Democracy Matters

To Huddersfield to hear David Steele, a great old political warhorse. "Education is the key to propper democracy" being one of his key themes. Each country has to find it's own way of doing democracy. It made me think about Yemen and whether there could be a tribal way of doing democracy... In this country real democracy could do with being as localised as possible. Where town villages and cites still have meaning and force in people's lives then they should be the places where decisions are made.
As we become a less mobile population we might need to return to the concept of the parish.
Top quote for the evening belongs to Harold Wilson in whose name the lecture took place.
“He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery.”

Benchmark

A weeks holiday in Cornwall and it's back to work with a bump and flurry of activity centred on the hall project.
The square is beginning to take place and I am currently sat on one of the new benches in the sunshine drinking ginger beer and wondering if life gets any better.
This morning we have been with the finance people from Yorkshire Forward thinking we may need to do the hard sell on what remains of the project... As it turns out unnecessarily as it turns out what has so far been achieved sells itself.
The next big task, as well as finishing is to learn how to make this work. Like people moving from a pushbike to a Ferrari it's going to be hard to raise our game, but our journey so far encourages me to be hopeful.

An Inconvenient Truth

Holy Week is never easy for christians , not for what you might expect although it is a month of Sundays.
Okay a week of Sundays!
Rather because it makes us face up to two aweful truths, our sin and what it cost Jesus to deal with it.
What's hard for me is not so much the dying but the suffering of Jesus...
It goes on and on like a car crash in slow motion with us helpless spectator.
It's Friday but Sundays coming!

Code of Silence

I am destined to blog while waiting... Today I am in Nathan's barbers with a queue of seven slighlty reluctant men. There's no coffee, no flowers just a slightly foggy goldfish bowl and a rare collection of car magasines.
We sit in silence and try not to catch one another's eye. Forty minutes have passed already and nobody has yet to break the code of silence.
My phone goes and I have to answer... Catherine is in a café but I am holding my ground.

leaving

Much rejoicing and hard work today as we move my son and his wife out of our house into their new home. It's very exciting as dismantle a balcony and bring a sofa in through the window... Risk assessments were made but so long as it was me up a ladder the removal men were happy!
A first home, even a rented one is an important step, and although they have done this once already to their flat in London the house seems especially exciting.
Makes me think about the numerous people for whom the crunch means this is an impossible dream.
The bible has no formula for a wedding but that someone leaves their family and cleaves to their wife.
Today feels like a proper leaving and a lovely thing too!

Finished

My thoughts in yesterday's blog became this magasine article today.
Wh oknows what they might become next!

Out of the Ordinary – Finished!
I wish I had a pound for every time someone asked me when the work at Mytholmroyd would be finished. It sounds such an easy question but it is actually very hard to answer. Of course with any building projects you have deadlines and builder’s promises but it is never an exact science. If I had another five pound for every time someone asked me if or when we were going to start work on the church in Cragg Vale I would be very rich indeed. The answer to both is that I don’t know, but also in a way I am not that bothered.
Generally speaking I don’t like finishing things, preferring the ongoing story rather than the complete one. I think that’s why when it comes to novels I like to read ones that are part of a series, so that after you have invested a great deal of effort in getting to know a character you are able to continue the relationship in the next book. My son, an avid reader, is always really sad when he finishes a book that he won’t continue the friendship with the characters he has met. Maybe that’s the attraction of soap operas, we never have to say goodbye.
It’s the run up to Easter and one thing has struck me this year about the words of Jesus on the cross. At the very end he says: “It is finished” and then he dies. Scholars have debated for ages about what he meant. The obvious understanding would be that his life is finished. However he doesn’t say “I am finished!” but “it is finished.” The consensus now is that Jesus was saying that he has finished the job he came to do.
Earlier in John’s Gospel we read the very familiar words that outline Jesus’ mission: “
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:16-17 (KJV)
Jesus came to save the world and the cross was the means by which he did it. Somehow he took the punishment, which because of our sin was meant to be ours, on himself: replacing us at the last minute because of his love.
Like all the best stories although the work was done the story continued with the resurrection. The work and the story continue in us as we find our way to Jesus and experience that new life for ourselves.
“It is finished!” the last words of the story of our salvation but not the last words of our relationship with God through Jesus.
I hope that you find you place in God’s story this Easter time and that you remain, like me, a work in progress.

finishing

It's been a while since I sat still as day molded into night into sleep and back again.
I am sat in a café waiting for Catherine to finish work so that I can take her home. We are down to one car which takes some organising. It's been an interesting morning with a small group of Rural Deans who on the whole are a positive bunch but like everyone else are capable of joining the chorus of "Nobody knows the trouble I see."
The first draft of the book is printed and there for anyone to see. I haven't had the courage to show it to anyone yet though I have pointed at it!
Finishing things is hard...
Everything except blogs!