Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Sorry that we haven't had any updates but we have been rather pre-occupied!

Peter James was born on 19th March at 3.30am weighing in at 10lbs 4.5oz

All doing well!

:-)

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Sill no news today - Alex is very fed up... :-(

On the above quiz, my Dad came out as something like ecclectic/postmodern !!!!!!!!!!! need I say any more????

Pascal candel arrives today - I hope it is a breath-takingly beautiful as last year's was.

Final thought for today...

GO ON SCOTLAND!

UP THE LILYWHITES!!!

:-)

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Had some fun with this... (just cut and paste it into your browser dummie!)

http://quizfarm.com/test.php?q_id=43870&first=yes

I came out as neo-Orthodox - dunno wheather that's reasurring or not! Thanks to Paul Roberts Blog for this from the Sanctus 1 blog (cheers LHD!)

Enjoy!

S
No news yet today on the baby front....!

Good session with the lent group last night. Discussed 'Bruce Almighty' and looked at it in terms of issues of responsability, selfishness, and concequences as well as number of other things. We shoed some clips of he film and then at the end spent some time reflecting on pslams 90 and 139. We looked at Job and the story of Zaccheus. These four parts of the scriptures clearly mirroring some of Bruce's experience and therefore ours.

It remainded me of 2 things - technology is so tempremental (bloody computers!) but also that God and god issues can be found in many places and perhaps most powerfully in places where you might not have expected them to be. Film is good like this because in a way it acts like a mirror to our culture, but a broken mirror at that. We see ourselves as we often are in films, but we also see ourselves as we would like to be. Like all great stories - films have a habit of telling us what we want to hear and what we don't want to hear.

The second film "Secrets and Lies' will I think be even more challenging as it's set in Briatain about Britain...

All this waiting for the baby seems to go well with the mood of the Lenten season. In some ways Lent is a puase offered by God. A chance for metal and spiritual preparation for resurrection living. In other ways all this waiting mirrors Christ's desert experience in that there are hopes that are then dashed, you think you have got somewhere and then you haven't. There is also, a real sense of expectancy, of hope of new life, and frustration that it is not happening. I am hoping that I learn something about patience in the next couple of days. A good and godly quality - remembering that things happen in his time and therefore ( as I have always seen this child as a gift from God - however unexpected!) perhaps I should bve using this time to pause (listen to yourself you activist!), listen, learn and prepare.

I have not gone up to lambeth palace (the right decision) but I duscovered yesterday that Steve and Anne Hollinghust would have been there - it would have been good to catch up with them. Who knows , maybe another time... I wonder who else will have been there? This just in from the ABC...

Dear Simon,

A quick word to say how sorry we are not to be seeing you today – though not at all sorry for the very good reason you have for not being here!    We’ll be praying that all goes smoothly for Alex and the baby.  Do let us know; and I hope we can have you here at some point in the future.
Every blessing,
 
+Rowan. 


Wasn't that nice...

Tonight - curry, beer and not a great deal... Unless we need to get to the hospital of course!

:-)

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Off to bed soon...

There has been a really good thing on the news tonight about faith schools. The ABC seems to be saying that they have a very important part to play in the education of our children. The secular society seem to be somewhat threatened by this. Either way, faith schools seem to have parents' vote and in many ways that's all that matters - it's not that they are selective on accademic credentials, but on sharing or assenting to the faith in question. That said, many faith schools do seem to outperform the melee...

Still nothing on the baby front. Maybe the babe will need to be induced on Tuesday - as always in these matters we'll have to wait and see...

Done two new service sheets for Palm Sunday and Trinity Sunday/Ordinary time. Very pleased!

Anyway...

Zzzzzzzz
False alarm! We sit and we wait...

I have been thinking more about what Tim said on Sunday about mission.
He is right - we shouldn't be interested in mission like it's some sort of passtime, but if we are a church then we must be in the business of being part of it. It is God's mission - we need to be there to point out where and how he is at work.

Why is Fan the Flame a good thing for the church here? Well, it's a refresher. It's a spiritujal jaccuzi - a chance for us to be refreshed, renewed and filled with confidence, ready to face a new day. We cannot share what we don't have so FtF is about equipping too.

What I don't understnd is why so many seem to be ambivalent about this innitiative. I see it as vital and I stake my ministerial credentials on it - perhaps people don't want to grow in faith? Perhaps people don't want to be a church but a religious club...

I hope at least having Tim there on Sunday might have put some fears to bed...

More later I am sure

:-)
Well here we are on day two... Rainy...

Alex (my wife) has gone into labour today! Hurrah!!! Watford Hospital here we come...

It isn't happening very fast so we'll just have to wait and see how things progress.

More later hopefully with some news!

:-)

Monday, March 13, 2006

Hi!

Just added a link to my favourite band's website - Marillion... no they are not prog diosaurs honest!!!
Also links to the Church of England and the St Albans diocese websites and also the Porvoo Communion website (Porvoo Communion is teh Nordic and Baltic churches that are in full communion with the c-of-e since the mid 1990s.)

More tomorrow
Hey me again...

Just 'bout to do bath and bed with my boys (Matthew 3 and Ben 1) and realised that Ben is 16 months old on wednesday!!!! The first Rectory baby for 100 years here...

That's all

:-)

S
Hey world! This is the first post on the Rectory Musings blog!

This will be an opportunity for me to reflect with you on life here in Leverstock Green and especially the church.

Yesaterday was good. Quiet 8am service. Then at 10am, whilst we were thin on the ground, we welcomeed Rev'd Tim Sledge one of our mission leaders to the service. I interviewed him in place of a sermon. It was an excellent opportunity for people to 'meet' him and to hear why our mission in May/June, 'Fan teh Flame', could be such an important time for us here.

The Lent group went well on Wednesday - 18 people, but I was expecting 33!!!! We watched 'Bruce Almighty' not everyone's cup of tea, but could lead to some very stimulating discussion nextg week.

Aside from that, tonight the Governeors have a chance to hear how Ofsted went this last week - I am hopeful.

On a personal note - we are now eagrely awaiting the birth of our third baby, which was due on Friday. Come one baby - time to come out now for all our sakes!

Lent seems an odd time to blog for the first time but it is an opportunity to reflect a little. Being christian is so hard, and Lent seems to magnify my own failings immensely. Perhaps that's no bad thinmg - it reminds me how much I need God... :-) It seems like faith and life lie juxtaposed for many people, and the way that Jesus asks us to live seems not to happen, for my self included. BUT - it seems to me that we must remain committed, to searching, to striving, to at least trying. But, committment is something that most people sit very lightly to these days. God I sound old for my 33 years!

Off to Lambeth Palace on friday to a small conference with the Archbishop (assuming no baby worries!) - should be interesting! Also waiting to see whether Bishop Anders of Vaxjo Diocese gets elsected as the new Archbishop of Sweden - he would be a good man for teh job it seems to me.

Anyway, that's it for now.

Who knows, maybe more later

S