I am writing this article in mid-February before Lent and Easter. I have just received the draft service rotas for the Parish and for the Local Methodist service and penned my duties in the diary with a mixture of anticipation, duty and the daunting task of 6 sermons in the next 9 Sundays! The Lent Group at Treleigh begins on Tuesday week, following Rev Becca’s suggested course on Generosity so I shall be preparing my PowerPoint presentations and embedding the videos and making sure we have Lenten songs to sing in our Night prayer/ Compline in the next week. The Treleigh “Upper Room” house group is a joy to lead and to be part of and in many ways those groups that meet in homes seem so much closer to how early Christians would have met so I urge you to find one of the Lent Groups and make it your own Lenten observance this year. Yesterday I had a ‘Teams’ video conversation with a researcher for “Songs of Praise” who wanted me to talk about the impact of the Carn Brea Cross on the wider community which I was delighted to do. This year marks its 50th anniversary and so it will go up early on the 14th March and the BBC will be filming the erection of the cross at 9am and the service at the cross at 2pm. It is interesting how many people post on social media asking when the cross is to go up each year…. And when the weather is bad, whether it will go up. In fact, in 50 years only Covid and Foot and Mouth has prevented it! My first view of the cross was Easter of 1976. Lez and I were teaching in London but came down for the holidays. It was just there… stark on the hillside but in many ways accompanied my journey back to faith and into Christian ministry. We moved to Redruth in 1978 and became involved in almost immediately with Sunday School at St Euny and then the “Worship Workshop” at Pencoys and then the ecumenical house group “Solomon’s Porch” which met in our house in Trewirgie Road. That group had worshippers from Redruth Baptists, the Methodists, our Anglican Churches and even the occasional Roman Catholic. From it came church wardens, several priests, Local preachers and Readers and it was at this time I rally learned what it took to put that cross on the hillside each year… and how important it is as a symbol of witness. For me it marked a thin place, one of those places where God seems closer than anywhere else, and each year I tried to make it an annual pilgrimage to walk up and pray there. On a few occasions I have manged to get up there to ‘help’ but not being the tallest of people found myself on tip toes trying to reach it while between younger, taller and stronger bodies! But just my small effort of lifting as it as…
David Watson Are you a theological newt? I am sure I am not alone in being asked, on a regular basis, “What exactly is a Reader?” For me, the answer lies in a pond! Some years ago, I had the privilege of attending a summer school in Cambridge and to take part in some seminars being led by one of the United States’ leading practical theologians, Revd Professor Dr Stephen Sprinkle. What a name … what an inspirational man! His thesis was that in the journey we make through the books of the Bible – from Genesis to the great Revelation at the end – the Letter to the Hebrews is the hinge. The gathering point on which all our practical Christian activity pivots. Professor Sprinkle, who was for 10 years pastor to a poor community in Texas, described himself as a “theological newt”, because he, in his own words, “lives in the swamplands that are practical pastoral theology”. He taught us much about looking at worlds within worlds and how it is actually the edges of the pond that teem with life. Not the middle, or the surface, or the bottom, but the edges. The swampy muddy margins where the water meets the land, where liquid interacts with solid, where gills give way to lungs and fins become legs, where grotesque larvae hatch into delicate caddis flies and kaleidoscopic dragonflies. And it is at the swampy muddy margins that some of the most beautiful of wild flowers abound. The creatures of the swampy margins are not always pretty though … newts and frogs and toads are seldom described in terms of beauty or endearment, as many a fairytale will attest. And the swampy muddy margins often smell, releasing noxious methane gas that sometimes self ignites to give us the mysterious Will o’ the Wisp. Professor Sprinkle told us that to become real practical, pastoral theologians, to find Jesus in action, we should get our hands and feet dirty; that we should leave behind the comfort zones in our lives, those places where we know we can succeed, and seek out those places and tasks where we fear failure. For it is only when we fear failure that we will truly trust ourselves to God’s will. In support of this, Professor Sprinkle would often quote us verses 12-13 of Hebrews, chapter 13: ‘Therefore Jesus also suffered outside the city gate in order to sanctify the people by his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the camp and bear the abuse he endured. For here we have no lasting city, but we are looking for the city that is to come’. So maybe to find Him, we too must travel to the margins, to the edges, the wetlands of this world … to the swamp. To the places in our communities where rich meets poor, where well meets sick, where comfort meets desperation and depression, where emptiness and…
Firstly, a reminder that Monday morning at 10 is our Minsters in Conversation Hour on ZOOM- it being the first Monday of the Month.Secondly: Funeral Training: Funeral ministry training morning for Readers on Saturday 7th March at the Old Cathedral School. 9.45am-12.30pm. All Readers are welcome.Thirdly: Thoughts.Recently I watched “Pilgrimage with Simon Reed” Pilgrimage with Simon Reeve - BBC iPlayer a really good set of three programmes that got me thinking about a number of issues. Reeve declares that he does not have a faith but h is open-minded approach and easy conversation makes his exploration a fascinating and thought-provoking watch.‘Pilgrimage’ is a three‑part documentary series in which Simon Reeve retraces historic pilgrimage routes across Britain, Europe, and the Middle East, exploring the history, spirituality, dangers, and human stories behind these ancient journeys.In Episode 1 – ‘Britain’, Reeve begins on Holy Island (Lindisfarne) and follows routes linked to Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and he explores how pilgrimage shaped early British spirituality and culture.In Episode 2 – ‘Western Europe’ the journey continues across the Pyrenees, through Alpine monasteries, and onward to Rome. He examines the hardships and motivations of medieval European pilgrims.And in Episode 3 – ‘The Holy Land’ he starts in Istanbul, and travels to Jerusalem, tracing routes taken by pilgrims for centuries. He reflects on what pilgrimage means today, including for those who are not religious.The series highlights the vices, thrills, dangers, and spiritual longing that shaped pilgrimage traditions and uncovers many forgotten aspects of pilgrimage, blending history, travel, and personal reflection.So here is the thinking bit…..Many of the more widely publicised pilgrimages conclude at huge edifices with relics, statues, fine art and gold leaf enough to satisfy the needs of microchip builders for years to come! Into my head as I saw the cameras pan around these huge places came the story of the Happy Prince by Oscar Wild…. The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde (click here if you have not come across it)The last poke into the thoughts was preparing for our Redruth Team Lent Course this year… which focusses on generosity…. My Rector writes “This course has a really whole life approach to generosity, not just finance, so it develops healthy habits!! But hopefully challenges the idea of giving what’s easy to give. “https://exeter.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/All-Small-group-resources.pdfhttps://exeter.anglican.org/resources/generous-giving/generositybiblestudy/So the thoughts were around the riches of the church, where the money came from to build those edifices, the place of relics, the ‘Widow’s Mite’ and the Happy Prince’s Heart… where do we go from here?
Chaplain’s Blog Stardate Last month I fell for the advertising of a fee month of audible subscription for audio books and it has been great for my couple of hours of dog walking each day! When my first ‘credit’ ran out I looked for some free texts and found Timothy West reading “Barchester Towers” – 24 hours plus of glorious story telling about the ecclesiastical goings-on of the fictional Diocese of Barchester in the 1850s where miscommunication (amongst other things) causes a myriad of problems. It has made me laugh and to the think about the parallels and differences with the church today and our own diocese. I had occasion to pop into the Old Cathedral School, where the church offices are now, last week and was given the warmest of greetings by all which was in in sharp contrast to the frosty political manoeuvrings of the Barchester Bishop’s Palace! My purpose that day was to chat to our new head of Ministry, Isaac, about Lay ministry in general and we were joined by Bob Moffet a reader from North Cornwall who had replied at length to my previous blogs on the subject. The question posed was,” What does the kingdom of God, the congregations and wider community, require of Licensed Lay ministers and lay leaders and what is the best way to provide capacity? “ Thoughts: When I took my first services as a reader back in the late 1980s, matins and evensong were the order of the day in several benefice churches with only St Andrews having a eucharist every week and it had an additional 8am ‘said’ communion service. These days, Redruth is a united single parish of five church buildings with regular lay-led services. In all of them and communion services interspersed where capacity allows. For part of the congregations, the lack of Sunday communion in their particular church building is a sad loss. They could, of course, go to one of the other churches to receive communion but for the most part they do not. Around the diocese the situation is much worse in some places, according to Readers who have spoken to me about their situation, especially where parishes are in vacancy. The service of Holy Communion by Extension has been mooted as an answer but the rules around it which involve taking the already consecrated host from another church that morning and not held over from a previous mid-week or the previous Sunday make life very difficult especially where travel between churches down narrow country lanes is involved. I understand that in some places the rules are used merely as a guideline to actual practice! There is a difference between need and want. Congregations say they want many things from a priest in every church, to young people who like old services or change as long as they can sit in the same pew and sing the hymns they like. What they need and what their church in the wider sense of the word, needs could well be different altogether. But…