Curacy News

Things are looking OK on the curacy front. I've been in touch with a friendly bishop who has some interesting places that I could look at.

You have to be related to me to find out more. Or if you're at Ridley you can believe the rumours. Or if you're a former CYFA member you'll remember our unoffical mascot.

That's all I'm going to say for now.

One Year On - Remembering Mark

It's a year today since Mark Autherson died*. So when we met as a staircase group for prayers this morning I took the opportunity to remember Mark, and to offer the opportunity for people to light a candle in memory of people they have loved and lost.

I used music and pictures alongside the first part of Psalm 139, a piece of prose, and some prayers from the Anglican funeral and memorial services. I wasn't prepared for the raw emotions that would surface, and while I had warned people that it would be quiet and reflective I should also have told them to bring tissues and waterproof make-up.

I used the song 'Perfect Sacrifice' by Trent Vineyard's worship band 'Trent' (go to i-tunes, search for the song title, then buy the whole live album!). Listen to the words carefully - the song was written after the sudden death of a church member, and talks of the continuing hope that his widow had in Jesus, at a time when she could either have run from God or run to Him. Christians believe in life after death - death is just a horizon that we can't see beyond, and it's not something we need to be afraid of.


*see my entry from October 24th 2008

Deacon Blue

Deacon: It was the turn of 'C' staircase's to organise the weekly College Communion service this week. Whilst others took on the roles of music, prayer, readings and techie stuff, I chose to be deacon. Which means that I stuck on a cassock and angel wings, stood at the front and led the service, apart from the bits that I'm not yet qualified to do. All went swimmingly, it all knitted together really well, and I was floating on air for 24 hours

Blue: Then the Saturday morning post arrived, and in it was a letter from my Bishop, informing me that I have been 'Released'. This means that Salisbury Diocese (from whence I was sent) have been unable to match me and my training needs with a curacy post in a suitable Salisbury parish. So now I'm free to explore other options in any one of 43 other English dioceses. But I won't be coming back to Salisbury as a curate next year. That doesn't rule a return out after that, nor does it mean I can't go back in the meantime (for example, were any of my former youth group to want me to marry them that would be possible). But it does mean that next year might be shaped quite differently from how we had expected. And that's just completely thrown us.

Firstly, Saturday was a bit wierd. We both spent a lot of time on the phone and texting. For me it was a case of getting in touch with people who have been through the process recently or who know how this all works or who might know somebody who knows somebody who knows a friendly bishop. For Tash it was a case of leaning on her support network. It was just a constant barrage of phones, ringtones and text beeps!

Secondly, until something like this happens you don't realise how much you had been building your future on certain assumptions. I had assumed my ordination would be in Salisbury, which would have made it at the end of September, meaning we have a relatively leisurely move, set up house, start job, dawdle through the summer, get ordained. But most dioceses ordain in early July, so we could now be facing a really hectic June....

Now I start the next part of the process, but I’m not alone. I’ve just set up a photo map at college where we can see who has a job confirmed, and who hasn’t yet. At the moment there are only 5 people out of 30 who know for definite what is happening. I’m in good company with the other 25.

What happens next? I could sit back and wait, looking occasionally in the folder at college where all the vacancies are advertised – something which I have been doing casually over the last few weeks, just for practice so I can get a feel of reading about different churches and working out which ones appeal. Now I have to do that for real, and actually decide which ones do appeal, and if they still appeal when I realise where they are! Or I can be a bit more pro-active, and use my network of contacts to find out about things before they get to that folder. I’ve already done a bit of that and I’m waiting for some phone calls.

I’m afraid I’m going to have to be a bit cagey about places and churches now until I’ve got something sorted. We will have to visit places and decide whether or not we like them. It wouldn’t be fair to name somewhere and then tell you we’ve rejected it. So you’ll not know where I’ve looked, but you will know where I’ve finally settled on. Eventually.

Shipwrecked and Comatose

Red Dwarf fans will recognise the cultural reference here. It's exactly how I feel.

Somewhat prophetically my Facebook status this morning was: "Stephen wants to lie shipwrecked and comatose drinking fresh mango juice". Little did I realise how accurate that was going to be.

With the lecture timetable having finally kicked in I'm now getting accustomed to the rhythm of life for the next 8 weeks. This started last Thursday - with nothing timetabled for me. Friday had a couple of hours of 'Life and Service', where we looked at the content, shape and flow of the Communion service. Then it was the weekend!!

So far so good, not too stressful, and Monday continues that theme, where it's the afternoon before I settle down for a couple of hours of 'Christian Doctrine', in which we'll examine key areas of what Christianity actually believes. And that's where the fun stops.

Tuesdays are going to be my worst day, where I have a bit of every single module. Ethics, followed by double Gospel and Western Culture, followed by a Doctrine seminar, followed by Life and Service. There are breaks and lunch built in there somewhere, but during the afternoon sessions I was observed by my companions being comatose for short periods. It probably didn't help that in Doctrine we were talking about a particularly difficult passage by Archbishop Rowan Williams which very few of us had been able to make any sense of - thankfully the lecturers were struggling with it as much as us.

This evening I've been preparing the service for this week's College Communion where I'm helping lead the service. It's kept me out of trouble, as I sit on the sofa whilst Tash watches a film - the film seemed to fly past in five minutes as I grappled with the various liturgical options available to me....

Wednesdays look like they're going to be interesting - Gospel and Western Culture seminars and Double Ethics!

Score your vicar

It's been a bit of a quiet week this first week of term, which has meant that we've had time to complete a little project. The jokes might not mean much to you if you're outside the Ridley community of course, but there are potential applications of the candle technology in churches up and down the land.

Read carefully

This article caught my eye, because out of the corner of my eye I saw its title as 'Return to form for Rowan Williams'.

I wondered what the Boss has done now that warrants compliments from the BBC. It's only when I clicked on it that I realised I hadn't read it correctly.

It's still an interesting article though. Robbie's lyrics are usually laden with spiritual references - his album "Escapology" was a rich resource in my youth-work days a couple of years ago. 'Something Beautiful' brought us "You won't be lost hurt, tired and lonely, something beautiful will come your way", and 'Feel' offered "I don't want to die but I ain't keen on living either". Robbie asks the big questions.

The current single 'Bodies' from his latest offering is no exception. Robbie sings "if Jesus really died for me, then Jesus really tried for me". Spot on Robbie. Although later there is evidence that Robbie has rejected this when he replaces that with "Jesus didn't die for me".

In his authorised biography 'Feel' Robbie tells that he is constantly bombarded with correspondence from Christians who are trying to convert him. It's hardly a surprise when his songs are so full of his own spiritual search.