Today is the last day of my wife's Christmas break and also my day off. So we abandoned life and went out. We went to the historic city of Bath and enjoyed a day of mooching around the shops looking for bargains. Didn't find many but did enjoy the distraction. I'm not a shopping person and do so only rarely.
I received some invitations to enter a poetry competition for the poetry group which is good news. They obviously want interaction and so do we. The winner gets a collection made into a book which can't be bad.
Communication has also been had with my Welsh priest friend who is away with friends. Hopefully he will try his luck with the Manchester poetry competition.
The bottom line is that it has been really good to get out and forget my worries for a while in the company of the one I love most.
Peace Dave.
Showing posts with label priest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label priest. Show all posts
Friday
Sunday
Christingle Sucess
This afternoon at 4pm we put on our parish Christingle crib service. We have been practicing this and today the moment came. The Church was full to bursting with young families with kids of all ages and the young at heart. Every thing went very well and I think was well received. The service began with two Roman soldiers attempting to hold a census, Gluteous Maximus and Gratuitous Ugliness. Then a young newly wed couple arrived and asked for lodgings, which of course there were none. Our priest played the part of the Inn Keeper and did a very good job beating off the Inn Keeper's Wife insistence that he should give the couple a room. Eventually they were allowed to stay in the cattle shed (vestry) which was declared as not fit for animals! We also had children tending large cardboard sheep who were disturbed by the sudden appearance of an Angel who proclaimed the birth of a special baby.
We actually held a census and had two young volunteers helping to count heads. Literally people were counted by the Romans. As this took place Joseph suddenly raced into the church ashen faced asking for towels and disrupting the counting. Four times he dashed in each time more frantic and manic than the last causing hoots of laughter from the congregation. The census naturally failed in the face of this event - a baby had been born.
This was the moment when in a hushed church Mary brought in the baby Jesus and laid him in a crib. The crib was put before a Nativity scene made with twelve inch models, essentially framing the moment. Result.
Part of the service was dedicated to Christingles and a load were handed out in exchange for donations to the work of the Children's society. A fair bit was raised which will do a lot of good. So we all had fun, taught the Nativity story once again and raised funds for a charity. I would call that a success.
Peace Dave.
We actually held a census and had two young volunteers helping to count heads. Literally people were counted by the Romans. As this took place Joseph suddenly raced into the church ashen faced asking for towels and disrupting the counting. Four times he dashed in each time more frantic and manic than the last causing hoots of laughter from the congregation. The census naturally failed in the face of this event - a baby had been born.
This was the moment when in a hushed church Mary brought in the baby Jesus and laid him in a crib. The crib was put before a Nativity scene made with twelve inch models, essentially framing the moment. Result.
Part of the service was dedicated to Christingles and a load were handed out in exchange for donations to the work of the Children's society. A fair bit was raised which will do a lot of good. So we all had fun, taught the Nativity story once again and raised funds for a charity. I would call that a success.
Peace Dave.
Tuesday
Skeleton Form
I worked nights last night and in my tea breaks I was able to work a little on my poem. I have taken quite a radical change from the way I normally write and I was thinking about breaking down the theme of spatial awareness into stanzas so that every stanza had something to say about it. I have decided to also not actually define in words what the poem is about so that the reader will have to work it out from the content, so this means that I will need to use language and phrases that will do that. The actual it that am attempting to define in the poem is the task of being a priest in a parish, which is a very varied task that has few set boundaries. So I have laid out a selection of stanzas that each portray a fragment or facet of this. For instance the opening line to the first of these stanzas is : It is a journey.
The stanzas are eight lines long (at the moment) and I have actually roughed one out completely. The others have a facet assigned, such as song, prayer, life etc but need to be properly populated with words. This is a bit exiting for me now as I can actually see something coming . The danger I think is making the words fit the pattern and not using the best or most suitable words because they they don't fit exactly. After all said and done only the best I can do will be good enough. I have a skeleton for this poem now I need to get some flesh on the bones, reminds me of Ezekiel in the Vally of the dry bones.
Peace Dave
The stanzas are eight lines long (at the moment) and I have actually roughed one out completely. The others have a facet assigned, such as song, prayer, life etc but need to be properly populated with words. This is a bit exiting for me now as I can actually see something coming . The danger I think is making the words fit the pattern and not using the best or most suitable words because they they don't fit exactly. After all said and done only the best I can do will be good enough. I have a skeleton for this poem now I need to get some flesh on the bones, reminds me of Ezekiel in the Vally of the dry bones.
Peace Dave
Saturday
Opening Line
Things are going well for the poem I am creating for my priest. You may recall that he is leaving the parish at the end of the year and this is my parting gift, hopefully. (Click the title to go to a previous post.)
I think that whatever the content I will use either separatly styled opening and closing stanzas or opening and closing quotes. My thinking here is to give a serious edge to a poem that really will be fairly light hearted. I always like the style of poem that attempts to define a surreal or sujective topic as if it were fact. Today I scribbled this line which in some form may be an opening line.
How close you are becomes what's key,
You cannot lead and still be free.
This sets a serious tone and steps for me neatly into the theme of spatial awareness in a purely abstract way which I can define later. I'm not happy with the scan at the moment and these lines will have to change before they are used. But this is a start, I have started to write and so things are underway. I have my deadline which is December 31st and all I have to do is create a suitable, iconic poem that he will enjoy reading - no problem. A few prayers needed I think.
Peace Dave.
I think that whatever the content I will use either separatly styled opening and closing stanzas or opening and closing quotes. My thinking here is to give a serious edge to a poem that really will be fairly light hearted. I always like the style of poem that attempts to define a surreal or sujective topic as if it were fact. Today I scribbled this line which in some form may be an opening line.
How close you are becomes what's key,
You cannot lead and still be free.
This sets a serious tone and steps for me neatly into the theme of spatial awareness in a purely abstract way which I can define later. I'm not happy with the scan at the moment and these lines will have to change before they are used. But this is a start, I have started to write and so things are underway. I have my deadline which is December 31st and all I have to do is create a suitable, iconic poem that he will enjoy reading - no problem. A few prayers needed I think.
Peace Dave.
Friday
One Door
I had an odd conversation with my neighbour yesterday. They have been trying to sell their house and move for some time. In the UK this can be a very fraught and drawn out process. My neighbour told me that she had received serious interest from a retired priest and it was as likely as not that he would be the next owner.
The odd thing about this is that our own parish priest will be leaving his post at the end of December. We only have the one priest so this means that our parish will have an interregnum, that is waiting period before a new priest is appointed. This can be a good time for a Church community to let it grow in faith as it takes on some of the tasks that the priest just did as routine. It Can also be a time when people opt out of a church community and go elsewhere. For Sunday services priests are begged, borrowed and stolen from anywhere that can be found. It would be really nice to have a local retired priest that could fill in and provide some support. In my experience priests never really retire, they slow down. Having said that it would be wrong to drag the poor sod in and hand him the church. Just a little support and the comfort of having a person with a collar about could make a lot of difference to a Church struggling ( as ours will) with a suddenly absent priest.
It may be that the priest never buys the house or if he does never comes to our church and I am being careful not to count my chickens but God does have a wonderful way of providing and as one door closes often another opens, it's a case of seeing it happen.
Peace Dave.
The odd thing about this is that our own parish priest will be leaving his post at the end of December. We only have the one priest so this means that our parish will have an interregnum, that is waiting period before a new priest is appointed. This can be a good time for a Church community to let it grow in faith as it takes on some of the tasks that the priest just did as routine. It Can also be a time when people opt out of a church community and go elsewhere. For Sunday services priests are begged, borrowed and stolen from anywhere that can be found. It would be really nice to have a local retired priest that could fill in and provide some support. In my experience priests never really retire, they slow down. Having said that it would be wrong to drag the poor sod in and hand him the church. Just a little support and the comfort of having a person with a collar about could make a lot of difference to a Church struggling ( as ours will) with a suddenly absent priest.
It may be that the priest never buys the house or if he does never comes to our church and I am being careful not to count my chickens but God does have a wonderful way of providing and as one door closes often another opens, it's a case of seeing it happen.
Peace Dave.
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