This evening I visited the chapel at Glasgow's Western Infirmary for the first and last time, sharing in a poignant and beautiful service/ceremony to mark its closure along with the hospital in a few weeks time.

I have spent many hours at the Western... twice in A&E as a patient, umpteen times in Clinic 5 (breast clinic) and even more in MAU, F1, F2, G2, G3 and level 10 visiting folk from church.  The privilege of holding the hand of very sick people... The anxiety and the relief of results... the cup of tea from a china cup on the day I learned what fear actually is... the conversations in the car park or in lifts...

As the Western closes and services are sent elsewhere, an era ends.  The future will be fine, in time the concerns (some of which are really quite serious) will be overcome and we will all forget that once we sat in a tatty, draughty Victorian hospital that was built a year after the Gathering Place.  The memories will live on on the hearts of all for whom it was a place of work or a place of treatment.  I am grateful for the Western and was pleased to be there tonight to say 'goodbye'.

I still wish I knew the answer to that one!  So far today it has included...

Admin stuff before I left home

Putting a new battery in the clock in the church corridor

An important meeting off site

A phone call on an important and fairly urgent matter

A 'door-knocking' encounter from folk in crisis and needing support

Sorting out heating for a room hire where it seemed not to have kicked in on time, which involved both checking the timers and carting numerous heaters and fire guards around the building.

And it still isn't lunch time!

So of course, instead of work, I opt for the displacement activity of blogging.

As I've been preparing for Pentecost this week, it has struck me that almost everything I read about the Holy Spirit is 'functional' - about the work and purpose of the third person of the Trinity.  Which is not everso helpful when I am working with three of the symbols/metaphors each of which convey something of the mystery of this aspect of the divine.

My ideas have yet to coalesce in to anything coherent... I have two lines of thought neither of which quite works but hopefully between now and Sunday things will fall into place.  Given that the two strands of thought relate to ancient classical philosophy on the one hand and the legend of a coat of arms on the other, getting to a common end point is not going to be trivial!

This evening sees the start of five weeks of short Ignatian reflections.  I have to confess I've cheated and downloaded them from the Pray As You Go website rather than source them in written form or create my own.

I'm not always entirely sure that this style of reflection 'works' for me, but it is good to give a go over a sustained period of time.

As the summer break approaches, I am starting to reflect on the six month experiment we've shared and to wonder what might be helpful for folk when we recommence in the autumn.

I think I know what hasn't really 'scratched where people itched' but I'm not so sure I really known what the 'itches' are that people want to 'scratch', so I can see a busy time of exploring ahead.

If nothing else, it has been good for me to try some different things.

I always enjoy Baptist Assemblies, and I was really glad to be down in Peterborough for this year's one day BUGB-BMS Assembly.  A long way to go for a day conference, for sure, but well worth while.

The photo above is from the Big Picnic Communion where we were invited to gather on the 'green grass' in groups of about ten to eat our picnic lunches and share communion... gluten free bread and alcohol free juice.  I sat with friends from "the church that never called me" twelve years ago and it was good to do so.

(Minors covered with blobs for child protection reasons)

The wall of boxes symbolises the house made of living stones (1 Peter) and the bottom few layers bore the names of the ministers and missionaries recalled in the In Memoriam.... among them my successor at Dibley... and I was glad to be sat next to the minister who "preached me in" at the Gathering Place, as hearing the tribute paid to him (he should have been there at the end of his NAM period) left me in tears... way too close to home. 

On the foundations of those already named, the  newly commissioned Mission Partners (including ours from the Gathering Place) and end of NAM ministers placed boxes with their names on them.  Finally everyone in the auditorium was invited to add their name to a box (per row) which was then added to the wall.

Towards the end of the gathering we were invited to send one person per church to receive a box to take home with us.  I got this one:

Had these folk not added thier last names (I only put my first name) I would not have realised that these were folk I have known since I did a summer placement at their church back in 2000.

As we sat with our boxes, two older women in front of us started to chat to us.  I explained that these names were folk I knew from Manchester and how... Yes, they said, and the new minister there came from our church in Sheffield.  The conversation progressed and I discovered that these two women grew up with a member of the Gathering Place whose father was their minister at the time.  (And if memory serves, a church where I know the current minister).

So I have brought back a box already rich in connectedness, and it will finds its way into worship in the near future.