This post is really for those kind, loyal readers who drop by regularly to read about life in Dibley, my attempts at research and other random writings.  Regrettably, I feel I need to take a break from blogging - not because I'm bored with it, au contraire, as the saying goes, but because in my crazy world something has to give, and this, whilst fun, is the only thing on my burgeoning to-do list that is not an 'overwhelming A' in terms of priority.

Church life is incredibly busy, with pastoral issues arising daily - we are still getting regular deaths (mostly at one remove, granted) and serious illnesses, and it now takes me seven hours to get round the four people who are in three hospitals from Staffordshire to Leicester (I do them all on one day otherwise it's three days gone).  My five deacons are all dealing with significant 'stuff' and I think there is only one family in the church for whom nothing major is going on - though I hesitate to say that lest something arises!  On top of that, plans are in hand for Christmas outreach - which is looking good, but has already had to be cut down due to lack of bods to do the work.

Research work is going nowhere fast.  On Saturday I'd set aside the morning to do some reading, and managed a chapter introducing Gadamer before the phone rang with the latest pastoral crisis.  The upshot is that if I am to get any reading or thinking done then - and justify spending  ~10% of my net income on university fees - then I can't also spend time typing this stuff.

So, unless I get a sudden urge to post a bit of liturgy, uncover an earth shattering insight in Baptist history/historiography, experience something incredibly funny or tragic, or discover how to squeeze 25 hours into 24 it will be quiet in this corner of blogland for a while.  I will, along with many others, be posting at Hopeful Imagination during Advent, and will still check out (and maybe comment on) other's stuff from time to time.

In the (in)famous words 'I'll be back' but until then take care, Shalom and other suitably holy hugs.

For various reasons, I am only leading one service during Advent that is not a Christmas service (if that makes sense!) and I want it to be somewhere I can sing song of the wonderful Advent hymns/carols that express the mystery of waiting.  So I will almost undoutbedly be choosing to sing 'There's a light upon the mountains,' 'Earth was waiting,' 'Let all mortal flesh keep silence,' 'Wait for the Lord,' and of course 'O Come, O come, Emmanuel.'   Not everyone likes the wonderfully wistful melancholic tunes to which these are set, but for me they are truly magnificent.

I am considering using the O Antiphons as the basis for the service - possibly with several mini reflections rather than a sermon - but am struggling to find anything much by way of resources (a few RC things that give possible readings, guaranteed to freak your average Baptist who wouldn't know an apocrypha if it bit them).  I am after, I think, images, poems, pieces of music maybe, that capture something of the mystery of waiting which can be justaposed with or linked to these great names of Jesus, for whom we wait.  Anyone got any ideas?!

For those who know the context, this service needs to relate to the good folk of Dibley and D+1!

I have just been tagged by Baptist Bookworm with this potentially amusing meme:

The Rules

1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they've been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

So, in the spirit of general nonsense in which it is intended, and in no particular order, here are six things you probably never wanted to know about me but now you do!

1. For two years at primary school I sat opposite Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime (and beat him in every subject except English!); our class teacher from '3P' Miss Cottingham is mentioned fleetingly in A Spot of Bother.
2. My first car was a bright yellow Ford Cortina with a black vinyl roof (!!!) - the only three door version after one of my brothers reversed it into a gate post and my Dad muffed replacing the affected door.  After six months I changed to buying dark blue super-minis which no brothers ever want to drive!
3. In a recent conversation about what we'd come back as if Buddhists were right (the things theologians get up to!), I reckoned I'd have to be a lab-rat given the number of times in my life I've been part of an educational experiment from student teachers, first-time lecturers to brand new post grad courses.
4. I can recite the alphabet backwards as quickly as forwards, but am not good at saying the 14th and 15th letters as a single word...
5. I am the author of a scientific report that runs to 30 volumes, each about 50mm thick, and of which you can find the mere 9 volume sequel referred to in Google Scholar if you type in PTSE and Gorton (that's my bit of posing) (btw 29 of the 30 volumes are sets of tables of numerical results)
   
6. I once won a prize for making an embroidered seahorse!

Ok, so now I have to tag some more people who haven't already been 'got': Julie, Lucy, Angela, Simon, Richard and Tim (that's a nice gender balance, isn't it?!)

Just a bit of fun for a cold, dull afternoon.

OK, so maybe that's not such a rare occurrence, or certainly not when I'm chairing them 'cos I make sure we stay on task, but this one might not have been since it was mainly a case of reporting back on things done, flagging up items that need to be picked up after Christmas and sharing pastoral news.

Just this once, I moved pastoral news to the end of the Agenda - it usually comes first - because I wanted us to have a decent chunk of time for praying together which would include the pastoral stuff.  And this was the good bit!  We split into small groups for prayer (plenary open prayer just never happens, everyone gets too embarrassed for some reason, and we sit in silence) and prayed for a full half hour before silence fell.

And we were still done by 8:50, having started at 7:30.  This should earn me a few Brownie points with those who like to be done by 9pm and from those who think we don't pray enough.

Already some interesting ideas have been mooted regarding the bequests - including the possibility of buying things that will benefit the wider community!  If that comes to pass I will be delighted.  We shall see.

At tonight's Church Meeting we will be beginning to consider how best to employ some money - a useful sum - that has come to us in the form of a bequest and a couple of 'in memoriam' gifts.  We are keen - at least those of us in the know - that the money is purposefully employed and not spent on, say, a lovely silver rose bowl that ends up shoved in a cupboard.  We don't want to lose this money into general running costs, because it is a gift, but I am struck by a dilemma in this approach, which means, were the amounts larger, our hands would be tied.

Around two decades ago, the church received what was then a substantial bequest, which meant that the church moved to a zero HMF grant for two years, after which the money was exhausted and the former grant level needed.  On one hand, I think it is fair that if a church comes into money, this should be reflected in their continued support from HMF, on the other, why should an already poor church (we have never had substantial reserves) have to use a gift to pay its bills?  It's a tricky one.  The amount of money we have now received would fund for example, a data projector (freeing up mine!), underwrite a good outreach event and leave us something perhaps to plant a tree or put a bench in our 'memorial garden' (grave yard) if people wanted a permanent reminder (even thoguh I detest plaques with a vengeance!) but would not be enough to take us out of HMF for more than a couple of months.  I can't help feeling it is more honouring to these departed friends that their bequest serves mission and ministry purposes rather than propping up our existence.

A non-funded church would not have this dilemma, or at least not in the same way.  It feels a bit 'off' that the poor aren't allowed to enjoy the 'expensive perfume' but must pay the gas bill or room hire, whilst the rich can indulge their whims.

Anyway, we won't decide before January how to spend this money, but I hope that it is used wisely and well in the service of the Kingdom.