Christingle

Sunday...
Need I say more...

Well actually a little bit as 120 people gathered to take part in that sixties invention, the christingle. Everybody who comes considers it to be something which has always happened but it is a fairly new invention. There's a lot of things which are in the 2000 year old history of the church quite new.
Harvest festivals were invented in the 1890's,
carol services in the 1920's,
holy communion... well at least that's 2000 yers old but up to 50 years ago it usually only happened once a month. Children coming up for a blessing, that's a seventies phenomena I think.
I wonder what we do now as novelty in church which everyone in time people will never be able to remember a time without it?
My vote goes to the practice of lighting votive candles in the church of England... Which only began to be universal when IKEA opened.
Which funnily enough coincided with the discovery of global warming...
Makes you think.

Unsung heroes

Today we had an open day at my school… understand that it’s mine only in the sense that I am the chair of the governors. The remarkable thing about the open day is that this year we have been spending one and a half million of government money transforming a Victorian school into an Elizabethan one. We are nearly finished but not quite so it was an open day but not an opening day.
It was great to show people what we had been doing and I slipped around the place fairly anonymously, known to staff and students but not the many parents and friends who were thronging.
It made me think of all those people who must have sat in committees for the schools I attended, unbeknown to me, unthanked by me, till now.
Thank you, whoever you are, without your work I would never been able today to stand in the background and watch the new school work.

Culture

Just been through the year in song with our amateur dramatic's group. I guess the audience must have numbered seventy or eighty with a cast and crew of about twenty.
It was lovely and probably represents local culture as much as the Ted Hughes Festival. Some of our festival events had much smaller audiences and certainly smaller casts. We are forced to chose which we appreciate as culture, why not all of it.
It saddens me that we are so poor as a nation at celebrating and owning what's ours, a rainbows culture: high... Middle... Low?
Who cares... People pleasing themselves and others.
Someone once said that the Church of England is dying of good taste... So could our nation...

Shopping

An exciting morning at a site meeting in the square. We were looking at catalogues to decide what kind of lights we might have.
It's funny to think that all the lamp posts throughout the country began life in a catalogue. Somehow you don't imagine that anybody shopped for these things, they just grew!

Stones

I was standing this afternoon with one of our flat capped church members admiring the builders work as they laid the first bit of the town square.
"Lovely isn't it?"
"It's concrete vicar..."
"Not it's not it's stone..."
"concrete."
"It says "stone" on the packet over there..."
Long pause...
"You can tell by the variation in the colour."
Long pause.
"Cheap rubbish then is it vicar?!"

Oh well never mind.

Goodness

Today was Ralph’s funeral, a significant event for our community as witnessed by the turn out of 157 people… Clive my churchwarden counted them. Ralph is one of those people who in my ministry at St Michaels has always been there. He was big in our amateur dramatics society although he never had a starring role, never really had a part that put him in the spotlight except only for the briefest of moments. He never really had a career as such, taking bit parts in the Thornber Chicken Empire, a local family decorating company and only slightly more notably in Rentokill as the community rat catcher. His impact was almost entirely because of his character: He was a really nice man, friendly, cheerful and capable of a gentle banter with almost everyone he met, including as it happens… me.
We mourn Ralph as those privileged to have seen something common but no less valuable for that,
...goodness.

No worries

I am sat here tonight feeling

rested

energised

and not very stressed

and ready for tomorrow.

Funny what a good night’s sleep and a day off makes to you.

It makes me wonder how many people around me in our community are not having time off.
When we get the enterprise centre and town square up and running as well as encouraging activity maybe we need to find ways to help people to take time out.

Funny Day

A funny day with lots of disconnected bits.
Beginning with prayer with Emily…
Following with lunch and a fairly complex talk from the bishop the gist of which is that we are losing clergy…
Then two hours with the 5-11’s at the Mix…
A try out of our new curry place in the village…
Then a night in the office…
Ready for…
Bed
Tomorrow is a day off well earned, I guess

Ooh and on the return from the bishop a prophetic bus sign

“Reduce your Revs and save CO2”
I hope the bishop didn’t see it

Boulders

Somebody once said when I first came to Mytholmroyd:
"We get a lot of weather here vicar."
We certainly do often having all four seasons at once.
Anyhoe I was impressed by Dougie Mansfield's enterprise today.
Dougie is our local bike and shoe shop owner, an interesting combination.
Anyhow he gets my vote for entrepeneur of the week for today he had hung a sledge outside his shop with the sign... "It's forecast snow!" I called in to talk ot him about a bike festival in the village but didn't have the heart to ask if had sold any sledges yet. I suspect most Yorkshire Folk will believe it when they see it.
Which is one of the reason why regeneration here is so difficult.
"We don't want it till we have had had it!"
Still the hole is making progress and the town square is growing...

The builders on the other side of our church informed me today that there was a boulder!
I am not sure what they want me to do about it.
The bible says that if we have faith we can move mountains but it doesn't mention anything about boulders!

Seasons

A day or two without blogs because I thought it would be boring to say: “too busy for blogs!”
Part of the busyness is the building work on the Parish Hall which is exhausting in many ways, not least the fact that I am never quite sure I am going to get there. I am also calming worrying fears.
Part of the busyness is self inflicted as I attempt to get on top of a backlog of paper work.
Part of the busyness is trying to get round some of our people because to be honest this grey weather is crushing. We are seasonal people and that feeling of “always winter and never Christmas” is particularly bad this week.
It’s a funny thing this seasonal thing… we are creatures of our climate and should react to them with the activities we take on.
So let’s have parties in winter, holidays in summer, and cleaning in spring and eating in Autumn.




Oh….. we already do
Funny that, isn’t it?

talents

Nancy was preaching on the parable of the talents the punchline was those who use their talents get more, those who don't get them taken away.
If you do a good job you get more to do.
If you were to do regeneration that way it would be more like the NGO method and less like the british way.
Hmm it makes you think.

Trains

Leaves on the line, stolen cables, that means that trains are half an hour late arriving back allow my wife to say with her eyes: "I told you so..."
She is not a train person but I am!
I like the uncertainty of arrival but the certainty of a warm place to sit.

Ego trip or ego tourist

"I want to write a book"
"Why, there are so many!"
Thus ended my last attempt at producing something to send out to an unsuspecting world!
Consigned in my mind along with the PhD to the file marked "ego trip."

Now I have someone on my shoulder deconstructing that and telling me that my whole Fraser Teal thing has been an ego trip in that it has been about me developing.
"What's wrong with that?"

What is wrong with that? It is a peculiarly british thing that makes personal development a sin...
That says: "Who do you think you are?"
I think I am a child of God,
I know that I am valuable,
I know that I know things,
I know that I want to help others,
I know that I can,
I know that I should...
Write.

I want write a book
I will grow through the process
I might help others grow too.

A flourishing day!

No excuses

Flourish

Joining with 150 plus clergy and miniters from our diocese to learn more about old testament.
In the middle of this the teacher, who was very good, said it was our role as Christians to "Helping others to flourish..."
I like this because it chimes with the Abrahamic idea of blessed so that we might bless.
I think it might be fun if it were a motto for Yorkshire Forward too.

Consultations

Last night's meeting seemed to go well in that we began a conversation about the shape of ministry in our Deanery.
Through various bits of my complex lives I have had chance to think about how things change. Too often we say "let's consult people about this." only to find that what we mean is to tell them about what we think so that they can agree.
Somebody once said that management was a series of conversations that need to be had.
Perhaps rather than consultants we need conversationalists. or even better hosts who arrange the space and the time in which conversations can take place.

Turkeys

Deanery Synod tonight and we have to discuss the possibility of losing stipendiary clergy. Our diocese is in an interesting place, we have more priests than we ever have... But many of them are self supporting, volunteers. They are wonderful people, sacrificially giving up their time to help others.
It sounds like a brilliant idea but volunteers are not so biddable, not so flexible, and can't do funerals on a Monday morning!
So tonight we begin a journey into strange new world. For me as a stipendiary vicar it may well be as one of my colleagues said a case of turkeys voting for christmas.

Remembrance Day

It was remembrance day and so I preached ot hundreds about gettiing angry. I thought you might like to read it.

Anger: Matthew 5:1-12

1When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. 2Then he began to speak, and taught them, saying:
3‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
5Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
6Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
7Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
8Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
9Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
10Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. 12Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.’

Introduction – Red heads of the world unite
I am beginning to get a bit sickened off with all the anti red haired propaganda in the media.There are even anti-ginger web sitesWhat the world doesn’t realize is that red heads are taking over.
Everywhere you go you will see them
So I say: “Red Heads of the World unite you have nothing to lose but your temper!”
I love being a red head because it gives me an excuse to have a bad temper.

But Losing your temper is seen as a really bad thing, getting angry worse but I want to suggest today that getting angry is precisely what God wants us to do.

How we do it and what we do it about is the key thing.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

When you are young like these cubs and scouts people always want to work out what you want to be when you grow up.
Just for a change sometimes I ask adults the same question, you get some very interesting answers.

My Daughter always used to say “Rich and powerful”
Bigger seems to be the best answer

One of the ways to decide is to think about what you love.
If you love football become a footballer.
If you love meetings become a politician.
If you love candles become a vicar, that kind of a thing.

We talk about love as though it’s the only motivator in changing the world.
People even sing, sometimes Love changes everything.
The reality is that love is not always the best motivator.

Much stronger is the question “what makes you angry?”

Unfortunately for most of us it’s random small things.

The pauses on the X-factor
Crazy Frog
Wobbly wheels on supermarket trolleys
St Michael’s Car Park
The Ted Hughes Festival

These are not real anger these are just grumpy and there is a difference.
Grumpy is really a collective whinge…
A whingefest is not going to change the world.

Anger on the other hand might.
Jesus said:
“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”

Angry about what? - Righteousness

Righteousness.

That everything should be put right.

That there should be peace
That there should be justice
That we should be at ease with ourselves.
A rightness in the world.

We live in dangerous times – people are looking for someone to blame not somewhere to find answers
Our times are very like the times between the wars.
Two things came out of the 1930’s
· For some their anger turned to hatred with the rise of Fascism and the hatred of the Jews amongst others and 70 years ago today that angry burned into hatred and on 7th November 1938 exploded in what became known as Kristalnacht…
· For others it lead to the beginnings of the welfare state

Anger is a great motivator if it leads us to want to change the world.

I am a vicar partly because the church made me angry when I was a teenagerI am still trying to change it so that it won’t make me angry!
My dad said that I would grow out of this enthusiastic phase
I am still waiting…
So is he…

Passion will change the world as much as love.
Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spear, oh clouds unfold
Bring me my chariot of fire.
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem On England’s green and pleasant land.

Conclusion

I am moving seamlessly from being an Angry young men to being a Grumpy old man - t-shirt
We were made to be angry but not about trivial stuff.
We were made to be angry when things aren’t right…
When the dead are forgotten and their causes despised.

We were made to be angry so that we would do something about it…
We were made to be angry about the stuff that people do
We were meant to try to change things and then not to hate.

Today we remember those who cared enough, who were angry enough to give up their lives for their friends, for their country, for an idea
Many of them were angry and that motivated them to do something about it.

What are you angry about?

Shouldn’t it be something that is worth getting angry about

Moving from anger to action not Hate

Encounter

I am sitting in the library at Ripon Cathedral enjoying the stillness and finishing of my sermon for tomorrow.
There is a beautiful silence surrounding me like an energetic duvet and I suspect if I allow myself a few minutes more I might even meet with God.
This morning we have had a close encounter with the Chief Constable of West Yorkshire. Amongst the many wise things he said was the need to create casual meeting places and the way in which the church used to be and could create opportunities for this happen. I like the idea of the church as a meeting place in a community.
I guess the most profound meeting that takes place, while meet with each other we also meet with God.

Beware Organising at Work

To Ripon tonight and a gathering of the Bishop’s Council, a select bunch and a kind of think tank for the bishop. Tonight we listened to Martin Wainwright who I think is the Northern Editor of the Guardian who rambled in a very Anglican way around lots of topics throwing out pearls before swine who gobbled them up eagerly.
One thing he said set me thinking, it was about organised religion, which he kind of winced about. “When religions organise then humanity is let into the divine and then it starts to go wrong.”
I wonder if you could have religion without organisation?
Religion is all about the business of organising people’s spiritual lives…
or religion is all about the business of collecting together people who want to express their spirituality in community which involves organisation…
or religion is all about changing the world on the basis of principles which is also involves organisation
Hmmm, whichever way you look at it we end up with an organisation
Perhaps the trick is to acknowledge that, embrace it even , we need to organise, to be organised
Whilst embracing organising we do so with care, knowing that’s where the danger might be.
So perhaps our slogan might be: Organising, handle with care.
It's a bit of a worry because tomorrow we are having a discussion about Transforming Communities and how we might organise it!

Effect and Cause

Went to the interfaith council and discovered that buddhists base everything on cause and effect. If you do X, Y will happen as a result. Many people think this way hence our outrage when bad things happen to good people. It's as though a universal rule has been broken.
I don't think this is the christian view. Grace means that God gives to all good and bad. Good things are not dependent on good deeds.
God is good to many and some repond by worship, by serving, by giving to God because he has given to us.
It's a scandalous idea... Shocking!
"god so loved the world that he gave his son..." what outrageous generosity.
Rather than cause (what we do) leading to effect (what God does), we get effect (what God does) prompting cause (what we do)!

Hmmm

It's the morning after the vision thing and I have to go to Mirfield to meet with the Bishop (again) and Rural Deans for a facilitated discussion. My guess is that whatever we are facilitated to discuss the main topic of conversation may well be last night.
Lasts night's meeting was a bit of a disaster with lots of fundamental errors in organisation... turning a vision sharing exercise into a whinge fest... hmmm!
Today's meeting much better.

Vision

A big problem tonight when twice as many people as expected turn up at a diocesan meeting to hear the bishop outline his vision. Vision is very attractive... it transforms us, we get a sense of direction, or rather a correction in our direction.
The bible is very clever in seeing people as sheep. Communities and people are like sheep. We don't, usually spend our whole lives moving forward. There are patches when we do the business of living... Eating the grass: feeding and growing. There's not much need for vision, a bit of management, making sure we don't overgraze.
Eventually there comes a time when communities develop a sense of unease. The sheep shuffle, become restless, they lift their heads, and look around.
We need a vision not management.
280 people turning up to the bishop's vision suggest that the sheep are shuffling.

waiting

Dad's on the mend and this afternoon after an exhausting funeral laden day I set at his bedside and listen as he tells of the economic rising and falling of his life story. I find it relaxing as with the wisdom of having been there he soothes my anxieties by saying "Have patience, wait and things will come round."
Leaving his bedside I feel better and I am not only ready to wait I am also more able...
Thanks dad... Get well soon.

Evening brings fellowship group and a discussion of a local hymn which seems to fit my discussion with dad.

Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.
Before our Father’s throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.
We share each other’s woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.
When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.
This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.
From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

The Final Frontier

It's been a long day and much of it has been taken up with remembering and honouring the dead.
Death is the last frontier in our society and one which we don't really want to think about let alone speak about.
It's one of our role as priests in society to talk about death: to look death square in the face and somehow to enable others to do the same.
So tonight we gathered with those who had lost people this year, as our liturgy says "the beloved and the bereft" not to seek answers rather not to deny the reality of death.
It's hard, but in so many areas of our national life we are in denial about death, not least the dying parts of our economy and society. In looking into this death we somehow find life, maybe our communities would too.

Dad

Dad's a lot better at least he's in hospital and seems happy that they are getting on with it.
I met with my brother as our two families went to the fireworks spectacle that is the Hebden Bridge Bonfire. Talking about dad we both talked about our surprise that my dad was an old man. When did that happen? For so many years he had seemed to be a constant in our lives, never changing. Now he was changing again, perhaps we need to change too. Sometime soon I will ask him what we need to change into.
It's our all saints service tomorrow, I will light a candle for one old saint who is dear to my heart.