A morning in the snow

This morning I was supposed to be going to Stoneleigh for a meeting of the Country Way editorial group. The latest issue has been published online http://www.arthurrankcentre.org.uk/publications-and-resources/country-way and my printed copy arrived in today's post.
But a quick look at the lane outside the Rectory suggested it would not be a good idea.  Shanks Ponies are the order of the day. But it's an ill wind...  Sally, who was going to take the midweek communion at Eastham was unexpectedly unavailable, so I walked down the lanes to Eastham. The midweek service is a recent innovation, yet to build up numbers.
This morning there were two of us and we celebrated the feast of St John the Alsmgiver - a saint from Egypt in the 7th century who it seems gave away not just this own money but diocesan money as well on frivolous things like maternity hospitals, caring for refugees, supporting beggars....    What would it be like, we wondered, if the diocese today was to give away all its money on food-banks and the like????
Walking back up from Eastham I was noticing that the lanes were much clearer having been ploughed and gritted and wondering whether I should have gone to Stoneleigh, when I came across a large gritting lorry with snow plough stuck in the lane. Going up the hill it had lost traction and slid onto the verge where the weight of the load and the soft ground had caused it to tip over. Two tractors were there but decided that it would need something bigger to pull it out.
On up the hill a local business man and his son were taking the post to the inaccessible houses that the post van couldn't reach.
On up the hill and more conversations about weather, life, faith...
Not the morning I'd expected, but good.

 

Christmas Letter

The Rectory

Broadheath

Tenbury WR15 8QW

Christmas 2012

Dear

If you’re someone who dislikes round robin Christmas letters please accept our best wishes for Christmas and the new year and feel free to ignore the rest of this. 

However even though we keep in touch with some people with facebook, we still enjoy hearing about other’s news & people have told us they like to receive ours, so here it is.

February saw the birth of our third grandchild, Geoffrey, Daniel and Annabelle’s first child.  As a first born often does, he kept us waiting and didn’t seem in a hurry to come into the world and he needed a little extra encouragement before he made his appearance.

 

We had a week away on the Lizard peninsula, Cornwall, during February half term.  We stayed in a former lighthouse keeper’s cottage right at the southern end of the Lizard. We walked the coastal paths looking to see if we could see seals (we couldn’t), looked for geocaches (we found them) and walked the lanes where there were fields of daffodils in bloom.

The summer marked our 30^th wedding anniversary. Looking back it seems like a long time ago. We were out of the country on the actual anniversary. We were in northern Portugal staying for ten days near the river that marks the boundary with Spain.   We had a very pleasant time unwinding. We spent our actual anniversary canoeing, not something that many people would have predicted 30 years ago!

The run up to Portugal had been busy, not just with all the usual preparation for going away but because Madge (Margaret, my first wife’s mother) had after a long illness died.  Because of everybody else’s travel commitments the funeral could only take place on the Friday four days before we went to Portugal.  Also because it had to be that day, the priest from her local church wasn’t available, so I was asked to take the service. Not many people have the chance to say the last word about their mother in law! It all went as well as could be expected.

After Portugal was busy too.  We arrived back on a Friday. The next day was Edward (my nephew) and Kate’s wedding. It was good to see family on a cheerful occasion.

October saw us back in Cornwall for a few days break staying at Talland Bay, with walks to Polperro and Fowey and visits to the Eden project and the lost gardens of Helligan.

Another family gathering was in November when it was Geoffrey’s christening, again good to meet up with folk that we don’t see as often as we might like.

The churches continue to develop. Three years after the decision was originally taken, Stanford was added to this group on the 1^st of November.  That means I’m up to seven churches. It also means a change in the structures of the other six churches and that will take a little working through. This year has seen the first people from these villages being confirmed in several years, two adults in May and four teenagers in November. The Pastoral Team is starting to find its feet.  We have funding for a project with  someone spending two days a week developing geocaches in the churches, walks from the churches and stories of the local area. That project finishes next March.  There is more life about the churches.  I reflect on what I am doing with the Centre for Studies in Rural Ministry and am at the early stages of a dissertation with a working title of “How provision of church services affects church life: an inquiry in Teme Valley South”

Reflections on that vote

I have for some time felt that the Church of England would benefit from women  bishops. Women make excellent parish clergy, cathedral deans, archdeacons... There is, in my view, no reason why they should not be consecrated bishops. (Though why anyone would want to be a bishop is another matter. I most certainly do not.)

 

However not everyone shares that view.  I have met people who are opposed to the ordination of women  clergy in general and those opposed to the consecration of women bishops in particular. Some of those opposed have struggled to find any theological justification for their position and could probably be fairly described as "bigots".   Others have been good kind committed Christians with thought out theological positions that I can respect even if I don't agree with them. They are people who have faithfully served the church. They are a minority but a minority that I want to see assured of a continuing place in the Church of England. 

 

The legislation that was defeated spoke of  giving such an assurance but clearly it wasn't felt by the minority to do so. It seems to me that there were two factors at work.

 

First there was the way the legislation had changed. "We need safeguards", said the traditionalists. "OK, here are safeguards" said the house of Bishops and the draft legislation was amended. "But those safeguards create second class bishops" said the liberals. So those safeguards were removed. We were supposed to go ahead on the basis of trust.

     

And this is where the second factor comes in. Traditionalists have looked to see what is happening on the other side of the Atlantic. Reports and letters abound in the church press with stories of traditional congregations and clergy being thrown out of their churches by liberal dioceses, of  buildings formerly used by those traditional congregations being sold off at knock down prices to be used as mosques. I believe that traditionalists on this side of the pond fear that it could all be repeated over here.

 

I think this is reflected in the comments of the Archbishop of Kenya. He writes:

 "The key issue at this stage was the maintenance of proper safeguards for those who as a matter of theological principle could not accept such a fundamental change. I am therefore heartened that the Church of England has stepped aside from following the path of the Episcopal Church of the United States which has progressively marginalised and excluded those who seek to hold to historic Anglican faith and order in good conscience."

I hope that we have women bishops sooner rather than later. I hope that we learn the lesson of this debacle. Liberals don't want safeguards in legislation that create (from their perspective) second class bishops. Traditionalists don't want legislation that creates women bishops. I hope that Liberals will allow safeguards and Traditionalists will allow women bishops. Or is that too loving and christian for the Church?

A one in 10?

Pete Thorp presented with his licence by David Hoskins

Yesterday saw a range of services across these churches. At 10 o'clock we welcomed Pete Thorpe who was licensed as the reader to these churches. 11:15 saw a harvest service and lunch and Stanford. 3 o'clock it was harvest at Rochford. In the evening we had a harvest service and supper Kyre.
Adding up all the attendances at the different services there was a grand total of around hundred and twenty people that worshipped at one of the services. Not quite as perhaps one in ten of the total population of the villages, but not far off.

Reflections on a planning meeting - bats and farm workers

Yesterday evening (3rd October) I was at an area meeting of Malvern Hills District Council. I wanted to speak in support of a planning application and, as the application I was interested in was last but one on the agenda I sat through most of the meeting.

And very interesting it was too. It covered a range of applications for housing, stabling, a dog sanctuary... There was great variety and each application had been carefully scrutinised against guidelines by officers who made recommendations, many of which the elected councillors followed. Some they chose not to.

I was struck by one comment by a member of the public. Why, he asked, are  "we driven by the system rather than doing the best for the community"? In fairness to the councillors, in that case they went against the officer's advice and (in my view) quite properly put the needs of the community first. 

They did the same in the case I was interested in too. Unanimously they voted to allow a farm worker and his wife to have a chalet/bungalow on a green field site. It's good for the applicants. It's good for the community because if they are able to continue living here. It means the Village Hall has a Secretary, the Church has an Electoral Role Officer, the PCC has a Lay Chair. Rigidly following the officer's advice about the correct process would have denied the community all this. The elected representatives' common sense has been good for the community.

Earlier in the evening an application had been passed with the requirement that bat boxes be installed as bats had been seen on the site and they are a protected species whose habits are under threat. Perhaps we should make farm workers a protected species. Their habitat is under threat too! 

Or perhaps as the chalet is going to be the same sort of size as the stables I see sprouting up round the countryside they should have applied for permission for a stable instead. I seem to remember a story about a family where there was no room for them in the "proper" accommodation and so they had to sleep with the animals!   

£50 for a conversation!!!

No not with a dodgy premium rate phone line but for an email conversation with the local planning department.

Rochford church is trying to update its heating system and what is intended might be covered by church planning rules or might need local authority permission too.

So an email to Malvern Hills District Council explaining what we want to do and asking if church planning is enough. The email reply says yes we do need their planning approval and telling us that counts as " advice" for which a fee of £51 is chargeable!

But why doesn't church planning cover this? I reply.

Because of paragraph 27 of the attached document, comes their answer, and any further advice is £51

Are you sure you're right, I ask, What about paragraphs 5, 16 and Annex A which seem to say something quite different.

I'm not going to answer that, comes the reply from the planners, till you give me £51 pounds.


I know times are tight for local authorities but having to pay to get them to justify their decisions!

Safety first - at what cost?

Yesterday as I was walking the dog there was a girl of about three years old running along the lane. Not a busy lane and there were no dangers from traffic, but the lane led on to a main road with traffic travelling at speed.
The little girl was happy exploring but with no responsible adult to be seen was clearly in danger of wandering on to the road. She could tell me her name, but couldn't tell me where she lived. Her parents, she said, were at the shop but the nearest one is a good two miles away so that was unlikely! Of the few houses on the lane there weren't any that she seemed to recognise but there was one on the main road which she seemed to think was something to do with her.  Not so the residents of the house. They had never seen her before.
The story ended well. The police arrived just as a panicking grandfather appeared & she was reunited with her family, but it's worth reflecting on the role of the adults.  I was extremely wary of doing anything that might be seen as trying to abduct a toddler. When she was walking on the main road I held her hand so as she didn't get hit by traffic but what I wanted to do as a human being, a parent and a grandparent, was to pick her up. But I daren't for fear of it being misconstrued. Likewise the residents of the house were extremely careful to ensure that they did nothing that could be misinterpreted.