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.

If it sounds like alternative lyrics to the children's action song, well, it possibly could be.

Way back at the start of October, on my first Sunday at the Gathering Place we, or rather the children, planted some hyacinth bulbs and pondered the parable, from Mark, of the farmer who plants the seeds and then gets on with life whilst it grows.  And so we have got on with life for the last four months, and the Sunday school have loyally tended the bulbs as they grew, at first in a dark cupboard and then on a high shelf where they wouldn't get knocked over. Last Sunday the room where the children meet was filled with the heady scent of hyacinths in full bloom and three enormous purple heads of flowers were a delight to behold.  With further flowers on the way, the hyacinths were moved to the main room and now everyone can enjoy the sight and smell of these wonderful flowers.  Somewhere in there is a 1 Corinthians 3:6 moment: I bought the bulbs, the children tended them but it is God who gave the hyacinths their beauty and scent.

Also in the main room is a corner known as the Snug where we display craft work produced by the children and young people.  As part of their work relating to TLM they had heard the story of the ten lepers cleansed by Jesus, of whom one returned to say thank you.  They had cut out and decorated giant letters to spell out THANK YOU and each letter was decorated with words and pictures of things they were grateful to God for.  Among the more obvious candidates I spotted 'toes', 'legs' and 'nervous system.'  I am pretty sure that some of the inspiration for this was their learning about leprosy which can damage these parts of the body.  Nevertheless, it was for me a moment of 'wow' as the little ones led my thoughts to gratitude for the tiniest and most overlooked/taken for granted aspects of my own body.  On Sunday we begin our stewardship series looking at our talents/gifts/skills and will be using my favourite 'body of Christ' passages from Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12.  In the past when I have preached on these passages I have commented on the importance of big toes and opposable thumbs as well as armpits, finger nails and diverse bodily orifices (always guaranteed to get a few quizzical looks!  But surely these are among the 'treat with special honour' bits?).

It is always good to spot how things connect, how the belief that God is alive and active (about which we thought last week) is glimpsed in these odd moments of 'synchronicity' or 'God-incidence' or 'serendipity' or whatever language your prefer.

So, altogether now.... 'hyacinths and legs and toes....'