The Bishop of London's sermon at THAT wedding

Below is the sermon preached by Rt. Rev'd Richard Chatrres, The Lord Bishop of London, at the wedding of HRH Prince William and Kate Middleton this morning. Cracking stuff.

~~~
 

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire."


So said St Catherine of Siena whose festival day this is. Marriage is intended to be a way in which man and woman help each other to become what God meant each one to be, their deepest and truest selves.
Many are full of fear for the future of today's world but the message of the celebrations in this country and far beyond its shores is the right one – this is a joyful day! It is good that people in every continent are able to share in the celebrations because this is, as every wedding day should be, a day of hope.
In a sense every wedding is a royal wedding with the bride and groom as king and queen of creation, making a new life together so that life can flow through them to the future.
William and Catherine, you have chosen to be married in the sight of a generous God who so loved the world that he gave himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ.


In the Spirit of this generous God, husband and wife are to give themselves to one another.
Spiritual life grows as love finds its centre beyond ourselves. Faithful and committed relationships offer a door into the mystery of spiritual life in which we discover that the more we give of self, the richer we become in soul; the more we go beyond ourselves in love, the more we become our true selves and our spiritual beauty is more fully revealed. In marriage we are seeking to bring one another into fuller life.

It is of course hard to wean ourselves away from self-centredness. People can dream of such a thing but the hope will not be fulfilled without a solemn decision that, whatever the difficulties, we are committed to the way of generous love.

You have both made your decision today – "I will" – and by making this new relationship, you have aligned yourselves with what we believe is the way in which life is spiritually evolving, and which will lead to a creative future for the human race.

We stand looking forward to a century which is full of promise and full of peril. Human beings are confronting the question of how to use wisely the power which has been given to us through the discoveries of the last century. We shall not be converted to the promise of the future by more knowledge, but rather by an increase of loving wisdom and reverence, for life, for the earth and for one another.

Marriage should transform, as husband and wife make one another their work of art. This transformation is possible as long as we do not harbour ambitions to reform our partner. There must be no coercion if the Spirit is to flow; each must give the other space and freedom. Chaucer, the London poet, sums it up in a pithy phrase:

"Whan maistrie [mastery] comth, the God of Love anon,
Beteth his wynges, and farewell, he is gon."

As the reality of God has faded from so many lives in the West, there has been a corresponding inflation of expectations that personal relations alone will supply meaning and happiness in life. This is to load our partner with too great a burden. We are all incomplete: we all need the love which is secure, rather than oppressive, and mutual forgiveness, to thrive.

As we move towards our partner in love, following the example of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit is quickened within us and can increasingly fill our lives with light. This leads to a family life which offers the best conditions in which the next generation can practise and exchange those gifts which can overcome fear and division and incubate the coming world of the Spirit, whose fruits are love and joy and peace.

I pray that every one present and the many millions watching this ceremony and sharing in your joy today will do everything in their power to support and uphold you in your new life. I pray that God will bless you in the way of life you have chosen, a way which is expressed in the prayer that you have written together in preparation for this day:

God our Father, we thank you for our families; for the love that we share and for the joy of our marriage.
In the busyness of each day keep our eyes fixed on what is real and important in life and help us to be generous with our time and love and energy.
Strengthened by our union help us to serve and comfort those who suffer.
We ask this in the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Those damn birthers!!!

President Obamas birth certificate through the eyes of a birther....

Thanks CDM, this is too funny, but also shows how some in our country are never gonna give Barack Hussein Obama an inch...

The Fake Origins of Easter

H/t to The Church Mouse. Interesting blog post shared with thanks...

 Before the Easter season has passed, Mouse wanted to quote a large part of a blog post from Catherine Meyer's About.com blog on alternative religions.

Every year Catherine gets annoyed by people quoting made up history about the origins of Easter.

Catherine explains:

"The historical record of Eostre is incredibly small: a single reference written by a Christian monk named Bede, writing after the supposed worship of Eostre has already vanished from England. he comments that the word Easter, in English, comes from Eostre, or perhaps from Eostremounth, the mouth in which Easter occurs.

That's it.

Bede doesn't know anyone who worships Eostre, and no worshiper of Eostre has left any records of her at all. There is no mention of a specific holiday for Eostre, and no mention of rabbits or eggs. Most of the claims equating Eostre and Easter, therefore, are entirely made up. The only potential connection is the word Easter and the name Eostre, an issue that only exists in English. In Romantic languages, the word for Easter is based on Pesach, the Hebrew word for Passover, which Jesus was celebrating at the time of his execution. And the Romantic language speakers have been celebrating Easter far longer than the English.

Stop repeating the fallacy. Please. And stop presuming world practices revolve around what went on in England."

Mouse agrees, and now you know. So next time someone tells you that Easter was originally a pagan festival called Oestre, you can set them straight.

SMART MOVE President Obama!

Dear Speaker Boehner, Senator Reid, Senator McConnell, and Representative Pelosi:

 I am writing to urge you to take immediate action to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, and to use those dollars to invest in clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

High oil and gasoline prices are weighing on the minds and pocketbooks of every American family. While our economy has begun to recover, with 1.8 million private sector jobs created over the last 13 months, too many Americans are still struggling to find a job or simply just to pay the bills. The recent steep increase in gas prices, driven by increased global demand and compounded by unrest and supply disruptions in the Middle East, has only added to those struggles. If sustained, these high prices have the potential to slow down the pace of our economy’s growth at precisely the moment when we need to be accelerating it.
While there is no silver bullet to address rising gas prices in the short term, there are steps we can take to ensure the American people don’t fall victim to skyrocketing gas prices over the long term.   One of those steps is to eliminate unwarranted tax breaks to the oil and gas industry and invest that revenue into clean energy to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Our outdated tax laws currently provide the oil and gas industry more than $4 billion per year in these subsidies, even though oil prices are high and the industry is projected to report outsized profits this quarter.   In fact, in the past CEO’s of the major oil companies made it clear that high oil prices provide more than enough profit motive to invest in domestic exploration and production without special tax breaks. As we work together to reduce our deficits, we simply can’t afford these wasteful subsidies, and that is why I proposed to eliminate them in my FY11 and FY12 budgets.
I was heartened that Speaker Boehner yesterday expressed openness to eliminating these tax subsidies for the oil and gas industry. Our political system has for too long avoided and ignored this important step, and I hope we can come together in a bipartisan manner to get it done.
In addition, we need to get to work immediately on the longer term goal of reducing our dependence on foreign oil, and our vulnerability to price fluctuations this dependence creates. Without a comprehensive energy strategy for the future we will stay stuck in the same old pattern of heated political rhetoric when prices rise and apathy and neglect when they fall again.
I recently laid out my approach to a comprehensive strategy in my Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future, which includes safe and responsible production of our domestic oil and gas resources and doubling down on fuel efficiency in the transportation sector while investing in everything from wind and solar to biofuels and natural gas. None of you will agree with every aspect of this strategy. But I am confident that, in many areas, we can work together to help show the American people that we can make progress on an energy policy that creates jobs and makes our country more secure.
And I hope we can all agree that, instead of continuing to subsidize yesterday’s energy sources, we need to invest in tomorrow’s. We need to invest in a 21st century clean energy economy that will keep America competitive. In the long term, that’s the answer. That’s the key to helping families avoid pain at the pump and reducing our dependence on foreign oil.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

 Barack Obama is the smartest president in my lifetime, the way he plays the game is brilliant.......... John Boehner said we "need to look" at the billions in subsidies doled out to the trillionaire oil companies...Ha!.. At a time when we have sky high gas prices at the pump, the people are tired of rolling over and willingly giving more of their hard earned money to those BIG OIL companies when they friggin damn well do not need one more penny of it!!  Now it lays on the shoulders of Boehner and his House majority. President Obama said what he wants from Congress, he said what he believes is the right thing to do, END the tax breaks, NOW. The people are watching you John Boehner, your party needs to step up now and show us who you REALLY represent!  BTW, The GOP are not happy Speaker Boehner spoke on this, not happy at all! LOLOL

Thomas - the greatest apostle of them all

Victor Meldrew’s cry of “I don’t belieeeve it!” from the hugely popular tv series “One Foot in the Grave” struck a reassuring chord with many in this country, characturing perfectly the now infamous British reserve!  People who loved the series found an ally in him, through his frustration with the modern world, it’s technology, and with life especially in retirement.  His catch-phrase would most often get an airing when he was forced to face the things he disliked, distrusted, and doubted.  It didn’t matter whether that was people or things that make the contemporary world much more immediate, perhaps even things that you and I take so much for granted, like the telephone.  His quiet frustrations turn so quickly to ‘I don’t belieeeve it!’ exposing what he really felt.

It’s true though.  W e don’t like to show others that we cannot cope with life.  So often the life we show the outside world day to day with our work colleges, family and friends, is often one of calm in controlness.  But from time to time we can have our feathers ruffled by the simplest things like a conversation with a friend, an article in the newspaper, or the video not working, and it’s then that we show that underneath we maybe struggling to make sense of our world with it’s changing patterns of family life, society, values, politics and dare I say faith.

Belief and uncertainty or doubt are the yin-yang, the polar opposites, of all of our lives at one point or another. Many who are desperate to believe to share religious faith, wrestle with doubt, question reality, and yet can’t bring themselves to put to one side something so dearly cherished. Many cannot live with faith and yet cannot live without it.

But is doubt a bad thing?  Personally, I see doubt as not only healthy but essential to the Christian life. If more religious people doubted, perhaps the world would be a slightly saner place?

Even as I speak there is news of yet another Iraqi suicide bomber blowing himself up along with any fellow Iraqi or Coalition forces unfortunate enough to be within striking distance. I wonder how many suicide bombers would blow themselves up if they doubted the promises of a martyr’s paradise?

The opposite of doubt is certainty, and yet there can be no room for it in any religion. Give a man or woman certainty and there can be no room for faith, for faith is hope in what is not seen. We can live faith for it is open, endless and eternal. Does not ‘hope spring eternal’? Give certainty and we risk sowing the seeds of arrogance, bigotry, and fundamentalism.

Those with faith, I believe stand much more chance of living in harmony because they recognise within others a seeking after truth and a quest for answers to those illusive eternal questions; the truly faithful recognise that faith is but a tradition to build on and live by.

This Sunday's Gospel reading mentions Thomas - one of Jesus’ 12 disciples - encounter with the Risen Christ.  Imagine the scene, he, like the other disciples, was suddenly thrown into fear and confusion after the man he knew to be God’s son and capable of the most amazing miracles who was set to re-establish Israel both politically and spiritually on the world stage - driving out the Roman occupiers of the land and restoring the eternal presence of God with His people - this man had been captured, arrested, and condemned to death on the cross.  His mission, his vision all had gone wrong.  The day after these terrible events, other disciples of Jesus come excitedly shouting about having seen him alive.  For Thomas, all talk of Jesus his leader, Master, saviour and friend, rising from the dead was just cheap talk, a slap in the face, bittersweet words of comfort in the face of shocking grief.  Could you blame him for doubting?  I certainly can’t.

Thomas is also known as the greatest disciple.  He later meets with the risen Jesus himself, seeing the scarred body with his own eyes and touching it with his own hands.  There is no question, this is Jesus.  Thomas who has withheld himself utterly from the hope Jesus offers, imprisoned by doubt, gives himself utterly, and finds himself freed and he utters the profoundest statement of faith - my Lord and my God, as in the risen Jesus Thomas recognised both.  Thomas finds faith, through belief transformed by doubt.

There are many today who stand at the threshold of faith and say with Victor Meldrew and St. Thomas - I don’t believe it; who ask the profoundest questions; is it all true?  Can we believe it?  The Risen Jesus does not ask any of us to believe in him.  If we begin to explore the depths of the Christian faith we are not suddenly asked to sign on the dotted line in blood assenting to believing everything about the faith - we are not asked by Jesus to verify or falsify what the Bible says as FACT.  Neither though can we simply place what the Christian holds dear into the same category as belief in Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy, beautiful stories that enrich but do not change our lives.  Jesus says to us as he said to Thomas and those first disciples ‘Come follow me!’ and that means you if you have lots of faith or little; with questions answered and thousands not.  Faith is not about certainty or lack of doubt, but it is about hope and the future.  Hope is what Thomas saw in the Risen Jesus - my Lord and my God - and it is what he offers us when we come to him in honest doubt today.  So what about the Christian faith, can any of what we claim be true - I don’t believe it, but I have faith that it is.

Doubt/Faith

Here's a Wordle of this Sunday's Gospel reading from John 20:19-31...

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’

 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.'

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Leverstock Green Resurrection

A few weeks ago, a 6 year old girl was asked by her class teacher to write a letter with the following question “To God, How did you get invented?” Her father emailed the letter to various churches hoping for an answer, but got none. For good measure, he also sent it to “the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the response:

Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lots of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan
That tells me much more about Archbishop Rowan’s faith, in words I can understand than any lecture or synod address. It also reveals the tender love of a man who is writing an answer to a complex question - revealing all that needs to be known.

The same Rowan Williams put it well when he says that when we celebrate Easter;“we are standing in the Middle of a second ‘Big Bang,’ a tumultuous surge of divine energy as fiery and intense as the very beginning of the universe.”

What we are celebrating is on a level with the very beginning of time. And yet whilst both ‘Big Bang’ and ‘Resurrection’ are in many ways beyond the scopes of our imagination, together they do so much to define our understanding of the world. The former brings the world into being and the latter is through which a loving God renews all things in His love and transforms how we see the world and ourselves.

And yet both come without expectation. One of the strongest evidences for the Resurrection of Jesus is that his followers did not expect it. Their world had caved in. The hopes and dreams that had been theirs, now lay totally and absolutely devastated. Their world was shrouded in complete darkness. All that remained was to visit the tomb - those painful visits that we all make in times of loss.

In that darkness, Mary Magdelene and another Mary came to the tomb to anoint the body of Jesus. Matthew tells us of an earthquake and an angel sat in the tomb, with Roman guards outside frozen in a state of petrification. The angel tells the news that Jesus is risen and tells the women to let the disciples know for Jesus is heading for Galilee where it had all began. And then as the women who are by now a combination of joy and fear, hurry away to take the good news to the disciples, they are met by the Risen Christ. And they did not expect it.

Every year we tell these Gospel stories of the appearances of the Risen Christ and none of those closest to Christ expected the resurrection. Why? Because the Resurrection of Jesus was outside of their world vision. For the Resurrection of Jesus cannot but change how we see God, the world and
ourselves. Yes, like ‘Big Bang,’ it is a defining moment as it proves that all that Jesus said about God and himself must be true. I proves that death itself is defeated and it proves that what Jesus experienced is on offer to all of us! And yet so often we live like it resurrection is an every day event, or that it simply doesn’t matter.

I heard of someone who had a dream, and in the dream he dies and went to heaven, St Peter was there opening the gates to welcome him. As he is waiting to go in he noticed that some of his friends were there outside the gates unable to go in, some of them atheists, some of them buddhists, he said Peter what about my friends? St Peter said ah but you know the rules... So he thought, well what about my reference point - Jesus the outsider, Jesus the friend of tax collectors and sinners, Jesus the one who would always stay with those who were oppressed... And he said, you know what? I’ll just stay outside with them. St Peter breaking into a smile says - at last, at last you understand.

God so loved this world that he forsook heaven. That’s why Mother Thersea said, If I am ever to become a saint, I shall be a saint of darkness. For I shall not be found in heaven, but I shall be found outside as a light guiding the way.

Today we celebrate and event that took place some 2000 years ago that changed the universe forever. We beautify our church, we sing wonderful hymns. We go home with a warm fuzzy glow. And yet did it happen? How has it impacted our lives? How does it change the here and now on the streets of London, Libya or Afghanistan?

And is it true? Is it true? Is the resurrection of Jesus a tale to tell in child-like language? Is the resurrection of Jesus only a dream?  No. friends. If the resurrection had not happened why did the Marys and Jesus’ other disciples go and spread the news that continues to challenge and change our world? If it had not happened how was it that thousands of people in the Bible are recorded as seeing, talking to and eating with him. If the resurrection had not happened, where is the body? The tomb? The ongoing evidence to the contrary? If the resurrection had not happened, why did the church begin and millions of our people today talk about having known the Risen Jesus for themselves today? If it is true then what Jesus said about himself and God’s love for us is true. If it happened, then what Jesus experiences in new risen life is on offer to us - today, now. Our universe is transformed and all rules and norms are challenged because of the extent of God’s love for us.

Friends we deny the reality of the resurrection every time we walk away from people who are poor. We deny the truth of the resurrection every time we participate in unjust practises and unjust systems. The resurrection of Jesus did not happen for us to his love for others entombed in our hearts with a stone rolled in front... But we affirm the truth of Jesus’ resurrection every time we stand up for those who are on their knees. We affirm Jesus’ resurrection every time we speak out for those who have been silenced, when weep for those people who have no more tears left to cry and who long for hope and life.

The risen Jesus sent the women back transformed to Gallilee where the story all begins, in the midst of normal life. The risen Jesus stands among us today  us today. He sends us from here with news of love that will transform despair into hope, fear into love, darkness into light - expressed and lived in our lives here. Amen

A budget plan we can believe in! YAY Progressives!!

Please read the Congressional Progressive Caucus budget plan for 2012 here. The difference between the GOP plan and the Progressives plan is eye-popping!

Let me remind you, the Paul Ryan plan takes 4.2 Trillion from the middle class, the poor, and the disabled while giving 4.3 TRILLION to the top 2%! What the fuck is that all about and why do Righties support that?!
How is that trickle down worked for you middle America?? By my estimations NOT VERY WELL!

Don't confuse the Progressives plan with the Presidents plan either.

The CPC proposal:• Eliminates the deficits and creates a surplus by 2021
• Puts America back to work with a “Make it in America” jobs program
• Protects the social safety net
• Ends the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
• Is FAIR (Fixing America’s Inequality Responsibly)
What the proposal accomplishes:
• Primary budget balance by 2014.
• Budget surplus by 2021.
• Reduces public debt as a share of GDP to 64.1% by 2021, down 16.5 percentage points from
a baseline fully adjusted for both the doc fix and the AMT patch.
• Reduces deficits by $5.6 trillion over 2012-21, relative to this adjusted baseline.
• Outlays equal to 22.2% of GDP and revenue equal 22.3% of GDP by 2021.


Here’s how the CPC budget works.....
1. Extend marriage relief, credits, and incentives for children, families, and education, but let the upper-income tax cuts expire and let tax brackets revert to Clinton-era rates
2. Index the AMT for inflation for a decade (AMT patch paid for)
3. Rescind the upper-income tax cuts in the tax deal
4. Schakowsky millionaire tax rates proposal (adding 45%, 46%, and 47% top rates)
5. Progressive estate tax (Sanders estate tax, repeal of Kyl-Lincoln)
6. Tax capital gains and qualified dividends as ordinary income
Corporate tax reform
1. Tax U.S. corporate foreign income as it is earned
2. Eliminate corporate welfare for oil, gas, and coal companies
3. Enact a financial crisis responsibility fee
4. Financial speculation tax (derivatives, foreign exchange)
Health care
1. Enact a public option
2. Negotiate Rx payments with pharmaceutical companies
3. CMS program integrity and other Medicare and Medicaid savings in the president’s budget.
4. Prevent a cut in Medicare physician payments for a decade (maintain doc fix)
Social Security
1. Raise the taxable maximum on the employee side to 90% of earnings and eliminate the taxable maximum on the employer side
2. Increase benefits based on higher contributions on the employee side
Defense savings
1. End overseas contingency operations emergency supplementals starting in 2013, providing $170 billion in FY2012 funding for withdrawal
2. Reduce baseline Defense spending by reducing strategic capabilities, conventional forces, procurement, and R&D programs
Nondefense investment
1. Invest $1.45 trillion in job creation, education, clean energy and broadband infrastructure, housing, and R&D
2. Infrastructure bank
3. Surface transportation reauthorization bill
4. Finance surface transportation reauthorization by raising the motor fuel tax by 25 cents


Now come on people, what isn't there to love about this plan??? There is a stark difference between the Ryan plan and the CPC budget plan, you have to be Progressive HATER not to see this plan is what will save America.  Mr. President are you listening to the Progressive Caucus???? You better be, for your own future endeavors....Once this plan gets to the airways (We all know the media doesn't focus on liberal news) the country will be as supportive as I am.


Support for the People's Budget
Paul Krugman
Jeffrey Sachs
The Economist
The New Republic
The Washington Post
The Guardian
The Nation
Center for American Progress
Economic Policy Institute

A six-year-old girl writes a letter to God. And the Archbishop of Canterbury answers

This is lifted directly from Damien Thompson's religion blog in the Telegraph blog and I had to share it because it moved me to tears...

~~~~~~

There’s a charming article in today’s Times by Alex Renton, a non-believer who sends his six-year-old daughter Lulu to a Scottish church primary school. Her teachers asked her to write the following letter: “To God, How did you get invented?” The Rentons were taken aback: “We had no idea that a state primary affiliated with a church would do quite so much God,” says her father. He could have told Lulu that, in his opinion, there was no God; or he could have pretended that he was a believer. He chose to do neither, instead emailing her letter to the Scottish Episcopal Church (no reply), the Presbyterians (ditto) and the Scottish Catholics (a nice but theologically complex answer). For good measure, he also sent it to “the head of theology of the Anglican Communion, based at Lambeth Palace” – and this was the response:

Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –

‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.

Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.

But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.

I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lors of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan

I think this letter reveals a lot about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s sort of theology – more, indeed, than many of his lectures or agonised Synod addresses. I’d be interested to know whether readers of this blog think he did a good job of answering Lulu’s question.

But what the letter also tells us is that the Archbishop took the trouble to write a really thoughtful message – unmistakably his work and not that of a secretary – to a little girl. “Well done, Rowan!” was the reaction of Alex Renton’s mother, and I agree.

~~~~~~

Well done Rowan indeed! This letter reveals the profoundest of theologies expressed in the simplest of terms. It is written from the heart and from a father whose son will continue to ask the same profound questions that we all do from time to time...

Star Crossed Christians?

As I wandering through Sunae, in Korea, I was listening to another episode of the Boundless show. The hosts were having a round table discussion on who to date and who not date. There is, after all, a tendency of some people not to date anyone unless they know everything about the other person, from their denomination to their sexual history. Boundless thought, correctly, that this is unreasonable. It was their opinion that the criteria of who is eligible for an eligible date boils down to one thing: is that person a Christian?

This a good thought, but you can't help but wonder if it is that simple. Evangelical Christians and non-Evangelical Christians should be able to enter into a relationship. Yet simply adding religion to a relationship creates an entire spider web of issues that must be dealt with one way or another. Can Evangelical Christians and Non-Evangelical Christian date? (note, I'm asking about romantic involvement prior to marriage, not marriage.)

On facebook, my friends Andre and Nicole rightly mentioned that the terms need a bit more qualification. As a starting point for discussion here are three different pairs of potentially star-crossed lovers. Let's assume that all couples here are in their 20s and have never been married.

First, She's new to Seattle and joined Mars Hill Church! He's a nominal Methodist. They met at a friend's birthday. Star-crossed?

Second She came from a Catholic high school and he's a big fan of Rob Bell! They both attend UC San Diego! Star-crossed?

Third He's from the PCUSA and a conservative Calvinist. She's from Calvary Chapel. They've both been in marathon training. Star-crossed?

So the door is open for discussions. Ponder a bit before you respond. Also, don't feel like you have to share you own observations and experiences, though it would be nice to see some real life examples here.

For my part, there is one thing worth mentioning. One of favorite theologians once explained that Aristotelian Love is "like seeks after like." Christian love includes this, but it must go one step further. Christian love loves what is different, alien, and foreign.

In light of that I would like to believe that I am still open to dating an Evangelical despite shedding the Evangelical mantle years ago. Yet I am not naive. I know that evangelicalism has its own list of customs, expectations, and rules that I am not sure if I could fit into.

Yet there is hope. As I type this, I have one friend who is engaged to someone outside of his tradition. He is not the first either.

I look forward to everyone sharing their thoughts, especially those long explanations hinted at on facebook.

What Do You Do? I love...

I don’t really like those social events that you sometimes get invited to to where you have to do small talk. I always wonder where you go after ‘hello my name is Simon.’ One of the easy next questions is something like ‘How long have you lived here?’ or ‘What do you do?’ It’s a conversation starter, but we so often define people in those ways, and leave them at that most simplistic level - oh he’s an accountant, she’s a housewife, she works with kids and so on.

We do this in other ways too - we make assumptions about people all the time because of their height, weight, sexuality, gender, hair colour, and so on. Apparently though, we each have already made an assessment of someone and have weighed up their qualities as a person before they have even opened their mouth. We make thousands of subconcious judgements about each other because of our mannerisms and the way we look. It is something we have learned to do.

Today is a day of unlearning. Instead of defining people by what they do, Jesus encourages us to define people by what we do for them and what they do for us. Don’t define people by what you have already made up your mind they will be - an ex con, therefore they cannot be trusted - instead says Jesus, define them by what they are - fellow human beings, made in the image of God, precious to Him from all eternity and therefore loveable by you.
There seems to be a double focus to today - on the one hand the reading from 1 Corinthians designates today as the day Jesus celebrated Passover before he was betrayed, tried and crucified, and instituted what we recognise as the Eucharist. On the other hand our Gospel reading tonight does not emphasize the institution of the Eucharist. Instead Jesus emphasizes that his disciples need to continue to unlearn all of the social rules.  Today is Maundy Thursday from the Latin mandatum, from Jesus’ words - a new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you... Jesus says eat bread and drink wine to remember his presence in our lives and in the world, but He also calls us to loving service of others and we are to do both in remembrance of Him. Both are essential to our following of Him.

The last few years of our life together here at Holy Trinity have been about unlearning a way of being church, unlearning what we thought being a disciple was about. We have rediscovered that we are each in charge of our destiny with Christ and what we must decide is - do we follow Him or not, do we listen to God or not, do we take seriously that we are loved by Him or not. We have have been unlearning that church is something that is done to us, where we dutifully and gratefully received from Him, and learning rather is is something we are as His body here. As we gather at His table for the family meal in the Eucharist, we do as His brothers and sisters. Here He is remembered, re-membered, not as a historical figure on the pages of history, but as we eat bread and drink wine, He is literally present here amongst us - in each other, expressed by the quality of our love.

But we fail as his disciples if our remembrance of Him is forgotten as we step away from His table or as we leave the church building.  For tonight Jesus gives us a new commandment - yes, listen to what He teaches, yes love God and your neighbour and yourself, but that only has any worth if we are practically showing love to one another as Christ himself has loved us.

This is an abstract sort of comment for Jesus to make, so to show what he means Jesus takes off his outer robe, picks up a bowl and towel and begins to undertake the task of the lowliest of servants. ‘Remember me’ says Jesus, ‘by demonstrating the quality of your love practically to others.’

But Jesus, this night, is not interested in forming a heirachical community where everyone knows their place from the master of the house to the footwashing servant, where there are those who wash feet and those whose feet are washed, ‘Love one another as I have loved you.’ There is to be a mutuality in Jesus’ body where master and servant alike wash each others feet and love each other in turn.

In a world where we make snap judgements on each other’s character, on who are we are deep down in a blink of an eye, Jesus gives us His church, his body fed with his own body and refreshed into eternal life with His blood, a new commandment, a new way of being which calls us to give to others in acts of loving service, but also to receive love from them in the same way in return. It is a way of being which, when people try to catagorise us as a builder or a teacher, and they subconciously make all sorts of judgements  about us but the thing they notice about us is not what we do, but what we do for others - our expression of God’s love for His world and our receipt of in turn.

We love as He loves every time we support a grieving family. We love as He loves every time we visit someone lonely. We love as He loves every time we play a part in encouraging people out of poverty at home or abroad. And we are able to love because he loved us first by touching the leper clean, by raising the dead, by socializing with tax collectors and sinners, by taking a towel and washing my and your feet and dying for us.

It is not possible to make sense of all that Jesus does today and what he will do in us from Sunday onwards, without acknowledging what he will do tomorrow. It is Christ’s willingness to accept the Cross that makes sense of this self-giving love which we are offered and are to offer in return.
Today Jesus gives His disciples a new command as we remember Him - unlearning our ways of judging others, and as we follow Him learning new ways in love. It is that sort of loving that reveals Christ afresh and through it we are all called into deeper relationship in God. It is that sort of loving that reveals Christ afresh that reaches out and through our actions and words, God makes new disciples. It is that sort of loving that reveals Christ afresh and through it, and our changed lives, that whole communities can be transformed as we each unlearn how to be simply human, and learn from Christ’s loving actions how to become children of God. Amen.

Waning teabaggers.........

This teabagger needs to go back to grade school, no wonder she can't find a job, who the hell would be dumb enough to hire her??!

The tax day teabagger rallies were total flops, failures when it came to crowd size. A measly 100 to 300 turned up at these rallies all across the country. 'Course they still complained the lamestream media ignored them. Who the hell wants to see more of this hideous rallying with the likes of TheDonald, Sahara Palin, Batshit crazy Bachmann, Wingnut Sharron Angle....

 There she is, singing for her teeny tiny crowd of  teabaggers. Look at the old geezers, they don't have enough sense to understand their taxes are lower than they've been in 60 yrs. They don't care about Ryan's plan to demolish Medicare and privatize Social Security cuz they got theirs, they are safe, it's just those under 55 who get fucked by the Resluglicans. Damn, these people are so uneducated it's scary....

The truth about the teabaggers united is coming out....Independents for sure are turning away from supporting the TB's. This is the reason for the small crowd sizes at the rallies, not the weather, not because we aren't in an election year, it's because the truth of why these teabaggers are protesting against the government is simply their hate for Barack Hussein Obama.

About 300 Tea Party supporters turned out for a rally Thursday at the Michigan Capitol, a much smaller crowd than tax day protests in recent years. More than 1,000 people protested at the Capitol last year and 4,000 swarmed it in 2009.

Steve Stevlic, head of the Chicago Tea Party, told FoxNews.com that he hasn’t seen any signs of the movement fading. LOLOL! Keep your chin up teabaggers, and please stop blaming liberals for your dwindling numbers......


In Carson City, fewer than 100 activists rallied in support of Republican Gov. Brian Sandoval’s no-new-taxes pledge.

In Las Vegas, about 200 supporters gathered at the Sawyer State Office Building to protest the skyrocketing national deficit and call for cuts to spending. Supporters wore American flag T-shirts and waved anti-Obama, anti-tax signs but appeared less energized than in past rallies. Organizers noticed and shouted at them: “Wake up!”  --- HA! Don't yell at those poor old people, it was probably way past their nap time!

Advocates promise an even stronger showing in 2012, when their priority will be to take down the president. -----Oh yea sure, just remember teabaggers, Republicans in Washington and the Koch brothers don't care about you,  you're fighting against your own best interests, don't you see that???

Our President

“God, grant progressives the serenity to accept the things Obama cannot change, ...the courage to help Obama change the things that he can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

My Last Day (English)-- the Jesus Anime

Obama's Balls

"The U.S. is becoming the laughing stock of the world.", says the laughing stock in America...Donald Trump. He says Barack Obama is the worse president in American history. God what a buffoon, what a sick demented fool. He is making a fool of himself, the whole Republican party in-fact are making fools of themselves, if the world is laughing it is laughing at them!

This week President Obama  found his balls and the Righties are LIVID! Poor sulking manboy Paul Ryan, he thought Obama would take him up on his plan to demolish Medicare? Paul Ryan and his followers in Congress think the people will embrace the "Path to Prosperity which takes them straight to the PoorHouse"?  Paul Ryan and friends have given America a HUGE gift...the difference between the two parties hasn't been this clear in a generation. 
The choice is yours, do you want a party who swears by the old, stale, debunked  trickle down economics? Do you want a party who doesn't think twice about stripping away funding for food stamps, Medicaid, Head Start,  FDA, EPA, wants to turn Medicare into a voucher system, wants to privative SS?  Ryan and crew claim these cuts (and two thirds target the poor) will lower the deficit, but when he sticks in there the massive, trillion dollar tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations then you're looking at an increase in the deficit!

Has a Republican ever told the truth when confronted with the question "Why continue the corporate welfare"? They say the rich earned their money and why should they have to give more and more of it to the government to spend on social programs. Well you tell me wingnuts, WHY do the wealthy and trillion dollar corporations NEED tax cuts?  So they can amass more wealth for themselves? Let them earn their money the same way we do, let them be taxed like we are, but stop giving them fuckingtaxbreakstheydon'tneed!! Can't we start there??

The wingnuts are scared, they have no candidate to go up against Barack Hussein Obama, their plans for the economy are backwards and will never see the light of day, their ideas are stale and proven failures, their new brand name "Tea Party Patriots" is just more of the same old failed attempt at forcing their ideology onto all Americans, and it will be rejected once more. 

For the GOP to put forth a plan for the future, that the majority of Americans reject, is proof they don't listen to us. They live in their own little deluded universe. But that's okay, they can stay there forever....

Klone - Give up the Rest (Video)

Klone - Give up the rest (Live from Wolvehampton 10/4/11)

King's X excellent support act...

King's X - What is This (Live from Wolverhampton 10/4/11)

Maundy Thursday - Wordled

 


















 
John 13.1-17,31b-35

Jesus Washes the Disciples’ Feet

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God,got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.’ For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’

After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you?You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.

The New Commandment

When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’

~~~~~

Above is the reading set for Maundy Thursday and a Wordle of it too. Stand out words from the wordle are: wash, Jesus, God, one, also, know, Lord and especially feet.

Our feet are ususally covered these days by shoes and socks. There is still culturally a stigma about our feet. We don't like people touching them and in certain cultures to show the soles of them is the height of rudeness. Yet Jesus the servant Lord is the one who knows this and still washes them also because God made them.

I'm running out of titles for my posts on the GOP. I'm running out of words to describe them.....

President Obama spoke today on his budget plan. I thought it was a good speech....He said things a liberal could feel good about. The room was very quiet, he got some applause when he said this...

"In the last decade, the average income of the bottom 90 percent of all working Americans actually declined. Meanwhile, the top 1 percent saw their income rise by an average of more than a quarter of a million dollars each. That's who needs to pay less taxes? They want to give people like me a $200,000 tax cut that's paid for by asking 33 seniors each to pay $6,000 more in health costs. That's not right. And it's not going to happen as long as I'm President. This vision is less about reducing the deficit than it is about changing the basic social compact in America. Ronald Reagan's own budget director said, there's nothing "serious" or "courageous" about this plan. There's nothing serious about a plan that claims to reduce the deficit by spending a trillion dollars on tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires. And I don't think there's anything courageous about asking for sacrifice from those who can least afford it and don't have any clout on Capitol Hill. That's not a vision of the America I know".
This is when he spoke on Paul Ryan's plan. He was very critical of it, but how convincing was he?  When the budget battle begins will he fight for us? Will he stand on principal, will he say NO to the GOP when they demand the tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations be permanent? 

Before President Obama spoke today the GOP was out early spewing their incoherent, nonsensical talking points,
John Boehner said "You can't tax the very people we expect to re-invest in our economy and create jobs,"  "Washington has a spending problem, not a revenue problem."

Boner said now isn't the time to think about raising taxes....YET...Republicans are all for raising taxes on working men and women and small businesses. The only tax cutting proposals are for the rich and large corporations.  Do they think we are stupid?? When you give tax cuts to the wealthy you have to raise taxes on the middle class! Come on President Obama, the middle class is sick and tired of paying for the Republiscums deficit spending!

Supply Side Economics DOES NOT FRIGGIN WORK! Show us when and where it worked! Come on Republican citizens, you can't be that stupid can you??  The rich don't spend their tax savings, this economy is proof of that!

 The GOP  stands up and  vehemently says they will NOT bend when it comes to raising taxes on the rich, they swear by the tax cuts, they truly believe those tax cuts will revive our economy, will spur job growth!  Are they blind, deaf and DUMB??

81% of Americans Want to Raise Taxes on the Rich

President Obama and Democrats in Congress this is your time to rise up and fight the beast. The Obama plan or the Ryan plan...which one will reduce the deficit, which one will balance the budget, which one will keep Medicare intact, which one will be FAIR to the middle class???

 If allowed, Republicans will totally destroy the America we know today, in fact they are already doing it
Think Progress has some details for us…

Arizona
…Governor Jan Brewer is proposing to kick some 280,000 Arizonans, mostly childless adults, off the state’s Medicaid rolls. Brewer claims such a move is the only way to get the state’s fiscal house in order, as it would save $541.5 million in general funding spending…
…Instead of balancing out these draconian cuts with additional revenue increases or simply not making the cuts in the first place, Brewer instead signed $538 million in corporate tax cuts into law two weeks ago.
Florida
Last week, Gov. Rick Scott announced that he was canceling a proposed high-speed rail line between Orlando and Tampa — something that will cause Florida to forego $2 billion in federally-funded investments and cost the state at least 24,000 jobs…
…Such deep cuts in essential programs and services are necessary to offset Scott’s proposal to cut corporate and property taxes by at least $4 billion.
Michigan
…As Matt Yglesias has noted, Snyder has an innovative definition of “shared sacrifice.” His plan calls for “$1.2 billion in cuts to schools, universities, local governments and other areas while asking public employees for $180 million in concessions.” In addition, it would raise taxes on individuals by ending many deductions and taxing pensions — all in order to pay for $1.8 billion in tax cuts for businesses. Since the state’s entire budget shortfall this year is only about $1.7 billion, all or most of the cuts to services and programs important to the poor and middle class (many of whom will also see their taxes increases) could be avoided if the governor was willing to forego corporate tax breaks.
New Jersey
…After vetoing Democrats’ plans to raise taxes on New Jersey’s millionaires, Christie closed the state’s multi-billion dollar shortfall through a combination of measures, including simply refusing to make contributions to the state’s pension fund and steep cuts in education funding and assistance to municipalities.
…Christie is also being sued by Federal Transit Administration for keeping $271 million in federal funding for a tunnel under the Hudson — money he insists on keeping even after having personally canceled the project.
…The austerity measures and cuts to programs for the poor will have to be all the deeper this year as Christie is also insisting on cutting corporate tax rates.
Ohio
Gov. John Kasich demonstrated an early propensity for making future-losing choices when he made good on a campaign promise to kill Ohio’s federally-funded high-speed rail project — a move that will cost Ohio $400 million in badly-needed infrastructure investment, cost thousands of jobs, and derail millions of dollars in related private sector investments in economic development. Kasich, along with numerous other Ohio Republicans, has signed the Americans for Tax Reform pledge that rules out any tax increases to help the state make ends meet. Even though the state has an $8 billion budget shortfall, Kasich has gone even further in proposing a variety of tax cuts that would benefit corporations and the wealthy.
Texas
In facing down a $25 billion budget crisis on par with that of California, Perry categorically rejected any tax increases. Texas, as Paul Krugman said, already takes a “hard, you might say brutal, line toward its most vulnerable citizens,” as indicated by its poor educational performance and sky-high 25 percent child poverty rate.
…Perry also refuses to use any of the $9.4 billion in the state’s rainy day fund (some of which, ironically, comes from stimulus funds intended to help states stave off draconian cuts that Perry instead squirreled away) and is instead contemplating deep cuts to child services programs and education, among other things. Perry even floated a plan to drop Medicaid entirely. Perry’s proposed education cuts are so deep that they prompted an unlikely source to take to the pages of the Houston Chronicle to write in opposition to them — none other than former First Lady Laura Bush.
Wisconsin
Walker is of course now famous for his high-stakes war against Wisconsin’s workers. Walker has used a very small short-term shortfall and larger shortfall to come (which is still smaller than shortfalls the state has faced in recent years) to move forward with an unpopular plan to destroy the state’s public employee unions.
…Walker is also late in offering his budget, but it is believed that in spite of the supposed “crisis” and being “broke,” as Walker himself has said, his budget plans will include “a LOT more tax breaks” for the rich and corporations that will have to be balanced on the backs of workers or with painful cuts to state services and the state’s Medicaid programs, BadgerCare.

Read it and weep Righties, or not...these are your people, you are defending this kind of governing. Is it affecting you personally... YET?? It will...

I Deny the Resurrection

I have just wept... Thanks to Simon Rundell for sharing this... Wow...

Oh how I despise those Republicans....

I feel like slamming some Republiscums, are ya with me??

 That Paul Ryan and his "plan to rescue America from doom and gloom" is nothing but a big steaming crock full of dog shit elephant shit!  Have you heard anyone say this plan of Ryan's does not balance the budget until 2063? Do the wingnuts even believe we will all be here in 2063? Maybe that's why this whole plan is a big friggin joke.

We all know defense spending is killing us right? Well in the Ryan plan defense spending increases over the next ten years. Why? I dunno know, does he? So he increases defense spending when the wars are "trying" to come to a close, he slashes spending for transportation, energy, education, veterans benefits, agriculture.....he takes hundreds of billions from Medicaid, ends Medicare as we know it today.....AND YET what they won't tell you is this PLAN INCREASES the debt by more than 8 TRILLION over the next 10 years. The budget deficits will continue til  the end of time with this insane plan of his!

This is the part that makes my blood boil...these enormous cuts do nothing to fix the debt problem because Republiscums will work to reduce the governments revenues by 4 trillion over 10 years because of their beloved TAX CUTS! This will include a lower top rate for businesses and the RICH.....smart thugs, really, really smart.

The GOP will NEVER get it right. They can not fathom a tax increase on their rich cronies, not for a friggin second will they entertain the thought. So... cuts, cuts, cuts, with NO spending, and NO revenue coming in in the form of tax increases on the wealthiest Americans and corporations. Good frigginlord even a dumbass like myself can see this WILL NOT WORK!

This plan is so far fetched it makes me think this guy is up to something sinister...Yup he has a plan alright but he seems to believe the American people will take his side in the upcoming battle. Can you see the people agreeing to the privatizing of SS and Medicare so Wall Street can reap the benefits? NO! Can you see the people agreeing to more tax cuts for the rich? NO! When is it their turn to contribute to this economic mess? Does he think the cuts in infrastructure, energy, and transportation will help put people back to work? What does he think cuts in education will do to states? RAISE property taxes, that's what. Get those middleclass people right where it hurts you Republiscums!

Paul Ryan is gearing up for a fight over this budget proposal. He was asked at a news conference Tuesday whether any of his proposals might be enacted before the election, he replied, "At the end of the day we might just have to have a debate or a decision in this country about two futures." In a speech he made to the American Enterprise Institute he said,  "If we don't get agreements in the intervening time because of politics or whatever, at least in 2012 they'll have a real choice."  Oh they'll have a choice alright. The choice will be very clear Paul Ryan. If this country was to put a Republiscum in the White House by 2016 we would witness every single thing Obama has done to get this country moving, GONE, wiped out, killed! Education spending ......GONE, transportation spending..... GONE,  Veterans and energy spending....GONE!

 Paul Ryan is not worried this ludicrous plan will cause damage to his party. He is not worried the freshman teabaggers will be tossed out on their butts for backing this hideous plan. Ryan says this is a CAUSE worth fighting for.  

President Obama and Democrats are ready for this budget battle. Get your typing fingers ready, it's gonna be a great year!

Sunday Podcast

Here is my sermon from this morning based on Ezekiel 37:1-14 and John 11:1-42 set for today, Passion Sunday. The sermon is also by way of my Vicar's report for our AGM which happened today.

An announcment

The following was read at our services this morning...

To be announced in all churches on Sunday 10 April 2011

We are pleased to announce that the Rev’d Simon Cutmore currently Team Vicar in the Benefice of Langelei has been appointed as Priest-in-Charge of The Benefice of Mill End and Heronsgate with West Hyde. This is subject to the completion of legal formalities and when those matters have been completed we will be able to announce the date of the Licensing.

Please remember Simon and his family in your prayers.

What Are You Passionate About - A Sermon for Passion Sunday and Vicar's report for the APCM

On this Passion Sunday, I wonder - what are you passionate about? What is your vision? I have spent the last 6 months or so asking the clergy of Hemel this question as part of some work I am doing for Churches Together. The responses have been varied and inspiring and including: mission & evangelism, the transforming power of the Gospel & building community in various forms. I also asked the ministers to answer the same question as if their church members were answering. Again the answers have been interesting & not necessarily the same as the respective minister! They include: the quality of our worship and being community of disciples open to God.

This work has made me reflect though on how I might answer the question? I would answer in part with a quote - a blind person once asked St. Anthony: "Can there be anything worse than losing your eyesight?" He replied: "Yes, losing your vision."

The this year has been marked with me/us regaining our vision. I was privileged and thankful that the diocese & you gave me the opportunity to take Sabbatical leave the this year. During my time off, I spent time with churches that gather around the Eucharist that are growing - seeing what God is doing with them, & seeing if there are any common themes. I also read much about church growth and strategic planning under God. The time was a gift & I thank you for it. I returned with some renewed priorities and fresh vision. Since my return we have begun work on a big piece of work - our Mission Action Plan which is a direct outcome of my time away. My time off also helped think much about the importance of helping all of us grow in Christian faith and have seen some great opportunities for us each to do that & to that end I am delighted that we have now run an Alpha course. The feedback we have had from those who have been on the course is that it has developed new friends & deepened faith in God. This personal re-visioning for me personally has continued as I have attended some very worthwhile training events including a 3 day workshop on change management with 20 colleagues from the Eastern region’s dioceses, an Old Testament study day, & I am 1 of 30 30 clergy from the diocese selected to attend The Weddings project training.

The other big new responsibility that I have undertaken this year, is that I have become Vice Chair of Churches Together in Hemel Hempstead. I am committed to working with other Christians to see God’s Kingdom revealed. The fruit of that work has been a better working relationship with of churches, and a mutual support in ministry - several local churches helped with our Alpha course for example.

Much of this year’s work has been consolidating & building on God’s work in & for our growing church, much of it unseen by the church per se, but all of it enriching and revealing something of the love of God including supporting the key groups and their leaders with a quarterly round of house communions with each group for support and prayer in the context of worship, an increased level of personal pastoral work with a number of individuals in the community, a significant increase in ministry to the dying - I have prayed the Last Rites in the last 6 months more that I have in 11 years of ordained ministry. We have also seen the start a new group for men in the church which has been well supported.

In the last 12 months or so, I have become a member of our Diocesan synod and have and have continued my involvement with the Diocesan Board of Education, focussing on how we support our church schools best and most effectively.

Speaking of education, we have continued to strengthen our links with Leverstock Green school - I am leading worship there once a week and conducting 4 services in church for the school. As Chair of Governors I have a particular responsibility to ensure the school moves from strength to strength and to ensure that the Christian faith is experienced implicitly and explicitly in the life of the school. We are an Outstanding church school and are a leader in the Diocese in terms aspects of our life such as discerning the Christians values that underlie every aspect of the school (love, forgiveness and respect) & working to introduce a quiet space in each classroom for prayer and reflection. It has been particularly challenging year and the Head has required some particular support which it has been a privilege to offer & to give. Involvement with the school has provided the opportunity to walk alongside people in other ways through funerals and baptisms especially.

Talking of baptisms and so on, the number of occasional offices that I have officiated at this year has gone down - there were only 6 church weddings this least year for example and a similar number of funerals in church or the crematorium and baptisms. There are always peaks and troughs in these things. Things are already looking up on that front though with 13 booked for 2011 with a good number for 2012 already. We have also seen the sad deaths of some long standing church members in Sandy Walker, FLora Parr and Sara May. It has been a privilege to know and be known by them & together with them, to know the love of God.

Looking ahead over the next 12 months and beyond must be about, to borrow the living God’s Love headings, going deeper into God - there will be many opportunities for us to do this through bible study groups, our planned quiet day, and a planned Walk through the Bible event; making new disciples - we have a good number of adults expressing interest in being Confirmed in November this year and plans will be laid for another Alpha; and asking God to enable us to transform our communities - I hope for a full and imaginitive review of our childrenswork and plans being laid to provide for the needs of our growing church including the launching of a new service plus continuing to work in partnership with people as diverse as Leverstock Green school and the Leather Bottle pub. Another high will be the completing & acting on the God-given priorities identified in our Mission Action Plan. An exciting year indeed!

We heard in our readings today of a God who offer of new life in the face of death. This hope, says Jesus to Martha on their way to Lazasus’ tomb and to us, is not set at some fixed point in the future at the end of our lives, but the power of God breaks through in the now, subverting our expectations and surprising us with joy. The heart of this morning’s Gospel is not as such the raising of Lazarus but the intersection of three lives with that God in Jesus - and God’s power at work amongst them. At work amongst us today.

Jesus, on this Passion Sunday as we turn our faces with towards the cross, what are you passionate about? What is your vision? No mention of mission and evangelism or the transforming power of the Gospel or beautiful worship. His answer is revealed in the tears he cries at the starkness of the death of his friend Lazarus prefiguring his own death and ours; and in the vision of God to Eziekiel of the long dead warriors of Israel - that the hope, the love, the life of God is at work amongst ordinary people and for ordinary people like us, in tragedy and joy, and in both and in the intersection of our lives with Him, He offers both the power of God in resurrection and life in all it’s fullness. Amen.