Nigel Wright

9 Carols and lessons

A few people have asked me for some outlines for a traditional carol service so here is a template:

gbod which has a good basic template - check out the christmas planning help and resources too.

If you want a Rolls Royce example of 9 Lessons and Carols then this is it:

Kings Cambridge

If you find yourself in a Pub for a Carol Service try putting a festive (and fun) quiz around the Carols instead of the readings with prizes for the answers as you go along. We have found that chocolates work well! Throw in a few contemporary songs too and don't forget enough Carol sheets for all the "punters"...

Thinking about faith and work stuff

I have an invite to speak on faith and work on Sunday (a subject matter that I am very passionate about) and the following is a snapshot of the quotes I find help in getting to the "foundations":

Creation is physical & it is only into humanity that God breathes his Spirit.

We are neither physical bodies with a spiritual side nor spiritual beings trapped in physical bodies.

In our very formation we represent the full integration of the physical with the spiritual.

“Spirituality should lead you into the world not lift you out of it”

Martin Buber

Jewish Philosopher

 

“Even when the word work is understood in its commonly used sense, it can be the thing that points us to the sacredness of all life. It can inspire us, ask the best of us, demand of us that we become more than we currently are…

Work can be a place where human beings come together in supportive and creative relationships, building something worthwhile. People have some of their best ideas at work.

 

Work at its best is life giving.”

  Rosemary Lain-Priestley

    Anglican Priest

 “The reimaging of the workplace would help fulfil one of the crucial needs that every individual has: the need to belong.

We want to belong to a group, to a family and particularly to the place in which we work.

Here is the point at which an immense creativity could be released in the workplace. Imagine how lovely it would be if you could be yourself at work and express your true nature, giftedness and imagination.

There need be no separation between your home, your private life and your actual world of work. One could flow to the other in a creative and enriching way.”

    John O’Donohue, Irish Poet & Scholar

 

 

 

a serious facelift

I need to give me blog a serious face-lift - came across this www.ambientwonder.org and remembered that I only turned my blog to plain when I realised that the people in NZ didn't really do broadband - that was in 2006!

Looks worth checking out too if ever you are in Norwich....

It looks not dissimilar to our Friday Service, "church-in-a-pub" - reassuring to know it works for others too!

the bread and wine debate

One of the things A has been looking forward to (in and around his trials and tribulations) is being able to take communion at church. At home we break bread together but A so wants to take part in public too. I must confess that I find it extremely difficult to refuse children at the altar rail – they understand far more than we credit them (and sometimes far more than us)!

 

One of the talking points with adults preparing to take part in communion in church tends to be how and when does the bread and wine become Jesus?

 

Stanley Hauwerwas deals with that question far better than I:

 

“Too often accounts of how or when the elements (bread and wine) become the body and blood are attempts to provide mechanistic explanations, assuming that God cannot get into his creation is something “back there.” But we must remember that our salvation is created in the midst of the earth. The God who created us continues to create and redeem. The first sentence of Mathew’s gospel made that clear. By being made sharers in Jesus’ body and blood, we participate in the new creation.

     The God who is in Christ, very God and very man, is also the God that has no difficulty in being found in the bread and the wine made for us the body and blood of Christ….The Eucharist is the feast that makes Christ’s time the time in which his people live… This meal, therefore, becomes the meal of unity binding Christians through time and space to be one body, one Christ, for the world.[1]

 

Whenever we share a meal with friends, family, colleagues etc. we come together in love and fellowship – don’t believe me, what does it feel like trying to eat a meal with some-one you have fallen out with!

 

Stanley Hauwerwas’s last sentence (highlighted in bold) is the one that really needs addressing in the institutional church and particularly across denominations!   

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[1] Stanley Hauwerwas, Mathew (London: SCM Press, 2006), p. 219.

prayers & transcendence

In my previous post I forgot to mention the medical staff who have been fantastic. Both in Menorca and in the UK including the consultant at AGH who operated on a Sunday morning and the physio who really is great at getting the best out of children.

I found myself needing some medical attention in the past twenty four hours at AGH, my usual, involving a drip for a short but intense period of time and as always, many thanks folks.

I had a heartwarming conversation during that time last night with a great guy who is a faithful Muslim and we shared our hopes and fears about our respective faith journeys and parted promising to pray for each other... it was one of those moments in life where the peace of God transcends all understanding... a thin place... a sacred moment. 

A big thank you

It's been a long time - over two months with only the essentials in life  being attended to...

What happened?

A, our seven year old, broke both his legs at the end of our family holiday -  late August - which turned our lives upside down, (should have gone to Greenbelt which is our usual habit in late August), but more of that later.

This post is a big, big thank you for all the love and support, prayers, gifts and kindness we have all received over the past two months. It has all been very much appreciated by us all. An extra special thank you to the gang of school mums who have looked after D, our eighteen month old, and allowed Jo or I (mainly Jo) to go into school with A in his wheelchair to keep up with his schooling...

A is now free of casts after two months (as of last Wednesday), two operations, seven different casts and a few repairs to casts along the way - you can't keep boys from being active!  The healing has been amazing and all looks well such that in eighteen months time an x-ray would not be able to detect any breaks and we are praying that will be so.

And for now?

A has a big task ahead in relearning to walk, he is currently doing well with a frame and we are praying that the tendons and ligaments will behave themselves throughout these early stages.

Many, many thanks