Right lets see what I can recall from the last fortnight. I think I will stick to main events rather than a day by day spiel. Monday 6th July I was down to Birmingham for a supervision. Main article was to review my report to St Andrew's Chesterfield. The report was in depth but is going to need some revision before I give it to them to take into consideration last Sunday's interview. There are still problems with dealing with details. I was puzzled by my supervisors response that the report was for the minister only. Two reasons, I expect elders to be interested in detailed reports and I also know with this minister that he won't read it if it was just for him. In the end it turned out that my supervisor had little idea what role the Elders play in an congregation and the depth of their involvement with the running and decision making on a day to day basis. He eventually grasped that elders were closer to ministry team than to PCC in the Anglican setting! It seems so simply that the minister does not run the Church but the elders meeting did and the minister plays a leading role within that setting. So it looks as if I am going to have to produce a chapter on the Reformed Character of the URC in my thesis otherwise I will find blank questions from my examiners. Travel was smooth except for the journey back when the train was delayed between Birmingham and Derby.
The Tuesday I had a migraine. I think if I hadn't I could have claimed I was cured of migraines as I had just done so much over the weekend and Monday. It was the first for quite some weeks. Yes the absence has really been due to an absense of migraines. Its actually quite tricky balancing things at the moment. I know I am better but I also know that if I go back to previous ways I will get more migraines. Humm.
Nothing much to report on Wednesday but Thursday was the day that St Andrews Chesterfield debated about whether children could take communion. Although many there see it as a continuation of whether confirmed(children who have gone through church membership) children could take communion I think this in many ways both was more recent and much deeper. Up until Easter time this did not arise as the children were in Junior Church during communion. The problem was that this Easter they came in and then the congregation did not know what should happen. Technically they held an open table and were proud of their open table but was it open to children. The deeper thing is to do with the acceptance of certain families into the congregation. These are families who are second generation and the mother was brought up in the church, but went away to college and came back. There are two such families. The mothers are being expected to go through membership classes again. One has done so and one has refused to. The mothers up until recently have not been asked to be elders. It was these families whose children were excluded from communion.
was until Friday then, I had a meeting in my diary which means I am back processing data, rather a lot of data some of it totally new to me. I am going to see what can be done with what we have got but I think at least one lot of data will need to be not produced as simply I do not have the where with all to deal with it.
Friday evening was completely different. I ended up organising a trip to evensong and then on for a curry at Naawab's. This was for Codepoet (as he is known on Ship of Fools) who is training for the Anglican ministry and had a placement at Parsons Cross in Sheffield. Balaam and LRP also from Ship of Fools made it as well. Cathy they live in Huddersfield. The rest of the West Riding shipmates did not make it. I was expecting Nawaab's to be close to full but it was at best half empty. The food was good, price about what you'd normally pay in Sheffield for a meal. Apparently the menu is not as extensive as it is in Bradford but they still went beyond the normal. For a good quality curry Division Street is becoming a place to go. As Aagrah's and Nawaab's have now joined Nirmals. I wonder if any of our out of town curry houses which are often also good will move into town. The choristers at evensong were definitely at the tired point for end of term. There were according to Codepoet glares from the choirmaster to various choristers during the service. One managed I think twice to drop his music. I imagine he at least stood a good chance at missing the end of term party on Sunday!
Saturday was quiet. Sunday I went to the communion service at St Andrews Chesterfield. The children should have taken for the first time. I think it was coincidence. Another family came that week, which meant that there was a third little one who as far as I know had not been to Junior Church at all during the last two years. This was the cousin of one of the little girls who is normally there. The mother who had been one of the leading protagonists in favour of children at communion stepped in and took the two younger girls while there was a communion service. I give her full credit for handling tactfully the situation. Then it was onto the pub for lunch with two members mother and daughter as indicated earlier.
Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were busy working days. On Wednesday I went around to Stuart's new room as he wanted to show it off. He rents his room from Monica Hanna. It really was only a visit to see his room which is now on the first floor and much better looking than his previous one.
Thursday I took the morning off to do some transcription and then into work on the afternoon hoping I'd have chance to play with the data but Dr Hussein had booked in that morning but otherwise a very ordinary day.
Friday was at Breakfast and then had a Greek class. Then a study day, Saturday a Study day and I took this morning off but am going to the barbecue this evening at St Andrew's Chesterfield that replaces the normal just desserts.
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Herringthorpe, Roberta Rominger and John Calvin
It feels a very full fortnight so you will get highlights only. Some of that is because my brain does not retain the detail. So pardon me if I skimp some things that you want to know. Ask away by all means.
Tuesday 23rd I went over to Herringthorpe to meet Pauline Calderwell. It was easy enough to get there once I got out of Sheffield. We talked for a couple of hours easily. I guess some of the fact that I spent my childhood in Yorkshire meant that I warmed to her approach. By the way Herringthorpe is a very different church from St Andrews Chesterfield. It has about double the number of members in the congregation, having grown from around 70 in the normal congregation upto around 120 during Pauline's time with the congregation. Many of the newer members are from a Pentecostal background. They have BBC Hymn book and Songs of Fellowship in the Pews with Good News Bibles. Their premises are heavily used during the week. That is morning, afternoon and evenings normally have at least a couple of groups in. They are at the very start of a building scheme because they need more space. The church is only fifty years old. The share some similarities with St Andrew's Chesterfield as well. Their minister has been there for much the same sort of time. The manse is very close to the church, technically a separate property but with access. Good News bibles in the pews is another. Oh land bought and developed later as well, this time by Rotherham Congregationalists who felt the area needed a congregational church.
Then over the weekend I wrote the first draft of the report to go to St Andrew's elders. There was no shortage of things to put in the report and I could still add things. It was funny to be writing something where there were more ideas than I could possibly put in. However on Friday I went up to Jean and James Dickson for a meal. It was a pleasant evening although I don't know how pleased James was to know there was a big report in draft coming to him for proof reading! James is looking better, and Jean seems to be moving more easily.
I also went to Just Desserts on Sunday evening. I wonder if the type of service these "cafe churches" put on reflects more the ministers own inclinations. If the person is into praise then it would be praise style, if, as David is, the minister is into bible discussion then that is what you get and so on. Then there was a return of a family to the church which is part of their on going struggle over children and communion. I am still trying to work out precisely what the tension is and there is a tension but I get the feeling the tension runs through people not between people which makes things difficult because there isn't two camps but a sort of tearing and the being of the people themselves. Anyway I got the report which is over 7000 words long, to my proof reader by about 6pm Monday and they both did stirling work on it getting it back to me by Thursday evening. I also sent it to two other people for comment on content.
On Wednesday I did NVivo training for a group from Education and I think Geography. The group was surprisingly easy to teach and for the first time I can recall, I came down from teaching for an afternoon not completely drained. I now need to get on with next years course updates. Oh I also on Wednesday learnt that I was second author on one of the top cited journals in Medical Education. I guess this was publicity from Medical Education who probably were sending a letter saying "Please consider us next time you publish in this area". We will see, it was a methodological paper which does get high citings, then I am methodologist.
Oh before I forget Bill Armstrong started worrying about how the induction loop was affected by the change for radios from analog to digital. I gave the correct answer different technologies, but as James requested it sent it onto Cliff who also answered "different technologies". However every few days someone else repeats the request. I know for a fact it is answered to Bill's and James' satisfaction! Why don't people in St Andrew's trust each other to do the required work.
On Friday at breakfast Jean Dickson and I freaked John out. There is a Jean who comes to the breakfast and she is a bag woman, suffering from some sort of mental illness and has a tendency to nick things, she also goes anywhere there is free food. She has a home and actually some financial reserves as well as her pension. John does not like her. So he had kept saying he did not want Jean on his table. First he said Jean was going to the toilet when it was Jean Dickson, then Jean Dickson came and sat by me. We did our normal exchange "Hello Jean" "Hello Jean" and I could see him doing a double take. I don't think John had realised I was a Jean and he certainly had not realised Jean Dickson was. Also had a Greek class that day and it decided to tipple with rain just as Sarah and Ted were due to arrive. Ted left his umbrella in the bathroom and asked me to remind him to take it. I forgot although he remembered but to make me feel better Sarah left her coat at my house.
On Saturday I went with the Dickson, Derek and Sarah to here Roberta Romminger speak on URC Identity. It was a decent presentation, somethings echoed with me. She sought to outline the process we are going through. The one thing that she would want me to say is "Vision 20/20" is not another programme to be bought into, it is a framework for assessing how well the programmes are working. That is once the local church has given its feed back, the thing is redrafted and brought to assembly, actually there is nothing extra for the local congregation to do. The process the URC is going through is the following:
Catching the vision - Structural reform to remove 1m from central costs
Vision4Life - developing congregational purpose through Bible Study, Prayer and Evangelism
God is still speaking - taking the vision out there.
Both Vision4Life and God is still speaking are optional for congregations and they are both a portfolio of items to be used according to local circumstance.
My main concern with 20/20 is that it presumes a congregation has a local community with which it can link, some congregations don't and it needs to think about them as well. Actually my other concern is that there is a change in society and some in the Church seem to think that the solution is to try and turn the clocks back. I still cannot make any guess of how we need to adapt the "technology" of being a church member for the current age but we do. Do we for instance need to encourage people to draw up personal "rules" for life which have accountability built in? Do we need to think of ways of keeping in relationship with someone even if they are not making public worship and how to encourage them to come to public worship? Is just different times of worship part of the answer or do we need different approaches? What is the minimum that constitutes public worship e.g. does CICS prayer group who meet for prayer for the department constitute an act of public worship or sharing a fellowship meal with other Christians you know well? Finally what space does the church fill, Public or Private? Is it something in the home, the factory, the public square or just within church buildings? I spoke briefly with Roberta well aware that I might want to quote her in my PhD and that she therefore needed to know I was there. I left my PhD card, whether anything will come of this other than that is a matter of circumstance.
We got home before five pm and my parents were due at 6p.m. as Dad was preaching in Chesterfield the next day to mark John Calvin's 500th birthday. In actual fact due to a traffic hold up on the West side of the pennines it was closer to 6:30 p.m. but provided me with a welcome break. I had prepared a meal of pasta with smoked trout and veg all in a pesto sauce. I deliberately cooked only a limited quantity of pasta, partly because Mum and Dad had had their main meal mid day, I had only had sandwiches at Herringthorpe so it was a compromise meal, but with the weather being so warm I was not eating much. The dessert was Chantarais Melon and Raspberries. Then I drove my parents in their car down to the Premier Inn and stood around while they booked in. I then drove the car back to my parking space.
Today Mum and Dad came around about 8 a.m.. I gave them breakfast (Premier Inn is a slightly up market travelodge, the reason for choosing it is that is is about a block down the ring road, opposite Waitrose towards St Mary's Gate behind the most recent sky scraper. Then I drove them to Chesterfield. Dad wanted to be early, so we actually managed to turn up before the duty elder arrived. Fortunately the catering committee were there and had opened up the church. The congregation was boosted by some members from the Caledonian Society and some from Rosehill. Dad was good although he found it tiring.The congregation were listening as they laughed at Dad's jokes, which shows they were listening as Dad's humour is deadpan. The sermon took three parts, the first an introduction to the life of John Calvin, the second an overview of his life's work and final a summary of his relevance to today. His conclusions include that seeking to do something about the ways society falls short of the Kingdom of God is firmly routed in Calvin's understanding of role of the Church and that Calvin had no time for a privatised religion. He also spoke of elders standing along side ministers in witnessing to the kingdom.
The congregation was very chatty and in no rush to go home! I think we probably left sometime after 1 p.m. and there were still people there. Alright Helen and Patrick but others as well. Dad's sermon was on the long side, but people just chatted. An interesting thing was while I sat with my parents people did not come up to chat but the second I moved away people started to come.
We then drove onto the Fox House Inn and had a Sunday dinner there. The meal took a long time to come but when it did it was huge. Dad suggested Mum should not have wine, and as he and I were driving we could not. Mum objected but I suggested that she had pudding instead which she would enjoy much more. However the meal was so large mum could not face pudding. I really think the place did itself out of some money by making the meals so large. We then came back here and chatted until about 5 p.m. when Mum and Dad decided to head for home. I spent the next hour curled up in my bedroom
Tuesday 23rd I went over to Herringthorpe to meet Pauline Calderwell. It was easy enough to get there once I got out of Sheffield. We talked for a couple of hours easily. I guess some of the fact that I spent my childhood in Yorkshire meant that I warmed to her approach. By the way Herringthorpe is a very different church from St Andrews Chesterfield. It has about double the number of members in the congregation, having grown from around 70 in the normal congregation upto around 120 during Pauline's time with the congregation. Many of the newer members are from a Pentecostal background. They have BBC Hymn book and Songs of Fellowship in the Pews with Good News Bibles. Their premises are heavily used during the week. That is morning, afternoon and evenings normally have at least a couple of groups in. They are at the very start of a building scheme because they need more space. The church is only fifty years old. The share some similarities with St Andrew's Chesterfield as well. Their minister has been there for much the same sort of time. The manse is very close to the church, technically a separate property but with access. Good News bibles in the pews is another. Oh land bought and developed later as well, this time by Rotherham Congregationalists who felt the area needed a congregational church.
Then over the weekend I wrote the first draft of the report to go to St Andrew's elders. There was no shortage of things to put in the report and I could still add things. It was funny to be writing something where there were more ideas than I could possibly put in. However on Friday I went up to Jean and James Dickson for a meal. It was a pleasant evening although I don't know how pleased James was to know there was a big report in draft coming to him for proof reading! James is looking better, and Jean seems to be moving more easily.
I also went to Just Desserts on Sunday evening. I wonder if the type of service these "cafe churches" put on reflects more the ministers own inclinations. If the person is into praise then it would be praise style, if, as David is, the minister is into bible discussion then that is what you get and so on. Then there was a return of a family to the church which is part of their on going struggle over children and communion. I am still trying to work out precisely what the tension is and there is a tension but I get the feeling the tension runs through people not between people which makes things difficult because there isn't two camps but a sort of tearing and the being of the people themselves. Anyway I got the report which is over 7000 words long, to my proof reader by about 6pm Monday and they both did stirling work on it getting it back to me by Thursday evening. I also sent it to two other people for comment on content.
On Wednesday I did NVivo training for a group from Education and I think Geography. The group was surprisingly easy to teach and for the first time I can recall, I came down from teaching for an afternoon not completely drained. I now need to get on with next years course updates. Oh I also on Wednesday learnt that I was second author on one of the top cited journals in Medical Education. I guess this was publicity from Medical Education who probably were sending a letter saying "Please consider us next time you publish in this area". We will see, it was a methodological paper which does get high citings, then I am methodologist.
Oh before I forget Bill Armstrong started worrying about how the induction loop was affected by the change for radios from analog to digital. I gave the correct answer different technologies, but as James requested it sent it onto Cliff who also answered "different technologies". However every few days someone else repeats the request. I know for a fact it is answered to Bill's and James' satisfaction! Why don't people in St Andrew's trust each other to do the required work.
On Friday at breakfast Jean Dickson and I freaked John out. There is a Jean who comes to the breakfast and she is a bag woman, suffering from some sort of mental illness and has a tendency to nick things, she also goes anywhere there is free food. She has a home and actually some financial reserves as well as her pension. John does not like her. So he had kept saying he did not want Jean on his table. First he said Jean was going to the toilet when it was Jean Dickson, then Jean Dickson came and sat by me. We did our normal exchange "Hello Jean" "Hello Jean" and I could see him doing a double take. I don't think John had realised I was a Jean and he certainly had not realised Jean Dickson was. Also had a Greek class that day and it decided to tipple with rain just as Sarah and Ted were due to arrive. Ted left his umbrella in the bathroom and asked me to remind him to take it. I forgot although he remembered but to make me feel better Sarah left her coat at my house.
On Saturday I went with the Dickson, Derek and Sarah to here Roberta Romminger speak on URC Identity. It was a decent presentation, somethings echoed with me. She sought to outline the process we are going through. The one thing that she would want me to say is "Vision 20/20" is not another programme to be bought into, it is a framework for assessing how well the programmes are working. That is once the local church has given its feed back, the thing is redrafted and brought to assembly, actually there is nothing extra for the local congregation to do. The process the URC is going through is the following:
Catching the vision - Structural reform to remove 1m from central costs
Vision4Life - developing congregational purpose through Bible Study, Prayer and Evangelism
God is still speaking - taking the vision out there.
Both Vision4Life and God is still speaking are optional for congregations and they are both a portfolio of items to be used according to local circumstance.
My main concern with 20/20 is that it presumes a congregation has a local community with which it can link, some congregations don't and it needs to think about them as well. Actually my other concern is that there is a change in society and some in the Church seem to think that the solution is to try and turn the clocks back. I still cannot make any guess of how we need to adapt the "technology" of being a church member for the current age but we do. Do we for instance need to encourage people to draw up personal "rules" for life which have accountability built in? Do we need to think of ways of keeping in relationship with someone even if they are not making public worship and how to encourage them to come to public worship? Is just different times of worship part of the answer or do we need different approaches? What is the minimum that constitutes public worship e.g. does CICS prayer group who meet for prayer for the department constitute an act of public worship or sharing a fellowship meal with other Christians you know well? Finally what space does the church fill, Public or Private? Is it something in the home, the factory, the public square or just within church buildings? I spoke briefly with Roberta well aware that I might want to quote her in my PhD and that she therefore needed to know I was there. I left my PhD card, whether anything will come of this other than that is a matter of circumstance.
We got home before five pm and my parents were due at 6p.m. as Dad was preaching in Chesterfield the next day to mark John Calvin's 500th birthday. In actual fact due to a traffic hold up on the West side of the pennines it was closer to 6:30 p.m. but provided me with a welcome break. I had prepared a meal of pasta with smoked trout and veg all in a pesto sauce. I deliberately cooked only a limited quantity of pasta, partly because Mum and Dad had had their main meal mid day, I had only had sandwiches at Herringthorpe so it was a compromise meal, but with the weather being so warm I was not eating much. The dessert was Chantarais Melon and Raspberries. Then I drove my parents in their car down to the Premier Inn and stood around while they booked in. I then drove the car back to my parking space.
Today Mum and Dad came around about 8 a.m.. I gave them breakfast (Premier Inn is a slightly up market travelodge, the reason for choosing it is that is is about a block down the ring road, opposite Waitrose towards St Mary's Gate behind the most recent sky scraper. Then I drove them to Chesterfield. Dad wanted to be early, so we actually managed to turn up before the duty elder arrived. Fortunately the catering committee were there and had opened up the church. The congregation was boosted by some members from the Caledonian Society and some from Rosehill. Dad was good although he found it tiring.The congregation were listening as they laughed at Dad's jokes, which shows they were listening as Dad's humour is deadpan. The sermon took three parts, the first an introduction to the life of John Calvin, the second an overview of his life's work and final a summary of his relevance to today. His conclusions include that seeking to do something about the ways society falls short of the Kingdom of God is firmly routed in Calvin's understanding of role of the Church and that Calvin had no time for a privatised religion. He also spoke of elders standing along side ministers in witnessing to the kingdom.
The congregation was very chatty and in no rush to go home! I think we probably left sometime after 1 p.m. and there were still people there. Alright Helen and Patrick but others as well. Dad's sermon was on the long side, but people just chatted. An interesting thing was while I sat with my parents people did not come up to chat but the second I moved away people started to come.
We then drove onto the Fox House Inn and had a Sunday dinner there. The meal took a long time to come but when it did it was huge. Dad suggested Mum should not have wine, and as he and I were driving we could not. Mum objected but I suggested that she had pudding instead which she would enjoy much more. However the meal was so large mum could not face pudding. I really think the place did itself out of some money by making the meals so large. We then came back here and chatted until about 5 p.m. when Mum and Dad decided to head for home. I spent the next hour curled up in my bedroom
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)