Men

Catherine was away for a christian women's conference today in Harrogate. One of the men said to me yesterday "perhaps we should have organised something for the men?" Everybody agreed but then we all smiled knowing full well it wouldn't happen.
Not sure why men are so bad at building friendships but it must be something to do with our lack of enthusiasm for organising them.
Maybe when we create our new square it will give us an excuse to get together...
No, I am not convinced either.

water

We are having water problems as the pipes burst and the nice big hole that is waiting for our concrete foundations transforms itself into an outdoor swimming pool... Again. It's the fourth time this week and it's starting to get a bit scary for finishing at the end of March.
I can't remember who said that what affected politics most was events but the same goes for projects as well.
It is impossible to plan for crises but the best teams, and ours is pretty good rise to the occasion.

The word is that we can pour the concrete this week...

Sunday

Today has been a funny day... Sunday's usually are.
Church found us finally back in the church after our waterworks crisis which is still not completely over.
Then lunch with a lovely couple to discuss their marriage,they seem really happy and as friends it's nice to see them grow in love.
Then on to the end of a lady's 52 year marriage with her husband's death.
I am always amazed to hear people's work path.
Navy at 17 leaving Mytholmroyd for the tail end of war with Japan.
Metropolitan police at 22 where he had to grow a moustache because he looked too young.
At 24 he was sent to a convalescent home to recover from TB he had contracted from tramps and "other low life."
At 26 and with only.one lung he was sent back north "back to his native air" on doctor's recommendation.
At 27 he trained as a bookeeper, going on to be the finance director of a local large firm.
I wonder what some of our local finance sector would make of this man's ability to switch career.
I wonder what I would have done with his disabilities.
His final act of generosity was to leave his body to science... We need a few more like him.

crunched

After the trauma of yesterday's funeral a day out today to Hull to do a risk assessment for my wife's school visit to the Deep. The Deep is a regeneration project and a very beautiful modern building.
As a project it appears to be a great success as they were queuing around the car park.
We decided to go to the café and shop as it would have cost us £27 for three of us! But still it was very good!
On the way back we called into Beverley... A proper market town although a little credit crunched. so shut woolworths, shut viyella and numeerous other chains shut.
It made me glad that Hebden Bridge has independent shops.

sitting on the porch waiting for spring

I am sat outside someone's house having arrived early for a meeting. It's been a tough week, although it shouldn't be as it's half term and technically quieter. It's preparing for my aunt's funeral that is really taking it out of me.
I have just come away from a meeting of Royd Regeneration one of the companies I am invovled in. It has been mostly good news tonight or at least glimmers of hope.
It feels very spring like as I listen to the bell ringers practising and the sound of returning geese flying by.
It feels very spring like as projects start to grow.
We are ready for a change.

Faith Led Regeneration Honoured by Prime Ministerial Visit

The news is full of the third sector as the government promises to give more money to help with the recession hit charities. On the governments website there is a lovely video from Bromley by Bow centre at which the initiative is announced in the following way:
Liam Byrne, Minister for the Cabinet Office, said:
“We’ve doubled government help to charities, voluntary group and social enterprises from £5.5 billion to over £11 billion. That means these vital groups face the downturn with unprecedented strength.
“The best of the British spirit is the way we pull together when times are tough. And its Britain’s charities, voluntary groups and social enterprises that so often make that happen.
“We’ve been monitoring daily what’s happening to donations and demands for new services, and with incredible support from the sector we’re launching a lazer-targeted package of help with tens of millions extra for charities providing employment advice, mental health and family support services in the most deprived areas of England and Wales, plus millions extra to help those out of work start volunteering.”
“Britain can beat this downturn. Just like we’ve beaten everything else this world has thrown at us in the decades gone by. But we’ll win by pulling together. Not by facing the storm alone”.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/third_sector/news/news_stories/090209_real_help.aspx

It’s a lovely promise, but what a shame that at no point is it mentioned in any new report that Bromley By Bowe is a faith led community enterprise, set up by United Reformed Minister Andrew Mawson, now Lord Mawson. The contribution of faith to regeneration once again lost in the phrase Third Sector.
I spotted Lord Mawson in the back of the photos, smiling I think at yet another government initiative launched at Bromley by Bowe and ignoring its principals and origin.
Does it matter?
Probably not, but it would be a tremendous encouragement to those of us who have glimpsed a vision of Faith led Renaissance and started to build if we had a star to look at.

My last night in York and 15000 words are the cause of a celebratory visit to evensong and Bettys where the pianist plays New York, New York with no irony as the snow falls. It has been another great adventure and like all the rest it has taught me something about me.
I like writing. It might be rubbish but it's my rubbish!
I met with Margi who is a proper writer and a proper friend, the kind who knows you better than you do.
"Go home and forget it for two weeks " she advises.
David my learning mentor wants to look at it but it's my newborn baby and it doesn't know how to walk yet. Besides I don't have his e-mail with me. So for now it is mine only and for now my audience is found, my audience is me!

TLA'S

A day out today to touch base with Yorkshire Forward and Regeneration at a conference which was held five minutes walk from the Nunnery. Two hundred people involved in town teams throughout Yorkshire. Common themes throughout Yorkshire are the need for practical support, and some help in talking to local authorities who are over fond of TLA'S.





Three letter acronyms!

The plot thickens

Turns out the agatha Christie character I met earlier is in fact Sister Agatha! Tonight she helped me find a warmer sitting room and a more comfortable toilet. You don't get this kind of service at a travel lodge.

Murder Mystery

Is it a sign of the times or the time that for the first time ever I have just walked into Bettys for a cup of coffee and a cake as a reward for another thousand words this morning. Bettys always has a queue, it's part of the experience. I'm not sure I like this lightening service...
Bar Convent is proving to be an ideal place to work although I am not sure why. The room I am in has a kind of benign sensory deprivation as I sit on the bed and work on the "bigger" table man handled into the room last night by probably the poshest housekeeper I have ever met. She had a wonderful Agatha Christie Miss Marple Quality that makes me feel I might be the silent witness in some evolving mystery. Who are the Koreans they are having "so much trouble with" are they beginning to disappear or is it just my imagination... and the biggest mystery of all: where have all the customers in the queue at Bettys gone?
Now you know why I came out for a walk!

Wrong turn, write place

The day began with a flurry of activity as Sunday usually does. More flurry this time as once again we are in the hall. It was very jolly as it turned out and I felt lifted by being surrounded by this fine beautiful group of people. I hardly had time to recover, no snooze today, before it's on the train to snowy York.
Due to a fault of my map reading, I turned right not left I went round in a circle to the Bar Convent, taking twenty five minutes to get to the convent. I arrived looking like a snowman, and dripped my way into the hospiality of the convent which wrapped me like a great blanket.
Two hours later I am ready for bed and, with 500 words already, ready to write.

Surprises

Life has it's surprises. Death has them too.
Yesterday morning my Aunty Babs was crossing the road when a driver bumped into her, a low impact, which normally would have led to a paiful time in hospital...
But as she fell... She banged her head so it was to ICU she went. Like the man I had visited before, as I visited her last night she would come round soon.
This morning they switched off her life support and she died.
Shock doesn't express how I feel... Derailed is more like it. In the midst of life there it is... A reminder that 'we are but grass, the wind blows over it and it is gone and its place remembers it no more. But the merciful goodness of the Lord endures.'
I will miss my Aunty Babs.

Audience

I am on the train to Leeds and the snow is beautiful. It's been a frantic morning with Angels crammed into the church café for warmth. It was very jolly as we sang: " the wise man built his house on the rock and the foolish man built his house on snow." Contextual bible translation!
In a amongst a site meeting is happening in a cold vast hall with the red glow of the psychological heaters... It's a bit fraught but we are getting there as is my train which makes speedy progree to a meeting Rhona at Yorkshire Forward.
I am hoping to clear up what or rather to whom I am writing. Knowing your audience is meant to be the key question when you write... But I have at least three groups in mind: people of faith, people in regeneration, politicians, and of course I am probably writing for my mum!
Whatever, I know I ned to get it out of my system and the energy of that itch that must be scratched will I hope make it happen.

Conversations

Spent two hours today talking to someone from the diocese about Fraser Teal, my sabbatical. It was helpful as when you explain to someone else you kind of explain to yourself.
I now understand that I have had three life changing people encounters: Sheikh Noah in Yemen, Lyn Arnold in Australia and John Arnold in Michigan.
I have also realised I have three "big ideas" Partnership, planning through, and building capacity. Other issues include the origins of the loss of Confidence in UK faith communities. Suspicion by district councils of churches. Theological reasons for engagement.
There is more ! But I need a few more conversations!

Changed

I am sat watching a program about comic relief that is talking about how sending actors to places throughout the world has changed their life.
It resonates with the many experiences I have had this last year.
The goodness I have seen in the lives of faithful people.
The tremendous hospitality of ordinary people.
The tremendous uselessness of what passes for government in a lot of places
And the inadequacy of what we are doing here, right now.
And also the tremendous stuff done by a few
And the bright possibilities of changing the world beginning with Mytholmroyd.
Hmmn, still haven’t got it out of my system.

Scary

I have just done a scary thing.
It wasn’t going for a walk with Catherine in the snow in the dark that was quite delightful actually. It was fun to watch the snow flakes chasing each other around the lamposts adn to slide along in your wellies and boots.
No the scary thing was booking some time away from the parish to write. Next week I am going to spend Sunday to Friday in York working on my publication. It’s a big leap of faith for me in so many ways… almost as much at the trips abroad.
The thing is that after this amazing year I am a sponge full of stuff that I hope could help others and which if I don’t get it out of my system I will always regret. So I am going to Bar Convent and I hope I can work.
But I don't know if I can become a writing machine.
Every walk of a thousand miles…
Every work of a thousand pages (?) begins with just one word…

Any how one things for certain it will answer once and for all the nagging question in many people's minds adn in mine lately:
Could I,
should I
write?

Older Generation

Sunday and we are decamped into the hall which has large space heater halogen lamps provided by our builders. They emit a warm orange glow, which is meant to make you warm... By the end of the service nobody is quite sure if the warming effect is psychological or real. I discover three old ladies and an elderly gentlenan sat in the coldest part of the building giggling over their cups of tea.
"Why don't you come into the warmth?"
"We went through the war."
As I walk away laughing I hear them laughing back... "young people today, no stamina!"