Ah yes, SAF, the good old LKH acronym for 'speaking about faith' which was 'apologetics' in lay-speak.

Tonight, in the absence of any other speaker being booked, it is me who becomes the tame face of Church for COMPASS and my theme is 'faith and the workplace.'  Not mega thrilling but the only non-Church thing I can offer since I don't play in a band, paint pictures, play football for England or anything else 'sexy.'

So, I think I have three strands to work with...

• Faith and choosing where to work
• Faith and behaving at work
• Faith and learning from the world of work

The first two are kind of ethical things, I guess. 

In the first one I want to open up the reality of complexity of selecting an employer/field in which to work.  Is there such a thing as 'truly ethical employment?' (no! not in my view).  How does a person of faith make a choice?  Can people of faith come to different conclusions? (yes!)

In the second I want to pick up the fact that you are paid to work - teach/clean/program/dispense/build/whatever not proselytise; you should be the best teacher/cleaner/etc you can be.  I want to stress that actions speak louder than words and that attitudes matter - the values we adopt at work should not differ from those we have in church (you'd be amazed how many of my deacons tell me they behave with different values at work.  Or perhaps you wouldn't, maybe I'm naive).  By stories of former colleagues, I want to suggest we should avoid legalism (the one I knew  who timed his staff's lunch breaks to the minute!) and laziness (the one who was saved so what he did now didn't matter!). Instead by being human, hardworking (but not workaholics) and humourous (a Roman Catholic colleague I really admired for this) we can be good witnesses.

Lastly I want to stress that we can bring into church things from the work place - good practices, new skills and ideas, openness to change and so on.  The sacred/secular divide is not helpful we should see the whole of life a just that, a whole.

In 20 mintues this will be a tall order but I'll give it a try.  Then I'll let you know how it goes...

Just occasionally you read a sloppy poem in an obit notice and feel it's right.  I saw one for Dennis, one of our lunch club members, whose funeral is today at the same time as we sit down to eat.  It spoke of a special smile, and it was right.  Dennis was always smiling.  He was an uncomplicated chap who told me my explanation of Easter last year was the first time he'd ever understood it.  He had a lot of pain and failing health but he was always gracious and smiling.  I will miss saving him a seat at the front of the coach today; we will all miss his smile.  At least now he is pain free, and I pray, at peace.

Sunday 17th June is one of my 'let the peeple choose the hymns' Sundays.  Secretly, I relish the challenge of making a coherent act of worship from the things people pick.  This time it's a bit diffenret - D+1 and D are together; intriguingly, and perhaps because it's only a couple of month's since D last had the opportunity for this, most of the choices are from D+1.  As expected (and I'm almost ready to say, 'come back These are The Days, most is forgiven' but only almost) Dibley's own 'glowing spirits' hymn has been picked.  Ah well.

So, what hymns await us...

• Tis sweet, O Lord, to sing Thy praise til all our spirits glow 
• My God, I thank Thee, who hast made the earth so bright
• Dear Lord and Father of us all ('mankind' in original)
• How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord
• Blessed Assurance
• I am trusting Thee, Lord Jesus
• Let me have my way among you, do not strive
• Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah

I've had to pick a couple of other things to begin and end the service (as Guide Me, which is a great 'ender' is being used for Communion) and fitting in a 'thought for the day' will be 'interesting' but overall, even if not all would necessarily be my choice, the hymns are, 'melting hearts' excepted, pretty good.  What's mildly amusing, and probably a bit of a shame (with the obvious exception: have you worked out I can't stand this song yet?!) is that a good proportion of English Baptists aged under 40 won't know any of them! 

Just spoke to someone from church and asked how yesterday's service went.

"It was just an old fashioned service.  Some of your services are a bit strange, but having an old fashioned service seemed rather boring."

I think that's a compliment! 

I'm also mildy bemused because liturgically (in its proper meaning) you don't get much more traditional than my services.  Ah well, strange it is then.

It's a funny thing you can't get used to, as my mother would say.

A rare free Sunday.  I was going to be diligent and do some writing but the sun was shining so I went out and had a break from everyone and everything.  In fact, one way and another I've managed to get most of the last three days off, so am a tad less stressy to be around!

I took myself off to Shugborough, near Stafford, which, thanks to my National Trust membership cost me £3 for an 'access all areas' ticket.  It was a lovely place to spend time, with beautiful gardens and a virtually complete working estate with costumed guides.  There were lots of signs telling us these people thought they lived in the 1880's and did not know anything of the 21st century, so would we please not confuse them by referring to it - which was a nice touch.

There were some delightful anachronisms - electronic till and scales in the sweet shop, photocopied recipes on sale in the kitchens and paper cups and plates in the tea room.

It made me smile, as I found my mind connecting all this with what I'd read about the dangers of history reducing past generations to 21st century people in fancy dress - exactly what Shugborough is doing in a valiant attempt to make the past interesting for 21st century people.  So much for avoiding work!

The nice man in the sweet shop told me he was looking forward to the law changing next month to allow him to use pounds and ounces again because he'll be able to get out the old scales (though presumably he'll keep his electroinc till!).

I came home with a bag of traditionally milled organic bread flour - plus instructions to keep it in the freezer once opened - and a sense that even if we cannot recreate the past, and even if our best efforts are full of anachronisms, there really is something to be gained from an active engagement with the stories, artefacts and records we do have.