Let's not speak about calling in the singular

When people ask me about my calling, it seems almost always assumed to be "a priest". But I'll let you into a secret: that's not how it looks and feels to me. I think that I (and everyone else) have several callings. Some of mine add up to being a priest, some of them add up to being in the Church of England, some of them add up to being a chaplain and some of them add up to being involved in higher education . Oh, and some of them add up to being a spouse and a parent. And they all intersect in changing constellations. Some of them feel more fundamental than others and some of them seem to be capable of being expressed in different ways according to circumstances. I'm a chaplain in higher education because more than sensing myself to be drawn to preach, teach, minister sacraments and help people discern God in their sometimes messy lives, I can't shake the conviction that the church needs people like chaplains to counterweight its own tendency to become a world in itself -rather than becoming itself in the world. Chaplains work as public representatives of the churches on that worldly interface beyond where church normally publicly reaches.I had felt drawn to HE chaplaincy for ages but thought lack of opportunity meant I was a mistaken until a hefty push from circumstances and especially others' discernment shoved me out of parish ministry into the local university. And I thrived! My intellectual curiosity, inner-drive towards secular workplace issues, and disposition to improvise missionally, make higher education chaplaincy a good place to be, for me. But beyond feeling drawn, I had to experience it to see the fit.The combination of inner conviction, self-awareness and the insights of those around me coalesce and re-coalesce in me to convey the voice of God in the context of living with the Scriptures and the prayer of the church (I think that the Holy Spirit hovers over all those waters).It should be said, though, that I could imagine my sense of vocations (note the plural) being worked out in different contexts. (Perhaps this other blog post might help explain a bit further: http://nouslife.blogspot.co.uk/2009/12/priesthood-ontological-change.html). Other situations and circumstances would change which vocations came to the fore and which were most usually expressed, but they'd all be there acting as stars to steer by or prompts to pay attention. So, discernment did not end with ordination: weaving together the various strands of calling as a human being, as a Christian, as a member of several families, as someone with various God-given gifts and interests is still one the main tasks I find surfacing as a talk with my spiritual accompanist and my nearest and dearest.

Vocation to ordination plus ...

I was very clear in my very late teens when 'what are you going to do after university?' was becoming a pressing question that the ministry of the whole people of God in the world is the primary church-related vocation: redemptively related to the human vocation to tend and till and to 'surprise' God with how we name the creatures making culture along the way. That's how I express it now, btw, not then!So while I first looked to live out a Christian commitment in secular life, I became aware of an inner nudging towards helping God's people to be equipped to live God's mission in the world. So I thought "being a Reader?" ... but the nudging seemed to have presiding at communion in it. So, "non-stipendiary ordained ministry then?" You see, I couldn't really shake that sense of ministry pressed close into the 'secular' world. I decided it was easiest to go for a conventional route to ordination (as I didn't have a career at that point) with a view to revisiting that 'in the world' issue further down the line. You may, rightly see in that brief description (and, oh, so many questions it begs!) how being a chaplain might be a good way to be a priest pressed up against the secular.Of course, I could have been kidding myself about that 'inner nudge' and I knew that. So I didn't act on it without much thought and chatting things over informally with friends and more formally with people like chaplains and other clergy. Because they seemed to discern in me things that confirmed that inner nudge, I kept on with the process of enquiry as the CofE then had it. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed to make sense of the person I felt I was becoming. I sensed then and now more-or-less know that God speaks to me most in these growing inner convictions which are sensed by those around me. Clearly, that's not a quick process.

x

Mooring rusted

Which is better? This photo or the one on the previous post?

Mooring

 This is on Cuthbert's Isle, Lindisfarne.

What to do with your name after marriage? Why, blend.

Going through the usual options (choose one, keep both, hyphenise) this article sets out the conversation highlights on this matter so far: What to do with your name after marriage – a great post-wedding game | Frances Ryan | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk. It does miss one: some friends of ours chose a new hyphenated surname based on their family histories rather than their birth-certificate surnames. However, the real aim of the article is to set the scene for ....

the newest marital name trend has ensured the long search for a solution is over. Couples are now "meshing": blending the key syllables of both of their surnames to form a brand new sparkling one.

I like it. In our case, that could make us Reynbows. Yep; that sits well with me.

A favourite album: Graceland

I had a sense of happy congruence when I saw this article. My favourite album: Graceland by Paul Simon | Music | guardian.co.uk. I find that there are probably only a handful of albums that I keep coming back to. One of them is Pink Floyd's Dark side of the Moon and another is their Wish you were Here. However, one of the other front runners for my all-time best is Graceland and for reasons pretty similar to this writer's, for example: "First those indelible, idiosyncratic lyrics that you just can't help singing along to. Have you heard a finer insult than 'roly-poly little bat-faced girl'? Was there ever a more brilliant union of west coast vibes with east coast urbanity than in the rhyming of 'sunlight' with 'Fulbright'? For some reason the tongue-tripping 'incidents and accidents, hints and allegations' always makes me think, rhythmically at least, of TS Eliot's 'decisions and revisions/ That a minute will reverse', only Simon's words, of course, are a lot more fun to sing."
Like her, the eclectic blend of Western folk and rock with Township Jive produces a sound that really, to my ears, does not age. It's a very clever album lyrically and musically with a real joie de vivre. If you have never listened to it, give it a go.

Transitioning back to reality after holiday

This is the time of year to consider this, though it may be too late for some to take this piece of advice: "Take an extra day before heading back to work. I like to think of this spare day as the vacation from my vacation. It’s the day to get reacquainted with your routines."
If it is too late (and that's a life-tactic we discovered for ourselves a few years back -in fact we try to take a couple of days if possible), then at least this other piece of wise counsel may be helpful: "Give yourself a free day the following weekend. Playing catch-up with your life can be exhausting, so take a weekend day to sleep in, leisurely drink a cup of coffee, catch up on items around the house, or do nothing at all. If you have kids, this applies to them, too."
And how about this: "Arrive an hour early to work. You’ll want to get a solid footing on your day before you’re bombarded by co-workers asking about your trip and giving you more things to do."

Now I'm wondering whether anyone has any other useful advice to add?

Transitioning back to reality after vacation | Unclutterer

We prayed, I started ...

Since we finished later on Thursday evening and I had to get up early to come to college in Nottingham, I didn't really get much chance until about now to note here that the service for the inauguration of my ministry at Northumbria University had taken place and, I think, went off well. The liturgy is below. I'd like to specially recognise the contribution of members of the university choir and of the girls' choir from the cathedral: it's a difficult occasion to plan for singing because of the variety of people present, so having a good musical lead (and they were) is really helpful.

There were several things that I wanted the liturgy to achieve humanly: to engage those of Christian faith in prayer for the chaplaincy; to recognise and engage some significant partners (the VC's office, the 'department' chaplaincy works out of, the students' union, local churches); to involve my colleagues in leading the liturgy; to begin my own ministry formally by leading us all in prayer for the university; to use embodied symbolism.

In leading the prayers I started with the university statement of values and wove those into prayers relating to the areas represented by those who gave official welcomes at the event. (I haven't got the copy of the prayers with me here; I'll blog them when I have the digital copy to hand). Having asked the welcomers to bring a symbolic object, these were laid on the table at the centre with each welcome. Then when I led the prayers I picked each symbol up and placed it, as I prayed, in the centre of the three candles we started the service by lighting -on top of my licence. I had made my statutory declarations and affirmations before a small party of witnesses earlier.

Set up: Rutherford Hall. Layout: table central surrounded on four sides by seats. Three candles in centre of table.

Gathering and opening

Candle lighting: (based on Iona ceremony) Three chaplains; a line each, as a candle is lit with each line.

• A Light in the name of God; author of all being, who lights the world with Life
• A light in the name of God the eternally begotten, who invests the world with grace
• A light in the name of God the Go-Between who energises all with God-ward-ness
• [together] Three lights in honour of God in whose three-fold friendship we now gather.

Greeting and Welcome: Bishop Frank White

§ O God beyond all praising (tune: Thaxted) [This was chosen because it is a well known and stirring tune by Elgar (?) -used for 'I vow to Thee my country' and suitable for starting. I also wanted to show that the tune could have other words!]

O God beyond all praising,
we worship you today ...

(Words: Michael Perry (1942-1996);
© by Jubilate Hymns, Ltd. )

Futher welcome and context setting: Chris Dalliston

Ministry of the word

Reading(s): (chaplains);

• Acts 11: 19-26
• John 15: 12-17

address: Bp Frank White [He made connections between Rutherford after whom the building we were meeting in was named, and the readings. Rutherford was the founder of what became Northumbria University]

Welcomes, declarations and prayers.

declarations:

... Therefore I now ask: Andii, do you believe that you have been called by God to work as Chaplain in this University?

Chaplain I do.

Bishop The charge of Chaplains is to work with staff and students of all faiths, beliefs and value-systems and to be available to offer pastoral and spiritual care. The Christian Chaplains work together with people in the University to discover God’s purpose for themselves and for the University as an institution. The co-ordinating chaplain is to be fully involved in the life of the University, and to seek the flourishing of life and diverse community in the University. Andii, mindful of this charge, will you commit yourself to serve the community of staff and students in this University of Northumbria?

Chaplain I will.

Bishop reads out the license and presents it

Bishop The University Chaplaincy is a Local Ecumenical Partnership, created by the University and the Churches of this Region as a sign and a symbol of our commitment to one another. Will you commit yourself to working ecumenically with all the Chaplains, and on behalf of the Chaplaincy, supporting and contributing to the activities of the Chaplaincy team, and working together also with representatives of other faiths for the peace and welfare of the University as a whole?

Chaplain I will.

Bishop As Co-ordinator of the Chaplaincy Team you have responsibilities to the University. Will you, on behalf of the University Chaplaincy, undertake to be involved appropriately in the structures and management of this University?

Chaplain I will

Bishop And I invite the other Chaplains of the University to support Andii: will you offer support to him in his ministry.

Chaplains We will.

Bishop Let’s reflect in a moment’s quiet. ... [and he did leave a good long, but not too long pause]

In light and in darkness, in joy and in pain, in clarity and in confusion, may the Lord sustain you. May you be humble and just, steadfast and true, serving Christ and all people in righteousness, in holiness and in peace; and the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and remain with you always.

Amen.

Welcomes: VC, SU, LAG, and others, each with a few words of welcome lay an object on the table

Reading from TS Eliot [originally the Buddhist chaplain had hoped to read this, but she was ill, and so the Anglican chaplain to Newcastle University, Catherine Lack, stepped in and read the excerpt from the Rock from her own copy of the volume]

The endless cycle of idea and action,
Endless invention, endless experiment,
Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness;
Knowledge of speech, but not of silence;
[Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word.]
All our knowledge brings us nearer to our ignorance,
All our ignorance brings us nearer to death,
[But nearness to death no nearer to GOD.]
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

Prayers: Andii

§ O Lord hear my prayer: -music led by choir,

O Lord, hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer,

When I call, answer me.

O Lord, hear my prayer, O Lord hear my prayer,

Come, and listen to me.

Andii to lead petitions based on welcomes and declarations, gathering objects or visiting objects on the table.

Closing.

§ Rutter -The Lord Bless you …. ; Choir.

Dismissal: Bp Frank White

Nouslife: Ora pro me; 9 June

Ora pro me; 9 June

Although I'm starting work on 1 June (though having a few days out for moving stuff and doing a few finishing things at St John's during June and July), my formal inauguration of ministry (as Chaplain and faith advisor to Northumbria University) is not until Thursday 9 June. It is booked to take place from 6 in the Chaplaincy (Wynne Jones Building) with drinks and nibbles moving at 7pm to the Rutherford Hall (just 10 metres from Wynne Jones) for the ceremony followed there by further refreshments. If you can be there, I'd love you to come; just let me know so I can make sure that the refreshments, and set-up organisation is all that we might hope!

I'd love it if you could pray for me about this new beginning and for us as a family as we adjust to new circumstances and possibilities. In your holding us before God please consider Tracy as she seeks a right way forward in her ministry and vocation and for our children, Jo, Ben and Bex who each in their own ways are making significant transitions this summer (Jo seeking employment after his MA studies; Ben graduates and will be seeking business in graphic design; Bex continues at University into her final year and will be preparing both for marriage and post-graduate study).

I think that this may be the first time I have ever mentioned by name all of my immediate family on this blog. Since they are all now over 18 and have their own web footprint, I guess it may be about time!

infostripe

This looks like a pontentially useful little service. the basis for a e-business card. It even automatically generates a QR code. It can also be pressed into service for events. So, as you can see, I've been playing with it in terms of the job I move to on June 1st.
Andii Bowsher (andii) on infostripe

Better typing on touch-screen phones

I've only been using it about 5 days but already I'm moved to recommend this. and this is why:
"MessagEase has fewer, larger keys. With it you enter most frequent characters with a tap on relatively large key. Less frequent characters are entered with a drag or slide. The position and relative location of each letter and character is calculated based on letter frequency and letter-pair frequency, so that your finger\s movement is minimize, and therefore your text entry speed is maximized."
It really doesn't take long to learn, and there is a handy wee app that helps 'train' you in a bit of a gamey way. I reckon I've probably spent no more than an hour playing the learning game and already my input rate is up compared to the keyboard that came with the Android OS. It's basically because it's ergonomically designed. All you need to do really is get the most frequent characters into your motor memory.

I do have a bit of history with keyboards to confess. I few years ago, when I had a bit of time on my hands I taught myself to touch-type using a computer programme (well, actually, an internet site). However, because I also had moments of concern about typing-related RSI, I learnt to use the Dvorak layout because that is ergonomically designed (unlike the qwerty set-up which was, reputedly, designed to slow typists down to avoid key-arm snarl ups). Most OSs now have Dvorak key maps in the settings and if you've learnt to touch type, it doesn't matter that the letters on the keys don't match with the letter that goes on the screen. Oh, and my RSI is a lot better :)
MessagEase - A killer app keyboard for iPhones, gPhones, PDAs, Tablet PCs, and other touch screen devices:

10:10

I've already been doing many of the things that are involved in cutting my carbon emissions, so before signing up I need to find out whether there are further things I can do, but if you haven't really started on this, well, can I ask you to consider starting now with this? (Ideas to help on the site here). 10:10: "By committing to cut your emissions by 10% in 2010, you will join thousands of individuals, schools, hospitals, businesses and organisations all actively helping to combat climate change by making simple changes to their lifestyles, homes and workplaces. More importantly, your voice will help to put pressure on the politicians to cut Britain’s emissions as quickly as the science demands. If we in the UK can prove that fast, deep cuts can be made at a national level, then we may just inspire all the other big polluting countries to follow suit."

Glogster shows my holiday

Well some of it. Experimenting with a visual scrap-booky sort of blog tool and some phone-camera pix I took in Berwick on Tweed ...

Making rules of life

Had a nice wee airmail letter in my pigeon-hole this morning: a letter from Canada from the publishers of 'Seasons of the Spirit' -a RCL congregational learning package. Last year they asked me for permission to reproduce as part of their learning materials a piece from Praying the Pattern on making rules of life. The letter contained a copy of the relevant page which relates to March 15-21 in this year's materials for Lent and Easter. Nice to see it there. They've made a good choice of excerpt; it even manages to look intelligent and vaguely useful!

It made me realise that I want to be able to get some time before long to convert the book into an e-format and also to release a book/document of updating Lord's prayer shaped liturgies for daily use. A lot of the stuff is already there (particularly as I now have some forms of compline/night prayer to use), but the time to do it is looking like it has receded to June or July what with marking, report-writing and teaching ...
Links for Lent Easter 2009

An Anglican among Quakers

Last weekend I was attending a course at the Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Selly Oak, Birmingham. The course was called “Practicing Discernment”. It was aimed, it seemed to me, at helping those who are in the process of taking more leadership responsibilities in Quaker meetings to be able to co-operate with and 'manage' where necessary processes of corporate discernment in meetings.

There are many things a simple 44-hour conference gave me to reflect on as an Anglican. I came having met Quakers as individuals and having attending one meeting for worship many years ago. I had also read a few books on early Quaker history, again many years ago and picked up some bits and bobs of terminology from reading Richard Foster. The headings which follow are an attempt to capture some of the most apparently immediate areas that seemed to clamour for reflection.

Weight
'Weight' was the word one of the participants used in the first hour and in personal conversation over the evening meal to characterise their perception of my Anglican background: I was asked how I felt at carrying all the weight of (I took it) tradition and history. The contrast offered was with the lightness or freedom of the Quaker tradition. Part of my reaction, after a pause for thought, was to say that I thought that 'weight' was a loaded term and that it didn't feel to me like a burden, necessarily, but I offered the metaphor, instead, of mental geography: it is a place to live and provides landmarks to orientate myself. On further reflection, I wonder whether this is quite a fruitful metaphor that could head towards being a model: it could frame some of the Quaker tradition as being East Anglia or the Moors: less features but with big skies? Be interesting to know how Quakers might react to that.

A handful of times in the course of the weekend I was to rub up against perceptions of my traditions which both surprised and didn't surprise me. Surprise came from my own assumption that Quakers at such events would be less cumbered with preconceptions of such as myself, but I was unsurprised because, of course, everyone has such preconceptions and their own histories which often include reaction against the kinds of things my own tradition is taken to stand for or embody (and, ironically, is often seeking to distance itself from!) And of course I have them too: viewpoints which have emerged from a time of struggle and rethinking and which carry the weight of my own sense of relief or new-found freedom or even healing.
The dark side of that sense of resolution can often be a degree of hostility or a disrespectful desire to convert the other. That is not to say all desires to change others' minds is disrespectful, merely that it can be be carried out is more or less respectful ways. Naturally, therefore, things at the weekend were hardest for me was when there was that unresolved personal animus which came out is slightly combative terms. It was not always 'against' Anglicanism, sometimes it was degrees of anger and frustrations with Evangelicals and sometimes an assurance that Quakers were right about some things in a way that would have been problematic for them had things been the other way round. Again, nothing new in that: we all do it. It was interesting to find it here too.

Liturgy and Habitus
Some of the 'weight' of tradition that others might perceive, I think, would be about liturgy. The perception would be that Anglicans have it while Quakers don't; they just wait for inspiration (or inSpiration). This is of course a first-thought kind of view but in a context where there is little to force reflection, it is perhaps not surprising that a narrow, common, definition for 'liturgy' is held by many and the usual neglect thereby of the actual fact of liturgy in meetings is in evidence. Coming in as an outsider with a definition of liturgy as something like 'the means by which a group of people structure their common relationship with God and with each other in space and in time', I found liturgy. Sometimes I noticed it because I didn't know what others took for granted, sometimes I noticed it because I was looking for it knowing that human social behaviour has to be rule-governed or to evolve rules to govern it in order that we can operate corporately without everything grinding to a halt while we decide how to do the little and frequent things together each time.

So, elements of Quaker liturgy I noticed were: markers of starting the meeting, phrases used in sharing (“Friends”) even for some the tone of voice used for talking in a meeting was different. Body posture seemed to be related to the kind of chairs (probably a chicken or egg thing), there seemed to be normal expectations of what kind of contributions might be made, and there is a definite way that a meeting ends.

Sometimes the meeting would begin with a sentence or two simply announcing that we were beginning “worship”, sometimes informal actions would signal the start (the closing of a door). Often there would have been silence already but at this point it had a sense of deepening, somehow. People are seated, not standing or lying down or even moving about; that is part of the liturgy and it is driven largely be the tacit understanding of what is happening and how it should happen. It is understood that still sitting is the posture of waiting. If someone shares in a large meeting, they stand up. A smaller meeting doesn't seem to require this and it is probably a practical arrangement to do with audibility. It does seem that 'ministry' is expected to be verbal (though a variant on this is song) but not through other media or communicative strategies. This is fair enough, but it is worth noting that there are normal expectations which do become a liturgically significant habits. I had the impression that 'ministry' would normally be expected to offer comment rather than be a prayer addressing God directly.

To end someone reaches out to those around them to hold hands briefly and this spreads all around the group. I have been in a meeting where people shook hands all round to end. I assume that a recognised senior figure is normally expected to initiate this closing ceremony.
These things are part of a wider habitus, it seemed to me. One where people tended to listen more fully in conversations with less interrupting. In course sessions it also seemed that people were not at all phased ('fazed'?) by periods of silent reflection; they were comfortable with periods of quiet reflection.

con/sensus
I had previously picked up the common perception is that Quakers make decisions by aiming for a consensus. In fact, most that touched on this were clear that this was not what they we doing. The reason for my inserting a / into the word above is to lay barer something of what is actually being striven for in decision-making. I'm taking 'sensus' to be the 'sense' of a meeting while 'con' is 'with' or 'together'. This is more subtle than everyone agreeing which is the common understanding of consensus.

The business meeting, if I've understood correctly, aims to produce a set of minutes which reflect the sense of the meeting on a matter or the mind of those present. In other words, a minute clerk is aiming to express what people can unify around. This may be a consensus, but in some cases it may be that some people 'stand-aside' from the mind that the others are coming to. In this case, it seems, that they are prepared to recognise that their reservations or objections are not sufficiently weighty to delay the others. On the other hand, it is understood that they are seeking unity and so efforts are made both to understand objections and to move forward with them or from them. Part of the inner or personal discipline that is presupposed is that people are willing and able to learn to be open and to recognise and put aside personal hobby-horses or prejudices. So the aim is not adversarial persuasion but rather finding common ground, understanding contraries, seeking creative or third way options, seeking the good and discerning what needs to be challenged or put aside. It seems to me that it would work best if there is a fundamental attitude not of 'win-lose' but of learning together and of fundamental respect within a framework of basic trust in the good faith and intentions of the other party.

'Worship'
I found it amusing to me to note how an invitation to worship results in a very different reaction to many of those I work among. Many in college when someone suggests we worship, will reach for the song-sheet or the musical instruments and expect to be involved in mainly vocal praise of God. Quakers seem to mean by 'worship' a time of corporate silence into which one might 'minister'. I think that the silence is meant to involve self-offering to God or the Spirit (however those terms may be understood) which may result in a leading to minister. 'Ministering' seems to be about feeling moved to give a word (or potentially some other offering) into the meeting which the participant judges may be from God.

Now I'm not saying one or the other of these understandings of 'worship' is right and the other wrong. I think that both are inadequate if taken to be the whole or main meaning of 'worship'. I would suggest that both could do with the other at least from time to time, at least for those who are Christian Quakers (for I discovered that Quakers may not identify as Christian but still be Quaker): it would be good to see Charismatics taking more time to wait on God and to think about how to do that together. On the other hand it would be good to encourage Friends to consider the value of corporate praise and indeed the possibility that the Spirit may indeed be involved in the loving relating that is God and catch us up into that so that we may become 'lost in wonder, love and praise' and that perhaps corporate, vocal God-centred activity may be an important part of co-operating with the Spirit in drawing us into a deeper experience God's love. On the other hand the practical assumption in much Charismatic worship that being caught up in the emotion of corporate sung (usually) worship somehow substitutes for waiting on God and making sure that we enter into a personal experience of God (rather than merely the spirit of the gathering).

I suppose that Quakers were the Charismatics/Pentecostals of their day. I'm guessing that at some point in their history the ideal that 'ministry' into a meeting is led by God, raised the bar with regard to participation in such a way that it strongly discouraged participation. I think that the corrective to this would be a recognition that worship is not only about God speaking (or communicating) with us but also us expressing ourselves to God. This latter seems to be the main thing missing from Quaker worship -or perhaps it is that it is done only or mainly in silence, but as such loses the positive encouragements and help that synchronised corporate behaviour can offer. Again I'd be interested to know further Quaker perspectives on this -and not just Quaker.
Connections

During the weekend's learning about corporate discernment I made a number of connections with my prior learning and experience. It turned out that much of Quaker practice is not so different from things found elsewhere as I had perhaps naively suspected at the outset. I guess because we are human we do all end up having to learn and re-learn how to balance the various potential and habitual 'channels' of God's revelation with our own, or perhaps sometimes against our own, voices, desires, formation and drives. We have to discern when God is speaking immanently or when transcendently. For this reason I think I noticed how the processes suggested during the course of the weekend were about noting our own filters and yardsticks and becoming aware of them so that they could be tools to be weighed according to their fittingness to aid discernment in that moment and for that 'leading' or situation. This meant that I was aware, from time to time of strong connections with things that are often part of spiritual direction, life coaching, even counselling. Also the 'standard' evangelical things about guidance were in evidence: testing by scripture and reason, listening by scripture (though there is an expanded concept and canon of scripture for some Quakers).

For me an important connection was made as I realised that in many ways the pastoral cycle was a form of discernment. Admittedly it is framed as learning from experience and so the discernment has a retrospective dimension of making sense of something that has happened, though it is explicitly also doing so in a process that aims at planning for further engagement. That focus laid aside, it seemed to me that the stages of exploration and (theological) reflection were particularly pertinent to what we might term 'prospective' discernment; in fact form the heart of it. We need to be able, in many cases, to understand well what is going on; to be able to attend to the salient facts or dimensions of what has been and is taking place and then to be able to connect that with what we know of God in scripture, reflection, accumulated wisdom and systematic thought.

I'm currently writing out further thoughts about discernment and the pastoral cycle. I'll see where I get to with that, maybe a further post, maybe not.

Tohu wa Bohu

I preached in College last Thursday. A number of people have been commenting since then how helpful they had found it. So for those who might value being able to reflect on bits of it again, I'm reproducing it here. I rarely preach from full notes like these, but the style required a closer attention to wording than I normally give. The numbers refer to slide accompaniments.

Gen 1:1 - 5 ; Mk 1:4ff

Riff-Sermon
Introductory slide is [1] -not for viewing start with [2]

Tohu wƏ bohu [2]
A formless void: formlessness and void; chaotic and empty; unstructured and unpopulated; shapeless and blank; formless and desolate; void and empty; disordered and uncultivated; unformatted and awaiting input .... a right mess wi nowt much appning.

To be alive means dealing with tohu w' bohu.

Tohu wƏ bohu [3]
Chaotic and unfulfilled. Peering ever more closely at fundamental particles, quarks, gluons, is to find randomness, mere probability rather than immutable laws, unpredictability at the very heart of what we think so solid and dependable: matter and energy. Our very being emerges from the wildness, the unpredictable, yes; the chaos of fundamental physical reality. Somehow reality is such that the randomness generates fields, areas and spaces of order, and more... and more... Somehow reality is such that even chaos is caught up into the making of order.

To examine through the eyes of physics and maths the nature and the equations of material reality is to find tohu w' bohu.

And in the beginning there is still a new story, a story telling us good news; for the Spirit of God hovers over the equations, and God is still saying “Let there be...” and there is ...

Tohu wƏ bohu [4]
Words to signal a main point in a counter-story for the people of God. Those who oppress them tell themselves a myth of epic primal battle between chaos and order. This story queries the Empire's foundational story in which might is right, and where order and peace are founded on bloodshed and suppression. Where the world, and everything in it, is reconstituted from the offal -the blood-soaked guts- of the defeated opponent. A myth of origins where the message is that peace and order come at the end of a sword. A myth justifying the suppression of the mass of people in the service of the few. A myth to tell human beings that we are worth little and the gods hardly care provided they get their cut.

To be oppressed is to suffer the consequences of other people's fear of tohu w' bohu.

In the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters....

Tohu wƏ bohu [5]
No primal chaos monster to be defeated and gutted here. Just a calm scene-setting. A simple bringing-into-being.
No inscribing of violence into the very ground of being here. Just the power and intimacy of God's breath, God's spirit, God's life-force flowing, hovering, brooding, sweeping over all that God makes.
Here is no titanic struggle to give legitimacy to the exploiting of the hard graft of a slave population sweating for others' gain. Just some simple words to bring about
something new,
something beautiful,
something for everyone.

To be exploited means to be forced to handle other people's tohu w' bohu.

In the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters....
And God saw that it was good

Tohu wƏ bohu [6]
Unstructured and empty. A phrase that could speak to a people who enter a wilderness. In a wilderness there are no streets, no familiar landmarks no directions. There is no sense of what is dangerous and what is safe. No fields, no food, no visible means of support.
What could a story like this mean to those forced to journey through the wild-erness, the wildness?
To enter a wilderness is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breath of God breathes through the experience. And God said “Let there be...”

Tohu wƏ bohu [7]
Disordered and blank. Chaotic and empty: that's how it must have felt for God's people hoiked off to Babylon; how to make sense of it all? Old securities gone. New ways not yet established. The mess and distress of finding new livelihoods, dealing with the prejudice and contempt of new neighbours, and most of all not knowing what the future could hold or whether we could dare to hope. Where God had been: where Temple had stood ... blank; erased; silence ...

To go into exile is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God brooded over it all, and God said 'Let there be light'.

Tohu wƏ bohu [7]
Formless and void.
Later Jesus was to observe that the people of God were like sheep without a shepherd. Sheep!? All over the place. Facing different directions. Direction-less, wandering about. But for now, it's down into the water. Going in with the crowds, part of a people who are all over the place, and awaiting a shepherd. Making common cause with them, entering the turmoil and confusion. Waters of Baptism: waters of creation. And the Spirit hovers over the waters and over the Word-made-flesh.

For, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
And the Spirit of God brooded over it all, and God speaks in flesh and blood ....

Tohu wƏ bohu [8]
Meaningless and empty. To watch one die who had seemed to sum up in himself the hopes of a people, the purposes of God and even the very presence of the Divine caught up in the meaninglessness of an imperial injustice, ground between the competing blind forces of Empire, collaboration and resistance, identity and conformity, money and power. Such a death seems so ... meaningless. And without him life seems so ..... empty

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God brooded over the meaninglessness and emptiness, and God had a further word to speak.

Tohu wƏ bohu [9]
Messy and uncertain.
A young woman lies in the road behind the car that hit her. Her injuries mean that in about 11 hours surgeons will have to decide to amputate her leg.
For her family, for her church and for many many people whose lives that family's touch, there begins a time of messy uncertainty; a formless void awaiting developments form the conflicting forces at work in and around that life.

To be caught up in a serious and life-changing accident is to enter into tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the Spirit of God broods over the experience. And God speaks yet a further word...

Tohu wƏ bohu [10]
confusing and awaiting. A young woman certain of the call of God on her life for ordination. Trained at one of the finest colleges, clearly gifted and creative. Yet stymied time and again in a search for a curacy: passed from diocese to diocese; from bishop to DDO. From pillar to post. A husband needing to know where to request a transfer to for his work. How to make sense of call and lack of opportunity?

To await proper opportunities is to confront tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breeze of God stirs through the experience. And God speaks a creative word.

Tohu wƏ bohu [11]
Meaningless and empty. A man is told he will be made redundant. This threatens not only his livelihood, but his sense of call, and of value and even threatens homelessness for a whole family. Things don't make sense, information is conflicting, emotional forces swing and eddy around him and within him.

To become jobless is to be rubbed raw against tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the breath of God breathes through the experience. And God speaks hope and creates afresh.

Tohu wƏ bohu [12]
A nation in turmoil; being torn between revenge and justice, hope and coming to terms with a horrendous past of oppression and abuse. Voices and forces compete to offer futures but so many seem to offer peace only through shedding the blood of those designated enemies. The danger is the forces that could be unleashed in reversing the racial power status threaten chaos, anarchy and might is right community building. A world watches in trepidation and ... prayer ...

To rebuild a nation is to stand amidst and be seared by tohu w' bohu

Yet, in the beginning is a new story, a story telling us good news.
For the wind of God blows through the nation. And God speaks and old yet ever new word ...

Tohu wƏ bohu [13]
Among the first words of scripture; but not the last.
The Spirit of God still hovers over tohu w' bohu
The breath of God still whispers through the tohu w' bohu
the Wind of God still whistles around the tohu w' bohu.
And God says:
Let there be artists and entrepreneurs
bringers of justice and makers of peace
wise and servant leaders
prophets and pastors
tellers of truth
healers
And there were.
And God saw that it was good.
And evening came and morning came. The sixth day.

Amen. [14]

Smoking youths throw woman commuter on to train line

This report Smoking youths throw woman commuter on to train line | UK news | guardian.co.uk brought back an incident that I was involved in a little over a year ago: "the woman had asked the youths to stop smoking on the platform, where it is banned. A scuffle started and she was thrown on to the track."
In 'my' incident, I asked a man on a Tyne and Wear Metro Train, between Gateshead and Jarrow, to put out his cigarette and was abused and narrowly missed having the matter come to blows; the guy actually seemed very keen to have a fight. The incident I believe was contributory to me finding going into work by that route quite stressful after that. The worrying thing is the kind of reaction to someone asking someone else to do the right thing: In both cases smoking is unlawful in the areas concerned. I was concerned that no-one else in the carriage seemed at all willing to acknowledge something was occurring. Would they have left me to be beaten up had I not taken steps to avoid physical violence (in essence to back down)? Did this woman attempt to remove the cigarette from the offender? Is that what sparked the incident? Certainly, I tried that, but wasn't willing to go any further.

Sister Act: Siblings to become the first in Britain to both be ordained as vicars

I'm a bit proud -though I've no reason to be except that I'm the tutor of the second named of the sisters; here's how the Mail reports it. Sister Act: Siblings to become the first in Britain to both be ordained as vicars | Mail Online: "Rachel Rosborough and Ellie Clack are nearing the end of their training to be ministers and will become the first sisters to be ordained as vicars. The Leicester-born sisters will be ordained into the Church of England in June. Sisters Rachel Rosborough and Ellie Clack will both be ordained as vicars on same day They have both been training at St John's College in Nottingham."
As always it's an interesting reflection on how the media don't quite go in for accuracy. Strictly speaking Ellie and Rachel are being ordained deacons and will serve as curates. Next year they will be ordained priests (that it admitted to presbyteral orders) and only after serving 3-4 years as "assistant curates" would they be considered eligible to be vicars. However, it is clear that in popular speech, an ordained Anglican (and sometimes other kinds of denominational background is included) is a 'vicar'. So 'vicar' is the new 'priest', and priest was the new 'presbyter' .....
Anyway, do join me in praying for two people who have a great deal to offer the Church of England as ministers, and also their cohort of ordinands to be ordained this coming June and July.

15 Strangely Shaped Trees

Some of these look a bit 'rude' but some are really just amazing.

I find these a light relief at the moment from an outstandingly busy time in my life: I have my heaviest teaching load in the academic year just at the time when reports have to be done and there's a load of marking of reports following the deadline at the start of this term. Added to which I wasn't able to get a march on designing the learning for this term's teaching because last term (when I'd normally have started on it) my daughter's accident threw everything into a turmoil. So if you are a praying sort, please pray for wisdom on my part and helpful synergies and synchronicities to help me. If you aren't a praying sort, I still appreciate it if you think kindly on me!
Any way, regular-ish visitors may now know why I've not been posting much lately: I've been digesting mission history and trying to help others learn from it.
15 Strangely Shaped Trees

A Cunning Plot for vegetabling

I'm a terrible gardner but harbour a dream that one day I might be able to do it properly. This article was quite inspirational, so I'm drawing attention to it with a view to getting back to it. Monbiot.com � A Cunning Plot

Co-spousal presbyterisation complete!

Well, now I am married to an Anglican priest. And so is my wife. On Saturday afternoon she was ordered to presbyteral ministry, and I got to have a hand in it too: lovely. I wrote a proper preface for her first presidency yesterday. A long preface to go with Prayer E. It goes like this:

It is good to praise you our God,
you made humankind to be priests of your creation.
And when we refused our role,
in your love you sent Jesus to offer the sacrifice of himself
and reveal the new creation by rising from death.
So he redeemed our priesthood
and renewed your calling in us.
We give thanks that we have the hope of the Day
when all priesthood will be fulfilled.
In your intimate closeness to all you have made.
and so we gladly thank you,
with saints and angels praising you, and saying:
All Holy, holy, holy Lord,

My best beloved is fourth from the left just in front of Bishop Tom's rights shoulder.
Latest News