Nothing compares ...

Once again the old steam driven tower pc I persist in using won't let me cut and paste into a Facebook note so I am replying to one I was tagged in here.
It is the "Favourite Music for Worship" meme, following hot on the heels of a previous one about your least favourite chorus, which I declined to do (as it would have taken all day to decide which one of many cringeworthy things I have sung over the years would get that title).

So here are the questions
1.What is your favourite piece of music for congregational singing? Why?


2.What is your favourite piece of music for performance by a group of specialist musicians within a liturgical context? This might be a worship band or a cathedral choir or just a very snazzy organist or something else entirely, but the point is that it is not congregational singing and it is live music in liturgy.

3.What is your favourite piece of music which makes you think about God to listen to outside of your place of worship? Why? This could be secular music.

4.What is one thing you like about the music at your usual place of worship? Have you told the musicians about this lately?

And these are my answers. Reading this? You're tagged!
 
1. My favourite piece of music for congregational singing would have to be Keith & Melody Green's "There is a Redeemer". It was a close run thing between this and "Thine be the Glory", but I went for it in the end because it was sung at my ordination, and also because it was one o f the first songs I learnt following  my conversion in the mid 80's. The slight downside is that I usually end up thinking about Rory McGrath while singing it because he kind of looks like Keith Green...
 
2. I don't like the idea of performance in worship (justabout getting used to the concept of worship musicians having a "set list") but I am always very blessed by the worship team at St Mary's Church, Stebbing, when they play during the distribution at communion services. It doesn't really matter what they play!
 
3. The title of this post gives this one away. "Nothing Compares 2U by Prince (or more usually Sinead O'Connor). It's like a Psalm for me, a lament, though I know not all the lyrics really work. I'd love to do just the chorus in a Taize service one day.
 
4. See 2, and also, the organists in Lindsell and the Salings (who are both reading this via Facebook) never cease to bless me with their dedication and talent and desire to diversify.

5 deeply de Christian doctrines

So many people have been responding to this tag recently its hard to come up wuth anything original, but I did say i would respond to Phil's tag so here goes. They're not really tuaght doctrines as much as doctrinal assumptions from what we sing or say in Church.

1. "The rich man in his castle
The poor man at his gate,
God made them high or lowly
and ordered their estate."
NO - HE DIDN'T ORDER IT, WE DID! Fortunately we don't sing this any more unless the funeral director is particularly inept (which mine aren't), but sometimes I feel the sentiment is there in conversations, for example, about travellers or why no one from the estate comes to church.

2. "The little Lord Jesus no crying he makes".
OK so he was breastfed, but even those babies cry sometimes!

3. "Christian Children all must be mild obedient good as he."
This is an interesting one; it is not un-Christian to aim for a situation in which children are focussed on Christ as their moral and ethical role model. What is de-Christian about this hymn is that i'm not sure that singing those words with gustio are the best way of going about that aim.

4. "The young people are the church of tomorrow". I get so angry about this that I will just let it stand.

5.All-age worship isn't really church though is it (see no,4)

Concerto for a rainy day

Finally getting round to reflecting on the teaching and worship at New Wine LSE. I've been whining about the weather for long enough and something has got to distract me from keeping looking at the cricket score today!

I spent the mornings in Venue 2 which is smaller and louder but more relaxed and informal than Venue 1. I liked the fact that normal people, not just New Wine leadership team members, are deemed suitable to pray at the beginning of each session. Mike Breen was the speaker all week. He was reflecting a lot on discipleship, comparing it usefully to Horse whispering (you'll have to download the talks, or read my steal) and giving some really good insights into the significance and typology of the Abrahamic covenant, relating the story of Isaac's "sacrifice" to the sacrifice of Christ and saying some helpful things about the whole PSA debate.

Mike speaks with humour and with speed, but is entertaining enough that when you disagree with him (as I did about bishops) you don't get too cross and keep listening.

In the evenings I joined the herd at Venue 1, which had a variety of speakers. Amy Orr-Ewing was very good, though not exclusively because she was a woman under 50 on the stage at Venue 1 in New Wine (next step an ordained woman - come on you people!)

Michael Duncan blew me away with his testimony and his challenge to men to "step out". I haven't gone forward for prayer at New Wine for about 5 years - that day it was twice - once in the morning at venue 2 for over-burdened ministers , once in the evening at venue 1 for men. Mark Melluish said something very significance during the build up to the prayer ministry following Michael Duncan's talk.

He said (quoting as I remember it) "It's not very politically correct, but I think a lot of women have been waiting for this for a long time, I'd like only women to pray for these men as they come forward". The significance of this, in the light of various debates about New Wine's attitude to gender roles and ministry, is that women were freed to pray over, prophesy over, and speak with authority into the lives of men. OK its not quite the same as the ordination thing but for me it was a significant shift, and it was liberating.

Mark Melluish also spoke very movingly on the last night about the events in his family following his son's serious head injury earlier in the year. This was also a significant evening, touching as it did on issue such as the tension between what happens when God heals and when he doesn't, as well as giving a challenge to our middle class comfort zone when it comes to sharing faith in multicultural environments like ITU family rooms.

The worship this year was also good I enjoy Eoghan Heaslip (aka Shaka Hislop because I can never say his name right) and Kathryn Scott made a nice change. Matt Redman's looking a bit chubby these days but can still cut it, and also in venue 2, Bill Donoghue and Nick Herbert woke me up well in the mornings.

I didn't go to many seminars this year as I spent more time networking and drinking free coffee in the Leaders' Lounge, but I wasn't going to miss "Building an Outward focused church" led by Alan Scott from Causeway coast vineyard. It was ace, and once you've translated "vineyard" to "Anglican" in the cultural references, it was most useful. The most challenging thing he said in the light of the fact that we've just put together our vision statement, was that "If no one is leaving your church, your vision statement is too broad". I guess I'm ambivalent about the Vineyard tendency to say "if you don't like it you know where the door is", but sometimes I wish I could say it!

Other highlights included the good old Groundbreakers family celebrations, and my daughter on stage with the New Wine kids choir. And of course staying up late in the gazebo talking with the gang.

Next year we might try Newark, to see if we can tempt a few more of this lot to come.

I'll never be the same

A lot of people were talking about this BBC Pentecost Service, but being a TOG I hadn't heard Chris Moyles' comments on Radio 1. It's fantastic stuff - When'a the last time you heard anything so positive about Christianity on Radio 1?




Thank you Annedroid

...was Crucified for me

In this benefice we mark Good Friday with a walk across the benefice, tracing the passion narrative from Gethsemane to the tomb of Jesus in four acts of worship, one in each Church. this year we started at 9am at Lindsell, with a reflection on the arrest, from Matthew 26, then set off for Stebbing.

We arrived early at Stebbing, allowing time for people to take in the all-age
stations of the cross which will be in the church over the whole weekend. The
youth group had also installed and illuminated in red a 12 foot high wooden
cross which left one with a powerful impression. The worship centred on a
dramatisation of Matthew 27, ending with a children's DVD depicting the
soldiers' mockery. I then led the congregation in an active prayer, inviting
them to come and touch the cross and pray silently for those who suffer. After
the service we had a relaxed lunch in the sunny churchyard before setting off for

Great Saling.

At this point inthe procedings the timing went awry; even though we left Stebbing before the advertised time (and so some people missed us) we still arrived at Great Saling late and in dribs and drabs so several people missed the third service including me, as I was in the churchyard "looking for angels" with my 6 year old daughter. However, I am confident the service was based around a quiet meditation on the crucifixion, from Matthew, Luke and John. I was getting stressed about the timing cock-up, but then I reflected that on the first Maundy Thurday/Good Friday every moment was totally chaotic as Jesus went from the garden, to and from his trials, and to the cross. We read it as flowing smoothly in the gospel accounts but, other than a resolute Christ at the centre of the vortex, it must have been as if a hurricane hit the city. In any event, slightly late, we departed for the last leg of the journey to Little Saling

The two Salings are very close; it's only about a 25 minute walk, but for those who did all 12 miles the tea and hot cross buns were very welcome. The final service, focussing on Jesus' death and burial, was very moving, quietly reflective, and with some good hymns. I was left turning over a new thought in my mind. Did Joseph of Arimathea give up his family grave out of pure devotion to Christ, or because he was expecting him to rise? Was he one who actually got the message about "and I will rebuild it in 3 days" etc. He is always characterised as a secret believer and bracketed therefore with Nicodemus; did he actually understand that he wouldn't be giving up the family plot forever? Just a thought.

The weather had been fab all day, but as we left the church at the end of the final service the rain came. Given that last year the rain and wind were constant, freezing and horizontal most of the day, this was felt to be a good result!

He saved with a mighty hand every man every woman every child he's a mighty flash

This video, and indeed the concept behind it, from Malcolm Chamberlain in Liverpool, is awesome

You've set this captive free

Well I never watch Eastenders so was mightily surprised to spot, when I turned on the TV just now (to read on the red button about a trillion dollars), Vila from Blake's Seven playing the vicar at a wedding.

I thought that would be the most bizarre thing I saw today but then I saw this from the Ugley Vicar which just takes the biscuit. (s'pose I should h/t Rachel but she may not thank me for it!)

I always thought that chorus "I give you all the honour", when it got to "And I worship you, I give my life to you .. " sounded like the middle bit from the theme from Blake's 7.

Back home

We're back, after an exhausting but also uplifting and refreshing week at New Wine. Great worship, enjoyable and informative seminars and profound teaching and prayer ministry. It is great to be in a church where the stuff we bring home from New Wine is welcomed!

It was also excellent to do a bit of networking with old friends and new, though the highlight has to be being recognised by the worship leader, Vicky Beeching, who hadn't seen us for about a decade.

Back to the grind now, combining school holidays with parish work is always a joy and a challenge.

Lambeth seems to have gone pretty well in the end - prayer probably has more to do with it than politics, but that's not what the papers will say