absent blog

business and family life keeping me absent at the moment.  back soon

the voice is fixed :)

After a mystery virus caused Alan to lose his voice way back at the beginning of June, 4 months off work, and 5 months of speech therapy, he is as cured as he is likely to get.  Its been a long haul!

We were both surprised I think by how much life changed while he had no voice, and how uncomfortable he felt being around  groups of people when he couldn’t join in the conversation.  It was isolating for him (although people understood and tried to make him feel at ease), and awkward for many who didnt know how to react to him.

He’s slightly quieter than he was,  can’t really shout,  and is slightly (ever so slightly) higher pitched.  But for him life is better  - no longer struggling to join in with conversations, no longer avoiding social situations where he knows he won’t be heard.  No more speech therapy.  Great News!

Christ is Risen

He is Risen indeed. Alleluia!

After worship this morning myself and members of the congregation walked the 100 yards or so to Crow Road, to wait in the cold for the Annual Easter Egg Run - Thousands of Bikers in convoy throughout the city. An Amazing sight!

Let Jesus into your wii????

I like playing with the Wii.  But this is just a bit odd.

Want to play as Jesus?  No thanks.  Want to play against Jesus?  not in the slightest - there is something in me which just doesn’t want to add further insult to injury, especially not this weekend.  So I’m not boxing him, or beating him at golf, or attacking him with a lightsaber.   Just working on getting my voice back for tomorrow.

From the Mission Bay Community Church Website:

This Easter Sunday, we will provide anyone who attends church with a Jesus Mii for their Nintendo Wii console. Just bring your Wii Remote or Wii and we’ll transfer a Jesus Mii to your system.

Then you, too, can box with Jesus, golf with Him, or even bowl with Him! A night bowling with Jesus? What could be better? Especially if you get that turkey and best Him by 100 points! Don’t worry;—He’ll forgive you. 

it was 20 years ago today…

kind of. Tuesday of Holy Week (I can never remember the date, but the day and that phonecall I will never forget). I was 19.

The day Dad died.

He was only a few years older than I am now.

We never had a brilliant relationship - in fact at times it was pretty horrible, and I hadn’t seen him for over 3 years.

But today my dad has been dead for over half my life, and regardless of how rocky or non-existant our relationship was, I miss him, and I am so thankful for the last few weeks of his life - a precious time of reconnection and forgiveness.

Rest in peace Dad.

a poem…

Tell me:

What came first

Easter or the egg?

Crucifixion

Or daffodils?

Three days in a tomb

Or four days

In Paris?

(returning

Bank Holiday Monday?)

 

When is a door

Not a door?

When it is rolled away.

When is a body

Not a body?

When it is a risen.

 

Question.

Why was it the Saviour

Rode on the cross?

Answer.

To get us to the other side.

Behold I stand.

Behold I stand and what?

Behold I stand at the door and

 

Knock knock.

 

(Steve Turner)

full of care…

Be careful of your thought for your thoughts become your words
Be careful of your words for your words become your actions
Be careful of your actions for your actions become your habits
Be careful of your habits for your habits become your character
Be careful of your character for your character becomes your destiny

Source unknown

Leading your church into growth

What an exciting, challenging and powerful two and a half days it has been.

Rather than the “conference for failures” Fr Kenny joked (and later repented!), it has been an opportunity to learn and to be inspired.

Tim and Damien, the course leaders, kept us entertained, made us work hard and assess realistically where we are at and where we want to be as churches.

Firmly rooted in the reality of the parish and the community, with plenty of anecdotal evidence and support, they led us on a journey of confidence building and of changing perspectives - not to look for the mega-church revival style growth, or to hide from mission by claiming that “its not about numbers”, but enabling us to look to the commuity where we are and make a diffence, adding the ones and twos to our we congregations as we go.

Fantastic stuff, and as i go through that process of reflection and working with the vestries, I’ll write more!

It is now good to be home, tired but excited and revitalised.

exciting stuff

Heading to Renfrew for 3 days for the “Leading your Church into Growth” conference today. As sole cleric of 2 small and struggling churches, I’m looking forward to it - an opportunity to learn and to share with colleagues, get some new ideas and be inspired. We dont come together often enough to support and guide each other, so events like this are often cherished.

However, as is frequently the case I suspect the greatest learning and the most valuable discussions will probably come after the official sessions are done, over coffee or in the bar.

Taking the laptop, so if I get the opportunity I’ll be blogging as we go

Diocesan Webbery

Much preparation and planning in the Run up to Diocesan Synod, so very little time for blogging.

However, at Synod we (the Information and Communication Network) for Glasgow Diocese unveiled the new diocesan website, which can be found here. The reaction was fantastic - ooh’s and ahh’s from the gathered throng.

Following the brief from the Bishop’s staff group we made the conscious decision to have it tied in with, and styled alongside the Provincial website.

Now the content is up to others - training will be provided for all who need to know how to use the content management system in place (expressionengine), and networks, regions and diocesan staff will be able to update content as required or desired. This will hopefully prevent “webmaster gridlock”, and end the torrent of concerns that content is out of date. Its all good stuff.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the Provincial Communications officer and the hard work of Justin Reynolds - the man behind the provincial site, and who has worked so hard on the design and detail for our diocesan site.

Hope you like it.