Well, That Was Jolly!

Part of my ministry is teaching. Today I taught Christians how to express themselves creatively. It didn't involve liturgy (hard to comprehend, I know), and it didn't involve prayer as we know it. This act of blessed creativity brought with it a panoply, nay a plethora of Epiphany moments  in the context of the our discussion about the relative merits of arachnids. 

It is fair to say that there was outer and inner cursing. There was modesty and self-reproach. There was some appetite to mechanise. There was considerable example setting, and yes - even the questions about the merit of the creativity in focus were heard.

But we made 200 Palm Crosses and God will see that they are good. 

I was taught how to make a Palm Cross when I was a sprog and I have even had the opportunity to teach the kids to do it (which they managed, remarkably quickly I might add). But a dozen Christians sat together in the beautiful spring sunlight that floods through our Victorian stained-glass, chatted and fashioned these little worship-devices. 

Yes, you can pay through the nose and buy them in pre-made. They look the business, all uniform, all neat and tidy. Ours have character and ours now have a far greater meaning to us. They are the work of our hands, some not as nimble as others. 

To me, moments like these are a precious gift. They are an opportunity to put aside a couple of hours with a purpose and with others (so as not to feel guilty for stopping). They are moments when people who might otherwise have sat alone at home have now sat with friends in their church when only a year ago it was firmly bolted shut. They all learned something new, and the glee that they expressed when they 'got it' was a joy to behold. I now have a dozen flock-members who can (and should) teach others this noble art next year. Saturday is posy-making for Mothering Sunday (you will notice that I got it right that time). Coming together to be and do - perfect. 

Pre-made palm crosses? Why would you!

And the pictures are amusing too, but that is a matter for us - not you!

Baptism - Freely Given or Undervalued?

There is a debate raging, in my head at least, concerning the administration of Baptism. It is a debate that has murmured under the surface of a few conversations that I have been part of or privy too in recent years, and never with any sort of resolution.

Argument 1 - We want all people to be disciples of Christ, so of course we must baptize all those who seek it

Argument 2 - If someone asks for their child to be baptized, it would be bad form, rude even, to deny them that which they seek

Argument 3 - Seeds sown now may yield fruit later

... and so on! These are the arguments given by those who think that baptism should be freely granted to all who ask, and fair enough. They are valid views.

I have always wrestled with a sense that baptism seems too readily granted. Someone pops by the Vicarage or church, asks for baptism, gets it and then more often than not they vanish from whence they came. That might be as a result of poor follow-up pastoral care; it might be because that is the very nature of the beast; it might be that people seek baptism (and this debate is more to do with children presented as candidates by their parents and guardians) because it is "what you do". The simple fact is that baptism is less to do with initiation into the worshipping life of the church than other factors.

My instinct is to ask enquirers "and why so you want your child to be baptized?". Part of me fears the answer, but if I administer baptism without a concern for that, what implicit message am I delivering? That baptism doesn't really matter so go ahead, let's book a date. Indeed, the liturgists in their zeal to offer choice have created the Great Euphemism - the Thanksgiving for the Birth of a Child order of service which, although never intended to be, has become 'Baptism Lite' so that we don't frighten people away with all the religious hocus-pocus.

Part of me thinks that if our faith is of life changing and affirming value to us as believers, we should administer its initiation scrupulously. Part of me still thinks that if faith is like that we should cast it far and wide (and hope some of it sticks?). Where does giving something freely become the administration of something that has no value? One is generous, one is insulting (to God, to believers and to those who really do value baptism). If I am honest, part of me thinks that baptism should be first step of a renewed pattern of behaviour that revolves around the community of which the baptized have just become member. Part of me thinks that if I took that view I might struggle for baptisms!

Thoughts, please ... 

Se also Baptism Boosters

The Seven Links Project - A Reflection on Blogs

The premis of this exercise is simple. It is the propagation and turning of the soil that is our blog. It is fair to say that bloggers just never really stop, and while some posts see the light of day a few more times after the moment of their posting, the string of pearls that we fashion means that the pearl of the today is the one forgotten tomorrow.

This project was started by a blogger hitherto unknown to me - Katie at Trip Base. This then lead, by way of a plethora of the perverse and a gaggle of the great to the wonderful Perpetua of Perpetually in Transit. Her endeavour under this banner mentioned your humble servant's name, and so here I am. In reading her (and other) versions of this, I have valued the opportunity to find gold that had become buried, to discover a blogger or two that I hadn't discovered before, and to reflect upon my own work, its gems and its cowpats. So, kids - some rules:

• To participate the blogger must be nominated by another blogger - Check
• He/she publishes their 7 links on their own blog. One link for each category - Do-able
• He/she nominates up to five more bloggers to take part - Yessir

My most beautiful post - Through The Eyes of Children

This post makes me cry whenever I stumble over it, and now is no exception. It is also one of my very earliest posts (one of the first dozen or so here). It marked the day when I sat with one of my daughters as the news of the earthquake in Haiti piped over the airwaves. I surprise myself at times, and I can't fully believe that I wrote that post. 

My most popular post - Hmmm, what to do ...

The issue with popularity is that is subjective. I will therefore attend to the statistically most popular, and then the one that generated the most intense attention at the point of posting (a more appropriate measure I think)

(i) Statistical - Blogging in Television Drama - this was a daft and pointless little post made at the end of watching a TV programme. It is a post one writes at the end of a day because it is the 'dead time' and so a miscellany appears that barely causes a ripple if posted at night. This one (with a couple of others) was discovered by the BBC and features on its Holby City page. I have received many thousands of hits because of that. 

(ii) Immediacy - A Liturgy for the Ordering of Studies and Other Rooms of Labour - This is how my mind works, I am afraid to say. Someone lays down a challenge and I try to meet it, with full flourish. I love to dabble with the instruments of our faith's practice, and writing a daft act of worship is one such way. A very recent post, it knocked Gizza Job II off the top slot here, a post that had the same effect a year ago. [I note that I have fashioned links for three posticles here - and for that I apologise, or not, as the case may be]

My most controversial post - The Might of Women [Bloggers]

I have discovered that it is not the lambasting of the English Defence League, the Conservative Party or evangelicals that brings the greatest risk for me, but defending women - in this case, in the blogosphere (I should note that the risk here is indeed from women). This post attended to a little issue that I had met elsewhere and that had upset me. I partly wish I hadn't bothered, though the stream of comments on the blog itself was mild when compared to the Twitter stream and Facebook stuff that didn't thank me for my words.

My most helpful post - Again a tough one by dint of the lack of a suitable measure - but I will pitch for Dad, Junior and The Spook

One of the very few posts never to receive a comment, it is the one piece of my work that has been consistently read week in and week out across the world. It was the post, written just at the point of its feast day, when I posited my model of the Holy Trinity. Such was the 'uptake' (and requests to use it elsewhere) that I posted the full text of a paper that I wrote, and from which this post was derived. 

A post whose success surprises me - Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

This was another of those daft posts that, on this occasion, attended to the great hurry that we are always in these days. It is also a heftily searched word on Google and Bing apparently, and when you name your post with a word whose search results puts your blog post on its first page, you receive much unexpected traffic and interest. 

A post I feel didn't get the attention it deserved - The Beauty of Hands

A tough category, because I don't think that my posts deserve anything - I am grateful that anyone reads. There are also many that I wish I had posted in the last six month with the exposure I now enjoy rather than in the first months when only five loyal and wonderful people read this bilge. The post in the first category would have also featured here - and more because I want the world to know about my beautiful daughters. You can't blame a loving dad, can you?

The post I am most proud of - Getting it Wrong

I find it very hard to outwardly acknowledge my failings. This is partly to do with coming from a business world where such admissions constituted the Shoghun Sword of the Harakiri and partly because I am just crap at it. This post killed me to write, killed me to post and killed me to read back. I needed to do it, and it marks the beginning of a process that I needed to undergo. 

Five Bloggers - the hard bit ...

I know so many good bloggers, and I hope not to cause offence by omission. I will go for variety of style, I think!

 - James at Shoghun's Space and also Accidental Observer - Jim is a veteran of our Armed Services whom I claim the honour of having met. His body is broken through injury, and his mind often dulled by the drugs that they give him, but a true decent and noble man. Not a bad writer either!

 - Mr CatOlick - This cat offers a blog unlike anyone else. His is a visual feast, of the animated and drawn, and his observation of our comical church is remarkable. This guy deserves a far greater audience given the quality of what he produces. A true pioneer ...

 - Jean at Tregear Vean - this is a wonderful blog written by a wonderful woman with a very balanced view of life. When I start to climb out of my pram on various issues, I look for this blog to calm me, grant me perspective, and to take me on literary jaunts that I have grown to love. 

 - Siobhan at Random Doodles From a Curate's Wife - the story of a journey made alongside an accredited ministry, and of family life inside a Vicarage which is not my own. A source of comfort, amusement and thought provocation, this is also a blogger who clearly wrestles with her own calling in the midst of all of this. 

 - Tenon Saw at It's All a Bit Poor - frankly a man (one assumes) after my own heart. I like to read words that do no sycophancy or hat-tipping, that are not derivative and say it like it is. This is blogger for that. 

There. My work here is done. I enjoyed that! I thank Perpetua most warmly for the chance to do this. Blogging is great thing, and long may it last. Incidentally, if you weren't aware, I write another blog very infrequently under a different guise. See what you think, if you get a moment.