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... and a few back?
Tomorrw's cluster service is preceded by a bring and share tea, an opportunity for folk from four churches to get to know each other better. So why have a few of my folk said "do we have to go for tea"? Well, no, but it would really be a shame if you didn't.
Why are Baptists so flipping independent?!
Today I've received (very partial!) details of a request to conduct a 'graveside only' funeral next week. I have agreed to take this on, largely because there is a major shortage of ministers in our area at the moment, and assuming that I can find a suitable liturgy from somewhere. As yet I do not know the age, circumstances or background of the deceased, but know that in this area such requests often come where there are few or no mourners, little overt faith connection and cremation is not desired.
So, a trawl through the obvious published candidates - including the green (current) edition of Funeral Services - which has turned up absolutely nothing for this precise circumstance. A web trawl found no liturgies, only a few examples of mass services (as in large numbers of burials at once, not RC communion services). Does anyone have any ideas?
My current plan is to do a fairly standard funeral but with no hymns (I'm not about to sing solo in the rain on a hillside!) and no address, though allowing a few moments for silent reflection/recollection. In other words something along the lines of:
Welcome
Scripture sentences
Gathering Prayer
Reading
Silent reflection
Prayers of thanksgiving & commendation
Committal
Blessing
If there are family members, I will meet them to see if they want anything special to occur and/or any poems etc read, but I can't see it being a long drawn out affair.
But if anyone out there has done this kind of service and has some ideas or liturgies I can use, please let me know.
Thank you.
... called Dibley BC.
So, yesterday's church meeting looked at upcoming services/events and a change to service times beginning in January. For a church that, five years ago, expected 10:30 to 11:30 morning and 6 - 7 evening exactly with no loitering and no variation to routine we must have undergone something of a Copernican revolution to where we are now!
Here's the autumn programme....
7 Sept - joint service at D+1
14 Sept - cluster service and tea at D+2
21 Sept - own service, probably at Dibley Meths as school not available
28 Sept - B2C service at school, with tea
5 Oct - Harvest service, collection of non-perishables for homeless and women's refuge
12 Oct - Songs of praise in sheltered housing complex and tea
19 Oct - One World Week at D-2 Anglicans (on the basis south needs to be minus if north is plus!)
26 Oct - Baptismal service and tea at D+2
2 Nov - joint service at D+1
9 Nov - Remembrance service at school
After that it settles down for a few weeks!!
From January we begin a trial of a new approach where we'll meet at 10a.m. on Sundays 1 and 2 and 3 p.m. on Sundays 3 and 4. This is an attempt to balance the needs of the more frail, elderly folk (for whom afternoons are better) with those of the middle-aged folk for whom Sunday is their day for family. We'll see how it goes! Oh, Sunday 5, when it occurs will be 10 a.m. though in a flippant moment we did wonder if we could all take the day off...!
So every Sunday, we're on our way, for we're a wandering, flexible church here at DBC!
Tonight was our bi-monthly Church Meeting. It was fine: good-natured, the service time review went through virtually on the nod, we decided what to do for harvest which is being squeezed in on 5th October (apparently it's correct Sunday!) and all was hunky dory.
One of the big parts of our meetings is always pastoral news, it gets long and laborious, sometimes being a list of sniffles and broken finger nails. At the moment it is very important; almost everyone has some tough challenges to face, lots of serious illness, several bereavements, complex family problems and so on. We spent quite a bit of time sharing and then had a time of prayer when each person was asked to pray for the person on their left, then their right (we sit in a horseshoe), then one of those we'd mentioned (which extended to friends and neighbours). At the end of the meeting we had ten minutes open prayer on 'any topic people felt they wished to pray for' which included those in the USA commemorating 9/11. This is when I love my people - they understand something of the import of prayer for others.
Got home and within ten minutes the phone rang - one of my members to let me know that my predecessor but 4 (I think!) a minister still in pastoral ministry had had a heart attack and died this morning. He had certainly been a great encourager to some of my folk, a regular decent guy who enjoyed a pint and a chat, and was now serving a church 0.5 miles from Heathrow airport. Our thoughts and prayers are with his widow and his church tonight.
But this is getting a little too often for my already fragile congregation, so, if you're listening God - Enough Already!
Today I had my research panel meeting at Manchester, which went fine and was helpful. I also got my feedback on last year's work - which ranged from one sentence comments to short essays. What always amuses and bemuses me though, is not the comments, or the variation in grades awarded by different markers, but the set of headings adopted by the university to 'grade' work. These are:
At risk of mild pedantry here, surely 'fully met' is a 'met' as one can get? Indeed, it could be argued that the category could be called 'met' with 'excellently met' replaced by 'exceeded.'
In my undergrad, days the categories used were
I think that these categories did the same job as the first set, but avoided adjectival nonsense.
Still, whatever set of headings they choose to use, the most important word of the whole process was 'Yes' - permission to progress to the next year's work. Which is as well really, as the university has already relieved me of £1.6k for the privilege!