BeachcomberFX

Category: Sunday@thePub

  • Fighting with another…

    Fighting with another…

    HI folks, how we doing? This week we are meeting at 7.30 at the Crescent Club, I hope you will be able to join us! 

    This week we turn our attention to fighting with another… The actual chapter in Liturgy of the Ordinary though is not about fighting with another – it’s actually about fighting with your partner……… I have to say I didn’t want to get into that!! 

    But then as I read the chapter and pondered on it – it hit me! The person I argue with the most is Karen! hahaha! We don’t argue much but when we do – we usually go for it… there is usually shouting, and one of us usually walks out the room to go somewhere else… and then one of us falls on our sword and starts the job of making up! What is interesting is that we usually argue around silly things, parking the car, or in fact anything to do with the car!

    But if we are honest – the car is the excuse, the trigger but it’s normally something else that is the cause, some niggle at work, something we are feeling low or down about… or whatever it is! And then as we argue we then notice the sharpness in our voices, or who interrupts whom, and how often, or about a passing comment that was made yesterday or a look that was given this morning. 

    These are the patterns in family life that make it hard to be patient and gentle and kind. I’m not mad that Karen left the draws open in the kitchen while we are cooking… I’m mad about the last three hundred times you’ve left the draws open! Or, more painfully, Karen would say it’s not just that she’s mad about my criticism today, it’s how a pattern of my criticism, comment by passing comment, bumps up against her own patterns of woundedness, and self-defensiveness.

    You get the picture- you probably recognise some of this! Or I hope you do!! 

    The truth is I get along with most people pretty well. When I do have conflict, it is usually with those I love most. The struggle to “love my neighbour” is most often tested in my home, with Karen, when I’m tired, fearful, discouraged, off my game, or just want to be left alone.

    I have spent most of my working life working in the church – But even that doesn’t stop me from making mistakes!! In fact it could be said it’s even harder!! What I do know is that as a follower of Jesus I cannot seek God’s peace and mission in the world without beginning right where I am, in my home, in my neighbourhood, at BFX, with the real people right around me.

    Now if you have been in any church you will know that one of the most awkward moments is the ‘passing of the peace’ – I can see some of you shivering with the very thought! 

    Passing the peace isn’t supposed to be what we have made it – it should be about deep reconciliation – you can see that if that was lived out in community with those that know each other well and with those who we rub up against all the time that it could be really significant. 

    So what then if passing of the peace was to find its way into our daily living in small, unseen moments as we live together, seeking to love those people who are the constants, the furniture in our lives—parents, spouses, kids, friends, colleagues, enemies, the barista we chat with each week as we wait for coffee, the neighbour whose child continues to kick his ball into your garden.

    It seems after reading this chapter that peace is home grown, it begins on the smallest scale, in the daily grind, in homes, churches, and neighbourhoods. 

    In Jeremiah 29:7 we read these words – seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” – In fact when you have space read the whole chapter! 

    Daily habits of peace or habits of discord spill into our communities, creating cultures of peace or cultures of discord.

    So when we seek peace, we begin with where we are… Each time we make a small choice toward justice, or buy fair trade, or seek to share instead of hoard, or extend mercy to those around us and kindness to those with whom we disagree, or say “I forgive you,” we pass peace where we are in the ways that we can. 

    It seems to me that if we are going to make a difference in our communities we need to start in simple ways by seeking peace with those we are closest to and going from there… We need to say sorry to each other to seek the peace of the city…  So why not start “Passing the peace” in every way we can, in the places and spheres where God has placed us. 

    Peace takes a whole lot of work. Conflict and resentment seem to be the easier route. Shorter, anyway. Less humiliating.

    Anne Lamott writes that we learn the practice of reconciliation by starting with those nearest us. “Earth is Forgiveness School. You might as well start at the dinner table. That way, you can do this work in comfortable pants.”

    Some questions: 

    What is the most ridiculous argument you have ever had?

    How do you feel when you argue?

    What is one way to seek peace in your home, work, or small sphere of daily experience?

    In what way do you find it difficult or easy to forgive? 

    What is your experience of passing the peace?

    How do you see your small sphere and ordinary life as part of the broader mission and work of bringing peace?

    The author quotes Anne Lamott, who said, “Earth is Forgiveness School. You might as well start at the dinner table. That way, you can do this work in comfortable pants.” How do you seek reconciliation or need it in your home or in your daily life?
    Peace Rob
  • Eating Leftovers

    Eating Leftovers

    Hi folks, this weeks blog is written by Karen, we are meeting at the Crescent Club at 7.30. Please do keep in mind social distancing and don’t forget to bring your mask! Look forward to seeing you there.
    This week’s theme is eating leftovers and it’s no secret I love eating.
    Baking and eating a variety of cakes, bread and puddings has definitely helped me through the last 18 months but in recent months I know I’ve eaten far more than I need. My jeans don’t fit, I get out of breath quickly and after our recent holiday I’ve craved vegetables to the point we’ve eaten vegan most of this week. I’m struggling to look at photos of myself and my confidence is low. This is because throughout my life I have heard the message ‘fat is bad, thin is good’. Since I was 13 have been in a constant cycle of losing or gaining weight.
    To help me get a more balanced view on all this I follow Dr Joshua Wolrich and Beyond Chocolate on Social Media. Look them up if you want to know more (links below) – they take a more balanced view than ‘big is best’ and have a strong emphasis on emotional wellbeing. In response to what I’ve learned from them I now make a conscious effort not to comment on someone’s weight loss as I don’t want to reinforce the message that you are worth more when you are slimmer.
    There have been two media articles that have wound me up this week, the front page of the Church Times and Lord Robathan’s comments about obesity (links below). Have a look if you are interested. This topic is everywhere are there are strong views on both sides but what is often lacking is consideration of those with eating disorders or the many factors that contribute to body size.
    In the Liturgy of the Ordinary the author raises various questions about food and eating, from the ethics of food production to the sacrament of communion. Some of the most special times we have had together as a community have been round a huge table sharing food and alcohol.
    The main thrust of the chapter is the link between our body’s biological need for food and our spiritual need for connection with God. She suggests that if we don’t nourish our spiritual needs we can become spiritually hungry or disconnected. This makes sense. I know that I put a lot more effort into thinking about what I’m going to eat than how I’m going to connect with God and as such I often feel spiritually disconnected.
    The author talks about the simple act of saying grace before a meal – this and the food we eat can often feel mundane but if we can get into this rhythm it can help anchor us to God.
    Questions:
    What’s the most memorable meal you’ve ever had?
    And the most disgusting?
    Should the church have a view on obesity?
    How much consideration do you give to where your food has come from?
    Where do you see the links between eating and spirituality?
    Do you say grace? If so why?
    What is Communion?
    Links:
  • Following the Wild Spirit of Christ :
 How a trip to the forest lead to me leaving Methodist ministry

    Following the Wild Spirit of Christ :
 How a trip to the forest lead to me leaving Methodist ministry

    I came into the church as a teenager with no background in Christianity or any kind of religious framework in my upbringing. However, I had always had a sense of something beyond that was drawing and beckoning me out of my limited self. The Christian faith gave me a framework to understand and nurture that sense of beckoning. In time I was baptised, began preaching and was ordained as a Methodist minister and for decades this felt as if my spiritual life had finally found its home. Indeed, for the most part Methodism has provided for me a hospitable dwelling: warm and nurturing it has been a place to live, grow and share.
    Nevertheless, in seeking the way of Christ there is always a sense of opening to new vistas, a breaking open of boundaries and boxes that bind us. Carefully formulated over centuries, we are offered categories that we can put people into, separating one from another, boxes within which we constrain our own unfolding sense of self as well as clever definitions of who God is and how God speaks and acts.
    Although they may be useful for a 5me, the Wild Spirit of Christ and our own vibrant souls cannot be contained by any of these boxes. When it is not channelled along concrete culverts the flow of a river shifts its banks, unconstrained, and twists in new ways. And so, in the summer of 2019 I felt the draw of the wilderness and I found myself camping alone in a forest in Cornwall. I’m not instinctively a person for such outdoor pursuits but I felt compelled as if that land had something to teach me.
    I spent time in the woodland naked, meditating and reaching out to the Wild Spirit that was still beckoning me forward after all those years.
    In the shifting shadows of the night forest, I felt a deeper opening: an ancient communion with primal energies. Rhythms of moon waxing and waning, seasons in constant flow, all the elements in flux outside of my control: rain, sunshine, rain. And the call of the Wild Spirit of Christ was to open up my body/ soul (for these two aren’t separate) to welcome all of this.
    The fecund fertile ebb and flow of creation/destruction and the primordial forces in the soil, trees and rocks found an echo in the depths of my own body.
    This did not feel safe. There is a raging power, passion, desire and will to life in our muscles, bones, and churning organs. Once opened to be seen and experienced this is a door impossible to close.
    The bright orange ball of fire that resides in the bowl of our pelvis is a source of such creative energy. It loves fiercely and seeks connection to others as it urges life out into the world. But institutions teach us to be wary of our bodily sensations and to mistrust them as a source of authority, instead we are taught to seek an external voice to guide our ways. Be it a book, a set of doctrines, a man in a pulpit, or a list of rules of practice and disciplines. This is not surprising because, however benevolent an institution may be, it relies on control to maintain its form just as a city needs laws and boundaries to maintain decorum and a sense of identity. Who knows what might burst out if members started to trust their own deep drives and sensations? Equally it feels much safer for us to rely on that external authority, there is no need to take responsibility if we subcontract our important thoughts and decisions to something outside of ourselves. Within the institution the warm maternal bosom nourishes us as long as we stay close. And this is no bad thing as there are times when we need the maternal holding to heal and grow.
    The structures hold us safe but if we turn our attention to that supernova exploding inside of us then who knows what havoc that could wreak in our lives? Rather than incline our ear inward it’s so much safer to let the heavenly father tell us what to do: he’s up there watching over us to protect us and guide us for our own good (or so simplistic religion would have us believe).
    As I sought to understand the ramifications in my life of these newly discovered sensations, I found a dilemma: How do I live in faithfulness to this raging wild creative spirit that I have found in communion with Christ by entwining my body with the earth whilst also dwelling within an institution called the Methodist Church with all the frameworks that this necessarily entails?
    There are many good things about the Methodist Church and many wonderful faithful people who live well and are called to minister within its structures and yet it is the nature of institutions to always hold boundaries: limits of acceptability of thought, behaviour, and ways of being. I know that many people do flourish within these boundaries and wonderfully so, like a city with strong walls that protects its citizens with structures to keep them safe and healthy. But for me the Wild Spirit kept beckoning outwards, what I had thought was my home for life became a staging post on the way, a welcoming community to whom I owe a lot and to whom I have given thirty years of my life.
    But the full moon always wanes and rather than remaining still she tracks a path across the sky. The tide turns in the estuary to reveal new channels and complex fresh landscapes in the salt marsh each day and so came a new act of trust for me: to let go of everything I’d been clinging to, everything that had helped me find form and identity in faith and self since I walked through the welcoming doors of a Methodist Church at the age of 14. To set out into the wilds, away from well-trodden paths into rich and tangled undergrowth. I don’t know whether this space will consume me or nurture me as such things are outside of our control when we give ourselves to that wild flow.
    Uncertainty is the very nature of this path but it has the potential to open up new ways of connecting to others, conduits of love and creative life that atrophy in the framework of institutions. If we choose to venture into the wilderness, the self-willed place beyond city walls, then we risk our own destruction.
    Some questions:
    • What resonated with your experience? what did you disagree with?
    • In what ways has the church enabled you to grow and flourish? in what ways has the church hindered your growth?
    • What does the idea of the “Wild Spirit of Christ” mean to you?
    • What does it mean for us to trust the instincts and sensations of our bodies? What opportunities might this open up for you? what dangers might there be? what is holding you back from listening to these instincts and sensations?
    • In what ways has connecting with the natural world nurtured your spiritual life?
    • What do you think the writer means when he says, “If we choose to venture into the wilderness…we risk our own destruction”?
    • How might the Wild Spirit of Christ be speaking to you today and what would it mean for you to follow that Spirit “out into the wilderness”?
  • Losing your keys

    Losing your keys

    It’s Wednesday morning and I decided to read the chapter on lost keys one more time before sitting down to write this blog. I read the chapter and decided to mull over what the author has written regarding how the un-pretty side of her emerges when the ordinary daily routine is interrupted, held up or completely changed. She speaks about getting ready to leave the house but when she goes to get her keys they are not in their designated space and now begins the search for the lost keys. As she talks you through her desperate search for the keys she allows herself to be vulnerable in showing what her thoughts are during this time, “stupid keys, stupid me”.

    Maybe you recognise these initial thoughts when your daily routine is interrupted.
    Here is how my Wednesday progressed after reading that chapter that very morning.
    I decided to paint the wall in the study with the testing pots I bought. Opened the first pot of paint and thought the lighting could be better to see what I was doing, so I move the lamp. And that is when instead of the paint hitting the wall as intended, it flowed out of the tub on to the desk and onto my new white t-shirt. Within less than a second I exclaimed “Horlicks”, well something that sounds very similar, and as I sat on the chair pulling at kitchen roll to wipe up the paint my mind was on the very edge of going to my instant reaction, “stupid me, why am I always so dam clammy? Why can’t I just be good enough and do things without something going wrong?”
    But instead I started to laugh out loud as I remembered what I had just been reading. As I was laughing and wiping up green paint, there was a familiar sound out on the landing, one of the cat’s was being sick. I admit I stopped laughing at this point but didn’t go to my next instant reaction “oh you have to be joking, really, can nothing go right just once?” So I cleaned up the paint and the cat sick, thinking to myself actually, the paint spilling was a pain but it was not going to be the end of the world, and the cat being sick, while that’s not his fault, we’re all sick at one time or another.
    Later in the day, I was putting the dishes in the dishwasher when I went to close the door and nipped my fingers in the plastic that needs mending. Let’s say even though my husband was not home his ears would have been burning as I blamed him for not fixing it. And then the chapter came to mind again. It was not my husband’s fault that my fingers where nipped, he wasn’t even there, and was reminded that he had tried to fix the problem before.
    During the day I realised that it’s during the daily ordinary inconveniences that I can and do show “the neediness and sinfulness, neurosis and weakness that I try to ‘pretty’ up and manage through control, ease, and privilege are suddenly on display” as the author writes. It was at this point I realised in the past that I would have made the majority if not all those daily inconveniences personal, that they were an attack at me. So yesterday’s inconveniences would roll in to todays, and both would roll into tomorrows and so on until I would be weighted down in my mind and emotions that everything was against me. And then when there was a true big life crisis put on top carrying all the other small things it became too much to carry, eventually I would become sharp in my words and tone with people, mainly those closest to me. Over time this would exacerbate the mental health illnesses of depression and anxiety within me.
    These small daily inconveniences show the other side of me, the anxious wanting to be in control, to be ‘good enough’ need within me and it is at this place that I find myself needing God’s amazing grace and love. I have come to find that if I can deal with and take to God what is really happening inside of me, what the root of my true reaction to the situation is really about, I can deal with the situation a whole lot better. I find I can first ask God to forgive me for my reaction or outburst, and then speak to him about what is really going on within me, anxiety, lack of confidence, wanting life to be easy. I have found that the quicker I can do this and recognise what is being triggered within me, the quicker I can leave it and not have to carry it around inside of me all day, which can make or break the rest of the day.
    What I have come to find, as the author had, is that God is interested in every aspect of my life, every second, every activity, everything big, small, convenient, inconvenient, happy or sad, good or bad, God wants to be living every moment with us. Why? Because it is during these daily tasks, those daily inconveniences God can use to bring light to my inner being, my heart, my spirit and help me to work through those reactions enabling me through His grace and love to become whole.
    I want to finish with the authors final thoughts to this chapter:
    “When Jesus was approached by some “pretty good people” who were offended that he hung out with sinners, he compared God to a women who had lost something. God’s eager love for us ventures into the undignified and outsized, like the woman who is a little over the top about a lost coin, sweeping out rooms and looking under the furniture until she finds it. God searches more earnestly for me than I do for my lost keys. He is zealous to find his people and make them whole.”
    Questions:
    • What has been the most precious object you have lost? (now have Smeagol from Lord of the Rings saying ‘My Precious’ in my head) Did you find it again? If so how?
    • What has gone wrong today? (Or if you are having a perfect day, this week)
    • How do you cope when the little things go wrong?
    • Do you think your reactions is more to do with the situation or more to do with what’s going on inside you?
    • Do you think God is with you in those moments and in what way?
    • What do you think regarding the closing paragraph?
    Photo by George Becker from Pexels
  • Brushing Teeth!

    Brushing Teeth!

    Hi folks, i hope you are well, this week we meet at the Crescent Club at 7.30, we hope to see you there! This weeks blog is written by Sue. 

    Over the past few weeks we have looked at how we might connect with God in the ordinary tasks of waking in the morning and making the bed. This week our theme is ‘brushing our teeth’, one of the ordinary daily tasks of caring for our body.

    I want to be open and honest to say that this topic comes with a health warning!

    Our bodies are unique to each of us, our bodies that do and don’t do things as we would like, our bodies are part or our identify as human beings whether we have a positive or negative outlook upon them.

    Brushing our teeth is such an ordinary activity but yet it speaks so powerfully about our relationship with our bodies. It’s so ingrained into us to clean our teeth.

    Society and business has built on the necessary need to care for our bodies, and at the same time persuaded us to want, if not need, to stay forever young, slim, muscled, toned, wearing the latest fashion, while posting filtered photos of how we look on social media 24/7.

    There are four major industries at play here, each with a net worth as follows:

    • Beauty industry – £27 billion 2021

    • Fitness industry – £1.62 billion 2020 (this had fallen due to covid)

    • Fashion industry – £62.2 billion 2021

    • Health and Wellbeing industry – £532 billion in 2016 (and rising over the last five years).

    Now these industries provide us with clothes too wear, food to eat and ways to keep our bodies, mind, emotions, and yes even our spiritual being healthy.

    But like our bodies one size does not fit all, something might work for one person but not another. The negative side to this is how the body is portrayed when advertising these industries and it relies on the insecurity and vulnerability we all have about our bodies.

    Christianity’s history with the body is littered with difficulty, in some cases it has led to the body being seen as dirty, evil and only the spirit within as good and whole, as the author of the book writes. She continues, “within different communities in times past these accusations may have been legitimate. But the Christianity we find in scripture values and honours the body.”

    In 13 weeks we will be celebrating Christmas. A time when we remember Jesus’ birth, the incarnation. As a baby grows so did Jesus, he continued to grow and develop, in fact we are told very little about Jesus’ life as a baby, child, or teenager; it’s not until Jesus begins his ministry that we know more about the man he would become.

    And then within three to four months after Christmas we will prepare and remember Jesus’ death, how his physical body endured the pain and torture that lead him to die on the cross. 1 Corinthians 6:20 (Amplified bible) reads, “You were bought with a price [you were actually purchased with the precious blood of Jesus and made His own]. So then, honour and glorify God with your body.” It’s not Jesus spirit that paid the price but his actual physical body.

    My favourite passage in the Bible is Psalm 139. It speaks of both God knowing me physically, about how I live day to day, and that God saw me before I was born, even in my mother’s womb! This Psalm became a comfort to me as my body was a source for torment to me from others as I grew up. I would often think about running away, but the only person I was really trying to get away from was myself, away from my physical body.

    As a grown women my body continues to cause me pain. I have a condition called PCOS and this effects fertility. The desire to be a mum myself seems impossible (I know and believe all things are possible in God – Sarah, Hannah and Rachel to name a few). Yet over the years God has shown me how to love me, how he has created me in his image and how to love all of me, mind, soul/spirit and body . Now don’t get me wrong, there are days when I need reminding of this and there is still lots of work to be done. But my body as it is, is not just my body but it is me, it’s part of my whole being.

    Our bodies are amazing, in the book ‘What our bodies know about God’ Rob Moll writes about the physical effects that spiritual practices such as prayer have on the brain that has been studied by neuroscience. Rob describes how different parts of the brain react when in prayer and the significant impact of practicing prayer on a daily basis has on the overall mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of an individual.

    The book is written in three parts, 1. Bodies are spiritual, 2. How we change during spiritual practices and 3. What does it mean when our bodies malfunction? How do we think of God as creator when creation is broken?

    Brushing our teeth is a reminder to us to care for our bodies, they are precious things that we inhabit – that is amazing in and of itself! It is in the daily care of our bodies, that we can continue to be all that God wants for us.

    In closing I want to share 3 John 2 “Beloved, I pray that in every way you may succeed and prosper in good health (physically) Just as (I know) your soul prospers (spiritually).”

    Questions:

    What toothpaste do you use? And what colour is your toothbrush?

    What’s your worst dentist story?

    What’s your favourite part of your body (keep it clean)?

    The church has sometimes handled the body in a negative way, what is your experience of this?

    What bible stories do you like that talk to us about the body?

    What does the incarnation (God taking human form) tell us about the body?

    How could we use our bodies to connect spiritually?

    Peace, Rob

  • Making the Bed

    Making the Bed

    Do you make the bed?

    Once upon a time the answer to this question would most definitely have been no.  I would wake up (that was last weeks blog), crawl out of bed and go about getting ready for the day by washing, putting on clothes and eating cornflakes.  At night I would then collapse in to the bed again, exactly as I had left it that morning, pull the duvet over me and sleep.

    I am a changed man.

    My wife always makes the bed.  Every morning with out fail she will make sure the bed is made before she has left the house.  When we lived in Manchester this was sometimes an issue because I wasn’t always up before she had left for work so the bed remained unmade and so she began to make the bed with me still in it (she still does on some occasions).  Over the years though I have been transformed into a bed maker. The first thing I do once I have stepped out of bed is make sure the duvet is straight and “show” pillows are back in place.  It isn’t every morning (sometimes my wife is still asleep) but on those mornings I’m the last up I make sure the bed is left made.  

    There is a wonderful routine to this habit or practice. It creates a little bit of order at the beginning of the day, ordering the messy bed into a nice smooth and ordered space (a little like Genesis 1). It also means I achieve something within the first few minutes of being awake and it may go downhill from there but at least I can say I managed one thing at least.  In the book Liturgy of the Ordinary the writer shares here journey to becoming a bed maker and how she develops making the bed into a spiritual practices by taking a few moments to sit on the freshly made bed in silence. Sometimes she reads or prayers or just sits.  My bed making doesn’t have this intentional focus to it but it does act as an anchor point in the day which begins my other routines and time of focus (I walk the dog each morning and listen to lectio365).

    Now before you all start to think I am a domestic hero I should add this in at the end.  I don’t make the bed everyday, it’s a shared effort with my wife that means the bed is always made before we all get on with our days.  I also don’t make the bed at other times (like afternoon snoozes) or generally when I am on holiday. There is probably lots of reasons for this but those times are different and I haven’t yet taken on board the importance of making the bed in all scenarios.

    So if you haven’t discovered the ordinary, everyday practice of making the bed why don’t you give it a go.  You can use it as primer for some silence or reading or you could use it as the anchor point for your day. Give it a go and see what happens. You never know it may be a simple act that changes your life.

    Questions

    If you make the bed, why? If you don’t, why not?

    What is the first thing you do when you get out of bed?

    What is your anchor point for the day? The one thing that starts you off to face what ever lies ahead.

    How can we build ordinary practices in our routines and rituals that will help us put life into perspective?

    Do you think these acts are spiritual?

    Photo by Monica Silvestre from Pexels

  • Waking!

    Waking!

    Hi folks, I hope that you have had a good week. It was great to be back in the Crescent Club last Sunday, it felt like coming home!!  We are once again back in the Crescent Club meeting at 7.30.

    Just another reminder that we want to ensure that we keep people safe, so we ask that when walking around the club you wear a mask. Please also be mindful of others personal space either while sitting down or walking about. There are a number of hand sanitisers around the club so please use them. If there are large numbers we will split into small groups around the club.

    As we continue to think about a ‘Liturgy for the Ordinary’ this week we are pondering on ‘waking’.

    The first thing to say is that we all do it! Some of us are better at it than others, I’m much more of a slow gentle riser, although if I have something to get up for I can move quickly!

    What I find interesting about waking is that there is a now and not yet phase that you might go through, the remnants of dreams drift into your mind and then fall away.

    You begin to experience your surroundings, hearing the radio or the alarm, light gently filters through as you move from sleep to waking, your consciousness kicks in, remembering, recognising the thoughts and emotions as you drifted into sleep.

    As you wake you become more aware of your body, start thinking about the day ahead and all that’s around the corner.

    I wonder if there is a spiritual moment in waking up? That kind of YES! I’m alive and thankful! I wonder what acknowledgment our inner being does in that moment of waking?

    I’m trying to think what is the first thing I do when I have decided that I am awake, it’s not easy, there are practical actions, like the loo, and making a cup of tea!  I don’t ‘do’ anything else I don’t think.

    According to Lutheran theologian Martin Marty, Lutherans are taught to begin each day, first thing, by making the sign of the cross as a token of their baptism – I find that interesting.

    We are marked from our first waking moment by our own identity that is given to us by grace: an identity that is deeper and more real than any other identity we will have that day. It is our person–hood, humanness, personality, and it kind of reboots each day.

    We rise like each person throughout the world although maybe as a person of spirituality you may rise slightly differently- or not?

    Maybe in that waking process there is a moment when we can begin to acknowledge our humanness and our spirituality.

    As a person of faith and spiritually we rise with a wonder and knowledge of grace, of being loved no matter what… Or do we?

    And so this morning I woke on an ordinary day, a morning in mid-September. I do not know what lies ahead, but I wake in a bed I know, a house I live in, a routine, a particular life. The psalmist declares, “This is the day that the Lord has made.”

    So some questions

    Describe how you wake?

    How do your dreams affect your waking?

    I talked about a ‘now and not yet’ moment of waking – what do you think that is?

    In what ways (if any) do you recognise your own spirituality in waking? And if you don’t, do you think it matters?

    How do you feel about each day being a re-boot? 

    What do you think of these words from the Psalm “This is the day that the Lord has made.” could they change your perspective about waking?

    Peace, Rob

  • Liturgy of the Ordinary

    Liturgy of the Ordinary

    Hi folks, I hope you are well and that you are ready to meet up on Sunday night at Cullercoats Crescent Club (upstairs bar at the front). We have decided to change the start time to 7.30, with the aim of starting the blog discussion between 8.00 and 8.15. This is to allow people to leave earlier after the discussion is over.

    As we make our re-entry into the club we also want to ensure that we keep people safe, so we ask that when walking around the club you wear a mask. Please also be mindful of others personal space either while sitting down or walking about. There are a number of hand sanitisers around the club so please use them. If there are large numbers we will split into small groups around the club.

    This week is a fairly laid back gathering to reconnect with each other and introduce you to the ‘Liturgy of the Ordinary’ theme we will be reflecting on over the next few weeks.

    So with that in mind, I wonder what your summer highlight was? Did you do something over the summer that you hadn’t done since the start of the pandemic?

    Life is often very ordinary isn’t it? There are things that we do everyday without thinking. When was the last time you thought about any of those ordinary activities in a kind of mindful or spiritual way? I suspect like me that you haven’t! I’m usually so focused on getting the activity done or my ears are tuned into the music I’m listening to at that time. At the start of the pandemic we noticed a lot more around us when we went for our daily exercise. The lack of cars allowed us the space to hear the calls of nature. These are the everyday sounds of life we miss when other noises drown them out – although I am someone who goes everywhere with music in my ears!!

    Of course in modern church culture there has often been a sacred and secular divide and the two don’t really combine. I would suggest that all of life’s encounters can be sacred moments, it’s in the DNA of BFX (BeachcomeberFX) as we attempt to listen, or see the sacred/spiritual in the world around us.

    Liturgy is a very churchy word, it’s about rites prescribed in worship. Another understanding is that it’s also a repertoire of ideas, phrases or observances. This opens it up doesn’t it? I would suggest that the secular world is threaded with elements of the sacred.

    And so we hope over the next few weeks to think about some of the ordinary things that we do and to ponder on what new sacred/spiritual meanings we could attach to them.

    I think this is particularly important as we emerge back into the world. We will need to find inner resources to cope with the demands put upon us, so having ordinary activities that help us reconnect may be helpful.

    So here are some questions:

    What was your summer highlight?

    What one thing have you done again since restrictions have been lifted that you have not done for a while?

    What is your favourite ordinary activity?

    What are you missing from your months of lockdown?

    Where do you see a sacred/secular divide?

    How do you feel about making ordinary things become more spiritual?

    We look forward to seeing you on Sunday night!

    Peace, Rob

  • Pause and Click

    Pause and Click

    Hi folks, I hope you are well, this Sunday we will meet online as the forecast says it may be showery. Meeting at 7.00pm, the link will be in the usual places, please let me know if you aren’t in them and would like to join us.

    This week I want to build on a few things we have done regularly over the last few months, we had a great walk last Sunday along the seafront. We even found space to have a drink outside, the first time we had gathered around a pub table for fifteen months, it was a delight!

    On our way along the sea front and then on our way back nature opened up for us, we saw dolphins in the sea, it stopped us and we got our cameras out and started snapping! There were OOOOSS and AHHHS as we saw the odd one breach and spin back into the sea. It was beautiful!

    It may be that you have done Petes latest walk, if you haven’t, why not have a go, either before this Sunday or sometime soon. As part of our walks, and as part of the pandemic we often ask you to take photos… It’s a good thing to do!

    The other day I went for a longer walk than usual and as I walked I documented it by snapping some photos as I went, it was great. When I got home I started thinking about sorting out work stuff over the next couple of months and trying to get ahead of the game to leave a bit of space for August. I was scrolling through some of the articles I have saved to my reading list on Google and I noticed a title of something that I had saved – ‘A soulful Vision Steve Radley on contemplative photography’. click here for the link. 

    The opening introduction made me sit up… “Priest and photographer Steve Radley explains why the camera and smartphone are deeply spiritual and talks about his mission to persuade a nation of visual storytellers to pause before they snap”.

    We have covered some of his reflections in other posts, taking notice, the spirituality of the everyday, etc. We will be doing more about that in September as well.

    What struck me as I read it, was after we walked along the seafront last Sunday many of us tried to snap the photo by just clicking our camera phone constantly trying to capture that perfect moment!

    And then as i watched the England game the other day, England had a free kick and i noticed folks in the crowd had their camera phone ready to snap that moment they hoped the ball would hit the back of the net!

    And then I remembered one of the last gigs I went to before lockdown was to see Kae Tempest (formerly Kate Tempest) and just as the gig started she asked us all to get out our camera phones and she posed for various photos and then asked us to put our phones away so that we could be in the moment. The gig was different as people weren’t trying to get that perfect shot and straining with their arms in the air waving their phone around!

    And so i thought about all this I was wondering what that says about us? Yes it’s great to take photos and document them for that moment, but what are we missing?

    Steve’s thoughts are that before we take the photo, we should PAUSE and CLICK. I wonder what we would notice around us if we did that? Is that a liminal space? That between space, the now and not yet space, the very moment before the moment?

    Could this be where ‘God’ or our version of ‘God’ reside?

    Some questions:

    Show us your best photo either physical or on your phone (why not upload it to the page)

    What do you think you are doing when you take photos?

    What do you think of spiritualising your photo taking?

    What do you think pausing would help you do, before you take a photo?

  • Walking

    Walking

    Hi folks, how are you doing? This week we will try something a bit different. We will meet for a walk. Meet at Cullercoats opposite Bills Fish Bar at 7.00pm, and we will walk along the top or on the beach depending on how you feel towards Tynemouth and back again.

    We also have a garden group meeting for those that don’t want to walk. Please let me know.

    Over the last fifteen months many of us have been walking as part of our daily exercise, particularly when we were in lockdown. In those early days of lockdown, we were noticing a lot more about what was around us, both sights and sounds. I wonder if you are still doing that? And if you are, what are you noticing? The pictures on this post are from a recent walk.

    Also when we walk we might be able to ponder on some issues or questions we are thinking through. David introduced me to this phrase ‘Solvitur ambulando’ . It’s a Latin phrase which means “it is solved by walking” and is often attributed to Saint Augustine. I wonder if you enjoy walking and thinking? How is that helpful for you? What do you ‘do’ when you walk?

    I find that I am able to listen to things more intently when I’m walking, so I like to listen to an album or podcast, I find it very restorative. What are you listening to as you walk?

    It may also be the case that as you walk that you ‘pray’, if that’s you, how does that work for you?

    So as we walk or gather, why not chat these things through. Why not share some photos as you go. You can post them here or on any of the platforms that we inhabit.

    Peace, Rob