Joy and sadness

Back to work this morning after a lovely weekend off. The sun shone on the West Midlands. We enjoyed spending time with the family on Esther's third birthday. Among her lovely presents was Maddie the doll. Maddie burps very realistically at the appropriate moment. You can imagine the hilarity!

After the enjoyment of the weekend, this morning began with the news of the death of one of the members of the congregation. His death came tragically and far too young. He leaves behind a family who are understandably stunned. The congregation will be equally stunned to hear the news. Planned theme for this Sunday will need to be revised.

Easter

It has been a busy week in the run up to Easter. Holy Week prayer breakfasts every morning( Monday to Sunday). Today we celebrated Easter after the prayer breakfast with a quiet and reflective communion service and then a Family Celebration Service which was much more upbeat in style. It has been a good week all round. Tomorrow will be a day off and maybe a nice lie-in.

Mad as a Scottish Hatter

Annette and I went to the cinema this week to see Alice in Wonderland. Unfortunately we got there to discover that the 3D had broken down. As we had booked online we decided to take a small refund and watch it in normal 2D.
We enjoyed the film. But I was slightly miffed that the Mad Hatter used a thick Glaswegian accent when revealing his darker side. Could he not have chosen to use a nice plummy southern accent for that part of his character? I remember too that in a Donald Duck film of some years ago, Scrooge McDuck also had a Scottish accent.

But I must not get paranoid about such things and become like some football fans north of the border.( the ones whose team never ever lose fairly it seems. It is all a conspiracy).

Freedom

Spoke at a U3A discussion group yesterday. I decided to reflect on the issue of religious freedom in the light of all the discussion with regard to the Equality Bill which is going through Parliament at the moment.
I began with the fact that at the heart of why the Baptists came into being was the issue of religious freedom and I quoted from 'The Mystery of Iniquity' by Thomas Helwys -

"For men's religion to God is between God and themselves. The king shall not answer for it. Neither may the king be judge between God and man. Let them be heretics, Jews, Turks or whatever, it pertains not to the earthly power to punish them in the least measure".

I also quoted some words spoken by the Archbishop of York when speaking recently in the House of Lords.

“Successive legislation over the past 35 years has always recognized the principle that religious organizations need the freedom to impose requirements in relation to belief and conduct that go beyond what a secular employer should be able to require.
“Noble Lords may believe that Roman Catholics should allow priests to be married; they may think that the Church of England should hurry up and allow women to become bishops; they may feel that many churches and other religious organizations are wrong on matters of sexual ethics. But if religious freedom means anything, it must mean that those are matters for the churches and other religious organizations to determine in accordance with their own convictions. They are not matters for the law to impose.”

Same sentiment from different eras and from men of different church traditions.

And on a very different subject. Annette and I had a walk today to Harlow Carr, a snack at Bettys and a stroll home through the pine woods and Valley Gardens into the town and home. Then there was time to watch the final 30 minutes from Ibrox. Another 3 points in the bag to add to last Sundays brilliant result.

Pancakes

Once again our Guide Company's Pancake Supper provided excellent pancakes for Shrove Tuesday. I was very restrained and only had two this year. It was good to seethe event was well attended.
Of course, it is also a reminder that tomorrow,Ash Wednesday, marks the beginning Lent.
This year I am planning to use a Lent Study on 'Christ and the Chocolaterie' which uses themes from the film Chocolat as a stimulus to reflection and discussion. For Sunday preaching I am torn between two approaches which were both suggested by Lutheran New Testament scholars. One suggestion is to use the theme of 'wilderness' which can be seen to represent an in-between space - 'a space of testing, trial, learning, discovery, and transformation outside the established rhythms and norms of community life.'(Dwight Zscheile). The other suggestion is to use Lent as a journey to the baptistery. The themes would be doorway, tomb, womb, bath, spring. As I am away this Sunday in order to attend a very important 5th birthday celebration, I still have a few days to ponder which suggestion to follow.

Cober Hill

The annual YBA ministers' conference at Cober Hill (Cloughton, near Scarborough) was a very enjoyable 3 days this week. The speaker was the Dean of Chester Cathedral, Trevor Dennis, whose subject was 'Listen again; Stories of the Old Testament - a fresh look at Ruth and Jonah'. His input was excellent as he talked us through these two very familiar stories. As always it was good to meet up with colleagues and the food at Cober Hill is also very good.
It is back down to earth today with tonight's study group to prepare for and also Sunday morning to get ready. This Sunday will end a short series of sermons on the theme of 'epiphany'.

sermons

Two members of the congregation very kindly passed on a newspaper cutting with the results of a survey carried out by Durham University. The survey revealed -

99.6% of churchgoers looked forward to the sermon.

When asked about how long they wanted a sermon to last -

Catholics - 10 minutes

Anglicans - 10-20 minutes

Baptists - 1 hour 15 minutes

Where did they find the Baptists who gave that answer?