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.