Quick & True

In happy moments, praise God
In difficult moments, seek God
In quiet moments, worship God
In painful moments, trust God
In every moment, thank God

Five lessons to make you think about the way we treat people

1 - First Important Lesson - Cleaning Lady.
During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:
"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"
Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. "Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello." I've never forgot en that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

2. - Second Important Lesson - Pickup in the Rain
One night, at 11:30 p.m., an older African American woman was standing on the side of an Alabama highway trying to endure a lashing rainstorm. Her car had broken down and she desperately needed a ride. Soaking wet, she decided to flag down the next car. A young white man stopped to help her, generally unheard of in those conflict-filled 1960s. The man took her to safety, helped her get assistance and put her into a taxicab. She seemed to be in a big hurry, but wrote down his address and thanked him. Seven days went by and a knock came on the man's door. To his surprise, a giant console color TV was delivered to his home. A special note was attached..
it read:
"Thank you so much for assisting me on the highway the other night. The rain drenched not only my clothes, but also my spirits. Then you came along.
Because of you, I was able to make it to my dying husband's bedside just before he passed away... God bless you for helping me and unselfishly serving
others."
Sincerely, Mrs. Nat King Cole.

3 - Third Important Lesson - Always remember those who serve.
In the days when an ice cream sundae cost much less, a 10-year-old boy entered a hotel coffee shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him. "How much is an ice cream sundae?" he asked. "Fifty cents," replied the waitress. The little boy pulled is hand out of his pocket and studied the coins in it. "Well, how much is a plain dish of ice cream?" he inquired. By now more people were waiting for a table and the waitress was growing impatient. "Thirty-five cents," she brusquely replied. The little boy again counted his coins. "I'll have t he plain ice cream," he said. The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left. When the waitress came back, she began to cry as she wiped down the table. There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were two nickels and five pennies...you see, he couldn't have the sundae, because he had to have enough left to leave her a tip.

4 - Fourth Important Lesson. - The obstacle in Our Path.
In ancient times, a King had a boulder placed on a roadway. Then he hid himself and watched to see if anyone would remove the huge rock. Some of the king's wealthiest merchants and courtiers came by and simply walked around it. Many loudly blamed the King for not keeping the roads clear, but none did anything about getting the stone out of the way. Then a peasant came along carrying a load of vegetables. Upon a pproaching the boulder, the peasant laid down his burden and tried to move the stone to the side of the road. After much pushing and straining, he finally succeeded. After the peasant picked up his load of vegetables, he noticed a purse lying in the road where the boulder had been. The purse contained many gold coins and a note from the King indicating that the gold was for the person who removed the boulder from the roadway. The peasant learned what many of us never understand! Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition.

5 - Fifth Important Lesson - Giving When it Counts...
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare &serious disease Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness. The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her." As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded. He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I start to die right away". Being young, the little boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he was going to have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.

Back to Church Sunday 30th September 2007

It has been estimated that up to three million people in Britain would go back to church if only they were invited. With this in mind, the Diocese of Manchester launched 'Back to Church Sunday' three years ago, and the scheme has proved so succesful that it has been adopted nationally. The evidence suggests that, on average, 12 people per church respond to the invitations to come on Back to Church Sunday, and many become permanent members (for a church the size of St Martin's that would mean increasing our average adult Sunday attendance by over 15%).

Back to Church Sunday will be taking place on 30 September 2007, and this year St Martin's will be participating in this scheme.

How does this involve you? The most effective way to attract people to church (maybe for the first time), is to offer to accompany them to church. I therefore want to issue you a challenge, over the next four months, I would like you to pray for three or four people who do not currently attend church, who you can invite to St Martin's on Sunday 30th September. At the end of June we will be distributing invitation cards for you to invite your friendsd to church.

This is a wonderful opportunity for us to really grow the church, and it is something we can all do. Please do pray about this scheme, and for the people you will invite.

Simon

I wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phones?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?
What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?
What if we flipped through it several times a day?
What if we used it to receive messages from the text?
What if we treated it like we couldn't live without it?
What if we gave it to kids as gifts?
What if we used it as we traveled?
What if we used it in case of an emergency?

This is something to make you go hmm... where is my Bible?

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike our cell phone, we don't ever have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill!

How to prepare for global Warming

It's been a strange week for weather. Last Saturday I cut the lawn for the first time because the grass was growing so fast and getting so long, a consequence of the incredibly mild winter we've been having. I would normally start cutting the lawn a month later. There has often been only 10 degrees difference between the temperatures we've been having here in Britain during winter, to what they've been having in NZ during their summer. It really felt like spring had come early.

Is it spring?

But then a few days later, we have two days of heavy snow and sub zero temperatures (heavy by our standards anyway!) I have to confess I always get a bit embarrassed with the way Britain grinds to a hault with what, although quite a heavy snow fall, was nothing special by European standards. For example, when I visit Poland during winter, it is not uncommon to find the pavement covered in 4 inches of ice, but people still manage to get to school and work.

or winter?

You don't need to be a scientist to know that significant climate change is taking place, you can see it all around. Since we've had spring and winter in one week, I'm getting ready for the start of summer, which I recon will be with us by Tuesday, by bring the BBQ set out from storage, and digging out the shorts and sandals. I'll then be getting out the big jumpers for the onset of autumn (which will probably be here by next weekend).

What Christmas Means For Me

This is the address I gave at our recent Carols by Candlelight Service. During the service I wanted people to reflect not only upon the nativity story, but also to explore what it means to be a Christian in today's society.

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For so many people Christmas has become a commercial festival, and the real meaning and significance of this time of year has been lost. For example, in Britain we will have spent up to £20 billion this December on credit and debit cards. I was talking to one lady on Friday who works for a well known bank, that 95% of the customers who come into the bank complain about the growing cost of Christmas. Is this really what it’s all about?

On average we gain 5 to 6 lbs in weight over the Christmas period. And on Christmas day itself we can consume as much as 6000 calories. Is this really what it’s all about?

Each year, we hear about attempts to play down the religious elements of this festival. In this weeks Walsall Chronicle it rang an article about the Bishop of Lichfield, Jonathan Gledhill who in his Christmas message has attacked a report calling on businesses and councils to use decorations that are ‘secular and not inherently religious’ to avoid offending non Christians. And the Chronicle finishes the article with a question. “Should Christmas be an overtly Christian festival or should it be toned down to avoid offending other faiths.”

I have to confess, going around the shops in Walsall looking for Christmas cards with have a religious theme, is getting increasingly difficult. If I want a picture of Father Christmas, reindeer's, Robins, Christmas trees, then that is fine, but it is a lot harder to find a card with a religious theme. The Daily Mail reported last week that only one out of every 100 Christmas cards sold in Britain contains a religious image.

What is happening is that slowly, bit by bit, Christ is being taken out of Christmas. And when we do that, what are we left with, apart from indigestion and debt!

I personally love the parties, and the food and I also enjoy receiving gifts! But that is NOT what makes Christmas special for me. What makes Christmas so special is celebrating the birth of Christ. It is the knowledge that God didn’t stand by watching the world get further and further into mess, but that he decided to come down into it, and to live on earth as one of us.

Christian art has made the nativity scene gloriously hygienic. But the truth is, the stable or cave where Jesus was born would have been smelly, dirty and untidy. This is what life is often like. Life is messy, rather than neat, orderly and safe. And that speaks to me a great deal, God choose to enter into the mess of this world, to reveal his love for you and me. God has come into the mess and confusion of my life, to reveal to me how much he loves me. And that is why Christmas is so special for me.

I would like to say that I have got everything sorted in life, but I haven’t. I would like to say that I had the most intimate relationship with God, but I don’t. I would like to say that I am always the person God wants me to be, but I’m not. But I cannot imagine my life without God. Christmas reminds me that I don’t have to be perfect for God to love me, I don’t have to have everything sorted in my life in order to be a Christian, because God loves me for who I am, as well as helping me become the person he always intended me to be.

This is why I love Christmas, because it reminds me just how much God loves me, and every single one of us. My message to you today, is don’t ignore the gift of God’s love that he offers you today. When all the Christmas celebrations are over, don’t put Jesus away with the decorations. Because if you do, you will be missing out on the most wonderful thing anyone of us can ever experience. A relationship with God.

Bishop Jonathan's Christmas Message

I enjoyed the switching on of the Christmas lights in Stafford market place this year. It must be the child in me but the sparkling coloured lights and the smell of roasting chestnuts stirs up a sense of wonder and delight.

Stafford Council bravely purchased some new crib figures this year, rather going against the trend of multi-faith everything. But then only a tiny minority among us wants either a mish-mash of beliefs or an empty manger. Most of our Muslim, Sikh or Jewish neighbours are glad to be in a Christian country where they respect our faith and we respect theirs, and they seem to wish we Christians were a bit more up-front about our beliefs.

So the crib-set in Stafford set me thinking about the market place in our secular society. Originally the king granted a licence for a town to hold a market and the sheriff guaranteed law and order. A market where you could freely and safely buy and sell was a big step-up from robber barons taking half your produce. But there were problems if one of the stall holders bought up the market and made life difficult for rival traders. So in today's world there may be problems with monopolies or if private firms are allowed to purchase the stock-exchange, unless the government is very careful to provide regulators, the modern equivalent of the sheriff.

What about the market place in ideas? When St Paul visited Athens he was able, as a foreigner, to bring his ideas freely to the Athenian Market place and to argue with the locals, both sceptics and followers of various faiths. The whole point of Christmas is that Love is offered by God in the form of a gift than can be accepted or ignored. It is the amazing mystery of Christmas that we are free to respond as we will.

It is because of this that freedom of speech and allowing people to present the truth as they see it is such an important feature of modern Christian democracy. It is part of the role of government to provide open spaces - a kind of secular market place if you like - for people to test out the rival truth claims and ideologies of our time.In that sense a Christian country is also a secular one. But that does not mean that a free country must be one where religion is only a private matter and the public square remains empty of the baby Jesus. An empty square is impossible anyway. All governance rests on values and values are in the end a matter of faith. Different religions have different values and teachings and these need evaluating, not mixing up. England became a nation because the missionaries long ago persuaded our pagan chieftains and kings that the rule of the Prince of Peace was preferable to constant war and banditry. The Christian faith became "by law established" because it was through the teachings of Christ that we got our rule of law.

So it is good to have a debate and a market place of ideas but the market place cannot be left empty for the whole year. If we don't put the very best of our spiritual values in the centre of public life, less good values will find their way in. Nature abhors a vacuum. My prayer is that, just as Stafford Council has decided to invest in a new crib-set in its market place at the centre of things, so the people of this country will make room in their hearts for the gift of Love come down at Christmas. "And the government shall be upon his shoulder."

A very merry Christmas!

Jonathan Gledhill
Bishop of Lichfield
5th December 2006

Christian & Muslim Dialogue

On Tuesday of this week, a unique event took place in Walsall. A meeting was arranged at one of the local mosques for Christians and Muslims to come together and learn from one another what 'faith' means to these two religions. The meeting was extremely well attended, with Christians from a number of different churches present, as well as members of the Aisha Mosque. The main part of the evening was a talk given by Vic Gledhill from the Walsall Community Church on faith from a Christian perspective, and then a talk from Imam from the Aisha mosque speaking about faith from a Muslim perspective. It was an extremely interesting evening, and our Muslim hosts made us feel very welcome.

There were a number of things that struck me about this event. First of all how important meetings like this are. There is a lot of fear and mistrust about Islam within British society, and so often this is born out of misunderstanding and ignorance, and building bridges so we can understand one another better is extremely important. This works both ways, because there were several things said by Muslim speakers in that meeting, which showed that they misunderstand some aspects of the Christian faith, just as I imagine we misunderstand parts of the Muslim religion.

One of the other things that struck me about the meeting, is that although there are big differences of opinion between Muslims and Christians on the person of Jesus and Muhamed, there is a lot of common ground between us, in terms of the importance our faith to our everyday lives, and there is mutual concern about the importance of family life, and how we encourage and support this. It was also interesting to hear one Muslim RE teacher, express his concern about how young people today (of all ethnic backgrounds) fail to see the relevance of God to their lives, and how we are to reach these young people - this is an extremely important issue for Christians as well.

The warmth of the hospitality, and the conversations we had afterwards as we looked around the Mosque gave me real hope for the future, and shows why it is so important to build bridges between Christians and Muslims.

The next event takes place as Caldmore Evangelical Church in Walsall at 7.30pm on Tuesday January 16th.

The Nativity Story

Check out this trailer for a new film 'The Nativity Story', the trailer looks really promising, and it may be a great outreach tool. It is apparently scheduled to come out in December, although I'm not sure if that is only the USA or here in Britain. The official website is http://www.thenativitystory.com

War in Iraq

I'm not a pacifist, I do believe that on very rare occasions, the use of military force can be justified, although it should only be used as a last resort, after all other means of resolving the conflict have been exhausted. In the Christian tradition this is described as the 'Just War Theory', which whilst recognising that war is always an evil thing (because innocent people suffer), there may be times when it can be justified, and may be the lesser of two evils. For example, the fight against the Nazi's in the Second World War was I believe justified - although the blanket bombing of cities such as Dresden wasn't. There is of course a strong Christian tradition of pacifism (see http://mb-soft.com/believe/txn/pacifism.htm for a detailed look at this subject).


The most recent Iraq war was in my opinion not justified, and I like many others in this country and around the world was opposed to this war. I don't think anyone was sad to see an end to Saddam Hussein's evil regime, but is Iraq and the world any better for it? We were led to believe that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and that this was the justification for going to war. Despite wide spread searches, no WMD have been discovered. Instead Iraq has been plunged into sectarian violence.


Today the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has released a report in which they estimate that 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the US led invasion in 2003, that is an average of 500 deaths every single day. Every day there are more reports of abductions and murders in Iraq. The results of this particular war have been to destabilise not only Iraq but the Middle East as a whole, and create a new recruiting ground for terrorists, and giving rise to radical Islamic groups.



Publicly George W Bush & Tony Blair continue to support the war in Iraq, but I wonder whether privately they now regret their decision to go to war, and knowing what we know now, would they still feel it was justified?

Did Jesus really rise from the dead - my response to anonymous

On Saturday 30 September, I wrote a blog entitled 'Did Jesus really rise from the dead?' (you can find it under Questions of Belief). Yesterday I received the following email from someone who had read this blog. I originally intended not to publish the comments of this email, but I've decided that I would like an opportunity to respond to what is written.

The comment was submitted by 'Anonymous'.

Is this meant to be proof???? You obviously have never experienced an hallucination. Perhaps you should come out from your secure little ivory tower and talk to some people who have. I have. I know what I'm talking about. And you have no idea. I used to 'believe' and had 'experiences' to back it up. Then I took anti-psychotics for my depressive illness. Not only did they get rid of the hallucinations, they got rid of the 'godly' experiences too. Know that feeling that god is near? That 'feeling the need to pray'? It's all in your head. It's all psychological. That's why the anti-psychotics make it go away. Wake up! Religious experience is all in the head. Bury yours in the sand if you have to, but get off the internet and stop feeding the religious frenzy that will eventually lead to fanatics blowing up the planet. Religious faith is a mental anomaly, nothing more. Don't believe me? Ask your doc for trifluoperazine. Then wake up!

My response to anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thank you for the comments you've submitted to my blog. One of the purposes of creating this blog was to create dialogue, and challenge people to think about issues of faith. When I first received your comments I decided that I was not going to publish them, because I felt that the tone of what you wrote was quite hostile and that you made the attack quite personal, but on reflection I want the opportunity to respond to what you had written. We may not agree with one another, but I do hope we can show one another mutual respect and understanding. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I do feel that it is important that we have the courage to stand up for what we believe in, and I would have appreciated it if you had been prepared to put you real name beside your comments.

I'm sorry if you have had a bad experience with the Christian faith, and feel as though God has let you down, but I can honestly say that from my own experience I know that God is real, and that he does make a difference to people's lives. You seem some how to think that because I believe in God, that I live in an ivory tower, some how escaping from reality. But I don't believe that this is the case, I live in the real world, I face the same challenges and struggles that everyone else does, it is just that I am a Christian, and this effects the way I look at life.

You express a concern about religious frenzy which will lead to fanatics blowing up the planet. I agree with you that some terrible things have been done in the name of religion, but you seem to think that all religion is a bad thing, but it is not. Yes there are problems in the world, and sadly there will always be some people who want to hijack religion to serve their own goals, but so much good is also done by people of religious conviction. So much good work on both a local, national and international level is being done by Christian individuals and organisations, working to build a better world for all people. For example, tackling poverty and injustice, bringing aid and relief to those most in need, helping support some of the world's most vulnerable people.

I am not entirely sure how you think this blog is going to encourage religious frenzy, but if it leads someone closer to experiencing God's love and forgiveness, then that makes me really joyful. When people become Christians, the Holy Spirit comes to live within them, and the Holy Spirit helps us to become more Christ like in our attitudes. This doesn't happen over night, but slowly the fruits of the Spirit (as they are called in the New Testament) start to grow in our lives. Paul describes these fruits as ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control’ (Galatians 5:22-23). These are not bad things, in fact I think most people would admit that to see more love, more peace, more kindness in the world is a good thing. If this is the sort of religious frenzy that this blog will encourages, then I'd say bring it on! Jesus also said that the two great commands are that we love God and love our neighbour (in that order). If more people did this, then I believe it would utterly transform the world we live in.

I get the impression that you have struggled with some form of mental illness (depression or something similar?), and that experiences you once felt were from God, you now know were not God. Since I don't know exactly what it is that you experienced, I feel I am unable to comment about that. However, I do believe it is possible to experience God, to experience his peace and joy and his healing, and I don't believe that it is all psychological, or as you say 'all in the head'. You describe religious faith is a mental anomaly, but the reality is that at least one quater of the world's population is Christian, and on top of that we have the other religions, so that is a lot of people to describe as having a mental anomaly!

If you have questions you want to ask, or to debate these points I'd be very happy to, although I would ask that we respect one another's positions, even if we don't agree with one another.

Best wishes

Simon

The Legacy of War

There has been a lot of concern raised over Israel's dropping of thousands of cluster bombs in the last days of their conflict with Hezbollah. Southern Lebanon is now littered with thousands of these deadly unexploded bombs, and it is already claiming lives.

Even decades after fighting ceases, war leaves a nasty legacy. In Laos for example, people are still being killed by cluster bombs that were dropped during the Vietnam War. During the Vietnam War, the US used a toxic defoliant called Agent Orange to unmask guerrilla fighters by stripping forest cover. Decades after the war finished, children are still being born with terrible deformities, which is the terrible legacy of Agent Orange.

The fighting may have finished long ago, but war always leaves a nasty legacy.

Harvest of Hope

Today we celebrated our harvest festival at St Martin's. Harvest has always been on of my favourite festivals right back to the time when I was a child. For many years my family lived in a small village in West Cumbria called Gosforth, where my dad was the local minister. One of his churches was the tiny church of St Olaf's, nestled at the foot of Scafell Pike and Great Gable in Wasdale Valley. In Wasdale Head there are only a few farms, a hotel and a shop (which caters for the many walkers who visit this remote and stunningly beautiful valley). Harvest Festival in St Olaf's was always special, the church was always simply decorated, and the produce wasn't prepacked stuff, but potatoes, turnips and carrots taken straight from the fields, with the soil still clinging on to them. Because farmers made up a significant part of the congregation, as a service it always had such a special feel.

I still love Harvest, although living as I do in a large urban conurbation, very few if any of the people in the church earn their living from the land, and this year rather than collecting food stuffs, we collected toiletries, which we are going to send to Bulgaria.

Harvest, as well as an opportunity to give thanks to God for all the good things we enjoy, is an opportunity to reflect upon those people around the world who do not have the things we take for granted. This year we focused on the work of Tearfund who are supporting the Yanapanakuna project which is helping the Quechua people of Bolivia build better lives for themselves. Living high up in the beautiful but inhospitable Andes the Quechua people have struggled for generations to survive on this hard terrain. With a diet consisting mostly of potatoes and wheat, malnutrition is rife, and 20% of children die before the age of one. Now with the help of Tearfund, the Quechua people are being taught how to build greenhouses and grow vegetables to improve their diet, as well as receiving spiritual support. This simple project, is transforming lives (for further information go to http://www.teafund.org)

Our reading from Isaiah this morning reminded us that we all have a responsibility to care for the poor and needy, where ever they may be. "I'll tell you what it really means to worship the LORD. Remove the chains of prisoners who are chained unjustly. Free those who are abused! Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives." (Isaiah 58:6-7)

In Britain we face problems of obesity, and over consumption, and so it is good for us to remember our obligation to those less fortunate than ourselves, and to be wise stewards of the resources God has given to us. For far too long, the developed world has been guilty of squandering and misusing the world's resources, and exploiting the developing world. This can no longer continue. I for one am delighted to see the growth in fairly traded goods filling our shops, and rising consumer awareness about how the choices we make every time we go shopping can affect others on the other side of the world. God in his wisdom created a world with enough resources for everyone, it is about time we started sharing these resources more fairly and making a better world for all people. For us in the developed world, this means being prepared to take hard choices, about what our priorities are and how we spend our money, but it is worth it, if we are to build a world based on justice and equality for all.

Support in Christian Ministry

Being in full time Christian Ministry can be tough, and it is important to have good support networks around you. In Walsall I'm extremely fortunate in not only having a very supportive Ministry Team, that meets once a month to pray for one another, but also great colleagues within the Walsall Central Cluster (a group of five churches which are linked together, go to http://www.2day.ws/walsallstmartins/section/ClusterChurches/) As clergy from the different cluster churches we go away once every two months to a house on the edge of Cannock Chase, where we can spend time praying and supporting one another as well discussing areas of mutual concern.


There is also a Walsall Leader's Prayer Group, which meets every fortnight on a Wednesday to pray, (plus there is a monthly breakfast prayer meeting, which meets early on a Saturday morning - although I've yet to attend!)

It is a real privilege to share fellowship with other Christians, particular. We are a very diverse bunch of people. In the group we have people from the Anglican, Methodist and Brethen Churches, plus the Salvation Army, Community Churches, and from the Redeemed Christian Church of God. Although we represent different denominations, we all share the one desire to see God's Kingdom grow in Walsall, and it is wonderful to see how God is uniting Christians in this town as we seek to work together and support one another. What is also exiting to see, is how God is drawing people to Walsall from the different corners of the globe. In the photo above is Debo who has moved to Walsall with his wife from Nigeria, because he feels God has called him to be a missionary in this country. We also have another person who is part of this group (but not in this photo) called Paul, who like Debo felt called by God to come to Walsall from Uganda. God is clearly at work in Walsall, and it is exiting to see what he is going to do.

Poem

I received this poem in the post today, it comes from Val and Stan Holloway who live in Argyll, Scotland:

I am the one who heareth thee
I am the provider of all you see
I am he who over all prevails
I am the one who never fails
I am the one who knows all you feel
I am he that all you diseases heal
I am he that does teach and guide
I am he in whom you can confide
I am the one who is always just
I am and in me you can trust
I am the one worthy of your praise
I am he who knows the number of your days
I am the lamb of God and Lord of light
I am he who keeps you by day and night
I am the Lion of Judah, the dove of peace
I am he who all your sorrows cease
I am alpha and omega, the beginning and the end
I am the one who is your truest friend
I am master, saviour, Lord and King
I am he who wants to be your everything.

Taize, the nearest to Heaven on Earth?

The Taize Community is a large ecumenical Christian community situated in the south of Burgundy in France. It was established by Brother Roger in the early 1940s. Brother Roger's desire was to find a place where he could devote his life to God in prayer and worship. During the second world war Brother Roger sheltered Jews who were escaping from Nazi persecution. Eventually the Gestapo learnt of Brother Roger's activities and he was forced to flee to his homeland in Switzerland. At the end of the war Brother Roger returned to Taize with some other men, and this was the start of the Taize Community. Brother Roger's vision was to create a community that would be committed to reconciliation, particularly amongst the different Christian denominations. In the 1960s young people from around Europe started arriving at Taize, wanting to spend time living and worshipping with the community, and today thousands of young people from all around the world visit Taize for a week or longer to share in the life of the community.

Taize has a very distinctive style of worship, it makes use of simple chants which are sung in many different languages (in any given week there can be up to 40 different nationalities in Taize). They also make use of silence, which is an important part of the daily prayer (which takes place three times a day in the Church of Reconciliation). I had always loved Taize worship, and was desperate to visit. I got this opportunity in the summer of 1996, I was 19 at the time, and had just completed my first year at Durham University. I fell in love with Taize immediately, all I can say is that it is the closest to Heaven that I've ever been, it's as though it's Heaven on Earth. There is something so wonderful about the worship, and being able to pray with thousands of other people from different countries and churches.

During your time in Taize you have a choice of what to do in the week. One of the most popular options is the Bible introductions, which are led by one of the brothers in the morning, and then in the afternoon we divide into small groups to discuss the topic of the day. It was mid way through the week in Taize, when a couple of Polish people came to our group and asked if they could join us. I think that they were keen to practice their English, and had heard that our group seemed to have a lot of fun. One of the Polish people that turned up was a 19 year old girl called Beata Nalinska, who had a heavily bandaged knee, which she had damaged whilst running. I don't know what it was about her, but I felt an immediate attraction (which I gather was mutual). There was something so special about this girl, and I think I fell immediately in love with her (the first and only time it's ever happened in my life). The photo below was taken on the first day we met, Beata can be seen wearing a white top with her crutches near by!

A lot of my spare time during those last few days in Taize were spent with Beata, and when it came time for me to leave we exchanged addresses and promised to write to one another. The picture below (the first one of us together) was taken just before I boarded the bus home.

The journey home to England was a very difficult, not only did I miss Taize and the rhythm of prayer, but I also missed Beata. As soon as I got home I wrote a letter to her, and this started many years of correspondence. A lot happened over the following years, we attempted to meet up several times, but it never worked out, it was two years before I was to see her again, this time in England. The irony was that I was going to Taize to see her, something we'd arranged long ago, but at short notice she was given the chance to come to England, something she'd dreamed about for many years, so in the end I was only able to spend a few days with her, before I headed to Taize, although I did manage to meet up with her in London a couple of weeks later. I knew that she was heading back to Poland, and that she was spending a couple of days in a youth hostel near St Paul's Cathedral, so without knowing exactly when or where she would be there, I decided to go to London and search for her. She knew nothing about my plan, and as I was leaving one hostel after failing to find her, who should walk through the door but Beata!

There were times when it looked as though we weren't going to be together, times when we drifted apart, but in February 2002, having not been in regular touch for quite some time, I arranged to visit Beata in Poland. Two weeks later she came to visit me in Cumbria, and then in August of that same year she came to England to work at Rydal Hall, a Christian conference centre, that was only eight miles from where I lived. She'd only been in England a week, before I asked her to marry me, I had to wait three months before I got the definitive answer which came in November, and the following February (three months later) we got married in my church in Bowness on Windermere. I have absolutely no doubt that God drew us together, I had no idea that my first trip to Taize would be such a life changing one! The great irony is that although Taize has played a huge part in our lives, we had never managed to meet up in Taize again (we'd both been back there but never at the same time). So this year, ten years after our initial meeting we returned to Taize together, but this time with our two boys, Tomek & Adam. The photo of Beata myself and the boys was taken this summer in Taize, with two Polish Sisters, friends of Beata.

Alpha Course: Exploring the meaning of life

At St Martin's we run the popular Alpha Course (http://www.alpha.org/), a ten week course that looks at the claims of the Christian faith in a fun, friendly and informal way. This is the second course that we've run since I've been in Walsall, and last night was the second session of the course. Last night's topic was 'Why did Jesus die'. It's such a privilege to be able to explore with other people issues relating to God and the Christian faith. In total we have fourteen people on our current course (this includes group leaders), and we vary in age from a teenager up to people in their sixties. The evening begins with a meal, followed by a presentation and then an opportunity to divide into groups to discuss the topic of the night. The great thing about Alpha is that it gives permission for people to discuss the big questions in life, in a safe and non judgemental environment. We're all on a journey with God, a lot of people on the course are searching for answers, looking for God, others have been Christians for some time and are using the course as a refresher, looking again at the essentials of the Christian faith.

At St Martin's we tend to vary the presentation week by week, so some weeks I do the talk, using clips from films when appropriate, and other weeks we use the Alpha DVD which contains the talks given by Nicky Gumble.

I've been on quite a number of Alpha Courses over the years, but what I find is that each one is different, and I always come away feeling as though I've learnt something new. It's a wonderful privilege.

There is a link to the main Alpha website on this blog as as through our church website (http://www.walsallstmartins.2day.ws/), if you're looking for answers, and exploring the meaning of life, I'd recommend you give Alpha a go.

Africaid

As a church we support a number of charities based in the UK and around the world (details on our website http://www.walsallstmartins.2day.ws/) We are the only church in the UK to support a small charity called Africaid that works in the slums of Nairobi.

The following description of what Africaid does is taken from their website www.africaid.org

"Our mission is to provide the much needed financial services and holistic training to the business
communities with a main focus on the member women entrepreneurs to save and access credit to expand their enterprises in order to alleviate poverty. We also address HIV/AIDS through strengthening of local communities' identified and established strategies."

To support this work they rely upon donations from around the world. Unfortunately a lot of the money that they had been promised has not been forthcoming, and as a result they are facing a financial crisis. This work is of vital importance, and many lives depend upon it, as the sole supporting church in this country we feel a particular burden of responsibility to this project, and are doing what we can to help support Africaid.

If you feel you could support a worthwhile project that is making a difference to some of the poorest people in the world please visit the Africaid website http://www.africaid.org/ or contact info@africaid.org

Noise

Yesterday I took myself up to Cannock Chase for a walk. What struck me as I walked on the Chase, was how difficult it is to find complete silence in our modern world. Wherever I walked I was aware of the distant hum of traffic, or of a plane flying overhead, or the works of the quarry. Even in the Lake District, when high up on the fells, you can often hear the noise of human activity not far away. Reflecting on this, it made me think about how much noise there is within our lives. When it comes to noise I'm terrible, as soon as I get up in the morning I switch on the radio or the TV, and there are very few occasions when I sit in complete silence. Why is this? Is it because I'm uncomfortable with silence, or don't know how to be still? Psalm 46:10 says, 'Be still, and know that I am God', and in 1 Kings 19 we're told that God did not appear to Elijah in the powerful wind, or the earthquake, or the fire, but in the gentle whisper (1 Kings 19:12). I believe that one of the reasons we don't often feel as though we hear from God is because we're not listening to him. There is too much noise in our lives - worries, anxieties, stress, etc., that we get distracted and fail to hear God's gentle whisper. Learning to be still takes time and effort, it doesn't come naturally to most of us (certainly not me). One of the things that I value so much about Taize worship (www.taize.fr) is the ten minutes of silence that takes place during each service. At the start of the week in Taize, ten minutes seems like an awfully long time, by after a few days those ten minutes of complete silence become an oasis of peace in what is an otherwise noisy world. We only have to turn on the TV, open a newspaper or listen to the radio to realise what a state the world is in, and in part this is due to the fact that people don't listen to one another. What a difference it would make if we learnt the art of listening not only to one another, but also to God.

Welcome, Wordpress v Blogger

I started blogging back in August 2006, the purpose of the blog was to share with people some of my reflections on what it means to be a Christian in the modern world, and to share with you some of my own daily journey with God. I set up a blog on Wordpress.com (www.bickers.wordpress.com) but thought I'd give Blogger a go as well, to see which is the easiest to use, and which gets the most hits. I must admit that at the moment, I can see both good things and bad things in both Wordpress and Blogger. Submitting enteries on Blogger is much quicker and easier, as is uploading pictures. I'm going to keep both blogs going, and make a decision about which one I'll ultimately stick with. Does anyone else have any comments/reflections about Wordpress v Blogger?