A gentle stroll up the Brea I wonder if anyone is there yet? I really should book a table in the Castle restaurant Nearly there Taking the strain The Cross loaded for the journey down Taking Down the Carn Brea Cross until Easter!
A Christmas gift- candlesticks to go with the chaplain's cross The artist is an old friend who is a regular church goer in so much as he attends Midnight Mass on Christmas ev and helps wit the practical side of the earlier children's service so I asked Nick what he thought about when he made the cross and this was his reply: “Ah... Because the plaiting process is so slow and deliberate it demands a lot of thought and ‘faffing’ about, selective masking and sacrificial components etc that will never be seen on the finished piece. There's an evolution of sorts as time progresses. I wanted it to be organic and living as the church is. I also wanted to hint at abandoned ruins because we have left so many old ideas behind as the world has changed. It had to be rooted but also hint at movement, which is why the bit near the base is less solid and tree-like, but I also wanted the roots to be substantial as ours are. Beyond that there was a man spreading his arms out in welcome, that was not planned, that was given.” School Governance If as a result of your look back on the old year think you might benefit from a new challenge for 2019 that will dove-tail neatly with Lay Ministry please think about volunteering as a governor. Knowing how important children are to the future of the church and how important the church is to the future of our children it is an excellent opportunity to get one's feet wet. Recently in addition to my own school, I have been asked to fill in as chair of Governors in a school where governors are thin on the ground. Those they have are mostly parents in the school who are knowledgeable, enthusiastic and committed but there are only five of them and experience shows that the local board needs to be twice that number in order to function efficiently. Governors are important in schools whether they are maintained Local Authority Schools or Academies and having the right governors with a heart for the folks they are working with is vital. Governors who are box ticking bureaucrats fixated on policies rather than people add to the work of the school rather than support it; the best governors ask tricky questions but in the right way at the right time and always with the aim of building up those who work there. If you have never been a governor think of the role as: · listening to staff (often asking prepared questions) o to help you understand the school and its needs o to help them rehearse the answers they will have to give to inspectors of one sort or another o so they know they have someone independent they can speak to · Listening to children (Usually with set situation such as a pupil conference where a selection of students will meet a couple of governors,…
I’ve been part of a trade-off. Following the closing of Carn Brea Methodist church most of the congregation joined in with St Euny church in Redruth. That means that once a month they have a local preacher from the Methodist church who comes to do a service and the trade-off is that I get to be on the Methodist plan and going around the churches in the district at least once a month. This Sunday I had the delight of experiencing Camborne Wesley Church and although I was taking the 10:30 service, I was invited to drop in to the cafe church that preceded it. I was are welcomed with a hug from of an old colleague that I had not seen for many years and escorted across the action to the serving table for some coffee. The local preacher leading it, a (young- compared with me) teacher called Nick, was effectively using laptop and projector for the structure of the service and providing accompaniment for the singing of worship songs are from Youtube. After a short talk interspersed with a clip from Youtube from an American speaker discussion points were posted up to enable the group to talk. Nick kindly sent me the link and questions which appear below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX7HjbYOOjQ Have we strayed from the church of the bible? What’s missing from the church of Acts nowadays? (How can we make "insert church name here" about Him) What would make God Pleased most in "insert your area" Should we change our services/Change our hearts. When was the last time you were awestruck to be a part of God’s church? What could you give to the church? Pray for the church. (world wide, Local) I’m afraid the American speaker did not really inspire me at all, I prefer my preaching live, but the questions are certainly of interest and some are probably those that are asked in churches of all denominations throughout the land in one way or another. The question that instantly pricked my interest was should we change our services or change our hearts? My first thought was that this should not be an either or question, after all we can change both services and hearts just as we can change one of them without the other. And….. if you change hearts they might just want to change services….. or not! I’ve now been a reader for 30 years and an active worship group and house group leader for half a dozen years longer than that and change is something with which I have wrestled more or less zealously for all of that time. I used to think that need to throw out the old staid services and replace them with lively, attractive, entertaining offerings that folk from outside the church would want to attend. These days I hope I’m a little more pragmatic and understanding of the needs of both those in the church and those outside. Let’s delve a little more. The service I lead…
November December 2018 In this blogA link to Bishop Philip’s message on YouTube.Thoughts and Reflections- from the Quiet Day for AdventSpiritual DirectionA reminder of The Richard Rohr daily meditations – this one on death and resurrection- worth a read and then subscribing!Interesting links to resources and mildly entertaining thingsComments from Readers about the blog and the Chaplaincy from the annual survey
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