Author: Jim Seth

Dear AllBelow these musings there are a few possibly useful prayers!Roy Cooper, a Reader in Training due to be licensed in October is doing some weekly Sunday Scribblings and I have made a page for his collected thoughts  - https://www.readers-chaplain.org.uk/roys-sunday-scribblings/ Lez and I have been socially distancing for almost a fortnight though I have braved the Co-op first thing in the morning for some essentials! Luckily our children are shopping for us in the main! I am sure many of you are in the same situation with much more serious health issues than ours but we dont want to be part of the problem for our wonderful front line key-worker staff. With my school work gone and grandchild contact only virtual amongst other things , I have been in a state of what I can only describe as bereavement.  So many of my ex pupils and their parents are in the thick of it at the moment that my prayer is pretty much constant as is the need to do something positive. The positive thing was to help those parents stuck at home and the volunteers at schools looking after key worker children doing their favourite school songs and stories. These I have published on this site... see the link in the menu to Jim's Stories! Some things might be useful or at least give you a laugh. The rainbows in the picture are appearing as a symbol of hope drawn by children so that those passing can see them. We have hope - thank God.  Keep safe - Jim  The Prayers we sent to our Church family  - you might find them useful (based on some in  John Pritchard Intercessions Handbook )Here are some prayers for use tomorrow and in the coming week.  You might like to have a candle ready to light – there is one mentioned in the prayers.Attached is the Celtic Blessing sung by Dhiworth an Gollon – our dwarves! We're most stretched in our intercessions when some terrible tragedy has occurred and it's hard to know how to pray without sounding banal. Perhaps the most important need is to be honest; hence the response in this intercession, 'O God, why?'  Our prayers today are making a time for honest emotion before God. We can’t  tidy up tragedy in neat prayers. Perhaps questioning our impotence is the most effective way of identifying with the depth of sorrow felt by so many.Lord, we've seen the pictures, and felt the shock.  It seems so tragic, so pointless and so desperate. We've heard the stories, the little cameos of grief, and we feel so helpless. Sometimes we rage against this kind of event, and sometimes we feel a sense of dull fatalism that 'this is the way the world is'.And so we say, O God, why?In the meantime our prayers seem futile, like stones in our mouths. Words of any kind seem trivial and clumsy. How can we pray in these situations? How can we frame anything worth saying? How did Mary pray at the crucifixion?And so…

a fifteen minute story written originally for children... https://youtu.be/O1t8ZfUuAsk

A story that affirms however useless we may feel in our current state - God has a use for us. https://youtu.be/pLGdUnQAayc

Sometimes we are taught stuff we don't really understand but it might just be the thing we need that helps us get home. https://youtu.be/Uxy70b4GuSQ

A tale of empty shelves https://youtu.be/Ijli8Mx_mms Princess Ellie & the Cakes When my grandaughter Ellie was about two years old she was living with us because Mum who was expecting little brother Patrick was not very well.  One day Ellie and I were in the park when she asked for a story....... a story about a Princess called Ellie.... and some cake.  This is the story- but an apt one in these times when our supermaket shelves seem empty.  Watch Now

https://youtu.be/tm029_CyArM A Story for Strange Times The first in a series of stories, some for adults and some for children. This one is for adults.  Watch Now

Continuing Professional Development and Ministerial Development Review CMD & MDR – Don’t you just love a good acronym?Last week I attended a working group about CMD (Continuing ministerial development) at Epiphany House. Readers were well represented and the group led by Sally Piper (a reader herself) in the place of Rebecca who was unfortunately able to come because her son was unwell.We had a a fruitful morning talking about what made a good course and what made a bad one as well as discussing in general terms practical matters such as location, time of day, housekeeping arrangements and so on.  The second, and probably last meeting will look at content, duration and geography! More thoughts on MDR and how it should affect CPD  (and Reader Licensing!) in due course. 

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. :)