Today is a first for us at church, at least in my time here...

Today we/I hand over the reigns to our students to lead worship for Education Sunday.  This is a really exciting, and everso slightly risky, undertaking.  I am not too concerned, since I know that most of them are very familair with leading, or participating in the leading of, public worship.  I know that they have planned meticulously (well two planning meetings and several texts/emails etc) and have asked me very pertinent questions.  I know, too, that they appreciate the responsibility they have to 'get this right'.  But it will be fun... an all age extravaganza, with crafts for the kiddies and a communion liturgy created by some of the students themselves.

So, this morning my duties are:

• set up the projection equipment (not something we use every week as our space is not ideal for it)
• sing with the choir
• take the role of the proud 'mum' watching her 'children' up on stage... (except that for certain minister friends of mine, this metaphor has some very unfortunate connotations)
• make sure I pick up any negative remarks and divert all the compliments to the students

It will be fantabulous - I am looking forward to it greatly.  Go H,G,G,E,M,M,N,C and anyone I've missed!

I think it is also the last service one of our Africans will be at before he leaves, in which case I'll nip in at the end to pray him on his way.

4th February 2012 is World Cancer Day

I wasn't sure whether to link this or not - I mean, cancer is by and large a problem for the wealthy west, where our bountiful lifestyles (and to a degree climates) mean that hunger, leprosy, TB, malaria, typhoid, and so on are not a problem for us.  Should we be worrying about the one-in-three in the west when every few seconds a child dies due to poverty (remember the 'click' campaign of 2005?).

Also, the video is very North American and as the boring non-drinking never-smoking, non-overweight, healthy-eating, regular-exercising person who still got cancer parts of it grate... it's not as easy as eating broccoli or getting screened (if that's even an option) or taking more exercise... but these things do help.

Anyway, everyone who reads this will either know someone affected by cancer or have cancer themselves, so irrespective of complex issues of justice, it does affect our lives.  So maybe you might want to check it out?

The pack for Christian Aid Week landed on my desk this week, and I was particularly struck by the quiz idea it contains... a paper quiz you can sell to frineds and neighbours for £1 (or more if they wish).  When I went online to see if I could download an electronic copy of what I assumed to be a Christian Aid-Scotland initiative, I found loads of quizzes for various regions of the UK, that look quite good fun.  Check them out and get raising money!

Clue for English readers... the first place on the East Midlands quiz is aka Juxta-Dibley in this part of blogland.

Yesterday our Bible Study group was looking at the idea of 'hope' as it is explored in 1 Peter 1.  We were invited to think about hope in adversity, specifically at a personal level.  How has hope sustained us through suffering or struggle?  I found myself pondering a more corproate view, however, that hope, or hopefulness, can have a communal expression, that somehow even if an individual feels lost or bewildered or afraid, yet the hope/hopefulness of ther wider community of faith sustains and supports them. 

There's nothing especially clever about this thought, it is merely an expression of what it means to hold to an understanding of the priesthood of all believers or, indeed, the affirmation of faith used in creed saying churches that runs along the lines "this is OUR faith, WE believe and trust..."

I have a suspicion that the darker side of much individualistic Christianity is that it has the potential to leave us adrift when times get tough, to fill us with guilt when our personal hopefulness flickers or fades, to leave us isolated in our hour of need.

The old, school assembly favourite 'Lord of all Hopefulness' uses plural pronouns throughout in its request that God comes alongside and brings hopefulness (and other belssings) in the whole of life.  Sometimes I think it is helpful to remind ourselves that we are in this together - that metaphors of bodies and buildings offer something valuable and vital about our life of faith which is less about individual piety and more about corproate hopefulness and trust.

The Presentation of the Infant Christ in the Temple. The official end of the Christmas season.

The day when candles for use in church (and sometimes in homes) for the year ahead would be blessed.

The date in 2005 when I joined other women ministers to stand at the end of Downing Street singing hymns and shouting 'Make Poverty History'

Also the date in 2005 when Dibley BC had a meeting with our much-loved RM to discuss an emergency HM grant to help pay for my ministry

The date in 2011 when I went into hospital for cancer surgery (the more significant date being the 3rd when the deed was done!)

The date in 2012 when I celebrate another 'first anniversary' in my personal calendar, and recall other meanings and memories of the date.

Some of my friends despair of my tendency to remember dates (but only ones that are significant in my tiny world!) whilst others, now and then, share with me their own calendars.

I like the fact that the Presentation Story is one centred on old people who have waited patiently through the trials of life for the fulfilment of God's promise.

Whilst blessing candles is not on my radar, I like the sense of gratitude it suggests, rather than taken-for-granted-ness of simply pressing a light switch.

It is scary to realise it is now seven long years since MPH, and how much is still to be done for that dream to come true.

And at a personal the last year has flown by - everyday the physical scars act as a reminder of where I've been, but emotionally, intellectually and probably spiritually, I am a very long way along the road from there.

Looking forward to lunch with a friend later on, then a Bible study with a lovely group of women (a group of lovely women) and then to enjoying the new carpet that was laid yesterday!

I like that somehow it is possible to make or find conections between the personal and the liturgical, the private and the public, the joy-filled and the troubling. So, I like Candlemas.

As I pondered, I recalled this prayer from Crumbs of Hope, written for a Candlemas/St Brigid's day/Imbolc service in a teeny church in east Manchester...

Divine Wonderer

We praise you for welcoming us into your world,

For the love and companionship of our families and friends,

For the people we meet when we're down at the shops,

For the acceptance and hospitality of our little church community.

Divine Fire,

We praise you for the crackles of fires in the hearth,

For the warmth and beauty of winter sun,

For the glimpses of new life we see in the streets around us

For the signs of hope we catch in the faces of people we meet.

Divine life,

We praise you for the beauty of winter,

For the cold glint of icicles hanging form drain pipes,

For the icing-sugar snow dusting the back yards of our houses,

For the new green shoots bursting up from the ground.

Divine Inspiration,

We praise you for the moments of fun and laughter,

For children making puppets and telling stories,

For the energy and imagination of local communities,

For the dreams and visions we nurture and offer tentatively to others.

(c) Clare McBeath and Tim Presswood

From Crumbs of Hope: Prayers for the City, pub. Inspire, page 20

available from BUGB or indeed, Clare and Tim!