Month: February 2019

Today more of a normal mild, damp February day. The air is soft and comforting. Paths are wet underfoot.

Yesterday, Bala and near Dolgellau. An ancient Abbey and a fun little train. A car ride with the huge bulk of Cadair Idris in view much of the way. It’s a lot more impressive than this picture suggests.

Today, Port Meirion and then Porthmadog for shop and chips. Port Meirion is quirky, exuberant. It was started between the wars and finished in the fifties. The bright colours and fun were probably just what was needed as the country emerged from wartime austerity.

Creator God, we thank you
For they greyness and the rain.
We thank you for
 the all-enveloping comfort
Of the damp that nourishes the crops, 
Feeds the reservoirs, 
Forces people to come close 
Together for shelter. 
We thank you for the relief
From the emptiness of dry weather. 

We pray for people in dry places
Struggling with drought
or climate change. 
Christ, who knew thirst, 
Who knew suffering, be with them. 
Christ who taught forgiveness, 
Reconcile us all 
With one another
And with our planet. 

Spirit of God, 
Move in us all, 
And grow in us
The hope of change. 

One God, help us to live right
In this your world. 

This is a winter version of the picture that used to occupy the end wall of the canteen of the place I used to work forty years ago. We strolled to Llyn Mair and Tan y Bwlch Station in the unnatural heat. When we were sorting stuff I discovered a photo of my family sitting on a wall in 1962. That was somewhere on the road walk from the bus stop to Tan y Bwlch station, and Janet and I may well have passed that site too.

I’ve thrown away a lot of the past (not that picture) over the last few weeks – but the past is still there in my head (until nothing is). I’d sooner throw away the past than throw away the future. That sounds almost meaningless until you realise that’s exactly what we just voted to do.

Time off in wolves wood in Wales. Strange and lovely sunny warm February weather, heat in the bare trees. Beautiful journey here yesterday over the Crimea Pass just after sunset, silhouettes of mountains in the thick hazy air. Today, wandering and chilling.

Going back to the transfiguration thing – the Son of God who is holy yet also gets stuck in – reminds me of a Brian Wren hymn. Part of it goes… “Not throned above, remotely high, untouched, unmoved by human pains, but daily in the midst of life, our Saviour, in the Godhead, reigns.”… going from memory there -may not be exact quote.

Almost all done now. We are now in our own house, having left the manse for the cleaners. There are a couple of small deposits of stuff, to be picked up when we return to hand the keys over next week.

We are still tired, sore, aching – but my gut stopped churning when we got to our house last night and my appetite returned.

Thank you very much to everyone who helped! And thank you to the people of the churches for your / their support and kindness … although I realise hardly anyone is reading this. Today we’re heading off for a week in Wales.

Next Sunday’s readings about the Transfiguration of Jesus… If you read the extra bit of the Luke reading, you get another insight into the nature of Jesus. Holy person, in the tradition of Moses and Elijah, Son of God, awesome … then someone who got stuck in to help a person who had epileptic seizures.

Knackered, but we can see the finishing line.

220kg of filing cabinets now down the stairs, into the van and in the scrapyard*: thank you Richard for all your help. The same van will now be loaded up with boxes we left behind on Tuesday and driven to our house. Thank you too to Diccon for another tip run in the pick up, and a great deal more carrying.

Every little thing feels like an achievement.

Now having a cuppa in our house, having unloaded the van. The work list for the manse now seems a long way away. Just four more items for Kirklees, and quite a few tip runs with general waste. It’s beginning to feel doable.

If you think all this moving stuff is boring, I’m inclined to agree. It’s quite boring to do as well. Only God in that parental kind of way would take an interest.

• This is the first time we’ve taken something to a scrapyard. Driving onto a weighbridge, all that stuff, is exciting.

A lovely day again, and it’s half term: so a little bit of a longer walk with waste, heavy boxes of books etc. to the car. But who could begrudge these families their fun in the sun on such a glorious day?

Today was unusually warm for February, and it reminded me of the February day 21 years ago when Janet and Hannah and I visited Yorkshire to talk about ministry in Sheffield. That day, we took some time off, wandering around the canal basin in summer clothes.

The moving continues. It is, as they say, an emotional roller coaster.

Still too busy to notice whether I’m missing the churches.

Huge progress yesterday – some rooms now have an echo. And thank you to everyone who has helped out. But I’m still not confident we can finish in time. A generation ago this would have been a much shorter job, with no need to separate materials, and no need to sort into bags for shredding the stuff which might contain personal information. It’s draining physically, brainwise and emotionally.

I’m doing this on a phone because the computer is disconnected ready to be moved. We’re still nowhere near done, as there are many more things to go to different places, a lot of them bulky or heavy. I’ve never before sent so much stuff to landfill as I have recently. We hadn’t avoided it, we just postponed it.

We’re still connected to the wired broadband at the moment, but won’t be in a few days. It’s amazing, though, just how much you can do with all this information / communication GPS infrastructure. But it’s a bit vulnerable, even the electricity supply.

It only needs a really big CME, or someone to let off an EMP, or just the cumulative effect of space crud circulating at many times the speed of a bullet, to make it all go a bit duff.

Our satellites who are in the heavens,
One god in plurality, 
Triangulating for us,
So we can know
Where we are going,
Where we are, to within a jump, 
We thank you for
Your benevolent oversight. 

We praise and thank you actual God
For the human ingenuity and enterprise
That gives us communications and locations. 
Protect us, we pray, 
When it looks like going wrong.
Protect us, we pray, 
When the oversight is not
Quite so benevolent.

Next Sunday’s readings are here.

When I read Jesus’ words in Luke’s gospel, I just don’t know what to say. Just read it. If it isn’t hurting, you’re not reading it properly. But there’s also a trainload of hope there.

God help us all
to love our enemies,
to respect those who hurt us,
at the same time as we try to challenge wrongdoing,
just like Jesus did.

It’s hard, especially when they are arrogant,
especially when they see no wrong
in what they do.

God give us grace
to keep on going,
to keep on loving,
to keep on forgiving,
to look forward
to the coming of your world.