Blenders and Sliverers

There's a sign in our village that annonces that an old factory is blenders and sliverers. I'm not sure waht they did but someone once explained that by the blending and slivering process they brought together different wools and threads to make a stronger one.
Today has been a day for picking up threads and at the end of it I am already beginning to feel a bit more confident in my abilities to live my multitasking life.
The day started with a visit to Scout Road which is two thirds of the way through a £1,600,000 project. It’s looking lovely and the children are already beginning to fill the spaces well. I doubt anyone but parents are aware in our community of the work we are doing there preferring instead to live with a virtual image of schools as “Failing places that don’t teach tables anymore.”
From there it was to a meeting with the wonderful Louise who is currently helping to keep the Renaissance Process moving in the valley. She had good news of new people who are getting involved and longer serving people who were energised in our latest project to call our canal a linear park.
Some time was spent organising a gathering of my Deanery Clergy which will happen next week and will discuss the serious business of keeping our churches moving and growing: with stretched resources and growing demands.
Finally tonight it was down to church for an update on the St Michael’s Project which is about to move into the dynamic building phase.
The threads come together… and weaving and twisting, blending and slivering, become the stronger for it.

Here's an idea

I have an idea.
I have been thinking about getting faith communities to become involved in regeneration but maybe we need to turn it round. Why don’t we put ourselves in the Renaissance Process?
Visiting faith communities with consultants who work alongside people to look to the future. Who produce twenty five year plans that look beyond the horizon… Who empower people and see the possibilities of what they might be…Who take a longer term view and enable others take a longer term view too…
I wonder if anyone will let me do it?

a liturgical cold shower

It's my last Sunday before returning to duty and so I give myself a liturgical cold shower: 8:00a.m. Prayer book communion. Nobody talked to me on the way in, or the way out. There was no sermon, so no talking their either. You're probably expecting me to say, as is the way on the occassions that it was amazing, that I was transported to heaven by the amazing depth of silence...
However for an extrovert like me it was a kind of hell!
I wanted to scream...
I felt homesick which is good because this week I come home.
Was it worship... Yes
Was it what some needed... Yes
Will I be conducting a very similar at my own church next Sunday morning?
Probably!
Because from now on, once again it's not about me but those whom God has called to serve.
Having discovered so much about me on my travels its time for that "me" to step back for a while...
Probably.

Two Marys

A good nights sleep in a travelodge and the sun is shining in Durham and the world feels a better place. I feel better too. I have to say that the Christian Resource Exhibition is a bit depressing.
As churches we all need stuff but the selling of the stuff we need and the buying is deeply depressing somehow.
I played the I want one of those but I am not sure why game. I saved myself, just, from buying a life sized cardboard cut out nativity to put outside the church. It was two for the price of one... I didn't buy it because I couldn't work out why you would need two lifesized Marys!
My suspicion is that we have two Jesus already but only one is a cardboard cutout.

Christian Resource Exhibition

Having wandered around for several hours and moved Rebecca into her new house in Durham I am now...


a bit tired!


and overloaded with leaflets.

Attending a training programme tonight with the lovely people of Todmorden Pride. It was brought to us by the Partnership Skills progamme of Yorkshire Forward... which is why it's ironic that it's on projects and not partnerships!
Still it's good and practical and well delivered... but it's about projects and not partnerships.
Which leaves you with a building but not a community collective.
It is also difficult to identify an end point.
My own preference would be that at the end of the process is when you help another project to begin.
Cloning or reproduction is the end point.

Cinderella's Big Yorkshrie Forward Shopping List

I have spent all today, when not feeling the effects of a mild cold trying to put something together for tomorrows board meeting with Yorkshire Forward. It was longer, it was shorter, it is now, well judge for yourself.

Cinderella's Big Yorkshrie Forward Shopping List


1 Turning up
My Big Fraser Teal Question: Why don’t people of faith join renaissance teams?
They are there but they are invisible!
Significant because they tend not to bring their resources to the discussion.
1. They currently have unmanaged workspaces which could have been managed and could grow in their capacity to support local entrepreneurs. How often have you heard someone say: "we started in a church hall."
2. They have a huge volunteer base and are significant small businesses in the communities they serve.
Case Studies
1. Methodists in Knaresborough—£1M project
2. Anglicare SA—third largest employer
3. Gateshead Metrocentre—built by church Commissioners

2 Projects, Programmes or Partners?

Key to what works well in working with communities is partnership.
UK government is brilliant at working in partnerships with faith groups but only in other countries. In this country they only want to fund projects.
e.g. Sheik Noah 1998 – helped to buy a boat
2003 – expanding the fleet
2008 – building a harbour
Could we adopt a similar approach here?
We do already in Renaissance but for how long?
Yorkshire Forward through Renaissance has been adopting a similar partnership process but is in danger of losing that original vision of community engagement at all stages of the renaissance process as it matures.

Case Studies of partnership work
1. Men’s Shed in Adelaide– growth from enthusiasm
2. Dearne Valley Ventures– Church set it up
3. Skara Diocese in Sweden—too close a partnership

3 Vision and Scaling up
e.g. Michigan Food Bank & Habitat for Humanity.
Everything I saw in America happens somewhere in Britain but it doesn’t happen everywhere. Faith Communities need skills in scaling up.
Tom said at the CDT conference the other day “Lack of ambition and aspiration is the biggest problem we face.”
For faith communities we also need vision, we don’t see that we have anything to contribute so we don’t turn up, we don’t scale up because we don’t realise how good is what we are doing.
Could we not use our Renaissance networks to find out what faith groups are doing economically and what more they could do if they were "allowed in."
Following on from the Faith and Regeneration conference that I spoke at in Halifax there is a request to do some proper research… could you helps us find funding for it?
In Sheffield they have received funding from Lottery to fund a Faith and Regeneration worker, advertised this week, it will be interesting to see what comes out of it.
Scaling up could be very simple…
Case Study
Faithworks in Scarborough

4 Renaissance Identity
Six years of community engagement in Renaissance is really beginning to work…
There lessons for faith communities in the Renaissance process which I have already tried out with a number of parishes. e.g. St Marks
Problems:
The open day and problems with your building really shows that there is a disconnectedness in your organisation which doesn’t help faith communities who tend to be seen as not fitting into any particular department well.
Local Authorities will be a barrier to faith involvement because they work on an outdated view of faith as a problem. My worry is that as in the new arrangements you are expected to deliver more closely with Local authorities you may end up losing the Renaissance advantage.
But
National Government is in policy ahead of local government in stating:
“At times there has been reluctance on the part of local authorities and agencies to commission services from faith-based groups, in part because of some confusion about the propriety of doing so. Building on the Faithworks Charter, we intend to work with faith communities to clarify the issues and to remove the barriers to commissioning services from faith-based groups.”
If we are serious about implementing government policy on this we may need to be more proactive.
e.g. Wakefield Cathedral

5 Cinderella with Amnesia
Why don’t people faith turn up?
· They are not invited
· They lack confidence
· They are not asked in the right way

But...
Faith communities are key asset holders in any community.
In the countryside they often hold the keys of two out of three key institutions –church and hall and school,… the only one they don’t hold is the pub and in one of my churches we have one of those as well.
They are there for the long term.
We are the hole in the rural donut.
People of Faith are key community asset holders but often they don’t realise it.
The Renaissance process for my church helped us to see what we had and how significant it could be for our community. This has lead to us forming a partnership with Calderdale, UCVR, Yorkshire Forward and the Church to create a market Square and Enterprise hub for our Town.
All I long to see is that process happen for other faith communities… I hope that you will continue to help us.
Faith Communities are like Cinderella with amnesia we need a prince to recognise our beauty and invite us to the ball.
Yorkshire Forward has kissed Sleeping Beauty in Scarborough could it take Cinderella to the ball in the rest of Yorkshire by finding a better way to include the Faith Communities in its approach.

Books you might find useful if you want to dig deeper.
“The Social Entrepreneur: Making Communities Work” Andrew Mawson 2008.
“Moral, but no Compass: Government, Church and the Future of Welfare” Von Hugel Institute 2008
“Communities in Control: Real People, real power.” Communities and local Government Report 2008

Revd Cllr James Allison Chair of UCVR

Homesick!

Not feeling so good today… a bit dizzy and sneezing a lot.
I am not sure what’s causing it but it makes blogging groggy and so for now I am hoping for a better evening.
Isn’t it amazing, I travel the world in one piece but I am slayed by a good old fashioned northern bug!

Comfort Zones

To the Kings Church this morning in Halifax... in a bit of a rush so we arrive ten minutes late at 10.30 a.m. We guessed this would not be a problem as Pentecostals do tend to have a soft start to their services with people arriving up to thirty minutes late. The guess was right and after forty five minutes of choruses, forty five minutes of notices, we started on the sermon which was very good.
It was taken from a verse in Deuteronomy where God said: "You have been too long on this mountain..." Deut 1:16 I think. he talked alot about what keeps us on the mountain and ended up challenging us to come out of our comfort zone.
Being comfortable is a great British disease I guess, the settling for the "all right" which might be at the heart of our lack of entrepeneurship.
These last three months have been very uncomfortable for me but I have grown used to them, now it's time to go back I will have to leave this comfort zone to return.
I keep on saying to anyone who asks that these three months ahve either been a blessing to me or they have ruined me... one thing for certain is that I will never be the same again. Whether that's a good or a bad thing remains to be seen.

Depressing

Not sure if I was tired for it has been an exhausting couple of weeks especially the traveling.
Not sure if I am suffering for a cold... I have sneezed a couple times.
Not sure if it's the daunting task ahead of putting some of my travels to bed and gearing up to a return to work.
Maybe it was depression.
Whatever it was my wonderful family and a bit of a rest put me back together again.

It was Friday but now it's Saturday and Sunday's coming.

Last Day

Last formal day at Yorkshire Forward and I am trying to follow up leads, unsuccessfully as it turns out.
The structure of the building which is not purpose built, mitigates against the informal interaction on which entrepeneurial activity is built. People are in departments, which are a bit like the old fashioned compartments on a train... They all going in the same direction, probably the same destination but not necessarily meeting in the buffet car.
I have begun to put together some thoughts, the writing is still to really flow but I think it will, at the heart of my efforts is that their needs to be a change of vision.
Renaissance needs to see the faith communities possibly setting up a faith based action teams to do this.
Yorkshire Forward needs to see faith communities buildings as part of the assets of the community and its extensive volunteer network as a considerable human resource.
The church and other faith communities needs to add to it's list of jobs to do... the work of entrepeneur. We need to find contractual ways of partnership which don't compromise our core beliefs.
All of these things are happening somewhere, how can we make it happen everywhere?

I am on the train travelling home and feeling a bit heavy, not least from the lunch I've just had with Rhona, my main contact at YF. She heads a great team and I am grateful to their support, encouragement and inspiration. I hope I now understand their world a little better and appreciate all that they do in Team Yorkshire.

in memorium

There's been a bomb go off in Yemen, it's in Sana'a at the american embassy. I was near there on my tip, just across the road I think. It's very heavily guarded, so they must have blasted their way through. It's sad to think of the many Yemini's who died... Sad to think of it being many wonderful people I met.
Travelling connects you to people.
Or as Wesley said: The world is my parish.

Shopping List

A day off and time to think... a dangerous business that has me thinking what my shopping list of suggestions might be to Yorkshire Forward.
Don't lose sight of that original vision of community engagement at all stages of the renaissance process. In a community used to big government, like sweden I have seen how this can be disempowering. Communities such as those I have seen in the Dearne Valley can have their vision encouraged and their confidence boosted by involvement in renaissance.
We need a way to quantify the "hidden" outcomes of Yorkshire Forward's work in countryside and towns. I know that their is a happiness index, is it possible to measure growth in entrepeneurship.
Faith communities like young people and farmers are a special case. They have resources that need to be factored in and not ignored. They have unmanaged workspaces which have been and could grow in their capacity to support local entrepeneurs. How often have you heard someone say: "we started in a church hall." they have a huge volunteer base and are significant small businesses in the communities they serve. They are however like Cinderella with amnesia. They need a prince to recognise their beauty and invite them to the ball.
British Government is brilliant at working in partnership ways with faith groups in other countries but is reluctant in this country. As "Moral but no compass" has shown there is a terrible virtual image of particularly christianity, which like the "virtual picture" of the English Countryside or the North of England makes for bizarre policy decisions. Could we not use our Renaissance networks to find out what faith groups are doing economically and what more they could do if they were "allowed in." At the moment they are treated with suspicion as a community organisation and disregarded as trading organisations. They even have to pay VAT.

It's time to renogotiate the church state settlement in Britain so that all faiths can have a creative partnership with community, business and state for the good of all the people.
I would like to see that process begin here in Yorkshire.

That's the shopping list so far... I wonder what it will be by next Wednesday... Tell me what you think.

Money

There is a lot of talk about money this morning as the markets continue to slide. I am really sorry that despite the serious of the situation I can’t help an inner smile at the metaphors being used. A sliding market conjures up pictures of market traders struggling to bag their bananas as they slip about and whenever anyone talks about the credit crunch it sounds like a chocolate bar!
It is a deeply serious business not least for the third sector with its reliance on volunteers, donations often of “spare cash” and realising assets which are suddenly not worth as much. It’s a bit scary for my projects at this time as churches are notorious for giving reducing in times of development. I sense a number of hard conversations that need to be had when I get back into the job.
Perhaps I am looking at this the wrong way up, falling once again into the position of takers not givers, those without resources rather than those with them. Perhaps we need to be thinking more of what we can do for our communities as they go through what looks like a recession rather than what they can do for us.
We need to be part of the solution not part of the problem…

FAITH AND REGENERATION IN LEEDS

The faith and regeneration workshop from yesterday was still in my mind as I made my way back to the community development trust conference. It was a good workshop, raising the issues about governance, you can only affiliate if you are faith based. It raised issues about presence but most of all it was a great celebration of our role in britain.
A really great muslim guy suggested the following as key:
Develop partnerships - organisations
Develop relationships - people - regen officers etc.
Develop capacity - including consultancy work
Maximise resources - all faith organisations have resources - people and buildings.
Belief - yourself and in your community and your God

Glad to see we are on the right lines.

The Lion that Squeeked

Today I am at a conference: Association of Development Trust. I have never heard of Development Trusts and am still waiting to really to discover what I am at. But it seems they would have been very useful to us as an organisation.
I have also discovered whilst at Yorkshire Forward and again today the existance of community banks. These cater to the special needs of community organisations... and it turns out could have saved us a lot of trouble at UCVR and probably as a church.
There are I have discovered, a number of groups looking at faith and regeneration, including some really good resources which would have have been briliant and probably meant that most of my Fraser Teal questions would have been largely dealt with.
But there is a huge problem...
What's the point of existing if people don't know you exist? If your role is to advise, then you need to connect.
This is at the heart of the faith groups problem too, if we don't become more visible we won't be included. One of the ways we become more visible is to act more collectively. Another way is to communicate what we do more effectively.
We are the Lion that squeeks.
We need to learn to roar again.

Hierarchy of needs

It's one of those things we know instinctively but someone has also discovered that we have a hierarchy of needs. Maslow said that the more basic needs tend to override the higher needs; so if you're hungry you are unlikely to be concentrating on your work.
Somebody was suggesting the other day that communities have a hierarchy of needs... At the top of any communities needs is car parking! No matter what else you are doing you will be criticised if there isn't more carparking. So my heart goes out to St Mary's Luddenden where we worshipped this morning. At the heart of the village the vehiclular access to the church is aweful and it must put a cap on, the people are it's potential for growth. No matter if it's beautiful, no matter that it's a vibrant Christian community, surely it can't grow without better carparking?
Well if we project forward to a time when the price of fuel is prohibitive of all but the essential travel, when the local is revived over the regional, maybe St Mary's can grow without better car parks.

Religious Entrepeneurs

Finished reading a Yorkshire Forward document from the early days of Renaissance, which is course six years ago! There's lots that's really good much of which we are still doing, there is stuff we need to be careful we don't lose, especially ongoing community engagement.
One of things it seems to imply is that town teams need to be full of entrepeneurs. I can't help thinking that maybe people of faith aren't in town teams here because they are not entrepeneurs.
Religious entrepeneurs are quite rare so I must dig around at Yorkshire forward and find out if they know how to teach it.
I wonder if I'm an entrepeneur; is there a test?

The Antiques Roadshow

To Hebden Bridge today to be filmed for a Yorkshire Forward DVD. I always find the business of filming or recording a bit seductive, I think I relax too much. My mouth starts going faster than my brain... The images come thick and fast and before long I am talking rubbish.
Today I was asked what it was like having the consultants in the village. I said it was like having the antiques roadshow come, they look at your stuff and tell you what's valuable and what's a bit rubbish.
The reality once the consultants have been the place mever looks the same to you again... And it's not just the groovy stuff they leave behind. You change how you see and that changes what you see.

Communities and Renaissance

Still on the hunt today for the renaissance definition. I am getting close as I discovered Tony Blair in 2002 tallking about the way in which regeneration failed without community involvement. Remarkably although not if you work there I think this is after Yorkshire Forward started their use of renaissance.
So what is it?
Renaissance is about community renewal; it includes physical regeneration, in fact it relies on it, but also an attempt at shiftkng the mood of a place. Not really social engineering, rather by involving the community at all stages that process of engagement in regeneration brings about a change in people and through people the community is transformed.
I'm not quite there yet as you can see but the key thing in all the writing is this continuing community involvement. I wonder whether this is sustainable as renaissance matures... The temptation to go all professional on communities must be overwhelming.

You say regeneration and I say renaissance

I was brought up a bit short at Yorkshire Forward on Monday when someone made reference to the fact that somebody else didn’t know the difference between regeneration and renaissance.
How we laughed… but quietly I realised that I didn’t know either!
Walking around the Dearne Valley yesterday with Rachel, one of the Yorkshire Forward officers who have been showing me around, I was finally brave enough to ask her what she thought the difference was. The gist of what she said was that regeneration was fairly restricted to the economic well being of a place whereas renaissance was about all aspects of life, including how people thought and felt about where they lived. Today I am going to dig a bit more into this but in this splitting hairs about a definition there is maybe something that could engage faith communities in what we are about.
This has been illustrated to me clearly in the week so far. On Monday I went to the Dearne Valley to a meeting of principal partners in the Dearne Valley Regeneration process. There were lots of council officers and a team of consultants who did a great job in outlining the problems of this post industrial community. There was much talk of the lack of coherence between the different communities that were even split along authority lines with three district councils sharing responsibility for the Dearne.
Yesterday I visited the Dearne Valley centre, which hadn’t been mentioned on Monday but turned out to be a wonderful creative hotchpotch built by the community in a converted primary school. What became clear fairly quickly was that these people, particularly in the areas of sport and young people were working right across the whole of the Dearne. They were creating a sense of community and enabling people to feel good about where they lived. They had serious and measurable increase in the attainment of the young people with which they worked. Little of this had been acknowledged on the Monday because although individual schemes were local authority funded the centre itself wasn’t. This was renaissance in action, dealing with the whole person and the whole community.
Incidentally it turned out that the initiative for the centre had come from a local church, and although the local vicar still lead groups there it was clear that it was no longer a church initiative. I wonder why we are so good at starting but so shy about continuing in this kind of work. It could be that as volunteers we worry about sustaining projects in the long term. More worryingly it could be that this kind of community enterprise is perceived as having a better chance of survival if it stops being “religious.” My experience in other part so the world suggests otherwise, that with a strong volunteer base it stands a great chance of survival if people of faith are involved.
Maybe as in other areas of faith we simply lose our confidence.
Just had a conversation with someone from the Urban section of Yorkshire Forward who has come back with the following areas which mark out renaissance as different to regenration:
1. More emphasis on a 25 year plans and strategic development plans
2. Initial and ongoing consultation: creation of local teams of people from many sectors who are consulted on all plans.
3. Quality and added value…

This still all sounds a bit vague, I’ll have to do a bit more digging tomorrow.

Community Disengagement

To Dearne Valley again today after meeting yesterday with so e of the civic partners in the regeneration work that is going on there. They were a splendid bunch of people but had the usual allergic reaction when I mentioned whether any of the churches had got involved. Someone in the group that I was in mentioned the considerable land and facilities still held through the miners’ welfare organisations but it was noticeable that they were left out of any plenary discussions. This was a strategic meeting of key partners and I guess that’s the role of government to represent the community at this kind of a thing.
I have a niggling worry with it, that somehow it disempowers people that they are only included in delivery not in strategy. On my travels I have marvelled at the way in which communities and in particular faith groups in other parts of the world have taken on responsibility for anything form feeding the poor to running welfare to work schemes but the one nettle I have not taken on board yet is the fact that in order for this to happen, government has to get smaller.
We’ve seen this work in schools where successive governments in recent years have left more and more to governors; although it’s interesting that in recent times they appear to be rolling some of that back. It has also led to tensions as to who exactly a school is run for… of course the children are the immediate beneficiaries but other significant stakeholders are parents, businesses and the local community.
I can’t help it, but I can’t help falling back into this word partnerships. I have seen that it is possible to create community partnerships of great sophistication in Adelaide, could we not do that here, so that we have a partnership again between governments and the communities they serve… to help develop the very people we serve as we work alongside each other.

Lady or the Tramp

When I was in Sweden one of the priests there described the church as being like a much loved pampered cat... In need of some tough love and a rediscovery of what it means to be a cat. To learn to hunt again, to learn the freedom and fear of life outside the cosy home.
This weekend in Scarborough a different picture is emerging for me of the church in this country, not a wild cat but a ferral cat, that once had a home but is now finding that life on the streets is hard, but it is also exciting.
Churches like those in Scarborough just get on with the business of being church. Like those I saw in America, there are things to do and they do it. Alley cats, they know the streets.
If they are so good at what they do, do they need renaissance and regeneration? I am still not sure but one thing I am still sure of is that if regeneration is about transforming communities, we need them.

There's a Disney film called Lady and the Tramp... in it a house dog called lady meets and falls in love with the tramp, a street dog. Learning from each other they each become the better until they produce a very large family combining the best of both. Maybe as with all Disneys it has something to say to us.

York

Waking up in the centre of York to the sound of bells sets you up well for the day. I ws in York to visit St Michael le Belfrey which has always been a pioneer of sorts. They were one of the first churches in Briktain to experience charismatic renewal, the first to set up a drama group: now a professional theatre company Riding Lights. They also pioneered the use of dance and music and as we discovered this morning the serving of coffee half way through the service... Revolutionary!
They were also pioneers in the creative use of church buildings experimenting early on with church cafés. So it was grat to be with them today and discovering that they were still experimenting.
Driving home I have lots of stuff to think about... Are about to follow the same journey as they are? Such a lot to do before I go back to work.

Invisible Christians again

Scarborough looked brilliant today and the signs of regeneration were all over the place and impressive.
Meeting with some of the church of Scarborough later in the day and once again I am impressed by faith communities and what they do. In the space of an hour we hear of The Rainbow Rrom which is social outreach centre where the church youth outreach programme is based. They are also involved in debt counselling, old peoples lunches, etc. They have a faithworks group which is llinked the Oasis group in London. Added to this their members are active in all aspects of community life: business, civic and regeneration.
So it's all the more remarkable that they are not visibly present in regeneration, and their buildings and considerable investment are not factored into the work of the Scarborough town Team.
Once again the Christians are undercover but this time they are such lovely people that they are already planning a way forward.
Nominate someone from the churches to be a representative on the Town Team
Approach the faithworks group and see if it might become the basis for a faith action group.
Look to having an event or meetiing to talk about all the stuff the faith groups are doing which might be part of the regeneration targets.
Look to find more partners within the regeneration process.
The day ended with fish and chips on a magnficant stormy beach. A brilliant day.

Going to the ball

To Scarborough today to meet up with Nick Taylor the Renaissance manager for the town and a long timer in the regeneration business. He’s the kind of person I have had passing “hellos” in the past and so I was glad to have a longer conversation. The reason I’m in Scarborough is to see what happens in this Yorkshire Renaissance Town with regard to faith groups. Nick tells me that as I expected there are many people of faith involved in the Town Teams but no one officially represents them. More undercover Christians as usual I suspect. Is it something particularly British that we are incapable of owning our faith in public; there seemed to be no problems about it in America or Yemen? Perhaps that’s why we can be intimidated by Islamic or Afro-Caribbean spiritualities.
In regeneration terms this is a real problem for us; we talk of the third sector as though it were some kind of secret society, rather than a living dynamic community of people who own stuff and do stuff and know stuff. Cinderella needs to put on her party dress and come to the ball with all the others in our community.
At Yorkshire Forward the other day I am sure I heard their chair say that their aim was to improve the economy of Yorkshire and inclusion. I don’t think they mean it, yet, but maybe this should include community assets such as faith community assets.
As for people of faith: come out come out wherever you are. Don’t be scared. We have much to offer and yet we are really hiding our lights under a bushel.
Jesus told us to be humble but that didn’t mean to be hidden.
“Let you light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven” as we used to say at the prayer book offertory.
Talking of lights: although it’s raining, although it’s freezing, the lights of Scarborough still look lovely, don’t you agree?

Walls

Everybody in the house is excited at the prospect of our trip tomorrow to York. In many ways Yorks is the ideal city, historical yet with trendy bars and shops, the spiritual highs of the Minster and lows of the York Dungeon.
Yet much about the city doesn't fit the nornal pattern... No big central square or Piazza. No arcades or shopping mall... a northern citý whose wall contains and shapes it.
I understand the wall didn't reaaly have a defensive role rather an economic one making sure that those who came into the city to trade paid for the upkeep of the infrastucture.
I wonder if we could do that in the Calder Valley where shopkeepers moan at paying £2 to park for the day?
It's taken me a while to realise that walls are sometimes a barrier but can also allow the development to work.

Fun Day

Today Yorkshire Forward was letting it's hair down. The foyer was decorated in pink ribbon and you could hook a duck. On another floor you could have your photo taken with a Donkey. The finance department were running a casino and I was plied with more chocolates than at a children's party!
Yet this was one of the most productive and exhausting days I have spent in a long time. Beneath the bubble Yorkshire Forward had invited all it's outlying staff and associates to communicate to one another what they do so that they could have a better idea of an organisation as a whole. For me it was a godsend filling me in on the organisation before I work there next week.
I wonder how many other large organisations which have organically grown like Yorkshire Forward would benefit from such a day. The problem is as we grow we lose that sense of common purpose and value and are in danger of fractioning in private whilst remaining in the same building.
So maybe the House of Commons needs a fun day, maybe the General Synod would benefit from a game of rounders... it would make better television and may make them understand each other and work together better.

Anothers' Shoes

Tomorrow I begin my Yorkshire Forward adventure as I go as a guest to their "Staff Open Day."
Not sure what I am going to, really but that is not the only reason I am nervous. I have spent a lot of time over the last few years enjoying Yorkshire Forward's support and also being quite critical, sure in the knowledge that I am on the outside looking in. Tomorrow I will be on the inside looking out.
I want to try and put myself in their shoes... to see the world as they see it. I have gone on so much about the need for partnership but unless we can stand in a partner's shoes and begin to understand their viewpoint we are not really partners merely companions.
I must shut up when I am there
I must listen
I must "just be myself"
I must... just go and see what happens!

Fair weather architects

Sat in the middle of Hebden Bridge waiting for my daughter and looking at the square which Regeneration created. Despite it being a soggy day, grey and depressing the square is busy. It's a creative mix of pram pushers, commuters trudging home, motor bikes, cycles and the odd motor car. The square works!
We always design spaces for sunny days... when I was in Utrecht they had built a fantastic bench... Beautiful but no-one sat on it. The locals pointed out that the only time it was in sunlight was early morning and all other times it was cold and dark... Great bench for milknen, if they had them.
I suspect some of the deck access flats I lived in in Manchester would have been nice if they were in Barcelona... or maybe not.
So all architechts should design for bad weather, especially in the Calder Valley.