Christian spirit

Well, I have just been to the confirmation of a friend of ours with my wife and family.  I was sitting at the back of the church with my family (you have to try to keep the screaming kids away from normal people ), and the person who was carrying out the confirmation, who I know in passing, invited me up to assist in serving communion so that I could take an active role in my friends first communion.  Now I am not connected with this church, or with the denomination in any way, it was simply a wonderful act of kindness that meant a lot to me and my friend.

So thanks, for restoring some of my faith in mankind today.

Enforced absence!

Well I’ve been away from blogging for another 2 weeks, for 2 reasons, firstly because I’ve not been feeling very Christian for the last fortnight, because 2, some thieving git broke into my house and stole a number of things, including my computer. This means I lost the use of my diary, all my old service details, and sick visit records, which I’ve had to rebuild from scratch.

I wish the person well with my computer and the other things they stole, and hope that when they are caught and I pray they are, the Magistrates pay close attention to what the poor, defenceless clergyman in the witness box says.

“Vengence is mine sayeth the Lord”, but sometimes you really want to help out

Trouble at mill

Well, its been a fun  few weeks here in the Midlands.  I’ve become a very short lived star of radio and papers thanks to the local Diocese of the Church of England.  It appears that despite my making no issue of the fact that I am an independant Minister, not cconnected to any mainstream church the Diocese contacted the press to tell them how local funeral directors and myself were fooling local people into thinking they were getting a CofE funeral.

The evidence was damning, a sheet of paper from a local crematoria that shows the denomination of the deceased, not the officiant, and a forum post from over 2 years ago where I discussed how I had started contacting people.  The story ran as a he said she said piece, and died a sudden death.  So who really lost out because of this bit of idiocy?

Well the CofE lost me as a supporter who believed they were a honourable and respectful orgasnisation, I got a bit stressed with being annoyed by the press, the local funeral directors thought it was hilarious, and changed the denomination of people to Christian if they weren’t really CofE (lets face it, most people are CofE even if they have not been to church in 30 years), and I’ve met a number of clergy from small churches that the Diocese have done this to over the years.

But the real losers in all of this are the poor families who I have conducted services for, who could have woken up one morning the see in the press that the Minister who conducted the funeral of their loved one was a fake (the impression the press release gave) and paniced rather than the matter being dealt with responsibly.  Luckily the press were responsible in their handling, and so this didn’t happen.

What really caused this?  Well I can’t say, but given that Ministers fees can be in excess of £110, that is a lot of money for a family to find, and that our fees are lower than this, substantially, and that where a family suffer financial hardship we will conduct a service for free, as we will not deny anyone a Christian funeral on financial grounds, it gives some idea of why this might have happened.

Oh, and to make sure the world as a whole know, I AM NOT A CHURCH OF ENGLAND CLERGYMAN, never have been, never will be, etc etc etc.

Oh, and a scripture reference for todays post?  It’s obvious really, 1 Timothy 6:10 , Pauls letter to Timothy “the love of money is the root of all evil”

Well I’m off to a busy day, speak soon

A big thank you

I would like to say a big  thankyou to a church near to me who showed the true spirit of Christian love and generosity last week.  I had been asked by a family to conduct a funeral for their mother.  Not a problem, or so I thought.  I managed to speak to them properly 4 days before the funeral, and found out that they would like part of the service held at this Church. Now there are a couple of problems with this.  Firstly I am not the Parish Priest of St Marks, and secondly i am not even a CofE vicar.  So, with some degree of fear I approached the Vicar to ask if I could use her Church.

Now to those of you not in the Church this may not sound so bad, but as any clergy person can tell you, some of us are very protective of our territories, and letting an unknown person “take over” is unthinkable.  Who knows what they will do,  and whether their will be any consequences (financial, legal or publicity) from it.

Well the Rev. Leach is, thankfully, not like that.  She agreed to using the church as long as her organist and verger were free, and so the family had their wish, that their mum could have her funeral at the church she grew up in.

Thankyou Rev. Leach for your understanding, faith in another person, and for helping to make a family’s wishes come to fruition.  I wish more of my colleagues were like you.

And the meek shall inherit the earth.

Did anyone else watch the inaugaration of President Obama yesterday? As a Brit I have to say what a spectacle and what an amazing day.  When I was born segregation was still normal in the southern US, the Army were being sent in to protect black children going to previously all white schools, and the KKK and night riders were still a force to be reckoned with.

Today we have an African American President in the White House, a man whose family know the problems of Africa first hand, a man who understands what it is like NOT to be part of the white elite.  I pray that this will bring unity and uunderstanding for all of us, across the world,  and a new step in acceptance and tolerance of racial differences.  However, a note of caution.  I was told the story, hopefully fictional, of an American journalist interviewing people in Mississipi about the election, and at one house the wife opened the door.  When asked how she would be voting she called in to her husband “who we voting for” to which he replied “the n*****”.  Perhaps we have a long way to go still.

I pray that this will lead to a new era for us all, but I also ask God to give Barack Obama a long, safe and successful presidency, to allow his view of the world to prevail.

My dream job! Part 2

Well, if it  was up to me, I’d like to open a community church project in a form that I’m sure some will find offensive, but which has worked for me before.  I want to open a pub.  A drinkers pub, not a family pub, where people come in, get a pint or several, and set the world to rights.  In amongst this would be the normal rush of bar staff, glass collectors, but also a couple of Outreach Workers and myself as Minister/Landlord. The plan would be that on Sunday mornings a church service would be held, and the pub itself would open after lunch.  The rest of the week it would work as normal.  It would workk on a spiritual level by allowing those who would not be seen in a church except for their funeral to come into contact with outreach in their own environment, where they can talk to us about problems in their life, or ask for spiritual help and support, without the “stigma” of being seen going to Church, because for some that is how it is seen.

We wouldn’t preach about the errors of their ways, or try to “convert” them, but instead show them an example of Christian love, using profits from the pub to support other local churches and community projects.

As the old saying goes, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.

My dream job! part 1

Well I’m sure many of you have seen the job advert on the internet for this job however it got me thinking about what my dream job would be.  Don’t get me wrong, £6,ooo a month to blog from a remote island on the Great Barrier Reef, where a cheap hotel for my family would cost almost £3,000 for 2 weeks, would be wonderful, but is it really what I fancy  doing?  I’m sure that many people, especially with the current financial uncertainty, will apply in the hope they get it, and many more of us will curse the winner for being so lucky.

Me, I wish them well, I think it will be a hard slog for them, with the eyes of the world on them, having to report back on all the things they are doing. So later on this week, after a bit of serious thought, I’ll tell you all what my dream job would be, but in the mean time, tell me yours.

I’ll give you a clue, my dream job invloves merging together some of my many careers in my life, to come up with a surprising new package.

So sad

Its a shame when innocent people on both sides of a conflict die, without the world getting involved.  I mean the conflict in Gaza of course, which has seen civilian casualties on both sides of the conflict, and shows no signs of slowing down until one side or the other is exterminated.

Now is the time for the world, especially the US and UK to get invloved, by seeking a United Nations mandate for peace-keeping activity, and enforcing it on both sides.  Not only would this prove that we care more about human life than oil or weapons sales, but it might also settle the rumours that we are just interested in stopping Muslim states.  A PR victory for the governments, and the chance to do the right thing for the civilians.

Will it happen?  In all honesty I doubt it, I’m amazed the US didn’t use its veto in the security council the other day, but somehow I can’t see foreign troops acting as peace keepers in this conflict, for a variety of reasons.  So what can we do?

First, we can pray for an end to the conflict, and for the families who have lost loved ones.  We can ask our local politicians to make their voices heard, raising public pressure on our own governments all over the world.  Finally we can write to the UN, to World Leaders, to Barack Obama when he is in power, and ask them to act in the name of human decency, to stop a terrible situation getting worse.

Then we can start on the real hard work, making a peace that lasts, and a friendship that can blossom, which will take many years to build up trust, understanding and acceptance.

Well thats over for another year

The blatant commercialism that has become Christmas that is.. Somewhere in between hankies, socks, too much turkey and a touch of alcohol I managed to find time to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.  It always amazes me when I go to midnight mass that people who you only see in a church for the Trinity (hatched, matched and dispatched) manage to drag their backsides out on a freezing cold night, into an even colder church (well be honest, we never turn the heating on, do we) to sing carols and take  communion, only to then clear off for another 12 months.

Mayb e we should issue “frequent worshipper” cards, so that those who do actually worship in the church can actually get a seat. But still, it proves that people do still have a need for religion in theirr lives, or else they would not bother coming to midnight mass, what we need to do is find a way to get them coming regularly, without the financial pressure of buying presents every day.

All together now “Oh I wish it could be Christmas every day…”

Missing in action

My apologies for being AWOL for the last 5 months (is it really that long?).  In this time my wife and I have had our third child, we’ve moved house, my wife has set up her own business, and I’ve been trying to prepare for my return to the pulpit, even if it is only as a guest preacher occassionaly.  Dealing mostly in preaching at funerals I have the luxury of choosing the texts that I preach on, however now I am having to return to preaching from the lectionary readings for a week, and its a bit of a culture shock, I can tell you.

However it also means that if anyone is desperate enough to need a guest preacher in the Midlands, feel free to drop me a line, and if I am free I would love to help out, it is strangely pleasant to be back in the pulpit on a Sunday after a very long absence.