TW'sV on words, prayer, & EU

Words are funny things because they move about. Man used to mean mankind or the male of the species, but now it is very gender powerful. We leave the man off chairman. Meanwhile guy has been travelling in the opposite direction. We used to talk of guys and girls, now we can cover both with guys. I'm confused!

However the Word never changes. That famous Bible passage read every Christmas describes Jesus as the Word that became flesh:

'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.'

In a world where fashions change, or words morph their meaning, it is reassuring to know that God is changeless. He can be our reference point, our solid rock

Prayers have so many shapes, and as I have read those written on Christmas or prayer trees it has been a privilege to add an Amen. Some have been deeply personal, almost private. Others more general, longing for peace in our troubled world and so on. Many have been offering thanks to God. They reflect all the emotions and aspirations appropriate to our all powerful God, who chose to show himself in the frailty of a baby.

Trees are good places to tie ribbons or labels that mean something to us. Of course Churches are too. After all they are 'houses of prayer', but that doesn't mean just a collection of interesting stone or brick structures. They need to be lived in, and that takes a pattern and rhythm of praying that is far more than just Sundays.

In the Register or on www.ridgeway.org.uk you can find the details of the prayer opportunities across our sister Churches. Make yourself at home. You are welcome to turn up at any of those published ... and on Sundays too.

But there's one more invitation. Privacy and quiet may be important. Often our Churches are open but empty, and a trickle of people call every day. At Holy Trinity, Bincombe you will find squash welcoming you in the porch. So, please, come on in and help us keep these places prayer-full.

There's something missing in the EU debate which we must never overlook. We will decide whether to stay in or leave in a referendum later this year. We must never forget why it was formed. It has been said that more blood was spilt in Europe last century than in all the preceding ones put together. Many millions died, often in horrific circumstances. This ghastly evil infected many other countries in the two World Wars. The symmetric graves in thousands of cemeteries mock our failure.

The European Union was born to get warring factions working and sharing together. So whatever your political view, may I strongly urge you to put our future peace into the equation. At the moment the debate is severely impoverished by the most important consideration.

TW'sV on celebrating life

A couple of generations ago home births were the norm, with midwives bombing around on bicycles. Husbands boiled the kettle and put newspaper on the floor. It was a public event.

 (c) Neal Street Productions

Then came along maternity homes, when often husbands were excluded. I was only allowed in for good behaviour, and spent some time waiting in a draughty porch. Next maternity units in hospitals made us almost think that having a child was some form of disease!?

It was a Frenchman, Dr Michel Odent, who helped us to remember that giving birth is natural! Of course the superb care in hospitals has reduced the number of deaths (child or mother) enormously, but we had lost the truth that birth is normal.

I think birth into eternity, or dying has become too private a matter. To be fair, it was highly public fifty years ago. Someone in the community almost had the right to lay out the body in the front parlour. Neighbours and family would be expected to call and pay respects. Now an 'ambulance' turns up, and few may even know a neighbour has died.

It would be helpful to notch back a bit, not too much. Although having a public role, I'm a private person by nature, and I'd hate my grief to be public property. But I would value being able to talk about death, and loved ones in a natural easy way.

Welcome to another New Year, and a natural chance to think about opportunities to relish the gifts of life, and of eternal life which is behind all our dreams. If you've made a new year's resolution you're not supposed to tell anyone. Why not?

One year I resolved to walk along the beach at least once a week, and it has kept my life in a better balance. What a fantastic part of the world we live in, and how often we waste opportunities on our doorstep.

So this year, why not share your hopes with others, and help us all recover the fact that dying is natural and we should talk about it more.

And may God bless you richly.

TW'sV on a tale of two ships

Both the Cutty Sark and the SS Great Britain are examples of fine ships restored after abandonment or fire. The first is partially hidden by a support structure while the second is seen as if floating on water.

SS Great Britain (www.ssgreatbritain.org)

The true Christmas story of a refugee couple in occupied territory, facing pointless bureaucracy can so easily be masked behind tinsel and commercialism. Don't get me wrong because I love the party that is Christmas. However, it needs a heart to make sense. It needs to be about how our Creator and Sustainer shows his love towards us.

The Open Air Carol Service in Sutton Poyntz will be followed by baptisms in the Springhead pond. Here's an opportunity to remember loved ones, to give thanks for all that is wholesome, to pray for each other and particularly those for whom Christmas is a reminder of loneliness or pain. We can also give thanks for family and community life.

The carols and readings remind us of that first Christmas, and make it real in our hearts and minds. All are welcome to any of our Christmas services across our Churches. There's a great choice of venue and style, so make yourself at home.

Kings College reflected in a car roof

It's no surprise that the service heard by more people across the world than any other comes from Kings College, Cambridge. Every year it is familiar, and every year introduces us to something new. This keeps the celebration alive. It's no fossil, but a magnificent vessel which invites us on board.

A very Happy Christmas, and fulfilled New Year to you and yours.

TW'sV on revolution and recycling

• Greater London's Crossrail is the largest infrastructure project in Europe. Why is it revolutionary? Full sized trains rather than smaller tube-trains will travel at speed from outlying areas, for example Reading, under the heart of the city through large diameter tunnels. New stations are springing up which key into existing transport links, and match their environment.

Crossrail Place, Canary Wharf

The spoil from tunnelling has been moved by barge to create wetlands for the RSPB at Wallasea Island in the Thames estuary. Crossrail is a fantastic example of an imaginative project producing revolutionary ideas which include recycling material. 

• So what has it to do with my day job, as a minister in the Church of England? Towards the end of my schooling I thought and prayed about what to do. The result was a sense of calling to work in the electricity power generation industry. I served ten years across a mix of coal, oil, and nuclear fired power stations. 

Aberthaw Power Station

Then I received a call to serve in the Church of England. From my point of view it all fits together. Everything in the universe was created and is sustained by God, so I don't consider any one part of his world to be any more holy than another.

• When Jesus was asked about faith, he gave the example of moving a mountain. Today he might talk about tunnelling under a huge city. Our lives are a profound challenge; will we work under God's lead through his Spirit to find imaginative ways of building things? Or will we merely exploit nature for reasons of shear greed alone? Will we evaluate life in terms of beauty and sustainability, or just for profit?

Already Londoners are looking forward to Crossrail opening, and improving connections east to west through the centre. There is already talk of Crossrail 2 connecting north and south. 

I believe it's part of a revolution in which we should all play our part: beauty, respect for our world, and the imagination to make a difference.

TW'sV on making things up

Political oddities
We often hear the phrase 'It's unbelievable' when some amazing sporting achievement has been reached. Congratulations to Mo Farah for winning so many golds, in so many events, so often.

Picture from http://www.mofarah.com/#images

However, I've been puzzled by unbelievable moves on the left and right of politics. Many commentators think Labour had a poor showing at the last general election because it had moved towards the left; now it is likely to move even more in that direction. The Conservative government is about value for money, yet it recently sold off tax-payers' shares in RBS without even putting them up for sale in the market place. It's unbelievable; you couldn't make it up!

Poetic oddities
Of course circumstances change, and what might be inappropriate at one time might be right at another. Ecclesiastes is a fascinating book roughly in the the middle of the Old Testament section of the Bible. It is written by someone who struggles at times with depression, but has amazing insights as well. Here's an extract from one of Eccles' poems, which Bob Dylan put to music using a 'Turn, turn, turn' refrain:

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
 a time to be born, and a time to die;
 a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
 a time to break down, and a time to build up;
 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
 a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
 a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather stones together ...

That last idea has puzzled me for years, and I now understand it as a challenge about strategy. At one time throwing out old stones might be a good idea, but at another time gathering them is important.

Radical certainties
A few months ago I wrote about migration because many had asked me to express a view. I argued that we should see the complexity of the challenge, but always see people under any circumstance as just that: people. I have been delighted to observe a better attitude emerging in the media, triggered it seems by a picture of a drowned child washed up on a beach.

There isn't a one size fits all solution. The population in these islands has increased significantly in recent decades, while it is falling in Germany. But there is a one size fits all certainty. We should love our neighbours as we love ourselves. How we live has an impact on others. The story of the Good Samaritan makes it clear that we have responsibilities and can't just walk on by.

That story inspired the fantastic world wide organisation ready to listen (in any form) 24/7. Our local branch has been operating opposite the railway station since the 70s.

Jesus set the bar even higher, when he said that we should love others as he loved us.

TW'sV on cake while you wait

I've heard a false view of heaven from a number of different sources, so here's an attempt to set the record straight.

It's not just 'pie in the sky when you die', but 'cake on the plate while you wait!'  Or in other words those who speak of Christianity being a sop to miserable disadvantaged people are missing something.  Part of heaven should break through now.

It is true that God's love does not differentiate between gender, race, colour, skill, intelligence, class, or any other description we might choose.  And that means that the poor, or impaired, or vulnerable can find huge comfort in knowing heaven will liberate them.  And often the rich, or powerful, or articulate confess to living miserable empty lives.

We await the delights of heaven, but seek its flavour now.  We live in the light of eternity, but live life to the full now.  Jesus made it clear that his sacrificial life (which displayed amazing energy, compassion, wisdom, strategy, and charisma) also had times for merriment.  In fact his first miracle turned significant quantities of water into wine at a celebration of marriage.

picture from www.thecommunitychurchhoniton.org.uk/

The strict religious of his day told him off because it was clear he wanted fun as a companion to faith.

And while we're at it, let's nail another false idea about following Jesus.  You must have heard the quip s/he's so heavenly minded, s/he's no earthly use.  It's rubbish.

Yes, there are some scatty people who have their head in the clouds, but there are many others whose eternal perspective has driven them to make a huge difference in our world.  Here are four examples from our country's makeup:
 ● abolition of slavery
 ● setting up of law courts
 ● Oxbridge college foundations
 ● building of hospitals and training of staff

Let's get real about what an amazing amount heaven has to offer now, and echo part of that famous Lord's prayer: Thy kingdom come, on earth as in heaven!

TW'sV on making all things new

'Data is the new pollution' says Andrew Keen who is internet friendly, but has written a book called The Internet is not the Answer.  We use over 10% of our electricity maintaining the Web.  Much of what we keep is junk.

Image from MAAG Projekt

'Sitting is the new cancer' according to Tim Cook CEO of Apple.  More welloff people may become ill through lack of exercise rather than infection.  Perhaps that is why his company has designed so many health gadgets and apps to run on their equipment!

'I am making all things new' is the shout that springs out of the pages of Revelation, a fantastic book bursting with images describing heaven.  It is the last book in the Bible.  Heaven is a completely new experience.

As we evolve we face [and create] new challenges.  The same is true as we grow out of childhood into being young adults.  Most of the time we relish the new, but the ultimate adventure is realising the newness of heaven.  How do we get a handle on that?

Image from businesscomputingworld.co.uk 

I've often been asked what heaven is like, and for that matter what's hell?  One answer is to pick up on the language we use.  A fantastic day might be heavenly, and I think it has been a taste of heaven.  We describe ghastly experiences as going through hell, and again I think they are a hint of what it's like.

There's a bit of a thread linking these thoughts together, because we are increasingly invited to store our data in the cloud.  The picture above comes from a company offering steps to cloud storage.  What is certain is that digital media can't capture the essence of heaven, that's stored in our hearts!

When we work with nature we create beauty and she glows.  Pollution greys the skies and water flows, and introduces hellish environments that choke our breath.  So it's a fantastic encouragement that since 2013 the world had invested more in clean energy than in coal, natural gas, and oil combined.  That's something new, a little aroma of heaven!