So the end of Fairtrade Fortnight and we marked it in our service this morning thinking of some of the complex issues of the freedom and responsibility we have as stewards of God's creation.  Everyone had a Fairtrade banana - one of which is counted in the Going Bananas total to which our local Co-op were contributing numbers from sales -  and some leaflets; badges were optional - several went.  We used Genesis 1 and Luke 4 (Nazareth manifesto) to inspire us to think about the creation that God declared 'bloomin' marvellous' (in my vernacular translation of Genesis) and what it means for us to 'rule over it' justly.

There are of course some glib, easy answers - but the issues are actually very complex.  What about British farmers and growers?  Shop assistants on zero hours contracts and paid just over minimum wage?  The hidden costs of items sold at 3 for 2 or B.O.G.O.F.?  The balance of ethical priorities - Fairtrade, Rain Forest Alliance, organic, farm assured, free range, dolphin friendly etc etc?  Is it right to fly in roses from Kenya even if they are Fairtrade when the carbon footprint is huge?  Is it right that children in Pakistan have to work to support their families?

We can't solve it all in one day but we can do something.  Me?  I will fill in the postcard asking a shop to stock more (in this case, any) Fairtrade products and hand it in at my corner shop.  I will encourage my church to (finally) register itself as a Fairtrade Church.  I will continue to wrestle with the complex issues and to wonder what happens to those employed in unfair-trade when I shift brand to one that is certified Fairtrade.

There is an awful lot of Baptist history to be found in books and a lot of the overviews - at least so far as English Baptist history is concerned - tell a consistent tale of the effective triumph of Particular Baptists.  Lesser known but vital to the story are the New Connexion General Baptists, of which Dibley is one of the earliest.  It gives me a mixture of odd pride and strange bewilderment to think that the new Connexion held some of their Assemblies, most probably, in the pub (then a farmhouse) opposite my front door and may well have worshipped in the wooden chapel that stood on what is now our graveyard.

The Tribe of Dan is a lovingly written work by Revd Dr Frank Rinaldi who tells the story of the emergence of this strand of Baptist Christianity alongside and amongst the framework knitting industry that spread across this area at the same time.  Sadly due to ill health, Frank needed editorial health in turning his PhD thesis into a book.  I count myself privileged to have been loaned the original manuscript a few years back when I was trying to uncover something of this story.  So big thanks to Graham Doel and others who did the editorial work - and if you want a few tiny glimpses of the glory days of Dibley Baptist Church when it was part of an exciting new movement spawned by Dan Taylor (Dan of the title) and centred on the delightfully named Barton-in-the-Beans have a read.

Sadly Barton is no longer a Baptist church (FIEC we think) but there is a tiny Barton and Dibley Trust which pays my folk the princely sum of £6 a year - when the interest rate exists!  I just wish I knew what it's original purpose was and what it's founders might make of it all...

Posting here today

Next Thursday I have to conduct a funeral for one of our folk, an older woman who died after a life of struggle but who had the most stunning smile and a faith that held out to the end despite agonising pain.  Among her requests are for everyone to wear something red (her favourite colour) which has presented me with some interesting dilemmas.  I also love red and have in my wardrobe a red suit for high days and holy days - but I sensed it would not go down well if I wore it to conduct the funeral.  Sounding out a couple of folk who will tell me straight they said, in their inimitable fashion, 'no mi duck that woon't be roit.'  The other red clothes I possess include a fleece, a couple of teeshirts, various tops, some socks and gloves - none of which would work with the expected black suit and clerical shirt.  I discounted my santa hats, my red Christmas hair ornaments and even the red beads which just wouldn't work with a clerical shirt, concluding I'd have to look for a cheap brooch somewhere or other.

I had mentioned to one of people I'd sounded out that what I really could do with was a red stole (or a 'vicar scarf' as I called it).  Tonight she came to 'thing in a pub' bearing a plastic carrier bag which she presented me with.  Inside was a very long, plain red scarf with incredibly long tassels - a perfect stole substitute, which she had spotted marked down to £1 in Primark.  She also offered me a tiny, red, heart-shaped pin badge (British Heart Foundation) whilst someone else said she had a brooch I could borrow.  In the end, whilst the men looked on in bewilderment, we decided that the scarf was 'the very indentical' and will be perfectly appropriate for a minister conducting a funeral.

For this moment I find myself thinking, who could wish for a more wonderful little flock?

So, last night we began our Lent studies which had the official title 'giving up' but is better summed up in the remark made by Rose* an absolutely wonderful 70-something eccentric Anglican of 'liberty and licence.'  The study centred on a couple of clips from Chocolat the first of which showed most of the  main characters in their unliberated state at the start of the story - the widow still trapped by the death of her husband 40 years earlier,  a victim of domestic violence trapped in a loveless marriage, the Comte engaged in a legalistic Lenten fast and so on.  As part of the discussions I invited those who were old enough (most of the group!) to recall aspects of life at the time the film was set (1959) mentioning that this was pre-Vatican II, rock and roll was just taking off and the 'swinging sxities' were just around the corner.  It was certainly enlightening and seemed to centre on issues around the sexual liberation for which that peiroid is remembered.  I can just imagine the conversation in the post office queue:

'So, you went to the Lent meeting last night.  Any good?'

'Well it was a bit racy!'

'Racy?  Really!'

'Yes, all we did was talk about sex.'

Not true of course - we also looked at the call of Jesus on his fishermen disciples and the encounter with the rich young man.  We talked about those who are called to give up material wealth and those who are called to employ their wealth to support them (eg those I refer to as 'Luke's wealthy women').  We talked about the value of abstinence for a season or for a lifetime and some of the things we now see as 'wrong headed' we were told in years gone by, such as the couple who recalled being told that if God called them they must be willing to give each other up to obey.  And we talked of freedom and responsibility, of church being counter-cultural yet accessible.

Seeming as we were talking about liberty and licence, the Youth Worker employed by one of the churches was telling 11-14 year olds that social networking websites are sinful... alas legalism and misguided protectionism still dog the church.

A good evening was enjoyed by those who took part and hopefully we all went home with things to ponder.

* Not her real name