Keeping Young …

When I first started working for the United Reformed Church I was told about this event called “FURY Assembly” – a weekend where young people got together and discussed issues and challenges facing them (and the Church). It was, allegedly, a weekend at which young people took the lead and any adults were there purely to support.

The reality turned out to be something quite different. Whilst, for the most part, young people ran the weekend they didn’t do much of the planning or organising; that was all handled by the Youth Office in London. It was a weekend at which, the young people didn’t get much sleep and, as a result, as an adult you didn’t get much sleep either – patrolling corridors, offering support and advice, doing the things that needed doing.

I’ve just come back from FURY Assembly 2010 and have had the opportunity to reflect on the experience of the last few years. How times have changed! FURY Assembly is most definitely planned, organised and run by the young people themselves (a worthy group called the FURY Advisory Board made up, for the most part, of young people elected AT FURY Assembly, do all the hard work of planning the event itself). The event is chaired by the FURY Moderator (young person) and Moderator Elect (young person) with assistance from the aforementioned FAB. There is, of course, still adult involvement (particularly from the denomination’s  Youth Development Officer) but nowadays it tends to be in the form of workshop leaders and special guests. The young people ‘police’ themselves – both nights I was in bed shortly after midnight!

As many of my colleagues attend FURY Assembly as we can. Some have specific roles (AV Maestro, workshop leader, etc.) but most attend because we’re asked to. I think this is as much because there is a certain comfort for the young leadership team in knowing that we are around than for anything else and, as the last 2 Assembles has shown, they really don’t need us all – if any!

So, congratulations yo Josh and his team for this year, and to James and HIS team for the year before … and for everyone who has been involved in the development of FURY Assembly to what we see today.

I’ll be very sad the year I’m told that I’m not required, though. Not because it’s always nice to feel wanted, but because this weekend in January proves to me, time and again, that the future leadership of the United Reformed Church is in good hands. And I’ve been a part of that development. And that makes me proud.

All Things Change

I am a steady person … I find something I like; and I stick with it. I’ve mentioned before that I always use Nokia phones, Fujifilm cameras …

The last month has seen me rethink my attitudes somewhat!

It all started with my phone contract being up for renewal. Not a problem – Orange does plenty of Nokias. The trouble was, they didn’t do the model I wanted. I had options: I could go to another network, buy a phone sim free … or pick another handset manufacturer. Well, I’ve always been with Orange and have never had a problem with them. And they were offering me a fantastic deal to stay with them (it is always worth threatening to leave!) so, if I wasn’t going to get the handset I wanted what should I do? I tried a couple for a few days and didn’t like them but eventually settled on a Motorola Dext. It does everything I need it to (and then some) but it took a while to get used to it and, truth be told, I’m STILL getting used to it but we’re colleagues now if not exactly ‘best buddies’ like I have been with my Nokias. (Word to the wise, here. ALWAYS order your new handset over the phone/web. Then, if you don’t like it, you have 7 days to return it. If you get it from the shop you have no such luxury).

Just after Christmas, in all that cold and filthy weather (but before the snow came) my car decided to make a passing acquaintance with a road barrier. Well, that’s ok, I’m insured and I get a courtesy car. Thing is, the garage gave me an automatic. Now, I’ve only driven an automatic once before (for about 5 miles in America!) and found it a very disconcerting experience. But I was stuck with it for at least a fortnight so I just had to get on with it. I feel the need to whisper this bit – I rather enjoy it! It is certainly a more pleasant driving experience in city traffic – all very relaxed. I’ll be glad to get my own car back and, when I come to change it I won’t be buying an automatic, but I’ve had fun with the little Corsa while I’ve had it and have renounced my prejudices against cars that change gear for you!

But perhaps the biggest prejudice that has been loosened, more than my prejudice against automatic cars or even non-Nokia phones, has been my experimenting with an iPod. When the snow came down in January there were no buses, or traffic in general, on the first day. So, to get out of the house and for something to do, my wife I walked to the Trafford Centre. We got there at 3pm – only to find out that it was closing at 4pm (because of the weather) and not all the shops were open anyway. One shop that was open was the Apple shop. I’ve always enjoyed going into the store to have a secret sneer at the arty bright young things for whom every gadget must be white (or brushed aluminium) and, given that it was one of the few stores open, I could see no reason not to walk in, snigger silently, and walk out again knowing that, yet again, I had not been lured by the dark side. I tried, I really, really tried … but I walked out with an iPod Touch which (and I’m not even going to whisper this, I’m going to use sign language) is absolutely brilliant! Of course, once I made this confession to my select fiends, I mean friends, on Twitter and Facebook I was bombarded with “bet you wish you’d got an iPhone now” and “time for a MacBook, fatty” … well, no, I don’t and it isn’t. As with all change, for it to be fully accepted and embraced it needs to be slow and steady and a positive experience. Too much change too quickly doesn’t help. I may, at some stage in the future, get an Apple laptop (as long as I can have it in white or brushed aluminium, of course) but, as long as Steve Jobs and his devil’s minions keep the price of the iPhone so ridiculously high I shall not even be tempted, let alone succumb.

You’ll be relieved to know, I’m sure, that my camera is still a Fujifilm ….

Online learning

So, here we are at Offchurch (near Leamington Spa). By ‘We’ I mean my colleagues from around the United Reformed Church who are members of the Youth and Children’s Work team.

We meet three times a year – to look at business, undertake in-service training and try and get creative to produce a resource.

My colleague in the Synod of Scotland (www.stewartcutler.com) is leading a session for us on ‘technology for communication’; I’m not sure that’s the title for the session – but it’s what he’s doing. At the moment, we’re looking at Blogging. I already have a blog (inspired by Stewart’s) so I thought I’d just write a few things whilst my colleagues are setting theirs up.

One of the issues we’ve been discussing at the team meeting is ‘e-learning’. Given the geographical breadth of the areas we cover as a team offering folk in local churches the opportunity to learn online – maybe meeting for a day at the beginning and then completing the rest of the course online with us acting as virtual tutors would seem to be a good move.

But is it? are we in danger of making training too sterile? One of the advantages of face to face training is the swapping of ideas and the encouragement of a support network – the gossip factor, if you like. Does e-learning stop this?

do people have experineces of e-learning (positive or negative) that they would be willing to share?

A Loyal Subject …

I’ve just decided that I’m a ‘brand’ man … what do I mean by that? Well, it means that I find a brand that I like – and stick with it (probably to the detriment of other brands which are better).

Let me give you a few examples: My mobile phone has always been a Nokia – and there have been a succession of them since 1994. Of course, there have been better phones on the market at the times I was looking to replace my old handset but, despite that, it’s always been a Nokia that has ended up on the contract.

For digital cameras I’ve always gone for Fujifilm. Mind you, I’ve only ever had 4 digital compact cameras so that’s not as bad as my mobile phone track record but, still .. and for digital video cameras it has to be Sony. Don’t ask me why, it just does.

And I’ve been with the same Building Society since before I was married (coming up to 25 years next month!)

There must be something about getting comfortable with a brand, having an idea of how it will work, where the controls are and what they’ll do .. and, because I’ve never had a bad experience of shoddy workmanship or dependability with Nokia, Fujifilm or Sony I suppose I’ve come to trust the brands.

So why isn’t aren’t local churches packed to the rafters every Sunday? I mean, people have ‘used the product’ for years, often since they were children. They know what happens, when it happens (some even know why it happens!) so where is the loyalty?

Could it be that there is no longer the trust there? Or, maybe, the product is no longer relevant to the lifestyles? Or maybe people have had a poor experience of a church. After all, if you’ve steadfastly been with the RAC for years and then, when you call them out they take 3 hours to get to you and can’t fix the problem are you really going to renew your subscription?

LiveJournal Tags: church,Sony,Fujifilm,Nokia

Maybe church attendance is a bit like breakdown cover – you’re only glad you kept up the policy when you breakdown.

Maybe the Church needs to find a way of explaining that a church, like a dog, is for life – not just for Christmas.

And, on the subject of ‘loyal subject’ I see that Nick Griffin (Leader of the British Nationalist Party has decided not to attend a Royal Garden Party on the grounds that he doesn’t “wish to embarrass her Majesty”. A bit late for that I reckon. And once again, the BNP and it’s rascist excuse for a leader has managed to grab headlines.

The Church has, at last, spoken out against this man and the policies espoused by his so-called ‘political party’. Maybe if the Church was still seen as relevant by more people its words would have some effect. But I fear it won’t. And I fear that Britain may just be on the cusp of electing fascists …

Cricket ‘n’ God

Technorati Tags: faith,cricket,god,ipl

I’ve always thought of myself as something of a purist in cricketing terms: test matches are the game in its purest form, the 4 day version (county championship) is merely there to prepare people for test matches and limited over games are for the great unwashed who don’t really ‘get it’.

But then along came Twenty20 with a great fanfare and, all of a sudden, new people were coming to grounds to watch something that, at first glance, looks like cricket.

Ant THEN along came the Indian Premier League and, whisper it quietly, I’m a convert.

I support the Kings XI Punjab for a number of reasons, perhaps the most important is that my future wife (the appropriately named Preity Zinta) is the team owner (and if she turns me down, any of the cheerleaders will do).

I love the razamatazz, the colour, the excitement, the speed, the crowd involvement … it’s fantastic entertainment. But, ultimately, that’s what it is, entertainment of a specific kind for a (mostly) specific audience. I wonder how many of the totally enthusiastic crowds will be buying tickets for Test matches? I shouldn’t think that many will. T20 gives a quick, superficial, cricket fix.

Now, I don’t know a great deal about evangelical churches. To my shame I’ve not been to many but it strikes me that they offer a Twenty20 faith. Yes, it’s full of razzamatazz, congregational involvement, good music and happy feelings – but does it actually grow or develop faith? Does it maintain people at a certain level without challenging them to face harder questions or a deeper personal relationship with God?

If I’m correct in my thinking, what do we do to move people on? to get them involved in the test match version of faith? Or is it ok for them to be where they are?

And, if I’m wrong, feel free to tell me!

Where There’s Blame; There’s A Claim

Yesterday was the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster at which 95 football fans lost their lives (with Tony Bland becoming the 96th some time later after his life support system was switched off by his parents).

In the immediate aftermath of the event the blame was laid fairly and squarely on ‘ticketless and drunken’ fans arriving late to the game and forcing open the gates to the Leppings Lane end of the stadium and flooding onto the terraces crushing those at the front against the barriers. Who made these claims? South Yorkshire Police and the FA. Who added fuel to the fire? Kelvin Mackenzie and his ‘news’ paper – The Sun – with their bold headline 2 days after “The Truth” which told of Liverpool fans picking the pockets of the dead and urinating on them.

I was at Hillsborough that day – as I had been the year before against the same opponents in the same stage of the FA Cup. My mate and I had set out at 11 o’clock and parked the car on an industrial estate a couple of miles from the ground. We got to the ground early (around 2:10 for a 3pm kick off) because the tickets had said that there was pre-match entertainment and we wanted to make sure we got a good spec. It was a lovely warm day as I remember. The atmosphere was easy going – we’d beaten Forest the year before and could see no reason why we wouldn’t do so again. We were top of the league and looking good for another ‘double’.

I can’t honestly remember when I started to think things weren’t quite right … Mike and I had positioned ourselves in front of a crush barrier – always the safest place to be – in Pen C of Leppings Lane. We’d had a choice when we got to the ground – you went through the turnstiles and, straight ahead of you, was a tunnel through which you could see the pitch. There were no stewards although that didn’t bother us as we’d been the year before and knew where we were going. Go through the tunnel and turn either left or right. Right put you in Pen B; left took you to Pen C. We chose left. We had a cracking spot, half way up the terracing, directly behind the goal in front of a barrier. Perfect.

It was a bit squashed as the game kicked off, but nothing too unusual, it was an FA Cup semi after all. But it soon became clear that there was a real problem. Despite being in front of a barrier Mike and I were being slowly pushed forward. We had a decision to make. Mike wanted to move to the side, I wanted to get to the front where I thought there would be more room. We decided to try and move to the side. I didn’t make it, as soon as I moved away from in front of the barrier the pressure of the crowd buffeted me towards the front. I could see Bruce Grobbelaar looking nervously behind him – the match was still going on (although it was only 4 minutes since kick off) and I was still doing my best to watch it.

The next few minutes are a bit of a blur. I’d lost sight of Mike and was being pushed relentlessly down towards the front. It was difficult to breath and there was a real feeling of claustrophobia – not a sensation I had ever felt. Before I knew it I was up against the railings at the pitch side. The game had been stopped (although that didn’t register) and I could see that there were people on the pitch in front of me. Police were trying to push back people, kids, who were trying to climb up onto the pitch. In the blink of an eye these same police were suddenly pulling people out. I had no idea what was going on behind me, I couldn’t turn around. My only two thoughts were ‘I’ve got to get out’ and ‘’I mustn’t lose my specs’. I knew I was in trouble. I couldn’t breathe at all so, as if in an avalanche. I just raised my hands high and hoped to get pulled out. I was. A police officer (all I can remember was that he was bald!) and some fans grabbed my arms and heaved. I fell onto the pitch where the next thing I remember was having a St John Ambulance man beating on my chest and pushing a tube down my throat. I was carried to the sports hall underneath the Kop at the other end of the ground. When I came round I was lying on the floor of the sports hall. Around me were rows and rows of people. some were badly injured, some were like me but some had had their faces covered with black bin bags. No blankets, bin bags. I think that is the thing which most sticks in my memory. As I sat up a steward came over and asked if I was ok – I didn’t answer him, I just got up and ran out. I came out near the Nott’m Forest fans – some of whom were crying – they could see into the sports hall from where they were standing.

The big gates were open just in front of me onto the street. I was still having difficulty breathing – it was later confirmed that 2 broken ribs was the issue. I had no idea where Mike was and so made my way down to the other end of the ground (where the terraces gates were) and tried to see him. I couldn’t find him. I knocked on a door in the street and a middle-aged guy answered the door. He was as white as a sheet. I asked if he had a phone I could use – he led me into the back room and just closed the door behind me. I tried to ring my wife, my mum and my elder sister – all were engaged. I tried my wife again and got through. She was relieved that I was ok and asked about Mike. I didn’t know. I told her I was going to look for him again. As I left the house, the owner came out with me and shouted to the crowds of people in the street that if anyone wanted to use a phone they could come into his house. I dread to think what his phone bill must’ve been like that month.

There was no point looking for Mike, the streets were crowded and we could have easily passed each other without knowing it. So I decided the best thing to do was to head back to where I’d parked my car and wait for him there. It was a slow walk. My head wasn’t working right and I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to find the place where we’d parked. But I did – and Mike was already there, desperately waiting for me to turn up. He’d managed to get to the side and had climbed over the fence into Pen D from where he’d watched everything.

So that was my day out. Started as a football game and ended in a hospital visit.

But, as the ’story’ unfolded, it seemed that I, and my friends, were to blame. That’s what we were told by the police, the FA and the media. We had got drunk, we had stormed the gates to get in without tickets. We had killed our fellow supporters and then nicked stuff from the bodies and pissed on them. So it was all OUR fault – nothing to do with the Police or the FA. So they could not be blamed. oh, no. not them. They were not going to be held responsible. let’s face it, if they accepted responsibility, they would be sued. Where there’s blame; there’s a claim.

So, let me make it clear here and now. I have no interest in compensation. I made no claim at the time, although I was entitled to. I have no intention of making a claim now. But I DO want someone to blame. I DO want to know that it was not all my fault.

So, what is the truth? Well, I can’t tell you that – I can only tell you what I know. I know that the FA gave Liverpool FC  a ticket allocation of 24000 and the smaller end of the ground. I know that  Forest were given a larger ticket allocation and the bigger end of the ground. I know that Liverpool’s average attendance was nearly TWICE that of Forest. But, according to the FA and Police, it was more sensible to allocate tickets and ends the way they did (because of the direction of fan traffic)

I know that, unlike the previous year, access to the ground was much easier. There was a much smaller police presence. I now know that Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield lied when he said that fans had ‘stormed the gates’ – he had ordered them to be opened.

I know that there was totally inadequate stewarding – that, once you were through the turnstiles onto Leppings Lane, there were no signs telling you were to go, but there WAS a tunnel straight ahead of you through which you could see the pitch – where would you go?

I know that, when you die, your bladder empties. That explains the urine on the terraces. I know that Police did not come onto the terraces straight away so fans tried to find evidence of who the bodies were.

I am sure that the Police, the FA and the Thatcher government were delighted to be able to blame people from Liverpool and were happy to use their influence with the media (particularly The Sun) to divert people away from the truth.

I know that there are people who are to blame. I know that that includes Liverpool fans who DID get to the game late. But I want the people in authority who made stupid decisions and told lies about me, to accept that they were at fault – and admit it.

But, more than anything, I want someone else to share the blame for what happened. I don’t want to feel guilty for the rest of my life. Guilty for being there. Guilty for surviving.

Justice for the 96. And for me.

http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/index.shtm

The Boys Are Back In Town

Well, actually it’s the girls .. my two daughters have decided to grace us with a visit for a long weekend. They’re not staying for Easter because there is “so much going on at Uni”. It’s nice to have them back, even for just a short while (Although Hope’s social life means I won’t see much of her, but Heather makes up for it with her kitchen cleaning skills!)

Of course just because they are away on the East coast of Scotland for most of the year doesn’t mean that I can’t keep in touch. Indeed the options and opportunities just seem to keep on developing and growing! When I was at Uni it was either personal visit (though my mum didn’t drive so that never happened), phone call (to the Hall of Residence communal phone that no-one, including me, ever answered) or letter (“please let there be a cheque in here!”)

Nowadays, as well as the 3 above (although both girls have a phone in their rooms) there is the option of mobile phone, text messaging, email and the ubiquitous Facebook by which I follow their travels and travails (even seeing the messages they probably wish I hadn’t because they forget that I’m on Facebook too)

It is probably as close as I’ll ever come to being like God – I can watch over and be (virtually) omnipresent. Like God, I also have to bite my tongue sometimes not to intervene in their lives even when I think I could help out or make things easier. The gift of free will given to us by God is one that I am beholden to pass on to my children – almost irrespective of the consequences.

Of course, all this communication opportunity brings its own frustrations, too. Time was; you sent a letter – it took 3 days to arrive and so the earliest you could realistically expect a reply was one week after you’d sent it. Now I can receive an email and, ten minutes later get another one asking me if I got the first and, if I did, why I haven’t replied. And, truth be told, I sometimes fall into that trap myself!

and texting is even worse! The response has to be absolutely immediate! I can just about accept that someone may not be at their computer to respond to email but they’ll always have their mobile phone on, won’t they? There is no escape. The frustration of not being contacted (I’m waiting for a reply to a text I sent this morning as I type) is as great as the frustration of not being contactable because you’re in a “dead” zone – and why are so many Christian youth residential centres built in the middle of nowhere with really poor mobile coverage?

I remember the scene in “Bruce Almighty” when Bruce has to deal with all the prayer requests and quickly gets snowed under – one of the problems with being always contactable! But God doesn’t switch off his computer, doesn’t leave her phone off the hook – I just wish God had a Facebook page so that I could keep up to date on what’s exercising God’s energies at any given time.

Anyway, my mate has just texted back so I’ve got to go; got a reply to draft

Doing Good Works

I’m not sure how well my sermon went down yesterday .. actually, I’m never sure how my sermons go down, but this one seemed even less sure than usual! I suppose, given the opening sentence, that’s not much of a surprise. After all, it was Mothering Sunday and the news that Jade Goody had died in the early hours was on all the television and radio broadcasts. So, maybe, opening with “I have always despised Jade Goody” may have seemed a tad insensitive. But let me expand …

Yesterday’s first reading (John 3:16) is always a bit of a gobsmacker. To realise that God sent his only son to be sacrificed on our behalf has got to make you feel a little guilty. Well, as a Catholic, I have no problem with feeling a bit of guilt – the more; the merrier I say. But recognising the sacrifice that someone has made for me makes me want to please them, to assuage my guilt. So I try and live ‘a good life’ and do good things, be nice to people, treat them with respect, help people less fortunate than I, buy fairly traded goods, give money to charity – pretty much the full panoply of Christian service. And, let’s face it, doing good things isn’t going to do me any harm in the ‘being liked by God’ stakes, is it?

But then you have the second reading: Ephesians 2 vv 1-10. Particularly verses 8 and 9: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.”

All those good works I did, all the choices I have made denying myself fun or exciting opportunities because I was trying to be ‘good’ .. where they all a waste of time.

So what has this got to do with the cult of celebrity who is/was Jade Goody?

Well, I reckon she’d never heard, or accepted, John 3:16. Her life (at least after Big Brother) was all about herself. She embraced publicity, be it good or bad, so long as she got it and it helped her to make money. She was callous in her manipulation of the media and in her treatment of other people. Her views on life and others seemed to be diametrically opposed to mine.

And then she got cancer. And the mood of the country seemed to change almost overnight. She went from Public Enemy #1 to Public Sweetheart. Suddenly, far from anyone caring what she thought, everyone seemed to care about her. I was stunned. Just because she had cancer? Of course, I felt sorry for another human being who was going to die and I felt sorry for her kids but that didn’t make me think any more highly of her.

And then, as I thought it, the ultimate manipulation: getting her children christened. How low can you go to manipulate the press and public opinion? It’s just another photo-opportunity to sell to the press, I thought. I despised her even more.

And, in despising her, I was denying any possibility for the Grace of God to be at work as mentioned in Ephesians. Who am I do sit in judgement on someone else’s life and motives? Are there not plenty of examples in the Bible of God’s Grace working on people? You only have to think of Paul’s Damascus Road experience to start seeing possible parallels.

And what was the affect of Jade’s christening announcement? It started conversations in pubs, homes, schools, colleges, offices and factories about God and the value of faith. What a legacy! With that one statement she made more people think about the place of God in their lives that I will ever manage in a lifetime of leading worship and working for the church.

Did God’s Grace touch Jade Goody? Or did she remain the ultimate manipulator right until the end? I have no idea – but I would be a fool to deny the possibility. But maybe that’s just one more thing I can feel guilty about …

The Ten Suggestions

Well, I know that in Exodus they’re called the 10 Commandments but work with me on this!

I wonder how many of them are still relevant? Did they only apply in context? I mean, some would seem to be obvious “Don’t Lie”, for example. even “Don’t Kill” should probably be a given – but what of soldiers and other service personnel? It doesn’t say “don’t kill unjustly” it’s an outright negative!

Keeping the Sabbath holy .. when is the Sabbath? Muslims have Fridays as their holy day, Jews have Saturday and we (Christians)  have Sundays so who is right? And, let’s face it, 3000 years ago, lost and wandering in the desert, the Israelites didn’t have too many other temptations, did they? No shops, cinemas, sporting events … Does keeping the Sabbath holy mean not doing anything else? Speaking with a friend yesterday he mentioned how many church folk went to his church on Sunday then, straight after the service, went to the Morrisons which is just next door. Are they keeping the Sabbath holy?

And as for “honour your mother and father” well, I’m sorry but there are plenty of children, young people and adults around whose parents deserve anything BUT honour.
The list goes on: commtting adultery, coveting your neighbours goods (and there’s a good one for context – so long as I don’t covet my neighbour’s house, servant, wife, ox or donkey, can I covet them if they live a couple of doors away? Who is your neighbour, exactly?)

but there is one which, whatever the context, remains a rule for us all and that’s the ‘you shall have no other gods before me’ commandment. Life, society has so many things and people that would like to be gods. Sports stars, musicians, politicians, fashion trends, money .. and there is nothing wrong in wanting to dress in the latest fashion, look like a superstar or elevate a hero to a pedestal – but the key phrase is “before me” – God wants us to remember that all that we have is because of him. God doesn’t object to us following fashion, or music, or sport or making a decent living for ourselves, he just wants us to remember where it all comes from.

And the Commandments weren’t just a rule for life, they were particularly about how a community, lost and wandering, should respond to each other in order to stay a community.

So, last night, rather than look at the ten commandments, the group of young people I was with made a list of promises. They were not things that they would NOT do (no ‘thou shalt not’s allowed); they were things that they promised they WOULD do – positive promises.

I’m telling you, it’s the way forward …

The Old and The New

My mum has been a cyclist since she was young. She and her brothers and sisters would regularly cycle to Anglesey from their home in Liverpool (a distance of 100 miles door-to-door) in a day. Even now she still cycles to the shops and to church.

So it was a bitter blow when the local bike shop told her that her bike was ‘gone the way of all flesh’ and should be consigned to a museum as a non-working exhibit.

It may have been a blow to her but it was a Godsend to her children as we had been scratching our heads trying to think what we might buy her for an 80th birthday present – a new bike was obviously the answer!

Now, I don’t know if you’ve been to a bike shop recently. They are full of gleaming machines with 20 or 30 gears and drop handlebars or sturdy mountain bikes with front suspension forks and no mudguards. Neither of these appealed to a soon to be octogenarian! She wanted something simple, that was well built and would cope with short trips.

I took her around a number of bike shops to have a look and see what might interest her. She was quite taken by a Raleigh in Thatto Heath but it didn’t have a full mudguard and had 6 gears. There was a Dawes which caught her eye but it had a steel frame so might get a bit rusty as she parks it under a carport rather than in a garage. As is so often the way, we ended up at the bike shop nearest her house where, after explaining her needs to the lass in charge she was shown a Raleigh Elegance. It was, almost, everything she needed. 3 Sturmey-Archer gears, full mudguards, a fully enclosed chain mechanism and ‘Mary Poppins style’ handlebars. It even had skirtguards, a wicker basket, rear pannier rack and, get this, a suspension mounted saddle.

So why was it only ‘almost’ everything she wanted? Well, because it didn’t have her trusty, well worn, well broken in Brookes leather saddle; a trusty friend of many years standing (or sitting!).

No problem, the shop will swap the saddle that comes with the bike (allegedly very comfortable) with her old saddle – she is as happy as can be. She has a brand new bike with a lightweight aluminium frame ready to be delivered in a few days. But, most important of all, it will have her own old battered saddle, something with which she knows she will be comfortable.

What, if anything, does this have to do with church? Maybe nothing at all … but we all know of churches where new ministers/priests want to try new things to attract and cater for a younger generation. There is always an assumption that ‘the old ones won’t like it’. My mum and her bike give the lie to that way of thinking. She loves the new technology, the lightweight frame, the more effective brakes and the ‘throttle’ gears – but she needed something from the past with which she felt comfortable – a link to a bygone era which has served her well in changing times. As Christians we have ALL done this. Despite the new Gospel preached by Jesus and his followers in the early church, we still make links back to the Old Testament, the history of a bygone era that seems to have little use or relevance for us today given the new good news.

If we truly want to move forward in faith, and in worship, we must not leave behind those things which have served us well up until now. New doesn’t necessarily mean better – it just means different. People are usually willing to accept new experiences, new ways of doing things, new technology – but we all want a little remnant of what we are used to.

Happy riding, Mum!