Back to work

Historically, Christmas holiday celebrations used to last from 25th December until “Twelfth Night”, the 6th January. That is when the festivities would end and it was time to go back to work. For many people that meant farming and particularly at that time of year, ploughing.

So the Sunday after Twelfth Night became “Plough Sunday”. The village plough (in many villages it would have been a shared communal plough) was brought in to the church to ask God to bless the work that would be done with it.  After the service the plough would be taken round the village, sometimes with Morris Dancing. It was heavy to carry so there were stops for refreshment at all the pubs. Villagers were invited to make a contribution to the cost of the upkeep of the plough and the Church that had blessed it.  If it was felt that a villager hadn’t given a large enough contribution then they might discover that their garden was used for a bit of ploughing practice!
As the festival degenerated into drunkenness, dancing and demanding money with menaces churches got uncomfortable with it. It became celebrated less frequently, which was regrettable. The principles of God being interested in our work, of community and giving are important.
This year we will celebrate Plough Sunday on 9th January at 10.00am at Hanley William. We’ll try and avoid too much drunkenness and demanding money with menaces! I quite like Morris dancing so if anyone wants to dance, that’s fine with me.

Crib Service Change of Venue

The road to Hanley William church is passable with care, but parking at the church would be a problem. The Crib Service on Christmas Eve is therefor moving to Hanley Broadheath Village Hall. The time, 4.0pm, remains the same but acces and parking is better, hence the move.

A nice problem to have

Yesterday was Rochford's carol service. "How many orders of service do we need to run off?" I asked.
"40 should be enough" was the reply.

Being an optimist I did 50 and we still ran out. People had to share but as they say sharing is good for the soul, so no harm done.

The service had people of all ages participating meaningfully. Readings - both by adults and children- were read well. The choir, even though opportunities to practice had been curtailed by the weather, provided a good lead. The service had the crib being built up as children brought the different characters to the stable.  I might also have spotted a future church treasurer.   One of the two young boys who did the collection proudly placed his heavy bag on the offetory plate saying "There's more in mine!"

Next up there's carol singing in the Tally Ho! on Wednesday evening and the Fox on Thursday.

Friday, Christmas Eve has a crib service at Hanley William at 4.00pm and First Communion of Christmas at Rochford at 8.00pm.

Christmas morning has 9.30 Communion at Eastham and 11.15 Family Service at Stoke Bliss.

Sunday there's a 9.30 service at Kyre

Looking further ahead there's a plough sunday service on the 9th of January, but more about that in due course 

Beautiful but challenging

The weather here has been stunning, but the cold has been quite a challenge. Ice and snow have made driving on unsalted roads tricky and walking has needed care.
But life carries on.

Rochford PCC has had to postpone their meeting twice because of the weather. We’re hoping for third time lucky next week.

Monday saw the funerals of Jack and Gladys Hill from Eastham. Married since 1945 they had died within a few days of each other. Eastham church was full.

This Sunday ( 12th Dec) the service is 9.30 communion at Hanley William


Next Tuesday (14th) is Stoke Bliss Carol Service at 7.30

28th November

28th November is Advent Sunday and we've a  9.30 Advent Communion service at Rochford and a 3.30 Advent Service at Hanley Childe -a delightful church with stupendous views.

An open gate

The gate to the right of Rochford church leads into an orchard. On Saturday the gate was shut and there were sheep grazing. On Sunday the sheep had been moved and the gate was open for worshippers at the Remembrance Service to park their cars.
That good neighbourlyness is important for building up community.

Not quite 60,000

This afternoon was my licensing as Priest in charge of Teme Valley South (TVS). Knowing that the service was to be followed by by a bonfire, Bishop David preached on Malachi 3 1-4 about fullers soap and refiners fire. In his time as an industrial chaplain he had seen  the steel works where rusty iron ore with impurities would be refined in a in a crucible to come out bright shiny and clean.

After the service was a bonfire and fireworks - the photo shows the display.
Talking with a colleague recently he told me that one author used the idea of a bonfire of what the church should be. In the book “Love and Faith and Unity in a Postmodern Age” by John Gladwin published 1998 he writes

"The vision of God revealed to us in the Gospel of Christ is like a perpetual blazing fire which draws individuals and communities towards it.
Every year at the season of Bonfire Night in November the London Borough of Islington holds a massive bonfire and firework party. On a good night 60,000 people can be there.
The bonfire party is a great image of the Church as it is called to be today. Watch the company of people gathered around the fire. They are somewhat untidily assembled. Some will feel the need to be close in near the blaze, others stand further off watching and wondering, and even further away are those conscious of the fire but yet not wholly attentive to it. All the time some are drawing near and others moving away. The fire itself seems to encourage the movement. There are people on their own drawn to the warmth, family groups and small communities there. The thing which unites all is not necessarily their mutual knowledge of each other but the power of the blaze at the heart of what is happening.”

Guess what was in the attic

They say it's an ill wind that blows nobody any good. Well the "ill wind" was the length of time it was taking to get a phone extension that works in the study. The latest time for an engineer to come isn't till 4th November and deciding it couldn't be rocket science I took myself to Maplins and bought a roll of telephone extension cable.  I've spent much of today clipping it as discretely as I can and to get it from one side of the study to the other I decided to run it through the roof space above.

When I was there I found a bag of books (the roof space should have been cleared but this bag had been missed) and in it I found the burial register for Eastham and the baptism register for Kyre.
And as you can see from the photo, I've wired up a socket in the study. I'm no longer having to use the hall as a study.

One down, one to go

The bare patch of grass is where a skip has been for the past few months. The good news is that it's just been taken away. The one remaining should be going on Monday. The pile of wood in the background should be going down to Stoke Bliss to add to the bonfire that follows the Licensing service. The view from the kitchen window is much better.

BT have finally got round to reinstating the phone number that has been the Rectory number for decades - 01886 853286. What I'm waiting for now is an engineer to fit a working phone socket in the study. There's a problem with the wiring. I asked them to do this over two weeks ago, and so far all there's been is one appointment that the engineer failed to keep. 

What do you think?

What do you think are the issues and the joys facing people in rural areas? That is the question that the Rural Intelligence Foundation are trying to answer. Their way of answering the question is using an online survey which can be acccessed here. 
The survey only takes a few minutes to fill in and the more peoplke that complete it the better.
Incidentally I think one of the main isues, and one they don't suggest, is lack of mobile phone coverage!

We're in - more or less

The removers were wonderful, Bennetts of Malvern. The staff were polite, intelligent, helpful... They packed us on Monday and delivered the first load on Tuesday and the second load on Wednesday. We're busy unpacking and deciding what goes where.
And of course there's all the other stuff that goes with moving. Scottish Power have been helpful. The postman has stopped to introduce himself.
The award for the least helpful has to go to BT - being in the sticks we don't have a lot of choice for phone or broadband. At least we now have a working internet connection, even if I can't use it in the study. Probably the most fatuous question was from a BT person. I had explained that I had no interent connection. She had tested the line & confirmed there was a fault at the exchange. "Would you like me to receive a troubleshooting email?" she asked. "I would love to receive a trouble shooting email, or any email," I replied, "I can't connect to the internet!!!!"  

Removers are here

The removal firm's staff have arrived this morning and are busily packing. Tommorrow the first load is delivered and unpacked and wednesday the second (and final) load.
Driving up to Hanley Broadheath this morning (taking some mucky stuff the removers would rather not have in their van) the mist was hanging in the valley bottoms with beautiful views.

Gardening

One of the issues that one of the neighbours have had is that there used to be a row of tall cupressus trees that screened them from the rectory. That meant people could visit the rectory without the neighbours knowing and gave a degree of privacy to people who wanted to consult  the vicar. The bottom branches of the trees have largely been taken out and now the neighbours can see who is coming and going. In a small village they feel that's information they don't need.

So on Sunday (after an 8.00 communion service) we were planting shrubs between the cupressus and the neighbours (it's a big garden with plenty of room) that will grow into a bit of a screen. In the photo lined up and ready to plant they look quite impressive, but planted they're going to need to grow a bit!  There's an interesting lot of fungi growing. Anyone recognise this?

Inside the house work is till racing ahead. Today the builder said that the work inside should be about finished by the end of this week, other than fitting a kitchen and bathroom. 

Foxy Lady

That's the name of one of the beers brewed and sold at The Fox, one of the two pubs within walking distance of Hanley Rectory (actually the only two pubs in the whole of the six villages that make up the Teme Valley South group!). And very pleasant the beer is too.
We went there to eat yesterday evening after spending the latter part of the afternoon & early part of the evening gardening. We managed to liberate an acer which had become almost entirely overgrown. The work on the inside of the house is gathering pace. After a slow start the builders are now cracking on and have promised to pull the stops out to have it done by the date they originally promised.
Thursday morning I had a useful meeting with churchwardens sorting out details of the licensing service and what's happening in November and December.


        

Anyone know what this is?

It's growing in the Rectory garden in a mass of different plants. It looks as though it's been cultivated (?edible?) and I don't want chop it out if it's something interesting.
 

What goes round comes round

The service to licence me as Priest in Charge is Sunday 7th November. I thought that as it's bonfire weekend we could follow the service with a bonfire celebration. I imagined that I was coming up with an innovative idea - something new and different.
However I've recently got hold of some old copies of the Parish Magazine and to my suprise I see that when, after restoration work, Hanley Childe Church was reopened in November 2000 the service was accompanied by a bonfire party!

I should have remembered the words of Ecclesiastes
Is there anything of which one can say,
"Look! This is something new"?
It was here already, long ago;
it was here before our time.

And perhaps that's a good way of understanding church ministry - looking to see what has already been done, what has worked in the past and what can be tweaked to work in the future. I think there's somethjing about rediscovering what has served the church in its 2000 year history and looking to see what will work in the future.

They've made a start

Not a very big start, but at least they've started work on the rectory. Hopefully they'll now crack on with the  work.

First of our possesions makes the move.

Yesterday we moved the first of our possesions up the hill to Hanley Broadheath.  And it was  - a compost container!   We spent the afternoon in the garden. The diocese have got someone to do some of the gardening work, but we reckoned it needed a bit extra. So here's the composter, full of grass cuttings. I know that grass on its own doesn't make good compost, but it seemed as good a thing to do with the clippings as anything.


The builders are supposed to be starting on the repair work any day now. We're getting carpets ordered and removal firms are coming today and tomorrow to give us some prices for the move. There's one less composter for them to take!

Ball starts rolling

We've spent this afternoon in the rectory with the diocesan surveyor discussing the work that will be done over the summer. The house is a wonderful elegant Edwardian building and the views are amazing.  

New Job

I have had a letter from Bishop John formally offering me the post of Priest in Charge of Teme Valley South and I have been delighted to write to him accepting.

From my current work -I'm the Agricultural Chaplain - I know something of the people and places where I will be working, and I have been enormously impressed by what I have seen. On Monday I had a wonderful day going round the churches of Teme Valley South. I met interesting people and enjoyed stunning scenery. There was an interest in and a vitality about the future of the churches that I found inspiring. On Tuesday I had a formal interview with a number carefully thought out probing questions.  I was delighted by all I heard and saw and I am looking forward to my new role.

Among the questions I was asked (On Monday's tour; not at the formal interview!) was "What do you think of Mrs Beamish?", so for those of you who haven't met her here's a clip
And what do I think of the song?  I think it works remarkably well because it's a caricature both of Mrs Beamish and of Ken the vicar.  Mrs B needs to learn that mumbling extrememly slowly and sneering at neighbours doesn't really fit with being part of the church. But Ken needs to realise that Mrs B isn't going to change in a "happy clappy" environment where she feels unvalued.