tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44298166106894920652024-02-22T12:17:41.793+00:00TIME TO BE-MOVING ONTime to think and enjoy being where I am, reflect on the past and let it go, and move on as a pilgrim on the Way-Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-26346022084713779172013-09-14T08:38:00.000+01:002013-09-14T08:38:30.691+01:00No longer afraid of Virginia Woolf! I have, at last, discovered Virgina Woolf. Wandering among the books in the Book Tent at Edinburgh International Book Festival, as one does, I found a slim volume called<i> A Room of One's Own' </i>and took it to peruse with my coffee. It did not take long to decide to buy it, indeed I am hooked! I've read chapter one 3 times with delight and am about to embark on chapter two. One can feel, see, taste her experience as she describes it - chuckle at her dry humour!<br />
Now for Chapter twoJeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-83204243273467390052013-05-26T12:53:00.000+01:002013-05-26T12:53:17.695+01:00The spoiling of words? What every Tom, Dick and Harry knows-Apparently M&S refused to send a message to someone's friend Dick because it was a 'rude' word! Similarly, someone received flowers via the M&S service and the card read 'With love from Steve, Kerry and the cat (name too rude to print).' <em>(letters to the Daily Telegraph)</em>. Tom, Dick and Harry all know that when calling the cat you either yell 'puss, puss, puss' or kitty, kitty, kitty.' But Kitty may also refer to Katherine and of course Tom is Thomas, Dick is Richard and Harry is Harold or Henry. Surely Dick Whittington (later Sir Richard Whittington Lord Mayor of London) called his cat a clever puss when she caught all those rats!<br />
<br />
Sadly this kind of ignorance is perpetuated by our media. Looking up Dick on the web did not give me the usual ie short version of Richard but various sexist interpretations, so the politician Richard Cheney was called Dick for other reasons than his name (whether or no there was any truth in this assumption).<br />
<br />
I mourn the loss of the word 'gay' to mean happy or joyful, a word in use for centuries- goes with 'gaiety', 'gaily'<br />
'And the child that is born on the Sabbath day<br />
is bonny and blithe and good and --?'<br />
Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-83689086643040046662013-02-26T12:27:00.000+00:002013-02-26T12:27:25.233+00:00Andrew Billington on a Painful Prayer<h2>
Pain Relief </h2>
<br />
LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger<br />
<br />
or discipline me in your wrath.<br />
<br />
Have mercy on me, LORD, for I am faint;<br />
<br />
heal me, LORD, for my bones are in agony.<br />
<br />
My soul is in deep anguish.<br />
<br />
How long, LORD, how long?<br />
<br />
Turn, LORD, and deliver me;<br />
<br />
save me because of your unfailing love.<br />
<br />
<em>Psalm 6:1-4</em><br />
<br />
The Psalms supply vivid reminders that our walk of faith will see moments – sometimes long moments – when we suffer in various ways. If that was the case for David, the Lord’s ‘anointed’, it will be no less true for us. Indeed, for many, his description will feel all too real – a combination of physical pain, inner emotional turmoil, and fear about the future; maybe, like David, we are even facing death, threat and opposition, or a sense of God’s displeasure.<br />
<br />
Wonderfully, though, the Psalms also give us a voice with which to cry out to God, perhaps even helping us move from anguish to a sense of assurance.<br />
<br />
So it is that David cries out for mercy, turning to God in his suffering, asking for healing. He appeals to God save him ‘because of your unfailing love’, reminding God of his covenant commitment to his people. In his time of discipline, he cries for God’s mercy; and in his time of distress, he pleads for God’s love. And he expresses the confidence that this will give way to deliverance – ‘The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer’ (6:9).<br />
<br />
More at<a href="http://us5.campaign-archive1.com/?u=2d890204e49f49d788e3a0b12&id=aebc97907d&e=6b81f6d797" target="_blank"> LICC</a><br />
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Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-91340156634263084342013-02-19T18:23:00.002+00:002013-02-19T18:23:51.155+00:00WHICH TEMPTATIONS DO WE RESIST?So much shallow thought about Lent. It sounds fairly easy to say I'll give up Chocolate or TV viewing for a period or maybe fast from meat- but is that what it is all about?<br />
<br /> I was challenged reading Henri Nouwen's discussion of humility and the need for me to seek 'downward' NOT 'upward' mobility. Everytime I start to want more things, or to be popular, in control or to get power for myself I am facing the same temptations as Jesus did (Luke ;4;1-14). Indeed we all are faced with these choices and mostly we give in. Certainly the Church has been doing it over the centuries-riches, control and power and popularity of preachers-. <br />
<br />
So I was very interested to be told of Fr Joe Boland's homily on the first Sunday of Lent which ends-<br />
<em>Reaching out to the poor, feeding the hungry, embracing the call to conversion, being witnesses to the presence of Jesus in the world and sharing the Good News of the Gospel with the people of our time are not easy, and most of us will have heard that same gentle, persuasive reassuring voice whispering the same lie in our ears. “Don’t worry. God understands. He doesn’t really expect you to do these things. Other folk don’t have to do it, so why should you? Just keep saying your prayers and coming to Mass. That’s all you need”</em><br />
<em></em><br />
<em><br /></em>
<em><strong>To live like everybody else: that’s the great temptation for Christians today. To do what everybody else is doing: to accept without question the shallow, superficial values of a consumer-driven society seemingly bent on self-destruction: to run away from that unique personal call of God to intimacy which lies at the heart of faith and do instead what everybody else is doing. </strong></em><br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.stbrideschurch.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=464:homily--1st-sunday-of-lent-c&catid=1:homily&Itemid=11" target="_blank">See</a><br />
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Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-67125915187951514892013-02-15T17:51:00.000+00:002013-02-15T17:51:39.496+00:00Prayer Stool <strong>I leave aside my shoes, my ambitions; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>undo my watch, my timetable; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>take off my glasses, my views; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>unclip my pen, my work; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>put down my keys, my security; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>to be alone with you, the only true God. </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>After being with you, </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>I take up my shoes to walk in your ways; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>strap on my watch to live in your time; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>put on my glasses to look at your world; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>clip on my pen to write up your thoughts; </strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong>pick up my keys to open your doors. \</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<strong><br /></strong>
<em>Graham Kings (1986 Kenya)</em><br />
<em><br /></em><em><br /></em><br />
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<br />Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-11179746396822932612013-01-14T16:08:00.000+00:002013-01-14T16:11:38.689+00:00A CORD to ponder on-<h2>
A CORD</h2>
<h2>
by Graham Kings</h2>
One accord for all<br />
<br />
between<br />
<br />
God and woman:<br />
<br />
according to his Word,<br />
<br />
God becomes<br />
<br />
conceivably small.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
Life-giving cord<br />
<br />
is cut for life:<br />
<br />
Heir of the world<br />
<br />
gulps<br />
<br />
air of the world.<br />
<br />
<br />
Bishop Graham Kings spoke about his poem in his Christmas address on Christmas Day 2012 in Dorchester<br />
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<br />Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-36338310200769770102012-11-25T15:05:00.000+00:002012-11-25T15:05:39.490+00:00When I am Ordained, I shall wear Purple<strong>by Mia Smith (in Fulcrum website Nov 24th)</strong><br />
<strong><br /></strong>
<em><strong>With acknowledgement to Jenny Joseph's original poem</strong></em><br />
<em><br /><strong></strong></em>
When I am ordained, I shall wear purple<br />
<br />
with killer heels and bright red lipstick<br />
<br />
And I shall go round preaching from the Bible <br />
<br />
...The liberating truth that Jesus calls women <br />
<br />
and tell those who say otherwise that it is they, <br />
<br />
not I, who are bad theologians.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I shall sit down with fellow clergy<br />
<br />
when we are tired of fighting for equality <br />
<br />
and going the extra mile with grace when we are put down, <br />
<br />
And we will make up for it:<br />
<br />
by encouraging one another as Scripture says,<br />
<br />
and praying for those who abuse us,<br />
<br />
and rejoicing that we are suffering<br />
<br />
(but just a little bit) for Jesus, <br />
<br />
And we might even eat some chocolate. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
I will adopt the ordination name “Junia”,<br />
<br />
and remind those who object,<br />
<br />
that there may be a boy named Sue somewhere in the world, <br />
<br />
but there probably isn’t. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
But now we must face the world,<br />
<br />
Who think we are traitors to our sex<br />
<br />
For working for the Church<br />
<br />
And face our brothers and sisters who think<br />
<br />
We are being unbiblical<br />
<br />
And face those in our Churches <br />
<br />
who have failed to notice the pain this week has brought.<br />
<br />
And we will go in the strength of Christ. <br />
<br />
We will not turn our backs on our calling<br />
<br />
Because God is not finished with the Church,<br />
<br />
And He is faithful. <br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
But maybe I ought to practice a little now?<br />
<br />
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised<br />
<br />
When suddenly I am ordained, and start to wear purple.<br />
<br />
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Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-15357005237551434692012-10-25T12:15:00.000+01:002012-10-25T12:21:03.165+01:00Jesus verdict on the smug religious barons of his day<em>'Instead of giving you God's Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn't think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayer shawls the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called 'Doctor' and Reverend.'</em><br />
<em>(</em>Matthew 23:4-7 <em>The Message)</em><br />
<br />
Reading the letters between Adrian Plass and Jeff Lucas really makes me laugh out loud! That's something I don't get to do often, more a smile usually. But these two are also refreshingly honest about life on the Way of Jesus.<br />
<br />
<br />
Jeff Lucas quotes this in one of his letters to Adrian Plass. They were discussing the forest of clichés, 'the verbal mazes that we create with our jargon and slogans'. Jesus must be more than a little irritated when we 'take what should be a pathway and turn it into a maze that would not look out of place at Hampton Court.'
<br />
Adrian speaks of the 'addictions and single-issue fanaticisms that men and women are prone to embrace.' Many of these obsessions can suggest quite laudable concerns with spiritual matters. 'End times, healing, miracles, praise and worship, tradition, language, styles of churchmanship, funny voices, human optimism; all of these things and many more can be used as substitutes for scary encounters with the God who functions as a genuine, unaffected, relaxed presence in environments where the fake uniforms and brassy bling of churchy rubbish haven't got a chance.'<br />
<br />
These things lead us astray because they are not meant to be objects of our love. 'They are supposed to be the means by which we find our way into the presence of this God who might actually exist(!) and be waiting for followers of Jesus to bottom out into being who they are, and truly, honestly, fearfully follow him into bus shelters and palaces and shopping malls and slums and wine-bars and launderettes and our own kitchens and sitting rooms, with no false armour, and somehow live with feeling so naked that we need him desperately.'<br />
With our refreshed eyes newly opened we may see what he might do through us 'when we give up Christianity and follow him.'Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-77692917590951848292012-10-02T12:38:00.000+01:002012-10-02T12:38:22.016+01:00Revisiting Narnia'Reading Rowan Williams on CS Lewis is like watching two old friends in animated discussion of great, powerful themes.' says Tom Wright. 'But what really counts is that, as with the two on the Emmaus road, we constantly sense a third presence, that of the Lion who will not let us rest in our own little self-deceits but who constantly challenges us to discover the larger joys of his new creation.'<br />
I didn't really need this commendation to get me to read this book- I was already opening the pages eagerly. I thought I knew the stories; I've read them many times and given away so many copies to others, yet reading Williams made me realise how much I had missed. It is so easy to hear or read and think you have really listened and understood. We hear Scripture stories we think we have heard it all before and continue on our ways without realising we have missed something important that God is showing us. In the same way I can see a great painting or an Ikon like the famous Rublev picture of Abraham's three visitors and appreciate it quite superficially--. It is only when one comes along who has studied and meditated deeply that I begin to appreciate what I have missed. <br />
So it is in this book as Williams opens up not only the Lion's world but also that of C S Lewis. I shall read now with much deeper attention and find myself humbled and challenged on my pilgrimage.<br />
I loved Monica Capoferri's illustrations too.Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-22094268013669251642012-04-06T15:05:00.000+01:002012-04-06T15:05:20.835+01:00GethsemaneI'm still finding more about Dr Martin Israel. There is so much wisdom here that I wish I'd found his writings earlier.<br />
The following is from GETHSEMANE which was the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lent book in 1986<br />
<br />
<br />
<strong>Prologue</strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<br />
The chill impact of hell's darkness fell on Jesus at Gethsemane. His agony was especially terrible because it was essentially incommunicable. It is a wonderful thing to be able to share our inmost thoughts with those we love, but there was no one to hear him in his agony. In his great encounter with the naked power of evil Jesus had no one to sustain him, for even his Father seemed to be shut out from his sight by the acrid fumes of impenetrable darkness that enveloped him. And yet, unaided by any outside power, the Son achieved a victory over darkness and suffering due entirely to the power of the Holy Spirit within him.<br />
<br />
When Abraham was put to the ultimate test of faith in preparing to sacrifice to God his beloved son Isaac, a ram caught by its horns in a thicket appeared in time to avert Isaac's death. But there was no substitute for Jesus; he went to his death in unrelieved suffering. Yet by that very suffering he removed the despair that comes with it, as in his death he removed the apparent finality of death and the consequent vanity of so much mortal life. In his great work in the realms of darkness, the divine presence moved decisively from a point of remote sovereignty outside the cosmos to the centre of the created world, to the centre of the human soul. And so the Godhead, far beyond rational thought and intellectual speculation, is now firmly centred in the soul of all who have faith, who have thereby passed from the barrier of death to the measureless expanse of eternal life. The test of that faith remains, but victory is now assured to all who persist to the end. The reward is the emergence of a new person, strangely like the one originally born, but now cleansed of the world's stain, chaste in purpose and innocent in intent and attitude.<br />
<br />
It is this theme that we consider in what follows: how we too can partake of the divine nature by entering into the depth of Christ's passion, not merely in the course of a Lenten meditation but by the progress of our chequered lives on earth. The way of ascent to the vision of God embraces a precarious treading of the precipice that leads to hell. Only when hell is restored can we bear the intensity of God's love.<br />
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The book can be downloaded <a href="http://www.martinisrael.u-net.com/gethsemane/chapter1.html" target="_blank">here</a>Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-48765735470341980822012-04-06T14:35:00.000+01:002012-04-06T14:35:34.205+01:00The Way of ServiceI'm just re-reading a superb book about living alone by Martin Israel. I say re-reading because I think I must have read, and forgotten, judging by occassional pencil underlinings!<br />
<br />
I was particularly struck this morning by his comments about the way of service and how important it is that we are open to the love of God and do not try to love a person 'off our own bat'.<br />
He says that <em>' the way of service that initiates a true healing ministry is ---laid down in the first verses of Isaiah 61. Good news is brought to the poor and humble, that they may count as people, that God cares for them. The initial proof of God's care is the love that flows out to them</em><em> from the minister of healing. We love because God loved us first, and the love of God is transmitted from ourselves, whom we must first love with all our defects and inadequacies, to those around us. It must be stressed that <strong>love cannot be manufactured;</strong> it is a free gift from God. If I try to love a person I will inevitably condescend to him, and my affection will have a palpably unreal quality. Soon the object of my 'love' will wince at my approach, while I will find that I really despise him..--' </em><br />
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From Martin Israel LIVING ALONE the inward journey to fellowship <em>p 106</em><br />
published in The New Library of Pastoral Care by SPCKJeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-60435060332613923892012-01-12T14:06:00.000+00:002012-01-12T14:06:51.983+00:00ST FRANCIS AND THE SOW by Galway Kinnell:<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Saint Francis</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">put his hand on the creased forehead</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">of the sow, and told her in words and in touch </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">blessings of earth on the sow, and the sow </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">began remembering all down her thick length, </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">from the earthen snout all the way</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">through the fodder and slops to the spiritual curl of the tail, </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">from the hard spininess spiked out from the spine </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">down through the great broken heart</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">to the sheer blue milken dreaminess spurting and shuddering </span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">from the fourteen teats into the fourteen mouths sucking and blowing beneath them:</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">the long, perfect loveliness of sow</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong>Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-64474080902126337512012-01-06T12:06:00.001+00:002012-01-06T12:07:02.185+00:00The Girl with the Wings of an Angel in her Eyes<div align="center">What was she expecting,</div><div align="center">The girl with the wings of an angel in her eyes?</div><div align="center">A child, yes, a son...</div><div align="center">But having known no man in the Biblical sense,</div><div align="center">Having no physical father to ponder,</div><div align="center">What she must have wondered,</div><div align="center">As mind and stomach stretched,</div><div align="center">Might a man born of divine essence</div><div align="center">And sweet obedience,</div><div align="center">Resemble?</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div align="center">An angel, a seraph? Or some holy paragon?</div><div align="center">With thr first Adam's pure fresh gaze?</div><div align="center">Jacob'ssmooth hands, Moses' radiant face,</div><div align="center">Or the wavy, raven locks of Solomon</div><div align="center">And a body like polished ivory?</div><div align="center">How would God manifast his glory?</div><div align="center">Could she conceive this son of the most high,</div><div align="center">Would choose to look really rather ordinary?</div><div align="center">Miracles, she would learn, ar not all discerned</div><div align="center">With the naked eye.</div><div align="center"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;"><em>Mark Greene. Nov 2011 EG edn 31</em></div>Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-87880908319214911442011-12-16T17:47:00.000+00:002011-12-16T17:47:08.160+00:00The War on Christmas<span style="font-size: large;">The commercialisation of the Christmas season seems to have little to do with the simple celebration of Christ's birth of my youth . Our own tree was put up on Christmas eve and had to be watched carefully as we had real candles. We made all our decorations and the few cards which we sent went to distant friends and relatives- never to people near enough to visit.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">One main present each, carol singing and bells and the Carol Service--</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Now it seems people expect to spend hundreds if not thousands of pounds over Christmas.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"> Jim Wallis' blog about the 'The War on Christmas- by Fox News' resonates with our culture this side of the Atlantic.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">He concludes:-</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">'Much more important than symbols and symbolism is how we live the faith that we espouse. And here is where Fox News’s war on Christmas is most patently unjust.</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<em><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The real Christmas announces the birth of Jesus to a world of poverty, pain, and sin, and offers the hope of salvation and justice.</span></strong></em><br />
<em><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></em><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Fox News Christmas heralds the steady promotion of consumerism, the defense of wealth and power, the adulation of money and markets, and the regular belittling or attacking of efforts to overcome poverty.</span></strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<em><strong><span style="font-size: large;">The real Christmas offers the joyful promise of peace and the hope of reconciliation with God and between humankind.</span></strong></em><br />
<em><strong><span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong></em><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">The Fox News Christmas proffers the constant drumbeat of war, the reliance on military solutions to every conflict, the demonizing of our enemies, and the gospel of American dominance.</span></strong><br />
<strong><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;"><em>The real Christmas lifts up the Virgin Mary’s song of praise for her baby: “He has brought the mighty down from their thrones, and lifted the lowly, he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich empty away.”</em><br />
<br />
The Fox News Christmas would label Mary’s Magnificat as “class warfare.”</span></strong><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>So if there is a war on Christmas it's the one being waged by Fox News.'</strong></span><span style="font-size: large;">(</span><span style="font-size: x-small;">For the full text of this blog see </span><a href="http://sojo.net/blogs/2011/12/15/real-war-christmas-fox-news"><span style="font-size: x-small;">God's Politics</span></a>)<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Something similar is happening here though not necessarily orchestrated by Fox News!</span>Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-6124561862435474162011-10-06T10:44:00.002+01:002011-10-06T17:00:27.594+01:00The Lord is my Shepherd 2I'm ruminating on the 23rd Psalm. Clearly David the Shepherd-King knew what he was talking about, but it took the modern Berbers to help me understand the picture he painted. <br />
The Lord Jesus referred to himself as the Good Shepherd who knows his sheep. Bad shepherds run away at the first sign of danger because they are only hirelings; the sheep are not theirs so they have little commitment to care for the sheep-they are false shepherds. I suppose they will not care if a sheep is lost, or dies from eating poisonous weeds- they can blame wild animals.<br />
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Jesus made at least 10 references to sheep and shepherding in 2 Gospels- Matthew and John (neither Mark or Luke seem to give this a menton).<br />
He is the good Shepherd who knows his sheep and goes after the lost and ultimately is prepared to die for them.<br />
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Few nowadays in the West have much to do with sheep and those who do would not recognise the old Berber shepherds life. I once went to interview a Shepherd responsible for 2000 ewes and 8 rams; he was responsible to the Manager who in turn was responsible to the Estate owner. He didn't find out for days when 8 sheep were 'rustled'. He had 2 sheepdogs and a lot of data about preventing and treating sickness. Did you know that stress is one of the worst problems for sheep? Also he had to get the optimum nutrition levels for his ewes to have healthy lambs at the right time, and bred them to have twins. Male lambs are castrated and sold for meat. It is the males after all that are expendible, the ewes provide new lambs and wool!<br />
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Who are the shepherds now?<br />
I still need the Lord to be my Shepherd for He is the only one to notice when I am in trouble and come to rescue me; indeed He has done more than that!Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-45476171162504768612011-10-03T12:09:00.000+01:002011-10-03T12:09:24.674+01:00The Lord is my Shepherd??As a child I had to learn by heart to recite the 23rd Psalm-'The Lord is my shepherd'. As an 8 year old growing up in the country I knew that shepherds drove their flock with the help of sheepdogs (domesticated wolves) and I couldn't understand why I-a girl- would want a shepherd as I wasn't a sheep-and why if I had him wouldn't I want him? It was all very odd and although I got the general idea I didn't really understand this.<br />
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Then I read the story of the Berber shepherds (it must be true I read it in the Readers Digest)!<br />
Every evening the Shepherds sing their song -we called it the 23rd Psalm, a song of David the Shepherd King). They explain what it means, as I remember, like this:-<br />
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Every morning the Shepherd must lead his flock from the shelter of the valley to the high pasture where there is grass. To do this they must follow him closely up a narrow path beside a deep ravine (<em>the valley of the shadow of death). </em>At the top the ravine is narrow and the shepherd straddles it and uses his staff and rod to help each sheep to jump it and reach the pasture. When they are all safely across and begin to eat, he goes ahead of them and pulls up the poisonous weeds (<em>their enemies)</em> and lays them on a flat rock to shrivel in the sun. He makes a little pool beside the steam so they can drink, for sheep cannot drink safely from running water. <br />
The shepherd then rests in the shade of a rock or bush and during the middle of the day each sheep will at some point come to him for a nuzzle or kind word.<br />
At the end of the day flocks are led back the way they had come. When they reach the fold the shepherd inspects each one for any sores or wounds which he cleans and soothes by pouring oil over them. He fills a basin with water to overflowing (sheep need to put the whole mouth in water, they cannot lap). Then when all are safely in the fold he lies down to sleep across the entrance and becomes the 'door' which protects them for the night.<br />
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So now I know why I need my good Shepherd!Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-62964020715435191962011-09-26T11:35:00.000+01:002011-09-26T11:35:50.714+01:00Movng on-where?I find myself in sympathy with the many who love Jesus but have fallen out of the institutional Church.<br />
In the past I have been fully involved in active 'Charismatic Evangelical' Anglican churches where I did have a contribution- reading and leading intercessions, prayer ministry, home group leader, assisting at Communion services; and have been involved in many courses-lay training, listening and counselling, on prayer, Spiritual Direction and so on. In other words I've been around a long time!<br />
It is not just that recent attempts to belong to a church fellowship have failed; it sems that there isn't a fellowship to join. Certainly no one is interested in what experience I have, what gifts I may be able to offer. If I don't turn up no-one will miss me. Even in the big church where I was involved I began to suspect that I'd only be missed if I failed to carry out one of my duties!<br />
Is it that I have grown older- I have passed that 70 milestone- and am deemed only useful for filling a pew?<br />
I look for Christian fellowship or church patterned on the early church where God is allowed to be in charge but those who have this vision, like the Community Churches, are primarily attracting the young and have no place for elders. In fact looking at one website there is a quite specific attempt to dispell the idea that church was for 'old ladies'!Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-20752812224996802872011-09-13T11:19:00.000+01:002011-09-13T11:19:46.310+01:00What sort of church are we?This week I am feeling that church is made up of more than one view of where we are going or indeed whether we want to change at all. Some have been going to the same place for yonks; church is what you do on Sundays, meet your friends do your bit in a group , committee or serving coffees and where we don't get too involved with each other personally. Mostly we get on with 'real' life.<br />
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Others are searching for God or at least for the love of God in the church. They believe what they are told in sermons and sing praises in worship yet this love is elusive, somehow 'not done'. The more they try to belong to this loving family the more frustrated and disappointed they become. Chat over coffee doesn't move on to hospitality, no-one wants to talk about what the sermon might mean. if it is big church you are probably referred to someone appointed to do Pastoral care, prayer ministry but just as possibly not.<br />
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Some boast of their church's culture as against- 'they're Evangelical but we are Liberal'. or 'our choral tradition' 'our building' 'our scriptural teaching of the Word' or 'modern worsip', when what is missing is the love for one another which is one of Jesu' commands to his followers.<br />
Many turn away and pursue spirituality and meaning for life elsewhere.<br />
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I think there are two models at work where I am and we move between them in a rather confused way.<br />
A The traditional way we do things Church building and an institution which mirrors many secular organisations or clubs with it hierarchical organisation, professions; leadership and officers leaders or Elders, tasks and rules and concerns with money and property and paying staff. There is a tendency to secrecy about decisions and problems as well as the usual conflicts about power and authority, who does what and how.<br />
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B The church as family or community. Increasingly people are looking to where God is moving in His Spirit an studying the Early church while trying to loose much of the customs and rituals which have grown up over the centuries but now are more of hindrance than help to Faith. I read recently of a Film Star who has moved back into the Catholic tradition but described himself as a 'radica Catholic' who was studying the church of the New Testament. There is a movement of the Holy Spirit through the Church, often outwith traditional denominations as well as within. The 'Fresh Expressions' movement among Anglican and Methodists in England may be an example of this.<br />
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The major decline in Church Attendance in England seems to have a bit of a blip where church attendance is actually growing as they seek renewal in the power of the Holy Spirit<br />
But for those stuck in a place where they lack spiritual food there is a dilemma- stay or go?Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-79408992930703091872011-09-10T07:52:00.000+01:002011-09-10T07:52:26.581+01:00Is church just a bureaucratic club?Yes I know the old adage (attributed to C S Lewis) that if I find a perfect church it will no longer be perfect when I join it but I have found myself increasingly disillusioned in recent years. Church is a body of people who follow Jesus Christ in loving devotion. I think the centrality of the Redeeming Christ in the power of His Spirit is what marks the Church, where the members love each other. But love opens us to our vulnerability and the need for Spiritual maturity-<br />
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Too often it seems Church leaders may preach the word but nothing changes. The church has become a bureaucratic organisation with rules and regulations and rather rigid structures. Many only know a Church as a club they go to on Sunday with only superficial contact with fellow members and where they defend the old way of doing things and are afraid to move out in faith-<br />
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I found myself considering the relationship of Jesus to the religious leaders of his day. They were sincere in their belief that they were following God's rules and very critical of the way in their eyes he was flouting them, but they had got it quite wrong. Are we in our day doing the same sort of thing?<br />
In a bureaucratic organisation rules cover every contingency, when a new problem arises a new rule is enacted. Over time unless some old rules are cancelled there are too many and many are ignored in practice. Churches often act like this too; for those who like set prayers new ones have to be written for special occasions. If there is a need for pastoral care a Pastoral care team is appointed and no-one else can Pastor and so on. Often there is an air of secrecy which functions to keep power with those 'in the know' and the majority are left as 'pew-fillers'.<br />
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David Watson used an illustration first described I believe by Juan Luis Ortiz, of a corked bottle. In the bottle are rows of pew-fillers with a layer or two of leaders - Elders or Vestry or Council members- and the Pastor or Priest was the cork in the bottle. Only when the cork came out of the bottle did change occur. Using an overhead David showed a lot of people going in different directions apparently but then he overlaid it with the shape of a body ie this was the Body of Christ controlled by the power of the Spirit. This is difficult for many Church leaders who feel they should be in charge but it seems that often when they have as it were tried to 'pop out of the bottle' their congregation tries to hold them in-<br />
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But our God called us to love each other as well as to love him and he is changing and moving us on in the power of His Spirit.<br />
So where does this leave me? I am not sure- I have waited and prayed for years- perhaps it is time to alter course and step out into the unknown.Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-6810668977931868412011-09-03T11:17:00.000+01:002011-09-03T11:17:16.565+01:00Mugabe’s ‘bishop’ turns a profit on church buildingsThis was the heading in a recent Bible Society news item. It seems that a self appointed Bishop is selling off Angican church buildings and making a profit. <br />
This is so upsetting and we can do nothing except pray the the Archbishop can influence Mugabe.<br />
<em>Children may go hungry if they are evicted from a Zimbabwean orphanage, as it and other church buildings are turned into ‘money-making ventures’. The staff were told to leave by Monday (22 August). Nolbert Kunonga, the former Anglican bishop who has taken over the Anglican Province of Zimbabwe, has led the revolution against Canterbury. Kunonga appointed himself as the nation’s bishop and requisitioned every Anglican church, except in Matabeleland. He is now seizing other church buildings which, according to the Bishop of Harare, ‘are being used as fee-paying schools and pre-schools, residential buildings and business premises’. Most Anglicans now meet in tents, fields, schools or the churches of other denominations. The Archbishop of Canterbury is flying out in October in the hope of meeting Mugabe to discuss the Anglicans’ plight. </em><br />
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Sources: The Times (22/8); Church of England Newspaper (25/8)<br />
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Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-6484443806257599562011-08-29T11:21:00.000+01:002011-08-29T11:21:56.863+01:00Where do lost socks go? Scientist fails to answer!'What happens to lost socks?'- this was the profound question put to a scientist at the Royal Society after a talk on whether there is life on other planets in the universe.<br />
As I contemplated an odd sock today which I cannot pair up I have concluded that this is a more relevant , as well as mysterious, problem that needs answering than what may not happen in outer space. After all I am the only sock wearer and in control of the laundry process and sock drawer. There is nowhere else for them to go so where are they? <br />
When I had the new central heating put in I expected to find missng socks behind the old hot tank in the airing cupboard but no, there were none.<br />
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So where is my lost sock?Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-88009972818594130512011-05-26T10:55:00.000+01:002011-05-26T10:55:11.596+01:00Exercising DisciplineI am not at all a disciplined person. I make lists of things 'to do' and forget them often finding a list months later with the same projects waiting attention-sewing, mending, gardening projects, contacting people, writing a Journal, blogging (!) DIY and so on- all these stay in some pile waiting attention with all those other files of papers not read or written!<br />
As I get older and less fit I am at last realising that I must exercise regularly for health. A couple of falls this year have taken me to A&E more than once and now I am really doing my shoulder and balance exercises under the orders of my physiotherapists. What is good is the follow up where I am tested to see if I have been doing my homework! I plan now to keep these up as well as I can and to climb Blackford Hill at last once a week. The Physio gave us a list to be ticked each day when we had completed the exercises. I've decided to try and do the same for other disciplines but which ones? Should I make a list of lists (and then lose it)? Trouble is the longer the list of things to be done the less likely that any will be completed!<br />
Setting priorities starts with Spiritual exercises -but again which ones. I was instructed as a young Christian that I should have a daily QT (Quiet Time) which I think was mainly Bible reading and intercession for others. There are of course lots of tools published to help one to do this and I have had many in my time but I never managed to keep it up. Now I move between a number of different approaches and sometimes events just take over.<br />
A while back now I yelled my despair at God on my way to work- 'I'm useless at this' I told Him 'and You know me only too well- You take over' and to my relief He did. I've had a much closer relationship with my Father in the Spirit of Jesus and learned to let Him take control to have faith, to trust-<br />
But if I have to commit to physical exercises for my physical health how much more should I be committed to Spiritual exercises-<br />
I am constantly needing renewal on these, a new start-and I've just remembered that I was once in a small <a href="http://www.renovare.us/">Renovare</a> group- there at least we were encouraged to work at the six disciplines and encourage each other on this journey -perhaps I can find one or two to share this journey with me again.Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-90471205137139535802011-05-18T13:07:00.000+01:002011-05-18T13:07:37.882+01:00When I dieMy friend Ann is looking forward to the next stage of her life with the Lord but is very firm about how she leaves this life. In particular she does NOT want to be resuscitated if she collapses. Indeed she has seen her GP and her Lawyer to sign forms saying firmly 'Do Not Resuscitate'; she also obtained one of the NHS forms which say the same.<br />
And her funeral- she has discussed with the Church Minister her views on a funeral service. In particular she does not want anyone going over her life and saying nice things about her. She is a very private person. At the funeral of one of her friends (and she has said goodbye to many in recent years) the Minister said- 'we will now all be quiet and in the silence remember our friend as we knew her'. Anne found this beautiful and very moving.<br />
Having no family Ann has oganised her affairs and made a note for whoever needs to know of the location of her will, who her solicitor is, who has power of Attorney, who should be told of her demise, her bank accont and so on. This seems such a good idea that I aim to follow her example.Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-39303674434399868952011-05-17T13:02:00.000+01:002011-05-17T13:02:19.448+01:00Celebrating the NHS!I seem to have been testing the Health Service much more than I wished to do over this last year. I've discovered my gallbladder is healthy, an abdominal CT scan showed 'no significant abnormalities', and double endosocopy helped to identify my problem. I'm now taking a stomach acid-blocker and that all seems to be sorted. <br />
However in the New Year <u>after</u> the ice had melted, I fell and broke my right arm. After a few weeks of one-armed living and with help from friends, I was just getting going again when I fell and gave myself a swollen and very bruised face and cuts to my shins and one had a haematoma leading to cellulitis. So I've been taken to A&E twice , and to ARAU (a medical version of A&E) had xrays of shoulder and leg, ultrasound of leg twice to exclude DVT and a course of strong antibiotics and now I am having physiotherapy for my shoulder. I am also in a small group learning exercises to improve our balance -a 'Falls Prevention Group'. So my exercise regime takes up time each day!<br />
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Then this week I was called to the Medical Physics Department for another kind of scan -- to check my bone density. <br />
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I am really very fortunate because I'm pretty healthy really; so many people I know are coping with big health problems.<br />
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So yes I think our NHS is great!!Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4429816610689492065.post-67850526865017253122011-03-08T12:29:00.000+00:002011-03-08T12:29:06.942+00:00One handed living!It is over 5 weeks now since I fell on my right shoulder and fractured the humerus -not humorous! My left arm was not happy working on its own- it is extraordinary how difficult it is managing the activities of daily living one-handedly! I already had an arthritic shoulder from an old injury so this did NOT help. Now praise God- I am able to use my arm fairly well but have to start shoulder exercises which I am not very committed to. Once in the morning maybe -but 3 times a day??<br />
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So now I am back at the keyboard though for limited time span. I couldn't have managed without lots of help from my friends -getting coats on and off, peeling potatoes, cutting bread and cutting up food, shopping and driving me around- but some things one just has to struggle with, whether heaving oneself up in bed or hauling clothes up or down (so the bunch up round one hip!)<br />
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And I no longer have to sleep sitting up!!Jeanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00962373006383627620noreply@blogger.com0