God and weed!

We’ve joked about the title of today’s post while wondering who such a title might attract and whether it was wise as I hope to continue to work in the diocese beyond September! The weeds refer, initially, to the weeds of the allotment while god refers to … well God!

Once a month chapter meets and on those mornings I stay at home and pray. A few years ago I went on retreat with the Northumbria Community for a week. They set me the task of weeding and planting potatoes as I prayed and listened to God. So … this week I have conducted my own mini retreat / quiet space on the allotment while weeding.

I have noticed in particular that having a fairly mindless and repetitive task to complete over an hour or two seems to free the mind from clutter and creates space to reflect. I felt a great symbolic sense that as I was clearing a patch of ground to reveal bare soil so I was clearing the weeds of thought and personal opinions that have allowed to develop and hide or disguise or prevent the development of new ideas.

While contemplating and weeding I developed a prayer:

As I clear this space
remove the clutter from my mind.
As I extract these weeds
unload those deep rooted thoughts and opinions
that are asphyxiating  growth and maturation.
As I expose fresh soil
return me to the naked space of creativity.
In this crisp original arena
propagate the unseasoned seeds of dreams.

I’m finding that weeding with God is a really valuable experience. if you’d like to try out a mini retreat in this space then get in touch – this could be easily arranged.

silence …. in a nutshell!

Silence on this blog probably means a busy week … but a week of highlights which I will outline in a  nutshell…

I met up with Ian Mobsby, my mentor, last week. We chatted about a lot of stuff both gathering and Moot based. I find these times really encouraging and just love the opportunity to catch up with other Moot people. I hope to be able to get to their Rhythm of Life Service in a few weeks time. Moot has been a real encouragement to me over the years as well as being quite formational in my outlook and practice.

That afternoon I was excited to attend a governors meeting at Brompton Academy  particularly as we were having a tour of the new build. This is a school I have been connected with for over a decade now and a community I care quite a lot about. It was exciting to see all the planning coming together, but particularly exciting as these has been a long time coming and the young people of Gillingham deserve such a school! You can see the building progress on a live webcam feed on the school website.

On Saturday while Sarah and friends attended a training day at St. Marks I was looked after by 6 children. Some of us watched Tin Tin at the saturday Morning cinema, but i think most fun was had by the 7 of us as we spent the afternoon at the allotment mainly weeding with a little bit of bean and sweetcorn planting and a lot of squealing and running when worms, beetles and slow worms were discovered. We were planning on going for an hour but we were having ‘such fun’ that we stayed nearly 3. Tis was the most fun I’ve had on a Saturday for a little while.

This Sunday was one of those days when the move from traditional Anglican Christian worship to creativity was experienced in its extreme, starting the day at 8am behind the High Altar and ending it in the evening in a pub! I presided at the 8am Book of Common Prayer Eucharist service. The language of this service I find to be quite a challenge, but not as much as the structure with some bits, I think, jarring and seeming out of place where they are. I then presided at the 10.30am Eucharist service which is different in its tradition again (although I do think Common Worship has a more helpful structure.).

On Sunday afternoon the gathering met in Mote Park and we wandered together and chatted generally and chatted faith. It was brilliant to see some new people joining us and seeing our ideas and dreams crossing at certain points. The gathering seems to be slowly growing as a community, rather than just numerically, and I think we are in quite an interesting and key time.

Sunday evening I was speaking, albeit I turned up late (I ‘fess up as I’m sure someone will comment otherwise!) to a group of people from St Stephens meeting in the Huntsman. I spoke about ‘Life as a Pioneer Minister’ and the people had a number of questions. It was a fun experience and I hope I managed to help some people think about mission in a new way.

So … in a nutshell that is the cause of my silence this last week – well that and a lot of talking and listening while in the general Rochester High Street area … I shall be sad to move on from Rochester in September … but time to move on and think about this week in Rochester now!

the sweeps dream

Sweeps came and went. The weather meant that the festival was a bit of a wash out with last minute cancellations and the accompanied lack of hoped for business for local traders. There was definitely a lot less visitors around than there have been in previous years which is a real shame as this is an excellent festival to come to.

The lack of numbers at the festival meant that there were less people walking past the Dekhomai stand but the positive flip side of this meant that we had more time to listen to people. I will remember this Sweeps festival as being marked by the sheer privilege I have experienced as I have been invited into personal lives alongside the great feeling of inadequacy I have felt as I have prayed, asking God to meet with these lives.

I personally wanted to push out and try something new at this years Sweeps and have been thinking and working a lot on dreams; in particular asking myself the question ‘could God still be talking to people through their dreams?” I have done some prayerful research of God speaking through dreams in scripture alongside psychologists interpretations of common dreams. Did you know, for example, that a common dream is being found naked in a public place; apparently the ‘common’ interpretation is that the person is living a lie and worried about being exposed. I have always found dreams quite fascinating.

To cut a long story short, I decided to offer ‘dream discussions’ at this years festival. I felt ‘dream interpretation’ was quite a major claim for a bunch of amateurs to be able to make… but I also have a real belief that, actually, if people are dreaming and that if there is a meaning from God then those people, really must be able to understand the dream for themselves and how it applies to them. If that were not true, then there would be little point God using this method of communication with people!

I have had a good number of dream discussions over this weekend. They were amazing. No two were the same but as we chatted together and I prayed remarkably people were able to focus on their dream and gain some understanding. I have started to wonder now whether those that do receive dreams simply need to take time out to think about them, and that is what we seemed to be doing over this weekend at the festival.

The team from all over the diocese worked brilliantly this year, and it was great working with you all … our visitors and guests were also a joy to work with  -thank you. Once again, Sweeps has been a highlight of my year.

 

sweeps … experience God ….

It’s the start of the Sweeps Festival today. As I write the rain is continuing to fall outside … and I am so hoping that stops very very soon.

If you are around pay a visit to the Dekhomai stand in the cathedral, you can find us in the south transept, which is the space right next to the lady chapel. Visit and take the opportunity to express God in a different or new way through a variety of things we have on offer, from the dekhomai prayer cord to prayer for healing. Or … just pop by to say hello (and if you come via the coffee shop bringing great fresh coffee even better!)

Maybe see some of you there!

variety

It’s been an interesting few days with a fairly big variety of things.
Wednesday morning I returned to St Stephens to preside at the the 10 am Eucharist. It was good to see some familiar faces.

Wednesday evening I led evening pryer in the crypt. 3 minutes before starting our ‘normal’ group of 3 or 4 was suddenly swelled to over 40 with a massive influx of visiting Dutch teachers who decided to join us for Evening Prayer, which made things a lot more interesting when we were praying for the unity of the church.

Thursday morning saw me visiting a local prison. chatting to the chaplain and walking around meeting some of the staff.  This was a very powerful and humbling experience which got me thinking on what freedom actually is.

Thursday afternoon I led the leavers service for a local girls grammar school.  This was a good service planned by the Head Girls and was creative in places. It was, actually, a real joy to be involved. The irony of coming from a prison where people were locked up partly as a result of lack of opportunity while overseeing a service developed with creative young people who have great opportunity ahed of them was particularly apparent.

Thursday evening I went to my normal film club and watched quite a harrowing film which I’m glad I went to see … but to say I enjoyed it would not be correct! I currently feel as if my day has gone full circle …from being trapped by lack of opportunity passing through great opportunity to returning to being trapped again.

The variety continues tomorrow as I meet up with my wetherspoons friends and then get ready for the Sweeps Festival. If you are a pray-er, please pray for us over tis weekend … thanks!

the death zone

I found this video recently; regardless of political persuasion this is a very moving and beautifully filmed. This was filmed during the last two weeks of Philip Gould’s life and he talks of ‘excitement’, ‘joy’, and ‘approaching death’ while ‘embracing life’. Most movingly he speaks of the time he understands that his life becomes death and only then did his life take on a quality that he felt it never had before.

This is simply a beautifully amazing and moving nine minutes.

is this a community birthing?

So pub theo happened again last night. I forget now how long we have been meeting, but it must be around 2 years. That’s a lot of theology, a lot of discussion, a lot of arguing, a lot of pulling ideas apart and rebuilding them, a lot of learning from each other, a lot of challenging, a lot of …. well a lot of good fun with a great and always changing group of people really!

Last night we touched on the rights and wrongs of freedom of speech based on Boris banning a certain bus advert. We ended up asking whether we do actually have free speech in this country and it was interesting to see a number of us disagreeing with the sentiment of the advert in question but struggling with the removal of their right to be heard.

Last night saw a lot of theological discussion as we moved on to other topics but this was interspersed by a lot of general chat around catching up with each other. I think last night may have been the first time that the theological and the catching up discussion was around a 50-50 balance. It seemed like something of community was evident and starting to grow … and I wonder if that can be the case after meeting only a few times over beer, food and talk? I guess it is a good, if not the best, way to start!