The Space We Meet In Affects How We Encounter the Living Word

Many years ago while I was studying community and youth work in Birmingham it  was pointed out to me that the layout of a room  can have a significant impact on the way a group interacts.  I have never forgotten this and when I am asked to facilitate or lead a group I always consider if we can move the chairs and tables or perhaps even use a different room to enable better discussion and dialogue to take place.

Over the last couple of years I have become more conscious that the way our churches are arranged affects the way we worship and encounter Jesus.

With rows of pews or possibly chairs facing the front and a pulpit or a stage or platform it encourages a didactic approach and a focus around one or just a few people at the front. In many ways we have hardly moved on from a pre reformation model of worship and have simply swapped observing the celebration of the Mass for didactic preaching.

The thoughts of an octagonal design of our places of worship to encourage an interactive approach to worship and teaching might seem to be foreign to our understanding of church design, however I believe octagonal designs were originally at the heart of our understanding of faith, community and politics.

Firstly when we look at Jesus’s teaching methods we find he was often asking questions and entering into dialogue. Many of these encounters took place in small groups with his disciples around the meal table, either a picnic on the beach or in someone’s home and the time he spoke in a synagogue he got thrown out; hardly an endorsement of this format.

If we are to adopt a Missio Dei approach and aim to discover where God is at work and aim to enable people to discover God for themselves, this is likely to take place through dialogue and discussion rather than didactic preaching. In fact as is pointed out in Mathews 18 v 20 “ For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” i.e. we encounter the living word or logos in the midst of our encounters with one another.  

It seems to me that it’s unlikely that we will find God in the midst of us if we are just facing each other’s backs and, by listening to one voice we will be missing out on the wisdom of the whole body of Christ.

Such an approach is also empowering and liberating for the people involved and encourages active participation.  It can even work in small rural churches as is demonstrated by the Revd Ann, Priest in Charge of Askrigg, Stallingbusk, Hawes and Hardraw.

Authors such as Frank Viola and George Barna point out that the didactic sermon approach owes more to Greek tradition of trained professional speakers who delivered orations for a fee than to the Christian early tradition of discourse, dialogue and encounter.

A few years ago I was in travelling in Norway and met up with some friends who were from the Sami people and, after being introduced to their reindeer, we were invited in to a yurt for refreshments. What struck me about the yurt was that it had eight sides with a central fire place and had a strong communal/community feel to the space. In the Sami tradition it was also a sacred space with the design of the local Church in Røros picking up this theme with an octagonal nave.

This reminded me of the Marsh Lounge at Scargill House in Wharefdale; which is modelled on the Octagonal Lounge at Lea Abbey, both rooms being the main locations for teaching sessions, celebration and entertainment in these two Christian Communities.  This is no accident as although both communities have other rooms and spaces they have found that the octagonal spaces encourage dialogue and a sense of community which can be transformational. This is lived out in the Scargill Community strap line:  ‘lives shared, lives transformed’.

Some churches including Methodist Churches such as at Hebden Bridge and Wath make nods in this direction. However their design was probably so that congregations could be closer to the preacher and so they could hear their words.

A similar design formula is used in Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Metropolitan Cathedral; to enable the congregation to be as close to the celebration of the Mass as possible.

More recently I have been struck by how the chapter houses of our great cathedrals and ministers are also octagonal including: Salisbury, Westminster and York; in fact as the website of West Minister Abbey points out:

“The octagonal Chapter House, dating from the 1250s is one of the largest in England. The monks met here every day for prayers and to read a chapter from the rule of St Benedict and discuss the day's work.”

The Chapter house at Westminster Abbey was therefore a centre of worship, discussion and encounter for the Christian Community. This octagonal room was also the birth place of our democracy as the King's Great Council first assembled here in 1257, which was effectively the beginning of the English Parliament.

So the next time you are thinking about re ordering a church building for worship perhaps consider an octagonal arrangement to encourage discourse, dialogue and encounters with the living God as the people of God (Laos) gather together for worship.

Andy Ryland January 2013

Barningham Parish Lunch: Raising Funds

Since 2009 a parish lunch has been organised by the Parochial Church Council (PCC) of St Michael & All Angels Church, Barningham, which is located between Richmond and Barnard Castle.

The lunches are held three times a year, with the main aim being to raise funds for the local Church. A more recent development has been that 10% of the profits are now donated to Christian charities, for example Church Urban Fund, Christian Aid & the Children’s Society. A typical Parish lunch will raise over £600 after expenses have been deducted.

The lunches are held in the village hall after Sunday morning worship, with all the vegetable dishes being prepared by Church volunteers; sweets are prepared and provided by individual Church members; the main course, a hot meat or fish dish being supplied by a local caterer. This has included: roast beef, pork or lamb and salmon in season.

The Parish lunches have become extremely popular, with a recent lunch attracting nearly sixty people, including people from the local community as well as friends from the wider area.  There is a real sense of fellowship during the meal as people talk with friends and neighbours; diners often staying to talk long after the meal has finished.

One aspect that has made the initiative possible in Barningham is that there is no local pub or restaurant in the community, so there was no abstraction of revenue from a local business.  It would of course be possible to hold a parish lunch in a community with a local pub or restaurant by either holding the event on their premises or commissioning them to provide some of the catering.

Other churches in the area are now considering replicating the initiative because of its success

The Parish Lunch initiative could be seen to reconnect with the historic pattern of the quarterly feast days in the calendar, which were celebrated at Christmas Easter, Lady Day and Michaelmas. It could also be seen to build on the popularity of harvest suppers, which are still held in many rural communities, following harvest festival services.

Creativity and a Creator God

Last year I had the unusual privilege, of attending my Aunt's 100th birthday party.

Although she’s my God Mother I had not seen her for many years as she lives at the other end of the country but when the invitation arrived I realized this was a unique opportunity, not to be missed and I wondered what Godly wisdom she might have for her God Son,  half her age.

I was met by her granddaughter Rachel who showed me in to the wooden panelled village hall, past bouquets of lilies; which filled the room with their strong scent.

I looked around the room expecting to see an elderly lady in a wheelchair or sitting quietly in a corner.

I thought “where can she be”? “Is she here yet?”

I looked again and realised.

“There she was” with a face brown and wrinkled from many days spent in her garden. She was standing upright in a blue tweed suit and holding a wooden walking stick, which was well-polished through years of use.

I was greeted by kiss on the cheek and congratulated her on her birthday.

Later following cups of piping hot tea, cupcakes and sandwiches, fit for the queen. I was able to ask her a question I am sure, we would all want to ask.

What was her secret? 

Her reply “Find your passion” and she went on to explain that she had found her’s: botanical painting, when she had retired.

And I realised that all the beautiful paintings of local wild flowers, that were hung in the village hall, where her work. Had she been born in the 1700’s she would have made a suitable expedition artist for Captain Cook.

As I considered this, I realised that in finding her passion, she had found herself. 

Indeed in finding herself she had come to understand something of universal and eternal significance.

Christians’ believe that we are made in the image of a creator God.

My Aunt in finding her passion botanical painting had discovered and exercised her creative side and was experiencing the joy of being “herself”, being the person “God” had made her to be and this had filled her with energy and joy to keep on painting into her 100th year.

A Reflection on Ploughing for Plough Sunday 2016

Plough Sunday is celebrated in a number of Parish Churches across the Diocese of West Yorkshire and the Dales and although it was resurrected during Victorian times its roots are much older.

Traditionally the community or village plough was kept in the Church and the service was designed to bless the plough and the farming community before the re-commencement of work on Plough Monday i.e. the first Monday after the holiday break and the Christmas festivities.

In some churches ploughs are brought into church and dance teams perform sword dances in the church or church grounds.

Plough services are also special in that we are welcoming members of the farming community to church and asking for God’s blessing on them, their work and their families.

I am not a farmer; however I was brought up in a small rural village in Worcestershire and used to observe the ploughing of fields close to our home
One of the things that I observed was that the farmers when ploughing made sure all the stubble and trash from the previous crops was ploughed in, buried and hidden from sight.

I guess a ploughman must get a feeling of satisfaction when he looks back across a field and sees the perfect rows of furrows with not a stalk of stubble showing.
One of the people I remember speaking to about ploughing was Charlie Knight who was a retired farm worker who had seen service in the Great War.

Charlie told me about the time a pair of steam tractors had been used to plough some fields in the village and how he remembers the ploughs creating great clods of earth like tombstones.

Since those days ploughing techniques have changed and instead of the small tractors, like the little Grey Fergies or David Browns I remember as a boy, we have, what in comparison are giants, green John Dears and blue New International Tractors on our farms. We also have reversible ploughs and Global positioning systems to help keep the furrows perfectly straight.

It’s vital that famers’ embrace these new technologies as several combining factors are driving up the demand and price of food across the world and creating what some see as a perfect storm of demand.

• A growing demand for food and meat, especially in the emerging economies of China   and India

• A growing demand for energy across the world; which means agricultural land is being used to grow energy crops. Even in Yorkshire wheat is being grown to produce bio ethanol and oil seed rape is being grown to produce bio diesel.

• On top of this is the threat of climate change and pressure on water supplies.

We live on a beautiful yet fragile planet, where our very existence is dependent on a few inches of top soil, rain, sunshine and skilled farmers.

We must all be thankful for the skilled work of the farming community and not take them for granted.
The bible has a number of passages which feature ploughing and I wonder how these passages can speak to us about our lives in 21^st century Britain?
In the Old Testament Isaiah 2:1-5 speaks of turning from war and old ways to a new life of peace and turning swords into plough shares and spears into pruning implements.

In the New Testament Paul’s Epistle to the Romans 6:1-11 speaks of burial and death of the old, and a new life in Christ.

The burying is a bit like the stubble and trash of last year’s crops being buried through the action of ploughing. This being necessary so a new crop can be grown. i.e. a new crop cannot be grown until the remains of the old crop are buried.
To quote St Paul’s Letter

Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Now I find it interesting when I was reading up about the sword dancers that perform at some Plough Sunday services that in some dances one of the characters is killed and then brought back to life again. This, I am told is symbolic of killing off the old year before a new year can be born. There is perhaps also an analogy to the death and resurrection of Christ.

The music and rhythm of the dance perhaps also being symbolic of our Christian experience, as we seek to follow the rhythm of the dance of the Trinity in our lives.
Sometimes in life things don’t go the way we or others would like.

Perhaps as a result of:

• Our own limited means

• Through poor decisions made by ourselves or others

• Or through the basic reality that we live in a world which is often less than perfect

• Life’s experiences and memories can get us down and hold us back from experiencing the newness of life that is promised in God.

The bible speaks about being dead to the things that pull us down and it also speaks about being made alive in Christ, You see we are also promised the gift of the Holy Spirit.
One way of describing the relationship in the Trinity between the father, the son and the spirit is of a dance with the three person of the Trinity dancing together in relationship.
This is a dance we are all invited to join in, leaving the past behind and being energised by and immersed in, the Dance of the Trinity.
This is the really good news of the gospel that we don’t have to allow the past to burden us. The past can be buried or ploughed in with Christ and left there and by his spirit we can be given a newness of life with Jesus:            

• Dancing with the Trinity,
• Dancing to a new tune and  a new beginning of a resurrection life
• Dancing to the steps of faith, hope and love
• Dancing with all our short comings forgiven, ploughed in and forgotten.

Okay life may still be a struggle but the pain of these things can be left with Christ.
MINISTRY

Now consider those things that perhaps you hold in secret that you want to be ploughed in or buried with Christ.
Perhaps
·         The fear and worry regarding a situation in your families
·         The fear and worry about your finances or your job or lack of one
·         The pain or hurt of a broken relationship now or in the past
·         Or maybe you feel far away from God and are regretting something you have done and want to bring that something to Jesus and want to leave it with him in the waters of baptism knowing that he has dealt with it.
·         Or perhaps last year was rotten for you and you want to leave it behind and start afresh at the start of this New Year.
·         Or maybe you want to say to God that you feel far away from him and want to embrace him as he moves towards you.
·         Or simply that you somehow feel deep within yourself that God has been speaking to you today or in recent weeks and you want to reach out and to respond to him.
 Now imagine these things that bring you down being like the stubble in a field on a winter’s day all brown and decaying.

Now imagine that Jesus is coming. He is driving a tractor with a plough and is ploughing your field for you and all those bits of stubble and trash are being ploughed in.

Now Jesus has ploughed the whole field and not a single stalk of stubble is showing. He drives over to you, he stops the tractor, turns off the engine, gets out of the cab, climbs down and greets you with his arms outstretched and says:

“It’s finished, be at Peace”

PRAYER

Lord Jesus we thank you for your word which speaks about being buried with you; so that just as you were raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might be given a new life to walk or a new dance with you leading the way.

Lord Jesus we thank you for your death which enables all the trash and stubble in our lives to be ploughed in and buried with you at the Cross.And most of all Lord Jesus we thank you for your resurrection victory over all that seeks to bring us down. 

Holy Spirit we thank you that you come to us to make us whole and to give us the energy to dance the dance of a resurrection life with You and the Father and the Son.

In Jesus name we pray

AMEN

Plough Sunday Service in Diocese of West Yorkshire and Dales January 2016

January 10th

Sharrow St John's 10:00

Knaresborough St John the Baptist's 10:30 (With Claro Sword Dancers)

Kirkby Malzeard  St Andrew’s 10:30 (With Highside Longsword)

Ripon Cathedral 14:30 for refreshments (hot pork rolls) service at 15:30.

January 17^th

Bellerby St John the Evangelist 09:15

Pateley Bridge St Cuthbert's 10:30 (New for 2016)

Leyburn St Mathew's 10:45

Winksley  St Cuthbert and St Oswald’s, 11:00 

Masham  St Mary’s 18.30  (With Highside Longsword)

Why Fair Trade Begins at Home

Many of us think very carefully about the food we purchase- how far it has travelled; how it has been produced and whether its trading was ‘fair’ enough to enable the farmers to make a decent living.

Unfortunately there’s a global trend for farmers to receive an inadequate share of the consumer price, whether for coffee, bananas, wheat, milk or pig meat.

In the UK the farming community is facing many pressures, and sadly those pressures are proving too great for some.

At the moment there is a threat of TB infection amongst cattle and although milk prices for some farmers have been maintained at current levels, these are still very low. At the same time with the increasing cost of fodder for animals, some pig farmers are finding it difficult to make a living.

A few facts:

·        Of every £1 of food brought by consumers only 7.5p goes to the farmer compared to 50p 50 years ago.

·        Dairy farmers are going out of business faster than ever before because the price paid to them is so low.

·        Farmers are some of the most at-risk occupational groups for suicide.

·        14% of Britain’s total employment depends of farming in some way.

·        Almost all farmers are involved in environmental improvements as a normal part of the farm management.

So how can you help?

Chose local and in season produce.

·        Look out for labels, such as the Red Tractor, LEAF Marque and the Lion on eggs.

·        Ask our retailers, restaurants and pubs where their food comes from

·        Visit the local countryside for a walk or visit a local farm on Open Farm Sunday held each year in June. 

You might also want to support charities that support our farmers. These include:

Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution www.rabi.org.uk

Farm Crisis Network www.fcn.org.uk

The Addington Fund http://www.addingtonfund.org.uk

Thanks to the Farm Crisis Network for much of the information contained in this article.