What's the Story in Dalamory » church http://www.freda.org.uk Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:37:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Time for a smile http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/12/05/time-for-a-smile/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/12/05/time-for-a-smile/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2011 07:25:58 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=5176 This is well worth a listen/look – thanks to Vernacular Curate for posting it.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/12/05/time-for-a-smile/feed/ 2 Being a Minister http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/08/04/being-a-minister/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/08/04/being-a-minister/#comments Thu, 04 Aug 2011 15:18:15 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4841 Continue reading →]]>  

This is me in clerical garb getting ready to go and do a wedding yesterday. It’s been a very busy few days getting to know the families and making all sorts of arrangements.

When people think about a Minister’s job, they imagine that Sunday services are the main part of it, they forget about all the other things that are added in during the week.

A Minister in a parish is kept busy with all sorts of things

  • Weddings, Funerals, Baptisms
  • Maintaining a prayer/spiritual life (talking with God)
  • Organising education for adults and children
  • Visiting people in hospital
  • Visiting people at home
  • Taking part in local organisation of the church
  • Meetings, meetings, meetings
  • School chaplaincy
  • Preparation for worship
  • Encouraging other people to get involved
  • Helping others to oversee finances
  • Helping to look after buildings
  • Writing articles for newspapers and magazines
  • Being involved in local radio
  • Probably doing lots of printing

It’s a very busy and active life and well worthwhile, but sometimes it can be overwhelming. The Minister is fortunate if they have a good team of helpers, but it can get difficult to interest people in taking part. Now that I am retired I can look back on these things and wonder how I ever managed. This week’s wedding reminds me of the amount of time and the intensity that is involved in making things go smoothly. A privilege and a responsibility, but a mere part of what a Minister in post has to do.

When I stopped work it was for health reasons, so I wasn’t able to do very much to help out. However, I got involved a little bit. Then followed another period of ill-health which made it clear that I needed to take things more easily. Nowadays I am very restricted, that’s why helping out has become such a big thing. I simply wanted to make a plea for people who go to church or parishioners who use the church, to understand

Every Blessing to the bride and the groom and their families; it was very special getting to know them. But now I need a bit of a rest. And I have the gift of time to put my feet up.

What do you think are the important things for Ministers and Church Leaders to get involved in?

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/08/04/being-a-minister/feed/ 6 200 year banner http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/07/30/200-year-banner/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/07/30/200-year-banner/#comments Sat, 30 Jul 2011 07:35:19 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4825 Continue reading →]]> This is a photo of the new banner which was worked on by dozens of people from the church and the community. It is to celebrate the church as being at the centre of things, and is fair comment. The photo was taken by a church member and used on the order of service, after that I scanned it and have re-saved it. Thus the quality is not as it should be. Maybe I will be able to take a photo myself, we’ll see.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/07/30/200-year-banner/feed/ 10 A taste of the past http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/28/a-taste-of-the-past/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/28/a-taste-of-the-past/#comments Mon, 28 Mar 2011 11:11:52 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4502 Continue reading →]]> Our local hotel came up trumps on Saturday evening with an authentic 1811 banquet-style menu to start off the church’s bicentenary celebrations. The lounge-bar was laid up with three long tables to seat 50 of us and the food just kept coming. Wine, too if you so wished!

The first course was a hearty potato soup accompanied by a type of soda bread; I suspect the soup itself was enhanced with the flavour of marrow-bone stock. It’s amazing how olde-worldly it tasted. We were eating by candlelight which added to the atmosphere and being a church group it was rather a noisy affair – lots of fun and laughter. (Not nosy – that’s not allowed.)

Then came maidens and masters bearing grand dishes of chicken, salmon and mussels, stuffed pork, dough-balls, braised leeks, kale, apple sauce and gravy. Yes – all at once. There was much merriment as people helped themselves to the various dishes, and we ended up with an interesting  concoction on our plates.  Puddings followed: clootie dumplings, ginger cake, pomegranate tart, apple pie, custard and cream.

I haven’t dared go on the scales since!

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/28/a-taste-of-the-past/feed/ 5 Busy doing nothing http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/26/busy-doing-nothing/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/26/busy-doing-nothing/#comments Sat, 26 Mar 2011 15:03:16 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4490 Continue reading →]]> I really have been busy doing nothing and very nice it has been too. I am making the most of the last few days of my Birthday Month. When it rains or I feel like drifting away into the post-Edwardian Age, I look at some of my Upstairs Downstairs series on the computer. I am also reading a Kate Morton book, The Distant Hours. It was chosen for me by the Librarian from the Library Van. (I have to confess to being still in bed when he called the other week at 9am.) It is an interesting book – some 650 pages – and typical of Morton’s style. Some paragraphs are so elegant that I want to write them down. However, the author has the habit of writing about different characters in different periods or years, using multiple flashbacks. The secrets that give rise to the plot are deeply buried in the narrative, inducing in me the tendency to drop off and have a wee snooze. Then I wake up not knowing where I am, either in the book or in real life. Not a book for the faint-hearted, though that is more to do with style than scary action. In other words, it is quite a difficult read.

In between I have done the odd bit of light dusting, imagining I am wearing the uniform of an Edwardian Housemaid – nothing kinky there, by the way, merely a device to encourage myself into getting on with something useful for a change. It’s amazing how much dust has accumulated since I had the ‘flu. And it has been taking ages to get fully back to rights.

Today’s BMT is a meal out at our local hotel. The local church building is 200 years old this year and there are a number of special events throughout the year. The meal this evening is to be with a menu from the 1800′s. Sounds interesting. I just hope it will be easy on the digestion.

Who else has been as lazy and indolent as me?

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2011/03/26/busy-doing-nothing/feed/ 3 The right kind of church http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/02/the-right-kind-of-church/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/02/the-right-kind-of-church/#comments Thu, 02 Dec 2010 13:10:06 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=4077 Continue reading →]]> Thanks to Rev Shuna for pointing me to this advice. The full blog post can be found here. I’d love to know what you think.

Here is a step-by-step plan for how to get more young people into the church:

1.  Be genuine.  Do not under any circumstances try to be trendy or hip, if you are not already intrinsically trendy or hip.  If you are a 90-year-old woman who enjoys crocheting and listens to Beethoven, by God be proud of it.

2.  Stop pretending you have a rock band.

3.  Stop arguing about whether gay people are okay, fully human, or whatever else.  Seriously.  Stop it.

4.  Stop arguing about whether women are okay, fully human, or are capable of being in a position of leadership.

5.  Stop looking for the “objective truth” in Scripture.

6.  Start looking for the beautiful truth in Scripture.

7.  Actually read the Scriptures.  If you are Episcopalian, go buy a Bible and read it.  Start in Genesis, it’s pretty cool.  You can skip some of the other boring parts in the Bible.  Remember though that almost every book of the Bible has some really funky stuff in it.  Remember to keep #5 and #6 in mind though.  If you are evangelical, you may need to stop reading the Bible for about 10 years.  Don’t worry:  during those ten years you can work on putting these other steps into practice.

8.  Start worrying about extreme poverty, violence against women, racism, consumerism, and the rate at which children are dying worldwide of preventable, treatable diseases.  Put all the energy you formerly spent worrying about the legit-ness of gay people into figuring out ways to do some good in these areas.

9.  Do not shy away from lighting candles, silence, incense, laughter, reallygood food, and extraordinary music.  By “extraordinary music” I mean genuine music.  Soulful music.  Well-written, well-composed music.  Original music.  Four-part harmony music.  Funky retro organ music.  Hymns.  Taize chants.  Bluegrass.  Steel guitar.  Humming.  Gospel.  We are the church; we have a uber-rich history of amazing music.  Remember this.

10.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

11.  Learn how to sit with people who are dying.

12.  Feast as much as possible.  Cardboard communion wafers are a feast in symbol only.  Humans can not live on symbols alone.  Remember this.

13.  Notice visitors, smile genuinely at them, include them in conversations, but do not overwhelm them.

14.  Be vulnerable.

15.  Stop worrying about getting young people into the church.  Stop worrying about marketing strategies.  Take a deep breath.  If there is a God, that God isn’t going to die even if there are no more Christians at all.

16.  Figure out who is suffering in your community.  Go be with them.

17.  Remind yourself that you don’t have to take God to anyone.  God is already with everyone.  So, rather than taking the approach that you need to take the truth out to people who need it, adopt the approach that you need to go find the truth that others have and you are missing.  Go be evangelized.

18.  Put some time and care and energy into creating a beautiful space for worship and being-together.  But shy away from building campaigns, parking lot expansions, and what-have-you.

19.  Make some part of the church building accessible for people to pray in 24/7.  Put some blankets there too, in case someone has nowhere else to go for the night.

20.  Listen to God (to Wisdom, to Love) more than you speak your opinions.

This is a fool-proof plan.  If you do it, I guarantee that you will attract young people to your church.  And lots of other kinds of people too.  The end.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/12/02/the-right-kind-of-church/feed/ 8 Jeremiah friend or foe? http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/25/jeremiah-friend-or-foe/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/25/jeremiah-friend-or-foe/#comments Sun, 25 Jul 2010 07:58:25 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=3483 Continue reading →]]> One of the senior members of my last church once asked me what I thought of Jeremiah; I have to confess that I mumbled about the prophet being one of doom, gloom and misery. The other day I found myself thinking of this occasion when I was reading a few verses from Jeremiah 7 in my daily readings. The commentator was talking about God promising to be with us in the midst of everyday lives, and went on to say that it was no use going to church unless we also stood up for justice and looked after people in need.

Sadly, it is often true that people drift away from churches because they don’t see the relevance of the worship to contemporary issues or even worse, because someone has been difficult or bad to them. In rural areas it is often the case that people gather together out of a sense of community, yet in many places that gathering of people is becoming older and older. That’s not true everywhere, of course, there are some churches where people of all ages gather for worship and fun and to be encouraged in faith. It is these so called “successful” congregations that are studied by those worried about the decline in church attendances.

I’m not sure why I started this today……. it kind of sounds like the start of a sermon. Confession time here: I rarely read online sermons unless I know the preacher, but occasionally a good first line grabs my attention. My thoughts this past week have been very much on how others see or understand God. Mainly that is because I have been listening to an audio version of The Shack, by William P Young. I first blogged about it here in 2008. It is a book that people seem to either love or hate, and how people feel does not split according to their tendency to follow one type of theology or another.

Standing up for justice in a blog which is by its nature open source, is not always easy. Many bloggers are much braver than I am. As explained previously, I tend to worry about giving offence. It is a disease that comes insidiously to clergy, who have to worry about the need to be prophetic like Jeremiah, and to balance that with the inevitability of annoying those who contribute to the coffers of the church.  That is why The Shack is so refreshing, it stands theology on end and makes the reader think about heart and mind and what really matters. The three persons of God (ie the doctrine of the Trinity) is dealt with in an innovative and refreshing way, and difficult issues like evil, suffering and death are addressed head on.

As it is nearly 2yrs since I first discovered the book I would be interested in hearing what others think.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/25/jeremiah-friend-or-foe/feed/ 3 Still a woman today http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/13/still-a-woman-today/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/13/still-a-woman-today/#comments Tue, 13 Jul 2010 12:00:32 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=3431 Continue reading →]]> This should almost be a Part II on being a woman – as the comments on yesterday’s post give much food for thought. Lydia, of writerquake, highlights a cartoon post by nakedpastor which made me laugh, but as you can see in the comments on his blog a great deal of heated argument and feeling has been generated.

I wanted to continue the discussion on today’s post with some examples from my own experience, but quickly realised that even by disguising names and places, it would be too easy for people to be recognised. Scotland is a small country. And though I have been desperately hurt by thoughtless discrimination masquerading as biblical principles I would not like to cause upset to anyone else. Suffice to say that I do know what I am talking about. Before these things happened to me I was happy enough to be one of the crowd who said, “discrimination has never happened to me…..”  But now I know better and there is no going back. I always tried to remember that I was a minister and part of the public face of the church, so it was up to me to love and keep on loving. It is doubtful that I ever achieved that ambition, but the whole point is to aim high.

There appears to have been some progress in the Church of England regarding the possibility of women being given equal status as bishops, though I understand this is by no means certain. There is a 2yr process whereby anything can happen in terms of exerting influence and gaining a position of power by those who are firmly in the against camp. I can hope – being an optimist most days – that the coalition government may influence people into being more reasonable about equality and justice. And who knows, only time will tell if we end up with a country and attitude to religion that is more accepting of people’s human rights.

I have to highlight what Cloudia of Comfort Spiral said yesterday:

…..we yanks have supposed separation of church
& state, yet religion rules…you have a state church, but a secular society….curious.

Yes – interesting indeed.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2010/07/13/still-a-woman-today/feed/ 7 Christmas Day http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/12/25/christmas-day/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/12/25/christmas-day/#comments Thu, 25 Dec 2008 22:06:10 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=1976 Continue reading →]]> A lovely service at church this morning. It was the first Christmas for our new minister. Made me realise how much I appreciate having her here, and I know the rest of the congregation feel the same.

Off to exchange more presents and visit grandchildren tomorrow.
A happy and blessed Christmas to you and yours.

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]]> http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/12/25/christmas-day/feed/ 0 George Melly and church http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/10/20/george-melly-and-church/ http://www.freda.org.uk/2008/10/20/george-melly-and-church/#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 06:39:27 +0000 freda http://www.freda.org.uk/?p=1891 Continue reading →]]>

This is in honour not just of George but of B at church yesterday. B is a veritable fund of stories and being well into his eighties has many to tell. He exited from church saying “I am wearing George Melly’s hat” – and do you know, several of us agreed that he probably was.

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