Clashing feasts

Today (June 11) is one of those years when two festivals of the Church clash. There are rules for deciding which festival takes precedence...but not always easy to follow in practice. 

Today is the feast of StBarnabas. Significant for those of us trained at a college under that saints patronage. It's suggested that Barnabas was actually his nickname (like many of the apostles Peter and Thomas, Bartholomew, Simon Zealotes etc...) and the Greek text suggests that it means Son (bar ...) of encouragement. The Aramaic doesn't quite work, but that's what the Greek says!

And it does give us food for thought about what Barnabites might be like. Indeed what all Christians might be encouraged to be...sons and daughters of encouragement! Not always something we are noted for.

Any way, it seems like a worthy aspiration.

Too often our "encouragement" is treating people roughly and justifying on the basis that we should be tough (the sink or swim method)...if you read the Barnabas story in Acts. That's not what he does. His way of encouragement seems to be to support the weakest link when they  have no friends or allies

It's also the feast of Corpus Christi when we particularly give thanks for the Sacrament of Holy Communion. I think it is pretty encouraging that we have faith that we can encounter God in the simple things of life, like and in particular...bread and wine. And that God can be vulnerable by being tangible and ordinary...but I am slipping into sermon mode

When the world is in meltdown

This weekend is taken up with our annual Diocesan Meeting or Synod. The Eucharist last night seemed only moderately well-attended both by clergy and laity. We seem to have forgotten about the opportunity to invite community and other church leaders, the liturgy was very clergy dominated and even (as far as I could tell) those laity who were allowed to administer Communion were trainee priests.
The Bishop's address was dry, and he looked tired...poor man
The agenda is dominated by formality with only (it would seem) a slight departure into the controversial to discuss GAFCON (so called Global Anglican Futures Conference...a body that declares itself to be the new fount of orthodoxy).
The Bishop did press us about water issues, and the global financial crisis, but where were the community leaders to hear it?
It will all be over tomorrow evening. PTL!

Mind your feet

As I reflect on the idea of faith footprint (it proves a little harder than I thought), I am thinking a bit about the footprints I, and we, made last week. Some of it seems Ok, some of it seems indifferent, and some of it seems well just wrong.
I felt OK, but sad by my visit with my declining friend. I tried to cheer him up by helping him to connect with the outside world...sometimes he would try, but other times he wouldn't
I enjoyed talking with someone who is thinking about what it means to be a priest, and another who is having some real difficulty on the ministry front. I had a fruitful time talking to someone who will be ordained quite soon about some of the contemporary issues of ministry.
I tried to pray and meditate with some quality each day.
I prepared a couple of sermons, and various entries for my weblog, and my preaching site.
I said the Eucharist three times
I had a couple of snappy exchanges
S & I went to the pictures to see Knocked Up
I drove up and down to school umpteen times
I read a whole lot of material on Jung
I visited my sister
I went to a 2 year olds birthday party
I baptised two children
I had more than a few moments when I felt depressed

What all this means and what sort of picture it begins to paint. I continue to reflect on