Yearly Archives: 2020

Important news items:1, Chaplain’s Coffee and Conversation on second Mondays in Redruth has now been cancelled until the current crisis abates.2. Reader Day has been cancelled for this year.3. Transforming Ministry – (The old Central Readers Website) The CRC website is no longer active – it is now Transforming Ministry – www.transformingministry.co.uk   Richard Roh's Meditation and wise words for today..... (click the picture!)  Love Alone Overcomes Fear  Thursday, March 19, 2020

Important news item: Chaplain’s Coffee and Conversation on second Mondays in Redruth has now been cancelled until the current crisis abates.Reader Day has also been cancelled for this year.The picture is the lounge at the Penventon Hotel - we tend to meet in that far corner - cosy, quiet and good for conversation. Join us when it restarts in...... perhaps June.

Dear AllI don't think I have actually been so busy since I was actually working for a salary and I have given up being chair of governors of two schools! As  I have said to many folks, many times, The trouble with retirement is that you don't get a day off!"Regular readers of the blog will know that I officiated at my first funerals just before Christmas and since then I have done a couple more and preached at Lesley Boyden's - as requested in Lesley's funeral plan. It was quite an emotional occasion though just getting the request was poignant.  Another couple and I will have taken more funerals than I have attended in the past 60  years or so! Funny how one's ministry changes in response to need and the skills we gain with experience. When I was first licensed as a reader in 1988. death and dying was not something I wanted to think about and focussed very much on children and young people but after four years as Chaplain to Readers and longer with my involvement with those in training and with Spiritual Direction sitting and listening take less physical energy that my youth ministry used to! The mental effort of making sure that once captures the real essence of the deceased person so that everyone at the funeral recognises them in one's words is both challenging and rewarding. (when you get it right!)   The St Andrews RandomsMy lovely wife amongst all the other things she does puts on a twice yearly musical event. Last week it was a folk night rather than the usual themed event so rater than the usual skilled keyboard accompaniment I was drafted in to play guitar and tell a folk tale in six parts. My fingers were so sore by the end of the performance but the story went down well and a good time was had by all making £600 plus towards the MMF making it a really worthwhile event in the eyes of the parish treasurer! The real benefit though is that some of the cast are not church goers and the same is true of half the audience meaning that it is a very really contact with Christians doing relatively normal fun stuff in a safe environment.    Storm Dennis took its toll on the Readers committee which has been postponed to March 21st. It should be an interesting meeting with a number of good discussion items on the agenda. One current issue you might like to comment on is about PTO, permission to officiate which starts somewhat arbitrarily at the age of 70. Having just had my 68th birthday this looms somewhat ominously. It does strike me that it is largely an irrelevance if we are all being re-licensed every 3 years or 5 years depending on diocese, a number does not make the job change, capacity does. More on this after the meeting. It will of course have something of a knock on effect on training......…

Lesley Boyden - Reader 18.06.49 to 25-01-20 Lesley at Bishop Chris' left hand in the licensing service October 2019 Lesley's prayer labyrinth by Lez. Lesley second from the right at the licensing. Her worry was that her wig might be dislodged when the Reader Scarf was placed around her neck. Sermon for February 21 2020 Revelation 21: 1-7 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,‘See, the home* of God is among mortals. He will dwell* with them;they will be his peoples,*and God himself will be with them;*4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes.Death will be no more;mourning and crying and pain will be no more,for the first things have passed away.’ 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, ‘See, I am making all things new.’ Also he said, ‘Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.’ Then he said to me, ‘It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life. Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. The funeral of Lesley Boyden A quote from Lesley’s application to be a Reader back in May 2016. (Not 2018 as I said in the service! A vocal typo!) “I feel that I will bring the strength of my years as a Christian from the joys and difficulties I have experienced along the way  and the many lessons I have learned and am still learning. I am sure my love for people will also benefit…..” That Lesley should have chosen this reading is unsurprising as, for me,  it really seems to epitomise her outlook on life especially in the time that I have known her. She exuded such positivity and faith firmly holding to the notion that her illness would take her home to Christ where the seas of earthly troubles would be no more, where He would be waiting to make all things right, wiping away tears and looking after his faithful like children. I had heard that Lesley had planned her funeral a few weeks ago but until I got an invitation to preach on the reading from Revelation I did not know what she had planned; it seems such a short time ago but I was preaching at her licensing as a reader in the cathedral in October. My life has been blessed with people called Lesley, there’s Lesley (or Les with an S) we remember and celebrate today, There’s my wife, though she likes to be known as Lez, and another reader called Lesley to name but three. So to avoid confusion we have John…

Since William started training in 2013 he has notched up an impressive 201 preaching engagements! Great to see a Reader so well used! How about news from other Readers..... and perhaps some pictures and comments. :) 

More on Funeral Ministry Yesterday I took my second ever funeral and the first in a church and the first at Penmount Crematorium.Because it was a celebration for a local legend who was president, chairman, Lodge Master and choir member there were an awful lot of people who wanted to say farewell and I found it an enormous privilege to be able to to take the service and provide pastoral support for the family.I never intended to get involved in funeral ministry and it does not even appear on last September's Work Agreement but  I have done so with  the encouragement of my Rector, Caspar Bush, who backed up his encouragement with a good deal of conversation and email because I like to get things right and pay attention to detail!The funeral yesterday was a marathon affair and I suspect only really fell my way because the Eight Saints Cluster is somewhat short staffed for one reason or another at the moment. The family were really helpful and even gave me a lift to the church arriving at the same time as the church warden (Terry Lister) who could not have been more helpful in providing local knowledge to help with the choreography of the service- there were no spare seats and we even had Truro male voice Choir singing in the choir stalls! The first mourners were there over an hour before the start to get a parking spot and the seat of their choice but I was able to greet most of them at the door."Oh are you the vicar?""No not me..... not a vicar just a licensed Minister taking the service"or"Thank you reverend..""No I'm not a reverend""what are you then...?""Oh I'm a Reader, a licensed Lay Minister""Oh are you Methodist then?""Well no, I'm an Anglican minister but I am on the Redruth Methodist preaching plan"(There is a question about Reader identity here I suspect!) I had been wrestling with the cough that has lingered on since mid December and continued to do so as I wandered sedately down to the lych gate to await the hearse and the family. There I offered up my usual pre service plea for some spirit filed assistance and another one specifically about coughing.  Interestingly, and rather wonderfully I did not cough again until three hours later when we left Penmount. Thank you Lord!  The wake had been planned for immediately after the service - so having shaken a couple of hundred hands and had several lengthy conversations I headed down to the bowls club to join the party- without my Readers robes, without them I could easily have been invisible- it was fascinating!  I had to explain I had just taken the service so I could jump the long food queue and get a mug of tea. The undertaker mustered the family at just after four and I threw on my robes once more and headed for the short committal at Penmount and then I was taken home! Everyone was incredibly grateful…

The New Year was ushered in relatively quietly: the grandchildren were taken home by 10 pm after an evening of Mahjong and other board games and I nursed my cough through till midnight and the usual well wishing by text.  There was a certain relief at being in bed within the first hour of 2020 and a certain smugness in reminding myself that I had never broken the resolution I made back in 1967 - that I would never again make a new year resolution. This year I kept it again.  If there is something one needs to resolve to do its not worth waiting till New Year- begin today..... if you fail then have another crack tomorrow but don't wait a whole year. I have posted a couple of eulogies from the Redruth Parish Magazine from 2010 remembering a couple of Readers, Arthur Skewes and John Brown both of whom had an impact in one way or another on my ministry. I wondered if we should have a section of the website for Readers Remembered and include contributions from around the diocese. Let me know what you think..... better still - send some articles.    Journey With Jesus Resource Epiphany Sunday with granddaughter Ellie and the chess board.

“Farewell” to some good friends   (2010) In the last month we have lost two faithful former Readers in the Team, Arthur Skewes and John Brown. They were both in their very different ways well known and loved members of our town and churches. We include here very personal reflections on two characters who will be missed and long remembered. Arthur Skewes RIP I fist met Arthur when he was part of the Lay Readers team which included Frank Michell, Fred Martin, Bill Combellack and John Brown. He always had a smile, a pithy comment and a kind word. Arthur seemed to find joy in all situations and had the wonderful ability to see the funny side of people’s quirks and idiosyncrasies. In later years Arthur took over as organist at Pencoys and “emergency” organist for other churches in the benefice. He never said, “no” when I rang him in a panic on a Saturday night asking him if he could play the next morning. He would turn up as cheerful and good humoured as usual as if he had been given several weeks rather than several hours of notice. I met Arthur again , more personally, this time when I visited him at home after he had a stroke. Although he was reasonably well (physically) the stroke affected his speech, which for someone who had always been good with words must have been very frustrating. In spite of this Arthur was always warm, welcoming and friendly and took part fully in the home communion service. Eventually, however, the effort and energy that this took became too much for Arthur and we put these visits on hold. They were due to resume in the new year but before they could happen came the sad new of Arthur’s death from a second stroke. It was a privilege to spend those few months with Arthur, to share communion and fellowship with him and to sit in his company for a while. I shall remember him for his quiet humour, his unassuming nature and his love of serving God in so many ways. May he rest in peace. Lez

John Brown RIPAt John’s funeral his great nephew Rowan read a “rap” composed for John. It was a moving, memorable, affectionate rich tribute to John and we can offer no more fitting tribute here than to print it in full. Rowan makes his living from “rap” and music, he is known as Dizraeli.UNCLE JOHNSolid in solitude with his dreams and his memoriesA resolute raft, ploughing the seas of the centuryChin set, he settled and barely admitted tendernessfor friends, Romans, and country walks with his weathered stick.I remember John among the gorse of the Cornish cliffs,Calling to his boys, with his voice free from ornament;“Val! Asti!”A smile broad as a house hidesIn his cheeks, and only shows itself as an outline.I remember John sat in the chair that he sat in,Reading a hardback, as squared as his passionAs Greek ghosts gather at the back of his mindAnd the wallpaper yellows with tobacco and time…I sit with him. I like the way the quiet makes my head buzzSilence my twelve-year-old self doesn’t get much.It tingles my blood and it settles my bones;Uncle John Time, slow as Old Testament stone.Coal goes in the scuttleTobacco in the pipeIt isn’t any trouble if you stay for the nightBut the forks live there.Realign your chair when you stand!And God help you if your manners aren’t right.To me, at sixteen, he breathes fire, dust and historyHe lives Redruth and Pompeii just as vividly.Lord Governor of his interior economyIn a cold bath, with the Roman Empire for companyJohn keeps time on a chain in the pocket of his waistcoat;It falls and it rises at his say-soSo innovation is as unnecessary as a wrist watch              … and here am I, trying to explain hiphopIt doesn’t matter: family is family.John keeps photographs of us on his mantelpieceAnd now, at twenty-seven, I’m proud to have beena face among the many in that gallerywhere Coal goes in the scuttleTobacco in the pipeIt isn’t any trouble if you stay for the nightBut the forks live there.Realign your chair when you stand!And God help you if your manners aren’t right.Coal in the scuttleTobacco in the pipeIt isn’t any trouble if you stay for the nightThe forks live there.Realign your chair when you stand!And God bless you.John Brown  was a Reader and retired History & Classics Teacher who was quite an influence on me as a young readers...