A busy few weeks coming up one way an another...

On Monday I begin a module on mentoring with Scottish Baptist College.  This is a pilot of a new undergraduate course and I am interested to see how it works.  A great opportunity to meet people and build a few relationships.  And by the end of the course presumably I will be qualified as a mentor for the third time in my life.  I'm looking forward to it (even if it does mean yet another round of compulsory journal writing).

At the end of this month, last minute hold ups notwithstanding, I will move to my lovely new manse, joining the ranks of city ministers who live in flats rather than houses, having no massive lawn to mow (bliss!) and the pleasure of being above the street lights so I can see the stars.

I am also about to switch my 'day off' from Monday to Friday for the duration of Lent.  This is partly because the college course is on Mondays and partly because the least-bad day for the Lent group I'm running was Monday.  I have found it disorientating taking Mondays off after eight years of Fridays, so it will be interesting to see how the old pattern feels now.

I am looking forward to beginning my 'stewardship' series on Sunday, complete with some multi-media stuff, and even to my first church meeting since moving north.

Otherwise things poddle along as usual and I will continue to post my ramblings, reflections and rubbish for your delectation and delight.

Tomorrow at the bottom of England are two special services at the centre of which are women of God whose paths have crossed mine to various extents.  In Kent a good friend of mine, Julie, who blogs here, is to be inducted to her new pastorate and in Hampshire the thanksgiving service will be held for the life of the young BMS worker Fay Martin who died in Afghanistan.  As it happens, both women were pictured in last week's Baptist Times, and both were met during my time in Leicestershire.

These two women are (were) very different in their experience and expectations of Christian discipleship and service, yet each had heard and responded to God's call on her life.  Fay's path crossed mine only for a week, whilst Julie has become a firm friend with whom many coffees and sandwiches were shared in "Mrs B's" cafe where we put the church to rights, if only fleetingly.

This Saturday I will pause for a moment to think of the two gatherings, one full of joy, one a place of bittersweet remembering, and I will give thanks to God for the blessings these two have brought to God's world.

In these moments of pause, when joy and sorrow are juxtaposed, when beginnings and endings sit side by side, I find I glimpse something of the mystery of life in all its fullness.

Thank God for those hear the call, and having heard offer their simple 'yes' to walk in the footsteps of Jesus to Calvary and beyond.

Yesterday evening I went to my first Churches Together meeting.  Nothing inherently exciting about that.  Let me try again!  Yesterday evening I went with a couple of other folk from my church to the local Churches Together meeting.  So what?

As an English person that would be an obvious reaction, but in Scotland Baptist involvement in Churches Together is sporadic and, technically at least, unofficial.  A Scottish Roman Catholic nun I knew once described the Scottish ecumenical scene as being like a park bench - if too many people get on, someone gets off.  When the Catholics joined the Baptists left.  Things have moved on since then, and at a grass roots level there is a good smattering of Baptist ecumenical involvement but so far the BUS has not rejoined ACTS.

So, we met in one of the local C of S churches and I discovered how things work around here.

The one key thing that we agreed on - after having to go to a show of hands at one point! - was to hold hustings for the upcoming General Election/Westminster Election (depending which sub-British nationality you claim to be!).  It seemed a very long discussion, but in the end we opted for a Sunday evening hustings and an eve of election prayer gathering.  Some were uneasy with a Sunday hustings, and asked what would become of the evening services (cancel them just this once....?) and others were unclear why we'd want to hold a prayer meeting on the eve of the election, but in the end we got there.  And I think that what we have ended up choosing is a good model.

By holding the hustings on a Sunday evening and the prayer meeting on a week night we subvert everyone's expectations - it isn't the 'obvious' way round.

By advertising the events as Churches Together (by any other name) it sends a clear signal that we are on the same side in thinking this is an important public topic.

By holding the hustings in the premises of one tradition and the prayer meeting in that of another we show that this is not the initiative of any one Christian tradition or any one political opinion.

There seems to me something instinctively good that there is both a hustings and a prayer gathering.  The former allows absolutely anyone to ask the various candidates their questions and for those of faith to be informed in their thinking and praying about their electoral choices.  The latter allows absolutely anyone to pause on the night before the vote and consciously to bring to God the needs of the nation (i.e. UK in this case) and the work of parliament as well as their voting decisions.  The reality is that we will all then go away and vote in different ways and worship in different traditions. At least we will remain united by a common belief that our believing and our behaving are inter-related and in that in some way our praying makes a difference.

To be in on the ACTS seems far more sensible than watching from the sidelines - but then as a thoroughbred-mongrel Christian I would say that wouldn't I?!

With the recognition that it is now only months until the next UK General Election, the various denominations and theological thinkers are giving guidance to churches on hosting hustings and who not to invite and why it is right so to do.  And intuitively I agree - the extremist parties are good at interpreting an invitation to be present as an endorsement of their views (bit like the rest of us really!) and it is important not to be naive.

But...

Having lived in an area with an extremist local councillor at both district and county levels I began to see it wasn't so simple.  If these are your democratically elected representatives then 'don't touch' is not the most helpful response as it leaves you with no voice, no one to speak for you on issues that matter... it almost plays into exactly the extreme we want to avoid.  I was fortunate, the local structures where I was meant we had plural representation and there were other councillors I could have approached, but once it becomes MPs the same is not the case.

I know that BUGB and the C of E (and I am sure others) are quietly working at thinking creatively about what to do when it moves from hypothetical to real; about how to support churches in areas where extremist parties are in post.  I don't know what the answers are, I just know that as with most things the easy answers are usually the wrong answers.

As Baptist with our oh so proud claims of a history of defending freedom of conscience we have the challenge of recognising the freedom of others to stand for things we find abhorrent whilst seeking how to be a prophetic voice into that context.  Keep it hypothetical and it's easy; when it's on your doorstep and when it's real, well then the challenge really begins.

A few bits worth a look see:

Baptist Bookworm, an expert on the book of Revelation offers us some entertainment from QI here ... the video clip at least will not disappoint!

Maggi Dawn alerts us to a new book by Brian McLaren here ... the purists can be a bit sniffy about McLaren's theology but for so many ministers it rings true.  This will be on my 'to buy' list when the bank balance has recovered from my latest round of biliophile indulgences!

Craig reflects on the latest from the Pope here and recongises the tensions of liberty, justice and integrity.