As part of our service this morning, I used some photos I'd taken in Auckland, New Zealand (from the War Memorial Museum and the Naval Museum) and a few from Tampere, Finland (relating to the civil war in 1918) set to music.  Unfortunately the file was too big to upload here, so instead I'll just have to share a few selected photos from NZ here ...

The translation of the Maori is:

Let there be peace

Let the sea glisten like greenstone

May the shimmering light forever

Dance upon your path

... thoughts from Graham Kendrick that are well worth taking six minutes to listen to.  My congregation sing really well, we are blessed with gifted musicians and a lovely choir, a willing congregation and a readiness to try new stuff.  Sometimes when I go to big events the singing ranges from bad to dire... this helps to explain why...

As I prepared for this Sunday's service, I happened across a recording of one of the poems I want to use produced by Channel 4.  As the video ended on You Tube, as usual, others popped up - it seems there are a whole set of them...

'Dulce et Deecorum' read by Christopher Eccleston

'Last Post' read by Vicky McLure

'Suicide in the Trenches' read by Stephen Graham

'Attack' read by Gemma Arterton

'The Soldier' read by Sophie Okonedo

'The Last Laugh' read by Sean Bean

'In Times of Peace' read by Noel Clark

use 'google' to find them - well worth a look

They are all beautifully read.  I've opted to share this one, which is probably one of the most classic war poems there is...

At the end of the summer, I happened across a poetry anthology called "1914 Poetry Remembers" which I bought, took home and promptly buried under a heap of other papers and forgot about until I was clearing the decks for a house guest!

It is a wonderful collection of old and new poems (and a small amount of prose), editted by Carol Ann Duffy, which invites the reader to remember and reflect.  A number of top contemporary poets were invited to chose one Great War work and then to write something themselves; the result is this book.

On Sunday we'll be using a small selection of the poems, some classic (Yeats, Brook) some contemporary (Duffy, Dharker and others) along with some images, video clips and Bible readings.  I hope that this slightly different approach, set alongside a very traditional 'Act of Remembrance' will help us achieve something purposeful, allowing each one to find some "strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow".

Blog lite at the moment - my weeks are becoming madly busy: mostly good, and much of it the interruptions that make ministry.  If you haven't seen the book, go and look for it... published by Faber & Faber ISBN 978-0-571-30215-4.

And now... to participate in a Bible study on Wisdom of Solomon !

Baptist Assembly in Scotland - like Baptist Assembly in England, and I'm sure in Wales - is always a mix of bane and blessing, interesting and irritating, engaging and exhausting.  And, as ever, I try to focus in my public reflections on what struck me in a positive way.

Two things especially stuck with me, one from Rev Dr John Upton of BWA and the other from Rev Ian MacCauley, a Glasgow minister, and to which I've added the odd thought of my own.

John Upon, focussing on the Ezekiel vision of the valley of dry bones and the events of Pentecost, began with the illustration of hearing a late night radio interview with his favourite gospel singer, a softly spoken woman whose singing voice is rich and powerful.  Asked by the interview how this could be so, she evidently replied "It's the Spirit o' God, honey, it's the Spirit o' God".  What really struck me, though, was the link made between the question from God "can these bones live?" - to which Ezekiel has no useful answer.... "I don't know" - and the heart cries of hurting, marginalised or victmised people.... "Can I ever live....?"  "Will I ever be free...?" or whatever it might be.  Humanly we are powerless to help - but God calls us to 'prophesy to the breath/wind'...

I found myself pondering whether the "cry of dereliction" of Jesus on the cross is, in fact, a hinge-point where his heart cry, fearing he has been abandoned, is simultaneously the voice of God substituted for all who feel abandoned... "can these bones live?  is there hope?  am I truly worthless and abandoned?"

This seemed to link backwards to the previous evening which included a call to vulnerability, based on the John 21 account of Jesus resurrection appearance to his followers.  "Show me your scars, then I will believe" was reread as a call to vulnerability, openness, authenticity... the idea that unless or until we are honest and open about our struggles, willing to reveal our 'scars', people have no reason to believe us when we say faith makes a difference.  No room for faux happiness, happy vacuous Christianity.  On the contrary, it is brokenness, our scars, our willingness to admit when we mess up or fall short, that gives us credibility.

Now, I'm not sure that that is what anyone else heard, but it doesn't worry me in the slightest, because the Spirit o' God, honey, the Spirit o' God blows where it will... maybe it simply resonated with, and authenticated, my own endeavours to open and honest (with appropriate boundaries), something which seems to connect with at least some people, some of the time.