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| What's the job? | |
| 37 [11972] Posted by: James Mercer | Saturday 11 July 2009 - 12:27pm |
'What's the job?' When I started my training for ordained ministry the question upper most in my mind was 'What's the job?' That question remains: 'What's the job?' - both for the Vicar and for the parish church. At one level, of course, the answer for the Vicar is straightforward. The parish church expects its Vicar to lead services; preach; teach; visit (albeit set up, more often than not, to fail with that expectation!); pray; take funerals; lead school assemblies; ensure finances are sound; chair the PCC; conduct weddings; run courses; be available; host the parish BBQ; cut the churchyard grass(!) etc., etc. That's fine - to a point. But what is the real job of which these are subsets, the job of the Christian community within the wider community of which the local church is an integral part? What is the task to which we are all called, the task we are to explore creatively and cheerfully and seek to articulate? Well known words from 1 Corinthians 13.13: 'So faith, hope and love abide; these three. But the greatest of these is love'. Words, revolutionary when first written, echoed time and again in the New Testament letters - themselves an echo of the teaching of Jesus. Three key qualities that frame the task and identity of a Christian community. As St Paul puts it elsewhere, the Christian life is about 'faith expressing itself through love' (Galatians 5.6). But how is this to be expressed distinctly and practically and indeed, prophetically, by the worshiping community? Contributing to the 2009 York Lent Course, Tom Wright is characteristically unequivocal, and yet as always imaginative, as to the task to which the church is called: 'The Church has to be involved in two things. One which we can loosely call 'justice' - making the world reflect the wise justice of God. And the other of which is basically beauty. If God is the Creator, he created a world lavishly filled with beauty. And if we as Christians are doing justice and doing beauty, whatever that's going to mean, then when we start talking about Jesus it will make more sense, than if we just say 'Oh forget the world, you need Jesus', because then you invite people to look at their own navels, 'Oh, do I need Jesus? Am I feeling unhappy, happy, or what?' That's not the point. When you are invited to get on board with what God is doing in and for his whole world. That's how it works'. Absolutely. Here is clarity to bring to the task of the worshiping community - to be involved in two (complementary) activities: 'Justice' and 'Beauty' and so to be agents of God's Kingdom in putting the world to rights. And putting the world to rights is what Jesus accompanied once for all through the cross. Supremely in the resurrection on Easter Day, when all that was wrong with the world was over come and God's justice and beauty finally won the day. That is the story we are a part of. That is the story within which we are invited to write and act out an as yet unfinished chapter titled 'The local church: a servant community; following Jesus; for the good of the world' -cheerful and creative agents of God's justice and beauty. |
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| God and Art | |
| 38 [10288] Posted by: James Mercer | Monday 23 February 2009 - 08:45pm |
Vision/Division - An Open Art Exhibition 12 to 20 September 2009 Vision/Division is an exhibition of contemporary art, to be displayed within the church and grounds of All Saints' in Harrow Weald. Art to be exhibited will be contemporary work that expresses the hope engendered through vision and/or the reality and pain of division, both within the church and society. The work will be traditional or conceptual, embracing any medium, such as painting, photography, design work and textiles and include sculpture and installation pieces. Sculpture and installation pieces may be exhibited within the grounds of the church, which include the graveyard, now managed as a nature reserve, and woodland. To enter work for the exhibition please download application forms from: www.nasharts.co.uk For additional information about the Vision/Division exhibition please contact: Victoria Nash (Nasharts) Tel: 0791 7691 064 Email: nasharts@fsmail.net or James Mercer (Vicar, All Saints', Harrow Weald) Tel: 020 8954 0247 Email: james_ashw@mac.com |
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| Formed by God through Scripture in the Daily Office | |
| 39 [9958] Posted by: James Mercer | Sunday 1 February 2009 - 05:50pm |
| I was introduced to the regular daily office at theological college where I found the discipline of a start of the day time of corporate prayer and scripture reading to be of real value, not least in ordering clamouring priorities. The practice was continued a little less regularly (twice weekly) in my curacy within an Evangelical parish, but was foundational in enabling shared prayer and biblical conversation especially (but not exclusively) amongst team colleagues. It also provided fixed points during the week where you normally expect to find people in order to fix diary dates! The daily office has been revived at in my current parish. Sometimes the discipline proves irksome, there are always many things else that jostle for attention but thats partly the point, the discipline is good for me and, I hope, for my colleagues. Again it orders priorities and provides for the regular, orderly reading of scripture, following the lectionary. Sometimes we will have a congregation of eight or so; sometimes its just down to the parish administrator and me. But the bell is tolled and prayers are said for the sick, the parish, the church and the world, every weekday. The parish website has a link to the daily Common Worship: Daily Prayer feed to encourage those not able to attend to participate. Personally, and I hope Im not being hopelessly romantic here, I take great delight and comfort in the knowledge that friends and strangers throughout the UK and elsewhere are sharing in the same liturgically seasonal office, with its common readings and prayers, more or less at the same time. For me that is a surprising joy. | |
| A Dream for Evangelical Worship | |
| 40 [8599] Posted by: James Mercer | Wednesday 1 October 2008 - 08:51am |
| Hello Celinda. I, for one, would seek to inhabit this dream which to me is beautiful, liberating and creative. The dream embraces a liturgy which is flexible and yet true to the evangelical Anglican heritage. I interpret the dream as preserving the place of the creeds within worship, not marginalising them. Chris seeks to promote the beauty of creative liturgy in enabling worship and to restore and celebrate its place within the evangelical Anglican tradition. | |
| Fulcrum Response to Lambeth and GAFCON | |
| 41 [8502] Posted by: James Mercer | Tuesday 9 September 2008 - 08:30am |
No Adrian, please don't stop. The Fulcrum blogs would be the poorer without your perspective - and we all need humbling from time to time. |
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| the shack | |
| 42 [8183] Posted by: James Mercer | Tuesday 5 August 2008 - 10:08pm |
| Reading it now. I agree - it is stunning. A good Summer read. Here's a summary and some comments: The Shack is a book that seeks to provide answers to the always timely question Where is God in a world so filled with unspeakable pain? . It is a tale that revolves around Mack (Mackenzie) Philips. Four years before the story begins, Macks young daughter, Missy, was abducted during a family vacation. Though her body was never found, the police did find evidence in an abandoned shack to prove that she had been brutally murdered by a notorious serial killer who preyed on young girls. As the story begins, Mack, who has been living in the shadow of his Great Sadness, receives a note from God (known in this story as Papa). Papa invites Mack to return to this shack for a time together. Though uncertain of what to expect, Mack visits the scene of the crime and there experiences a weekend-long encounter with God, or, more properly, with the Godhead. Each of the members of the Trinity is present and each appears in bodily form. Papa, whose actual name is Elousia (which is Greek for tenderness) appears in the form of a large, matronly African-American woman (though near the books end, because Mack requires a father figure, she turns into a pony-tailed, grey-haired man). Jesus is a young to middle-aged man of Middle- Eastern descent while the Holy Spirit is played by Sarayu (Sanskrit for air or wind), a small, delicate and eclectic woman of Asian descent. Mack also meets for a time with Sophia, who, like Lady Wisdom in Proverbs, is the personification of Gods wisdom. The reader learns that Mack has been given this opportunity to meet with God so he could learn to deal with his Great Sadness--the overwhelming pain and anger resulting from the death of his daughter. There is very little action in The Shack and the bulk of the book is dialogue. The majority of the dialouge occurs as the members of the Trinity communicate with Mack, though occasionally the author offers glimpses into their unique relationships with one another. As the weekend progresses Mack participates in lengthy and significant discussions with each member of the Trinity. Topics range from the cross to the Trinity and from forgiveness to free will. He finds his understanding of God and his relationship with God radically and irrevocably altered. His faith is dismantled piece by piece and then put back together. As we might expect, he leaves the cabin a changed man. When the imagination of a writer and the passion of a theologian cross-fertilize the result is a novel on the order of The Shack. This book has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyans Pilgrims Progress did for his. Its that good! Eugene Peterson, Professor Emeritus Of Spiritual Theology,(Regent College, Vancouver, B.C. If God is all powerful and full of love, why doesnt He do something about the pain and evil in our world? This book answers that age old question with startling creativity and staggering clarity. By far one of the best books I have ever read. James Ryle, Author Hippo in the Garden The Shack by William P. Young Windblown Media 2008 ISBN 13: 978-0964729230 | |
| Mid-Lambeth Conference Letter by Tom Wright | |
| 43 [7986] Posted by: James Mercer | Sunday 27 July 2008 - 04:53pm |
| Ouch User 1784 - that came across as rather rude and ungracious. | |
| Same Sex Blessing at St Bartholomew-the-Great London | |
| 44 [7001] Posted by: James Mercer | Monday 16 June 2008 - 01:33pm |
| Lawrence I would not at all want to challenge the wise words you share. Indeed I'd endorse them. The events at St Bartholomew the Great would seem to be anything but wise however; rather the height of self-indulgent and at best, ignorant foolishness. The ceremony at St Barts does nothing to advance any listening process, but rather brings the church into disrepute (and not only St Barts). With stakes so high within the Anglican Communion this would seem to be nothing but folly. I suspect that this event was not intended as a cause celebre; rather it appears (from the BBC interviews) as the product of ill-informed judgement resulting in tragically arrogant action, which may have unforeseen and deleterious outcomes rippling way beyond the cosy and seemingly self-focused confines of St Barts. The parties concerned have not advanced any cause - they have rather, I'm sorry to say, been revealed as mendacious and duplicitous - which helps no one. | |
| wycliffe hall | |
| 45 [5896] Posted by: James Mercer | Friday 18 January 2008 - 03:04pm |
| In the light of the Wycliffe saga, I look back with gratitude to my happy time at one of 'plus 4 colleges', where ministerial formation took place in the context of partnership with students and tutors from colleges embracing a range of both Anglican and other church traditions. The principal was famous for his catch-phrase 'roots down, walls down'. Great preparation for the joys and challenges of working with colleagues as partners in the Gospel at parish and deanery level. | |
| Evangelicalism was never static, nor simply given. | |
| 46 [5446] Posted by: James Mercer | Monday 19 November 2007 - 09:24pm |
| Further to the info about 'regulative worship' revealed by a Google search, I can't help wonder how much personality rather then theology determines an individual's framework for worship. Elsewhere on another thread Jody speaks of the different theological languages different parties speak is personality a determinant here as well? How much does personality type influence churchmanship and indeed theological premise? Has any research been done on this? | |
| Evangelicalism was never static, nor simply given. | |
| 47 [5401] Posted by: James Mercer | Friday 9 November 2007 - 08:08pm |
| Darren, You write: "Of course conscience comes into this too, some of us (not me, at least not in the full sense) take the regulative view of worship which would rule out some of those things." I'm intrigued. Which things? | |
| The Cross and the Caricatures | |
| 48 [4176] Posted by: James Mercer | Thursday 26 July 2007 - 02:39pm |
| Well that's nice and clear then! | |
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