This week has been odd. I am hoping that one of these weeks I will get a week in which I am able to be in work for four days, however the reason this week was strikes. Now I am not a great fan of strike action, but the UCU rarely uses it (I think this means I have withdrawn my labour for one working week in the nineteen odd years I have been in HE). In this case, I suspect the jobs issue is a no win one but perhaps an idea of feelings, Pensions is a bit more about fairness, when the stockmarket was doing well the Universities as employers took a holiday from contributing, now it is doing badly they don’t seem to understand the quid pro quo for having taken that. However my main reason for striking is I belong to the Union, I appreciate the work the Union does on my behalf (having been regraded un-unionised and regraded unionised I can tell you which one was the better outcome), and I also believe that if ever things came to a dispute between me and the University I would want the backing of the Union. Given that I don’t believe in being a fair weather trades unionist and only belonging when I want to, so I was on strike. So although I was in work on Monday, which was quite quiet and Wednesday but I was off Tuesday, Thursday and Friday (Friday being my day off).
I am afraid striking and research do not mix. Tuesday was the sort of day where if I would have been in two minds about whether I could work or not. I was feeling off colour but nothing very specific but as I was on strike I went back to bed and slept it off. I then spent quite some time reviewing Herringthorpe URC website ( but it has been updated since and is updating) for the church. I am surprised myself in doing this. Firstly there are some things that have not changed. Much of what I thought was appropriate for the front page, is still what I think is appropriate for the front page. However my focus for the site has changed. As far as I can see for communication within the congregation there are better ways such as email or Facebook (if the congregation has enough young members) and the older ways bulletin sheet, newsletter, notices and the good old phone call all still work. So it is a noticeboard or a shop front. So what are we selling, well the services yes. But rather than just the name time and place, how about something telling them what a service maybe like?
I have this little script going through my head for Herringthorpe:
(IA is a member, VB is a visitor)
IA: People tend to be slightly early for church, this is often so they can have a natter and so with their friends, you are given a notice sheet when you come in and there are notices up on the projector screen
VB: So how do you know when worship is about to begin?
IA: Well at about the time the Bible is brought in!
VB: is that the start of the service.
IA: No, its a mark of respect for the bible and a sign to shut up, because then further notices are given from the front
VB: You do seem to put an awful lot of effort into notices,
IA: Well there are always last minute alterations and the in case of fire notice, but when they are finished they ask for silence
VB: So that is the start of the service?
IA: Well no, the real start is when the minister stands up afterwards and says the opening sentences
VB: the what?
We need to stop assuming people know what happens in church and start trying to inform them.
Christianity and if so what form and style? Why us and not the next church down the street? Try and give something that has a personal touch, something that says “ours” rather than try to compete with the highly skilled apologetical sites. What they can’t do is give the view from the point of view of a person people might know a normal person. Alright so it might be a normal person like the individuals granny but still not a celebrity or a theologian. The thing is the issues talked about are likely to differ as well. You do really need a very skilled apologist to explain the Trinity, but why someone enjoys singing in the choir on a Sunday, is surely not within their brief.
Other are perhaps more mundane. Do we have good child safety polices, disability awareness? Where do we stand on inclusion? but there are other things that people might be looking for, they maybe looking for a venue for a wedding or somewhere to have a child baptised (yes I know the problems but it might be as well to give them something to think about before they approach rather than leave it all to the minister). Then there is room hire and other activities. Do you perhaps want to recruit people for social outreach project or raise awareness of certain issues?
It took longer than I planned but my brain has obviously been thinking. I also had to get onto thinking about what I was going to tell Pauline on Thursday. On a sadder note I discovered that a member of my writing group had died on Sunday night. She had been suffering from Breast Cancer for the last nine months but was suddenly in great pain last Sunday evening and died that night. If you have spare prayers could you pray for J and her son T and daughter A. The funeral is on Friday, I am still deciding whether to go.
Wednesday was very ordinary, although coming back from prayer meeting at St Andrews I think I saw a buzzard soaring on the thermals above the buildings on Glossop Road. Now I am not sure. The soaring behaviour was clearly there but at first I thought rook or crow, but rooks and crows don’t usually do that. Then a couple of gulls came past and they were clearly smaller.
Thursday was a big thesis day. I went to see Pauline for lunch and then to talk about reporting back.They have a young golden Labrador called Emma and she was very suspicious of me at first but once she had established that I was not a threat to her directly and none of the humans regarded me a threat she went and slept in her cage while we ate lunch. Then spent an hour or so talking with Pauline. Pauline definitely deliberate over her choice of space. That is not a problem so am I. This time we were in the music room, which has a couch that just seats two people. This says something quite clearly about equality and closeness.
Then it was on to interview Henry. This was really one of the most important interviews of my time. In the end for very different reasons to the interview with the equivalent person at St Andrews Chesterfield. Henry is 99 and has been with the congregation for close on ninety years. He became church secretary a very short time after he joined and served for 17 years. During those years the congregation would have gone from being Congregational to URC. Henry came from another Rotherham Congregational church. All this is true but Henry does not really live in the past, he seems to live in a continuous present. His relationship to Herringthorpe is rather like a man who has been married for fifty years and can’t see the changes in his wife. It is not that they haven’t happened it is that the changes have happened as much to him as to the congregation. That at least is my tentative understanding. Oh and what would he like to have happen, more people worshipping particularly more young children in the Junior Church. He did lend me a history of the church, interestingly over ten years old.
Friday was the sort of day when I got things done simply because I was at home. Time of the month came and it was uncomfortable most of the day. However as I was largely in I could sleep when I wanted to and work when I felt able. Saturday was also quiet although I got some PhD reading and Stuart came around in the evening and we shared a bottle of Ame and hot cross buns. I got reheating them right this time and they were warm without being too dry. By the way I think my favourite Hot Cross Buns are Marks and Spencers Cranberry and Orange. If I am in Waitrose I get their saffron buns instead.
Today morning church with another Baptism, Herringthorpe does seem to get a good number of baptism. This family clearly had church contact, were singing along to the hymns and as they were mainly fairly new ones out of Songs of Fellowship, this suggests recent as well. They indeed did know one or two members but did not really seem to be part of the Herringthorpe wider community. Other than that resting and generally not doing much.
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