Journey through the field of life

+ Sheffield and TOH’s reputation

Went to a public lecture this evening by Bishop Steven Croft on the subject of “searching for simplicity beyond complexity, developing liturgy for a mixed economy church”. Was an interesting lecture which was calling for a simplicity in liturgy which was contextually relevant and also for a deeper appreciation of liturgy, particularly amongst Fresh Expressions and the evangelical charismatics. I enjoyed it but was somewhat suprised there was no mention of new monasticism within the lecture.

After the lecture TOH went up to said bishop to get another pic for her collection. He informed her, upon being told she had this strange hobby of collecting pics of her with bishops that “he’d heard of her”. This was said in a deadly serious way, and not as an “off the cuff” humourous comment. Atleast she didn’t include a comedy inflateable banana called Morris in this one, which she did with + Southwalk.

Sensitive Printers and Proud Partners

The man in the printers today was a bit eccentric, but he was also very sensitive. One wonders what emotions he has seen expressed by students in the course of his time there when people go in and utter the kind of words TOH was today, “this is my PhD thesis which I’d like bound.”

He was asking her about what kind of binding and what colour and she was increasingly becoming aware of what she was doing, handing over the last 3 years of her life ready to get it bound prior to submission. I did asked her before I shared this on here, but basically I just wanted to share with you guys because it was a special moment and I am dead proud of her. I don’t understand a word of what she’s written really – it’s Mathematical Physics – but I do know she’s worked really hard on it and completing it, particularly within the three years,  is a huge deal.

One advantage of living somewhere like Durham is people get days like this and the emotions involved. The women in the bar was determined to get the Tom Collins’s just right when we went into do cocktails to celebrate this achievement.

FAF

Folk Against Fascism have announced that there is going to be a FAF CD out late April, (available in the shops in June).  It can be ordered from the FAF shop. 

There is a FAF St. George’s Day celebration on 24th April at the Sage, (and yes I know St. Georges Day is 23rd, but obviously this is the day they could get the venue for).

FAF have a channel on You Tube with lots of folkie types giving messages support. It also has this clip of some of the country’s finest folkies at the FAF launch at Sidmouth last year.

Glossy Media Tart

So this is the week that a wibsite rant turned me into a glossy media tart in the TES  magazine. The online version doesn’t have the piccie, which the paper does.

Truth Telling and Logs in Eyes

I have had a Facebook cull, as people may or may not have noticed. Probably very few of the 200+ people I deleted as friends will even know who it is who has taken their number of friends down slightly. The reason for this trimming back has come out of some thinking I’ve had going on recently.

I have been in a situation where I have gotten fed up of people’s inability to be honest with one another. For very good reasons a bunch of lovely people have decided it is kinder to be complete hypocrites over the years than actually be honest. There is one young woman who sticks out because she is generally more honest and I admire her greatly for this. I know there are degrees of honesty, but sometimes I really believe it is right to say to people, “no, I don’t think you are right for this because” or “I personally don’t think x,y or z but understand you and others do”. Equally sometimes it is right to just be civil if you find somebody difficult rather than feigning friendship and then bitching about them.

As I was thinking / getting wound up about this two-faced attitude last night I took a look at my own life and the part I have played. I realised that I need to stop trying to get the splinter out of others eyes and get the log out of my own. I had alot of people who were friends on Facebook because, (i) I’ve met them once, (ii) I share some electronic sites with them but don’t regularly interact with them,  (iii) they were people I didn’t really get on with but thought I should be friends with or (iv) they were interesting friends of friends I added but then had nothing to do with. Thus, I was in the situation where I had alot of people I could count as “friends” who weren’t even really associates. I also had a bunch of people I was referring to as friends who were more people I sometimes shared spaces with. Additionally through status updates I was keeping up an almost voyeristic insight into peoples lives when actually I didn’t really know them. For example last night I was able to explain why somebody was stressed as a result of having read a status update and thread when I don’t really know this person.

So what have I done. Well, I’ve looked at who I keep on the following basis: (i) are they family?, (ii) are they close friends?, (ii) are they neighbours? (iii) are they people I work with in some form or another?, (iv) are they electronic friends but people I have/ have had meaningful interaction with? (iv) are they people I actually care about from the past and so want to keep up a link with? and (v) are they people who it may be useful to network with if my life heads in a particular direction? (Although after the last 24 hours I am thinking I’ve been stupid thinking about that direction). I’ve probably not done a total job, but I have managed to trim back my Facebook friends by about two thirds. Also I’ve thought about whether they actually use Facebook. We seem to keep alot of other people who don’t use it on there as friends to keep our numbers up. Basically my thinking is it doesn’t matter how many friends we have on facebook it is the quality of relationship we have with them that matters.

End of an Era, Beginning of Another Stage

Today was the end of an era, we had the last service before alteration to the church building I worship in. For the next few months we will be worshipping in a community hall. As storage space is an issue someone had the great idea of giving us our hymn books in a reuseable cotton bag with the church name on today, the idea being we take them away and just bring them to church with us. There will of course be a few spares about, but mainly we are responsible for them.

The service marking the end also marked the beginning of another stage in the journey. This was for many on an individual basis, aswell as corporate. There was a baptism/confirmation, confirmation, transfer of membership from a UK Methodist church, coming into joint membership with a US church and extension of membership to be both Anglican and Methodist. It was all v. cool and quite moving aswell as v. hopeful.

Festivating in a Concert Hall and Adventures in No Where

Yesterday was a wonderful day, when I got to enjoy life. A large proportion of the day was spent engaged in fieldwork, except slightly different research conditions to usual….it involved a trip out to Holy Island and I got to take Third Party along. Whilst part of the day was spent with the main group we were not equipped to walk it over the causeway, so we went with a smaller group over to the Island and had time to wander on our own for a while. This was great as it meant Third Party and I could wander around together, with her taking some great pictures which I might post later.

Lindisfarne has a reputation for being a thin place and there is, I believe, something in the air. Yesterday though I felt nothing spiritual in my visit, but I did get to spend a wonderful day in the fresh air with my daughter. At the moment that is a huge blessing.

In the evening we headed over to Gateshead. Third Party had gotten tickets, for my birthday a while ago, to go and see Seth Lakeman at the Sage. It’s the forth time I have seen Seth play and I have to say it’s brilliant to see the way he just gets better as time develops. He and his band played a cracking set which was amazing in places and very good in others.

There were a few things about the gig which I think mark him out as something special. Firstly, the diversity of the audience. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an indoor gig which was so like a festival field in terms of the mix of ages and stuff. There were loads of families with young kids there last night, aswell as some teenagers/ twenties, middle aged people and some older folks. It was lovely to be in a space like that enjoying folk with such a wide group of people. Too often, as I have introduced TOH to Show of Hands and Fairport, etc the comment has been made that “this is like being in church with everybody else being really old”. The way Seth changes instrument mid song is also something special to behold. His change from 4 string half size acoustic guitar, (probably has a technical name I don’t know), or the banjo to the fiddle in a song he is also singing in is something special. For me the use of the double bass and banjo/ mandolin in the band also added something special. Also being a festival performer who is now moving into bigger indoor venues works for him. The venue was all sitting, but his set is not really a set for such sitting down to. As such whilst, as one friend put it, “we were all too bloody British” and so only got on feet right at the end by the end of the set Hall One of the Sage had effectively turned into a festival field.

All in all a brilliant day, and one where God was felt in it. Not in some “spiritual” type way but through the time spent with Third Party, the enjoyment of being out in Gods creation and through enjoying talented artists sharing the huge gifts God had given them aswell as getting some work done. It all worked wonderfully, even down to Third Party having an empty seat next to her at the gig, despite us being in the forth row from the front in an auditorium where the downstairs and first two tiers at the sides and back were full.

Discussion, change and theological preferences

Anybody who knows me IRL and has had the misfortune of being near me when things like chairs have changed position in church will know that I get a little irrationally spectrum like when it comes to these things. I know what I like and like what I know. Additionally, I have this strange thing going on where I fully believe in the need for churches to be functional and user friendly and see this as the top priority but love wood, pews, pulpits and symetrical looking stuff. So imagine what is like for me going along to listen to changes to our worship area at church, it totally brings out the worse in me. Before anybody who has witnessed one of my outbursts on such things panics, I didn’t go off on one this time, but I did feel it welling up with me in the discussions going on.

I have realised that “contemporary” looking church overhauls can bring out the worse in me. Tonight I realised a little bit about why. I have a thing about “the preaching of the word”. Now, practically I’m one of those people who likes to see people preaching from the lecturn, but I need to see a pulpit there, for symbolic purposes only and a plain cross above it. It’s mad I know, but I like to see it the pulpit there even if I know/hope it won’t be used because it distances the preacher from the people. Within this though I also like the concept of having spaces which are suitable for alternative forms of worship and have a desire to see space for people to chill and sit on the floor and stuff. This juxtoposition of the traditional and the (post)modern being important for me came into focus as I sat through the meeting tonight when I saw the picture of my “ideal worship space”. The picture was of a worship space with a wooden pulpit to one side and then a labyrinth in the middle.That was one of the most beautiful pictures I had seen in a long time.

 There was lots of stuff being discussed which to be honest I didn’t care too much about one way or the other and some of it I seemed to care about but I didn’t really. I mean I like chairs in proper rows but I know why curved stuff makes sense in worship even if it makes me feel vulnerable and awkward. What did make me have a real adverse reaction was the engraved glass and tapestry type look which is so common these days. It bought out something in me that I can’t describe, a kind of panic. I think the panic comes partly because to me the pulpit and plain cross thing communicate “low church” or “chapel” to me, and that connects with me in a way the wood on the deus being in the form of sacramental objects (font and communion table particularly) doesn’t. This post I did a few weeks ago on sacremental positions may sum up a bit of why I react as I do.

Anyway, whatever, I know that I will just have to come and worship in whatever space we end up with…it’s not about my tastes, it’s about coming to worship God.

Civil Partnership type stuff

No! Don’t go hat buying, I am not about to enter into one, (despite the partial misreading of a Facebook status by one of the Wib contingent). The Lords has, though, voted to allow an amendment to the equality bill currently going through that would allow for civil partnerships to have a religious element.

The Times’ Ruth Gledhill blog column has a summary of the Bishop of Winchesters arguments against this. The Evangelical Alliance has also commented, giving their concerns. Within both there are two main issues (i) the potential for anti-discrimination laws to be used to force churches to give services which they can’t agree to on conscience and (ii) the confusion between civil and religious ceremonies.

These, I believe are valid concerns on one level, but they are also being used to scaremonger and create smokescreens. Here is my take on the whole thing. Firstly, the possibility for individual churches and ministers to refuse to conduct certain ceremonies and sacraments on grounds of conscience must be respected. Any amendment must include wording that specifically respects this right. This is not the same as the Catholic Adoption Charities issue, as the EA suggests. Whilst I believe they should have been given the exemption they were seeking the fact is they are a publicly funded service and this was the argument against, individual churches in this situation aren’t. Therefore, there is no reason why an exemption cannot be given. However, I believe within every locality, where there is a difference of opinion within denomination or the dominant thinking of the denomination is that civil partnerships are positive some kind of religious ceremony should be available and officially sanctioned. It may be that some churches decide that they do not wish to allow the civil ceremony to take place within the church but they will facilitate ceremonies including a blessing and the wording of such services will be included within official service books. The reasons why this may be a good solution were put forward by Bishop Gene Robinson when he was describing his own relationship, in a talk at Greenbelt last year.

This leads onto the confusion between civil and religious services. The civil element of any service has the role of fulfilling the requirements of the state and giving legal protection to the couple involved. On one hand this is marriage and yet on another it isn’t. Then there is the religious element. Following Catholic teaching, (flowing from Aquinas) and Protestant teaching (flowing from Luther) the theology invovled relates to partnerships that come together to produce children. In our modern society many heterosexual couples are recognised to be married but don’t have children for various reasons. Marriage then has a wider meaning in modern society than the theological material thrown about often chooses to recognise. However, I understand why some in churches may choose to keep marriage as a heterosexual sacrament. This is where the sanctioning of particular services of blessing which recognise same sex relationships which are loving, monogomous, faithful and equal, (whilst people may bring differnet gifts to them) are important if people wish to stand before God and their friends and families and say we want to commit to each other publicly. Yes, churches should be able to combine both elements the civil and the religious if they wish, but equally they should be able to say actually we don’t want to do this, but we do want to support civil partnerships by blessing them.

Personally, I would be happy to go into a office somewhere and sign a civil partnership agreement without ceremony, but I would desperately want a religious blessing of that relationship. As it stands at the moment I could do the former, but I would not be able to have a blessing of my relationship within church. If this law helps change that situation, by moving the Methodist Conference and others towards recognition of these services I would be very pleased. Yet, as I say I would not expect any minister or church council to be forced into agreeing to this type of service on their premesis if they weren’t happy with it. I know this becomes more difficult in Methodist and Anglican churches which aren’t congregational but through situations where people in individual churches have and haven’t welcomed people for various reasons to married in church, or bring their children for baptism we can see this discretion between ministers and churches on issues of conscience is possible.

Auntie Replies

The reply I’ve gotten back from the BBC is:

“Thanks for your e-mail about the strategic review of the BBC’s services.

Last summer the BBC Trust, which is the BBC’s governing body, challenged the BBC Management to develop a new strategy to meet the opportunities and threats of the rapidly changing media landscape. The BBC Management have now presented their proposals to the BBC Trust. You can read them in full at www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc. 

Audiences admire and value the BBC’s services and the new strategy has proposed ways of focusing and concentrating their licence fee investment on services which are distinctive and can best fulfil the BBC’s public purposes. This is both to meet the expectations of licence-payers and to leave opportunities for commercial media providers. At the core of the strategy is a renewed commitment to provide the British public with programmes and services of the highest quality.

The BBC Trust is now conducting a 12 week public consultation on these proposals which closes on 25 May. To take part in this consultation you can either:

- submit a questionnaire online by visiting the BBC Trust’s website at www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust
- or request a written questionnaire which you can return by post. Please write to Strategy Review Consultation, BBC Trust, 180 Great Portland Street, London W1W, 5QZ (no sae required).

Thank you for contacting us about this review. We cannot respond further since these are strategic proposals and now the subject of a public consultation before decisions are taken by the BBC Trust. We hope you will contribute to the public consultation by 25 May.

Yours sincerely

BBC Complaints”

This takes you to the appropriate page to get more info on the review and submit your contribution to the consultation.  Note, if this were “religious” broadcasting they were threatening there would be huge engagement by “the faithful”. This, though, is equally important. As Christians we are called to encourage people to use the gifts God has given them, and to ensure minority groups are not marginalised and oppressed. These proposals are effectively seeking to reduce the commitment of the BBC to these things, which public service broadcasting must be committed to and called to account on in ways the commercial sector isn’t.