I have something that I really want to post on my blog, a worksheet for Remembrance Sunday for Children who might get a little bored with bits of the service. On one level, that’s a really, really important thing, perhaps representing the DNA of my ministry, and yet, I wanted to mark the 1000th post with a little bit of reflection. The worksheet will be my 1001th!

Looking at WordPress’s stats, I realise that I have been blogging here since 2006 ! As usual, these things start small and start to grow. This will never be a massively popular blog, but if people still keep finding useful stuff on it, then I am happy. The search terms can often be quite revealing and the way some people’s minds clearly work is astounding…

Blogging as an activity has moved from the core creative activity of many people into a standard or even secondary form of web activity: there isn’t as much diarising as people used to do, but it is the main tool of accessing resources. This is what I use this blog to do: to post stuff I have created rather than to pontificate on matters of the day. If I need to do that, I like many people do that on Facebook or Twitter: as though less (140 characters) was more.

 

Of course, back in 2005, Blogging got me into a serious amount of trouble in my former parish, where I learnt not for the first time that there are some truths that should never be said out loud, even if they are true. That was on another blogging platform and in a different age: when people understood the role of blogs differently, and definitely felt differently about the Internet. I stand by what I wrote then as it was the truth, and I accept that as a priest there are some ugly truths that should remain internalised, but we live and learn, and I certainly hope that is true of this site now. I seldom rant now and use this as a platform for the (almost) saccharinised spin on parishLife. Seriously though, if you haven’t got something positive to say, you have to ask yourself whether you need to say it. Having said that, that minor crisis was the turning point of that parish and the making of it: the telling of that truth moved them and the parish on in wonderful and bountiful ways and on reflection, I can’t help but wonder if it wasn’t God’s will all along…

Of course, some things I still say on this blog does prove unpopular in some circles: my commitment to Inclusivity on gender and sexuality does not make me popular with some, but I have lived with the label of “unsound” for so long, it is a part of me. I am committed to a sacramental view of mission and I despise the Prosperity Gospel and those narrow trite expressions of Church which make the Bible an idolatrous object. I will continue to call it as I see it, because my Ordination charge calls me to both encourage and to admonish. The latter not often,  but when needed.

So, raise a glass to the 1000th post on WordPress and the strange mixture of liturgy and creativity that makes up parishLife, and here’s to more of the same (I hope).

The Diamond Geezer writes largely about the London I love, and I love the sentiment and the colour of this…

» back to work
» back to school
» back to routine
» back to busy trains
» back to a nip in the air
» back to artificial sodium glare
» back to oranges, browns & yellows
» back to leaves clogging up your gutter
» back to being awake in time to see the dawn
» back to no more Big Brother, like, ever, probably
» back to a decent selection of non-imported apples in the shops
» back to prematurely-purchased fireworks exploding somewhere in the dark
» back to politicians returning to their desks and cutting things with a vengeance
» back to Christmas puddings and Advent calendars creeping onto the shelves in your local supermarket
» back to the nation’s tabloids (and 9 year-olds) getting over-excited about a gaggle of karaoke non-entities on the X Factor
» back to being able to take a day off work and go out to a museum somewhere and without finding lots of kids running around inbetween the exhibits
» back to having students in the flat nextdoor again, and them having loud mates round and staying up until all hours playing their Pendulum or Biffy Clyro or some other such pretentious rubbish
» back to the first conkers falling to the pavement from the big horse chestnut outside Bow Road station
» back to being able to see what’s on the other side of a row of trees for the first time in six months
» back to putting a jacket on, and making sure your winter coat’s been to the dry cleaners
» back to hiding away your tattoos under a long-sleeved shirt or full-length trousers
» back to switching on the lights before seven, before six, hell even before five
» back to decent telly (blimey there’s some good stuff on this week)
» back to mulling over locations for next year’s summer holiday
» back to wondering whether the central heating still works
» back to deciding there’s more to life than salad
» back to letting the garden water itself again
» back to staying in for the evening
» back to porridge, soup & cocoa
» back to blackberrying
» back to misty fog
» back to frost
» back to life
» back to reality
» back to the here and now yeah

Credit to Diamond Geezer for displaying these stats

Vote2010: Election stats

1a) 2010 election: votes cast

Con 36%

Lab 29%

LD 23%

Oth

1b) 2010 election: seats won

Con 306

Lab 258

LD 57

Oth

2) 2010 government: to be confirmed

Con 306 [363]

LD 57

or

Lab 258 [315+]

LD 57

O

3a) 2005 election: votes cast

Lab 35%

Con 32%

LD 22%

Oth

3b) 2005 election: seats won

Lab 356

Con 197

LD 62

Oth

4) Election turnout: average by decade

1920s

74%

1930s

74%

1940s

73%

1950s

80%

1960s

76%

1970s

75%

1980s

74%

1990s

75%

2000s

60%

2010

65%

5) 2010 election: national support for each party

Con 24%

Lab 19%

LD 15%

Oth

did not vote 35%

The problem with this hung parliament is the 35% of you that did not vote. In less than six month’s time, I predict we’ll have to do it all over again, with or without PR. Your apathy has paralysed this country and you should be ashamed for yourself. I heard from friends about their colleagues who wouldn’t vote because “they didn’t understand the issues” (answer=find out – there are lots of websites, the radio and the TV to explain them to you, although steer clear of the nation’s abysmally biased newspapers) or “they didn’t know what to do when they got there” (answer=the nice ladies will explain it to you). No excuse next time, just vote please.

Voter turnout remains embarrassingly small – it’s almost as if we don’t think this matters. 65% turnout for a supposedly sophisticated democracy is pathetic really, and the relationship

Passing the theatre on the bus, I spot Othello at the Trafalgar Rooms 1, a small theatre off Trafalgar Square. I jump off on the off chance, and find that the cheapest available seat is actually ON the stage.

During the course of this play, I find myself inches from the action, a recipient of Lenny Henry’s spittle.

The setting is quasi-modern,  not Elizabethan but perhaps a little Edwardian, but the text is faithful and the verse delivered with style, northern accents (a conceit perhaps or a happy accident) prevailing. Reflecting on this on the way home, I conclude that the accents are Leeds. I lookup at home the Independent’s Review now, and see that it is a West Yorkshire Playhouse (ie Leeds) Production. Funny that. I think their review was a little harsh, and/or it has settled down, for Henry’s performance was well paced.

The text is astonishingly sexual, vividly racist and very very funny. I had forgotten quite how sexual, racist and humourous it really is.  Still, it is 25 years since I studied it for A Level and sa Ben Kingsley play the Moor.  It is a play like this reminds you of Shakespere’s genius, his skill with words, his dramatic constructions. On the page, the good text is there, but it belongs on stage, performed; a bit like St Paul’s letters, perhaps.

Lenny Henry plays the Moor with gravitas and dignity, so different from the standup I have seen from him in the past. Of course: the man can act! This is I understand, his first Shakespeare. His breakdown at the hands of Iago (excellently played by Conrad Nelson)  – possibly the best villain character in theatre ever is clear, Henry’s passion is visible: his breathing firey threats (and spittle) of murder most impressive.

The simple staging places all the emphasis on the drama: using the stairs and the central entrance to good effect. At the end, after 3 hours, it did not feel like it- it is such a powerful story that it flew past. It was a brilliant evening and one of the best choices I have made in the theatre. You can’t hold back a good story!

Next week, on Weds my 14-year old daughter, Emma is undergoing surgery to remove a sizable Ovarian mass/cyst/tumour.

We don’t really know what the implications of it (and subsequent treatment) will be until they have examined it under the microscope, but it is likely that she will lose the ovary at the very least.

So, my dear friends, if you are offering the holy sacrifice on Wednesday, could I ask you to add her as an Intention for that mass; and/or pray for her (and Lou and myself in our anxiety), her surgery at the hands of the St. Mary’s Portsmouth gynae team and all those who care for her.

It is strange, but in my ministry, I spend a lot of time praying for the sick, and for those who care for them. I offer Masses for Healing, spend a lot of time in the Ministry of Annointing, and I am always saying seriously to people that they are in my prayers. I see how people are affected, lifted, buoyed and yes, even healed by such a ministry.

And yet, until recently, I have only peripherally been the beneficiary of it. As this has unfolded, only now have I become aware of what it means to have people praying for us, to feel supported in prayer, and knowing that the Mass is being offered everywhere for Emma, and supporting us in this.

The producer has only latterly become the consumer, and I have to say, it is wonderful. Thank you for all your prayers so far, and please keep praying for Emma over the next week. It matters. It really does. And for once in my ministry, I can attest to the benefit we are all getting from prayer.

Just the Facts, Ma’am: Hospital: St Mary’s, Portsmouth /Surgeon: Mr Ian Golland. Surgery Date: Weds 7th Jan 2009. Please pray for Emma Rundell, aged 14.

I want to thank everyone for the prayers, masses and good wishes they have offered for Emma, our daughter.

Anyone who reads Facebook will know that she is back at school and active, and that she made The Mighty Boosh live show in Portsmouth. She is still getting pain but this is managed by painkillers.

It wasn’t Appendicitis. Hmmm. It is still under investigation. More ultrasounds, more MRIs, more probing. The concern level has gone down at least a couple of gears, but it still isn’t right, so please keep her in your prayers.

Thanks, they are really appreciated.

for Emma, middle daughter, currently in hospital awaiting more tests.

There are somethings can can only be satisfactorily handled by The Mighty Boosh  DVDs, all of them, one after the other. We will know more after the MRI. Pray for Emma, and for us all.

I had to cancel Mass this morning in order to be with her for the scan. I hope the congregation will understand.

If there is any strong argument for a Covenant (and there isn’t) then it should be to ensure Anglican Polity and Identity.

The issue of Lay Presidency, authorised by the Diocese of Sydney in Australia, is more of a challenge to Scripture, Tradition and Reason (the key tenets of Anglicanism) than anything to do with where Bishops place their genitals, or whether indeed they have any external genitalia at all.

I think we need a Conference in Jerusalem and a STRONG series of resolutions to ensure that they are appropriately censured and if they remain unrepentant (which I am sure they arrogantly will), be disbarred from the Communion.

If you live by the sword, you should be prepared to die by that sword also.

(made all the more grumpy by a missed connection at Salisbury and an enforced hour’s wait on a cold platform, now late for Exeter. Grrrr)