A hard day as I try to organise the Carol Service, which is difficult because it seems so far away. The snow on the hills is an inspiration making the whole place look like a Christmas Card.
Tonight the reality of council and back to reality as I find myself in a weak distracted moment voting for a tatoo parlour! It is in Hebden so I suppose it's all right.
I can see the headline in the Bridge Times: "vicar votes for tatoo parlour - shock horror."
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
Today it snowed!
But because this is Mytholmroyd it disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.
So no sledging, only sludging and the children and my wife had to go to school.
Somebody said to me rather disheartedly as we walked like penguins along the road:
“We don’t do snow here, really do we?”
In all senses of her words she was correct…
more’s the pity.
I'm not sure which season Yorkshire does do, probably Autumn.
But because this is Mytholmroyd it disappeared almost as soon as it appeared.
So no sledging, only sludging and the children and my wife had to go to school.
Somebody said to me rather disheartedly as we walked like penguins along the road:
“We don’t do snow here, really do we?”
In all senses of her words she was correct…
more’s the pity.
I'm not sure which season Yorkshire does do, probably Autumn.
Monday, 1 December 2008
When it comes to the crunch
So it's now monday and as usual I have just been into Calder High to do Crunch.
Crunch like many things I do is a bit eccentric. Begun ten years ago when the then Head of the High School was concerned about the christian children at the school asked us to set up a group to support them. Every Monday lunchtime we went into Calder High to meet Christian School kids and their friends. It didn't take long until the Christian children stopped coming but their friends didn't stop coming.
Today a dozen or so children gather to talk about life, the universe and everything and every monday have lunch with the vicar and his friends!
Things never quite turn out how we plan...
Sometimes they're better!
Crunch like many things I do is a bit eccentric. Begun ten years ago when the then Head of the High School was concerned about the christian children at the school asked us to set up a group to support them. Every Monday lunchtime we went into Calder High to meet Christian School kids and their friends. It didn't take long until the Christian children stopped coming but their friends didn't stop coming.
Today a dozen or so children gather to talk about life, the universe and everything and every monday have lunch with the vicar and his friends!
Things never quite turn out how we plan...
Sometimes they're better!
Sunday, 30 November 2008
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.
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.
Saturday, 29 November 2008
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.
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.
Friday, 28 November 2008
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...
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...
Thursday, 27 November 2008
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!
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!
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