The Vicar's Blog

Only 1 month to go to our Diamond Jubilee celebrations at St John’s Watford.  I have to say I am getting a little excited as the Queen of New Zealand celebrates 60 years as Queen.  People in the UK always give me a funny look when I refer to the Queen of New Zealand and Her other Realms and Territories over the Seas – but that’s precisely who she is- and indeed one of her titles.  (She is also Queen of Australia but no one is perfect )

We have a packed day for Sunday 3^rd June to celebrate this great event – We start the day with the 10am Celebration of Holy Communion – as there can be nothing better we can offer.

We will then host a Party at 3pm – with party games and food for the children and cream teas for the adults. –I must confess I am hoping to win the Pass the Parcel (the Vicar must get some perks!)

At 4pm – we have “Proms of Praise” a cross between last night of the Proms and Songs of Praise, a good old sing a long of the old favourites, with some fun, flag waving, and general pomp thrown in.  I am delighted that Watford Brass Band will be joining us to raise the roof and celebrate the Jubilee in style.

I hope we will see lots of people from our community come along and join in the fun.    Keeping with the truly British theme we will have some cucumber sandwiches and Pimms afterwards to enjoy.  Please get in contact if you have and questions or want to help out and I look forward to seeing you there.

God Save the Queen

These are exciting times as we approach our Annual Parochial Church Council (APCM) meeting – the election of Council members, church wardens and all the other vital offices that keep us running.  Also it gives us a chance to reflect on the past year and look forward to what the next year has in store for us.

I often hear Clergy and parishioners grumble about the annual meetings and church meetings.  My response is often “if you hate meetings you must be doing them wrong”!  These meetings are for us to have our say, for us to be heard, for us to listen to others point of view, and be updated about things that matter.  There are of course certain formalities and procedures to go through and this will happen on Sunday at our APCM.  If the meetings aren’t giving us what we want and need – we need to come up with a new way to make them work.

I am really excited to see the nominations for our PCC elections – a few new names and some long serving members – a good mix I hope.  Meetings are like so many things, you get out what you put in.  I would encourage everyone to have their say at meetings, we all have such an important part to play. I know, people don’t like to speak up if they don’t agree with things or see an obvious flaw with a plan; mainly for fear that they will come across as negative or unsupportive.   It’s so important that we all get to hear these views as some of us can get carried away with our enthusiasm for ideas and often miss the potential problems.  A problem highlighted early can prevent a lot of wasted energy and sometimes money.

Likewise it’s important to speak up if we think something is a good idea, even if some of the detail is yet to be worked through.   It can be disheartening when presenting an idea and getting no response either good or bad!

I am still loving our new look Website – and we have received many positive comments from people, and some ideas for further development and changes.  If you have any comments please do get in touch we would love to hear your views.

I have some great and ambitious ideas for our next year in the Parish, which I will share at the APCM.  I hope they will be well received with a nice stabilising balance of caution from some as well.  I will share our ideas via this blog as they develop – so what this space.

On a slightly different note, if you are in and around Watford on the 3^rd June the Queens Diamond Jubilee Weekend – come along and join us for our special Jubilee Celebration Party and “Proms of Praise” concert, it will be lovely to see you.

Alleluia Christ is Risen! & a new look website…

Lent has been a time of preparation and lots of hard work – one piece of the hard work has been our new look website.  I have to say I am really delighted with our new look– the content has had a complete overhaul and we are trying to make ourselves a bit more outwards facing.   We now have lots of helpful information on Baptisms, Weddings, and Funerals; those great services that we can offer to all who live in our community.  We also have pages on our weekly Sunday school and information about whom and what we are. We even have a contact form, so please use it and do get in touch.

Easter is a time for rebirth, for new growth and for us to become reenergised. As I ponder what to blog about I feel I should be drawing on the great accounts of our Lords Passion and resurrection, but rather strangely I find myself drawn to the famous parable of the 5 barley loaves and 2 fish. A Sunday school favourite where Jesus is surrounded by crowds, wanting to see what all the fuss was about and then evening was drawing in and the crowd was hungry.

So it seems that, one rather organised boy had a picnic for him and his family and friends – just 5 loaves and 2 fish. Certainly not enough to feed the hungry crowd, but never the less Jesus instructed the disciples to share the food amongst the crowd. What seems to really sing out to me in this story is the boy with his picnic.    Despite the seemly impossible situation of over 5000 people and only 5 small barley loaves and 2 fish, the boy still offered what he had.  The boy had the courage to share, to believe that his offering was good enough to share and was going to satisfy the people who ate with him.  I wonder what the boy was thinking: Was he embarrassed it wasn’t enough food? That the food wasn’t good enough to share? Or was he worried he might end up hungry and going without?

Do we have the same worries as Christians’ and members of St John’s Watford? – is what we have not good enough for others? Do we want to keep it for ourselves?  Are we worried we will miss out?

We need to be more like the little boy with the 5 loaves and 2 fish, we must have faith that we have enough, we must believe that things are worth sharing and we must be brave to let others have some.  What we have is too good not to share.

Our new website, our Mission Action Plan, us living our lives, is all about us sharing what we have.  I hope this will be the start of a chapter in our lives were we start to look outwards and joyously share what we have.   I sometimes hear people grumble about those that only come to “our Church” to get married or have their children baptised.  I think, how wonderful it is that we can be part of their lives at this most special and glorious time and they have chosen to share this with God and with us.  We must rejoice in all that we have, welcome all visitors as if they were Christ himself and have the faith to share. Please do let us have your comments on the new website -  I am so very grateful to Simon our webmaster who has put in countless hours planning, writing, designing and building our website and to all those who have contributed.

As we enter this Joyous Easter Season, do we need to be more like the boy in the parable and have the faith and courage to share what we have?

It is hard to believe that Lent is upon us.  I do rather enjoy Lent – that time of taking stock, clearing out & taking on extra things.  It has been fashionable of late to talk of taking up positive things rather than focusing too much on denial and going without.  Denial is what Lent is about.  I have nothing against taking up some worthwhile cause or activity.  I do however think there are some definite benefits in denying ourselves something – not as some kind of punishment but giving up something that will remind us again and again that we are in Lent and the amazing sacrifice of Good Friday.  By stripping away some of the niceties in life we may find the space and time to go deeper into Gods Love, to have space to reflect, to pray and to take up some new activity.  Denial helps remind us how weak we are.  How can it really be such a struggle not to have a chocolate biscuit for 40 days?

So what am I giving up?  My plan is to give up Alcohol for the full 6 weeks of Lent.  I have to admit I do really enjoy a nice cold bottle of beer on a Friday evening, a nice pint on a Sunday evening when the great celebration of Sunday is coming to a close and maybe even a pint or two in the pub in the week with a good natter and a catch up. It hurts to give it up, I really notice it and I look forward to Easter day and a nice cold beer.  I miss going to the pub, I miss relaxing and chatting over a beer, but I know its good for me to give up, good physically in that I consume less alcohol, its good spiritually, good to know that I can resist and good to know I still have some will power.

Will I fail – yes I probably will, but then an even greater show of will power is required to start the giving up all over again.  So what has giving things up got to do with anything?  How will be not having a beer change the world or help people in need?

Understanding ourselves, proving we are in control and removing clutter allows us to make space in our lives to look inwards.  It is only when we know ourselves that we can truly shine & radiate Gods love into our world.  Looking honestly at ourselves is a very hard thing to do, looking at all our weakness, failings and shortcomings.  Its rather humbling to remember this rather unpleasant view is what God sees, and despite all this he still loves us and wants us to do his work.  Doing God’s work is what makes the difference.

Let us look forward with excitement and joy to what Easter will bring – the celebration, the chocolate, the cold beer and the knowledge we have some will power and a better understanding of ourselves.  We need to have seen winter to really enjoy the spring and we need Lent to relish in the glory of our risen Lord as we remember and celebrate the greatest feast of all…..[ insert the ‘A’word here on Easter day]

Go on give up something up that will hurt a bit, you will be richer for it, even richer if you fail and give up a second time.  Deo Gratias

And so the Christmas Season has been rounded off with our celebration of Candlemas and we are now rapidly approaching Lent. The Crib scene is now safely packed away for another year – Our celebration of Candlemas at St Johns a couple of weeks ago was simply wonderful – filled with joy and beauty, it was especially lovely to be joined in Church by our Sunday school to process round with our candles.

Getting ready for our services takes a surprising amount of time, especially when we celebrate one of the great feasts of the church.  There is so much to sort out, – thinking through the Liturgy, where are we going to stand, what route for the procession, what hymns, when do we relight our candles.  Of course there are lots of short cuts we could have taken, miss bits out, do what we did last year (if anyone can remember), or wing it and see what happens.  However, I know when we rehearse and put some effort into preparing; things are less stressful, things work better and we can focus on the meaning of what we are doing instead of wondering what might happen next or what might go wrong.

I think there is something in the human disposition that means we always want to jump into the doing, the action, the good bit.  I hate preparing to decorate a room – all that washing of walls, sanding, stripping off of old paper, before I can get on with the “fun bit” of sloshing the paint around.  Mission Action Planning feels a bit the same- its tempting to want to jump straight to the end and do the doing, the changing, making a difference but we need to get it right, discern what is needed and prepare the way.  We need to be strict with ourselves and really discern, hold our selves in the preparation phase before we can then get on with the doing.  Following the process means we are more likely to get it right, our changes more likely to work and hold.

I am full of excitement and enthusiasm as our Mission Action Plan groups meets and begins to map out the process, generate ideas and make changes.  It’s tempting to assume that we must all be excited and positive.  Given that we are a diverse group, all of us agreeing is very unlikely – and that’s a good thing.  We need to hear the cautious voice, the cynics those that take a bit more convincing of an idea – its not being negative its being a balance, a stabiliser.  Listening to these voices is vital, they offer fresh insights, observe risks and challenges that those of us with a more enthusiastic disposition might have over looked in our excitement and desire to get on and do.  We all want to get this right, we must get this right, our generation and future generations need us to.

Let us enjoy the first phase of our Mission Action Planning the discussing, the gathering of views, the discerning, lets listen to all the voices – but lets communicate, we must share our ideas, enthusiasm, doubts and worries with each other – everyone of us has part of the picture and we need all the bits to make the one great glorious picture.

For my next blog I might think about how do we jump straight to Easter – do we really need all that preparation of Lent?  Let’s crack on and slosh the paint around and eat our Easter Eggs!

Before setting off to Rome for a short break (retreat) with some Priest Colleagues I joked “That’s it I am off to Rome” with an imaginary flounce and door slam to boot.  I sent a tweet to such effect and was surprised that a couple of people took me seriously thinking I had enough of the Church of England and was off.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  Every Sunday I am renewed with excitement and joy being with my Parish Family – I know they don’t all agree with everything I do all of the time, but they humour me and for that I am grateful.

My time is Rome was simply wonderful, lots of sightseeing , Churches and Pasta.  Lots of discussion with my friends and lots of ideas for the future and only a small amount of “essential” shopping . One incredible moment came one evening when I found myself stood in front of St Peters Basilica without another person to be seen.  I was completely on my own in front of this amazing building, the centre of Roman Catholicism for a bezillion  Roman Catholics, the site of the Great Pontifical Masses and it was just me.  David from Christchurch New Zealand, standing on his own in St Peter’s Square all alone, just incredible.  It was the most humbling experience and reminded me how I am only a very small cog in the great eternal machine of Christ’s Church.  The worry about what to preach next Sunday  or what Hymns to choose seemed so far away and small in the grand scheme of things.

It is that same sense of awe and wonderment that I want us to share on a Sunday Morning when we come to the Altar and celebrate Gods love for us in the Eucharist.  For us to see ourselves in that long procession of faith, standing on the shoulders of those who have gone before us, doing the best we can as we serve God, Serve our Community and Serve each other.  Humility is so difficult and so very counter cultural in our world, but sensing the Power & Love of our Lord, understanding that we are a small but vital cog in a great machine is simply wonderful.  Getting the small things right is critical, the right hymns, a reasonable sermon, a smile for our brothers and sisters and a helping hand when needed is all part of us making sure we do what we do as best as we can.  All the small actions, deeds  and thoughts go to make up the bigger picture, building to the great crescendo of our Eucharist.

I have returned from Rome, re-energised and excited to be continuing our journey together over the bumps and rocks and along our winding road.  One thing that I am discovering is no matter what my thoughts are some clever person has always managed to capture them beautifully in a hymn or carol and I can think of no better way to sum up that with the words of the first verse of My Song is love unknown,

My song is love unknown,

My Saviour’s love to me;

Love to the loveless shown,

That they might lovely be.

O who am I, that for my sake

My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

I have rather surprised myself of late with a new and interesting hobby.  For my birthday someone brought me a bird feeder and the requisite nuts.    On opening the present its fair to say I was slightly underwhelmed but I duly hung feeder on a small tree in the garden and have been completely fascinated by the variety of birds that come to feed.  Growing up in New Zealand, land of the Birds I think I rather took all the birds for granted and of course our national bird the Kiwi is flightless.  I still smile at the New Zealand’s RAF logo -  the usual concentric red, white and blue RAF circles with the  addition of  a silhouette of the flightless nearly extinct Kiwi at its centre. Who thought a flightless bird was good emblem for the national air force?!

I have now purchased a bird book so I can start to identify the various feather chaps  that pitch up at the Vicarage- if only a similar book was available for parishioners – the lesser spotted cassock chaser, the waxy billed sacristan but maybe that’s another blog? Anyway, I have now relented and purchased a couple more feeders and different variety of seeds and fat balls to feed the increasing number of visitors.  I do however have mixed emotions about the Grey Squirrels –their cute face, white tummies and tree acrobatics are just wonderful but their persistence at eating the bird seed is definitely an annoyance.

I  have now taken pity and purchased the squirrels their very own squirrel feeder – a small flip top house contraptions which is filled with Maize –The resident squirrels do seem to go a bit crazy for the  maize but still they venture to munch on the sunflower seeds of the birds.  I fear I might become slightly obsessive in guarding the bird seed, creating ever more complex and bizarre mechanisms of  keeping the squirrels from the bird seed.  The thought of camouflaging myself as a bush and sitting in wait to ambush the squirrels with a waterpistol has crossed my mind. Feeling rather like a slightly eccentric 18th Century vicar – I venture into the vicarage garden each morning to scatter seed, replenish the nuts and feed the squirrels.

I am certainly no St Francis but the joy of living side by side with nature is really wonderful and makes me double my efforts to make sure we look after this planet we have been entrusted with.  Feeding the small number of birds and getting annoyed with the cheeky squirrels isn’t going to change the world but it reminds me of what a fantastic world we have.    Deo Gratias    (still not sure about the Squirrels!)

St Francis keeping watch over the Garden

As I was cleaning in church today and getting rid of the Christmas Tree, I was reflecting on what a wonderful Epiphany service we had on Sunday.  All our Sunday school children processed in with the  clergy and servers, three of them carrying our wooden statues of the Magi and three of them dressed up as Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar with three small caskets containing the gifts of Gold,  Frankincense and Myrrh.  When this great caravan of children and adults arrived at our Crib Scene – which had been transformed in to a more regal and suitable palace – we placed the gifts in front of the  images of the infant king and his parents, and ponder for a moment the meaning of these rather strange gifts for such a poor little family.  I heard via Facebook that a dear friend and priest in Norwich  started his Epiphany Sermon wondering what the Holy Family did with these gifts – I flippantly replied that Joseph probably put them in the first ever church raffle, or Mary had bought a life time’s  worth of nappies with the gold they had been given.  But it is an interesting question to ponder – what did the Holy family do with these gifts?  I have no profound theological thoughts to offer here but I would love to hear what you think?

We Three Kings...

What I do know, is that the process of creating our Mission Action Plan (MAP) is now well underway and whilst the end result will be some bits of papers on which our hopes and ideas for the future will be expressed, the most important and exciting part of this process is all of us thinking about what God wants for our Church in the Centre of Watford.  The hardest part of this is prayerfully searching for  what we need to do, not just what we want to do and what we like.  What is our role?  How can we best serve the community in which we are placed?  How can we best play our role in the wider Church?  What I love about the Church of England is its great breath of opinions and all the various styles of worship – that is not to say I agree with and like all the opinions and styles of worship!  I am keen we  continue to offer something beautiful and distinctive to the Church and community and we can acknowledge that some of our sister churches are better at something’s than we will be and I hope visa versa.  But the most important thing we must remember here is that we as members of the body of Christ, are called to build up the Universal Church of Christ not the church of <insert your name here>.  All of us hold part of the bigger picture, all of us have a view and opinion that we need to share and it is by talking with and listening to each other our plan will emerge and develop.

On Wednesday the 25^th January, the Reverend Jeanette Gosney, who is the Diocesan Parish Development Officer, will be presenting a work shop which will guide us through the first stage of the MAP process.  This might sound a little daunting to some, but believe me it’s not.  I spent four wonderful hours with Jeanette last week and found her inspirational and full of great tips and ideas for us to consider as we  decide on our MAP.  The evening will be full of fun with plenty of opportunity for each of us to speak and capture those thoughts and ideas that will help shape the parish and move us forward in mission.  Quite simply, this evening is vital for every one of us in our parish if we truly believe that Jesus has commissioned us to ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the good news to the whole of creation’ (Mark 16:15).  We have GOOD NEWS – do you want to share it?  I do!

I am very excited as we continue on our journey together and please make every effort to attend our planning sessions because we need all views, opinions and experiences.  I am tempted to add up how  many years of experience we have between us, but that might be a little daunting!!  But in the words of the great hymn – ‘Lord for the years your love has kept and guided, urged and inspired us, cheered us on our way, sought us and saved us, pardoned and provided; Lord for the years, we bring our thanks today…’

10 years ago did I expect to be a priest serving this community in the heart of Watford?  The short answer is no!  As a little boy in New Zealand did I dream about this moment?  Again no!  I really loving  the people and community I have been called to serve – and I know that something special is beginning to happen in our parish.  Sometimes we need to bend a little and allow ourselves to wonder at and  enjoy all that we have.  So go on be radical – I dare you to sit in a different seat at church on Sunday or during the week –it’s surprising how liberating it is!

So what did the Holy Family do with the Gifts ?  I am still not sure but I hope they didn’t just tuck them away somewhere safe and sound and not enjoy them.

I feel I should be writing a classic New Year blog reflecting on 2011 and sharing my hopes and ambitions for 2012 but somehow that just doesn’t seem to be working.  I am still on a bit of a high from Christmas and all the wonderful people I have talked with, to start getting all reflective on the last 12 months of life.

I must admit I was slightly anxious about my first Christmas in the Parish as I knew a lot of regulars were to be away and I thought the whole season would be slightly depressing and hard work.  Whilst it was certainly hard work it was as rewarding and wonderful as any of my previous Christmases.  Although, I did not preside at a concelebrated Mass with 6 other Priests in a Church full to bursting ( I still do love this by the way!)  I did have a most beautiful and moving Christmas.  Meeting all our visitors and extended St John’s family was simply inspiring, the warm and supporting comments from some and smiles on people’s faces makes it all worth doing.

In my previous blogs I have talked of clearing things out and getting rid of layers and stores of Junk -  Rather surprisingly, I recently found myself grateful that some clever person saved the old purple candles from a previous Advent wreath.  My love of the advent wreath, which has been helping us track the progress towards Christmas, means I may have left it alight slightly longer than usual resulting in the first candle being completely burnt away.  After a quick rummage in the draws in the vestry I was able to find an old purple candle to replenish the wreath.  So I must admit that saving things carefully away can be helpful, I suppose the important thing is knowing what we have stored away for a rainy day- so we can use them when we need them. Things boxed away that no one knows about are really not much use.  Who knows what we will need in 2012 and the future?  Who knows what we have tucked away all ready to go when we need it?

My excitement following a great Christmas gives me the energy and confidence to stride into 2012 with the incredible stored away talents we have in our parish and our wider parish family.  Throwing  things away is still important but knowing what we have stashed away, coupled with the courage to use them is what is going to make 2012 fantastic.

So what I have learnt from 2011?  Next year we need a bigger Advent Wreath!   Happy New Year.

We had a fantastic night on Sunday at our traditional Carols by Candle light service, and the Church was beautiful and (I hope) welcoming.  I have had lots of positive feedback about the service and even a few good comments on the small talk I gave (not sure it really counts as a sermon!) . I know I don’t preach any earth shattering theology but I thought I would share my thoughts and words from Sunday Evenings.

[address from 18th December]

Why do we come to Carol Services?  One of the reasons many of us are here tonight is because we love a good sing along. When we sing, we do two things – we combine words with music – so when we come to sing carols, I am absolutely convinced that it is not just the music that draws us into the Christmas spirit, it must be the words well. One of my all time favourite carols is “Oh come all ye Faithful”.  Why?

Because to me as a Christian Priest, I believe the first line of this carol sums up what Christmas and Christianity is all about – “Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant…”  Note the carol does not sing “Oh come all ye faithful, except those that don’t quite fit with the traditions of the church” or “Oh come all ye faithful, except those we disagree with” – but rather, “Oh come ALL ye faithful, come everyone and gather and celebrate the great diversity of the human race and the wonderful gift of Christmas.”

Now a lot of people will call me stupid or completely naive for saying this – but I truly believe the best bit about being a Christian is that we are not called to judge one another. However, this is easier said than done!  It sometimes seems we ALL have an inbuilt tendency to want  to judge each other based on very little information that we might have. We judge people based of where they live, how they  dress, what type of newspaper they read and our favourite past time in this present age – who they form relationships with.  Judging people is all too easy and I am sorry that some people who work and  live inside the church seem to think their main purpose for being is to judge others – as if they were perfect themselves.

Nowhere in the Bible can I find the statement “Judge one another as I judge you” – but I can find the statement repeated over and over again in the life and teachings of Jesus – “Love one another as I love you.”  The resounding message of Christmas – from Heaven above to Earth below – is love one another and good will to all people – unconditionally!

I know as well as you, that it’s not easy to always welcome and love everyone.  Welcoming those we like and we agree with, and those that think and look like us is fairly easy – but and it’s a big but – caring for  those we disagree with or dislike is much harder, much, much harder. But to me this is what Christmas is all about – welcoming ALL and trying as hard as we can to love those that don’t like us – and loving those that make it so hard for us to love them.

Now, in just a few minutes during our final carol we will be taking up a collection for the charity HomeStart, we will be supporting this year, which is based in Lord Street right here in our parish. Home Start offers support, friendship and practical help for parents with young children – who for whatever reason – face challenges that stop them from doing all they want for their children. The Homestart team are working hard to help mothers and fathers do the best for their families with all the support they can give – but they too need help to finance their work, so please let us help HomeStart for this coming year by giving what you can tonight, and by visiting them at their shop and cafe on Lord Street, just around the corner.

When we celebrate Christmas – we celebrate a vulnerable family – a family in need – a family that was isolated, poor and not conforming to the pattern of their time.  I imagine that Mary and Joseph were being judged very harshly and unfairly by members of their own families, friends and society.  But somehow, I like to believe that they had their own version of Home Start when they got back to their home in Nazareth – people who supported them, did not judge them or isolate them – but just loved them and supported them.

So this Christmas let’s rejoice in all that we have, and try hard to love those people that make it hard for us to love them and remember to be on the look out to see if we can be of help to others making their way in life’s wonderful journey. Oh come all ye faithful, oh come let us adore Him, who is the very meaning of Christmas – Christ the Lord! [END]