Church House carol service

It was the turn of the Buildings Department to plan and put on the annual Carol Service for Church House staff yesterday. The liturgical highlight was a nativity play - or was it a pantomime? It was a joy to see that the staff involved don't take themselves too seriously, and that worship can be fun, as well as meaningful.

I was very tickled by the wry comment at the end that there needed to be a retiring collection - for the organ. It had groaned and wheezed it's way through the service, despite being ably played - but it did sound as if it needed to be permanently retired!

On a serious note, and only tangentially relating to the service yesterday, how is the mission of the church furthered by things like ancient and decrepit organs? And are we so attached to our customs and practices that we can't see how strange they appear to the people we are trying to reach? What is such an instrument to a person who doesn't usually go to church but a distraction or a source of humour? Someone will be bound to want to defend organs, but as a cultural practice of the church, are they not, in fact, simply part of the structure of a distinct subculture, with very little connection to the wider culture within which we are trying to communicate the gospel?

A further thought, what is so scary for a congregation about a capella singing? At another service I attended recently, the unaccompanied singing of O come, O come Emmanuel was hauntingly beautiful.

Christmas party for the OLM Scheme

The 1st party of the season! No pictures, sadly - I forgot the camera. But a good time was had by all the ordinands, staff and members of the Advisory Body. High hilarity over the past and present dancing exploits of one of the 2nd year ordinands, and of the Principal - but discretion requires my absolute silence on the matter! David's dry and droll sense of humour had some of us almost rolling in the aisles. (David is shown above, with Pam, and with the whole group).

Humour is such an important part of being human; it's a shame when it's cruel or prejudicial, or thoughtlessly undermining of someone else. But to see the funny side of life is to look at it with the eyes of a child, in a relaxed way which welcomes incongruity and sees it as having the potential for mirth and merriment. A good laugh always lightens my day.

It makes me wonder what God finds the funniest: our exploits, our appearance and physicality, or our inability to get the jokes he sends our way?

Christmas Greetings

I like all the clutter that comes with Christmas. I don't mind the 'tat' at all! My Christmas tree is always full of colour and glitter, and each decoration is added to enhance and harmonise with all the others. I have a little collection of nativities - some china, some glass, even one carved of beeswax. Several are in glass balls with musical tunes and a snowstorm if you tip them upside down. One is a little wind chime. Many have a place to add a nightlight. On Christmas Eve, I set up figures of Mary, Joseph and some cows in a little wooden shed that my husband made for me - it has moss on the roof. On Christmas Day, the infant Christ figure arrives in the manger, the shepherds are placed in front of him, kneeling with their sheep, and the 3 kings start their journey from the TV table across the room over the mantelpiece, to arrive at the scene by Epiphany. On occasion, they have been known to circumnavigate the entire room, and even to have got lost on the way! The thing is, everyone in the family takes seriously the Christmas message, enters into the story, and helps them on their journey.

This year, I have been sent a Christmas email with an all singing all dancing PowerPoint presentation of different Christmassy scenes each revealing all the Christmas tat I enjoy, with baubles and Santas and nativities appearing and disappearing as only PowerPoint knows how. I hope the Church House server will let me send it out to our students and that the file is not too big!

Which version of the Bible?

A colleague from another Church of England diocese emailed round today asking which version of the Bible we asked our students to use in their assignments. His students are expected to use the new Revised Standard version (NRSV), and he was wondering if that was a little restrictive. I answered that I hoped the people who learn on our courses use that version, too, but that I always suggest to people that they might want to use a different version in their daily prayer. Keith said that I should have replied that we don't mind what the students use, but that the staff are expected to read the scriptures in the original languages. (I liked his sense of humour!). But it got me thinking. If language is formative of culture, and of meaning, how is an individual candidate for licensed ministry being formed by the language of the Bible that they use? For instance, I ask our students to use an inclusive language version because I have had experience of women being alienated from Christianity because they perceive the Bible as sexist and patriarchal. Inclusive language versions, to my mind, don't necessarily solve that particular problem, but can at least go part of the way to helping women feel that they belong as part of the Church.

Busyness and ministry

There is a reasurring sign over my desk which reads
'Do not feel totally personally irrevocably responsible for everything. That's my job. Love, God'.

It's reassuring because I have had a day when I cannot spell! So I hope God and the computer spellchecker have made sure none of the emails that I've sent out today to our students, or to colleagues, have been too full of errors!

You can just imagine it, can't you: Dera Bishop, thak youo fro invitinging me to peech at the ordinantion at Ephipany - I wuld be delited to do do so......etc. etc. And it's a good job that people who listen to me preach can't see the spellign mistakes in the drafts of the sermon!

recent version of the Lord's Prayer

I got this in an email from Stephen today. Mm... :

Those of you who are keener on modern language liturgy than I am may be glad to have this most recent version of the Lord's Prayer:

'Our Ultimate Stakeholder, who art an avatar in cyberspace, a big respect from the brothers. In the long-term scenario your sphere of influence will take over big time. Your mission statement will be expedited pan-globally, as it is off-planet. As of this moment in time, further our basic human rights by facilitating our minimal calorific requirement 24/7. Additionally, enrol us on a restorative justice programme as and when appropriate, as we move on and achieve closure on our issues in the hood. Keep us from the major issues and don't drag us into negative scenarios. You are the celebrity stakeholder, with absolute executive options and A list status, foreseeably. Standard.'

By Frances Farrer, The Oxford Writer, Number 47, November 2008.

Skype and team work

Aargh! The Training and Portfolio Team, [which is Phillip (above) and Keith (climbing the wall) and myself] thought we could have team video conferences via Skype, as we are all now Skype enabled. But it turns out that this is a bit advanced for Skype. We can have voice over internet conversations in conference OK, but only 2 people can see each other at once via the live video link, not the 3 of us. Sad - Keith had been looking forward to an 8am conference call and seeing Phillip in his dressing gown! I guess simultaneous real time visuals are what God gets of us all...

Working across dioceses

My colleague Keith and I went to Winchester this week to do some work with colleagues from Guildford and Winchester dioceses. One of the group, Simon, turns out to have been a curate in my home diocese of Hereford. While he was there he got to know my father, John de la Tour Davies, who was also a priest. He remembered that Dad had tatoos on each forearm, one of Mary and Jesus; the other of Christ on the cross. He thought this was unusual! I said that Dad had used them as a visual aid when explaining the Gospel to soldiers during his time as an army chaplain in the far East in World War 2. Simon also remembered a barrel of beer at a Swanwick clergy conference, and he and Dad enjoying its contents! And we agreed that my father was one of the characters that Anglican ministry has often produced. He ended his days as a Canon and Prebendary at Hereford Cathedral, where his funeral was held. I remember the Christmas before he died of oesophageal cancer - taking him, ill as he was, to the Cathedral for the Christmas carol service. How proud he was to robe and process to his prebend's stall with the other clergy! The photo shows him the summer before he died in 2003.

Holy Communion

Off to St Lawrence, Oxford, for one of our new Church House weekly lunchtime Eucharists. Doesn't mean we get let off Sunday church! This is just extra blessing! 8 of us there, presided over by Archdeacon Norman (see picture).

Teaching on the Sacramental theology course last night at Church House: 20 people studying patristic and medieval period Eucharistic liturgies, and learning about the way Eucharistic prayers were put together in the past. Great energy in the group, of which 8 or so are ordinands, with all but one of the rest identifying themselves as 'supporters' from their parishes. We went round the room introducing ourselves, at the start of the session. After I heard from all the supporters, I said that I was there to 'support' them all, and were the other supporters there to learn too, or just there to accompany the ordinands on the journey into Oxford? It was encouraging to hear their warm endorsement of the idea that they are also learners hoping to grow and develop in their Christian faith.

Social scientific study of the New Testament

I'm finding Modelling early Christianity (which I'm reading for my Doctorate in Ministry at King's College, London) very interesting. I've known about sociological approaches to Bible study for some time, and this book is helping me see something of the theoretical background for this method of interpretation. I am intrigued that modern analyses of, say, group relations, can be used to look at the way the early church formed. I've also been reading Anthony Gidden's writings on sociology, and I am about to tackle Berger and Luckman. Weber next!

I may write more on this as I continue to read the book, although as I also have an assignment to complete, this may not be for some time!