St Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne

From a window in Bamburgh Church

Aidan is one of my heroes. He was a Columban monk sent from Iona as bishop for the Northumbrians after the first one didn’t take the locals seriously – a big mistake in Geordie-land.

Aidan by contrast had the gift of talking to princes and peasants alike and Bede has some wonderful stories about him in the Ecclesiastical History – famously giving away a prized horse given him by King Oswald to a beggar he met in the road.

Bishop Lightfoot said: “Augustine was the apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the Apostle of the English”. (It helps to remember that Lightfoot was Bishop of Durham.)

He died on this day in the year 651.

Collect

Everlasting God,
you sent the gentle bishop Aidan
to proclaim the gospel in this land:
grant us to live as he taught
in simplicity, humility, and love for the poor;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints

BassFest

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

Just back from the Bassingbourn Festival. 400 people in the Vicarage Garden for a feast of vintage rock with Jim Rockford, Rod Argent, John Verity and more. All giving their time free for a really good local bash with people of all sorts and ages having fun together and raising money for church and charity. More please! That’s the Vicar, Donald, in the Iowa shirt by the way …

Filed under: Church of England, Events

Blogging the Bible

Over the summer I’ve quietly started up another blog, posting the daily New Testament reading from Common Worship Morning Prayer and adding a comment. I’ve chosen a format that makes it fairly easy for you to add comments too, with the hope that a community of readers and commentators might evolve. A lot of clergy and lay people as well, in the diocese of Ely and beyond, are after all reading the same Scripture day by day, and pondering it, but often not in a context where those ponderings can be shared. At the moment we’re working through Mark’s Gospel and are just reaching some really interesting bits in chapters 6-8 (I’ve just written the comments for the coming week!).

Now launching it quietly in the summer means I have had the time to do it, and I intend to carry on until we reach the end of Mark in October. But it also means that not too many people have caught up with the project, and if it is to continue it will probably be necessary as well as beneficial to share the blogging around a bit.

So for now, do drop across to The Bible Study Blog at http://thebiblestudyblog.wordpress.com/, have a read, add a comment!, and consider whether you fancy being part of its future.

Ta!

Image by Wonderlane via Flickr

Technorati Tags: Bible Study,Blogging,Church of England,Common Worship

Filed under: Bible, Bible Study, Church of England, Resources, blogging

Café Church

What would you be doing if you weren’t in church on Sunday morning? The weather was excellent round here so I expect the cafés will have been doing a good trade.

The photo on the left was taken in one at Dun Laoghaire when we were on holiday there a few days ago, and as I sat, I mused.

People talk about café church. Cafés are places for refreshment between arriving and departing – especially this one, which is by a ferry terminal. You can see that there is food and drink to be had. And if you look carefully you’ll also see something to read (a newspaper) and make you think. If it hadn’t been such a blustery day, you might also have expected to see a crowd of other people to make some stimulating company.

So is there any good reason why going to church on Sunday instead of to the café shouldn’t be an even more refreshing experience? The meal we share, the book we read, even the company the keep, should be leaving Starbucks standing.

Filed under: Thoughts for the Day

John Bunyan

John Bunyan, whom we commemorate today, was born at Harrowden near Bedford in 1628.  He learned to read using the Bible as his grammar, and one could say it was the grammar of his life as well. He followed his father as a Tinker, and wrote of his modest origins, "My descent was of a low and inconsiderable generation, my father’s house being of that rank that is meanest and most despised of all the families of the land".

He served in the Parliamentary army in the Civil War, after which he returned to his trade and married a pious wife. Her faith drew him, and he became a Baptist, experiencing visions and proving a successful preacher.  He attacked the Quakers for their reliance on their own "inner light" rather than the literal word of the Bible. In 1658, he was arrested for preaching at Eaton Socon and indicted for preaching without a license, but his long-term imprisonment came after the Restoration when he refused to stop preaching.

He was released in January 1672, when Charles II issued the Declaration of Religious Indulgence, and finally licensed to preach, building a new sect of some 30 congregations in Bedfordshire and becoming affectionately known as ‘Bishop Bunyan’. A change of policy saw him back in Bedford gaol, where Pilgrim’s Progress was written, but his popularity led to his release, and James II even asked him to oversee the royal interest in Bedford (he declined) and acting as a chaplain to a Lord Mayor of London! He died on this day in 1688.

Collect

God of peace,
who called your servant John Bunyan to be valiant for truth:
grant that as strangers and pilgrims
we may at the last
   rejoice with all Christian people in your heavenly city;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

 

The Pilgrim’s Progress window in Fen Ditton church, Cambs.

 

 

 

Now reader, I have told my dream to thee,

See if thou canst interpret it to me,

Or to thyself or neighbour: but take heed

Of misinterpreting; for that instead

Of doing good, will but thyself abuse:

By misinterpreting evil ensues.

 

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints

The Beheading of St John the Baptist

The main celebration for John the Baptist is on 24 June, the date observing his birth, but his beheading has also been commemorated since very early times. In the Eastern Orthodox churches it is kept as a fast not a feast, even if on a Sunday. Wonderful Wikipedia tells us that in some Orthodox cultures pious people will not eat food from a flat plate, use a knife, or eat food that is round in shape on this day.

Collect

Almighty God,
who called your servant John the Baptist
to be the forerunner of your Son in birth and death:
strengthen us by your grace
that, as he suffered for the truth,
so we may boldly resist corruption and vice
and receive with him the unfading crown of glory;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints

The Meaning of Life’s Piligrimage

Filed under: Resources

St Augustine of Hippo

The earliest portrait of Saint Augustine in a 6th century fresco, Lateran, Rome.

It would be a bold bishop who summarised Augustine in a blog!

So – 10 facts about Augustine for the next pub quiz instead:

• He was born in what is now Algeria in 354. Try thinking of him as African not Italian.
• He as an orator and rhetorician before he was a Christian.
• And became professor of rhetoric at Milan (top job) when he was 30.
• You could say he was converted by his mum (St Monica), though St Ambrose had a big hand in it too.
• Key to this conversion was a childlike voice he heard telling him in a sing-song voice, tolle, lege ("take up and read")
• But before that, as wonderful Wikipedia tells us, he lived a hedonistic lifestyle, associating with hooligans (Latin: euersores, literally meaning wreckers) who boasted of their experience with the opposite sex and urged the inexperienced boys, like Augustine, to seek out experiences with women or to make up stories about experiences in order to gain acceptance and avoid ridicule.
• He famously prayed:  "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet"
• And also said: the good Christian should beware of mathematicians, …. the danger already exists that the mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and to confine man in the bonds of Hell.
• More helpfully for the religion/science debate, he decried interpretations of the Bible which denied scientific facts:With the scriptures it is a matter of treating about the faith. For that reason, as I have noted repeatedly, if anyone, not understanding the mode of divine eloquence, should find something about these matters [about the physical universe] in our books, or hear of the same from those books, of such a kind that it seems to be at variance with the perceptions of his own rational faculties, let him believe that these other things are in no way necessary to the admonitions or accounts or predictions of the scriptures. In short, it must be said that our authors knew the truth about the nature of the skies, but it was not the intention of the Spirit of God, who spoke through them, to teach men anything that would not be of use to them for their salvation. – De Genesi ad literam, 2:9
• He was also responsible for developing the theory of the just war.

Collect

Merciful Lord,
who turned Augustine from his sins
   to be a faithful bishop and teacher:
grant that we may follow him in penitence and discipline
till our restless hearts find their rest in you;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints

Faith Net East August Bulletin

FaithNetEast’s latest  e-bulletin brings its usual bag of goodies. I pulled out these:

Chaplaincy to People at Work Breakfast Briefing, 29 September, Cambridge

Doubletree, Granta Place, Mill Lane,CB2 1RT, 7.30am

CPW is organising the first in a series of breakfast meetings to look at issues that affect our work and our workplaces.

Ethical Leadership: Accelerated or suppressed by recession?

Cost: £15 per head. Book your place by August 31 by contacting
admin@workplacechaplaincy.org.uk

Discounted rate for parking in the hotel car park.

Icon? Art and Faith in Norfolk, 9-10 October, Norwich

Town Close Auditorium, Norwich Castle and Elizabeth Fry Lecture Theatre, UEA

A two day conference held jointly by the School of World Art Studies at the UEA and by Norwich Castle Museum, to explore the relationship between locality and the making and use of spiritual artefacts, with special emphasis on Norfolk. For further information, please contact Mrs Beverley Youngman, Secretary, School of World Art Studies and Museology, UEA, Norwich, NR4 7T.

e-mail: B.Youngman@uea.ac.uk. Tel: 01603 592817.

Religion and the News Conference, 11-13 October, Windsor

Cumberland Lodge, The Great Park, Windsor SL4 2HP

Why has religion become increasingly newsworthy in recent years?

What might be a model for a better relationship between journalists and religious spokespeople? Varying fees and some bursaries available. For further information, visit:

www.cumberlandlodge.ac.uk/our_conferences/forthcoming_conference_pages/religionandthenews or contact Mrs Janis Reeves: janis@cumberlandlodge.ac.uk  or 01784 497794

Church Urban Fund Mustard Seed Grants

Could your faith based social action qualify for a Church Urban Fund Mustard Seed Grant? Grants of £5000 are available to enable new ideas to be put into practice. To qualify the project must be based in an area whose scores on the national social deprivation register fall within the lowest 10%. Or it must be aimed at a specific marginalised and impoverished group such as the homeless. The statistics can be checked online, visit www.neighbourhood.statistics.gov.uk and enter the post code for your project area. For further information on CUF applications check their website www.cuf.org.uk

Faiths in Action round 2

Round two opened on 1 July 2009. Guidance notes and an application form are available from the Community Development Foundation. Application deadline October 1 2009 for grants up to £6000.

Faiths in Action supports delivery of the Government document, Face to Face and Side by Side: A framework for partnership in our multi faith society. All applications must directly relate to one or more of the fund’s four priorities, which are derived from this framework.

For further information visit www.cdf.org.uk, call the CDF helpline on 01223 400 341 or email fundingadmin@cdf.org.uk

Churches and Faith Buildings Realising the potential. 

A new joint publication from the government and the Church of England will help faith groups identify sources of funding to make their buildings more sustainable, by enhancing the facilities and services they offer to local communities.  It also discusses the importance of churches relating to local authority structures like LSPs (local strategic partnerships), and regional bodies like Regional Development agencies, the significance of projects and services delivered by churches, and the squeamishness of some funders to fund faith-based projects. ‘Churches and Faith Buildings: Realising the Potential’ can be downloaded at http://www.culture.gov.uk/reference_library/publications/5991.aspx.

Religion & belief in Norfolk today – what do you think?

Do you live, work or study in Norfolk? Do you regard yourself as belonging to a particular religion or belief, or have views about religion and belief in Norfolk today? If so then Norfolk County Council would like to hear from you.
Norfolk County Council want to ensure that the services they provide are accessible to and inclusive of everyone in Norfolk, whether or not they have a religion or belief. Please check out the short online survey about religion and belief in Norfolk today and let them know what you think. The Council will use the findings of the survey to help tackle any issues, and promote equality and fairness for all.
For further information or to complete the survey please go to www.yournorfolkyoursay.org by 14 September

If you have any questions about the survey or would like to request a copy in an alternative language or format, please contact Jo Richardson, Corporate Equality & Diversity Manager:
*       Email: jo.richardson@norfolk.gov.uk
*       Telephone: 01603 223816
*       Minicom 0344 800 8011

Filed under: Resources , Faith Net East

St Monica

Augustine ascribed his conversion to the example and devotion of his mother Monica whom we commemorate today: "She never let me out of her prayers that you, O God, might say to the widow’s son ‘Young man, I tell you arise’" — which is why the gospel of the widow of Nain is traditionally read today.

A statue of Saint Monica in Santa Monica, California, which is named after the saint.

Collect

Faithful God,
who strengthened Monica, the mother of Augustine,
   with wisdom,
and through her patient endurance encouraged him
   to seek after you:
give us the will to persist in prayer
that those who stray from you may be brought to faith
in your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.

Filed under: Celebrating the Saints