So, after yesterday's blog-frenzy (four posts is a lot, even by my standards!) it will all slow down again for a few days.

Today I am planning to catch up some admin type stuff, some sabbatical related, some domestic, and then do some more mulling over the two visits I've done whilst baking cakes to take to the friends I am visiting this weekend.

A weekend visit to friends is something of a luxury in my line of work, and indeed that of anyone who has week-by-week commitments in a church... musicians, Sunday School leaders, church secretaries, people who operate the sound desk or projector, and so-on.  I have a feeling that there is a risk that ministers grow so accustomed to working Sundays that we don't always appreciate that, but for these volunteers, our Sunday's would be very different.  So, as I head off for the kind of weekend that many 'in the pew' can take for granted, I spare a thought, and a prayer, for those whose commitment to the life of their congregation can make such luxuries a near-impossible dream, hoping that I won't forget once I am back in harness!

Thank you, God,

For Church Secretaries, collating the 'notices' or 'intimations' week by week

Making sure dates and times and places are announced

Pastoral news shared

And the visiting preacher cared for

Thank you, God,

For organists and pianists, guitarists and saxophonists,

For vocalists and SATB choirs,

And those who press 'play' on the 'Wesley' or CD player

Ensuring there is music in worship

Thank you, God,

For Sunday School leaders, preparing sessions

Hunting high and low for this video or that craft item

Sharing news and stories

With 'classes' small or large

Thank you, God

For the ones who put out the chairs (and put them away)

Who bakes cakes and pour tea,

Who hand out books or leaflets

Who welcome friend and stranger

Thank you, God

For hymn number board fillers

And PowerPoint preparers

For PA woofers and tweeters (whatever they may be!)

For door unlockers and alarm switcher-offers

Thank you, God

For flower arrangers (and distributors)

Water jug fillers

Toilet roll replenishers

Offertory counters and night safe deliverers

Thank you, God,

For those who, Sunday by Sunday,

Turn out, rain or shine,

To make worship work

By working on a Sunday

When I was planning my sabbatical visits, I had hoped to visit St Andrews Street Baptist Church, Cambridge, a church in which two Gatherers were in membership at different times, along with numerous other people I know through the wonderful world of Baptists.  This proved impractical, as their minister was due to retire at the end of June, and indeed he did.  I was disappointed, but could clearly see why the Diaconate would not want some random minister turning up to ask about their student work.

As I noted earlier today, the minister of another Cambridge church died suddenly at the beginning of July.  Truth is, had I been scheduled to go to Cambridge, I would have arranged to meet with friends from that church, and would then have been drawn in to trying to support them in their grief and loss.  And, harsh though it may sound, that would have been the wrong thing to do.

I do not, cannot, believe in some form of predestination or fore-knowledge that allowed the circumstances to work out as they did... but I do feel that somehow, the mysterious God is active in these situations, if only at a macroscopic level.  There is a lot that makes little or no sense, humanly speaking; a lot that seems like rather an ugly coincidence, but I do feel that it 'was not meant' for me to visit Cambridge this summer.

God of this place, God of all places;

God of this time, God of all times;

God of life, God beyond death:

Embrace in your love those who mourn

Restore those who feel overwhelmed

Bring new hope and new energy,

New vision and new direction

To these two Cambridge churches

To the EBA of the BUGB

And to all who have been part of the story

Past or present

And all who will be part of the story

Present or future

Grant your peace

Amen

One of the great joys of slowing donw has been reading novels!  In the last fortnight or so I have read two and half stories. 

One of them I had been slogging through since early in the year; it demanded a lot of determination to wade through and to be honest did not really repay the effort, save to say that I'd read it.  Interesting then, that this week a book has been identified as being pseudonymously penned by the same author, and deemed excellent within its genre.

Another of them was what my mother used to term a 'penny dreadful' - an easy read, women's magazine style story set mostly in a twee version of highland Scotland and ending happily.  An easy read, ideal for a long train journey and utterly undemanding.

The third was one recommended to me by another minister as a good read: Kate Atkinson's Behind the Scenes at the Musuem, combined ease of reading with an interesting approach and a reasonable plot.  I enjoyed reading it, and in the closing pages found a couple of quotes worth pondering...

'"The past is what you leave behind in life, ..." "Nonsense ... The past's what you take with you."'

'...words are the only things that can construct a world that makes sense.'

Kate Atkinson, behind the Scenes at the Museum, pub. Black Swan, 1995, Kindle edition

The second quotation struck me, I guess, because it states much of what theories of semantics and semiotics refer too, and which the Post Modern philosophers get all excited about as words are 'slippery' and their meaning is determined (only) in context.  Words construct a world that makes sense - true - but arguably they do so best, or potentially only, in a specific context.

More interesting is the first one, which seems to me to recognise an important truth about the ways we may relate to our past, indivudally or collectively.  Is it what we leave behind, completed, finished, done with, or is it what we carry with us, shaping and informing our future?  My MPhil research was predicated on the second perspective, but maybe needs a bit of unpacking/unpicking?  Is our past a 'burden' or a 'shackle' that holds us back and prevents us from becoming who we are meant to be?  Or is it a 'gift' or a 'resource' from which we can draw insights and understandings that will help us become the people we are meant to be?  Or is it siumltaneously both?  Or is it neither, being simply neutral. Nothing I haven't already spent loads of energy exploring, but quite interesting to see, clothed in fiction, explorations that were not a million miles from my own ideas.

I have no idea what the title of the novel has to do with the story, save that it cleverly uses a series of artefacts as prompts for excurses to tell tales from the 'past'.  I did half expect it to end up with a set of seemingly random artefacts in a single display case and that the book was the underlying story, but no.  The link is, it seems, the facades of houeses from past times which form part of the York Castle Museum... so, a story of what may have lain behind the scenes inone such house.  An enjoyable read, and a bit of food for thought too.

It is a decade now since a church, to which I was convinced God had called me, voted not to do so.  A few months later, I was called to Dibley, where I spent just shy of six good, mostly happy, and certainly formative, years.  That church called Neil.  I was pleased for them, and for him, and hoped it would be a happy partnership.  Sadly, news reached me this morning to say that Neil had died, very suddenly, leaving a wife and four sons.

My heart aches for this church - this is the seond time their minister has died 'in harness' - and for his family, coming to terms with his loss. 

I only met Neil a couple of times and can't say I knew him, but his story and mine intersected, however briefly, and I am saddened by the news.  No platitudes about calling home, no nice explanations, just an aching ache and reminder that all we ever have is 'today', so must make the very best of it.

RIP Neil, embraced in the love of God and the hope of Christ.

Way back, when I was about a quarter the age I am now, we were given a load of Roman names for cities and towns to learn - I have no idea what purpose this was intended to serve, but it does mean I have Eboracum and Aquae Sulis engraved on my memory!  Too much reading Rosemary Sutcliffe stories, probably!!

I spent a lovely evening with a small group called Students Together (or ST) on the Friday evening of my visit.  Three women of retired age are at the heart of this work, ensuring that there is always food to share, a warm welcome and someone to listen.  Because it is out of term time only three students were there - two overseas post grads and one former stduent who hangs on in there, being a similar age to the others (and he had cooked the most divine chicken and roast vegetables!).

The University of Bath is one of those 'at the top of the hill' so some distance removed from the centre, and all students have to travel in to church.  At the same time, the church is just about as far from the railway station as we are from our local SPT Subway, albeit that they are in a straight line and we aren't.  Rather than actively going out to find students, the church has 'spotters' who look out out for younger people who happen along, especially overseas students, for whom they so clearly have a heart.  Listening to the students' stories it was interestig to see how they had ended up at this specific church... from a missed train to being brought by a friend.  It was as interesting to hear why they stayed... something they experienced in the worship (very different from what they had known elswhere) and the fact that they felt they were valued and belonged (people knew their names, their courses, their personal concerns, etc).  It was equally clear that the three women who undergird this work enjoy and benefit from it too, building strong bonds with the students.

Students Together is about food and friendship/fellowship; an allied group ST2 is a Bible study and discussion group that operates on what was described as a 'spiritual direction' model... what is going on for you now (or in the world that concerns/inpsires you), what might the Bible say to this (and through it, what might God be saying) and where next.  So actually also pretty much a pastoral cycle/theological reflection approach.  It runs regularly and attracts a mix of committed and curious, and where appropriate more 'introduction to this thing called Christianity' is explored.  Any who come to faith are encouraged to consider Baptism only once they have returned home and are settled in a church community.

Good practices we seem to share include:

• Spotting young people who come to worship with us (though we don't have official 'spotters')
• Introducing young adults to other young adults
• Offering something that attracts and keeps some students - of which 'stillness', depth in preaching and honesty/authenticity seem to be a significant part
• Knowing our students, more than 'just' their names (though they were better at this than us, I feel)
• Delighting in the students and young adults who want to share with us
• Having 'alumni' who return for visits
• Recognising the transience of student life, and the need for rootedness in a fiath community

Things we might want to consider include:

• A slightly more regular/structured pattern of student social gatherings, over food, not always on a Sunday but possibly midweek
• Developing a student/young adult Bible study/reflection/exporation group in a non-directive model that works for us

Things where we are doing especially well

• Actively reaching out to students, epsecially in and around freshers' week.
• Awareness of, and attention to, individual needs e.g dietary, (dis)ability, etc.
• Involvment of students in worship life of the church
• We do a mighty fine freshers' tea!!

Lots more good stuff to think about - so thank you Aquae Sulis BC for allowing me to glimspe the excelllent student work you are doing, and to learn with and from you.