Seeing the Good

Things have changed. Everything has changed. Nothing has changed.

So I've been doing this job for twenty-five years. For those who care I started at St Jude's Mapperley, Nottingham and was curate there from 1984 - 1988. Three other couples, not regular church-goers, who we met at the school door the day our kids started, are still friends and, get this, are all still married to the same person. We've done about 130 years between us. I did an 8.00 a.m. Book of Common Prayer communion every Sunday for four years. Several members of the youth group are now in full-time Christian ministry despite the youth group meeting twelve hours after the 8.00 a.m. communion every Sunday. Ian, now a retired archdeacon, taught me the basics and did it well. Mrs Mustard began a career in retail by earning a small amount in a shop, part-time, when she wasn't being a nice Mummy.

Then I moved to Chester-le-Street in County Durham and was one of the ones who refused to sign the petition against the new cricket ground. I was hated for that. The first clergy colleague who ever understood me deeply got more hours out of me in the next five years than anyone ever had before or has since. When things get a bit busy these days I remember Chester-le-Street and turn the energy dial up to eleven. Thanks Geoff. He asked me if there was anything I hadn't done in ministry that I'd like to have a go at. When I said 'writing' he gave me time to do it. It's his fault, this. Several members of the youth group are now in full-time Christian ministry. We ran a restaurant in an old butchers for three weeks as part of the Christmas Cracker project.

In 1992 I was invited to apply for a youth ministry job at the Church Pastoral Aid Society (CPAS) which I was eventually appointed to after the worst interview of my life. Thanks Phil. 'I wanted to see how you'd react to aggressive questioning.' I spent two years as a trainer-editor for the Church Youth Fellowships Association (CYFA) which at the time was the sponsor of the largest number of church youth groups in the Church of England. Then I was appointed Head of that organisation when Phil left. I remember early starts, great training colleagues with brilliant ideas, lively editorial meetings and immense creativity. A series of books to teach the Bible to teenagers grew to 20 titles and I had a lot to do with writing, editing or commissioning the last 18. I made a point of working with young, unpublished authors if I could, including the guy who has now become the Archbishop of York's communications officer.

Then it all went wrong. Several re-organisations and refocuses, mergings of departments, lowerings of budgets and I looked around and I was alone, training youth leaders and writing resources without a team around me. I resolved to leave but was persuaded to stay and be a bit of history in an organisation that was losing its identity rapidly. I did three more years. I suffered a debilitating back injury playing football, which wouldn't get better and seemed stress-related. I had a couple of adrenalin-rush attacks and a doctor told me to 'sort my life out.' I look back with sadness at that time. CYFA has all but vanished but no-one has ever offered to hold a thanksgiving service for its work and put it to sleep properly. Around the country churches still have CYFA groups (my own does) but it doesn't mean anything apart from a name. I hope, one day, to remedy that using the Godstuff brand.

I left on the tenth anniversary of my appointment on 30/9/02 and went to work at my local church, St Paul's Leamington, part-time. I got rid of my car and walked everywhere. I wrote part-time for a living and surprised myself by earning £8,000 a year at this, for four years, on two days a week. My first book was published to little acclaim but I'm still proud of writing it. Being part of a local community and doing a few ministry jobs was great and I learned to use Alpha as a ministry tool, co-set-up Cafe Create and sponsored an ordinand for the first time. Thanks Jonathan. Your theological conservatism does my head in (you're too smart not to be liberal) but your support fixed my life and I appreciate that.

Mrs M, freed from the task of being Mummy, gradually started to shoot up (shouldn't stop the sentence there) the retail career ladder and became full-time sales, senior sales, deputy manager, manager and regional manager in about eight years. The boys left home, several times, eventually for ever.

Four years on I felt ready to dip my toe back in the water and this triple (three part-jobs) Nailsea challenge was thrown me, a place where the previous post-holder at Trendlewood Church had died tragically after nine months in the job and the guy before that had left after an inappropriate relationship. Three years on and things first stabilised, then a colleague left and the vacancy was sixteen months, a bit longer than we expected and just this last week a new normal has emerged of a full team and some space to do what I came here to do. I am already talking to three ordinands about future ministries. There are plenty of things that looked good enough for the first three years but in the light of a slight increase in temperature and a small growth in numbers now look inadequate and need fixing. We can do better with our worship life, our discipleship, our outreach and we may need to find another building (we meet in a school, but got close to feeling full last Sunday). Our management committee is dysfunctional and I am not sure why. I blame the Chair who, sadly, is me.

But whilst own-trumpet-blowing is not one of my priorities someone said this to me yesterday in an email that they didn't have to send:

'During your 3 years with us, I believe that you have brought a fresh look to the Trendlewood services. I think that Trendlewood now provides a distinctive set of services that are not matched by other churches in Nailsea. I like the informal, educational nature - particularly the attempts to put the Bible into the context of events at the time. I find this helpful when trying to understand the text.

'I find Trendlewood to be a friendly and encouraging environment to learn about God.'

And a small tear crept out. That is probably the nicest thing anyone has said to me in twenty five years. Why? Because it was out of the blue, heart-felt and not from someone who puts pen to paper to say nice things every week. Encouragers are good but if it is something they do all the time you can't judge its meaning or value.

The other bit of my work here is a bit of blank canvas to do with the future of Fresh Expressions in Nailsea. Things have been tried but haven't gone that well. My work in other churches has been less straightforward. I am tired and about to take a break.

Mrs M's 'region' became half her company and I last spoke to her on Monday night although we still live together. She knows what she means to me. As a new set of Alpha course members met her recently I could hear them thinking, 'How did he do so well for himself?' I agree with them. It is a puzzling question.

Thanks to Bob for being a friend, spiritual mentor and guide and the daftest genius I have ever met. Thanks to Richard for managerial advice, support and great lunches in the Forest of Dean whilst telling me straight how I had got it wrong. Thanks to everyone who has asked difficult questions, said something when they disagreed and pointed out how things could improve round here.

What's the big theme? There are two. One is developing other people. Maybe born out of laziness but that can work. 'How can I get someone else to do this?' It's a great ministry question? The other is Jesus, the likeness of the invisible God. If you want to know what God is like look at Jesus, point people to Jesus show them Jesus and be Jesus to them if you can. Thirdly (I lied about there being two) improve the church coffee. Always improve the coffee. How difficult it proves to be to improve the coffee will be a marker for how difficult it will be to change the church.

Sorry this was a bit self-indulgent but I needed to take stock and you helped me.

Things have changed. Everything has changed. Nothing has changed.

25

My friend Rory sent this silver picture of a church in the heart of the community as a small memento of a quarter of a century since my ordination on 30/9/84.

It was at Hucknall Parish Church. Jon (aged 2) pulled Liz's beads so hard they broke and dropped to the floor in a cascade of seemingly ever-lasting pearl-on-tile echoiness.

The Bishop of Southwell did the deed. Best line of dialogue from the rehearsal:

'How would it be most seemly for me to share the peace with the candidates?'

'I'd come down off the dais Bishop.'

I vowed then that I would cause more damage to the machine as a piece of grit within than as a rock-thrower outside. Here's to 26.

What To Say?

Rich and Ben, great friends, asked me to speak on the occasion of the service of prayer and dedication after their civil partnership last Saturday. They called it their wedding. A number of people have asked what I said (it is the first occasion I have done this). So the text follows. Critique welcome.

Ben and Rich. Congratulations. We're all delighted for you. You look happy. You look good and by your influence you've made everyone else look good. The only blessing, partnership, wedding or ceremony I've ever been to where I've spent the week before worrying that my shoes might be wrong.

And thank you for asking me to speak. Ben and Rich were aware that in asking ordained ministers in the Church of England to speak at, or conduct, this occasion, they were asking us to do something that would not meet with wholehearted approval from all our colleagues.

For me, I had decided a while ago that this was something I could do and wanted to do but I'm grateful to Ben and Rich for inviting me and making me (because I'm basically lazy) think about what I wanted to say.

The Corinthian correspondence, Paul's letters to the Corinthians and their letters to him, is something we only have extracts from in our Bibles. We have two of Paul's probably three letters and we don't have their letters to him. The Corinthian church was struggling with some ethical issues. When Paul gets to the great hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13 he is not writing a lovey-dovey poem, but a corrective. He is writing about the primacy of love – agapé not eros – to a bunch of people, who seem to have, literally, lost it. They have been disputing relatively minor matters and forgotten a major one. The greatest one.

Tongues – a special language of praise and worship.

Prophecy – to foretell the future and speak God's words.

Intelligence – fathoming mysteries.

Knowledge – fact retention.

Faith – even faith that moves mountains.

Generosity – giving all I have to the poor.

Well a Christian who had all these gifts would seem to be in a very privileged position. How could a church fail with that lot?

But, surprisingly, the church was not going swimmingly as this stuff was being argued about. The gifts were proving divisive not unifying.

So Paul suggests that agapé (old versions of the Bible translate it as charity) a concern for others, especially other Christians, in this context, is the missing bit. If we love one another that can be the context for our arguments, disputes, discussions and disagreements. And if we can't see the relevance of that to a lifelong, to the exclusion of all others, relationship then we are missing a trick.

God is big. So I get full marks for an obvious statement. The Old Testament understanding of God was that his brightness, when he showed up from time to time in person, was blinding. You couldn't look at him. Moses had to take his shoes off. Isaiah had to have his lips cleansed with fire. Priests who had been into the holy of holies changed their clothes when they came out to avoid people being too struck by the holiness.

Paul says that trying to understand God, who the Bible teaches is like that, is impossible. If he shows up you have to look away. And if you look away then your understanding of God will be like seeing 'a poor reflection in a mirror.' Paul looks forward to one day seeing face to face.

In the meantime we live in a world where some feel the Bible's literal teaching makes what Ben and Rich do today wrong. Others feel comfortable that there is 2-3,000 years of cultural change between us and this book and what is important is lifelong, to the exclusion of all others commitment. Either way we have to respect each other and live together so we celebrate with Ben and Rich the whole beautiful mess of eros and agapé which so fills up our senses yet is still something we see without clarity and one day we will see face to face.

I truly believe that one day, in eternity, someone in the heavenly realms will offer me a drink that will be so beautiful, so wonderful that it will be the culmination of all my attempts to drink every real ale in the land seeking the one. If your tipple is wine, or you seek the perfect pasta, steak or cake the same may happen. And to relationships the same applies. Which is why Jesus told a questioner that he had misunderstood heaven if he thought there was marriage there. There will be something that makes us realise what we were after in these human relationships, even compared to the heights that these relationships can reach.

These guys have made a covenant. Not 'I will do this if you do that,' but 'I will do this...' regardless. We are their witnesses and we need to keep them to their commitment. That's agapé. They need to live every day for the rest of their lives with this decision. Long after eros has passed away (and I hope it doesn't for ages) agapé will be the guiding force.

This side of heaven we get near, from time to time, to seeing face to face. When the wine ran out, when the prodigal came home, the gospel writers had only only thing to say of Jesus' ideas – let's party. Well done. Here's to the next 75 years together - silver, pearl, gold, diamond and finally oxygen.

We agapé you both.

I added in the middle a story about my grandparents 54 years of marriage and at the beginning some warnings about drinking the Leamington Spa spa water, as light relief.

Me and Mr G

After many months of admiring from a respectable distance Mustard Seed Shavings was delighted to press the flesh of Mr Gnome on Saturday. Mr G has mixed with the good and the great and so it was a privilege and a pleasure. His human companion kindly snapped this photo:

Wake-up Poetry

Turned on Radio 4 and heard Dreadlock Alien previewing the Poetry Slam programme:

I wanna slam-dunk your metaphors
Through the hoop of hope

Well:

Good morning world how you today?
Your rhyme alarm is here to stay
I'll take your day and fix it fine
Here's wake-up words in the mainline.

Some volleyed greetings in your goal
And putted whispers in your hole
Drop kicked through the posts of life
I'll call you, but not rouse the wife

Your breakfast egg is being cracked
Today's luggage freshly packed
Get up, stand up to this metre
Yes, I did turn on the heater

Smell the coffee; hear the news
Downstairs to shake off the blues
And if you still don't stop your nap
My posse's coming in to rap

Their attitude is more like heavy
Espresso their start-up bevvie
Rhyming 'til yo ears bleed
Alarming with a jumping lead

Stop yo dreaming; leave yo bed
The bassline will mess with yo head
No more cuddles for you bro
Get up from your heave and ho

You still not here I'll call the cops
They'll break the door in minutes - tops
So stir my homey says this dread
I will only excuse the dead.

Good morning.

Wordle Preaching

Listen. Listen right. This is brilliant. Someone in our church transcribed the Bishop's sermon at a recent induction service, from the recording, and put the text into Wordle.

Now we have a word cloud showing the words the Bishop used the most, excluding prepositions, conjunctions, articles etc.

God is the biggest word. Now shouldn't that be right? So I did it for my recent talk at Trendlewood about friendship. Here's the result. Church, people, friends. Could be worse. I think we have ourselves a new preaching tool.

Jesus on Wheels

Jesus has been to Australia with my friend Helen. He writes:

Yo! Steve my man - just got over the jetlag coming back from Sydney. The old woman who took me shoved me in her suitcase to come back. I mean, a man of my position being shoved into a suitcase.

Admittedly she did cover me in bubble wrap, as she said that she was terrified that I would arrive damaged and wouldn't be able to make my next trips to Zambia at the end of the month and then Berlin in October.

As soon as she arrived in Sydney she did tell her friends Karen and James, who are committed Christians, about me as she didn’t want to offend them. They thought the idea of taking pictures of me in front of local landmarks was hilarious and were all for it whenever possible. There is even one of me watching over James as he barbecued our first meal. Naturally I didn’t want to overshadow James so I made myself small for the picture. Their daughter Keziah (nice name by the way) was very taken with me as well and had her picture taken with her mum in front of the opera house holding me. I can get it sent on to you if you like, but it’s not quite what you want for your blog I think.

We started off our visit on an open top bus tour of the city and when I saw the opera house for the first time I couldn’t resist breaking all the rules and jumping up out of my seat. We were going under the harbour bridge at the time and you can just see part of the bridge in the right of the picture. Each time Karen and Keziah saw a new sight they said 'Take a picture with Jesus'. This caused a few funny looks and after a while the old woman insisted I be referred to as JOW.

The following day the old woman took me to Bondi beach. There were a few sniggers and giggles when she took me out of her bag and took photos of me; she – and I – just ignored them. After staying at Bondi for a while we took a walk along the coastal path, passing a pop-art memorial to those people from Bondi who perished in the Bali bombing. It was a lovely thing to see and very in keeping with the area. The next beach we reached, Tamara beach, is a very small cove and very pretty. This is obviously a favourite walk as lots of people were doing the same thing and along the way we passed all sorts of information for visitors. We followed on to Bronte beach, which was about 3k from Bondi. Originally the old woman was going to walk on to Coogee beach but she decided she’d had enough by the time she got to Bronte beach and we caught the bus back to Sydney.

As we had time before the next bus the old woman decided to have a drink at the nearest café. Can you believe I was taken to the Bogey Hole café? The old woman seemed to think that bogey hole means something different in Australia, but she didn’t go into details. I can tell you, when I found out the name of the café I wheeled myself straight out of there! The waitress saw me and said 'What a funny little man'. The old woman just smiled as she didn’t want to get thrown out of the place, having tasted the pear and brown butter tart which was delicious.

We also went to a suburb of Sydney called Manly which, although touristy, was very nice. I had my picture taken in front of the Manly Surf Pavilion where the lifesavers are stationed. The old woman liked Manly so much she went back again before the end of the holiday, but did she take me? I think you know the answer!

Well, that’s my report from Down Under.

This is JOW signing off.

CEN June 2009

After a couple of months off, the Church of England Newspaper have reinstated the web-watching column. September's will be in this week's issue so here is June's, for the archive.

I'm just back from a great holiday. On the back of each aircraft seat was a different guide to English usage with some tips and rules. It linked to ECEnglish, a website for English Language Centres and Schools. If you want to improve your English, or know someone who does, this site will give a quick assessment and recommend your next step. It also had a free e-newsletter to which you can subscribe.

One of my holiday books was Tom Perrotta's excellent novel The Abstinence Teacher. It got me thinking about the way we teach sexual matters today and I looked at a few sites he recommends that might have a view. Sex and intimacy for married Christians is discussed at The Marriage Bed. Christian Nymphos (hold those complaints a moment) is a site for '...women with excessive sexual desire for our husbands.' They explain their choice of name in some detail. Finally he points us to my spoof site of the month, no, not the previous one but the Landover Baptists. It '...offers THE cheapest Plan of Salvation and assurance of Eternal Security, ANYWHERE on the internet! We dare you to find someone offering this package for a lower price WITHOUT ANY STRINGS ATTACHED!' Careful research tells me that only 1 in 200 Church of England Newspaper readers will find it amusing.

If you want to check out reviews before plunging into holiday reading try Book Army. Full of helpful information.

It's always a worry when eating out that tips will find their way to the waiting staff and not the proprietor. Fairtips lists those establishments that guarantee the gratuities go to the staff and are not docked from their pay.

If you've spent too much on your holidays, or things are tight, here are a few money-saving sites.

For instance, if you have ever wondered what happened to all those samples made up for fashion shows or exhibitions, visit Sample Sales in London. You will find '...the latest insider tips on all the hottest sample sales. From sample sales of loved high street brands to secret sample sales of your favourite designers.' Sign up for a free news letter and never miss a sale. It's London only at the moment but the Designer Sales site is less parochial. Daily Candy offers a similar service (again London based) although the emphasis is on trendy rather than bargain.

Buy My Wardrobe is '...a fashion recycling event launched in Feb 2008. The initiative sees a number of carefully selected uber-fashionistas gathering for one day events to sell the contents of their fabulous designer wardrobes to discerning members of the public.' If your wardrobe has contents that might be politely known as vintage then visit Covert Candy and swap your togs. If it is vintage and you like it that way then be of good cheer, Clothkits is up and running again - kit clothes for little people.

I was in a chair storage cupboard when I heard a voice calling me into the ministry. Rona was in St Paul's Cathedral. Maybe she is headed for great things. Follow her journey at the blog Iwanttobeavicar.

Childline is a wonderful service for children in need. Achance2talk is part of its web presence. In addition to the phone, children can now email, get involved in a message board or on-line discussion and partake in a number of informative games and activities to help come to terms with difficult situations.

St Aiden to Abbey Manor is the home of David Keen, a vicar in Yeovil with a Fresh Expressions brief. He has surveyed all the diocesan web-sites for missional material and has published his results. A substantial piece of work.

Bishop David Thomson has joined the small, but growing army of blogging bishops. Being a wordpress blog it's technically excellent although the content I reviewed was more info-mercial than opinion.

TRNTV (serving your Spirit – Mind – Body) '...is an Internet Media Community for Faith and Family audiences who in addition to attending worship on Sunday or Saturday, also enjoy music, live entertainment, movies and more.

'TRNTV acquires Faith, Family, Friendly and Educational TV and radio content from Churches, Organizations, Producers, Distributors and Artists all around the world.'

Mustard Seed Shavings has an archive of previous columns.

Poetry Challenge

Last night's challenge. A poem about playing the didgeridoo to include the words:

Artichoke
Jelly baby
Golden Ring
Lake
Beth Wilkinson
Duck Billed Platypus
Hovercraft
Kangaroo

Anyone sense a southern-hemisphere theme coming on.

Ode to Beth
Once a jolly swagman
Sat by a billabong
Wishing he had something useful to do
He'd consumed jelly babies
And fancied that maybe
He'd missed out for supper on roast kangaroo.

Down by the lake
Was a male duck (a drake)
And although it appeared his decision was daft
He decided to hunt
Not with dinghy or punt
But chased after his food on his mate's hovercraft

This man had a Sheila
Well you should have seen her
A fine looking woman; a wonderful Mum
His kids were devoted
(He thought as he boated)
He dreamed of his lover, dear Beth Wilkinson

This story is sad
I know that is bad
But Wilkinson's hunting developed a fuss
He gave a hearty choke
Coughed up an artichoke,
Carrots, peas, fries and duck-billed platypus.

In anguish he cried
And fell over the side
His dinner had killed him; of this we now sing
With Wilkinson dead
Now on the lake's bed
One day we will find his ornate golden ring

We now sing this love song
It doesn't last long
But dear Beth requires another to woo
She has only one question
'Mate, how's your digestion?'
I lost one through chokin' please don't make it two

And so she did hitch
To a musically rich
Native Australian bushman called Boo
He plays her to sleep
And allows her to weep
To the mournful refrain of his didgeridoo.

St
Nailsea
18/9/09

Cafe Create Set List September 2009

Norman Jay - Journeys by DJ (tracks 1-10)
Raphael Saadiq - Oh Girl (featuring Jay Z)
Ian Brown - Longsight M13
Florence and the Machine - Howl
The Invisible - Monster's Waltz
Q Tip - Gettin' Up
Suede - Trash
Johnny Boy - You are the Generation that Bought More Shoes and you get what you Deserve
Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood
The Meters - Running Fast (single version)
Keith Christmas - Forest and the Shore
Toad the Wet Sprockett - Fall Down
Robert Randolph - Going in the Right Direction
Reverend and the Makers - Heavyweight Champion of the World
Jurassic 5 - In the Flesh
The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket
Roots Manuva - A Haunting
Everything but the Girl - Ten Years of Remixes (tracks 1-10)
Curtis Mayfield - Little Child Running Wild
The Temptations - Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Happy Birthday

Last weekend was the tenth anniversary of blogger. I've only been around for six of those but it has felt like a good part of my life so many happy returns to it.

Initially, once it gathered pace, blogs were the subject of ridicule from the press and other media. All that poor writing which will never replace our proper journalism and diarying, they seemed to say. Now all good journalists seem to have a blog as well, accepting that they can do some things better in this forum than on their paper's website or in print.

There is bad writing. Just like fashion is faster than architecture, because it is easier to mirror or direct a changing culture with cloth than concrete, blogs are faster than pieces that need to be sub-edited. You can remove errors from weblogs. The print media has to apologise. Anyway all writers occasionally put disappointing writing out there. Your mojo can go awol. The trick, imho, is to keep the standard of average posts reasonably high, so you don't lose readers, and sometimes to excel. Well you'd tell me if it went wrong wouldn't you? I know you would. I watch the feedjit stats. I read the comments.

I also, and don't tell too many folk, have a friendly editor who emails me, rather than comments, if I've blooped. No names, but backstairs staff are appreciated.

Blogging is cathartic for those of us who like writing whether anyone reads or not. The existence of a small posse of followers, and a wider group locally who tell me what they think of what I said, makes it a useful exercise in communication, information and vulnerability. Judging by the way the labels exercise is proceeding (not even half way through yet) it also appears to be my lot to try and be funny relatively often. Reading all six years has been OK. I've been surprised how few howlers there are and some of the writing has made me pleased I did it. Not that sentence but you can't win 'em all. Another blog thing is that you tend to plough on rather than correct. Most of the good writing started somewhere else first.

The critics soon gave up slagging blogs and moved to Facebook, which also took over the world and now they write articles saying 'Why on earth does anyone Tweet?' Whatever next? Well whatever does come next you can guarantee that the knee-jerk will be to rubbish it and then, like the wasp that I watched a spider wrap then consume yesterday, way to go spidey, it will become part of the system.

Happy birthday blogger. And thanks, a long time ago, to Seb Apostol, who told me about it. He was an early adopter but left when something else became cooler.

Title Needed

Help. I need to find a snappy title for a book I'm going to be working on. The working title is:

Christian Lifestyle for Beginners

The ten chapters will bounce off the ten comandments as a starting point but the point is that this life is far more than a set of rules.

Something like 'Life Rules' but maybe not that. Let's brainstorm.

Nick Pollard on Creation

Nick kindly gives permission for the following press article to be reproduced:

"You've killed God, sir," says Huxley to Charles Darwin in the forthcoming film Creation (UK release date 25th Sept). "Darwin has delivered a fatal blow to religion," says Terry Sanderson, President of the National Secular Society in a Daily Telegraph article related to the film.

They are quite wrong. Those who think that Darwin's theory can be used to establish the non-existence of God are missing the point. Well, at least three points out of four, actually.

We are conscious human beings, living in a world full of life, within a universe of matter and energy. If someone wishes to argue that there is no God then they have to answer at least four questions about our existence (only one of which is tackled by Darwin's theory). What is the origin of the universe? What is the origin of life? What is the origin of biological diversity? What is the origin of consciousness?

Put in this wider context we see how Darwin's theory only tackles the third of this big series of important questions. Whether or not Darwin's theory is a true explanation of how biological diversity might have evolved from a common ancestor, all this could tell us is something about the process by which the variety of life developed. It cannot, in itself, tell us anything about the existence or non-existence of God.

So let me lay down a challenge to such atheists and ask them to stop making unfounded assertions about God's existence just from one particular view of one quarter of the big questions, and to consider the bigger picture, including the other three questions.
First, the origin of the universe. When we look at the universe around us we have to ask ourselves, "Why is it here at all?" Why does anything exist rather than nothing? Even if we had an established theory of the possible processes by which parts of this universe may have formed - such as stars, sandstone and even species - that doesn't tell us why those processes happened. Even if we can establish how the laws of nature could lead to such developments within the universe, that doesn't tell us why those laws exist. Why not another set of physical laws? Why any physical laws at all? Why does anything exist rather than nothing existing?

Second, the origin of life. When we look at the various forms of living beings that exist in this world we have to ask ourselves, "How did life begin?" Even if we had an established theory of the possible processes by which complex life may have evolved from simple life through the natural selection of mutations in reproductions, that doesn't tell us how reproductive processes began in the first place. Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection can only work on a self-replicating system where variations in the product of the replication might be more or less fitted for survival. But how did the first self-replicating, naturally selectable organism arise? How did we get from non-replicating matter to self-replicating, naturally selectable life?

Third, the origin of consciousness. When we look at the people who live around us (and, indeed, at ourselves) we have to ask, "Where does consciousness, and all that flows from it, come from?" Even if we had an established theory of the possible processes by which the complexities of the human body may have developed, that doesn't tell us why we have a conscious awareness, why we have such a strong sense of morality, or why we have the capacity to reason. It is interesting that Darwin himself, in the last decade of his life, began to doubt the reliability of the human brain. If, according to his theory, the brain has evolved because of survival rather than for truth, would it have the capacity to address metaphysical questions with any level of reliability? Why should we trust anything it says about the big questions of morality and meaning? And (here is a real problem for anyone who wants to argue for atheism) what is our basis for trusting the brain's capacity for any high level reasoning at all - such as the level of reasoning required to consider the existence or non-existence of God? Perhaps, for the atheist, this question is logically unanswerable?

Nick Pollard, co-founder of The Damaris Trust. For more resources related to the film Creation (UK release date September 25th) see www.damaris.org/creationmovie

Big Blogger

St
Is that any way to greet someone. Just standing there watching until I notice you? How long you been there?

BB
Hello St. How are you today?

St
Well my Facebook status says over-committeed. Not a spelling error.

BB
You do seem to be quite involved in meetings. Do you not enjoy them?

St
I think I see them as a necessary evil. If getting people together at the same time saves time then they are good. But too many of them are about opinions rather than action.

BB
That's your opinion I imagine

St
I see what you did there. But I do tend to volunteer to be the secretary/note-taker because firstly someone has to do it, secondly I can do it and thirdly it gives me something to do in duller meetings.

BB
But in your ideal meeting?

St
I'd be charged with preparing material to bring for discussion which someone else would chair and someone else would record. Then the brains really could storm a bit

BB
So in making sure the meetings you go to are not dreadful you have jeopardised the thing it would be most useful to have you at a meeting for?

St
About it.

BB
And for you there is no need for a meeting to 'get to know one another' because you're quite happy to dive in deep at once and it never occurs to you that others need a bit of a run-up at that?

St
Oh it occurs to me. I just think they're all wrong.

BB
Opinion is divided - everyone else says you do but you say you don't?

St
Oh that makes me sound very arrogant.

I hate it when you look at me like that.

What are you doing with that rope? BB. I can't move now. No, don't press publish. I can't tell people this yet. I need to be gentle BB, BB, oh no...



Big Blogger is an imaginary friend

RIP Keith Floyd

Sad to hear of the death of TV chef Keith Floyd - Floyd on Fish is still one of my regular go-tos for advice.

How do you communicate vision by touch? How do you explain a sound by smell? Synesthetic complications are difficult to overcome and the early TV chefs had to learn to communicate taste and smell by sight and sound. Passion, energy and occasional over-indulgence were Floyd's hall-marks. We watched others enjoy what he did and deduced that we would too.

Bit of a nutter but the world needs eccentric boundary-pushers. They are only defined as eccentric in the first place because they don't accept the limits previously imposed. RIP.

Jesus Down Under

Good on yer cobber.

Job Seekers

A parish, advertising in the Church Times this week for a new minister, seeks someone who will take a 'middle-of-the-road' approach matched with incisive, biblical preaching. Red rag. Bull. The first sermon. Hmm:

This morning I stand before you not black, nor, of course white, but in my grey alb. I stand firmly, and indeed decisively, in the middle of the road. This is not the place of safety you might imagine it for the centre is the place to be mowed down by travellers proceeding in both directions.

On matters doctrinal I say to you, that my approach will be equally firm and decisive. The fence, the fence. Let us reach for it. Let us assess it and then, and only then, without further hesitation, fear or fancy, let us sit upon it and survey our parish. The fence is where my theses will be nailed.

I will be taking a biblical approach to all ethical matters, as you have asked in your profile. On same-sex relationships I shall say clearly no, and then again yes. On women's headship I shall say over my dead body and will pursue the passing of resolutions A and B for the first six months of each year. All women wishing to discuss vocations should come to me between June and December.

I shall be the bland leading the blind, the shepherd of the sweet and the leader at the back. I shall invoke the power of the Holy Spirit whilst recalling that his (or is it 'her?') gifts were for the apostles alone.

I shall make my stand. My chant shall be to easy-going firmness. My slogan will be 'Here I stand; I can do some other.' I bring love with anger, peace with vengeance and meek power.

I am neither alpha nor omega but the bit in the middle, which is also the place I will light the candle, a device neither for illumination nor symbolism. It will not be on the altar/communion table under any circumstances unless someone moans.

From my soapbox I will scream 'I am a moderate. I am liberangelical. Follow me; I went nowhere.'

Blogging Lessons

Going back over the history of my blog and inserting labels is demanding but I'm biting it off at the rate of about 100 a day, so it will take less than three weeks to finish. One thing I've noticed, and I apologise to those of you who have been with me for a long time, is my tendency to multi-subject posting. It will make searching much easier if, in future (and I may find I've already settled down a bit but I hadn't by 2005) I try to keep each post about one separate thing. My tendency to want to include a joke, if I can think of one, each time is going to make for over-use of the label 'funny.' Funny that.

Vacancy vs Sabbatical

I have been going back over my blog adding labels, a long task so please remember that it is easier to start something properly than go over it again.

In so doing I came across these reflections on being in leadership while a senior colleague was missing on sabbatical. I wonder what I would write about the last sixteen months of doing similar? Probably a reflection that the Church Wardens here have taken a far more prominent leadership role, leaving me free not to cut back on so much other ministry as last time.

Meeting our MP

Dr Liam Fox, Shadow Defence Spokesman and MP for our constituency, visited the meeting of Nailsea and District Church Leaders today. Full marks to him for being good company, thoroughly charming, caring for his constituency, hard-working and with an utter grasp of some fascinating statistics (or very good at bluffing). I enjoyed the conversation and the lunch at the Manse.

His self-description was that he was from the Unionist, Atlanticist, Euro-sceptic, Thatcherite, free-market end of the Party. Well at least he's not a Wolves fan.

This post is sponsored by a Nationalist, Yank-questioning, Europhilic, interventionist, liberal-democrat.

He let us pray for him.

Bureaucracy 2

In this post a few weeks back I explained that I had received a parking ticket for an offence I did not commit (and can prove it).

Today I received a letter accepting my representation and withdrawing the penalty charge. Annoyingly this is not because of the mighty power of my reasoning, or the rightness of my case but simply that the officer, 'who is no longer in our employ' failed to take a photograph of the vehicle, which was recorded as a black Audi (as is mine) but with a different tax disc number.

Never take on a bureaucrat. Even when you win they leave you feeling like a loser. I have reported the matter to the police.

The Picture

Thanks for asking. The new top picture is the town of Nailsea taken from Wraxall Hill. Mrs T took it a couple of months back. One of the wonderful things about our town is that it is built on a very leafy hill and 18,500 people and all their roads disappear quickly once you walk out and look down.

Once upon a time Nailsea was a tidal island in a large bay. Only the flood defences at Clevedon stop it becoming so again and global warming may lead to my swapping the Audi for a boat. Last time I checked my house was about 20 feet above sea level.

In the centre you can see our small industrial estate. To the right, behind the sheep is The Barn Pub. In the distance is the Bristol Channel with the islands of Steepholme and Flatholme clearly visible. Guess which is which? Isn't it a nice place to live? We love it.

Green

Ooh. Ignore last post. Managed to do something ever so slightly clever (for me). Enjoy my new greenness.

Bit of a Sort Out

Thanks for the nags. I've finally got round to changing the list of interesting blogs I visit. Scroll down the right-hand side-bar to read. The most recently updated are at the top.

I probably need a training session on how to do some fancier things with design. Anyone who wants to do that for me I'll cook them lunch.

Guardian

'I thought you'd be a Guardian reader.' That was what a new acquaintance said to me this morning. Well I don't know. I was:

Daily Mail (birth - 1984) apart from Sundays (birth - 1977) when it was Express, Times and Mirror. My Dad got three papers on a Sunday.
1984-1987 I read the Times.
1987 - 2003 I read the Independent.
2003 - 2009 I read the Guardian and Observer (when I buy a Sunday paper).

But if I come across as a Guardian reader, left of centre, liberal, social conscience, open-minded, on the side of the poor and the underdog, that's OK by me.

The Old Farmhouse

Just spent a delightful two hours in t'pub with three friends. Happy to report that the new landlord is a Geordie. All may very well be well. I think I'll try lunch there this week.

It's Not Meant to be a Cakewalk

We often down-grade the job we are asking people to do. 'It won't be that difficult' we say. Or, 'Just on a temporary basis.'

Luke 10:1-20 is a favourite passage of mine. Jesus sends out the seventy two. According to Luke, Jesus told his workers he was sending them out like lambs among wolves (there are so many biblical injunctions to hate the Wolves it is untrue). He told them the harvest was plentiful but the workers were few. He told them to take no sandals and then later reprimanded them for failing to bear in mind they had the authority to trample snakes and scorpions. One tough gig. A skeleton workforce, a dangerous opposition and insufficient protective clothing. The dragons would say, 'I'm out.'

Wimps. I'm fed up of people thinking that the Christian life has an opt-out clause for the slightly-poorlys, the bit-busys and the don't feel-like-it-todays. It's meant to feel tough. It's meant to be full of rejection. You're not supposed to trust in anyone but the one who sent you - the sandals are a metaphor see. You're meant to spend your days with a vague feeling that you're lamb and there's mint sauce on the breeze.

Yesterday someone in permanent pain came to church, grimaced through the sermon and left a bit early. That person gets it. Hurts, but knows that 'nothing will harm you.'

We prayed for an hour every weekday at 6.00 a.m. as a church, throughout August, preparing for a big vision and a new ministry. I asked someone who doesn't normally do early mornings why they came. 'Because it's difficult,' was the answer. That person gets it. Tired, but knows that 'names are written in heaven.'

Here's a challenge. It's to my local readers first but if it's a help to any others of you out there than have it too. Forget who the co-workers are; you only need one to go two by two. Forget the equipment and the training. It's a big harvest field and our job is to be in it. There will be something useful to do there. No more excuses. If you were sent by Jesus, albeit in a round-about way, you're trained.

I posted on Facebook this morning that I needed encouraging. Someone phoned me to do just that and in passing made me realise I'd made a mistake in my sermon yesterday (I'll explain on Trendleblog). I was quite cheered by the thought that I didn't need encouragement, that was a bit selfish, just to get on with the work and do better next time. What did I expect, a lottery win?

The reality for Christian ministry is that people will be ever seeing but never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding. Isaiah knew that, several centuries before Jesus. Normal is people not getting it. The two examples of those who got it, above, are immensely cheering for me. This is church. This is where I heal my hurts (good line, paraphrased, thanks Maxi Jazz).

It's not meant to be easy. If it was we'd feel we'd done it ourselves. When someone new gets it, rejoice. It will make up for the many who caused you to shake the dust from your bare feet. Disappointed? Let down? Frustrated? Good. Let's go again.

What's Wrong

Some people think their way clearly and logically to their decision-making. Others just 'know' what's right. For those in the latter category the task is to convince waverers by showing working. Which means, having arrived at a decision that is obvious to us, we have to find ways to explain it to others. Don't worry Nailsea readers. This is not another argument about purchasing the Old Rectory. You know my view on that and outsiders won't care.

So people like me (no they don't, I mean 'such as') sometimes get a big hunch that something is wrong and then have to work backwards.

I got such a hunch the other day when reading about the thirteen year old girl who had been intercepted before attempting to be the youngest person to sail single-handed around the world. 'Quite right,' I thought. She shouldn't do that. And I have been the champion of young people's rights for as many years as I have not been a young person myself. Showing working may be awkward on this one.

A little thought this morning as I read a newspaper article about it and I came to the conclusion that we should discourage any records that are to do with 'the youngest.' By all means allow young people to be the fastest, strongest or whatever, competing against adults. There will always be early developers. Some records, such as swimming and gymnastics seem to favour youthful muscle and suppleness.

But if we say that 'the youngest person to...' is a category at all we run the risk of over-demanding parents pushing their offspring into vicarious accomplishments to make up for their own failures. And of young people attempting records of endurance before they understand the opportunity cost (friends/education) and yes, I did learn that expression in economics classes (see previous post).

'Where will it all end' is a fatuous Daily-Mailesque argument which imagines children in space if we allow children alone on boats. I won't go there. But I will say that childhood is a place for curiosity about everything and specialising too soon has a price. I'm immediately confronted by all the virtuosity of musicianship demonstrated by young people who started early and my own regrets at delayed introduction to the world of piano so the argument may suck a bit.

Need to do more thinking. But my hunch remains the same. Change my mind if you can.

It's All in the Mind

Not wanting to upset the feelings of those who have experienced genuine hardship in the last couple of years, I will pose this thought as a question. This is an 'I wonder' post not a 'my view.'

But is it? Is this recession thing all in the mind? Is it a corporate mental illness? Not one we can do anything about of course but one from which we all suffer.

I am not qualified to answer this question. Let me clarify. In the days when I sat O Levels (1971) you could get three levels of fail - grades 7, 8 or 9. I have to admit that, in a rather poncy, public school way, I realised I had no chance of getting a pass at economics so spent a happy hour and a half trying to entertain the hapless examiner with a whimsical answer paper. It was slightly more likely to get me a job on Punch than an O level. So I achieved my Grade 9 (so proud) and eliminated the subject from my enquiries. Pity. It's interesting and useful. Incidentally, during my course work I copied an entire essay out of the Junior Pears Encyclopedia and only got a B. I sent my teacher's comments to the editors but received no reply. Or did I ever post it? Probably not.

And my personal experience of recession, notoriously unreliable as an indicator, is zero. In the boom years of the 1980s I was as poor as I have even been, trying to raise two small children on a curate's stipend with no other source of income. We felt it important that one parent stay at home for a few years while we had toddlers. Now we have two salaries, one of which is very good, and no dependents, but it is downturn out there.

So bearing that in mind, come with me to an imaginary small community where all have jobs and all have money and all spend about the same. One day Mrs Johnson gets ill and starts imagining (without any evidence) that soon nobody will buy her fresh vegetables. Maybe she read something in the paper about carrots causing cancer and fried eggs preventing it. So she takes precautions against this imaginary problem. She cuts back on her spending and keeps a little aside. The thing she cuts from her budget is Mr Robinson's chocolates, her little luxury. And Mr Robinson, noticing the dip in sales, has less money to spend and cuts back on his weekly trip to Rita's, the only restaurant in town. The emptier looking restaurant becomes a duller visit and the customers drop off night by night until it has to close and so the lovely Rita, no longer having any disposable income, stops buying carrots, chocolates or anything else. And the community, no longer having a restaurant but a boarded-up shop front, starts looking a bit worse for wear.

It doesn't take long to extrapolate that if everyone thinks things are going to get worse they pretty soon will. We can think our way into our own recession. There are a lot of us, so the connections are more complex than in my imaginary village, but every decision to cut back on spending is a decision to cut part of someone's job.

I don't believe we can, or should, look to constant economic growth and wealth creation as the solution. It has always been the big flaw of Thatcherism - a more easily digestible form of pyramid selling. There was no trickle down to the bottom and even twelve years of a genuinely anti-poverty regime such as New Labour has found it hard to change hearts and minds sufficiently to reach the deep poor.

In this wonderfully complex world some organisations do well out of recession - takeaway food, pound-shops and lipstick to name three unlikely bed-sharers. But I believe that the only big fix is our mental health. When we feel sufficiently confident that the recession is over it will be over.

It's only a question. If you are unaffected by it so far, will you risk acting as if the recession is over? Crowds. Wisdom. Bingo.

Plum Crisp

Too many plums? Bored of pies and crumbles? Grateful thanks then to Nigel Slater for this from his kitchen diary and the idea of plum crisp.

Halve plums, remove stones and layer on bottom of buttered dish. Give a small sprinkle of cinnamon and then cover with a mixture of white breadcrumbs and dark sugar. Then pour some melted butter over that lot. His suggestion is:

1 kg plums
125 gms breadcrumbs
75 gms sugar
75 gms butter

35 mins in a medium oven then serve with vanilla ice cream. Terrific.

Tuesday Funny

Someone has a wicked sense of humour. Just laughed so much a bit of wee came out.

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