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On my travels yesterday, I stopped at the dump (sorry, ‘recycling centre’) to dispose of the mysterious boot load of junk that had been loaded into my car in my absence following a church working party on Saturday.
Having shifted the huge box our shiny new wall mounted baby changing table came in, I noted something tatty in a bag underneath and realised it was the much discussed fake Christmas tree.
In our church, there are two groups. Those who would adorn the church for all of December with tinsel, suspended sparkly things, Christmas trees and flashing lights. And those who would rather not! I believe the second group put the tree in my car and now it has gone to a landfill in the sky.
I will be hiding in the next few weeks when people are rumaging around wondering where it is.
Oh, the controversy!
A year or so ago, in the slashing cutbacks facing post offices, our local branch was relocated from it’s very functional building to the back of the Spar shop a few doors up the road.
And it is hell on earth.
I went to post my overseas Christmas parcels and came out swearing not to go in ever again. The shop is littered with promotional displays which you knock over if you have a buggy with you. Only 2 of the 5 desks were open. The queue snaked through the aisles of the shop blocking everything. They have rubbish toys and sweets displayed along the way to taunt anyone in the queue with a toddler. The old folks are nearly collapsing in need of a seat. And the unemployed chap who wants some company is trying to engage the teller in a detailed discussion on the implications of the Budget stuff announced yesterday for the unemployed and post office staff.
I think I’d rather they closed it down completely!
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…of the Bishop’s Christmas Card competition is Charlotte, age 4, from North Berwick.
Congratulations to her!
A merry band of judges assisted the Bishop in the deliberations today. And it was not easy to judge such varied artwork from children ranging from age 2 to 15. We had reindeer, snowmen, angels, crib scenes, christmas trees and stars. All fabulous! It was like Blue Peter -unfortunately we could only have one winner.
Now you just need to hope that you are one of the 400 people on Bishop Brian’s Christmas card list!
I wonder if anything inspirational ever happens at a church AGM?
Ours was pretty dull today, but at least it was pretty brief. Brevity is encouraged by the fact that it happens after the 11.15 service and people want their lunch.
The highlight for me was my daughter disappearing under the altar (I was taking the minutes and only had half an eye on her) and clunking bottles of communion wine together.
I guess real discussion happens in the Vestry meetings. It just seems a shame that so many of the congregation don’t contribute their thoughts as to what is good or not, or what they want for the future. That happens in whispers elsewhere!
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: fischy music, Godly Play, scottish churches house
I’m wondering why all the churchy stuff I have done this week”for children” has provided the most spiritual reflection and enrichment that I have had in many years?
The Fischy music birthday weekend did not disappoint. The concert was a real family day and children and adults can relate to their music in different ways.
And then 3 intense days of Godly Play training at Scottish Churches House in Dunblane. We were a group of 13 participants and 3 trainers. All women and very supportive.
I think we heard 17 of the stories over the 3 days, with each participant having to learn and tell one. I am now a complete convert to Godly Play and although it is thought of as a methodology for children, I would love to do it with adults too. The effect it had on the people being trained was testament to the depth of the method. So I have a new string to my bow and can offer to do Godly Play taster sessions for groups who want to find out more.
As I ended up with some of the material in my car, I tried telling my son ”The Great Pearl” parable at bedtime this evening. He was quite accepting, but at the end said “Mummy, can I have a real story now and not a pretend one”!
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As I start rolling back the years and get myself into Godly Play storytelling mode for the next three days, here’s a joke from Cbeebies today-
“Why did the worms not enter Noah’s Ark in an apple?
Because all the animals went in in pairs…”
They don’t need to be dirty to be funny!
I’m getting quite excited about going on the accredited Godly Play Teacher training next week in Dunblane. Unlike my first aid course, this training should not leave me squeamish and queasy! The great thing is that it also means that there will be another 12 people trained in Scotland. And I will know who they are!
For anyone interested who couldn’t make next week, I notice that the dates are up on the Godly Play website for another 3 day course, this time in Aberdeen on 27th-29th April 2009.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bishop's christmas card competition, children, church
I’m delighted each time I come in to the Diocesan Office to find a new batch of entries for this most exciting of competitions!
There is still a week to go to get your entries in (under 16’s only!), so if you haven’t already, get the kids in your church or family to be artistic.
Details on entering are here.
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When you have young children, you expect to have some sleepless nights. But you don’t expect to have nights where you are being woken up by strange angelic singing from an unaccountable source at 4 in the morning.
We had two nights of this which was starting to freak me out a bit and make us a bit tired. The singing was so quiet you had to really still yourself to hear it (but it woke us both up?). If you got up to try and locate the source of it, it stopped. On getting back into bed, it would start up again and it was near impossible to work out where it was coming from. We even had ladders up to the attic at 4am…(When I say “we”, I was naturally project managing the investigations from under the duvet while my husband carried out the allocated tasks!).
The scientist in me wanted a rational explanation but it took us ages to find it. New houses don’t have ghosts. Ghosts don’t exist anyway. It wasn’t threatening, so why could neither of us sleep?
So what was it?
We have a fancy clock radio weather station thing beside the bed on which the radio is never used. The radio is not properly tuned. It also has a sleep timer which is never used. We have small children who fiddle with buttons. On turning on the bedside lamp, the singing got a tiny bit louder and I realised that the lamp was interfering with the radio. The music stopped when somebody got up because the radio was picking up a better signal if we were close to it. The volume was so quiet we couldn’t pick up the direction of where it was coming from.
Gadget has now been disabled and we had an undisturbed night last night. All very silly but somehow time consuming. Better get on with some work now that the mystery is solved!
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It must be something about being ‘30 something’. Some friends have settled down, married and have children and others haven’t yet. It is somehow easier to keep up with those who are struggling along with the same things as you are. But at the same time, when you catch up with someone you haven’t seen for ages, regardless of their set-up at home, it is really nice.
One of the treats of friends with no children is the food. No fishfingers in sight. We had a great 3 course home-cooked Sunday lunch today and my children didn’t break anything which is always a bonus.
As we were passing Ikea on the way back, it seemed sensible to nip in and buy the Godly Play storytelling cushions I had promised to get for my C of S colleague. So much for the credit crunch. The place was heaving. It is not possible to ‘nip’ into Ikea. Even if you go the short cuts it is not quick. And it is not pleasant when your toddler coughs so much that she is sick inside her coat and you have to try to zip it up so no-one notices!!
The joys of children. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
