Resurrection Bikes

One of the things I enjoy is fixing old bicycles, perhaps this is because as a kid I used to spend ages messing with my bike, taking bits on and off and cleaning it and swapping bits between bikes. Or perhaps this is due to being a practically minded person and I enjoy doing things with my hands 



Recently John a friend invited me to help him fund raise for Neema Crafts. This is a wonderful organisation working in Tanzania which wants to show the world God’s view on disability. They believe that everybody, whatever their situation, has God-given gifts and the potential to inspire others, but what is often lacking is the opportunity to find those gifts and fulfil that potential. Neema Crafts aims to create opportunities for people who have always been considered a burden on society; and to change negative attitudes towards them.  

They train people with disabilities to become skilled artisans from carpenters, to tailors, ceramicists to paper-makers, great chefs, or entrepreneurs starting up their own enterprises.  For more information on this wonderful project have a look at their website at www.neemacrafts.com.

The project John has developed to fund raise is to take old, and not so old, bicycles that the owners no longer have a use for and return them to working order and to then sell them on Preloved and Gumtree with the proceeds going to support charities including Neema Crafts.

Many of the bikes simply need a good clean or basic maintenance such as oiling the chain and or adjusting the brakes.  Some require simple repairs such as a puncture or the replacement of a brake or gear cable or a wheel truing. While some may require new parts like replacement pedals or a new saddle with a few requiring complex time consuming repairs such as the servicing of a Sturmey Archer three speed hub.

What’s so sad to see is that it seems that many bikes have developed a minor fault or had a puncture and have been put at the back of a garage and left until a couple of years later they are given to John for repair and resale or taken to the council tip. Fortunately for some of the bikes that are taken to the council tip this isn’t the end of the road as some of the staff at a local tip save the bikes for John rather than putting them in to the scrap metal skip.

On occasions John gets given real gems such as a Dutch Ladies town bike or even a Claude Butler tourer.

                                               
                                 

 
However the majority are straight forward children’s first bikes or teenager’s mountain bikes.

No matter what model of bike they are they are lovely got back on the road, sold and given a new purpose with a new owner.

It has to said, that if it wasn't for the skills and dedication of John and his team then it would be uneconomic to pay someone to repair many of these bikes.

However whether it is a vintage road bike or a Spiderman or My Little Pony styled child’s bike all are given the same treatment.  

There is something deeply redemptive in this process in taking something that is discarded and or broken, seeing the value in it and then spending the time to return it to working order and giving it a new life. 

This is so much like how God sees people; no matter what their background or the life they have lead, or how old or young they are everyone is valued and received in to his family so that the process of restoration can begin and a new life begun.

My friend John's project almost acts for a parable for this and for God’s attitude towards each one of us regardless of how society sees us.

If you have a bike that needs the resurrection treatment then contact your local cycles recycling project  see www.ctc.org.uk/bike-recycling.


If you live near Harrogate contact Resurrection Bikes at www.resurrectionbikes.org.uk

Rural Action Yorkshire: Highlights the benefits of community buildings, becoming hubs for local services and activities

Whilst much of Rural Action Yorkshire’s work on community buildings concerns village halls many of the lessons learnt are applicable to church buildings. Church buildings are the original community building and now as in the past can be centres for: worship and celebration, local services and other activities.

Hambleton, Richmondshire and Whitby Clinical Commissioning Group, are funding the “Community Friendly Buildings” project, to support people who are responsible for community buildings; so that the community buildings,  whether a village hall or church, can become a local hub for tackling loneliness and social isolation.

The project will do this by showcasing the work Rural Action Yorkshire has already done with community buildings across Yorkshire as part of their Community Hubs project.

Rural Action Yorkshire will also share the benefits of community buildings such as village halls and churches becoming hubs for local services and activities, as well as helping representatives of the community buildings to share ideas and experiences with one another about what works best to help tackle isolation and loneliness.

Loneliness and social isolation are increasingly seen as major concerns for healthcare providers. Loneliness and isolation can be a direct cause of health problems, or make existing health problems worse. Physical and mental health problems in turn are often causes of increasing loneliness or isolation. For many people, improving health can only be achieved at the same time as reducing their social isolation or sense of loneliness. This is why the Clinical Commissioning Group is funding this work on reducing loneliness and isolation as an investment in improving people's health, and so reducing future healthcare costs.

If you would like to know more about how to get involved in the project, please give Rural Action Yorkshire’s Community Information Officer, James Russell, a call on 01904 704177 or get in touch via email. info@ruralyorkshire.org.uk

Roll Out of Superfast Broadband in North Yorkshire

One of the acknowledged issues for rural areas is the lack of high speed broadband with many areas experiencing download speeds of less than 2mbs. With speeds as low as this it’s very slow to download large image files and documents such as spreadsheets and databases. It’s also painfully slow to stream BBC IPlayer programmes, which keep stopping to buffer and playing interactive games and video conferencing is impossible.

For people running a rural business or farming, high quality internet access isn’t just a luxury it’s essential, especially with many DEFRA and other forms requiring to be completed on line. Young people are also disadvantaged when their contemporaries are researching school or college projects online with ease while they struggle with a slow connection. It’s no wonder many people become frustrated at the speed of their internet service, when communities in nearby towns and cities have a superfast internet service.

The good news is that North Yorkshire County Council, along with its partners who form the Superfast North Yorkshire team, are leading from the front in the delivery of high quality broadband services to rural communities.

Superfast North Yorkshire has a vision for all premises in the county to have access to a high quality broadband service by 2017 and are already on target for 90% of premises to have access to download speeds of 25Mps and above by the end of 2014.

The final 10% will be delivered using a variety of technologies including: further upgrades of the BT network, the provision of fixed wireless broadband and satellite.

To check if fibre broadband is coming to your area see the map at:

www.superfastnorthyorkshire.com/wherewhen


If you are in County Durham see the map at: http://www.durham.gov.uk/pages/digitaldurhamdelivery.aspx

It is important to remember, that if you live in an area where superfast broadband has been enabled, you still have to contact an internet service provider, of your choice, to upgrade. It does not automatically happen! You can find a list of potential suppliers at the link below:

www.ruralyorkshire.org.uk/project/superfast-north-yorkshire


In many rural areas it is not yet possible to deliver superfast broadband via the telephone system. In many areas fixed wireless broadband is available, which will provide you with a high quality broadband service.

Five companies provide fixed wireless broadband to areas within the Ripon Episcopal area these are listed here - the map shows the area covered by each company :
Clannet (Vale of Mowbray)

www.clannet.co.uk

Click here for Map

01757 668179
I Love Broadband (Great Ouseburn, Dunsforths, RAF Leeming, Darley, Appletreewich, Upper Wharfedale, Horton in Ribblesdale, Bradley, Broughton)

www.ilovebroadband.co.uk

Click here for Map

0845 643 5811
Network by Wireless (Lower Wensleydale)

www.nbw.net

Click here for Map One

Click here for Map Two

0845 123 1520
Boundless (South of Settle)

www.boundlesscomms.com

Click here for Map


01257 752555
Comtek (Teesdale District)

http://communityisp.co.uk/

Click here for Map

01388 567120

The areas covered are gradually evolving so the maps may not be fully up to date so do enquire if a company there network is close-by.

If you are in North Yorkshire and a high quality broadband service is not yet available in your area, it’s important that you register your interest at the link on the page: www.ruralyorkshire.org.uk/project/superfast-north-yorkshire so that you can be emailed as soon as improved options become available.

If you have any questions re the delivery of high quality broadband to your area, email the superfast team at info@superfastnorthyorkshire.com or for Durham digital.durham@durham.gov.uk

Or contact with Andy Ryland a Rural Officer with the Diocese who also works for Rural Action Yorkshire on the delivery of Superfast Broadband to the rural areas of North Yorkshire. andy.ryland@westyorkshiredales.anglican.org

Grinton Forest Church

One of the joys of being the rural officer for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds is that I get to attend a variety of expressions of Christian worship in rural areas. One of my recent visits was to the first meeting of a Forest Church in Grinton in Swaledale in the Yorkshire Dales. 

The Forest Church is an ecumenical initiative meeting in Grinton Church yard and is facilitated by Sarah Allison, a member of St Andrew’s church and Kevin Pellatt a member of the local Methodist Church. Kevin and Sarah are both Forest Schools leaders.  Forest Schools are an inspirational educational process that offers all learners opportunities to achieve and develop confidence and self-esteem through hands on learning experiences in a woodland or natural environment with trees. Forest Schools have their roots in Scandinavia where many children will attend pre-schools throughout the year spending most of the week in the outdoors enjoying making fires, whittling wood and other outdoor activities.

Kevin saw the potential of the forest schools experience to connect with a wide audience of young and older people, who love crafts and the outdoor lifestyle to worship together in the great outdoors.

The Grinton Forest church therefore draws on the tradition of Forest Schools within the context of a Christian tradition of worship.

Other forest churches are more on the edge drawing on traditions where sacred places and practices are outside and seek to connect with people who sense the spiritually in the natural environment and drawing them in to a relationship with the risen Christ. see www.mysticchrist.co.uk   

The afternoon started with a safety briefing on the dangers of the local river and the moat around the church before we engaged in an exercise introducing ourselves. Standing in a circle according to the compass point of the direction from which we had come. We shared something about ourselves and the journey to this point in time prompted by an item such as a leaf, feather, stone or piece of stick we had found on the ground.

After this much fun was had collecting wood and making fires to heat water in Kelly Kettles and in making and enjoying a hot drink.

One of the children then read the story of Saul’s Damascus road conversions, where he was struck blind (Acts Chapter 9). We then worked in teams to lay out a blind trail using a rope and led one another along the trail just as Saul’s friends led him to Damascus, where he was healed though the ministry of Ananias one of the Christians living in Damascus, who Saul had been seeking to persecute.

The afternoon finished with some short reflections and a prayer before we cleared up and headed home, inspired by worship in the outdoors, which felt so right as it had connected both with something deep within and beyond ourselves.

So a big thank you to Kevin, Sarah and the team for making this all possible and to everyone who attended and who engaged with such enthusiasm. Also a big thank you and praise to God for the beauty of his creation and for holding the rain back till we were on our way home.

For details of the next Grinton Forest Church check www.swaledalearkengarthdaleparish.org.uk  and www.nydalesmeth.org.uk/welcome.htm where dates will be advertised when sorted!

You may also like my posts  How Listening to bird song has helped my prayer life and also Woodland as a Metaphor for Church Decline Growth and Life

Over Coming Passivity in Church Services

As part of my work for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds I get to take the sermon slot in church services and also run training events for churches and other groups.

Rather than standing at the front and talking for a long time I have developed an approach that gets people involved in the learning process and then to respond in some way and the results have been very encouraging

I was recently encouraged, when I was congratulated on my approach and the suggestion was made that I ought to bottle it, so others could benefit. This is my attempt to bottle what I do to facilitate participation. Please don’t take it as a magic formula but I hope it provides you with some ideas for developing your own style.

My approach stemmed from my concern that people can develop habits of passivity when attending church or similar events; coming to listen, but not actually to engage in the process.  

I was concerned that people are going home having been entertained but not actually learning from the experience of attending church. There was, however, some evidence to suggest that people wanted to engage and put questions or a counter argument to me as they shook my hand as they left. Unfortunately the traditional talk does not make it easy for either the audience or leader to make or manage contributions from the floor.

So often in the bible when Jesus is communicating we see him asking questions to encourage discussion around a meal table or over food.

Some authors would suggest that the stand up and talk method of teaching we see in so many churches was learnt from the Greek culture rather than a Judaeo-Christian culture. I have also been told that adults learn best when discussing and working on a problem together rather than listening to someone else’s voice as in a lecture.

It’s also the case that when we involve a multi-sensory approach to learning that many people connect better with the material. Some trainers even include highlighter pens, which smell of fruit, and good visuals and activates also help people learn.

In my work I have been experimenting in finding ways to encourage people to be involved in discussing a question and to then facilitate a response.

Part of the problem is the fact that a leader is often asked to come and speak rather than to facilitate learning and therefore naturally drops into a speaking role rather than adopting a more creative approach to teaching and facilitated learning.

The architecture of many of our churches certainly doesn't help and further discourages active learning, with rows of pews or chairs lined up to face a pulpit, lectern or raised dais, which is similar to a cinema or theater where people go to be entertained.  This seating layout is different from other areas of our lives.  For example when we get together socially in pubs, restaurants and cafes we usually sit in groups around tables. In our schools the children are also seated around tables so the children can work together in groups.

So when running a training session I always insist that people sit around tables in small groups so that they can discuss what we are looking at. I also try to divide the session in to a series of 15 minute periods, each period looking at a different aspect of the topic with representatives of tables giving feedback after each period.

In groups of around four it’s also easier for people to make a comment or ask a question rather than in a larger group. It is also much more difficult for people to sit passively and not to contribute. I can then ask representatives from each table to feedback to the larger group and groups are nearly always willing to contribute in this way.

The other things that I have discovered that works really well is to ask people to draw or write on a specially cut out paper symbol such as a leaf or piece of fruit and then to stick this on to a larger diagram or chart.  This is a form of the old post it note idea but the specially cut out symbol gives a greater emphases to the process and the act of sticking it on the chart subconsciously reinforces the persons commitment to the learning process.

I have in the past provided cut out green leaves to members of very traditional rural congregations and asked them to write on these, the areas where they felt God was at work in their community.  I have then invited participants to the front and to stick the paper leaves on a large diagram of a tree at the front of the church.

I was initially surprised at the willingness of people to come to the front but on reflection realised that the action is very similar to the process of coming to the front for communion, which people are familiar and comfortable with.

One of the keys to this process is the expectation of the leader that people will engage in the process. If the leader doubts that people will take part potential participants will latch on to this and be reluctant to engage.

However, if the leader is confident and enthusiastic then people will respond.  I don’t say I am not nervous, I always am, but prayer really helps me settle down and to put the results in to the hands of the Holy Spirit trusting in the process and the God given capabilities of those present. 

P.S The Service of saying good bye to the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds Diocese is an example of a service which used elements of this approach see www.riponleeds.anglican.org/news-646.html. This was made easier by not having pews in the Cathedral.

What Can Rural Churches Learn from the Rural Passenger Transport Industry?

For many years before being appointed as the Rural Officer for the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds I was involved in the rural passenger transport industry. I didn't work for an operator but for the Community Council of Shropshire and then Cumbria County on projects to develop and fill the gaps left by the withdrawal of bus services following the introduction of the 1985 Transport Act.

Recently I have been reflecting on this experience and the possible lessons that rural churches can learn from the rural passenger transport industry.

The old National Bus Companies managers had become masters of managing decline and consolidating their operations. However this often resulted in complicated timetables that where difficult to use. 

When variations or new services where suggested to managers one reply I remember receiving was. “We have surveyed the passengers on our buses and they don’t want to go there.”  However as I used to point out I was more interested in the passengers that weren't on their buses and perhaps they should do a community survey. When these were done more often than not they threw up unmet needs and demands and when these were provided for people used the new facilities.

The lesson rural churches can perhaps learn from this is that we don’t just need to survey our existing congregations but that we also need to connect with and listen to those in our communities that are not attending our services.

Part of the reason that bus services and communities needs were mismatched was that the requirements of the local communities had changed over the years and the bus operators had failed to adapt and therefore passenger numbers had declined.

One of the things the old National Bus companies had become poor at was customer care and provided utility rather than comfortable and quality buses.  Seats where closely spaced with limited room for shopping and drivers would watch as people struggled on board with shopping or push chairs climbing up steep steps.

Contrast this today with forward looking companies like Harrogate and District who’s number 36 service runs between Ripon, Harrogate and Leeds and is thriving.  The buses have low floor access and the drivers stop centimetres from the curb so passengers can easily get on board. The leather seating is very comfortable and the buses are clean and warm with free wifi and are driven by courteous and helpful drivers.

How this contrasts to some of our churches, where access is via steep steps and the seating uncomfortable and the buildings cold and poorly lit.

Yet some churches are improving access: replacing hard wooden pews with flexible comfortable seating, installing low energy modern lighting, carrying out energy audits to reduce heat loss and installing modern low carbon heating systems such as biomass. (see story) In addition installing a kitchen to provide refreshments as well as accessible toilets.

One of the lessons we also learnt in the rural transport industry was that timetables needed to be simple to understand and easily remembered.  The complications that have been brought in to try consolidate operations with different times on school days, market days and during different seasons of the year, actually undermined services and people couldn’t remember when the bus ran. What was required was easily to remember timetables that you could carry in your head; such as the same time each day or the same time past each hour, with no exceptions.  When these were introduced passengers’ numbers crept up. The same is true in parishes where there is a service at the same time each Sunday; even if the format of the service may change it’s the same time each week and numbers are creeping up.

Another factor we learnt was that to sustain a rural bus service we needed to combine various uses or different markets. For example the well know post buses that combine the carriage of post with the carriage of passengers or the border courier in Scotland that combined the delivery of medical supplies to hospitals and rural Doctor’s practices with the carriage of passengers.

The same pattern is now emerging in rural churches with church buildings in use as multi-functional community buildings. Examples in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds includes St Michael Church, Spennithorne near Leyburn (see story) that hosts the local library and All Saints Kirby Overblow (see story) which is also used for exhibitions, conferences, as a theatre and a place for community celebrations. In other areas church buildings host community shops, youth clubs and other activities, whilst still being used for worship at other times. 

Is your Church on mains gas and do you want to save money on energy costs? Micro-Combined heat and power might be the answer.

The principle behind the technology is that as electrical energy is lost during transmission, it is more efficient to distribute natural gas through the gas network and then generate electricity locally using a micro combined heat and power plant (Micro-CHP).

The heat energy produced while generating electricity is then available to heat a home, business, church or community building with the electricity generated either used in the building or fed in to the national grid for local consumption.

The Government's Microgeneration Strategy has identified micro-CHP as one of the key technologies offering a realistic alternative to centrally generated electricity and it has recently introduced the Feed-in Tariff, which offers funding generation opportunities to organisations and households that use these technologies.

If you are interested have a look these websites:

www.bluegen.info/What-is-bluegen-UK/

www.baxi.co.uk/products/combinedheatandpower.htm

So, if your building has a gas connection or if there is a gas main close by it might be worth exploring this option as a way of reducing your energy costs.

Responding to the ongoing flooding in the South West

The past few weeks have seen a huge amount of supportive activity from across the country, including the Yorkshire area, in response to the ongoing flooding in the South West. Help has been offered and given by many Businesses, organisations, Churches and individuals for both communities and farmers.

The situation is certainly something which farmers and communities in Yorkshire can relate to.

There is a huge amount of goodwill and good intent, but for the help to be most effective, it should be carefully guided to provide what is needed, when it is needed.

This message, based on information from the National Farmers Union, is an attempt to bring together a summary of how support can be given. The links below give comprehensive details of how help can be given – whether it be cash assistance to the Farming Help Charities (Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, Farming Community Network and The Addington Fund) or in how the farming community can help with donations of animal feed/fodder/bedding etc.

Make a donation

• The Addington Fund is supporting farming businesses by making a contribution towards haulage costs so there is no hold up in getting vital supplies through. Donate here.
•  The Farm Community Network’s volunteers provide practical and emotional support to farmers and farming families affected by severe flooding and, in the longer term, will also be able to help stand alongside people needing business support. Donate here.
• The Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution can support farming families in Somerset and elsewhere in England and Wales by giving grants from its Emergency Fund to meet the domestic costs of badly affected farmers with no savings to fall back on. Donate here
• Donations can also be made to the Royal Bath and West Show Society and the Somerset Levels Relief Fund,  which are raising money towards water management and for individual, bespoke support respectively.

For further information see:

Information from the Arthur Rank Centre   (Contains lots of useful links) 

Flooding how you have helped:

How you can help:  (updated regularly)

Sunday is the Loneliest Day of the week for One Million Older People

Sadly Sunday is the loneliest day for one million older people recent research conducted by ICM for the Royal Voluntary Service has revealed.

The ICM research reveals that loneliness and isolation experienced by older people is compounded by lack of contact with their family, with 13% saying they always feel lonely on a Sunday because it’s such a family day. For 10% of older people, their nearest child lives more than an hour’s drive away (40 miles plus), making that daily or weekly contact even more difficult.

Many older people, particularly miss sitting down to a meal with their family and don’t enjoy a meal when they cannot share it with someone else and may even eat poorly becoming malnourished as a result.

There is a challenge here for churches to make their services more hospitable with food like in Messy Church and to build community though hosting community meals. An excellent example of this is the Church in the rural community of Barningham, which periodically holds the Barningham Parish Lunch.

It’s such a shame that although in the early church, eating together was an important part of church life, today it’s been reduced to a tea or coffee after a service and communion has been reduced to a sip of wine and a chew on a wafer. 

Perhaps we need to demonstrate the generosity of our invitational God and rediscover the true meaning of feast days; hosting community meals and creating the opportunity for people to enjoy eating together and each other’s company.

Barningham Parish Church Joins a State of the Art District Heating Scheme Powered by Wood Chips from a Local Forest Plantation.

The village of Barningham has a strong sense of community and celebrates this at regular parish lunches organised in the village hall by the church.  See Barningham Parish Lunch

The Church in Barningham has a small congregation with only 21 people on the electoral role who are responsible for the large church building. This they have found a burden to heat with an ancient oil boiler and being in a rural location there is no chance of mains gas being available.

Existing Church oil 
boiler, which is about
forty years old!







Pennine Biomass has its offices in the village and has experience in developing district heating through biomass boilers, so it was an obvious opportunity for them to develop a district heating scheme for the village.

Barningham Estate has a forestry plantation within a few miles of the village which provides the fuel. The timber is felled, chipped and processed before delivery into the fuel store. 

The scheme includes the Milbank Arms (the village pub), several estate cottages a private house and the church was asked if it also wanted to join the project.

By joining the scheme the church will be able to access cheaper heat; they will stop their dependence on oil, reduce their carbon footprint and demonstrate their care for creation.

Fortunately all the capital costs of the project are being covered by Pennine Biomass ( www.penninebiomass.co.uk ) who will then claim renewable heat incentive (RHI) payments from the government and sell heat to the different users at a rate linked to inflation.

The Church PCC decided to join in the scheme with the Diocesan Advisory Committee endorsing the proposal. The project includes routing heavily insulated water pipes from the new district based wood chip boiler, across the church yard to a heat ex-changer in the boiler house at the back of the church. 

This enables the heat to be transferred into the church’s existing radiator system, so there has hardly been any disruption in joining the scheme.

Heat ex-changers waiting to be installed and the churchyard through which the heating pipes have been routed 

The village district heating scheme boiler house is located in the garden of the Milbank Arms and houses a 200 kilowatt wood chip boiler and wood chip store.

This is the first time a church in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds will have been heated by wood chips. This will provide the church with a sustainable source of heat well in to the future. The scheme will also save on heating costs, which the church can reinvest in improving the building and mission in the local community.

Switching to a renewable heat source such as a wood chip or wood pellet boiler is likely to be particularly attractive to large rural churches, which are currently using oil or electricity as their main heat source. If a church is too small to justify its own boiler then linking it to other nearby premises can make the whole project stack up and provide wider benefits to the local community.

"Barningham Church is difficult to heat, particularly in the winter. The oil boiler is almost forty years old and certainly not very efficient. When the PCC were offered the chance to be part of the proposed biomass scheme it quickly became clear that this was a great opportunity - too good to miss! We will no longer be reliant on oil, be able to care for the fabric of the church more effectively and have a warmer church." Revd John Richards 

“We are very honoured to have built the first district heating scheme including a church in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds and would be delighted to help other parishes in the same way.” Andy Howard of Pennine Biomass