An inconvenience

I couldn't quite believe it when I read this article about proposals to put up railings around a former church in Cambridge city centre. The message that comes across is "the homeless and drunks are an inconvenience and we don't want anything to do with them. They are somebody else's problem".

Now, the Round Church isn't actually a church anymore. The former congregation now worship elsewhere, and it's being run as some sort of arts centre / intellectual talking shop. But it's run by an organisation called 'Christian Heritage'. The Christian response to the homeless problem should be to offer support, not to lock them out. In another place on their website they start to answer this criticism, but hide behind excuses that their charitable status doesn't enable them to contribute directly but that they (presumably intellectually) support the work of a local charity 'Wintercomfort', who seem to be much more switched on. Their response in a later newspaper article needs no further comment by me, apart from "well said!"

Ironically, Christian Heritage advertise for student interns to join them to learn "more about our unique approach to Christian engagement with contemporary culture". It's certainly an innovative apporach that Jesus would not have taken.

Christian Heritage - I'm not impressed. You use the labels 'church' and 'Christian' yet your actions tell otherwise.

The Cost of Marriage

...there, that's got you reading on hasn't it? What's been going on in the vicarofdidley's household? Actually nothing of excitement or intrigue....but I did read this article on the BBC website, with marriage being the subject of a new green paper.

There's so much in there that I could talk about. Labour seeing any "stable and lasting relationship" as a good basis for child welfare, versus the Tories arguing that marriage helps keep couples together for the benefit of the children. I'm with the Tories on this one.

They then go on to talk about tax breaks for married couples, something which has been slowly pulled apart by the last few governments (of both flavours), but it's at this point that I start to fall asleep. However, there's something else they don't expand upon, which surely is a major obstacle for getting married, and that's the perceived cost of the wedding day itself.

The current figure for the 'cost of a wedding', based on newspaper and magazine articles that I've read seems to be around £30,000. Now I don't know how much my own wedding cost, as I only paid a small part of it (the bits that the groom traidtionally pays for), and it was 15 years ago, but I'm sure it was nowhere near this. Only a couple of generations ago a wedding reception was a simple meal back at home. Now it's been turned into an industry of 'essentials' that are mostly superfluous trimmings.

The actual cost of a church wedding = the ceremony, registration fees etc, is around £300 - 1% of that £30,000 figure. How do people manage to inflate it so much?

I'm going to enjoy meeting and preparing engaged couples for their marriage. I'll do everything I can to encourage more to get married, maybe by attending local wedding fairs (most people don't realise they are entitled to get married in church) but there's little I can do about the things people tack onto the side of a wedding, that build a huge financial hurdle that will burden somebody for a long time.

And finally, the Tories green paper will suggest "the offering of relationship advice at civil ceremonies". That sounds awfully like a wedding sermon by another name. The last time I went to a civil ceremony the mention of God was banned, so I wonder on what basis that relationship advice will be given?

The holiday begins

I know, teaching finished 3 weeks ago and term 11 days ago, but I don't count my holiday as actually having started until my work is handed in.

I've finally written what I needed to write about 'Divorce and Remarriage' and 'The Unity of the Church'. The second one was subtitled 'The One Show', but I suppose both could have been....

Both essays were handed in at Ridey at 2256hrs last night on my way to pick Beth and her friends up from their Super Hero Ball.

So, now the break begins! I can start to relax by attacking the list of jobs that has been prepared for me....

It's Corsham and Lacock

Having visited the Bishop of Swindon yesterday (yes I did, he even mentions me on his blog entry for the day) and having received and accepted his offer of a job, I can finally announce the news that I'll be ordained and licensed as the Curate in the Team Ministry of Greater Corsham and Lacock* in Bristol Cathedral on Sunday July 4th 2010. I'm not sure how many others will be ordained at the same time, but if you want to come and sit close together I'm sure there will be room! The picture is of St Bartholomew's, Corsham, taken while eating our lunch in the churchyard on our first visit!

'Corsham and Lacock' is a group of 5 churches over a diverse urban, rural and agricultural area. My boss (more formally 'my training incumbent') will be the Rev. Sally Wheeler, the Vicar of Lacock. I'll be working mostly with her on her patch in Lacock, but cropping up from time to time in the other churches.

Corsham is a country town, population about 15000, Lacock is a National Trust village frequently used for filming (e.g. Cranford, Harry Potter), Neston is where the set for 'Lark Rise' is, I've yet to discover Gastard's claim to fame and have to confess that we ran out of time to go to Bowden Hill. But I feel exhausted just listing them, never mind flitting around them for the next four years!

We'll move in mid June 2010 and will be living in the Vicarage in Neston village, where hopefully Isaac will be able to attend the village primary school over the garden fence (go on Google Earth, Neston - Wiltshire and you'll see house, school and church in one handy package). Beth wants to go to Corsham School, a short bus ride away, so the next couple of weeks will see us filling in school application forms and getting proof of residency from the Diocese. It's a spacious four bedroomed bungalow, with a good sized garden, and we're looking forwards to getting our hands on it and turning it into our home.

Exciting times ahead!

*(subject to completion of training, other terms and conditions may apply, the value of curates may go up as well as down)

Last week of term

So I'm a still a little behind on blogging, but I'm getting there with the essays.

The last week of term, which appropriately was last week, was a little busy. Monday saw the Gospel Choir out singing in a shopping centre in Cambridge. Not sure if people knew why we were doing it, but it was fun singing at innocent shoppers for an hour, even if I had only learnt one song on the day, having never heard it before. And not a carol in sight, or sound.

Tuesday saw the non-first years having a half-day course on Managing Change in the Church - making us aware of how change is perceived by different types of people, and how to approach things so that people will want to engage with change rather than resist it every step of the way.

Wednesday was actually a day off - got lots of reading and writing done.

Thursday, not a chance of doing anything, with my diary packed full of little one-off meetings and events, starting with a Hall Meeting (all staff and students) and culminating in the annual Advent Carol Service and after that the Christmas Dinner/Party/Revue/Ceilidh. Which was nice, but the layout of Ridley offers little opportunity for mingling spaces. Suddenly it was all over, people had disappeared and we realised that we won't see most of them again for a month.

All those 'Happy Christmas' wishes remain unsaid.....

Sermon Class

Last Sunday I had one of those strange Ridley anomalies - a piece of work that is highly critical, yet which I can't pass or fail. Sermon Class.

This means that a small group of students, along with one of the tutors, comes along to my attachment church and listens to me preach. Shortly afterwards we then sit together and constructively criticise what we've said/heard. As there is a group of six of us this basically means that for six of the Sundays this term and next we are absent from our attachment churches. With each term being so short it feels like I've hardly been at St Georges this term.

It went well. I learnt that when I give examples of things I should make them a bit more anonymous, and a little less personal, so that there is less chance of being unintentionally misunderstood ("aren't I great" is never a good feeling to broadcast from the pulpit). I was also paid a great compliment by my tutor. Which was nice. And I'll resist the temptation to tell you what it was, because it's never good to use your position to say "aren't I great"!!

On balance, a very positive, affirming experience.

"Poor C Staircase, locked up in a cell"

Apologies to Tim Rice for ripping off his lyrics there....

It's been a bit busy these last few days of term since timetabled activities finished and lots of other things crept in. So I now have a backlog of things to write about, as well as trying to finish off the essays that are due in soon. But I can only read so many books in a day before I need to do something else, and writing this is a welcome alternative.

About a week ago we had 'College Quiet Day', where each staircase group does something quiet and reflective for a day, instead of hiding in studies. Last year we went to Coventry Cathedral, new haunt of Bishop Chris Cocksworth, former Ridley Principal. This year students and spouses alike* jumped on the train at Cambridge station and got off at Norwich. There we enjoyed a nice wander around Norwich Cathedral, stopping off in a side chapel for a contemplation of Psalm 23.

After which we had a guided tour and lunch at a 'New Frontiers' church, where none of my female colleagues were bold enough to enquire as to their opinions on the role of women in church leadership. That aside, this is a great example of a church with vision, engaging in the community by running a cafe and conference centre in the week and using for themselves. The profits from the business more than pay for the running costs of the buildings, allowing them the funds to further expand their ministry into other areas of Norwich.

Finally, we visited the Julian Centre, where Julian of Norwich withdrew from the worldly life in the 1500's, living in solitude in her cell for most of her long life. After observing the interesting juxtaposition of nativity animals (left) we then tried not to giggle as we were told the story of Julian. Once we had calmed down , we spent 20 minutes in a led meditation / breathing exercise in Julian's cell. Except it wasn't really her cell, as the building was flattened in WWII, and when it was rebuilt it was made bigger, with a doorway brought in from somewhere else, a bigger window, different floor etc, etc..... Not that this distracted me at the time. I was still thinking of the nativity scene.

And then it was back home for tea.

Thanks to Fred for the pictures.

* The stomach bug which was ravaging the college at the time prevented 2 students and 1 wife from attending. Which left Tash as the sole spouse representative!