Jameswoodward’s Weblog

In the end I think that I find people who believe themselves to be very clever rather boring.  Why?  Not because I do not admire intelligence and strive for it – no! – but because I cannot comprehend how you get to a point where you are not aware of how much more there is to know and learn.  Knowledge gives you a humbling sense of how little one understands in the wider scheme of things.  This awareness surely humbles the brash self confidence of cleverness?

So – what would you like to discover more about?  The history of farming?  Your family genealogy? Mediaeval religion? Italian painting?  Your faith, even?

Here is a random list of ten things I simply don’t understand ……

1.      Why money accumulates interests in a bank.

2.      What the purpose of dreams is.

3.      What the secret of learning languages might be.

4.      Why so many people are anti European.

5.      How one would go about composing a piece of music for a full orchestra.

6.      How to stop feeling anxious.

7.      How to play Sudoku.

8.      Understand why the Reformation happened.

9.      Knowing more about Islam and Hinduism.

10.   How to make everybody happy all of the time.

And the list could go on and on and on.  I wonder what your list might look like – and having confessed these ‘gaps’ – will it make any difference – will we act upon it?

Knowing the limitations of our knowledge is a good starting point for learning.

The final party goers have left – having enjoyed a refreshing choice ( I hope ) of drinks. Pimms – of course – and a little mixture of of my own.

Here are the ingredients:

and plenty of –

Here goes: take a bottle of Gin and pour it over lots of crushed ice. Cut up four lemons and squeeze them into the Gin. Add a good helping of elderflower cordial and top up with soda water.

Serve in a very large tumbler with a slice of ice.

And Enjoy!!

Temple Balsall has no village situated as it is between larger villages and towns. This means that we are tucked away providing protection and privacy but we want people to know something of our life and work.

Yesterday saw Temple at its best – bathed in glorious sunshine.The main pathway down the middle of the site (called the Breadwalk) enjoyed a variety of visitors. As the congregation gathered for worship a small group of ramblers passed by looking slightly bemused at the noise of laughter from the building. I caught a quick lunch before travelling to Rowington to conduct a wedding. On return I joined a crowd taking tea and eating cake – it was good to tease a couple of parishioners including one who confessed to doing some shopping on a Sunday! I was struck by the sheer variety of people of colour and age. The sun smiled on us and the sheer beauty of our buildings. Good to see the tea drinkers dropping into Church – I was glad to say hello and thank people for coming.

On the outside tables were some postcards promoting our Heritage Weekend on the 13th and 14th of September. Well 15 000 have arrived from the printers and Cliff Morrey has the enviable task of distributing them. He has a willing team and they are bound to be pretty fit by the time they are delivered…. any help would be very enthusiastically welcomed.

But for yesterday – what a glorious day – and a pleasure to live and work in such a heavenly place.

I am having a very satisfactory time clearing an assorted collection of ‘stuff’ from my house – odd chairs, mugs that are no longer used, and an accumulation of CDs and books. I am always surprised at how much material goods we surround ourselves with – the cathedral of the shopping centre lures us into the promise of happiness.

The reason for the filling of bags and boxes? Our Heritage Weekend in Temple Balsall  on the 13th and 14th of September (see www.templebalsall.org.uk ) – where on the Saturday we have a fair on my lawn. Local readers would do well to put it into your dairies and get ready for a busy and stimulating day!

Amidst this dusting down  – my attentions turn to those wonderful parables of the Kingdom in Matthew Chapter 13 which we shall read at St Marys later this morning.

‘the kingdom of heaven is like  treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid’ (13:44)

So –

What do you treasure?

Where is your treasure?

What might we do to safeguard our treasure?

Let us open our hearts and minds to the wonder of the secrets of his treasure

  It is a long drive but worth every pound of petrol! The town of several million books – heaven and that is no exageration.

The trip requires some discipline – there are so many shops and stacks of books that soem comcentration in certain areas is necessary for focus and satisfaction. Yesterday was literary criticism with a serious search for books about biography and autobiography. Some rest was found in theology and politics!

The town is also blessed with plenty of other therapuetic distractions – like coffee shops with cakes and cafes with healthy food.  A wonderful day out. Which section would you go to ? Have you a list of books that you are looking for? How about a day out In Hay?? ( small hint to Cliff Morrey..)

My friend Pauline Smith has introduced me to an artist whose work is very evocative. Alas I have only had the chance to see them via his web page – but look at these :

I love the energy and movement and perspective – who would have thought that black was such a versatile and dynamic colour?

Now my challenge is to find a place where I can see this work at first hand. Have a look at his web page and judge for yourself:

www.jasonhicklin.com

Most of us prefer the relative comfort of denial when it comes to older age. This is a serious state for it is always better to anticipate and so prepare ourselves for ageing so we can unlock its rich potential. In the words of Antonio Pierro – Getting Older is an Adventure not a Problem. What might our churches look, like if we really acted from within that conviction?

MacKinlay has established herself as a leading advocate for older people and their pastoral needs. Her work is based in Australia where the health and social care provision is of a higher quality that the UK. In this book, she turns her attention to the some of the issues that surround frailer older people and the challenges of maintaining well being. The seventeen chapters take as their particular focus how ageing affects people who have mental and developmental disabilities.

Many of the writers are practitioners who express their aspiration to develop more effective and creative relationships between carers and older people. More people whose main focus is everyday engagement with age should be encouraged to write – the best essays here convey the wisdom that comes from this earthed experience. The spiritual dimension, both implicit and explicit, is examined as part of a commitment to compassionate engagement where there is much to learn from people who age.

Subject areas covered include reminiscence, depression, music therapy, art, ritual, humour, memory, community and other faith perspectives. There is an inevitable unevenness to the range of writing and a firmer editorial hand may have helped provide more guidance for the reader. The book has a comprehensive index and bibliography. Some of the references cited are not easily available and this should be considered when compiling such volumes.

It is impossible to give account for the sheer diversity of ways in which people age but we can learn about the pastoral challenges that face those who live in that strange land between remembering and forgetting. This book succeeds in challenging the reader to see dementia in a different framework where there is profound wisdom about personhood and our values. We need an approach to care that can celebrate personhood in all people and thereby build communities where spiritual well being is part of our vision. To do this we must deal with our denial and exclusion of age and older people. Dementia and its treatment show all the signs of being responded to as cancer was before the Hospice Movement enabled transformative practice. Will the Churches and its theological wisdom lead in responding or seek refuge in the shadow lands of denial?

I have just listened to a Press conference from the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury where the Archbishop of Canterbury was exposed to a barrage of questions about the future of the Anglican Communion. His voice is clear, coherant, moderate, political and intelligent. It is hard to feel for him and the impossibility of the holding together the strains and imperfections of strongly held opinion.

I like this picture of Rowan where he physically is attempting to appeal to our better nature! See in those eyes a careful attention to his audience. See in his brow the strain of holding together so much! See the lips expressing with care a perspective that might embrace and contain.

I am reminded of a story of a man who went in search of the perfect Church! At each place he found all kinds of problems. At one Church he found himself sitting in someone else’s seat ! At another he couldn’t sing the hymns! At another he didn’t really like the look of the congregation. In all of them the Vicar didn’t live up to his high expectations.

In the midst of this search soemone was bold enough to say to him : I feel sorry for that perfect Church if you ever find it, for in that moment that you join it, it will not be perfect anymore!

Were that we were perfect! were that all our Churches full of perfect people, free of divisions and discord. Oh for the hope that we priests could meet every ones expectations. Of course we could all do better – we all aim for perfection – but we also have to live with life as it is – praying that God might Bless the Mess!!

A perfect theology? A complete moral code? A Church without imperfections? No – simply not possible. Unless you know something that I am missing??

Here is a portrait of a very remarkable man with huge talent for shape, colour and representation.  His art is quite profound:

John Egerton Christmas Piper was a 20th century English painter and printmaker who lived for many years at Fawley Bottom near Henley-on-Thames. By the late 1930’s he became less found of abstracts and moved on in art work. He died in 1992 at the age of 89.

He was born in Epsom, the son of a solicitor, educated at Epsom College and trained at the Richmond School of Artfollowed by the Royal College of Art in London.

He was a painter, but collaborated with many others including the poet and author John Betjeman (on the Shell Guides series of guidebooks on the British Isles), the potter Geoffrey Eastopand the artist Ben Nicholson.

His work focused mainly on the British landscape especially churches, and he spent much of his life studying the buildings he depicted. He designed the stained glass windows for the new Coventry Cathedral with Patrick Reyntiens, as well as those for many smaller churches and created tapestries for Chichester Cathedral and Hereford Cathedral. 

He largely withdrew from abstraction early in his career and concentrated on a more naturalistic but very distinctive approach. In his later years he produced many limited edition prints. He has had major exhibitions at the Tate Gallery in 1983–1984 and more recently (and posthumously), the Dulwich Picture Gallery (covering the 1930s), the Imperial War Museum(covering the 1940s) and, closer to his place of residence, the River and Rowing Museum and the Museum of Reading. He was appointed an official war artistin 1940. Here are a couple of his reflections about abstarction –

Abstraction is a luxury that has been left to the present day to exploit.

Abstraction is the way to the heart — it is not the heart itself.

I realize that folks experience pain in different ways – I try not to give into it and complain but I am going to tell you my woes……

About a week or so ago I drove home to catch up with my father and experienced some shooting pains in my legs. It was a long and slow journey and so I decided that lack of movement in my car was the problem! I returned home and the pains persisted. Consluting the internet was not a good idea – I was told that I had the symptoms of some dengenerative disease! A walk across the fields cleared my head and I had an early night. The next day a curious lots of spots appeared at the base of my spine making sitting in one place a problem. I gave in ordered an appointment at my GPs to be told that it was shingles!! No treatment – a claer explanation that

a.   its a common affliction

b.   it doesn’t just affect older people

c.    it isn’t caused by stress ( just as well as I have had a three month sabbatical )

d.   no one can catch it from me!

Well – for those of you who know – it is very painful indeed. Its official – I am suffering! Woe is me! The sun today has helped as has a number of carefully placed cushions. I can recommend a large hot water bath to sooth and comfort too.

I had never quite realised the pain of this viral infection – I do now – what a way to learn symapthy for others!  Now – back to work….. ouch!!