Curate Conundrums

  Families are funny things aren’t they? There are some families that are very close, and others that are not. There are some people who we would call chosen family aren’t there. Friends who aren’t blood relations but we would consider like family. My Uncle Jim and Auntie Jane are my Godparents, but they’re not related to me. But, I called them Auntie and Uncle growing up. I’ve got friends who I’m much closer to than my own family, mostly because of geography. Lots of my family live very far away, and to be honest I haven’t seen that much of them. I think families are good, but I wonder what automatically comes into our minds when we think about family? What’s fundamental to a good family relationship? I think it’s nurture. Nurturing one another, our partners, our cousins, our brothers and sisters, even sometimes our own parents. Encouragement is the foundation of family life. Sometimes though, I struggle with the word ‘family.’ As a Gay man and as a single person I often wat...

  How are your preparations for Christmas going? Perhaps some of you are inwardly or outwardly rolling your eyes at the mention of it, but are you prepared? Have you got the Christmas tree? Have you ordered the figgy pudding? If you’re getting presents have you got them yet? In life we prepare for things all the time, meetings, seeing people, travelling places, what we’re going to eat, when are we going to do the laundry, or the gardening if we have one. We’re very fortunate to have Rob here at St Augustine’s who does so much planning for us, he gets the fruit, makes the coffee and even mows our lawns. We’re very fortunate to have our musicians, who think about what we’re going to sing, practice and enhance our worship. We’re very fortunate to have Carrie and Judy, who help in the setting up of this service, and we’re very fortunate to have all the rest of you here, who most likely planned to be here and are all wonderful! But here’s another question, are you prepared for the...

  What does water mean to you? Water, we use it all the time don’t we. To bathe, to cook, to clean our clothes, to look after the plants in our garden, to flush away our nasties, to put cucumber and ice in and have a refreshing drink on the patio after a particularly stressful Sunday. Just water by the way. We are so reliant on water aren’t we? It’s not something that we often think about in this country, as usually there’s a lot of it about. Although this year has been very different. We just expect it to come out of the tap don’t we? That is until a drought comes along. I’ve been thinking a lot about water. I often walk by the River Wensum here in Norwich, and was shocked at how low it was the other day. Now you all know that I’m an anxious person. I didn’t hear any gasps of surprise there. Bit insulted actually… Anyway. My anxiety manifests itself in lots of ways. Every year during the summer I get fixated on running out of water. I develop something I call ‘water guilt’...

Feed my Lambs I sometimes look at the pages of the Bible and think that God uses the most unlikely people doesn’t He? From Moses, the Murderer to Ruth the Moabite, David the womaniser, to Paul, also a murderer.  As far as I know I’ve not murdered anyone, well, not lately anyway, there’s nothing under my patio by the way, what patio, who’s even talking about a patio, not me! Unlikely people, that are used for God’s purposes. For me that’s one of the most wonderful things about the Bible, it’s got every little bit of humanity poured into its pages. Whoever said ‘we shouldn’t use our experience to shape our thinking about God, only the bible!’ Is clearly a bit flawed in my view. Because the whole of the Bible is lived human experience. Story, History, Poetry, Gospel all combine into a beautiful mess of complicated questions, thoughts and meaning.  Our faith isn’t a neat little box, but like that box of wires at the back of the drawer, you all know the one I mean. The one with...

  " There may be trouble ahead, but while there’s moonlight, and music, and romance, let’s face the music and dance!” Or something like that anyway. So we’re here, the first Sunday of Advent, or as I like to call it, clergy meltdown season… In our modern commercial world the season of Advent often gets sucked up into the pre-Christmas excitefest! And yes Advent is about preparing for the coming of the saviour. But Advent is a season in its own right. Here’s what Times and Seasons, the Church of England seasonal liturgical handbook, which I’m sure you’ve all read cover to cover, says about Advent. “Advent is a season of expectation and preparation, as the Church prepares to celebrate the coming (adventus) of Christ in his incarnation, and also looks ahead to his final advent as judge at the end of time. The readings and liturgies not only direct us towards Christ’s birth, they also challenge the modern reluctance to confront the theme of divine judgement.” Or to put it ano...

  I love food, don’t you? I love flavour and texture and colour. I love the things I know, the old comforts. I like to try new things sometimes. But I do have a confession to make. I am addicted to Roast Chicken. There’s just something about it, hot roast chicken, straight from the oven. Roasted with garlic and rosemary, salted and crispy, it’s finger lickin’ good. I can’t put it down! An almost animalistic hunger comes over me as I tare through it. If it weren’t so socially unacceptable I’d probably jump up onto the table, in a cat like pounce and rip through it with my bare hands. I’d love to be a vegetarian, I don’t like eating animals, and I realise it’s entirely down to my own weakness, and cravings and fragility that I’m not. I’ve eaten some fantastic vegan and vegetarian food, I’m trying to cut back on the amount of meat I eat, but the chicken, like a drug addict it gets round to Sunday lunchtime and I need my fix. So I relate to the Israelites in our reading today. ...

  I’ve always been a bit of a sensitive soul. I love spending time with people. I love seeing my friends, one of the things that drew me most into ordained ministry was the community side of it. Being with people in their time of need, in their joys and their sorrows. The worst part of any relationship for me is saying goodbye. I’ve always hated saying goodbye. Often when I leave my friends or family, I have to go quickly, shoot off, and not say too much, because if I do I find myself starting to sob. When someone visits me from far away, I just can’t do the thing when you stand on the doorstep and wave them off, it upsets me too much.   When I was a boy, we used to go and visit my grandparents who lived near Whitby, and when it came to saying goodbye it was awful. I tell you it made the wailing and gnashing of teeth scenes from revelation look like a holiday picnic. I would get into the car and start crying because I didn’t want to go. Grandma would start because she didn...

  I was speaking to my neighbour the other day, at an appropriate social distance of course, and we got into an unusually long conversation about our lockdown experiences. She spoke of hope, dreams, disappointments ups and downs, and one particular well known phrase kept cropping up; “There’s light at the end of the tunnel.” She reflected perhaps the way many of us might be feeling. Weary but slightly hopeful that things are going to change relatively soon. That hopefully we’re over the worst of it. That soon she would be able to see her grandchildren again. I was speaking to Paul the other day and he asked ‘How are you?’ I responded, ‘Oh you know, not too bad.’ Paul then asked ‘why do people always say oh you know. I don’t know that’s why I’m asking.’ He has a good point. We don’t know. We don’t know how other people are feeling, or what’s going on. Today our Gospel reading shows Jesus doing a similar thing. What do I mean? Well, the people gathered there don’t know wh...