we compared notes on getting things done and positve approaches to outreach. Bob's vision for St Marks was quite breath taking, just one small example of this is their Sunday morning brunch which currenly feeds over 150 people between their moring services. He talked quite a bit about George Bush's attempts to fund faith based intiatives which is faltering for two reasons: the first is that they tend to favour the bigger programmes and not to nurture the more exciting little ones and second because he has not set up partnerships rather given money to projects which has meant that many groups are attaching strings to what they offer. Also the giving of grants is in the gift of politicians rather than an independent body and so there is a a tendency for the bigger churches to use their lobbying power to get money.

As government in Britain seeks to build up the work of faith communities perhaps we need to learn from what has gone wrong in America and once again look to a more NGO / partnershi model.

Canon Bob has only been in post for one year, I hope our paths cross again.

It's church Jim, but not as we know it.

To church today and two contrasting but in their own way radical communities. This morning we went into Grand Rapids to listen to Canon Bob at the St Mark’s church. It was a bit quiet when we got their. We later found out that every Sunday morning they feed 150 people. These are members of the local community who have fallen on hard times. It’s so much easier to get into trouble here as we heard, if you’re sick for over a year your insurance runs out and you start to haemorrhage money and before long you have to sell your house. It’s as though although, it’s easier to rise in this universe it’s also easier to fall. We asked Canon Bob about the position of the church, he was able to answer not just for the states but also England where he had worked for a while. He reckoned that in the US the church were the new kids on the block, as such people had no preconceptions about them, whereas in Britain lots of folk memories remain which mean that people are nervous about inviting us to join in.
Tonight we have just got back from Mars Hill which is… well… radical! It was very different.

For a start off the church met in an old shopping Mall... there were no lit signs like we've seen outside other churches, it looked incredibly unprespossesing and t 5.45 p.m. it was nearly deserted. By 6.05 p.m. I reckon there were probably over 500 in the vast auditorium. Entering the worship space it was very plain, with a cross in the centre and everyone gathered around it including the band, who sat with their backs to the congregation. Although there were hundreds of people there it felt very intimate. It was like anti personality cult. Music played in the background (“if I just lie here” I think it’s called by snow patol.) someone very low key came forward and said a very swift hello and then we sang a few hymns… hardly any hands raised it was incredibly restrained and most of the music were traditional hymns played in a contemporary way. After this low key start the preacher began moving about in the central space and sharing and challenging us to look at the things which block our faith. There were no led prayers, not even a Eucharistic blessing of the bread, but rather I think we were to respond in our own ways, though nobody told this. After the talk we were invited to receive bread and wine, but there was no one to administer it we simply came forward and took wafers from a bowl and dipped them in the wine.
Three more songs followed and a final blessing. There was no appeal, there was no formal response. The whole service was over after about an hour. People left without coffee, or much talking to each other, sent away to contemplate what God had said through the word and worship. It was incredibly different but also very real and moving. I go the impression that these were people who lived in the real world and their worship reflected this.
Two churches both in their way radical, engaging in their communities but living the Christian life.

The Tony Blair Prime Ministerial Library

Waking early again means this time that I get a chance to scan the airwaves. I discover that after thirty minutes I am so inspired that I can’t sleep! Every radio channel seems to be offering me the chance to turn around my life, become a new person and change the world. It makes me wonder if people of faith ever get to the point beyond conversion where they say: “Now what?” This really is a very different universe that we have come to. However there is a very interesting article on the radio about a food bank scheme not unlike that I saw in Australia. Businesses donate food and charities are able to buy it at a weight based price. Veg and fruit 16 cents a pound, tins etc. 25 cents a pound. The organisation was called Second Harvest Gleaners and it means that the poor can be fed for a lot less. The overwhelming majority of those involved in this work are churches, though they did mention that the mosques are involved as well. They have a really nice web site: http://www.wmgleaners.org/ so you might like a look. It’s hard to see where the poor are that they are feeding, I suspect it may well be like in Australia a hidden phenomenon, out in the suburbs, we shall see today as we head out there for church.
Yesterday as part of our Grand Rapids culture tour we went to the Gerald Ford Presidential Library, he was born in Grand Rapids. Every ex president sets one up and they contain a history of their time in office and any gifts they have received as part of their office. Surprisingly it was really interesting, despite the fact Gerald Ford was only president for a three years and came to office as a result of Richard Nixon’s impeachment. Part of the interest lay in the fact that it was our era… Watergate, evacuating Saigon, the early seventies… “Things have really gone downhill since then!” was one of many loud comments we overheard. I can’t imagine what they think about now if they thought the Watergate era was the peak of American political life.
What was most telling was the huge part religion paid in the exhibition, particularly in the President’s speeches and in his motivation. They are really comfortable with their leaders openly talking about the faith that sustains and inspires what they do. The other thing that was surprising was the complete candour with which the presidents’ faults and mistakes are discussed. Rather than a shrine to the wonders of this ex-president it was testament to the whole man. I suspect this may be something to do with the Christian foreground of American life. The justified sinner who is able to repent of his failings is deeply appealing.
You couldn’t help thinking what such a museum would be like if we had it in Britain. The Tony Blair Library: the story of his conversion, his successes, his failings and his fallings, his very deep and genuine faith. It would probably better if we did this, acknowledging our need of leaders but also the humanity of those who stand at the front and take the flack. Those who have come to faith and answered the question: “Now what?”

It was perfect till the people came

To Grand Rapids today to discover a very beautiful planned urban space. Clean streets, plenty of green in amongst, art galleries, museums, all very shiny, all very…
QUIET!!!
Because America has gone with the out of town Mall there is no shopping in Grand Rapids and therefore on a Saturday no people, or hardly any, more of that in a minute. The museums and art gallery didn’t help by charging quite a bit to visit them, making a visit something you make an effort to do rather than just wandering in. There was a front page headline in the local paper picking up the same topic: “We need Grocers.” The article was expressing concern that there was nowhere to buy food in the city. There were restaurants, there were cafés, but if you needed a pint of milk, and we did, there wasn’t one to be had. So here’s the thing, do you want a pristine beautiful city… then plan it without people.
Talking of people one of those few on the streets was a man with a clipboard trying to get people to register to vote. That would suggest that all is not well. When people stop caring about voting then it usually means only one of two things:
1. Things are so brilliant they don’t think it’s necessary
2. People see the status quo as so powerful there is no point in voting.

I hope for Grand Rapids sake it’s the former.

Whilst in Grand Rapids we were sussing out churches for tomorrow and came across the Episcopalians… in a little church built in 1836. The church declared itself open for prayer but was in fact closed. Presumeably because there was no-one around.

Outside they were flying the rainbow flag which suggests they may be more open in other ways.

I think we’ll go see tomorrow.

Breakfast in America

The problem with going to bed at nine o'clock in the evening is that you wake up at five thirty in the morning and so I am writing this before the sun is really up.
Looking through the directory for this area we are becoming aware that we are in danger of being overwhelmed by America. There is so much going on. Every corner of every community has a church and every church appears to be very much alive and kicking.
Today then will need to be a day for drifting and sifting, before we start to focus down on what's going on.
Incidentally I got off the plane yesterday to be presented with a left hand drive automatic car. So there I am a man who has been awake for twenty hours, in an unfamiliar car, on the wrong side of the road, trying to find a hotel that is hiding from us! Glad to say that car, driver and marriage are still intact!
At this rate we will be eating breakfast soon.

One World Conspiracy

It was just a joke but I am already aware that the United States is a different kind of a place. The announcer said: "American Airlines is apart of the One World Federation."
"What's that?" said a bloke, "some kind of a cult?"
In fact it's an agreement the different airlines to work together.
But th question shows that there is deep unease in this country. Later talking to a serviceman as we waited for the pilot who was late(!), he told me how they were discouraged from walking about in uniform and that he himself had been spat at it in uniform.
So one to watch as I go to bed after nearly twenty hours without sleep... dreaming tonight of The One World Conspiracy.