Reflection on visit to Bath (1)

Whilst in Bath I took quite a lot of photos.  Some were of noticeboards or signs, to remind me of information.  Lots were of buidlings, or parts of buildings.  Some were things I *might* one day, if I remember, and if a suitable theme ever crops up, use in worship.  Some were touristy.  These four are of banners made by people in some way or other linked to the church I was visiting as part of their millenium celebrations - a teenager's lifetime ago now!

The banners represent, as is surely self-evident, the four seasons.  Each is composed of individual panels which have been skillfully joined together to form a coherent whole, a set of four wall hangings in four alcoves/recesses in the wall of one of the many rooms in the vast premises this congregation enjoys.  People of all ages and abilities completed anything from a small square (or rectangle) in a simple striped design, to a large and complex representation of a tree.  Some were part of the church fellowship. Others were 'service users' of organisations that use the faciltities on offer.  And still more were simply drawn in to the vision of creating the tapestries.  The church is, rightly, proud of these tapestries and what they represent, but there was a sense that they reflect a season now past in the life of the church.

That isn't wrong, indeed it is inevitable - the progression of seasons cannot be halted; it is part of life's "rich tapestry" if you'll pardon the dreadful pun.

There are numerous ways in which I can - and probably will - use these tapestries and their associated story as a resource for my own reflections... the diverse participation, the choice of theme, the decision on where to hang them and so forth being just those which immediately spring to mind.  But today, I find myself wondering in which season that congregation perceives itself to be, and why, and what that means for them as they move forward in to a time of significant change.  It feels wrong to post on here the content of what we shared in the evening service on Sunday, save to note that I reverted to one of the Biblical images/stories/parables that has most significantly impacted my own ministry and spirituality, that of the vine in John 15.

For that congregation, and for my congregation, and indeed for any congregation, there is value, even wisdom, in pondering in which season we find ourselves and what that means for now, and for the future.  For surely the cycle of seasons will move on again, we cannot prevent it.  The challenge, the opportunity, is, I guess to discover our part within it.

To everything a season

A time to design

A time to delegate

A time to stitch

A time to weave the errors inbto a new design

A time to gather panels

And a time to stitch panels together

A time to complete

A time to display

A time to delight in displaying

A time to celebrate

A time to return to the everyday

A time to look back nostaligcally

A time to look forward hopefully

Or apprehensively

Or excitedly

Or sadly

To everything there is a season

And a time to every purpose under heaven

God of all times and all seasons

God of this time and this season

Hold us in your love

Renew us in hope

And lead us in faith

For the sake of Christ

Amen

I have no idea if sabbatical can be used as a verb, but I am not concerned about grammatical idiosyncracies right at the moment.

I had a wonderful weekend in Bath, was shown generous and gracious hospitality by the church I visited and have plenty upon which to reflect over the next couple of days.  For now, though, just a few photos that capture something of the lighter side of the visit...

The beautiful, vaulted ceiling at Bath Abbey - look closely and you will spot a tiny saltire in the right hand boss: I only spotted it when I uploaded the photo from my camera to my laptop, and it made me chuckle.

In the quire at Bath Abbey, above the two ranks of choir stalls, are beautiful ornanamental angels.  Diametrically opposite the conductor is a bagpiping angel.  Another bit of humour.

Lastly, this little candle snuffer, which I bought in the gift shop at Bath Abbey and which was one of those "saw this and thought of you" moments, expect it wasn't you, it was me!  The 'Rev Cat' now has a place on my bookcase at home, and will serve as a reminder of a wonderful weekend.

Many, many thanks to everyone at MSBC, you gave me so much, and I am truly grateful.

All set now for my jaunt to Bath for the weekend, where I will meeting people at a city centre church, not so different from the Gathering Place, to talk about their work with students and how, more widely, they relate to their context.

Looking forward to it - just hope I don't melt!

Holly B Cat on guard duty so burglars beware!

Early start (train at 7:30 or thereabouts) so posting now.  Back early next week and will be posting about my experience.

This Sunday I will be the guest preacher at the church I am visiting... my name even appears their website, so no getting out of it either for them or for me!  This "hit and run" form of preaching is one I don't do very often anymore, and it has demands on the preacher very different from those of preaching week in, week out, in one place.

For those who think I am very organised, maybe I should mention that I was sent the complete order of service, minus Bible reading(s) nearly three weeks ago... call to worship, responsive bits and all the hymns already chosen.  That was interesting, because rather than starting with a Bible reading or a theme and working 'outwards' to the hymns etc, I found myself working 'inwards' from the hymns to find some sort of threads and thence Bible readings that will work with them.

I don't want to give away everything, just in case anyone from that church happens to reading this stuff, but one of the ideas I am playing with involves setting alongside each other these verses (emphasis mine):

Genesis 1:27

So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

and

Galatians 3:28

There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

I am playing with the idea of rendering 'male and female' as 'male-and-female' (since Genesis 1 does not make any such disctinction in the animal kingdom, there must some sort of significance in noting it for humans and of course Genesis 2 et seq takes a trajectory whereby 'male-or-female' becomes increasingly significant.

Probably most of what I'm mulling won't make the cut, and probably it's not linguistically justified... but it is interesting to ponder why if male-and-female bears the image of God and is divinely decreed 'very good' in Genesis 1 that Paul, in Galatians 3, declares that in Christ 'male-and-female' is a redundant distinction.  Perhaps the term has simply become too corrupt, too divisive... and perhaps I'm just missing the point!

Much as I love preparing sermons, I am intellectually and spiritually very tired... after this week it will be good to have a longish break from it.

Slathering on the Factor 50 sunscreen and making sure I had long sleeves as well, was a good thing, as my meeting this morning ended up as almost two hours al fresco at a well known coffee shop chain a couple of minutes from the church I was visiting.

My meeting was with the person who is designated as 'Pastor of Young Adults' in a team ministry in a relatively large Baptist church.  Out of their 200-ish folk around 40 are in this category, many, but not all, students at their local university.  They are a 'student church' (i.e. one that the CU funnel people towards, though to be fair one of a number in that city).  Proportionally, then, not so different from us, though we are not a student (or any other demographic label) church.

It was interesting to hear of the work they do - pretty similar to our own, if a deal more formalised in terms of organisation and more explicitly resourced, in terms of people and pennies.  There were a few useful ideas to ruminate upon, which is a good thing.  Overall, though, I came away encouraged that we are doing a very similar thing.  The big difference, inevitably, is that they have strong links with the CU, which we don't, and that they are seen as a student church, which we aren't.  I suspect there is scope for us to develop links with the still very small and fragile SCM work in Glasgow, and to be a little less reticent about who and what we are.

Good practices we seem to share include:

• Freshers' week events
• Student lunches (though they are far more developed in this)
• Knowing students names and fields of study early on
• 'Spotting' students and linking them in
• Involving students, who are happy to, in the 'normal' life of the church
• Trying to listen to want students would value

Things we might want to consider are:

• Use of social media (secret or closed FB groups)
• Links to church families as well as general student stuff (i.e. small number of students having lunch/dinner in people's homes now and then)
• Is there a place for student/young adult Bible study/home group?

Things where we may be doing especially well are:

• Relating to overseas students, including those with limited English
• Keeping long term links with our 'alimuni' - though I expect we could develop this further

So all in all, a good morning's work.  Now I am free to melt a little!!