Consultation

I have had a cough/cold now for over a week and so I am still punctuating everything I say with a… cough.  It’s half term which give me opportunity to catch up on a few missed days off. 

There was quite a bit of discussion this morning at church about the three sculptures that have been submitted for the square.  Two are a bit phallic and one is a bit boring seemed to be the verdict but they haven’t seen the full set of documents yet nor met the sculptors so hopefully there’s time yet.  The biggest criticism is that they are not very Christian or more precisely they are not explicit enough in their symbolism.

This is a hard one… is St Paul’s Cathedral explicitly Christian?  A church tower, a spire a Celtic cross which many claim is pagan in origin.

“We don’t want to have to explain it to people” someone said.

It’s going to be an interesting few weeks as we “consult” which is the latest euphemism for having a friendly row!

Doing our best

It has been a week of meetings trying to hold everything together.
It takes a lot of energy to do this. Much of this work would be greatly helped by everyone involved assuming that everyone else involved was actually trying to do their best.
We are trained to be suspicious of each other by the media, by our culture, and sadly by our experience of being let down. It's part of the Christian discipline to forgive and begin again and one which I will continue to have to practice.

Niggles

A niggly kind of day...
The heating is off for its summer holiday and those who have cast a clout even though May is not out are complaining at the cold in church.
"why are there not double sinks in the kitchen?"
"because we have a dishwasher."
This is afternoon things improve with youth group spending a cheerful couple of hours planning a prayer space upstairs in the new hall.
Then off to visit my son Ben in hospital, a bit sore and a lot miserable at a post operative infection raging through his body. At the end of the visit he is able to walk us to the lift and give us big hugs. Once again I am struck by the way in which the sick care for the well.
Now I am back at church enjoying a concert by really good amateurs and reflecting on the beauty of the church and valuing space and stillness in a mad busy day.
I have just won a coffee cake in a raffle, life is improving!