Where to Start?

A conference in Durham earlier this week heard the full results of the Biblical Literacy Survey, which found that a large and increasing proportion of the UK population knew virtually nothing about the Bible, and even though 3/4 of us own one, most of these are in archaic language, or simply sit unread on the bookshelf (or in the attic).

During the summer we get a surge of interest in baptisms - funny that! It's clearly a good time for people to travel, and for widely spread families makes a lot of sense for celebrating the big day in a childs life. We've got roughly 2 a week until early September.

I've recently taken to giving baptism couples a copy of Mark's gospel. It's increasingly normal to find younger families a) have never read the Bible and b) don't even have one of their own. Some of them pray, and worship regularly with us. However the foundations that we used to depend on - some knowledge of the Christian story, the life and teaching of Jesus etc. - is no longer there. Having a local Christian bookshop is really handy, as I always suggest a childrens bible and prayer book as a good idea for a baptism present. Many families have no idea these even exist.

At one level, this puts us back into the New Testament world. The Bible is more relevant now than it has been since Constantine made Christianity the state religion in the 4th century, because we are back with a culture where Christianity is no longer the default setting. Yet in another way we aren't: Paul as a missionary could call on knowledge of the Old Testament (with Jews) or on the practice of worship and prayer (with pagans) as the background for his message about Jesus.

What do you do if neither are present? How (and this is a question Graham Cray is now repeatedly asking) do you disciple people from this sort of background, who might only come along once a month to 'Messy Church' or - in our case - a cafe service.

In a sense, this is where Alpha comes into its own. Yes it's long and a bit posh and full of shiny happy people who only seem to exist in large quantities in Kensington. But it's 45m every week of teaching on the Christian faith, and for people who have virtually zero, it begins to give them a basis. Using the Emmaus materials for our confirmation course gets some people to open up and read the Bible for the first time. It will be a while before they get the confidence to do that for themselves, and not be completely bemused by what they're reading.

In our cafe service itself, Story Keepers has been really helpful, cartoons about the life and teaching of Jesus which hold the childrens attention, but frequently are news to the adults as well. And they're visual. I'm now using 'The Christ We Share' in baptism preparation, lots of different pictures of Jesus, and asking people to pick the ones they like and can relate to. These visual things seem to work better, but in a culture where people prefer visuals over text, how do we then promote Bible reading?

And meanwhile our Street Pastors are accosted every week (it seems) by people who are nowhere near the institutional church, but want to talk about God. It's not as though spiritual needs have gone away, maybe we're back to the unknown God, except he's so unknown we've not even built him/her/it an altar.

Swine Flu leaflet for Sunday

Based on a helpful circular forwarded by Richard Frank, from the Diocese of London, here's what we're putting out to our folks on Sunday. Yeovil had its first confirmed case of swine flu earlier this week at a local secondary school, which is now closing early for the summer hols. The text below fits onto a double-sided A5 leaflet in 12 point Times New Roman.

Or if you think this is all taking it too seriously, the Beaker Folk have an alternative.

(update: Blackburn Diocese has now advised it's churches to stop sharing wine at communion. Latest news here, 'worst case' is 30% of us get it, and well over 99.5% live to tell the tale. More also at Ruth Gledhills blog, including some good advice from Parish Nursing)

Latest news on Swine Flu
As you may know, there are now cases of swine flu in Yeovil, and nationally the number of cases is expected to rise strongly by early September. 5-14 year olds are the age group most affected at present. Infection rates have been lowest among the over-60s.

The most common symptoms are fever, sore throat, diarrhoea, headache, feeling generally unwell and a dry cough – in other words, symptoms very similar to seasonal influenza. Most people recover within a week, even without antiviral treatment.

Although symptoms have generally proved mild, a small number of patients will develop more serious illness. Many of these people have other underlying health conditions, such as heart or lung disease, that put them at increased risk.

What should people do if they think they have swine flu?
1. People should check their symptoms. They can o this by: visiting http://www.nhs.uk/ or by calling the Swine Flu Information Line on 0800 1 513 513;
2. If they still think they have Swine Flu, then people should call their local GP, who will be able to provide a clinical diagnosis over the phone.
3. If Swine Flu is confirmed, the GP will give the patient an authorisation voucher which their Flu Friend can then take to the designated local collection centre to pick up antivirals.
4. If you are showing flu-like symptoms, then please do not attend church services or other meetings.

Holy Communion and good hygiene measures
We are considering whether to move to sharing Communion with the bread only, until we have better advice on whether a shared cup is ok or not.
Both clergy and lay assistants at Holy Communion will need to ensure that hands are washed thoroughly.

We will also look to get supplies of alcohol gel hand rub for church and hall users, and to clean the hall and kitchen more regularly during the week to minimise the risk of infection.

Home visiting
Visitors need to exercise particular care when visiting people in their homes, as not only are they susceptible to infection themselves but could risk infecting others. It may be better to phone rather than visit in person.

Flu friends
‘Flu friends’ are relatives, neighbours and friends who will collect medicine and essential food supplies for people who have been diagnosed positive with Swine Flu. When someone is diagnosed with swine flu, they’re given a voucher or individual code that will enable prescribed medication to be collected on their behalf. ‘Flu friends’ should not however have direct contact with an infected person.

It’s a good idea to identify your ‘flu friend’ now, and if there are people living near you who may be a bit isolated, then being their ‘flu friend’ can be a valuable way of blessing your neighbours.

Church Services and Children’s Groups
It’s very unlikely that we’ll be advised to stop holding church services, though if local schools are closed in the autumn, we may have to think about childrens groups and Junior Church. Children are the most vulnerable to infection, and the most likely to pass it on.

Prayers:
Heavenly Father,
giver of life and health:
comfort and restore those who are sick,
that they may be strengthened in their weakness
and have confidence in your unfailing love;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Creator and Father of all,
we pray for those who are ill.
Bless them, and those who serve their needs,
that they may put their whole trust in you
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Swine flu and sacraments

Sorry to get theological, but this news prompted me.

If it's really holy water, then how come it gets infected? (a point made here)

Reflecting on the recent child abuse scandal in the Irish Roman Catholic made me wonder about communion too. Official Catholic theology is that Jesus is really present in the bread and the wine. If that's true, then how come it makes no difference? Some of the people committing the abuse had imbibed their own bodyweight in Jesus during the course of their lives, and yet they went ahead and did evil anyway.

Transubstantiation always seemed a bit iffy to me, and I just wonder how Catholic theologians interpret what's supposed to happen at Communion and what clearly fails to happen to the people who recieve it?

A colleague tells the story of a high church vicar who was distraught that somehow a dog had managed to gobble up a consecrated wafer that had fallen on the floor. He rang a senior clergyman for advice and was told "If God was clever enough to get in there in the first place, then he's probably clever enough to have got out again before the dog ate him."

anyway, back to that holy water, everybody sing along now...
I go down to speakers corner I'm thunderstruck
They got free speech, tourists, police in trucks
Two men say they're Jesus one of them must be wrong
Theres a protest singer singing a protest song - he says
"they wanna have a war to keep us on our knees
They wanna have a war to keep their factories
They wanna have a war to stop us buying japanese
They wanna have a war to stop industrial disease

Theyre pointing out the enemy to keep you deaf and blind
They wanna sap your energy incarcerate your mind
They give you rule brittania, gassy beer, page three
Two weeks in espana and sunday striptease"
Meanwhile the first Jesus says "I'd cure it soon
Abolish monday mornings and friday afternoons"
The other ones on a hunger strike he's dying by degrees
How come Jesus gets industrial disease?

Ashes Predictions revisited 1

Not looking bad so far:

series: my predictions didn't cover a drawn first test, so whatever happens now they can't be wrong. 2-1 to whoever wins Lords.

top run scorer: Predicted - Cook & Michael Clarke
Cook didn't get many, but neither did anyone else apart from Colly, so there isn't much ground to make up. Clarke would have top scored in the England innings with his 83, but is currently lying 5th. Looked in good nick though.

top wicket taker: Predicted - Anderson & Johnson
Looking ok so far. Johnson got 5, 2nd to Hauritz, though he bowled some pies in the 2nd innings. Anderson is top with 2, so the England boys haven't really started yet. Just hope they get better! Also, Anderson is the only England bowler nobody is talking about dropping, so he's in for all 5 unless he blows a gasket.

Crocks: Predicted - Lee or Stuart Clarke/Flintoff.
Nearly 100% here. Lee out before the series started, and Flintoff was a serious doubt for Lords, we shall see today (update: he's fit to play). We now know that this will be his last series. He's a fantastic player, but I wouldn't be surprised if everyone else bowls better without him in the attack, and this is a team sport. It's tricky: does having a 'star' bowler inspire everyone else, or make them sit back a bit?

And just to note that Glenn McGrath's traditional prediction of a 5-0 whitewash has already gone by the board. He'd probably predict 5-0 in a 3 match series.

Update: an article on Cricinfo is titled 'Shades of Hughes in Siddle'. I know he's an aggressive guy, but I didn't know he liked to eat sunglasses. What will Phil Hughes do now?

Top Twits

Couple of Twitter lists compiled recently:

Iain Dale has the top 20-ish political twitterers who also have a blog. Congrats to Matt Wardman for getting in amongst them.

Church Mouse has the 'top 10 twittering bishops and clergy', based on a twitter grading site, updating a previous list based on number of tweets. Peter Ould has a list based on the number of followers, which updates automatically.

If you're not on any of these, rejoice! The last shall be first, and the first shall be last.

Flintoff to Quit Test Cricket

Cricinfo reports that Andrew Flintoff has announce his retirement from Test cricket at the end of the summer. Full details of the press conference and some reactions over there.

Flintoff "I've had four ankle operations and knee surgery, so my body is telling me things, and I'm actually starting to listen. I can't just play games here and there while waiting to be fit. For my own sanity, and for my family's, I've got to draw a line under it. I've been going through two years of rehab in the past four, which is not ideal."

The Dance of Mission

From the recent anglican missioners conference



"So do continue asking ‘What on earth are we meant to be doing?” - whilst also knowing deep down why you are meant to be doing it. You are doing it because you want to invite the prodigals home, to invite others to the party.

"Mission means inviting all the people of the earth to hear the music of God's future and dance to it today" (Christopher J. H. Wright ‘The Mission of God’).

So keep doing your funny little dance, sometimes people will join in with you and sometimes they won’t. Sometimes you will change the way you dance, but keep dancing, and God will be with you." (Emma Ineson)

And Emma left us with the image of Matt Harding and his "funny little dance" - odd perhaps, offbeat, but infectious, building community, pointing beyond ourselves.

The conference site also has a powerpoint from Graham Cray on the future of Fresh Expressions. It doesn't give much away, but lists the following objectives:
- many more first time participants
- sustainability and maturity
- embedding in diocean/national structures
- discipleship
- age proofing
- international conversation

Bible Knowledge - The Generation Gap

New info is still trickling out about the Durham University 'National Biblical Literacy Survey', first reported by the Independent over a week ago (ht Kouya). The full press release from Durham is here, BBC report here. Already picked up by several blogs.

Findings include:
- 'well known' stories like the Prodigal Son and Good Samaritan are only familiar to 40% of the population.
- Some people have zero knowledge of the Bible - e.g. 16% who couldn't name any of the 10 commandments
- Under-45's have much less knowledge of the Bible than over-45's.
- Many churchgoers are pretty shaky on stories you'd think were well known: over 70% didn't know anything about Daniel and the Lions den, for example.
- 31% of people said the Bible was significant in their lives today. There's no published data yet on how many of those regularly read it.

It's vital to take these kind of things into account, both with our churches, and with folk in general. How much of church outreach assumes some basic Bible knowledge? How much do we equip and encourage people to read the Bible for themselves? Do we lament this and try to lobby for 'protection of Britains Christian heritage', or put our energies into engaging with the new reality?

Our confirmation course, for people who are looking to make an adult declaration of Christian faith, is an interesting case in point. Several of the folk on the course are reading a gospel all the way through for the first time as a result of being on the course. And they relate much better to things put into pictures than into words - this is people in their 60's and 70's as well as in their 20's and 30's.

The full findings are being presented this evening to a conference in Durham called 'Christianity in the Digital Space' which has its own blog, where audio, video and text bits of the conference are being posted. Mark Browns paper 'The Bible in Digital Space' delivered this morning, is available for download already. Fascinating stuff, looking at how the net is changing the way we read and take on information, and how we connect with people. Well worth a read.

There's also plenty of twittering also going on under the #digisymp hashtag. Paul Windo is blogging about the conference, and someone who can type very fast has posted these notes on a session about community and digital space, and you can see Mark Browns keynote address on Youtube. More papers are being added at the Digital Space website.

Street Pastors credited with 25% crime reduction

Very encouraging to read this:

A message from:
Deputy Chief Constable Tony Melville
Devon & Cornwall Constabulary
‘Torquay is a busy environment, it's a busy town, and of course it has a vibrant busy night-time economy, particularly by the harbour. We want people to enjoy the facilities there, but the challenge we have been experiencing is high levels of crime.

I researched crime statistics during a 6 month period, and do you know what I found?
During the 6 month period when Torbay Street Pastors had been operating, I compared it with the year before - the same 6 months - over that very busy summer period.

What I found was that violent crime had fallen by a quarter , in fact during that 6 month period when Street Pastors had been operating, no robberies had taken place at all in Torquay city centre. (my italics)

We had one fifth less burglaries from homes.

Vehicle crime had fallen by a quarter. All in that very focussed area where Street Pastors had been out on the streets working.

Now these are impressive reductions in crime by anybody's standard, and that's one of the reasons we are so supportive of Street Pastors.'

Church Responses to Swine Flu

A couple of folks in our church went down with suspected swine flu' at the weekend (update: both back at work today, so it may not have been), so I had a quick peek round the blogosphere to see what other people are doing. Good discussions happening at most of these sites:

The Ugley Vicar has just had guidance from Chelmsford Diocese, which seems pretty thorough, though I sense he's not entirely impressed with it. They recommend antibacterial gel for anyone celebrating communion, carry on with a shared cup, but throw out the holy water as people come into church (drat). There's a useful checklist, and advice on hygiene, flu buddies etc. There are several other posts on his blog on the same subject.

Here's a snapshot from New Zealand, where some churchgoers have ignored advice to stay at home to avoid passing on the disease.

Prison Planet is thoroughly opposed to plans for a mass vaccination programme, and wonders how the government would enforce it. There's probably some comparisons to be drawn here with MMR, but not right now.

PaxtonVic is waiting for advice from Ely Diocese and trying to keep things in perspective. Thanks to her for the pic, which is Ship of Fools take on new clergy vestments. Discussion also here on her blog.

After a Nottingham church closed its Sunday service following some of the staff catching the bug, Phil Whitehead asks 'should swine flu close churches?'

OneTimothyFour has defended the possibly OTT 'common sense' advice being issued by churches, and looks forward to the abolition of the Peace.

Latest news here.

Should Christians Vote Tory?

Cranmer argued a couple of days ago that Christians had a duty to vote Conservative. Tom Harris has taken issue with him, and Cranmer responds in the comments thread.

Cranmers main argument was that the Conservatives are more likely to permit a vote on reducing the time limit for abortion. Personally I'm not sure if this is a dog whistle: drop some hints to the pro-life lobby that you're on their side, and they'll queue up to vote for you.

I'm not convinced it's as simple as that. From abortion to global warming to attitudes to money and greed, there are a whole swathe of plumb-lines to hold against our political parties. None of them comes out smelling of roses (or trees, or seagulls, depending on which logo you prefer). Any approach to voting that uses 1 issue as a trump-card to avoid thinking about the rest is sub-Christian.

Update: Cranmer has responded to the Tom Harris piece.

BBQ'd Vicar

Our Cafe Service yesterday offered the chance for people to ask any question they liked. Most were put on post-its so that folk could ask anonymously if they wanted. Here's what we wrestled with:

Is it ever too late for forgiveness?

If God has planned all our life and written everything in his book, does this mean God planned the bad things?

Why shouldn't Christians get drunk?

Why does God take away our loved ones, and not the bad people?

As a Christian I hope to go to heaven, but my husband is not a Christian so that means I won't see my husband in heaven. He is a good and loving man!

How did God make people?

What do you consider to be your biggest achievement since taking up your current post?

What would you say if you were face to face with God?

Why can't I tickle myself?

If darkness is the absence of light and doesn't exist per se, and evil is the absence of good, does evil actually exist?

It's interesting to place these questions against the things we normally deal with in sermons and teaching, both in terms of the concerns they demonstrate, and the theology behind them. Apart from that one about tickling...

Latest Fresh Expressions Newspaper

The latest 'expressions' free newspaper has just come out from Fresh Expressions, (order from here) and includes:
- input from Graham Cray, asking 'where next' for mission in the Church of England
- text of Brian MacLaren's talk to Lambeth 08 on mission and culture
- mission stories from work among Tamils in London, suburban families in Lincoln, a shop in Tasmania, the nightclubs of Tenerife, a lads church in Bridlington, and pioneer work in Middlesborough, Cornwall and Yorkshire.
- personal stories of people who have come to faith through fresh expressions, or have got involved in starting one up.

I got 100 copies delivered for local churches and have been spreading them around. It's always encouraging to hear the good news, even if we're indoctrinated into thinking that only bad stuff counts as 'news'.

From the same site, a review of Ancient Faith, Future Mission, recently published book on Fresh Expressions from a catholic/sacramental perspective, which has sold well after release in May.

"Fresh expressions are not about making our worship more attractive in the hope that people will come. They are about planting congregations where people are." (Graham Cray)

How To Decide Who Rules the World

Following this. Ht Grauniad.

Saturday Roundup

Adam Rutherford at the Guardian is taking the Alpha course, and blogging every Friday about his experiences. He's just survived the first session: "Mostly when I think about religion it's the foolish edicts of preposterous old men in dresses. But sitting down with people who choose to spend a sunny Tuesday evening discussing the meaning of life with strangers seems to be a much more interesting insight into what makes people of faith tick. We shall see." (Ht Andy Dowland)

Dave Walker reports on the Surefish Church Website awards, top blog was Sophia Network, which resources women in youth work and ministry, with Unfinished Christian and Church Mouse both highly commended. Manchester Diocese also picked up an award, which sounds about right. One of their parishes, complete with cartoon vicar on the homepage, picked up the best church website award.

General Synod is underway in York, but without a live broadcast on Anglican TV, unlike FCA (wonder why?) For news follow Thinking Anglicans, or Alastair Cuttings General Synod Blog, or on Twitter using the #synod tag. Tim Chesterton notes that the Canadian General Synod is doing a Cheshire Cat impression .

A couple of significant votes in the Lords: an amendment tabled by Lord Falconer to permit assisted suicide was voted down, whilst a clause which permitted cricitism of homosexual behaviour was retained in the Coroners and Justice Bill. The clause draws a distinction between criticism of homsexual practice and incitement to hatred.

Eddie Arthur notes a study which finds that 75% of us have a Bible but less than 10% know very much about it. (I imagine the same stats would apply to DIY manuals!)

Steve Tilley takes evening prayer out of the building.

Pisteuomen (sounds better in Greek) takes issue with street preachers.

Finally the SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff is no longer the 'unfriendly gulag' it was in March. Though the cricket was disappointing (for an England fan), the stewards and staff made us feel very welcome, the Park and Ride was very well organised, and the steeply racked seating behind short straight boundaries meant you really felt close to the action.

Thanks to the Barmy Army for keeping us entertained yesterday, and no thanks to the umpires who robbed us of 30m+ of play, firstly by announcing a restart with 30 mins notice (the groundstaff were ready after 15), and then taking the players off for no obvious reason and then not telling anyone what was going on. With tickets at £85 a throw, I expected the officials to treat the crowd with a bit more respect, even if some of them were dressed as Smurfs.