Ally's blog

Encouragement from my daughter

2010-11-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

My six year old daughter was irritated with me this evening as we worked on her homework, as she thought I wasn't really concentrating properly. I told her I was a bit distracted because it's Remembrance Sunday tomorrow and it's a really important occasion and I didn't want to make any mistakes. She thought for a minute, then bent over a piece of paper, obviously writing something down. She then passed it to me, triumphantly, and told me to put it in my cassock pocket.
I just read it. It says this: "I love you. Don't get it rong."
I'll bear that in mind in the morning.

All Saints

2010-10-30T14:03:00.000-07:00

Six years ago on 31st October my first child was baptised - in church we celebrated All Saints that day as the nearest Sunday, just as we will this year. It is also year C again in the lectionary. Which is probably why I'm struggling to write my sermon - I'm trying to stick to the readings like I usually do, but what keeps coming to mind is the imagery and meaning of baptism, and the place of baptism in our identity as saints.
If there's a link with the readings, then it's first and foremost a link with the epistle (Ephesians 1.11-end) where it talks of our inheritance through Christ, and the 'seal of the Spirit' as a sort of downpayment to the full and final communion with God which we long to enjoy. Both of these are central to baptismal imagery and meaning.
The other big image of Baptism is the sign of the cross, and I've long felt that the act of drawing the sign of the cross on a child's forehead in preparation for their baptism is an incredibly potent way of marking the fact that this child is a child of God, and that the sign of the cross stays there, invisible, through their whole life, so that when they choose to look for it, they will be able to find it. If you use your forefinger to retrace the sign of the cross on your own forehead now, you will find that you can 'feel' it there long after you have removed your finger. In times of great need, when you most need to remember that you do indeed belong to God, and that if you are on his side, then he is on your side, then why not retrace it again? Many people carry a small cross in their pocket, or wear one as a piece of jewellry, so that they are always near to the badge and emblem of their faith. But even if you don't, when you need a cross you can usually find one - a window frame, two fallen twigs, aeroplane trails crossing in the sky... all these can be signs that we are not, after all, alone.
We can see this in the lives of so many of the saints - from St George with the great big cross on his tunic, to St Francis with the marks of the nails in his own hands. The cross was with them.
Where this links into the Gospel reading, though, is that it brings home the strange fact that the emblem of our faith is a sign which, on the face of it, represents not triumph and life, but death, punishment, and shame. The cross represents the ultimate foolishness of God. And so, when we read the gospel reading - all the blessings and woes - and hear ourselves condemned, and read the almost unattainable standard of selflessness commended there, we remember all over again that the one in whom we place our faith was himself rejected, despised, and considered a failure.
And maybe that's what being a saint is.
Success is seductive, and it feels great. Same with popularity. But Luke's gospel, in particular, unpicks them and finds them to be empty. In fact, there is a lot about the life of faith that looks like foolishness and failure. Which is what makes the epistle's words all the more remarkable - a song of praise and hope and faith in all the stuff that you can't see, utter confidence in the power of the God who was quite willing to make himself powerless for our sake.

Now, I just have to go and write the sermon...

Bible Sunday

2010-10-20T09:50:00.001-07:00

It's coming up to Bible Sunday again, and it's hard to find songs and hymns that are appropriate - someone once told me that this is because although the Bible is undoubtely the most special of all books, the fullest revelation of the word of God isn't found in the pages of the Bible, but in the Incarnation. In my church we're going to be reflecting on the Bible stories that have helped for shape and form us - each person will be asked to note a verse, or a quotation, or a story, and we will stick them all in a scrapbook. We're then going to look at the passage that Jesus chose - as we find in the lectionary reading for Bible Sunday (Luke 4 - the reading from Isaiah), and ask what that means for us as a church - how does the bible not only shape our faith, but our action in the world?

New hymn - the lost sheep (sort of)

2010-10-19T05:58:00.000-07:00

What a long time it's been since I wrote anything...
Here's one that I wrote a few weeks ago when the shepherd and sheep reading came up in Luke 15. It goes to the tune 'Tyrol' (better known for the words 'A man there lived in Galilee'). I wanted to link it with Augustine's wisdom about our hearts only being able to find their true rest in God. I can't decide whether the finished product is alright or merely trite!

There came a shepherd from the hillside
searching all alone.
He came to seek and save the lost,
And welcome us back home.
‘O come to me, beloved child’,
The shepherd spoke his plea:
‘Your heart will never find its rest
Until you rest in me.’

We sought you, Lord, in rules and laws,
In duty and in care,
In toil and trial, and stress and strain ,
We hoped to find you there.
In all our searching, we forgot
What deep inside we knew:
Our hearts could never find their rest
Unless it was in you.

O search us out and know our ways
In waking and in sleep;
Protect us through the day and night
And in your presence keep.
We travel on in life and faith
And find that it is true:
Our hearts will never find their rest
Until we rest in you.

2010-02-28T09:19:00.001-08:00

Today's gospel reading (Sunday 28th February, Lent 2, year C): Luke 13.31-end

That bit about Herod as the fox isn't one that I've preached on before - not sure why - but I realised only belatedly that the 8am congregation would need their written homily (a compromise, since some of them would like a sermon and some don't, so they all get one on a piece of paper, and everyone is if not happy, at least satisfied!). For what it's worth, this is what I came up with.

‘I am casting out demons today and tomorrow, and on the third day I will finish my work’. We are immediately put in mind of the famous ‘third day’ of the resurrection – two days in the sphere of death and hell, before a triumphant third day of life, and not just for Jesus but for all who trust in him. That alone tells us that in this passage we are being told something about Jesus’ coming passion and death, and what it means.

There are two particularly resonant images here, both from the animal kingdom. The first casts Herod as a fox – the crafty predator, vicious in attack, merciless in the pursuit of his prey. A formidable opponent, and one who must have been frustrated by his inability to intimidate Jesus, both at this point in the story, and later when Jesus stands part of his trial before him. Casting Herod as the fox immediately makes us ask the question: ‘who are the chickens?’ The death threat that is reported by the Pharisees is directed at Jesus himself – and, I suppose, be extension to his disciples. And Jesus confirms that this is the case, as he laments over the city of Jerusalem: ‘How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings’. The image here (I understand, courtesy of the very helpful commentary by the Bishop of Durham) is of a farm that is beset by fire, and a mother hen who is unable to get herself and her chicks to safety, and so shelters them from the fire under her wings, giving her own life to save theirs.

But the salvation under the wings of the mother hen only works for the chicks who are willing to be protected. Jesus came for any who would welcome him, but time and time again, as was always the case throughout the whole of the history of God’s relationship with humanity, God (and so also Jesus) not welcomed, but is seen as a threat to the status quo, and as a threat to the power of those who have grown to enjoy wielding it – whether they are Pharisees, Herod(s) or anyone else. We tend to think of first masculine images for God, but there are many times in the Old Testament where God is described in maternal terms, when God has been the mother hen, longing to gather her chicks. Jesus’ frustration here seems to be that his own people are looking not for a mother-hen sort of God, but for a God who is more like a fox – a fierce, vindictive God capable of tearing apart the enemies of the chosen people; a God who would sweep the Romans away, and lead his people to victory.

But this is not how God works, and this is certainly not what Jesus came to do. Much of his ministry was spent convincing disciples and opponents alike that he would never be the sort of Messiah who would take victory by force, but would instead conquer through love, and win one heart at a time, through a life and ministry that was about self-giving and ultimately self-sacrifice. To cast ourselves as the chicks means that we are willing to accept the protection not of a defender who, like a fox, could kill for us, but of one who, like a mother hen, would die for us.

Are you tough enough?

2010-02-21T06:18:00.000-08:00

The first Sunday of Lent. The time of year when many of us have given things up – whether a particular food, or some other luxury, in the modern equivalent of the fast, or some bad habit that we’re trying to kick. If the particular discipline that you’ve chosen to focus on this Lent is a difficult one for you (as it was for me the one year I tried to give up chocolate – I’m never doing that again!) then forty days can seem like a long time indeed.

When it gets to this time of year I can’t help being reminded of a programme on TV a few years back called “SAS: are you tough enough?” In the programme a group of hardy, and to my mind completely bonkers, people volunteered to be sent into the middle of nowhere and undertake SAS-style endurance training. They marched for hours without food, they were deprived of sleep, and carried their own body weight around in a huge rucksack. Believe me, I have nothing but admiration for those people who survived the course intact, but the whole thing looked absolutely horrendous to me, and if anyone were to ask me ‘are you tough enough?’ I would have no hesitation at all in replying, ‘No, I’m not, so please don’t make me try!’ I’m sure I’m not alone in this, and that that’s partly why the programme made such compulsive viewing.

The wilderness, of course, puts us in mind not only of Jesus’ forty days of testing, but also of the Israelites’ forty years, between the Exodus from Egypt and the entry into the promised land – a story that will be familiar to most of us, and which is reflected in so many of the Lenten hymns that we'll be singing over the next few weeks.

I wonder, though, whether we’re in danger of making God like the fearsome SAS trainer, sending the Israelites into the wilderness for forty years, and his Son into the wilderness for forty days, to see if they were tough enough? To see how strong they were, whether they were robust enough and had the willpower that he was looking for in his chosen people, and in his Son? I don’t think that's what God was doing, and I certainly hope not.

Actually, if you read through the book of Deuteronomy, you'll see that God tells his chosen people straight off that he didn’t choose them because they were the strongest, toughest, biggest, people. He knew they were small in number, weak, and prone to temptation. And yet he still chose them. And the whole point of the incarnation really was that Jesus was God become vulnerable, human, frail and open to the dangers and temptations of the world just as we are. Not that he would be superman.

Perhaps the forty years in the wilderness were more about teaching the children of Israel that actually they were not tough enough. That they didn’t have what it took to survive in their own strength. That in order to become the people they were called to be, they must rely not on themselves, but on God. And perhaps Jesus’ own time in the wilderness was a chance for him to affirm the same things for himself.

Lent, particularly the discipline of giving things up, always opens us to the risk that it will become for us a matter of self-reliance, when instead it should be about realising that it’s in our weakness that we can find our strength in God. Remember that when Jesus went into the wilderness he was led there by the Holy Spirit, and he set out on his wilderness experience with the wonderful affirming words of God ringing in his ears: you are my son, my beloved, and I am pleased with you. When we undertake our own Lenten journey – whatever form our own wilderness takes – we can’t do it unless we approach it in the same way: secure in the knowledge that through it all God leads us by the hand, and that our strength comes from him alone.

If God left us on our own just at the moment of greatest suffering, hardship and temptation, none of us would stand a chance. But God doesn’t leave us on our own. And Jesus called on God the Father to help him: he drew on his knowledge of the scriptures - the story of God’s saving help throughout history - to remind himself that this was not a test of willpower or character but an opportunity to rest in the power and love of God. If Jesus’ temptations were highlighting the things that we might rely on: sustenance, status, safety and protection – if it’s all about those things being taken away, then it’s also about coming back to what will never be taken away: the faithful presence of God. As the hymn says, ‘When other helpers fail, when comforts flee, help of the helpless, O abide with me.’

But Jesus’ time in the wilderness was about more than that. It was also a demonstration that everything he would go on to do in the rest of his ministry was also absolutely dependent on God. It was a genuine period of preparation, a time away from everyone except God, to work out against all the tempting alternatives, what his mission and ministry would be like. In short, having heard the words ‘you are my beloved son’ Jesus had that time of retreat to take that wonderful affirmation and work out what it meant for the rest of his life and ministry. The forty days in the wilderness was a time for Jesus to show what he understood that sonship to mean. That Sonship wasn’t about power and status, but about obedience and trust.

Jesus would face temptation again – we might think in particular about his agony in Gethsemane, where he so desperately wanted there to be another way. But just as he refused the easy way out in the wilderness, so he would refuse it then in the garden. And just has he refused to prove God’s love by jumping off the temple roof, so he would refuse to claim God’s love for him by coming down from the cross and saving his own life.

For what Jesus understood so well, and what was acted out in the wilderness is that God’s sovereignty and love were best demonstrated not through cheap acts of power, but through the sustained loving relationship that God had always desired with his people right from the moment of creation, an endlessly patient and enduring relationship of love, and betrayal and forgiveness which is written on every page of scripture. This is what Jesus came to teach us. This was his mission and his ministry.

Temptation is not so much something external to us, it’s the insidious voice within ourselves that sounds so reasonable, that is so easy to listen to. For Jesus, temptation came in the form of thinking through the various other ways that he could have tried to fulfil his vocation, but were not God’s way.

Lent can also be a time for each of us to spend time alone with God, and in that time, to realise not only our own dependence on God, but also the ways in which we are called to live out our own calling as his children. What will being sons and daughters of God mean for us? How will the disciplines we’ve set ourselves in Lent help us to work out what God is calling us to be and to do?

That’s why, for me, what is at the heart of Lent is tucked away in the Lent Eucharistic prayer, and it is this:
“For in these forty days you lead us into the desert of repentance that through a pilgrimage of prayer and discipline we may grow in grace and learn to be your people once again.”

Through fasting, prayer, and immersing ourselves in the word of God – that’s how we learn to be God’s people once again according to today’s Eucharistic prayer. That’s what Jesus did in the wilderness, and in so doing, he showed that he really was God’s Son. And that’s what we need to do. Through our own wilderness of fasting, prayer, and immersion in God’s word, we learn again to be children of God, showing that God is our Father not by having strong wills, but by submitting our wills to his will, and living out all that he is calling us to be and do.

Now, in this time of testing, we train our hearts not to be tougher, but to be more reliant on God, so that in the rest of our lives we remember what it feels like to be children of God.
When Lent asks you the question, ‘are you tough enough?’ don’t be afraid to respond boldly: ‘No, but God is.’
Amen.

More Ash Wednesday ramblings

2010-02-17T00:15:00.000-08:00

It’s not mess…

There was an advert a few years ago for Persil automatic. It was on TV and on billboards everywhere, so most of you will probably have seen it. It features a film of children happily painting a wall in splashes of multicoloured paint. Inevitably, more of the paint gets on their clothes, their hands and faces, and on each other, than on the wall. The captions read ‘It’s not mess, it’s creativity, it’s not mess it’s learning’ and so on.

The Ash Wednesday service is a messy one: we will be invited to receive on our foreheads the sign of the cross in a very messy mixture of ash and oil. This service is messy because we are: sin is a messy business, and the ash reminds us of all the mess that we make of our own lives, of other people’s lives and of this world. The situation in today’s gospel of the woman caught in adultery, and the man she was with, is just an obvious example of the destructive sin that infects our relationships, that eats away at our souls, and that undermines our own and others’ flourishing. That the crowd of scribes and Pharisees are willing to use her misfortune to try and score a cheap point is just as shameful.

We sign ourselves with this messy mix of ash and oil because all of us are in a mess.
But the Persil advert puts an altogether more positive slant on mess, which is worth exploring.

One of the captions reads, ‘it’s not mess, it’s creativity’.

When we receive the ash cross on our forehead, we hear the words, ‘remember that you are dust’. And so with the ash perhaps we can recall that wonderful picture of God’s creativity in Genesis 2, lovingly molding the earth into human beings, and breathing life into what was dry and lifeless. And so as we receive the ash on our foreheads we can give thanks that God can still breathe new life into us even in the dirt and dust and deathliness of our sin.

Another of the captions reads, ‘it’s not mess, it’s pride’. Pride is perhaps not quite the right word. But the sign of the cross that we carry is certainly not something that we are ashamed of. At our baptism, Christ claimed us as his own, and so we are glad to be marked with his sign of the cross. Because Jesus took the shame of death on a cross and transformed it into hope and victory, he can also transform the shame of our sinfulness into the triumph over it. 'I shall not boast in anything save the cross of Christ.'

The TV advert ends with one of the children accidentally on purpose painting another’s nose – at first she looks cross, but then starts to smile. The caption reads, ‘it’s not mess, it’s forgiveness’. When we have the sign of the cross on our foreheads, we are a walking testimony to the fact that everyone can be forgiven.

We are messy people. The messes we make in our lives are real messes. They are dark and dirty, and if left unchecked they will be the death of us. And God does not condone our mess. It is not that God does not mind about sin – on the contrary, it grieves him that we hurt and abuse ourselves and others, that we deface and corrupt the very air, water and land of this world he has given us. Just as Christ said to the woman in the gospel, ‘go and sin no more’, so he says the same to us: ‘turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ’.

But we have a God who for our sake is willing to get his hands dirty. We have a saviour who entered into the mess we made of the world in order that we might be made clean; a saviour who embraced the shame of the cross that our shame could be transformed by his forgiveness; a saviour who sees us for who we really are, mess and all, but rather than condemning us, gives us the chance of a new start.

When Jesus looks up from his drawing in the dust, his glance pierces the soul of the sinful woman, and the souls of the hypocritical crowd. Will we slink away like the scribes and Pharisees, who see so clearly the sins in others but dare not expose their own souls to the all-seeing, yet forgiving face of Christ? Or, like the woman, will we stand here before him, dirty as we are, and let Christ examine our sin, so that we might be forgiven?

Ash Wednesday - ramblings heading towards a homily

2010-02-16T15:08:00.000-08:00

Why do we wear a cross of ash?
There are so many reasons, but I'll talk about the ones that came to my mind when I pondered that question earlier today.

It makes visible on the outside the mess on the inside. If a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, then the ash cross is the reverse: an outwards and visible sign of an inward and invisible lack of grace.
That's why the cross of ash helps us be honest about the disparity between what we appear to be and what we feel we are.
My favourite prayer at the moment is this one, which was sent to me by someone. I gather it's an Islamic prayer, and it sums me up completely:
"I thank you, Lord, for knowing me better than I know myself,
and for allowing me to know myself better than others know me.
Make me, I pray you, better than they suppose,
and forgive me for what they do not know."
One of the things that haunts me is the sense that the respect that people give me, or the regard in which I'm held, aren't something that I've truly earned; that I don't quite match up to the person people think I am - the person I want to be. You are all good people. And others say about you, 'she is so lovely, she'd do anything for anyone, she just keeps on giving...' and perhaps like me, sometimes you find yourself thinking 'if only they knew...' So the cross of ash helps us reconcile the person we feel we are with the person that others see. It helps us remember that God sees us as we are - the good stuff and the not so good stuff - and he still loves us, even having seen the truth. Lent is a time for us to learn to see ourselves just as God does.

The cross of ash reminds us of our own frailty, our mortality: 'remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return...' This isn't a morbid reflection, but rather an encouragement to, as the funeral service puts it, 'use aright the time that is left to us here on earth'. It's a reminder of our responsibilities towards ourselves, and to each other. It's a call to remember our own griefs, and the vulnerability of human existence - our own, and those we love. The news at the moment is a stark reminder of this. We are (metaphorically) made from dust. The creator-God of Genesis who simply spoke the rest of the universe into being, when he came to make humankind, bent down and reached his hand into the mud to form the first human being - whatever we think about the literal truth or otherwise of that story, it points us to a powerful truth about the God we worship: that God at the very moment of our creation chose to get his hands dirty, and there is no record of God ever washing his hands of that dirt. God continued to 'muck in' - that's what the incarnation is all about - entering fully into the messiness of this world.And just as God in Genesis breathed creative life into the dust, so he can breathe new life inot our dustiness, creativity into all that is destructive in our lives.

The cross of ash is something that I hope we will all feel able to wear in this Ash Wednesday service. If we do, then it's a great equaliser. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. None of us could cast the first stone at each other, and there is something immensely liberating about that.

But there is also the command of Christ, 'Go, and do not sin again'.

It is up to each of us how long to leave the cross on our foreheads. Until last year at the school Ash Wednesday service, I thought I would leave mine on for the rest of the day, but at the service at school that morning, I found myself wanting to show the children that not only is the mess real, but so is the forgiveness, so just as I did then, I will be wiping my cross off sooner rather than later. That is the joy of Ash Wednesday (the same joy that we experience in Holy Week and Easter): that there is no mess we can make into which God cannot bring redemption, healing and grace.

Transfiguration

2010-02-15T13:06:00.000-08:00

I tried very hard, I really did, when drafting my sermon this last Sunday, to think seriously about the transfiguration (the lectionary reading was Luke's version of it) without also thinking about David Tennant regenerating into Matt Smith.
But then, I also kept thinking: where is glory without sacrifice, and where is resurrection without suffering?
Something to ponder, perhaps.

2010-02-15T13:02:00.000-08:00

I learned today that my predecessor-but-one in one of my parishes used to write a new Christmas carol every year, to be premiered at the annual parish brass band concert in early December. The annual concert continues, but the tradition of having a new carol had fizzled out - surely time for a revival?
I also discovered (in the same conversation, over lunch today following a funeral) that the same predecessor used to write children's stories featuring a vicar and his faithful canine companion. I commented that we could ask him if he would mind them being published - as a fundraising 'supplement' editition of the parish magazine. I could even add the stories that I tell my own children about the crocodile that lives in the river between the parishes of Buckden and Offord...
And could there also be a competition for the local schoolchildren to illustrate the finished book?Surely this has to be done!

2010-02-08T14:17:00.000-08:00

OK, here's another question:
How do you go about teaching a congregation new hymns and songs? Not new words to familiar tunes, but new tunes, and even new musical styles that they're not used to?
Does anyone do congregational hymn practices these days? And do you do them straight before the service? Or at some other time?
Do all congregations find it difficult to cope with new music?
Answers on a postcard...

New me

2009-10-14T07:46:00.000-07:00

Will I ever dare to write a hymn again? Someone emailed me the other day with details of the Ecclesiastical Insurance Group Christmas Carol writing competition, which was very sweet of them. Part of me wants to enter (when you've fallen off the bike, usually it's best to get straight back on again, and all that) but part of me doesn't want to touch it with a barge pole! Not sure that I can really add much to what's already available in terms of Christmas carols, and I've always been reluctant to try and write songs just because I want to - they have to fulfil some sort of function.
The only thing that keeps grabbing me is 'don't leave the baby in the manger' - the idea that for a lot of people Christmas is good because it keeps God small and cute and cuddly, and the story can quite comfortably stop there (just before Holy Innocents). But is a song that takes the nativity and puts it in the context of the rest of the Christian story still a Christmas carol? I suspect not.
So I probably won't be trying to write a new Christmas carol.
Instead, I'll be trying to lose some weight - two stone, to be precise (sponsored, in aid of the All Saints heating fund!). Wish me luck... And maybe there'll be a new hymn along the way somewhere, when I can't avoid it any more...

2009-09-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Had a bit of a drama with a hymn last week.
I'd written one for the Ely Diocesan Clergy conference, which was supposed to reflect the theme of the conference and the subjects for the keynote addresses - except that the keynote addresses were so good that they made me reinterpret not only what should go in the hymn, but quite a lot of stuff about my life and ministry, too.
The process of rewriting the hymn (which ended up being a corporate activity, as I found I couldn't do it on my own) made me realise a lot of stuff that hadn't been right with me - feeling that I had to succeed, get things done, and tick all the boxes all in my own strength. Anyway, I can't even really begin to describe the process, but the end product, hymn-wise, is quite different from what I posted here before. Here it is:

Lord of all time, our end and our beginning,
shaping the whole in which we play our part,
open our eyes to see your way unfolding,
and keep eternity within our hearts.

Lord of all truth, inspiring and surprising,
keep us alert and watching through the night,
seeking the signs of your salvation dawning
in lives illumined by your glorious light.

Lord of all hope, your song of consolation
echoes through time, in this and every place;
Now and in every future generation
we'll sing this story of transforming grace.

It doesn't even begin to do justice to what the keynote speaker was saying, but it's closer than it was. For any of you who are interested, the speaker was Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Reading, and a lot of what he said can be found in his book, 'Hit the ground kneeling' - everyone should read it!

Meanwhile, I've had to reassess what I'm doing when I write hymns - if what I write has just been perpetuating what I now recognise to be an unhealthy pattern of trying to justify myself and living up to other people's expectations (ie all about 'doing' things right - very worthy, but not very honest), then I'll have to change what I write, or take a break for a while, until I find that I can write something more honest.

2009-08-12T15:49:00.001-07:00

OK here's a new one.
We're doing Back to Church Sunday in my churches this year, and I've been struggling with how to deal with the gloria in the Eucharist. The setting we usually use isn't great anway, and it's unlikely that any new people will know it, so it wouldn't be very welcoming to sing it the way we usually do. On the other hand, in a service with lots of lovely hymns it seems a shame to say the gloria. One option is to choose a hymn of praise that could replace the gloria (all perfectly legal under common worship), or to use a metrical setting of the gloria that goes to a well known tune.
Can I find a decent metrical gloria? No, I can't! When I started trying to write one myself, I realise why: it's actually quite a tricky one to convert to verse. I've had a go below and would welcome feedback. I'm not happy with it. It's clunky and clumsy, but it's also late and I'm tired, so here it comes anyway... (the tune is 'immortal invisible' on the grounds that it's well known and repetitive enough for people to pick up).

We join with the angels, our voices we raise,
To give you the glory, and sing forth your praise.
We pray for the peace you alone can bestow,
To fall down like rain on your people below.

O Lord God almighty, and heavenly King,
Accept the thanksgivings and praises we bring,
For though you are mighty, the Lord God above,
For us you are also the Father we love.

Christ Jesus, Messiah, and God’s only Son,
The Lamb who was slain, who now sits on heavn’s throne.
You death conquered evil and cancelled our sin,
In mercy, receive all the prayers that we bring.

All glory to God in the highest of heaven,
The Father, the Son and the Spirit be given.
To you and you only our praises we sing,
Our Lord God and Father, our heavenly King.

Choice of Hymn Books

2009-08-09T06:17:00.000-07:00

Does anyone else have the job of choosing hymns in a church that has two different hymn books (in the case of my church they are Ancient and Modern New Standard, and Songs of Fellowship)? We have a 'rule' that we only use one of them at each service, so that people don't get too many things to carry and find their place in, particularly if they're visitors or aren't used to church.
Trouble is, that to get a nice balanced service, and nice balanced theology, I'd like to be able to combine the two hymn books each time, rather than just using one at once - the lectionary gives me clues about what might be the right hymns, but they almost never come just from one book, so I end up compromising - choosing something as a 'filler' from the book that is providing the majority of the hymns, while missing out on something really relevant from the other book.
What do other churches do when there is more than one hymn book to choose from but only one main service, with a diverse congregation?

Swine Flu and the Real Presence in the Eucharist

2009-07-31T01:37:00.001-07:00

So, sharing the common cup at communion is no longer an option, and the congregations in my churches will be receiving only the bread for the foreseeable future - and that might be for a while. I wanted to share why, for me, receiving communion 'in one kind' is still just as valid as receiving both the bread and wine.
Now, I am someone who very much believes in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. But my understanding is that the reality of Christ's presence is spiritual, not physical (the physical bread and the wine in the sacrament are not there because God needs them in order to be present with us, but because we find that they help us 'notice' that he is there). It is not that the spiritual reality of Christ's presence is somehow piggy-backing on the physical reality of bread and wine, but rather that the physical reality of bread and wine help to make visible and tangible the prior spiritual reality of the presence of Christ.
Think about the resurrection appearances of Jesus, when he walked through solid walls and locked doors. Was that because Jesus was somehow insubstantial, like a ghost, compared to the solid physical wall? Or was it rather that Jesus was so real, so substantial, that the solid wall was insubstantial in comparison? The spiritual world is not less real than the physical world, it is more real.
When we receive communion, we are eating bread, but through faith we are receiving so much more than that - the very real (more real than anythning else) spiritual presence of Christ in our lives. If there were no bread in the world, and the wine had all run dry, Christ would still be just as real, and just as present with us.
Not sure if that will help anyone with the current situation of not being able to receive communion wine, but it did help me.
No doubt someone will tell me if it's totally heretical!

2009-07-13T13:27:00.000-07:00

I really am rubbish at this blog thing - it's been another month already.
Excuses? Not really. No new hymns ready yet, but I'll post them here when they're done.

In the mean time, Rave in the Nave was amazing as usual (if you've not heard of it, check out www.raveinthenave.org for some fantastic pictures of Friday night - 1200 young people in a building that for 364 days of the year exudes traditional beauty and quiet holiness, and for one day lights up with live bands, gladiator-style games, and a whole lot more.
Next year our youth club here in Buckden will be old enough to attend - I hope I can persuade them that they'll love it.

And last night for the first time we had free pimms and lemonade after the village songs of praise service, which went down very well indeed - it was just great to see everyone stay and talk to each other - not just to their friends, but to people they didn't know - and remembering that it's OK to have a fun social time in church. We had some interesting readings at the service, too: two from the bible, and the others were from Jean Vanier (founder of the L'Arche communities), The Dalai Lama (from his 1989 Nobel lecture) and and exerpt from one of Barack Obama's speeches. The girl guide who read the Obama speech did it very well indeed, and it was so poingnant to have a young person read this: 'We are the change that we have been waiting for.' Brilliant.

These last two weeks have also been great because our new curate has arrived, and is settling in very well. His little daughter was baptised yesterday; a lovely service, and a chance for everyone in the congregation to revisit their own baptism, and celebrate being 'fully alive' - that lectionary reading from Ephesians 1 is wonderful for a baptism.

But with five services yesterday (all completely different, and all needing special preparation) and a big funeral this afternoon, all I'm good for now is watching Torchwood on BBC iplayer and then having an early night!

Cheers for now,
Ally

Corpus Christi

2009-06-11T07:05:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Today is Corpus Christi. I had a 'bad experience' with this feast a few years ago, and it made me think about what the feast is, and what it's not - the result was the hymn below, a reflection on the different names for the Eucharist. The idea is that the title that the churches use for this sacrament needn't be a divisive choice, but rather that all of the names draw out a different aspect of the sacrament, and that we all may have something to gain from them. I've posted this hymn here before, but since it's CC today, here it is again:

An offertory hymn based on four terms for the Holy Communion:
Verse 1: Eucharist
Verse 2: Lord’s Supper
Verse 3: Holy Communion
Verse 4: Mass

1
Here we sing our great thanksgiving,
Tell again God’s tale of love:
Sin undone, for Christ’s self-giving
Breathes forgiveness from above,
Here we make our humble offering:
All we have, yet more we owe;
So the heavenly celebration
Finds an echo here below.

2
Here we take the bread from heaven,
Broken, torn, the crumbs we share;
Here we drink the living fountain,
Quench our thirst, our souls repair.
Here recall Christ’s loving passion,
Arms spread wide, he bore our pain;
Suffering servant, scorned Messiah,
God’s own loss has bought our gain.

3
Here Christ’s love is shared among us,
All are welcomed, none left out.
Here God’s reconciling Spirit
Brings an end to fear and doubt.
Let our hands be made for healing,
May our tongues speak words of peace;
Let God’s justice rule for ever,
And his righteousness increase.

4
Here may we receive our mission,
Here accept your gracious call.
Speak again your great commission:
Show the Way of Life to all.
Send us, Lord, to live your gospel,
Christ’s new body let us be.
Then at last around your table,
All may feast eternally.

2009-06-10T14:35:00.001-07:00

And thank you to Bishop David for his kind comments, too - check out http://bpdt.wordpress.com/ if you haven't already.
There's a new hymn that I'm working on at the moment about work and faith, but I fear it may be so long since I had a 'proper' job that the real issues are eluding me... Anwyay, if it gets into any fit state, I'll post it here.

2009-06-09T14:58:00.001-07:00

Thanks to Annette for plugging this on her own blog - I've managed to work out how to return the favour... (see sidebar - Annette is Paxtonvic!)

Choosing hymns

2009-06-03T01:32:00.000-07:00

Why, when I love writing hymns, and really quite enjoy singing them, and when I believe that they make an enormous contribution to the extent to which a service 'works' do I put off choosing them until the last minute?
I'm supposed to do a month's worth at a time, and send them to the organist, and only did June's last night!
I suppose it's partly because I write my sermons at the last minute, and until I write the sermon, I don't know what angle I'm taking on the readings, and so I don't know what 'feeling' the whole service should have. Maybe I'm trying to hard to get everything to tie in together, and it would be better just to make the gradual fit with the readings, and the others can be generic for their liturgical position?
Or maybe I just need to be more organised...

And another one...

2009-05-30T07:01:00.000-07:00

I'd completely forgotten about this one. We tried it out at church the other week (when the vine and the branches came up in the lectionary) and people seemed to like it. It goes to the tune of 'The Church's one Foundation' (which may have been what they liked!).
It's based (mostly) on the seven marks of a healthy church - see if you can spot them!
Take care,
Ally

Be here, Lord, in your churches,
And shine through us your light,
As cities built on hill-tops
We’ll not be hid from sight,
O give us, Lord, the courage,
the energy and drive
to make our faith turn outwards,
incarnate and alive.

May we, in words and action
Bring all your plans to birth,
Make us your holy people
for this, your needy earth.
When all our aspirations
Can’t set our hearts on fire,
Lord, fill us with the passion
that you alone inspire.

Lord, give us roots that nourish
the branch, the leaf, the shoot,
And help us by your pruning
To yield a richer fruit.
Lord, save us from distractions
that human minds devise,
And give us grace to strive for the trophies you most prize.

Are we a true communion,
diverse and yet as one?
A house with doors wide open,
and room for all who come?
Renew your church in mission,
In ministry and grace,
That all who seek may find you,
In this and every place.

2009-05-29T14:39:00.001-07:00

I meant to say in that last post - you can find a complete archive of all the songs and hymns I've written at the following site:
http://sites.google.com/site/songsandhymns/
That might be easier than trekking back through this blog...
And I'll post any new ones there, too.
Take care,
Ally

2009-05-29T14:30:00.001-07:00

I'm really useless at this blogging thing. But I have written some new hymns, and here they are. Hopefully there'll be something here that will be of wider use.
I find that hymns are like buses - there aren't any for ages, then lots all come along at once!
It's been good to get back to writing again.,
Thanks for reading this far, and enjoy the hymns...
Ally

TWO NEW HYMNS FOR MOTHERING SUNDAY

Tune: All things bright and beautiful

All our blessings, all our joys
With thankful hearts we sing,
True, compassionate, loving God
Accept the praise we bring.

For parents and for children,
For husbands, wives, and friends,
For those whose care enfolds us
With love that never ends.

For fellowship and friendship
We both receive and give,
For those who’ve shared our journey
And taught us how to live.

For all who’ve shared our sorrow,
Walked with us in our pain,
Who’ve held our hand through darkness
And showed us light again.

Tune: O Waly Waly

For those who gave us life and breath,
For love that’s stronger far than death,
Today we bring our thankful hearts,
For all a mothering love imparts.

For kindness, patience, warmth and care,
For each embrace, each smile, each tear,
Each word of peace, each healing touch,
These simple gifts which mean so much.

We look to you, our mothering Lord,
Who shows love’s cost, and love’s reward,
Your passion fiercer than the grave,
Nailed to the world you came to save.

So teach your people how to live,
How to endure, how to forgive,
Teach us to trust, to sacrifice,
To share the love that has no price.

A song for Holy Week and Easter

If we'd been there so long ago
When Jesus died upon the cross
Would we have walked with him along
That way of anguish, pain and loss?

Would we have stood and watched him there,
And heard him cry with dying breath?
Would we have seen him give his life,
and hand the victory to death?

Would we have grasped what nailed him there –
It was our pride and cruelty,
Our lying, fear, injustice – these
Died with our Lord upon the tree?

When dawn first broke on Easter day
And new light shone not from the sun
But from the Son, would we have seen
that dark had died and light had won?

But just as then, we turn our back,
The light is bright, our eyes are dim,
We live as if our Lord is dead,
And hand the triumph back to sin.

So break our hearts, these caves of stone,
To set the resurrection free,
And loose our limbs from darkness’ shroud
To live, and live abundantly.

A post-communion hymn
(tune: Golden Sheaves or other 8787D Iambic)

May we who gather in your name
find your dear presence near us,
and offering our prayers and praise
keep faith that you will hear us.
May we who've shared the peace you bring
now take that gift to others,
draw all into you household turning
strangers into brothers.

Through words of song and scripture's truth
you aid us in our knowing,
and by this teaching may we be
in grace and wisdom growing.
Through all our lifetime's journeying
we know you walk beside us,
so when the pathway seems unclear
Lord, by your Spirit, guide us.

May all who share the bread and wine
and all who seek your blessing
now find ourselves empowered to go
our strengthened faith confessing.
So send us, Lord, into this world
which needs to hear your gospel:
transform you faithful people
from disciples to apostles.

A hymn for the 2009 clergy conference: Eternity in our hearts
Tune: Highwood

Lord of all life, and author of creation,bringing this wondrous universe to birth;
grant us a glimpse of heaven's vast horizon,that we may share it with a longing earth.

Lord of all hope, with timeliness of purpose
sending as heralds all who hear your call;
bless, Lord, our hearts and minds, and lift our voices,
that we may speak your words of life to all.

Lord of all love, forgiving and embracing,
sharing our laughter, weeping with our pain;
Make us good shepherds, give us joy in caring:
And use our hands to bless your world again.

Lord of all grace, and source of every blessing,
Gen’rous in giving, trusting our intent,
Guide us your stewards as we spend your treasure,
And grant us strength as we ourselves are spent.

Lord of all truth, of challenge and discernment,
calling us prophets, watchers in the night;
Root us in earth, but keep our sights on heaven,
That we may lead your children into light.

Lord of all time, our end and our beginning,
shaping the whole in which we play our part;
Open our eyes to see your way unfolding,
and keep eternity within our hearts.

I'm back!

2007-06-21T15:01:00.001-07:00

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted. I started a new job in May, and it's been a bit mad ever since - I don't get round to writing my sermons til Saturday night! And this Sunday my little son Daniel is being baptised, so we'll have a houseful of relatives as well, who won't find the sight of me typing away at a sermon very entertaining! I'm sure I'll think of something...
I hate the fact that I've not done any hymnwriting recently, though. There just hasn't been time, and I'm one of those people who generally has to write for a reason, so while I'm still so new in these churches that I can't really make them sing my songs, there's not much point in writing anything.
Anyway, maybe there'll be more over the summer.
Heck, nobody reads this stuff anyway!

Blessed be the one

2007-03-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hi all
here's another song. It's for Palm Sunday this time, which is a bit of a tricky one! Hope you enjoy it.

He comes in triumph,
A monarch riding through the crowd,
Just as the prophet wrote so long ago,
Is this the one that we’ve looked forward to?
In this man, Jesus,
We can see all our hopes fulfilled:
We see our liberty from all our bonds
And as we shout we hear all heaven respond:

So we sing blessed,
Blessed be the one who comes to us,
in God’s name.
So we sing blessed,
Blessed be the one who comes to us,
in the name of the Lord.

What is he thinking?
What’s that expression in his eyes?
As he sees countless gazes drawn to him,
Our expectation, wanting more from him.
He watches, knowing
He is the one we will despise;
His path will lead him to rejection, grief,
And execution like a common thief.

But he is blessed
Blessed be the one who comes to us
In God’s name.
So we sing, Blessed,
Blessed be the one who comes to us,
in the name of the Lord.

What do we feel now?
Aren’t we the ones who called him ‘Lord’?
And then betrayed him to the enemy,
And left him all alone in pain to die?
And yet he hears us,
Hears every silence, every word,
When we weep tears of shame with every breath,
For all we did to send him to his death.

For he is blessed
Blessed be the one who comes to us,
in God’s name.
So we sing Blessed,
Blessed be the one who comes to us,
in the name of the Lord.

Christian Songwriting Organization

2007-02-23T13:53:00.000-08:00

A friend that I met through an email discussion group introduced me to this great critiquing group for people who write Christian hymns and songs - I've only so far posted a critique, but when I do get around to posting a song to the group I'm hoping they might be able to help, especially with the song for Bible Sunday (below). I'm not all that used to writing what you might call 'worship songs' (as opposed to 'hymns') and I'm not sure I've got the idiom right at all, but maybe the others in the CSO can help me. Hope so!
Meanwhile, on the home front, I decided that tonight was going to be the night that I tried to get 3-month old Daniel to go to sleep in his Moses basket rather than in bed with me. What a stupid idea that was! The result of this experiment is that he is asleep sitting up on my desk, leaning against my shoulder as I type. Not what I had in mind. I am sooo looking forward to the night that he manages to sleep for more than 2 hours at a time...

2007-02-16T14:38:00.000-08:00

A song for Bible Sunday (the tune is my own, so if you want a copy of it, leave a comment here with your email address and I'll send it to you)

Refrain:
You give us your word,
Now help us to hear
And show in our livesthat your kingdom is near.

You give us your word,
so rich in the mystery
Of your love throughout history,
to your people made known.

Refrain

You give us your word,
a pattern to guide us,
The vision inspires us,
and lights up our way.

Refrain

You give us your word,
to show your desire for us,
and all that you offer us
to make us your own.

Refrain

Take, O take me as I am (more verses)

2007-02-16T14:35:00.000-08:00

Four further verses for John Bell’s "Take O take me as I am" (which is copyright WGRG / the Iona Community)

Take, O take me as I am,
let me hear you call my name,
set my soul ablaze and never quench the flame.

Take, O take me as I am,
Let me with your glory shine,
in my weakness show your strength, your life in mine.

Take, O take me as I am,
let your hope in me abide,
grant me faith to take each step, your love my guide.

Take, O take me as I am,
Draw me into your embrace,
All I have I give to your transforming grace.

Hope of our calling

2007-02-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

Hymn on vocation, suitable for a post-communion.
The tune is 'woodlands' (Tell out my soul)

Hope of our calling: hope through courage won;
By those who dared to share all Christ had done.
Saints of today, Christ’s banner now unfurled,
We bring his gospel to a waiting world.

Hope of our calling: hope with strength empowered,
Inspired by all that we have seen and heard;
This call is ours, for we are chosen too,
To live for God in all we say and do.

Hope of our calling: hope with grace outpoured,
From death’s despair the gift of life restored;
Our call to serve, to wash each others’ feet,
To bring Christ’s healing touch to all we meet.

Hope of our calling: hope by faith made bold;
To sow God’s righteousness throughout the world;
Bring peace from conflict, fruitfulness from weeds,
The kingdom’s harvest from a mustard seed.

Hope of our calling: Spirit-filled, unbound,
Old joys remembered and new purpose found,
Our call refreshed by sacrament and word,
We go in peace to love and serve the Lord.

An Offertory Hymn

2007-02-16T14:32:00.000-08:00

An offertory hymn based on four terms for the Holy Communion:
Verse 1: EucharistVerse
2: Lord’s SupperVerse
3: Holy CommunionVerse
4: Mass

Tune: Abbot's Leigh

Here we sing our great thanksgiving,
Tell again God’s tale of love:
Sin undone, for Christ’s self-giving
Breathes forgiveness from above,
Here we make our humble offering:
All we have, yet more we owe;
So the heavenly celebration
Finds an echo here below.

Here we take the bread from heaven,
Broken, torn, the crumbs we share;
Here we drink the living fountain,
Quench our thirst, our souls repair.
Here recall Christ’s loving passion,
Arms spread wide, he bore our pain;
Suffering servant, scorned Messiah,
God’s own loss has bought our gain.

Here Christ’s love is shared among us,
All are welcomed, none left out.
Here God’s reconciling Spirit
Brings an end to fear and doubt.
Let our hands be made for healing,
May our tongues speak words of peace;
Let God’s justice rule for ever,
And his righteousness increase.

Here may we receive our mission,
Here accept your gracious call.
Speak again your great commission:
Show the Way of Life to all.
Send us, Lord, to live your gospel,
Christ’s new body let us be.
Then at last around your table,
All may feast eternally.

A song for Advent

2007-02-16T14:29:00.000-08:00

This song is supposed to make a link between the Jesse Tree theme of looking backwards at salvation history and the 'keep alert' theme of looking forward towards the coming of the kingdom. The tune is 'Give me oil in my lamp'

There’s a story to tell of creation,
And the patriarchs’ faith of old,
There are stories of prophets and sages,
We’ll repeat them ‘til the world’s been told:

Sing together! sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King of Kings.
Sing together! Sing together!
Sing to welcome in the King.

There are stories of sin and forgiveness,
Of a Kingdom of truth and love.
Of a girl who gave birth to a baby,
To fulfil God’s promise from above:

Sing together...

As God’s people prepare for his coming,
And remember those days long gone,
Our own stories are yet to be written,
As we live to make God’s kingdom come:

Sing together...

We must each of us wait for the morning,
Through the night we will watch and pray,
As we look for the light that is dawning,
We’ll be ready at the break of day:

Twinkle twinkle little star

2007-02-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

A Song for Little Children at Epiphany:

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are.

Twinkling star that shines so bright,
Guide our footsteps with your light.
Lead us safely on our way,
As we travel night and day.
Twinkling star that shines so bright
Guide our footsteps with your light.

Twinkle as we journey on,
Searching for God’s new-born son.
Help us find the manger-bed,
Where sweet Jesus lays his head.
Twinkle as we journey on,
Searching for God’s new-born son.

Twinkle, little shining star,
On God’s people near and far.
Help us find the world’s true light,
Shining in the darkest night.
Twinkle, little shining star,
On God’s people near and far.

Twinkling like the stars above,
Shining brightly with God’s love,
We’ll light up the earth below,
show the world the God we know,
Twinkling like the stars above,
Shining brightly with God’s love.

A Song about Healing

2007-02-16T14:27:00.000-08:00

A Song about Healing (Tune: Michael, row the boat ashore)

Sing a song of Jesus’ love. Halleluia.
Grace and healing from above. Halleluia.

Jesus loved the weak and poor. Halleluia
Turning no-one from his door. Halleluia

Deaf and blind, and sick and lame. Halleluia
Jesus loved them all the same. Halleluia

Jesus wants to heal us all. Halleluia.
Rich and poor, and great and small. Halleluia.

Two silly affirmations of faith!

2007-02-16T14:25:00.000-08:00

Creed: The Hoakey Coakey
We trust in Father God,
Who made the world:
We love him, serve him, trust him with our life;
We thank him that he made us and we worship him,
That’s what it’s all about!

Refrain:
O, sing what we believe in! (x 3)
That’s what it’s all about.

We put our faith in Christ,
God’s only Son,
Who lived and died to save us from our sin.
He rose to life and one day he will come again.
That’s what it’s all about!

Refrain:

The Holy Spirit came:
God’s breath of life
Inspired the church to spread throughout the earth.
And in his power we’re sent to love and serve the Lord.
That’s what it’s all about!

Refrain:

Creed: The farmer’s in his den…

In God who made the world (x3)
We believe and trust in God who made the world.

In Jesus Christ his Son (x3)
We believe and trust in Jesus Christ his Son.

In God the Holy Spirit (x3)
We believe and trust in God the Holy Spirit.

A Song of Moses and Miriam

2007-02-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

A song of Moses and Miriam

O sing aloud to God our strength
Whose glory conquers all,
His mighty power has raised us up
While horse and rider fall.
We sing in worship, for to God
All praise and thanks belong,
Our voices raise the melody
Of our salvation’s song.

This is our God, whom we exalt
Until the world shall end;
The Lord who saved our fathers will
To us his love extend.
He did not leave us in our plight
But to the rescue came,
Our strong defender in the fight,
Jehovah is his name.

His powerful hand has been our shield
And glorious is his might,
And all the hosts of evil now
are shattered at the sight.
The breath divine that gave us life
The mighty flood sets free,
And so the water’s swirling rage
Devours our enemy.

Almighty is the power of God,
His love will never end,
He has redeemed us, set us free,
and leads us by the hand.
And now he brings us to that place
Where we may dwell secure,
The holy house of God shall be
Our haven evermore.

All glory be to God on high,
The Father, Spirit, Son,
To whom we raise the melody
Of our salvation’s song.

(Tune: Kingsfold, St Matthew, or any suitable DCM tune)

The Hymn Book

2007-02-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

Here's where you can find the words to the hymns and songs that I've written. I hope you enjoy them; you're certainly free to use them in your own church if you'd like to do so, but make sure you include somewhere in the small print that they are copyright Ally Barrett!
Thanks for looking,
Ally