Yesterday I attended the most amazing Carol Service! Was it amazing because it was in a cathedral with incredible acoustics & a fabulous choir? Nope!
It was in a dirty barn with pigeons flying about. The music was provided by a Salvation Army band - wonderful, but that wasn't the most wonderful part.
The people taking the bulk of the parts in the service were adults with Special Needs, and before you jump to conclusions about feeling sorry for them or any other patronising judgement, that wasn't why it was so marvellous. It was marvellous because they took so much joy in their singing, their whole personalities shone through their clear enjoyment of singing & worshipping God through their singing. It wasn't the most tuneful rendition of the songs, but I think it would have been hard to beat in terms of grit, determination & sheer joy & enthusiasm.
As I sat in that dirty barn getting colder & colder, my heart grew warmer & warmer still as that indefinable magical thing happened and part of heaven touched earth, just as it had in a mega way so long ago in a very different stable. Yet, just as Jesus' birth then caused the marginalised within society to come & worship, so yesterday those who may in many ways be written off by our society as being of little use & only to be pitied - 'There but for the grace of God' we might say. Yet, heaven touched earth in that stable with the Olympic torch as a star & the two wise men (because one was ill), arrived on mountain bikes & we joined with those who struggled with their own difficulties to read, sing & act out the wonderful truth of the birth of Jesus. There was no fake baby, but the presence of Jesus touched every single person there!
Friday 21 December 2012
Thursday 22 November 2012
Preparations & Advent
We are about a week away from the beginning of Advent & the more official Countdown to Christmas. Advent is actually a time of preparation, despite the shops having begun their advent almost as soon as the dreadful Halloween is done & dusted!
I am one of those strange & unusual people who seem to invoke fury, pity & envy in equal measures, as I begin my Christmas shopping very early. It is partly the element of my personality that cannot cope with crowds & likes everything to be organised, partly too that my daughter's birthday & mine fall in December, before Christmas & I have always resented them being gobbled up by any stress of Christmas preparations so make certain they are not, & finally because I love the season of Advent & of preparation & anticipation so much, I want to enjoy it & can't do so if I'm battling with everyone else!
I was intrigued by a conversation I had with a friend who, when talking of Christmas said - "I actually prefer the lead up to Christmas rather than the day itself." I know what she means, yet am so saddened by it. Our society's obsession with 'stuff' & the acquiring of it; the perfectionism portrayed in advertising of the 'perfect Christmas' & all that you 'must have' in order to achieve it; the perennial hoards who flock to the shopping centres to create that perfection, all go together to form a sense of collective mission. People talk in shops at this time of year. The sense of community is born again within this time of Advent, even if it is a kind of frenetic version of Advent & unlike the kind of preparation I think was envisaged when people first coined the word. (Ask anyone in the street what Advent means to them & most would say Chocolate Calendar!)
I feel that this all goes to sum up our society in some small way! We are so caught up in the consumerism & perfectionism portrayed on the billboards, radio & TV of what Christmas is all about & what you need to make the perfect Christmas & we get so caught up in it that when we come to the day itself, it never lives up to the picture we have created in our minds. If only we could enjoy the journey there for its own pleasure - the joint venture with others, the sense of community so lost to us for most of the rest of the year, the joy of selecting & giving of presents then maybe, just maybe we would feel the sense of satisfaction & of achievement when we came to Christmas Day that I'm sure God felt when, finally after all the preparations, Jesus, the Saviour was born in a cave at the back of a small inn in Bethlehem. That birth totally went against the perfectionist view of how the Savour of the world should come & there isn't an ad agency in all of time that would have used that reality as an illustration for their perfect Christmas, yet God's way of doing things meant there wasn't an ideal to live up to & fail, or be disappointed by or feel that sense of hopelessness from, no, God's way was to show that the preparations led to the very, very best gift of all, who managed to cut through all the hype & perfectionism to show what is really important & in that, we can rejoice & enjoy Christmas.
'Glory to God in the highest & peace to men (& women) on earth'
Merry Christmas!
I am one of those strange & unusual people who seem to invoke fury, pity & envy in equal measures, as I begin my Christmas shopping very early. It is partly the element of my personality that cannot cope with crowds & likes everything to be organised, partly too that my daughter's birthday & mine fall in December, before Christmas & I have always resented them being gobbled up by any stress of Christmas preparations so make certain they are not, & finally because I love the season of Advent & of preparation & anticipation so much, I want to enjoy it & can't do so if I'm battling with everyone else!
I was intrigued by a conversation I had with a friend who, when talking of Christmas said - "I actually prefer the lead up to Christmas rather than the day itself." I know what she means, yet am so saddened by it. Our society's obsession with 'stuff' & the acquiring of it; the perfectionism portrayed in advertising of the 'perfect Christmas' & all that you 'must have' in order to achieve it; the perennial hoards who flock to the shopping centres to create that perfection, all go together to form a sense of collective mission. People talk in shops at this time of year. The sense of community is born again within this time of Advent, even if it is a kind of frenetic version of Advent & unlike the kind of preparation I think was envisaged when people first coined the word. (Ask anyone in the street what Advent means to them & most would say Chocolate Calendar!)
I feel that this all goes to sum up our society in some small way! We are so caught up in the consumerism & perfectionism portrayed on the billboards, radio & TV of what Christmas is all about & what you need to make the perfect Christmas & we get so caught up in it that when we come to the day itself, it never lives up to the picture we have created in our minds. If only we could enjoy the journey there for its own pleasure - the joint venture with others, the sense of community so lost to us for most of the rest of the year, the joy of selecting & giving of presents then maybe, just maybe we would feel the sense of satisfaction & of achievement when we came to Christmas Day that I'm sure God felt when, finally after all the preparations, Jesus, the Saviour was born in a cave at the back of a small inn in Bethlehem. That birth totally went against the perfectionist view of how the Savour of the world should come & there isn't an ad agency in all of time that would have used that reality as an illustration for their perfect Christmas, yet God's way of doing things meant there wasn't an ideal to live up to & fail, or be disappointed by or feel that sense of hopelessness from, no, God's way was to show that the preparations led to the very, very best gift of all, who managed to cut through all the hype & perfectionism to show what is really important & in that, we can rejoice & enjoy Christmas.
'Glory to God in the highest & peace to men (& women) on earth'
Merry Christmas!
Thursday 15 March 2012
Who would you have to dinner?
I was reading an essay today by the great British writer Dorothy L Sayers. The essay contained her thoughts about feminism & is entitled "Are women human?" I agreed with the majority of what she said & it got me thinking about how I would like to have met her & perhaps been part of a dinner party with her so that conversation might flow freely.
Once that train of thought had begun, I gave it free reign & began to think about the perfect dinner party guest list. I decided that because my reason for going down this imaginary road was due to Dorothy L Sayers, that death, in this instance of a hypothetical dinner party should be no barrier to attendance!
This guest list is entirely personal & would be for each of us & rightly so, for, to quote the lady herself 'We are all individuals'! So my INDIVIDUAL guest list for a dinner party would be:
Dorothy L Sayers: I love the Lord Peter Wimsey books, have read some of her other works & feel we may have similar views on certain issues.
Stephen Fry: I think he is a very interesting & intelligent man who has an integrity & humility not all in his profession possess.
Jill Paton Walsh: Partly because she completed some of Dorothy L Sayers books & I'd like to get them together to see how well they thought that had worked, but partly too because she strikes me as an interesting lady.
Jeff Lucas: He is a Christian speaker who has a wonderfully refreshing sense of the absurdity of much that passes for 'churchianity', yet is a genuinely compassionate human being.
Catherine Marshall: Another author who has had a great influence on my life. She wrote about her journals - her diary of her Christian walk with God.
C S Lewis: Because he combines a great intellect, a love for God & a childlike imagination that I think Jesus would have been very at home with.
Me: Because there is no point having them all there if I'm not!
Finally, but perhaps most interesting of all.....
Jesus: because I think He above everyone would enthral us with his conversation & He loved dinner parties!
How about you? Who would your 7 guests be & why?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Once that train of thought had begun, I gave it free reign & began to think about the perfect dinner party guest list. I decided that because my reason for going down this imaginary road was due to Dorothy L Sayers, that death, in this instance of a hypothetical dinner party should be no barrier to attendance!
This guest list is entirely personal & would be for each of us & rightly so, for, to quote the lady herself 'We are all individuals'! So my INDIVIDUAL guest list for a dinner party would be:
Dorothy L Sayers: I love the Lord Peter Wimsey books, have read some of her other works & feel we may have similar views on certain issues.
Stephen Fry: I think he is a very interesting & intelligent man who has an integrity & humility not all in his profession possess.
Jill Paton Walsh: Partly because she completed some of Dorothy L Sayers books & I'd like to get them together to see how well they thought that had worked, but partly too because she strikes me as an interesting lady.
Jeff Lucas: He is a Christian speaker who has a wonderfully refreshing sense of the absurdity of much that passes for 'churchianity', yet is a genuinely compassionate human being.
Catherine Marshall: Another author who has had a great influence on my life. She wrote about her journals - her diary of her Christian walk with God.
C S Lewis: Because he combines a great intellect, a love for God & a childlike imagination that I think Jesus would have been very at home with.
Me: Because there is no point having them all there if I'm not!
Finally, but perhaps most interesting of all.....
Jesus: because I think He above everyone would enthral us with his conversation & He loved dinner parties!
How about you? Who would your 7 guests be & why?
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Wednesday 14 March 2012
My first ever blog!
Considering all the time I spend online doing various different things, I am actually surprised myself that I've never created or posted a blog before. So...... My thoughts......
At the moment my thoughts are that my brain hurts because I am on a course where I am learning new things & at my advanced age, trying to keep up takes much more effort than it used to!
At the moment my thoughts are that my brain hurts because I am on a course where I am learning new things & at my advanced age, trying to keep up takes much more effort than it used to!
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