Tat anyone?

The lecture hall is full of cassocks!

Not in the scheme of things a revelatory statement I know but today’s “tat fair” (I think the name gives some indication of the general view of clerical wear around here :o) is for many of the final year ordinands the place where the reality of what they are training for becomes all too real. Last terms talk of curacies and what kind of house is being offered has given way to stole brochures and the perplexing question of what colour lining to have in your cassock.

Though the few high church folk here are in hog heaven (one very excited that they have just found a Biretta!) for many the sight of so many clerical vestments in one place is likely to induce a panic attack. Even the most ardent supporter of clergy not wearing robes, or indeed clerical collars has to face up to the fact that for their ordination, if never again, they will need the gear.

This of course leads to that important question – why exactly do we dress up each week in a style of clothing that hasn’t been in use outside religious circles for 600 years? I have over the years come round to the idea that clerical collars may not be an altogether bad thing. They are, even in our increasingly secular society, a great calling card, singling you out as a safe person to talk to. There are amazing stories of priests who have been approached by the most unlikely people, in the most unlikely places to talk about God. The vestments however I remain to be convinced about. It’s not to say I don’t love the amazing vestments used each week at my attachment church. They have a robe closet so full of ecclesiastical bling I think ever Liberace would have been jealous and in this ancient church, with its traditional liturgy and a sense of things not having changed in the last 500 years it does work. However, in your regular parish church, striving to be relevant to the local population, wondering where all the real men have gone I am not convinced that a bloke dressed in a frock and looking like a penguin in search of a home is helpful…

I suppose it speaks volumes of my low theology that I think that it’s preferable for those leading services to be part of the congregation both in churchmanship and dress. To lead the people, surely you need to be seen to be part of the people?
However, as those going to the tat fair are finding out there is no escaping the fact that vestments are here to stay….

So a cassock it is then – not exactly the LBJ* of choice – but such is life…

*little black dress

Simple but effective...

This is so simple and yet at the same time so off the wall. I love it!

New Christmas readings?

Christmas with its same old readings can sometimes seem a bit of a slog for those of us that have been doing this church “thing” for a while. In an effort to bring a new perspective on things can I suggest that we add in Isaiah 61:11a from the ESV translation?

For those of you not familiar with this translation you can find it here

Now all we have to do is find readings for the rest of Christmas dinner – any thoughts?

treading carefully...

As someone who can't even manage to run on a treadmill without nearly falling off several times I stand in awe of these four!

The building blocks of life?

Clearly a priest with too much time on his hands – for lo – he has illustrated all the bible stories with Lego!

You have got to check it out, it’s a phenomenal piece of work (but beware some of the illustrations of Leviticus are very graphic – though highly amusing!!)

Homecomings…

Coming back to London and my sending church after a term away was a strange experience.

On the one hand everything is very familiar and I all too easily fall back into the old familiar routine and found myself filling in as sidesman, selling cookery books and generally being treated as one of the locals…. And yet there is also the sense that I am not really part of it any more, there are unfamiliar strands of conversations continued on from the weeks that I wasn’t there, new faces in the back row and the surreal experience of visiting the houses of friends and seeing my ex-possessions in new places…

But for all the surealness it was good to go back – to find some sense of the comfortable past among the myriad of the new… and not least to see my gorgeous Julia and know that she has really settled in her new home – a heaven on earth where she can sit above a warm radiator and stare out of the window at the same time – life is so full of simple pleasures when you are a cat….

Topsy Turvey Advent…

Apologies folks for the interruption in your blogging service from up here is chilly Cambridge. I had some serious procrastination to do which was rather time consuming :o)

The good news is that 1 essay is now handed in, I am well on my way with research for the second and I am trying to ignore the third for the moment as it’s really hard! Given that the hand in deadline is still 3.5 weeks away I don’t think, given my Phd level procrastination skills, that’s too bad?! And at least as part of the procrastination I have completed all my Christmas shopping which is a record for me so early in the season…

The last few weeks have been rather liturgically strange. As college terms finish so early we began our Christmas celebrations prior to advent Sunday with a mulled wine and carol singing evening. … I tried not to squirm in church on the advent Sunday following when the preacher was quite firm in his conviction that there should be nothing Christmas in Advent, though I have to say I thought the stern words about simplicity and the church being stripped of its decorations until Christmas eve were somewhat diluted by being given by someone dressed in the most sumptuous purple advent robes I have ever seen!

Things got even more muddled on the following Thursday when we had our last college worship of the term which included both Christmas carols and advent antiphons as well as the gospel choir and a robed church choir performing very different styles of music at various times. This was followed by the lavish Christmas banquet, in the magnificently decorated dining hall (complete with 7 foot glowing santa!)

So I have decided there is nothing for it but to say to heck with the liturgical year and declare Christmas well and truly started – Merry Christmas everyone!