Connecting Colleagues

It's been a week or two now since a group of us started a series of "round robin" e-mails, sharing items of great import for our respective ministries (!) Our group includes an industrial/business chaplain, someone in an interfaith relations post and a colleague with schools work alongside her local church work. I think the rest of us fall into that final category of the more traditional image of a minister - weddings, funerals, baptisms, sermons, bible study, pastoral visiting etc etc.
So far, in our embryonic "e-support group", for that is what I think we wanted to set up, we have discussed baptismal promises for a six year old, recommended some good theological volumes, and shared concerns for prayer. In between, there have been interesting bletherings, misunderstandings and confusion, to the extent that someone was moved to comment about a parallel universe! It is interesting to note what happens when brief comments are taken out of context via e-mail. When people have replied back to individuals rather than copying the whole group then we've missed parts of the ongoing conversation and of course there's always the possibility that some messages have been promptly delivered to that "that great inbox in the sky" or wherever weary e-mails go to die when they can't find their way through cyberspace. And sometimes things just take much longer to explain when you're slowly typing instead of chatting face to face. Having said that, the chances of us all being in the same room outside of two Synod Meetings a year and the odd ministers' gathering seem remote. We are spread over the East Midlands from Chesterfield to Wellingborough, from Lutterworth to Stamford with Leicester, Derbyshire and Peterborough thrown in for good measure.
I sometimes wonder what Paul would have made of e-mail - at least he and all the other New Testament authors believed in writing to one another - 1 Thessalonians 5.11: Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.
So we'll carry on I hope, enjoying receiving e-mails without large documents attached for us to read and act upon or with agendas and minutes included. Just a few musings, silly or profound, with the odd question or comment to provoke or inspire ...

Rest Awhile

This was the theme for our Sunday service on 19th July. We based our "3rd Sunday Praise" worship on the lectionary gospel passage Mark 6: 30-34 & 53-56. Jesus was seeking an opportunity to get away from it all for a while and his attempt met with limited success. We considered how the opportunity just to stop and reflect, to pray or meditate gives us a refreshing opportunity to sit back from the busy-ness of life and re-connect with God.
Just being still is something which some of us find difficult and in our planning meeting, we were led to propose a game of "sleeping lions" - something which some of the congregation found easier to enter into than others! In an "out of the box" moment, this led us on to the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" which has appeared in various guises in the music charts over the years, but has recently been popularised once again by the Disney film and stage show of "The Lion King". Adam provided an excellent set of words which allowed us to use it as a worship song which reflected on the words of the gospel reading - complete with the Wimoweh refrain!
We suddenly wondered what this word meant (should we have been singing it in church?!) But I'm relieved to report that it is simply a mishearing of the original song's chorus of 'uyimbube' which means "you're a lion" in Zulu. Sandra hoped for inclusion of this YouTube classic, pictured above, which I couldn't get organised, but maybe watching it from here would suffice?
A sleeping lion or not, we took part in an act of worship with a slightly different flavour which I hope encouraged us all to rest awhile.

"New" Church Members

On 5th July, it was a delight to welcome seven friends into church membership at St. Andrew's. Graham and Marianne, Jean, Vera and Jo have all been worshipping with us for some time but to some extent still count as folk who have recently joined us on Sundays. It was good to hear that they felt able to make the step of commitment that becoming a member involves and it was great to welcome them formally to the congregation. For Faye and Andandi, ours is the fellowship within which they have spent a large part of their school years and so, while being at the younger end of the group, they were in a sense, the "old timers". I hope their confirmation was a special event for them both - it certainly was a great joy for those present to be part of this significant step on their journeys of faith.
So, we are strengthening connections with some of our number by admitting them to the full privileges and responsibilities of church membership, as our denomination puts it. Welcome to you all!
There were those who were invited, but chose not to proceed to membership at this stage. We hope in due course, that we might welcome you officially too. There are ongoing conversations with some of you, which I hope will result in another welcome service soon. We hope, whether member or friend of the congregation, that all feel a valued and appreciated part of our church community.

Goodbye Ernest

For my first ever entry, I thought it would be appropriate to acknowledge one of my two predecessors at St. Andrew's, Rev Ernest Brittain. We held a service of thanksgiving for his long life on Saturday 4th July which I felt privileged to lead. Ernest ministered in the city first at Trinity Church in Priestgate and then in the congregation's new home in Netherton for a total of thirty years before his retirement in 1982. The St. Andrew's buildings on Ledbury Road stand as a fine memorial to his ministry.
It was good to celebrate his varied work in and around the city, and as I commented in the address, give thanks for the fruits of his labours. The gospel text we used, John 15: 12-17, was also used at my ordination which took place in St. Andrew's in Septemebr 1996. So this is my first connection - a reading which is equally appropriate at the end of a ministry as at the start.
The Peterborough Evening Telegraph kindly printed a story last week which encouraged those who remembered Ernest to attend the service, and they sent a photographer to record the event. I hope to contribute to the follow up report.
In the meantime, thank you Ernest for all the fruits of your life and ministry.