Category: church

baptism by fire

wonderfulexchange4 Comments

So far today I have:

  1. slept later that I normally would after being too ‘high’ from the service last night to get to bed
  2. gone to unlock the church to find people ready and waiting for morning prayer (which has no precident and has not been announced)
  3. gone home to create morning prayer booklets (quickly), fend off phone calls and sort out readings
  4. said morning prayer with the congregation
  5. fought with the sacristy key and lost (still can’t get in, from either door)
  6. fought with the choir vestry key and won
  7. discussed the history of the Scottish and English rites in the prayer book with the poor people who were doing the magazine.
  8. discussed the liturgical movement, and explained the peace
  9. gave warning that I would wait as long as it took to get a response in the Prayer Book eucharist
  10. agreed to make prayer book eucharist booklets so that they know where we are and are able to respond.  (so, ‘we love the service’ even though we can’t follow it??  I will never understand people’s relationship with the Prayer Book)
  11. talked (repeatedly) with the people delivering my sofas today (result:  they are coming at the worst possible time, when the house will be full of kids, paint, food…)
  12. made a list of ‘must do immediately’
  13. made a list of ‘must do Monday’

And none of that, none at all, was what I expected to do today.

What I have not yet done is have breakfast, and it is now 10.48 am.  Time to boil the kettle.

brave new world

wonderfulexchange1 Comment

sleeping

Molly is settling in nicely.

So far, the novely of so many people around outweighs the hassle of it.

And then, after tonight’s rehearsal for the Institution, I found myself in The Tappit Hen, chatting with members of the congregation, listening to a folk band, and really wishing I’d eaten before drinking that glass of wine.

I may still stumble over Dun-blane/Dun-oon, but I have no doubt I’m in a different world.

grace

wonderfulexchange6 Comments

Earlier this week, a  non-Piskie friend asked me if I felt obliged to go to church during my holidays.

I said that I longed for those few Sundays that I got to go to church with no strings attached.  Indeed, I plan my holidays around making sure I am where I need to be for good worship on a Sunday.  Those days as precious, and I find a really good service ‘feeds’ me for weeks and months after the event.

And you have seen that in my reflections on the service at St Thomas’.

I have been promising to blog on the eucharist, and I will.  But procrastination has paid off, for I have realised that before I write about it, I must preach on it — and that never works so well the other way round.

Sadly, my last service in Dunoon tomorrow will be difficult.  There was crazy unwarranted conflict in the congregation this week and no matter how many times I tell myself to let go and let people be angry with me if they need to be, the truth is that I am blinded by it and it is interfering with my ability to preach well on my last day.

And it is the service at St Thomas’ that has come to the rescue:  an experience of spaciousness and grace, that was not free from conflict or difficulty, but an experience in which God triumphed over the human failures.

So yes:  I go to church when I am on holiday.  I can’t imagine how I would live otherwise.