With thanks to Peter Wyllie, book seller, sometime poet and visitor to this corner of the food court ...

Away with the manger

No crib and no bed

No little Lord Jesus

Just Santa instead.

The stars on the Tele

Sing songs for the poor

And charity mail shots

Beg me to give more.

The reindeer are flying

Across the night sky

With a sleigh full of presents

Wrapped up and piled high.

I love it at Christmas

With lights on the tree

With gifts piled beneath it

All labelled for me.

The taxman is gloating

And smiling with glee

All Profit for him

And no Prophet for me!

Bless all the dear shoppers

At this time of year

The point has been lost now

Forever I fear!

© Peter Wyllie December 2006.

As noted in my response to a comment on my last post, the interview with the EMBA ministerial development group ended happily.

My friend from D+6 collected me and we set off down the motorway looking like startled rabbits, relieved we'd both thought it wise to wear a suit (at least neither of us would be the only one!), and talking about anything but the impending interviews.

We arrived in Middle England to be greeted by another friend. whose church it was, to be told that all the male candiates (the morning session) had had a 'yes' and that there was really nothing to fear.  We tried to be reassured - largely failing!

The actual interviews were a very affirming experience and we came out wondering why we'd worried - but sure that worrying had been a good thing anyway because this was real, they could have said 'no.'  Thank you, panel, for a positive and encouraging experience.

The interviews over, we headed to a cafe for tea and cakes to celebrate, to compare notes and to unwind a little before heading back up the motorway with reduced blood pressure and smiling faces!  There was a sense of completion, that it was actually good to have faced a final 'check' at the end of the process, that the nervous energy had been usefully expended and that now, though in a sense nothing had changed, we were 'fully fledged.'

Thank you Diane for your companionship not just today but on the journey to this 'place' - and I look forward to finding out what is around the next bend!  Thank you also to those who have shared other parts of the journey so far - without you there would not have been tea and cakes in Middle England.

I never cease to wonder at the things that get forwarded to me by well meaning folk who believe the AOL can detect messages on the umpteenth forwarding or that car jackers are waiting to leap out and grab handbags from the front seat of every unsuspecting woman who puts hers there while she removes a notice stuck to her windscreen!  DOS (denial of service, not disc operating system) emails are sent purely and simply to slow down the web - and to annoy me!  The use of forwards to everyone in your address book in the 'To:' or 'cc:' line is a great way to give people access to the email addresses they need to spam them too (use 'bcc' if you really must forward them to dozens of folk), and also for mean people to get viruses onto unprotected machines.

Please, please, gentle reader, if you don't already do so, think about checking the next one out on www.hoax-slayer.com (or similar) before you forward it to everyone you know. 

Thank you - now you've read this forward it to exactly zero people and absolutely nothing will happen to you!

Yesterday I was 9; today I am 3, tomorrow, all things being equal, I'll be born again (or from above?)!

Or am I?  And will I?  And does it matter anyway?

(And what on earth am I on about!)

On 5th December 1997 I had one of those 'Damascus Road' type moments when I was surprised by God with a very clear, unambiguous call to ordained ministry.  Given the path that followed, it was as well it was that obvious, otherwise I might have given up many times over along the way.  My call, from 2 Timothy 4: 1 - 5 (God's very off beat humour), is something I return to often and always find the bits I didn't spot last time!

On 6th December 2003 I was ordained - along with a mega sense of relief that finally some church somewhere recognised the call.  The passages chosen - Matthew 25: 31 - 46 and Matthew 28: 16 - 20 - continue to inspire and challenge me.

On 7th December 2006 I will face my final interview with the EMBA Ministerial Development Group (Min Rec by any other name).  I am somewhat nervous about this, though people tell me I shouldn't be.  At the end of nine years of learning, growing, struggling, failing, trying, feeling inadequate, feeling excited, refusing to be discouraged, picking myself up from rejection and enjoying the moments when it all makes sense, if only for a moment, this interview marks the official 'end' of testing out the call to be a 'fully accredited Baptist minister.'  If it is confirmed then I get 'handshaked' next May!

So should I be celebrating?  Does it matter?  I'm not honestly sure!  This week's Baptist Times has a helpful and thought provoking article on using the title 'Rev' or 'Revd' - and while I agree with it pretty much, I kind of like having something to show for all the slog!  I don't believe that there was an ontological or sacramental change in any of these stages/events but at the same time they must have some kind of significance that I remember them.

One friend I shared this with said I sounded like Solomon Grundy - but I've yet to find out what happens on the 8th - 11th of December, or in what year!

So Happy Birthday (9th, 3rd or 0th) or not, this week feels fairly significant - and in the meantime a real Happy Birthday to Sam L and Sophia W who both reach 4 years old this week (now that is scary!) 

I am not sure if I should post this in blogland, where the whole world can read it, risking the possibility that the good people of Dibley and District will find it and misunderstand it.  I have debated deleting it or permanently saving it as a draft.  But then if we only post good stuff we become complicit in a culture that denies the reality of the negative, so, with apologies to any who find it and offended, here it is. 

Last night our diaconate and the diaconate of D+1 met to talk about 'next steps' in our disucssions, following on from the meeting in September.  Our folk had worked hard, and even got our members to discuss and agree some proprosals for a way forward, which we tabled.  All D+1 wanted to talk about was buildings.  This for them is the most important, most urgent topic.  All our talk about mission, about vision, even about God's guiding and Christ's mind was of less important than the bricks and mortar.

I'll be polite, I'll say I was disappointed.  I felt we were accused of rushing them to make impossible decisions (we asked that eachchurch formally commit to a merger process and, as part of that, for a commitment to agree to decide within the ~12 months that might take to work through, what they would do with their building as part of a merger).  I felt that there really was no common understanding of why we were engaged this process and that our friends really wanted to carry on as they are, knowing that within a matter of years they'll almost all be dead.  I came away discouraged and cynical - and unsettled and uncertain.  Indeed I was so wound up I literally bit a hole in my tongue while eating a chocolate biscuit by way of consolation!

When, oh when, will people get their heads around the fact that a church is NOT a building. Grrrr!

(Well, I feel marginally better now - blogging as catharthis?!)