Sunday, 28 April 2019

Captain's Blog April 2019



FCN top and tailed last month. Beginning with a Three Counties Training Day held at Rudyard Methodist Church.  This brought together the Counties of Cheshire, Derbyshire and Staffordshire. Our excellent speakers took us through some of the complexities of Farm Payments and Brexit. We also heard about Rural + which is a programme run in conjunction with the Federation of Young Farmers exploring mental health issues.  This is a vital piece of work to encourage those entering the profession to recognise that mental health issue should not be ignored or stigmatised.  At the end of the month I attended the Central Regional Conference, held near Rugby!


As I prepare to retire I am keen to explore the place of contemplative prayer.  This has always been an undercurrent in my ministry, but like everyone in busy ministry it can get squeezed out. I was delighted to have an opportunity to explore ‘Contemplating Contemplation’ at a Lent Lunch talk in Shrewsbury Abbey. A transcript of the talk is on my Blogspot under ‘Retirement Blog Three.’ Gordon's Blog Spot

‘Chewing the Cud’ – five of us gathered last time at the Fairways Garden Centre, Ashbourne. As ever the conversation was wide ranging, interesting and informative. Our next one is on the 19th June and will be at Amerton Craft Farm just outside of Stafford.


I only had one Sunday preachment this month, at St Anne’s, Brown Edge on Palm Sunday. We had an extra challenge of no organist or music making!  I did trim down one of the hymns.  And somewhat unusually I went back to last year’s Palm Sunday sermon (at a different church)  - refreshed it and preached on 'who are you going to follow, the man on the donkey (Jesus) or the man on the horse (Pilate)?'  Both representing opposing Kingdoms and both demanding total allegiance.  


(Again you will find a transcript on my Blogspot)



During Holy Week I was invited to speak at the Burton under Needwood, Filling Station. What a great idea these are. In my early days as a Christian I engaged on a Sunday morning with my home church which was Church of England, Anglo-Catholic and BCP. Then in the evenings, I went to a Charismatic Baptist or a Pentecostal Church.  So, I really do get where the idea is coming from.  https://thefillingstation.org.uk/find-a-station/

I spoke about ‘Everyday Evangelism’ with some practical exercises like the Faith Lift. Imagining you are in a lift and you have 30 seconds to respond to the question ‘are you doing anything over Easter?  That alongside the importance of knowing our faith story whether we are cradle Christians or conversion Christians. Also being true to our nature as we share our faith – not everyone is an extrovert who can speak freely and strike up conversations with random people.  Some (& probably most) are introverts who nevertheless can learn how to respond in line with 1 Peter 3.15.

Good Friday Walk of Witness in Stafford. We managed to walk that line between those who want due solemnity and those who say we should witness and do so with joy.  We ‘walked’ in prayerful silence around to the Market Square and then rejoiced with a live band and contemporary worship songs with a brilliant address from a young Baptist minister, Danielle.





On Easter Sunday we had our glorious SonRise Service at Stafford Castle with around 50 people joining us at 5.45am to see the most wonderful sunrise over Stafford at 5.58am. We lit the New Fire from which I then lit a storm lantern that was then used to light our Paschal Candle in Church.



 












Some appointments & engagements in May 2019

From the 29th April until the 2nd May
‘On Fire Mission Conference’ at High Leigh

Friday 3rd
Commissioning of Peter Hardy as Staffordshire Rural Officer by Bishop Geoff Annas. (10am)

Saturday 4th
Staffordshire Young Farmers Annual Rally and setting up a FCN display.

Sunday 5th
Preaching at St Mary’s, Knutton. This is as a prelude to a Parish Away Day on the 18th May.

Monday 6th
Personal Quiet Day up at The Hermitage

Tuesday 7th
In the morning meeting with my own Spiritual Companion. In the evening attending a lecture at Staffordshire University on Dementia.

Wednesday 8th
Final Core Team planning meeting for the Staffordshire County Show.

Thursday 9th
In the morning meeting with DC as his Spiritual Companion. Lunch meeting with Steve Jackson exploring his reengaging with FCN and other allied rural matters.  RDA in the evening.

Saturday 11th
Attending the Welcoming and Induction of a new Pastor at Chapel Lane Evangelical Church in Stafford.  (3pm)

Sunday 12th
Preaching at St Anne’s, Brown Edge.

Tuesday 14th
Friends that do Lunch – ‘Chew n Chat’ meeting at Rising Brook Baptist Church.

Wednesday 15th
Love Stafford Church Leaders Strategic Forum – meeting to plan for town wide initiatives.

Thursday 16th – it’s my birthday!
Saturday 18th
Parish Away day for St Mary’s, Knutton.

Sunday 19th
Church Army preachment at St Michael’s, Colwich.

Monday 20th
In the morning meeting with JC as his Spiritual Companion.

Tuesday 21st – Thursday 23rd
National Missioners Summer Gathering at High Leigh – last one after twenty years!

Sunday 26th
Preaching at HMP Stafford

Tuesday 28th
Staffordshire County Show prep

Wednesday 29th & Thursday 30th
Staffordshire County Show and heading up a ‘Team’ of 30 volunteers helping at the Church Tent. I’m also Honorary Show Chaplain.

F


Monday, 22 April 2019

Retirement Blog Four


I’m not responsible!


I have always loved being involved in County Shows, Flower Shows and Village Fetes and Festivals.  If they work well with a good team who have a focus on being God’s people witnessing in the market place (rather than a focus on fund raising) and if the weather is kind, then for me there is nothing better.  It has to be one of all-time favourite places. 

Last August 2018 I was helping to set up the Church Tent at the Shrewsbury Flower Show and put up a simple flag pole and the flag of St George. One of our team, a lovely young Welsh lady, teased me and said she couldn’t possible work in the tent with St George’s flag. (Shrewsbury is on the Welsh borders.) So I went to the back of my car and produced a Welsh flag to which she said, 'it seems you do have everything in the back of your car.'


Having been involved in County Shows and the like for over twenty years I have built up considerable knowledge and experience – and a wide array of ‘stuff’ to help dress tents, etc.

I have learned to try and cover for all contingencies, especially with the vagaries of the English weather!

On Good Friday this year (2019) I offered to set up a simple PA for the initial gathering of Love Stafford Walk of Witness.

I have already downsized my array of PA equipment and gave away a really nice set up last year to a Children’s Minister in a neighbouring diocese. (A semi-portable sound system that was gifted to me following the closure of a Baptist Church who no longer had need of it) 

Because I had not used it for a while I thought to check everything was okay. It was just as well as things were not okay and I was struggling and puzzling over what to do. I had said I would get something sorted and here I was on Thursday night with nothing sorted.  

During the night I continued to think about it and in the morning decided that we didn’t really need the full kit, but something far smaller and simple to set up and break down. 

Thankfully I had something that would just lift up the speaker’s voice enough for people gathering to hear.  That piece of kit worked and in the end it was perfect for the job.


I was also involved in the Dawn Service and there provided a simple BBQ for the New Fire, a microphone and a very strong music stand and some other bits and pieces. 

As we prepare to move into our retirement home and with the need to downsize I have to think carefully about what I give away that might be useful to somebody else.

When considering this over the Good Friday and Easter it came to me that providing resources will no longer be my responsibility. 

I have in some ways taken on that responsibility, I like to be the person who can find it, or who has or at least knows where I can get it – whatever ‘it’ might be.    

As an itinerant minister I really enjoy being able to provide resources for people.

But once I retire I will no longer be responsible.  If I happen to have something that could be used, all well and good, but I will not have a responsibility to provide it or find it.

I am now trying to think myself into that position which I hope will help me pass on stuff that may be of service to others or get rid of it in other ways.

But I think this weaning process may take some time to complete and I am not ready to relinquish everything just yet – but I am moving in the right direction at least in my thinking!  

And here is the biggest thing I need to find a good home for...








Sunday, 14 April 2019

The King is coming!


Palm Sunday St Anne’s, Brown Edge


Psalm 118.1-2, 19-end Philippians 2: 5-11 
Mark 11.1-11

Did you have a flutter on the Grand National this year?

In the 60’s I worked as an Apprentice Jockey for Bruce Hobbs who in 1938 became the youngest person to win the Grand National shortly after his seventeenth birthday.

Today I would like us to consider and different type of race competition - between a man on a donkey and a man on a horse

The race is for the very soul of the human race

And you need to study the form and be very careful which one you choose.

You could lose more than the shirt off your back…

Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Matthew 10.28

The man on the horse entered Jerusalem from the West at the head of a large army.

This was the new Procurator, Pontius Pilate taking up his post in AD26 under the Emperor Tiberius.

He marched his cohort of legionaries with all their standards right into the Temple Mount – and caused a riot. 

As the legionaries drew their gladius’ many of the Jews simply knelt down and offered their necks to the blades.

Not the best start to ruling and governing the region.

So on this occasion the standards were removed from the Temple Mount.

However we may view his later encounter with Jesus, Pilate was no push over and among other things kept the Robes of the High Priest. They had to go and ask him if they could use them when ceremony required it.  He was also not averse to creaming off some of the Temple money.

The man on the donkey entered Jerusalem from the East.

Bethpage was probably a very small settlement close to Bethany which itself lay around two miles East of Jerusalem.

We know of course about Bethany as the home of Jesus friends, Mary, Martha and Lazarus.

And if the man on the horse knew what he was doing entering into Jerusalem at the head of a conquering army with all the might, power and pomp of Imperial Rome, so did the man on the donkey.

The man on the donkey was an itinerant preacher, teacher, healer and he done many great miracles.

“See,” the Pharisees where to say on one occasion, “this is getting us nowhere. Look how the whole world has gone after him!"  John 12.19

And the man on the donkey knew the Hebrew Scriptures; he knew the prophets and the prophecies.

If Pilate’s troops carried in their symbols and signs so did Jesus.

 Zechariah 9.9

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion! Shout, Daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

He would have known exactly what he was doing and we get a sense of this by the very careful orchestration of procuring a donkey for him to use.

Here in these two men we have two Kingdoms.

The Kingdom of God or as Matthew puts it, the Kingdom of Heaven in deference to his Jewish readers, and the kingdom of the world, here represented by the reigning super power of the day, the sprawling Roman Empire.

And the Roman Empire had travelling evangelist who would enter villages, towns and cities like Jerusalem proclaiming the good news, the evangel.

Gathering a crowd around, the evangelist would tell the latest good news about a recent conquest by the Empire, or of the Emperor’s birthday or some other notable event.

Hold that in mind and heed these words from Mark 1.14-15
 Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Proclaiming the Gospel of God – God’s Good News.

And remember that repentance always means more than a feeling of remorse or sorry – it is a change of mind leading to a change of action, a turning 180 degrees.

Jesus offered a choice of serving another King and another Kingdom.

We will hear this played out in the forthcoming drama of Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem and his death by crucifixion.

We will watch again as Jesus and Pilate stand before each other, both representing diametrically opposed kingdoms.

And during this tense drama on one occasion we hear Jesus say, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."  John 18.36

We will see Peter waving his sword around in the dark as they come to arrest Jesus and we will hear Jesus say, "Put your sword back in its place, for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.

Jesus offered not violent revolution but rather a loving revelation.

He outlined in particular what it means to live as the People of God in the Sermon on the Mount and in the Beatitudes which someone once described as beautiful attitudes. 

                               The man on the donkey or the man on the horse


As you leave here today and go into the week ahead you will have to make a choice, either the man on the donkey or the man on the horse – either the Kingdom of God or the kingdom of the world.

There is no middle ground – because either Jesus is Lord or Caesar is Lord.

In Jesus’ final earthy discourse recorded by Matthew in what we call the Great Commission we read…

Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Matthew 26.18 

St Augustine wrote – ‘If Jesus be not Lord of all then he is not Lord at all.’

Allegiance to the man on the donkey may bring you into conflict with the people who follow the man on the horse, but remember the way of Jesus, the way of loving revelation, the way that leads to life and life in all its fullness.

And today we still have evangelist from both the kingdom of the world and from the Kingdom of God.

And right here and right now you and I have a choice to make, and that choice will affect every aspect of our lives.

The Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of the World – it is always our choice, such is the grace and love of God who so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son so that whosoever should believe in him should die but have everlasting life.

As you leave this place and enter into the week ahead can I implore you to think very carefully about the choice you will make?

But...



Saturday, 13 April 2019

Retirement Blog Three


Contemplating Contemplation

(Transcript of Lent Lunch Talk at Shrewsbury Abbey 2019)


What are the three most common questions when we meet someone for the first time?

What’s your name, where do you come from and what do you do?

A quick glance at our surnames will often tell you that this has been so for quite a number of years.

Surnames like, Fletcher, Butcher, Baker, Arrowsmith, Coffin, Smith, Carter.

Why do we continue to ask the question about what people do meaning, invariably, their job or profession?

So what then happens when we no longer have a job – how are we to be defined then?

Richard Rhor has written a very helpful book called 'Falling Upwards: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life.'


In his recent blog reflecting on this he wrote this about his own father…

‘In the second half of life, we start to understand that life is not only about doing; it’s about being. I remember going home to Kansas after my father had just retired at age sixty-five. For thirty-six years, he had painted trains for the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad. Daddy grew up very poor during the Depression and the dust storms of western Kansas.

In his generation, of course, a job was something you valued deeply; and once you got it, you weren’t going to lose it. He never missed a day of work in all those years. He turned on the lights every morning, they told us.

After he retired, my father cried in my arms and said, “I don’t know who I am now. I don’t know who I am. . . . Pray with me, pray with me.” Here I was a grown-up man, a priest, supposed to be strong for my father. I didn’t know how to do it. I guess I said the appropriate priestly words. But I didn’t know how to guide him into the second half of life, and he was begging for a guide.’

I am retiring this coming June and so this is all very real and something I am processing and reflecting on deeply.

And strange as it may seem my Church Army uniform is playing a key part in all of this.

For several years now Church Army have been downplaying its militaristic image and dropping off uniforms and from 2020 the titles of Captain’s and Sisters is being slowly phased out.

In 2017 we changed our logo and colour of what is termed Church Army casual attire.  We are not supposed to be wearing the apparel I most often wear, a blue polo shirt and blue sweat shirt.

When I first joined Church Army in 1978 most Officers wore a grey battle dress uniform. In the 80’s this began to be replaced by casual wear. First it was maroon, then green, then blue and today black, white or grey.

Life in ministry is a very peculiar thing and the edges between life, leisure and work or ministry is very blurred.

It was also confusing for our three children because daddy worked at home as well as going out and about.

So, when was daddy available and able to take us to the park or read with us or whatever?

When was daddy ‘off duty’?

So I took to nearly always wearing something Church Army when I was on duty.  That helped the children understand that dad might be available but then again he might not – but if he didn’t have his Church Army gear on he was fully available.

It also has helped me make a switch on my day off and on holidays.

So, the Church Army is no longer a unformed organisation. 

I can if I want wear a Church Army polo shirt and fleece with our new style logo.


After 30 years of wearing 'uniform' is will feel very odd when it comes to retirement.  

And without it who will I be then? Where will be my identity?

I will no longer be the Mission and Growth Partner in the Staffordshire Episcopal Area in the Diocese of Lichfield – so what and who will I be?

And in some ways I can trace this question way back to 1965/66 when I was 14/15.

I began to have an adolescent angst about my mortality and in particular dying unknown, as a non-event.

My own father was killed in a road traffic accident when I was just turned six.

In keeping with the time he was laid to rest in our front room with the coffin lid off.

My abiding memory isn’t so much of dad laid there, but his coffin lid standing at the side with his name the date of his birth and the date of his death.

Was that it – he was born on and then died on!

So it’s a story for another time, but on the same day the already famous Gordon Banks was in goal for England at Wembley, July 30th 1966, I set off to Newmarket to sign on an Apprentice Jockey.

I was hoping to become famous  so that when I died people would speak of me and remember me.

Ten years on and not at all famous and now working for Spillers as an Animal Technician I came to meet David who was a Christian of the type I had not met before – a born again type.

Again cutting to the chase I went to work at Spillers on the 4th March 1974 and David and God got to work and in November David gave me a Bible of my own.

In that Bible I discovered Colossians 3.3…

‘For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.’

I came to realise that I needed to die to all my own ambitions, all my striving and worrying about being famous – because God loved me and had an amazing plan for my life.

I didn’t need my name in headlines or anywhere other than the Lamb’s Book of Life.


On the 1st January 1975 I made a New Years’ Resolution to become a Christian.

That eventually took me to into joining the Church Army in August 1978 as I mentioned earlier. I was appointed as Warden/Manager of a Conference and Holiday Centre in Central London.

And that has kept me busy serving first in Luton, then up the North East in Prudhoe. This was followed by sixteen months unemployed.  

Again one of those times when you can easily become a ‘nobody.’

I was eventually appointed as East Wivelshire Deanery Evangelist in the Truro Diocese. After five years that ministry extended out to cover the whole of the diocese.

From there after ten years I traveled along the coast to Brighton and took up a post as Diocesan Evangelist in the Chichester Diocese.

Nine years there and time for another move as the diocesan underwent radical restructuring.

So, we moved to Stafford in January 2015. 

During the time I was in London I took the opportunity to visit as many different types of Churches as I could, from the very high Anglo-Catholic, to Holy Trinity Brompton, All Souls Langham Place and many others.

I reveled in the wonderful admixture of the sacramental, the charismatic and evangelical fervour. I joined the Anglo-Catholic Charismatic movement that met in Westminster Roman Catholic Cathedral. Later on this month I will be attending a Conference with an off-shoot of that group, called ‘On Fire Mission.’

I also visited various Religious Houses and Monasteries like Pricknash Abbey.  

I was and still am very attracted to this way of community life.  In particular I discovered silence and contemplation and those all too rare occasions when time simply disappears when in a state of deep meditation and contemplation.

And now as I move towards retirement I find that craving for silence and stillness almost as a kind of painful desire within me that I find hard to express in words.

And as I look towards older, older age, should God grant me the years, I am contemplating contemplation.

We know that many people of all ages suffer from chronic loneliness, which is a little bit of a puzzle considering we have never been so well connected through social media, Skype, etc.

But this tells me of the deep desire to see, touch, taste and smell other human’s beings because we are social animals. There are a few who desire the solitary life but not many

So we have this deep human need for companionship, someone to sit alongside us. And yet for a whole raft of reasons many people, particularly the elderly, find themselves living isolated and alone.

What I wonder, and this is what Richard Rhor and others seem to be suggesting, is that if we have cultivated a life of prayer, of contemplation, of being very comfortable with ourselves and within ourselves.  If we are at ease in the world, not overly troubled and anxious, if we can learn in the first half of life that we are known and loved of God. That our names are carved on the palms of God’s hand. Then in the second half of life we can begin to learn to live with open hands and hearts and letting go of everything.  Because the reality is that in the end that is exactly what we all will face – giving up everything, even our own bodies, breath and life itself.

Now, Lord, you let your servant go in peace:  
  your word has been fulfilled.
My own eyes have seen the salvation  
  which you have prepared in the sight of every people;
A light to reveal you to the nations  
  and the glory of your people Israel.

I don’t know but I am hopeful that should the time come when I find myself alone I will be at peace, knowing that I am never alone with God. Knowing that through practice I can enter into the Scriptures, enter into prayer, and enter into deep communion with God.

And I appreciate that all requires a certain mental alertness that may not be present.

And yet if you engage with those who sufferer mental loss, particular those who recited the Lord’s Prayer in their earlier years, prayers like that become a remembered touch stone.

Therefore I am keen to journey deeper into contemplation and keen to help others make a similar journey.

I am hopeful that I am laying down a familiar pathway I can walk along as I journey towards the great release, the ultimate time of open handedness.

I might have this all wrong – I just don’t know and over lunch I would be interested to hear your thoughts.

But for now I would like to take us into contemplation in the style of St Ignatius and Scriptural imaginings.

Feeding of the 5,000 Mark 6: 34 -44

Can you hear the lapping of the waves in the distance?

The grass is green and spring is in the air

What do you see – what do you smell

What do you notice?

What else can you hear?

You notice an anxious look of the faces of the disciples and many arms waving across the huge crowd. You see Jesus smiling in a kindly and almost playful manner.

Now the disciples are bringing something to him and they have also found several baskets which they put down in front of Jesus who is still smiling.

You see Jesus stand up, lift up one of the baskets and pray.

Then the miracle happened – fish and bread simply kept multiplying and with incredible ease and efficiency the great crowd was organised into groupings, with each offered a basket of fish and bread to share.

Very soon musical instruments appeared and spontaneous music and dancing began to break out everywhere – people shouting, the Lord, the Lord the Lord has visited His people.

Now after the wondrous and joyful celebration hear everyone slipping away with many a loud cry of jubilation and promises to live better lives in love and care for each other.

But you remain still and quiet – with an occasional nod at friends and family as they pass by.

You notice Jesus’ disciples are busy organizing everybody safely away, hurrying up children to catch up with their parents.
Jesus however remains sat on a small boulder.

Gradually everything grows quiet and there is only you and Jesus sat there.

He looks at you sitting there and beckons you over.

You get up and walk gently towards Jesus who is smiling and welcoming you.

You sit down in front of Jesus.

What do you want to say to Jesus?

What does Jesus want to say to you?

A prayer of abandonment Brother Charles de Foucauld (1858–1916) that expresses openness and intention to give up control to God in the middle of life, even before our physical death:

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands;
do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me
and in all your creatures—

I wish no more than this, O Lord.
Into your hands I commend my soul:
I offer it to you with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord, and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.