abbotsford.org.uk

Because there is nothing else on tomorrow...

Remember the Bazaar in the chruch 10.30 till about 2. Lots of stuff and lots of people and lots of good humour and lots of community and rolls and sausage and tea and coffee because there is nothing else on anywhere except the Bazaar.

A wee taste for Sunday

I am waaaaaay behind for Sunday. The first draft of the sermon has only just been written. Everything else is still to play for but here's a wee bit from that sermon. It's probably of little interest and even less use but it at least shows I've done some work on the service this week.

Jesus reminds us of being disciples, and given the tradition we come from, which is the reformation, this speaks into that phrase that belongs to us: 'always being reformed'

‘Think,’ he says, ‘about it all. Think about what you say and think about what you do and match the two. What you talk about is all highly laudable: the talk of justice is good because that is heaven-talk; the talk of sharing equitably what you have with the world is the right kind of language for it is God-language; and you are spot on about loving creation back to health so everyone can life fully on the planet. All those things are the right kind of thing to be talking about. But it is also the right kind of way to be living as well’

The Pharisees as we have them described to us (which, because of historical events round the time of the writing of the gospels has become heavily biased against them) are not criticised for what they believe. In fact Jesus affirms they’ve got it more or less right: ‘Go and do what they say,' he says. In terms of the law of Moses they are good at understanding it and recognising what it means, and the Law of Moses is mostly about living in community in grace and fairness, looking after the widow and the orphan. On that they pass the test with flying colours. The problem is turning that into a way of life.

It is with regret...

...that I have to announce the retiral of David Tenant as Dr Who.

I've turned the masthead of the blog black in mourning. Space and time will never be the same again. No long can I say "I know Dr Who's dad" as he was a minister in the church.

I think we'll have a moment during the service to reflect and pull ourselves together.

Early Remembrance Thoughts

Remembrance is such a big moment for us in Abbotsford. The service is on the 9th and we've always done something reflective where people can engage, do something with the remembrance that signifies what words are hopeless at doing about engaging, pain, thought. It's a service where everyone is given the space to reflect on conflict and it's cost in their own way, no one strating into anyone elses memories or anger or sadness.

I wondered if anyone would like to share a remembrance story, a time when remembrance spoke deeply to them, or if anyone has an idea of how to engage this time as a community that allows everyone to respond in their own way.

We've removed poppies and we've added poppies to crosses, fields,banners and a whole lot of things. we've sung originally written songs for that one Sunday, we've told stories and we've listened to them. We've sung laments for the cost of conflict and tried to explore God's promise in it all.

We've never glorified it and we've done our best never to make it a nationalist thing but a personal and community event. We've tried to move it away from just the world wars to all conflict and there is a lot of it about and we really haven't learned and my big question this year is about what we'e learned. We seem to have learned a whole lot about fighting a more efficient war (which is actually untre as more people die in war now than ever before and far fewer soldiers than ever before) and less and less about makin peace.

Now I've written all that, it seems an impossible service to create. Where do we start this year? Any thoughts on remembrance, stories, or times where remembrance services in the past made a difference to faith, the world, your own engagement with peace and remembering.

Does remembering always lead us to work for peace?
Can you remember without longing for peace?
Can you count the cost without turning towards working for peace?

Mucky Paws

The latest edition of Mucky Paws is now winging its way electronically to subscribers. If you'd like to subscribe (and it's free. We couldn't ask for a penny for it) to bits and bobs of liturgy, contemporary readings and worship stuff once a month from the stable (don't mention Christmas, just yet) of Abbotsford then just drop an email (can you actually physically do that?) and you'll forever receive about 10 pages of liturgical things.

Mucky Paws is a collection of material written for and used in Abbotsford over each pervious month so when you receive it, it's already too late to use unless you have a well organised filing system and remember about it three years hence when it returns in the lectionary. It's offered not because it is good or worthwhile or even spelled correctly but as a starter for folk in their own culture and places to adapt, re-edit for themselves or paper their downstairs cloakroom with.

Don't ever imagine God does pristine liturgy. God's already in with the wallpaper paste.

Chocolate Teapots for 2nd Nov 08

Matthew 23:1–12

Blimey, that's most of the church leadership knocked on the head. I'm diving for cover this week. Power to the people! This may be the passage where Jesus gets as close to Presbyterianism as he ever does. I bet when you read the passage (and I dare you to), you'll have a list of minister's who fit the category Jesus is talking about. And I bet it'll make you feel better having had a wee rant about them: those who laud their position over others, minister's who tell you what you should do, leaders who strut around as if they own the place. Hmmm, trying to think if I know any close to home here.

But it's not an excuse to castigate leadership (does that invovle committee convenors and presidents of organisations etc too?) but to offer a shape to a kind of community where we are allowed to be ourselves. And while it takes a particular kind of leadership to enable that to happen, it also take a particular kind of community to allow it to happen. It involves respect, love, grace and compassion.  If only it was just an ideal. Allowing people to be themselves... that's going just a little too far, isn't it?

Today's Service

There was quite a bit to fit in today! But it was good to have both sacraments together because they are one afterall. And I thought the informal way we served communion again worked well for me. People helped each other, it was about the bread and wine rather than the performance (I know it is always about the bread and wine but today there was no performance to distract, and I'm also aware that's not everyone cup of tea. The formality and tradition make it for some). It was also very slick (if only I had remembered to organise upstairs!).

Not so sure about the eco parables. they need a little more work on them if others were to use them. Some worked but others weren't the smooth, straighforward structure Jesus usually gave his. Where did he learn to do that? Was there a good book? Would we find it on Amazon?

But it was good to see how the bread can be passed round without any instructions.

And of coruse baptism is always a good moment and singing 'The peace of the heaven's be with you' as the blessing was a good inovation and that might appear again. Perfect (in my totally unbiased opinion).

Back to the normal service next week. We're even on the lectionary again unless I can squeeze a further eco week. I might do it by stealth. Watch out for Chocolate Teapots tomorrow...

Sunday's starter

I sorry there have been so few postings recently but at the moment there is just so much stuff going on that there really isn't a lot of time for posting things. But hopefully everything will be back to normal very soon. Anyway, Sunday...

A burn of sparkling water gurgled through the moor.
Did it know it would be ordained to be our water of baptism
for God’s own people, today?

A field of wheat lay ripening in the sun.
Did it know it would be milled into our loaf
that breaks open heaven’s meal, today?

A clasp of ripening grape dithered on the vine.
Did it know it would be crushed and fermented into our wine
for this cup of grace, today? 

A hardwood tree stretched and shaded an ancient forest.
Did it know it would be carved into our table
set for love’s banquet, today?

A beehive buzzed and worked the flower rows.
Did it know its comb would be become our symbol
of Christ’s light, today?

A world turned in the depths of space.
Did it know its dawn would awaken with a dance of the sacraments
bread, water and wine for us today?

Eco Parable

Here's the beginning of our eco parable. Feel free to add to it. Hopefully it will be used on Sunday  as the basis of the service. Anything you add could be symbolic, have menaing in other ways, allegory if you wish as well. It's all up to you. We could write different ones each, or just add a sentence here  on this one.

This is going to be brilliant.

A tree stood in a field, it's branches reaching out. The seasons came and went and...

Chocolate Teapots for 26th Oct 2008

We have an all-age communion service and baptism all linked to ecology. So how do we do that? Water, bread and wine: all the stuff from the land that God uses to speak of heaven. It's very cool. How do we make the service cool.

The hymns weren't greatly appreciated yesterday (!) so what could inspire and transform folk this coming Sunday that speaks into the environment rather than hymns like "All things bright a beautiful" which is National Geographic theology?

So symbols?
Stories?
Music?

I've a thought to base the whole service on eco-parables. I think I have three but does anyone know any others? Eco-parables are stories with meaning that speak about creation. They sit alongside all the other parables that speak about the Reign of God. We could make one up on the blog here... Maybe that's what we should do. Yes. Let's do that. We'll make up our own eco-parable to use during the service on Sunday. brilliant.

Watch out later for the first few lines...