revmusings

Well clearly not a raving feminist ( see last post)

But I am apparently a backsliden Envangelical and proud of it!

see:http://www.larknews.com/guide/test.html

Apparently not!

We guess http://revmusings.blogspirit.com/ is written by a woman (57%), however it's quite gender neutral.

http://www.genderanalyzer.com

As part of our Week of Paryer for Christian Unity our local churches togather has two events. On the first Sunday we hold a united service and on the last Sunday we do a pulpit swop ( I don't know why we do it that way but maybe its better to mee together first just in case a preacher upsets someone!)

This year we sang a communion hymn at the joint servcie and as I sang it I thought 'sadly communion is actually as sign of our divisions rather us being one body in Christ as this suggests'. When the LEP was formed we had the sight of a united servcie but with both individual and one cup, wafrers and bread - some unity!

The pulpit swop entailed me being at one of the Anglican churches where I preached but could not lead communion but was welcome to take the elements. My other half was preaching at the Catholic church where he was refused communion. ( he could have a blessing like an non-Christian!)

Ironically he was doing our evening service and because of the previous week's united service we had moved communion to this week and so he was presiding!

Where is our unity when we do not recognise one another's Communion and ministry?

Just to day I have read of a church that served mulled wine before an important occasion that was held in the winter and another with a poker and pub group. WOW! Churches willing to actually push the boundaries, do thing that look 'normal' to non church people and just might help them enagage with Christians becuase they took cease to look as people who live in some holy bubble!

I also saw a wonderful typo this week:'deacons' became 'deadons'!

We spend far too much time in holy huddles in the church. Yes, we need to worship toegther, yes, we need to encourage one another in learning more of Jesus, and yes, our premises need to be used to serve the commuity but we also need to get out and actually do stuff in the community, with the community and also just have fun with people who do not share out faith

This should be on the door of every church for at least some of the time: Mark 1:17

The arch of history has bent just a little bit more towards justice and, I hope, peace today. Barach Obama is now the president of the USA, an awesome responsibility and one that is especially difficult at this time in history. His speech was full of reality and hope, encoutaging people to work together for a better world for all, offering the hand of friendship to nay who will take it in honesty.

He needs our prayers as he takes on this job and endeavours to build the dream he has outlined and that, as he acknowledged, is built on the foundation of pilgrims and human rights activists.

Yesterday it was great to get back to badminton - really missed it and the fun and fitness involved.

In the evening we had a meal with some friends and learnt how to play poker! ( no money involved of course) It was also great fun. One friend who seemed to have no idea what she was doing mamnaged to win hand after hand ( even though she folded with a winning hand!) Just shows that we can succeed even if we have no idea what we are about!

I had talked in church about how you need to learn a new skill every year o keep fresh - poker is not quite what I had in mind but it was a great way to have fun after a good meal and keep the mind active (not to mention polishing the bluffing skills - may come in handy at a meeting some day!)

That is how I feel today. The church has housed a baby clinic for year whilst they awaited a new building which they took over in October but stayed with us till end of 2008 so that everything would be ready for the change over. In the last weeks here the parents were not informed of the move and I was not left any details - consequently the last two weeks I have spent one morning a week telling parents it has moved but not able to tell them where to go or how to contact the health visitors. This week I did get a number for them to call after desperate e-mails for help. This number I dutifully gave out. along with pens and paper, and some phoned there and then only to get an answer phone. Also the area has changed so some parents will need to go to another clinic altogether.

I am so angry that parents with small babies are allowed to walk to a clinic that no longer operates and given no information - its freezing at the moment and now there has been no clinic for 5 weeks. A letter appeared today that said the clinic is still not yet ready! Why, Oh, why did they not stay till they were ready and do an organised and informed transition?

This is a government funded scheme but it has been grossly mis-managed by people above the health visitors and the losers are babies and toddlers and their parents who have been very badly served. Grrrrrrr!

My laptop is on its way out, it has a very small memory and now when I try to connect it to a video the screen goes all the colours of the rainbow - all of which makes using powerpoint a tad difficult. At the Carol service the remote clicker also failed. We hoped it was just the battery and put a new one in for yesterday's All Age and used my other half's laptop.

The icture was fine but the remote would still not work. I tried following the instructions about what to do if the connection failed but still could not get it to work. Hubbie then had a go and lo and behold it worked! I asked how he did it and he said' I followed the intructions' I asked him to show me and he pointed to the instructions starting at step 5!

I was trying to be logical and start at number one!

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together and you are a part of it. I had one of those at the end of last year, a pastoral visit and a piece of advice turns a situation inside out and the change has been so beautiful to behold. The journey will be long but its begun. The ripples of joy have spread and transformed another's life as well.

I had tried time and time again before but this time was God's timing and so it was right and transformative. That's what I love about being a minister, seeing the change in someone's life and knowing that God allowed me to be part of it.

A spark of light in the darkness