Bigbulkyanglican

Moving update

Several people have prompted me that I have not updated on "the move" for quite a while - so this brief update will save me repeating myself.

+ I am now in my last three weeks at Oakworth with my final Sunday on May 18th - I hand over to the Wardens and the Ministry Team in the week beginning 5th May, and then the final week beginning the 12th is a dizzy round of farewells and visiting individuals. It is hard to put into words how strange this already feels - and I can't see it getting better until the deed is done. I will hugely miss Oakworth and its people.

+I have already started shedding my other commitments in youth work, spiritual direction and music some of which go back over a 15 years. To date this "moving on" has been a very positive experience - it is sense groups and organisations move on without me at a time of considerable strength for most of them. The personal farewells are inevitably more difficult.

We are moving to an excellent Chaplaincy House in Linlithgow which is both easily accessible to the motorway networks for the national part of the role and to Grangemouth where I will have a two day a week face to face base. Details of address and telephone etc will be emailed out when they are finalised. Initially I will be working from home until I can review the advisability of an office base for the work.

+ From a family point of view the house is different from No 18 - much more modern but smaller in some respects. Scots will understand me when I say that it is in the important secondary school catchment area - and we look forward to life in Linlithgow as a town - and the access to many leisure and music places as well.

+ We are moving 27-29th May, and I start the chaplaincy work on 2nd June. The initial few weeks will be taken up with induction and orientation and during the early part of July two weeks family holiday.

+ There will be a commissioning/licencing service in September at a time and venue yet to be agreed. This feels good to me because it will be a gathering of people that I have already had the chance to meet. I will post the details here when they are known.

Having past 50 without too much sense of its significance last summer while I was sabbatical - I now move towards celebrating 30 years of full-time ministry in the July with a whole new range of opportunities in front of me.

I realised the other week travelling down from Scotland that this kind of move would have scared me witless only a few years ago!

Now perhaps age has blessed me with a new realism while at the same time adding experience, and hopefully none the less energy.

I have much appreciated people's encouragement and support, (particularly from Scotland) over the past few months as we negotiate this move.

Moving news "distress"

One of those moments that "clergy on the move" dread happened to me today - when someone who I have been particularly close to during the past four years suddenly heard the news that I am moving to a new ministry in Scotland and was distressed/outraged that he had "not been told" - a feeling enhanced when he discovered that others have known for several months.

It is one of life's mysteries how M managed to slip through the web of information which has been woven to convey this news as widely as possible through a whole range of networks. The fact that he is linked into both an ecclesiastical and a musical network makes the "failure" all the more puzzling.

Several telephone conversations were predicated upon my assumption that he knew, but I can see with hindsight how he did not "hear" what was being said.

Its an odd business communication . . .

Moleskins and drawing

My inability to draw ( yes I know the cliche " everyone can draw" sits alongside "everyone can sing") produces elements of envy when I see moleskin entries like this, and reminds me that Powerpoint and Paint etc are my artistic salvation.

CD spindle tubs

I get through a fair few CD spindle tubs, and have never really found a good use for the empty ones until I saw this:

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Is LLLL supposed to put temptation in your way?

I have previously suggested that the ideas for children are sometimes more appealing or practical than the ideas for youth/adults.

Well today the appeal of the children's suggestion was drawn to my attention by an eager Year 3 participant on a visit to Church ( mini-retreat time and we managed five minutes silence with the whole year!)who drew to my attention that today's Lent task for the kids is:

" Eat a fairtrade product" -

well the only fairtrade product in the house which could possibly be " eaten" is some delicious chocolate - seriously tempting for Lent.

Jazz on the brain

As I read this article, I could just hear family and friends saying that this could go a long way to explain a lot about me!

Love life and live Lent

Sad to report that I've been really struggling with LLLL08 - and lots of other adults in these parts are too - the suggestions are just to urban to make sense - some of us have resorted to the Kids suggestions.

So no police officers ( we only ever see them with blue lights and cars in these parts) or queues ( except traffic in Keighley), no chance to ride a bike or walk instead of using the car just too busy.

Other feedback from last years enthusiasts is also a little less entuasisatic - without being too dualistic about it it doesn't seem as spiritual this year.

However this week has got off to a better start - so yesterday I did make time to plan for a retreat - and today I have persuaded two charities that I am involved with to recycle more, and to adopt a local supply of recycled paper for the white paper stocks - so feeling a little more positive.

Who is this (2)?

Well the answers to the first round are WT Coleridge and William Blake (the real cheats simply click on the picture and looked at the JPG title).

I was just intrigued by the Blake death mask - a few weeks ago I went to the Blake exhibition at Tate Britain and was intrigued just how small some of the classic Blake pictures were, as well as at the interesting sketch-development of familiar  works - but I had not expected the man himself to look like this in facial features.

Who is this?

Fascinating display of death masks appeared on my Blog feeds today - it intrigues me how we view what people of the past look like - and how in a sense this kind of visual image has gone out of fashion or is regarded as be slightly macabre.

So who is this? Will expect that Maggie Dawn among others to name this one - that's a clue.

and this one fascinated me - being totally unlike what I expected him to look like

 

Answers in the comments please?

Papyrus and Youth suicides - don't feel helpless!

The news today that 16 year old Jenna Parry had become the 18th teenager to commit suicide in the Bridgend area in less than 12 months will no doubt produce another round of less than helpful speculation from the press about there being a "link".

Such tragedy however produces not just incomprehension but also as sense of helplessness - and yet that there is much that any concerned person can do to respond.

Firstly plan ahead - there is at last to be a task force funded by the Welsh Assembly and covering the South Wales valleys which will co-ordinate the different agencies and offer practical support to young people in the area - has your local authority got similar plans in hand or it will it wait until a similar "crisis" arises in your area?

Donate to work in this vitally important area, particularly the work of Papyrus the national Charity which is the only specialist agency focused on youth and young adult suicides - details here

Talk openly in your church, school, community, family about the reality of youth and young adult suicides - it happens daily to ordinary folk and families - and the biggest barrier to tackling the situations involved are ignorance, fear of discussion, and sadly in the churches the strange idea that somehow we are responsible.Only such openness will get this matter out of the headlines and into our daily awareness.