Poverty

This Lent in our parish we are concentrating on 2 major Biblical themes - and being very practical about it

The first is an imperative to re-engage those on the periphery of our parish and inviting everyone to re-discover the joy of coming to church. We are doing this by looking various aspects of joy

. Belonging, family ... We look forward to welcoming visiting preachers coming and challenging us

The second is something which we are doing as part of a whole diocese initative ... of engaging with poverty here in our neighbourhood ... in our city. I suppose I would like to ask the question of anyone reading this blog

• How can the church, especially in leafy sub-urban city areas engage with poverty which is usually hidden?
• How can we support social services who know where there is much need?
• What sort of poverty do you experience?

We are called to help the poor ... but practically how? would love to hear readers views ... please do email me, leave a comment on blog or facebook!

Regards

RF

Ash Wednesday

So here we are at the start of another Lent.

This morning we celebrated Ash Wednesday in St. Columba's with a Holy Communion Service.

For those who have not been to a Church of Ireland Ash Wednesday Service it is quite a solemn act of worship. It follows a slightly different structure than our normal Holy Communion service

The Introduction to the service - describes what is happening very well

Brothers and sisters in Christ: since early days Christians have observed

with great devotion the time of our Lord's passion and resurrection. It

became the custom of the Church to prepare for this by a season of penitence and fasting.

At first this season of Lent was observed by those who were preparing

for baptism at Easter and by those who were to be restored to the

Church's fellowship from which they had been separated through sin. In

course of time the Church came to recognize that, by a careful keeping

of these days, all Christians might take to heart the call to repentance and

the assurance of forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel, and so grow in

faith and in devotion to our Lord.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Lord to observe a holy Lent,

by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial;

and by reading and meditating on God's holy word.

What are you doing for Lent?

Social Networking consequences?

We are living in a strange new world with twitter, facebook, blogger etc etc

In June I am running another set of "surfer" sessions in our parish ... last time it was silver surfers but this time it is open to all. One of the issues we are going to discuss is the use of social networks.

Over the course of the next few months I aim to fire in a few wee mini articles into my blog about some of the uses of these technologies as they are used by friends and colleagues building up a picture of the good, the bad and the ugly of this tech.

What sparked these articles off was my email inbox suddenly becoming alive with the subject "XX commented on a photograph of you" where XX were names in my long distant past. When I clicked on the linked contain therein there was a picture from a local newspaper - and lo and behold there I am ... standing where I always stand in pictures ... right at the back :-)

This Photo was taken in Primary 4, but it is more than that - this photo being on facebook also allows instant communication with those in the photo ... when we stop to think about this ... it is so amazing. How many of us have a tin of old pictures in a drawer, or a photo album and take it out from time to time and wonder what XX is doing now.

Connecting old school friends ... advantage?

... want to see the picture?

maybe I'll repost! maybe I wont! ;-)

Up and Down the Mountain

Sermon preached on Sunday 7th March 2011 at St Columba's 7pm Choral Evensong

Today is the Sunday before lent, as we progress through the churches year we highlight various aspects of the Christian Life through the calendar and lectionary the readings.

Today we have changed the colours from Green to white - as we are remembering one of the highpoints of the church’s year - the Transfiguration of Christ. An event which Jesus brought Peter, James and John up a mountain, and then he appeared talking with Moses and Elijah. The Three witnessed this amazing display of God’s glory, they saw just how amazing Jesus is ... the impact of this is truly remarkable

Moses - The reluctant leader who lead the people out of slavery into the promised land, which he just glanced before he died, he was the one who proclaimed the 10 commandments

Then Elijah - the prophet who bore witness to mighty acts of God’s power and provision

How amazing it was for the 3 disciples to witness this unique event in history and to hear God’s voice saying of Jesus - “This is my beloved son, with him I am well pleased ... listen to him”

Our gospel reading this evening follows on from this experience ... they come down the mountain and are faced immediately with the trials and tribulations of everyday life.

It is quite remarkable how often we go through the same thing in our lives... of how we are on a high - perhaps celebrating some achievement and then in the next breath we encounter something which brings us down to earth with a bump ... perhaps bad news or a negative experience of some kind.

One of the tensions have have found as I progress through life is the making sense of this. The mountaintop highs and the valley lows.

For us in our lives of faith - High Times could be those spent with God, in prayer, in studying the Bible, in worship ... and then in the same day we may meeting up with people who have problems of all sorts, we may encounter problems with friends where our faith is challenged, where we fail to grasp what God is saying - it is always a tension between ...

How do we practice what we preach

How do we be the same on monday as we are on sunday

How do we combine sacred with secular

How do we practice the presence of God as we go about our daily lives

How do we communicate with a world which is hurting

There are no easy answers - but what we expenience in church, in our own home devotions and Bible Study has to empower us to reach out to those who need our help, impact those who do not know God.

Faith as small as a mustard seed can move mountains.

Encounters with God empower people to do things for him

The Disciples, Moses and the Burning Bush, Saul who became the apostle Paul.

Countless Saints down through the ages ... and even in the lives of Christians today

We probably won’t see a burning bush or be blinded for days but we may hear God saying “follow me”

we may be impacted by a cause which we know which needs supported,

a person we think could do with a wee bit of love

we may see injustice in our world

we may hear the call of God step out in faith some how.

It is good to worship, it is great to sing songs and to come to this place ... we as Christians do need to encounter God

But we also know that we need to go and face the valley, the people, the situations which are difficult. It is up to us to be God’s hands, feet, voice in others lives.

It is a difficult call but it one which we remember that we do not face alone - but God is with us, and that is the great news. We don’t worship a God who lives in a building or a temple, we have the power of the Holy Spirit inside of us, empowering us to do the things that Jesus did and much more besides :-)

MP3 Ministry

Right, This is the first normal blog in a long time... I've been doing a lot of simply copying and pasting of sermons, however, today I have been doing a lot of desk clearing, writting for our magazine and thinking about things coming up in the next couple of months as well as preparing a sermon for sunday.

One of our exciting things which as church we are looking to do over the next while is developing a ministry to the housebound, in terms of Recording our services and providing them online legally... there are various "hoops" to jump through as far as copyright, permissions from participants and practicalities of sorting out a team who will actually do this, as well as providing hosting etc etc.

However on my blog, it seems a good idea to explain why a church might want to record their service and make it available over the internet.

One of my passions is to see the church at large, use and embrace technology to further the kingdom of God, to connect with loads of different sorts of people. One of the most important things for me to say at the outset - it is not being considered because I think our parish needs a new gimmick or because we are better than anyone else - NOT AT ALL.

This idea has come from my pastoral visits, of meeting parishioners in their own homes and who have lamented that they now due to health reasons are unable to come out to church on a Sunday Morning. These same people have been faithful members of the church week in week out for most if not all of their lives. It is from this starting point that I set about looking for a solution to allow them to tune into a church service.

This will NOT become a way for people to "skip church" If I hear of that happening I will be extremely saddened. However it could become useful, if people are unable to come to church on health grounds for various services .

I have, over the years had various experiences of ministries to the house-bound - Tape ministry, CD's ... and it seemed to me that there was indeed a need to develop this ... the next natural step is MP3's

I know many churches have an MP3 ministry for their sermons alone I feel that the whole worship service does need to be available - hymns, liturgy, sermon ... the lot.

We are not there yet ... there are still some hurdles to overcome but it is an adventure ...

The vision presented to vestry was something like this ...


what if we could reach out to those who are not able to come to church by providing them with an audio recording of our service ... beginning to end announcements, hymns, prayers, sermon etc etc the whole sunday service?

what if this was available free of charge to them ?

what if they had a computer and within 10 mins to an hour of the service finishing this was uploaded and available from our website ?

what if they didn’t have a computer but we were able to provide them with a player which a parishioner to could bring to them on a weekly basis - so that they get a visit from someone - what if they were able to follow along with hymns / prayer books ?

what if they are in hospital and from the bedside internet phones they are able to tune into st columba’s service just 10mins / hour after the service had finished?

what if we were able to train up a rota of volunteers to record, edit(if necessary) and upload these to the web sunday by sunday ?

what if we are able to sort out the copyright of hymns* easily?

what if this could be another way to engage with those who are not coming to church?


So what are the implications of this for vestry?

Firstly, permission is sought from vestry to bring in recording equipment to church ... which we already have access to -ie. I have a wee mp3 recorder which will do the job in the interim

Secondly we will need to get permission from preachers / musicians to record

Thirdly there may well be a cost implication to the copyright - as we have to purchase a licence.

Fourthly for those who don’t have access to the internet we would provide inexpensive mp3 players

There is no church that I am aware of that is currently doing this and I firmly believe that it could make a real difference - connecting our services to those who cannot get out for whatever reason. We also through our website can provide people with a copy of the pew news, the liturgy used for the particular service they are listening to.

This, coupled with our parish website, youth website, Silver Surfer classes and the Church of Ireland worship section hopefully will provide those who another way to engage with St. Columba's

worst case Scenario ... don't worry

Matthew 6: 25-34

This sermon was preached at Holy Communion in St. Columba's at 10:30 on Sunday 27th Feb 2011

May my words and our hearts be always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading this morning we are called not to worry.

I wonder what you worry about? ... A few years ago I was given, by a friend a copy of The worst Case Scenario survival handbook for travel ... just before heading away by myself to Africa.

A look at the contents page alone is enough to worry a solo traveller

How to stop a car with no brakes
How to survive a riot
How to survive when you are lost in the jungle
How to climb out of a well
How to deal with a Trantula

My favorite which illustrates the stupidity of this book is

How to control a Runaway Camel ... in 5 easy steps

Hang on to the reins - but do not pull them back hard in an attempt to stop the camel
If the camel has a head halter and sturdy reins pull reins to one side to make camel run in circle
If the camel has nose reins - just hang on tight
Hold on untill the camel stops - the camel will sit down when it grows tired
When the camel sits - Jump off!


Worst case scenario - things we worry about. Perhaps you have never worried about how to control a camel but we do worry about lots of other things and unfortunaely there is no guide book about what to do in all circumstances we find ourselves in.

Perhaps we worry about our exams, or if we are a parent we worry about our Kids exams

Perhaps we worry about ourselves, our friends, our families health

Perhaps we worry as we look at TV News about our world

Perhaps we worry about the worries of our friends.

As we look at these or other worries and concerns that come to mind. Let us pause for a few moments, and realise that this is very, actually crucially important.

Elsewhere in the gospel there is a story of the Wise and Unwise builder

we all know that the wise man built his house on a rock with a firm foundation
the unwise man decided to go for the quick option and got the house up without much trouble.

However both faced storms one was much more worried than the other. Both I am sure were worried about the storm but the wise one knew that his foundation was sure and steady. The other didn’t

Our foundation is the thing that is so crucially important.

All of us at sometime or another are going to have to face trying or testing times - either ourselves, our loved ones, our friends. What foundation are we building to help us cope with the stresses and strains of life.

The Great News of today’s gospel is that on offer to all of us is the surest foundation for life

That which God provides - It allows us to say that individually we each are loved by God and called by him to live for him.

Yes each one of us are going to face trying times but how amazing, how awesome it is to know that God is with us - through medical tests, through operations, through therapy, through school, though university, every single day at work, every morning, every evening, every day we are awake, every night we are sleeping - God is with us.

Now what excites me even more than simply knowing God is there with us with me is that he provides

he provides our strength, our wisdom, our guidance, sustenance.

Whatever happens ... God is sovereign ... he working his purposes out.

How am I going to face x, y or z this week, this month ... whatever your worst case scenario is ... the solution I have found, from personal experience and from listening to the stories of countless christians in the past and present ... the only thing to do is to take it to God in Prayer ... hand it over to him ... to say God I can’t handle this but I am prepared to walk with you through it ... you are all I need

This is not complicated ... We are allowed to, we are called to be be honest with God and to allow him to speak truth into our lives.

Remember he is father & he wants us to know that he loves us.

Let us take a moment to be still and recollect the things which worry us this morning

Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care
take it to the Lord in prayer

Heavenly father, each of us have our own concerns, worries. Help us to walk with you, to remember you are our father, you are the one who provides help us to see your perspective on our problems. We pray this in your name. Amen

Imitating God

A Sermon Preached in St. Columba's on Sunday 20th February 2011 at 7pm Service

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be now and always acceptable in thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer.

This evening I would like to look briefly at our Episitle reading, from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians which you have in front of you.

The first word from this portion of the letter is “Therefore” and in college we were always advised to ask of the text when we see this particular word ... what is it there for!

in other words we need to ask what comes before it.

In our case this evening ... it is linking a description of new life in Christ - which has great advice for those who have become new members of the Ephesian Church.

There is just before this passage an imperitive to cast away the old nature, former things and to put on a new person created in God’s Likeness - righteous, holy and true.

Paul does not beat about the bush in this letter - he says in the last two verses of Chapter 4
“Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words as well as all times of malicious behaviour - instead be kind to won another, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you.”

We see in this passage in front of us we have to take this prior advice and get on with it

we are called to be imitators of God as beloved Children - I know when I was growing up one of the ways I learnt to do things was by copying my parents and grand parents.

Back in Banbridge, my grandparents had a big vegetable garden and grew all sorts of things - loads of people from our local area came to buy lettuce, beetroot and lots of the other veg in season. In that garden I learnt so much from dealing with people to planting carrots. but a lot of it was learnt by copying what my Grandad and Granny were doing. Using the same words, the same actions.

Children pick up so much from the adults around them, their words, actions and values.

We all are called to be imitators of God

This morning in our Gospel reading we were challenged by the words - Be Perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect - that is a huge ask for any of us. However this evening this is broken down into a little bit of an easier step.

We simply have to imitate God as children imitate their father.

So what does that look like?

A few years ago - there was a fad going around with young people who went to church - they would wear wee bracelets on these was the letters ... WWJD which stood for ... what would Jesus Do? - the idea is that when faced with any circumstance they would ask the question ... what would Jesus do if he found himself in my shoes today.

It is a challenging question to ask ourselves.
Each one of us here this evening will face decisions this week which will challenge us to think about right and wrong

Perhaps simple choices, perhaps life changing choices

We are all called, every single day to decide where we go and what we do, what our attitude is, what our reaction will be.

Should we forgive?, should we make allowances for sombody’s mistake?, should we go where we know that we shouldn’t go? ... what should we do?

We are called to cast off the darkness and instead be people who are open, who are loving, who are imitators of God.

The word Christian began as a derogitory word from the romans which means “Little Christ”

May we by our words and example imitate Christ by all that we think, say and do this coming week.

AMEN

Be Perfect ...

A sermon preached in St. Columba's, Knock on Sunday 20th Feb 2011 at 10:30pm


Jesus, in the sermon on the mount presents us with huge challenges. Any quick glance through Chapter 5 of Matthew’s gospel highlights HUGE areas of life which we are called to be working on/

The beatitudes call us to be peacemakers, they also tell us that we will be persecuted

We are called to be salt and Light to the world

Keep the commandments

Not to get angry

Be reconciled with Brothers and Sisters

we are called Radical purity in terms of our thoughts and deeds, last week we had in our Gospel reading if your eye or hand causes you to sin ... which when we were discussing it on Wednesday evening at Bible Study proved to be quite horrific at the thought of such things - but basically that bit is about the causes of sin in each of our lives and removing that temptation from our lives.

We are called to Love our enemies

go the extra mile

Then at the end of today’s gospel reading we are called to Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect!

We are called to be perfect ... If I am honest this morning that bit of the reading I have struggled with all week ... what is Jesus saying/commanding?

Keeping the commandments... most of them are OK

Being reconciled with Brothers and Sisters ... yeah!

Purity of thoughts and deeds ... still working on that

Not getting angry ... most of the time that is OK ... but I know I loose my temper sometimes.

But being perfect... I am sooo far away from that it is unbelievable.

We need a way into this passage, we need to know that Jesus has hopes for his disciples, he has dreams for those who are listening, he is calling them to a radical life, a life which will change them, a way for them to see amazing things, a life which will see them do amazing things. A topsy turvy life which will turn their values on their head - the last first, the first last. A life which will call them to deny themselves, a life which will see them in the world but not of the world.

I am sure that there is not one of us here today meets the standard which Jesus sets out Be Perfect

Which is great, it is a great leveler - from the youngest here to the oldest, from teachers or students, rector or visitor, curate or choir member, vestry person ... who ever you are this morning.

We are in loads of ways we are messy - perhaps we do have immaulate houses or not, perhaps we are wealthy or not BUT under the surface we undoubtably have weaknesses we have messed up - all of us if we are honest are messy ... people who need to be made less messy

But the exciting thing is that whoever you are, whatever your role is we can all begin a journey, a journey with Jesus, finding out more about him, finding out more about ourselves.

As Disciples we are all called on a journey through life of sanctification ... of becoming more like Jesus, day by day.

yes we have and will mess up

yes we will do stupid things

yes we will say stupid things

The great news is that we can succeed at this, we can, if we let God change us do amazing things, we can strive to do better.

Three weeks ago the Rector looked part of the sermon on the mount as a kind of MOT for us, looking at things which could be better.

I wonder as we read through today’s reading is there anything we could pick up as things which could be improved upon?

perhaps in certain things we need to go the extra mile
perhaps in other things we need to discover love for those we do not like, or indeed love those who we actually hate the sight of.

A warning has to go out with all of these illustrations about our view of God.

He is not a policeman ready to catch us out, or a ticket warden ready to slap a ticket on us

but rather as heavenly father who has our best interests, who is willing us to do the right thing, who is ready to forgive when we get it wrong -as long as we learn from those mistakes and try better next time, he is ready to help us pick up the pieces and begin again.

We are all called to a radical lifestyle, showing our culture that there is much more to life than meets the eye, more purpose than simply making money, more love, more power, more adventure in a life dedicated to God.

The church, us, you and me are the hope for our nation, for our world - but we, each one of us has the power first to transform ourselves and then to transform our workplaces, community. This is the great news which we have contained in the pages of scripture but we need to be transformed ourselves.

But we do need to get rid of the mess ... offer the mess to God and get on with living life ... mess free

Amen.

Less Messy!

This sermon was preached as a Kids Talk in St. Columba's - Sunday 20th at 9:30 Family communion

Father God we thank you that you call us all to serve you, help us to change to be like you in Jesus Name Amen.

In the curatage I have loads of books Big thick books, wee thin books, Books about God, the world, computers, and books of fiction.

Today I would love to tell you about a great character, one who is one of my all time favorite fictional hero’s ... Mr Messy ... this contains spoilers ... I hope you don’t mind

Mr Messy lives in a messy house

which has a messy Garden

but he is quite content with his messy life

Until he meets a couple of people

Mr Neat and Mr Tidy who are sorting out the garden of a neighbour

They offer Mr Messy their Services

Mr Messy reluctantly agrees

They tidy his house, his garden and basically show him that things can be different

Now the last thing that they do is sort Mr Messy out with a bath

and then Mr Messy at the end of the story laughs and says to Mr Neat and Mr Tidy that he shall have to change his name as he is no longer Messy.

Mr’s Neat and Tidy were able to show Mr Messy that there was a different way to live

When Mr Messy saw this he was able to try and live less messily

Turning from the Mr Men Story to the true story of Jesus

Throughout the Gospels, the Good News of Jesus

Jesus shows us ways in which we, who are messy, - all of us wether we are kids, young people, adults every single one of us

Remember we do wrong things, think wrong things or even when we don’t do what we should

But there is Good News we, like the story of Mr Messy, can change, when we look at God, when we try to be like him then we can indeed clean up our lives, when we get help from the Holy Spirit and from Christian Friends we can change and live lives which are more like him.

So the Challenge today is to ask ourselves ... where are the messy parts of my life? where are the parts I would l would like to do better at?

With these questions, and acting on the answers we can start to be more like Jesus!

Youth Website is now Live!

Youth Website

Yes! St. Columba’s now has its very own youth website and contains a wealth of resources please do use it.

It has been designed to be as useful and friendly as possible. We are updating it weekly with information

What can I find on the site?

If you are a young person We have various “columns”

why do we do what we do ?- (updated monthly) is a column dedicated to what we do in church week by week. It eventually will answer questions like:

• Why do we come to church anyway?
• Why do we have different colours/seasons in church ?
• Why do we sing hymns?
• Why do we celebrate Holy Communion?

N:gage with Sunday Mornings (updated weekly)- is a column dedicated to engaging with Sunday morning worship. It provides readers with tools to help them prepare for worship. Informing them of the type of service it will be for the 10:30 service, explaining the reading and looking at a bit of the service.

We also have partnered with Scripture union and you can find Daily Bible Reading Notes there on the site!

We also hope to host guest interviews with various people in and around the church and beyond.

we also have split the website up dependent upon the age group with games, video clips, links.

For our older teenagers and above we have set up a facebook group.

All of our updates will be highlighted on our twitter account - if you happen to have a twitter account - please do follow us @stcolumbasyouth

Whilst this is a youth website - all are welcome check us out: www.stcolumbasyouth.org

If you are happy and you know it ...

A sermon delivered at the 10:30 service in St. Columba’s Parish church on Sunday 30th January 2011

While going to sunday school, I remember distinctly learning the wee chourus

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands

If you’re happy and you know it and you really want to show it

If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands

So often we get caught up in the pressures of life - in balancing accounts, in meeting work deadlines, in flying from one thing to another that we push the things of God from the centre where they should be to the periphery of life. We get caught up with the details that we forget the bigger vision of what life is all about. We know all too well that depression and anxiety is on the rise.

Throughout this year we are working our way through the Gospel of Matthew at the Morning Services. Our reading today is the first part of the first major teaching block of the Gospel known as the Sermon on the mount.

Jesus opens his sermon by emphasising what the blessed or happy life looks like

Jesus here is emphasizing the values produced in Kingdom Men and Women by the Holy Spirit. Values which stand in stark contrast to the values of the world back in his day as well as values which are all to common today.

JB Philips has rendered the Beatitudes that apply to the kingdom of this world like this

Happy are the “pushers” for they get on in the world

Happy are the hard boiled for they never let life hurt them

Happy are they who complain: for they get their own way in the end

Happy are the blase for thy never worry about their sins

Happy are the slave drivers for they get results

Happy are the knowledable men of the world for they know their way around

Happy are the trouble makers for they make people take notice of them

Happiness is a concept which I am sure we all strive for, economists tell us that it is one of the goals of the decisions we all make with our finances - not simply working and making decisions to increase wealth but asking questions as to how we spend our money, our time to get happiness and fulfillment out of life.

This week, amidst all the usual news stories two stood out for me...

BBC Breakfast took on the challenge of seeing if people could learn to be more happy though various tasks and challenges.

Also the chief of the Bank of England Mervyn King in a speech quoted the Ken Dodd song

King said: "When it comes to measuring success, don't count money count happiness. The advice of Ken Dodd in 1964."

Within the Beatitudes we have a concise list of Kingdom values - which will be mediated on through the remainder of the gospel

Poverty, mourning, meekness, hunger for righteousness, purity, mercy, peacemaking and persecution.

To those on the outside - who are searching for happiness in our world today these values may seem quite alien but actually by meditating on each of them in turn is quite useful and gives us a picture of True kingdom life. Life which Jesus himself promises us elsewhere in the Bible - Life in all its fullness

Time only allows me to look at a 3 of the examples but if we look at these you will see a pattern emerging

“Happy are the meek” becomes “Miserable are the arrogant”. The meek will inherit the earth, but those who bully others can only take: they are not *given* anything.

“Happy are the merciful” becomes “Miserable are the merciless”. People who bear grudges, who refuse to forgive, and who take revenge, are the real prisoners. They are prisoners of their own hate, and it eventually poisons all their relationships.

Happy are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake” becomes “Miserable are those who have no spine”. It isn’t always easy to stand up for what is right — yes, we can wind up persecuted. But who will ever trust us with what is truly important if we don’t have the inner strength to hold on to it in the first place?

The others ... why not take the reading sheet home with you and see what Jesus was getting at through them

If you are happy and you know it and you really want to show it

If you are happy and you know it Go and ...

• Do not be afraid to to show that you do not have everything
• be meek
• fulfill your hunger for doing what is right
• show mercy
• be pure
• make peace
• don’t be afraid of what others will think of you

Do all of these things because God has called you to do them! - The world is waiting for Men and Women, Young and Old to show what true happiness is all about

February ... Knock Knock

Below is an article published in the February edition of our Parish Magazine

Knock Knock its the Curate ...

I can’t believe February is here, it doesn’t seem that long since I was writing for the December magazine way back in the middle of November. Now Christmas has past and we are now embarking on a new year.

January this year for me has been a very “techie/geeky month” which has been great. In addition to the regular visiting, meetings, services and all the other things which go along with my role as Curate, my computers have been out and about on lots of occasions for various “Silver Surfer” events. I have been very encouraged by the enthusiasm of the many parishioners through the doors of the sessions as well as the patience and skills of those who signed up to help. Thank you all very much.

On the other part of the techie work, (if all goes according to plan) we should, by the time the magazine goes to print have a Youth Website (www.stcolumbasyouth.org) which makes use of the latest technology and social networking, helping us to link up with young people and their parents to interact with the parish on-line. This will allow us hopefully to communicate our message to a generation who are living through one of the greatest revolutions that the world has ever seen.

My passion for the church has always been and always will be - that we are able to communicate what the good news of the gospel is, and what it means to all ages.

Silver Surfers has been a place where we get together, learn together, chat and laugh together and help each other in community. The same is true with our new Youth website a place where as a parish we can share resources, ideas and communicate with each other in new and creative ways ... that surely is at the heart of Christian Community.

In Christ

Robert

PS A huge thank to all who sent cards, gifts and Christmas wishes to the curatage over the festive period, they were all greatly appreciated.

Our Identity - A short address prepared to A Late Evening Office St. Columba’s Parish Church Sunday 9th January 2011

I continue to be amazed with the ways in which businesses, banks and government have to find out if we are who we say we are. Passports, bio-metric data, pin numbers, micro chips, finger prints, reference numbers, passwords, usernames, numbers, survey forms, our credit history, plastic cards, key fobs ... and all the rest

We are increasingly told that we are to protect our identity from being stolen - we are to shred documents, not to share pin numbers and to protect our plastic card.

Just last week I went in to register to rent out a DVD - I had to go in with my Passport, utility bill and sign a form

Our identity is crucially important.

We are complicated beings - we may be brother or sister, husband or wife, friend to some, mother or father, granny or grandad, we may be in charge of some others, we may be under the charge of others at work, we may be owners of cars, we may be tenents, we may be customers of this or that store. Each person we meet on a daily basis may have different expectations of who we are and what we are about.

In our Gospel reading this evening we have skipped over 30 odd years from where we were last week - from the Christmas story to Jesus beginning his public ministry. We see in this reading how crucial Identity is.

God the Father, in Jesus’ baptism identifies who Jesus is and what he thinks of him

His identity was confirmed...God's son.

He was identified as the focus of God's love.

He was identified as being very pleasing to God.

Before Jesus does all the amazing things he did in his ministry the base, the foundation is founded upon his Baptism.

There are huge problems in our society today when people, young and old forget about their identity - or who try to make a new identity for themselves.

Core to all who have been baptised is that we have been given an Identity - we have been given a Christian Name, we have been identified as the focus of God’s love and we have been identified as being very pleasing to God - that is the very core of Christian teaching.

But we need to own that truth, we need to trust that truth and we need to put it into practice.

Who are you? You are a child of God, the focus of his love and with you God is well pleased.

Yes we do stupid things, Yes we let him down time after time but we also are a people who believe in forgiveness and Grace. Thanks be to God. Amen

New Year Sermon

What a difference a year makes

A Sermon preached on Sunday 2nd January 2011 at Evening Prayer in St. Columba’s Parish church.

In the name of God, Father, Son and Spirit. Amen

Just before Christmas, our youth group were kindly invited to the studios of UTV for a tour around the news studios and the radio station. In one of the rooms we were given a sneek peak at one of the programmes by a producer who met us in one of the corridors. It was a programme on the Highlights of Northern Ireland news.

The programme showed snippets of the highs and lows of life in the province, from politics, to sport, from ash clouds grounding all the planes to the snow storms recently experienced. This programme and many like it on other TV channels and radio programmes are a good way to look back and see what we all have been living through

2010 has indeed been a year which I am sure each one of us will have our own highs and lows. At this time each year it is a time to look back at what has been and look forward to what will be.

Certainly, looking back it is great that within this parish in 2010 we have welcomed back people into our parish, we have seen new people engage with church, we have been able to work together to get lots of things done -

• Heating systems fixed,
• flower festival organised,
• Ladies Guild & Mens Club anniversaries,
• held our ordination service,
• many baptisms,
• various weddings,
• Creche set up
• we have laughed together,
• cried together,
• worshipped together sunday by sunday
• maintained and extended our choral tradition...with the many special services
• we have welcomed new members into our congregation,
• we have faced challenges and overcome them,
• we do have a great family atmosphere in the parish, where people are prepared to stand alongside each other and work together.

I am sure each one of us could add other things which have meant something to you that has happened in the past 12 months.

As we look forward to a new year - I wonder what your hopes, your dreams, your resolutions, your prayers are for yourself, your family, your friends, your community and indeed this your church?

In Proverbs 29:18 we read that without vision people perish - What is your vision for 2011?

With church - We are looking forward to living up to and indeed helping to answer the prayer which is printed in each of our parish magazines.

<<>>

This is a big prayer, a big vision but one to which each one of us are called to play our part.

In our gospel reading this evening we see what happens after Jesus is born. Mary and Joseph up to this point have had what would have been described as a most extrordinary year. Encounters with angels, long journey, no house but a stable, baby born, strange visitors shepherds who came around and then magi making a huge journey to find them.

I am sure the Holy Family were ready to rest up and relax.

Then all of a sudden they are on the road again, responding to an emergency which they could not have expected. But this situation God had everything under control. In the panic and the life and death situation they found themselves in I am sure the turmoil must have been great.

We see from this reading that God had it all under control, he was working is purposes out. We also see that Matthew can look back with hindsight and see that God had already made plans for the flight to egypt.

As we progress into this new year, let us dream, let us plan, let us have a vision of what we could use this year for, of how things could be different.

Let us take the message of this season of Christmas that God is indeed with us, and let us remember that whatever problems, situations, challenges, ups and downs we may face, what ever joys and sorrows we may come across let us remember that message of immanuel, God is with us.

This year, 2011, we have been told by many quaters is going to be a tough, challenging year when finance, commerce employment and other factors are taken into consideration, however we have all got to remember what life is really about and the priority we need to place in our faith in God and his sufficiency.

Let us remember that God is walking with us, that he has a plan for us, he wants us to enjoy living. Jesus himself did say - that I have come so that they may have fulness of life.

My hope and prayer for all of us in this new year is that we will encounter God in a new way, that when trials come, when we are faced with challenges we will remember the truth of Christmas that Immanuel - God is with us.

Let us pray.

An up to date portrayal of the nativity??

A Very Clever video :-)

enjoy!

Names ...

A sermon based upon the Gospel reading this morning Matthew 1: 18-25

May my words and our thoughts be always pleasing to thy sight O Lord our strength and our redeemer. Amen

Names, I wonder do you know what your name means, where did you get your name from?

I know my name is from both of my Grandads - Robert Joseph

Today we have baptised Alexandru Joseph

When we look back beyond where our names came from we can discover the meanings of our names. I know for instance

Robert means Bright Fame

Joseph means he will add

If we were to query others

John means YAHWEH is gracious

Helen means "torch"

Victor Roman name meaning "one who is victorious" in Latin.

Gerald means - From a Germanic name meaning "rule of the spear"

Elizabeth means - my God is abundance

Alan - “little rock" or "handsome”

We have all been given our name for some reason, whether it was because our parents liked it or perhaps because of family members who shared them.

Today we have in our reading the reason behind the naming of Jesus, before he was even born. The name which Jesus was given as we heard in our gospel is very important as it outlines who he was going to be and what he was going to do.

In the busy-ness of this season, it is good to take time out to reflect upon the names given to Jesus in this reading today. As it not just Joseph and mary getting together, with a baby naming book and picking something which sounds nice. This is God intervening and giving to them the name which he has chosen, from the beginning of time.

Joseph was instructed by the angel to give the baby the name Jesus - the reason being that whe will save his people from their sins

We also see later in the reading - he is to have the name ‘Emmanuel which means God is with us’.

In our service today a lot has been going on, we began with lighting the fourth candle on our advent wreath- The candle of Love reminding us of God’s love for each and every one of us,

We confessed our sins to God, we recalled thorugh our psalms, canticles and readings of God’s love and his plan of salvation for us, we stood together as Alexandru Joseph was baptised and welcomed him as a member with us of the body of Christ, we prayed to God our father

All of these things we do sometimes without thinking but these when we pause to think are huge things made possible only by God coming amongst us, and dwelling here.

If it wasn’t for the babe in a manger that first christmas... we would not be here this morning singing praise to God and celebrating the fact of Immanuel ... God with Us, nor would we have the hope of our sins wiped away for good and all.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas once again very soon, let us remember the true message, a message not just for a day of the year, but a message which the world needs to hear day, after day, month after month and year after year.

As Christians let us reclaim christmas as a celebration, as a time when we celebrate God intervening in the affairs of the world he created.

When he came amongst us as immanuel - God with us.

And also when he came as Jesus - saving us from our sins.

On thursday at the Holy Communion Service for the Housebound Parishioners I shared a story of

the Wright brothers, in december 1903 when they were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground.

Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas." Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big news--man had flown!

Let us not now, nor ever forget the big news ... that Christmas is about the Baby in a manger all those years ago and the impact that baby needs to have on our lives and in our world today.

We have promised today to support the parents and God parent of Alexandru Joseph and countless others who have been baptised in the past. Let us all take that responsibility seriously and tell the generations of

Jesus Christ Immanuel.

A Techie Interlude to my blog

One of the things I do enjoy in my spare time is web site design.

In preparing for a website I am working on I have come across some good software

For my PC - Some PDF image extractor - which when you feed a PDF into it it will save all the photos contained within the said file as separate files ... handy if you need something like that!

for my Mac there is a wee thing called automator which is a very powerful built in thing ...check it out it seems great!

I am also getting to grips with a great piece of software from Microsoft (i know!) ... Expression web ... it is very handy for big websites which require templates.

Anyone else have any good pieces of software they find useful for website work?