Virtual Methodist

Prompted in part by the single word Abba" in Scott Cairn's "Nativity", a powerful verbal icon, which is Malcolm Guite's chosen poem for today in his seasonal devotional "Waiting on the Word."  Sleep, Amma Mary, You will need your strength For all that lies ahead. Fear not, for I am with you, Watching, adoring, Wondering, how Did this happen? Why me? Why not me? What will be His first word? Will I be Abba? Or will you tell him? Will he know it all? What does he know now, Beyond my embrace? All that I know now Is this child, Though not mine, Could not be More divine. Shalom

Two Christmases ago I got a linocraft kit from Sally as a present. I suspect it is another way of her keeping me in the attic during my time off! Since then I have, from time to time produced various prints. I am even less assured in my printing endeavours than I am in my poetic ones. In both I am, at best, an enthusiastic amateur, or as Stephen Fry's father apparently described him, a "pasticheur". That is very much the case with the image here which is based directly on an “African Madonna” by Hennie Niemann Jnr. I created it last year over my Christmas break for use as a Christmas card this year and using some tools sent to me and advice given to me by a Bedlam Theatre friend and skilled print artist Matt Barrell from London, when producing it. Little did I know that by the time that this Christmas came, he would have died. So I have entitled it "Madonna for Matt." But events in the media over recent weeks including Jeremy Clarkson's appalling column, Ali...

Yesterday morning I read Harry Gilonis' "seasonal ghazal" in Janet Morley's Advent to Epiphany anthology "haphazard by starlight." In it he weaves together snippets of carols and seasonal songs into this ancient Arabic format. Mine is much less artful, more akin to a child's pictorial collage, but it is inspired not only by Gilonis' poem but also reflecting the fact that in this period of covid, within the Methodist Church in Ireland, we are being asked to sing fewer verses of fewer carols within our traditional carol services, making for significant editorial choices.  And then, on top of all of that with have the less than estimable Sammy Wilson MP, whose response to the latest Northern Ireland Covid restrictions, on a night when the Lord Mayor of Belfast was leading an online act of remembrance for all those lost to the pandemic, was to post a badly composed pastiche of "Hark the herald angels sing" mocking NI Health Minister Robin Swann...

It's been a while since I've had a good, old-fashioned rant on here... And despite having more things on my to-do list than I am physically capable of completing in the allocated time (how on earth I would have coped if various other events had not been cancelled or scaled back due to covid I do not know), the experience of 1 hour shopping is enough to prompt this...  It's not really a rant... but it is not well-digested enough to call it a reflection, and not even I can shape it into something I would claim as "poetry." Its about Christmas jumpers, an item of clothing I have never possessed, but I have been asked to don one for something later in the week. At first I thought I would order a "Keep Calm its Only Advent" hoodie from an online supplier, but thanks to the Northern Ireland protocol (or rather the company's unwillingness to do the extra paperwork involved in the Northern Ireland Protocol - "Brexit - the Gift that keeps on giving"...

So... after a couple of weeks abstinence from blogging, initially because I was largely staying away from my computer and then because I was swamped with everything I had to do (and still have to do) on my return to the desk, here's a short piece and a little video. The video is a compilation of all the #Advent/Christmas/EpiphanyArt pieces prompted by the Daily Lectionary readings that I have posted on social media recently, which I put together while fiddling with my computer the other night in a post-New Year attempt to stop snacking! But I am posting it to mark the end of this series of daily posts.  During Lockdown Mark 1 I posted #Lent/Easter/PentecostArt posts, and then suggested that others might take up the baton after that for a series of #ArtintheOrdinary posts... but no-one seemed interested... I'm suggesting it again, so if anyone wants to join in feel free, but I will carry on regardless, although it perhaps will not be every day... I do it not because I have any e...

My final poem in this series is by Geoffrey Anketell Studdert Kennedy, an Anglical priest and a favourite poet of mine. Though born and brought up in England he always regarded himself as Irish because of his antecedents. He volunteered as a chaplain on the outbreak of World War 1 and was nicknamed Woodbine Willie for giving out cigarettes along with spiritual support to injured and dying soldiers. In 1917, he was awarded the Military Cross at Messines Ridge for running into no man's land to help the wounded. At first he supported the British military effort with enthusiasm but was converted to Christian socialism and pacifism which brought him into tension with his superiors and led to him being refused burial in Westminster Abbey by the Dean because he was a "socialist" after he died on 8 March 1929, exhausted at the age of 45.  He wrote many poems, some of which reflected his time in the trenches, but this one is a purely devotional one. Shalom

Here is a monologue from the perspective of one of the Magi who came to worship the new King of the Jews. I was originally going to perform a simplified version of this, for an all all context last week but was flattened by a chest infection. It had no reference to the Jews in Babylon or the massacre of the innocents, but did start with the line guaranteed to win over an audience with a high proportion of children "My bum hurts!" I decided to ditch that for this version, which I am publishing today given the lectionary reading, although I am not preaching today, not because of illness but just because I'm getting a Sunday off. I am aware of the contrasting theories re the origins of the Magi, and whether they arrived just after his birth as nativity plays tend to suggest, or up to 2 years later (which seems to have been a long time for Joseph and his new family to have been hanging around Bethlehem. But I'm not getting into any of that here... pull at too many lose...

An alternate short candle liturgy for Christmas Day based on the less familiar lectionary reading for today from  Isaiah 62:6-12 VOICE 1:  Clear the way! VOICE 2:  Remove the rubble! VOICE 1:  Raise  a flag for the world to see. VOICE 2:  The  Lord  God has made a proclamation to go out to the ends of the earth: VOICE 1:  Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your Saviour comes! VOICE 2:  See, his promised reward is with him, and his blessing comes with him. VOICE 1:  They will be called his Holy People, those Redeemed by the  Lord ; VOICE 2:  The city long deserted will become a place of pilgrimage.      All 5 candles are lit finishing with the central one. Let us pray: Lord we thank you that with the birth of your Son Your promised were proved true. Our saviour has come And we rejoice. May we live our lives as his Holy People. AMEN Selah

I had never before come across a piece entitled "The Work of Christmas" or "When the Song of the angels is stilled" by  African-American author, philosopher, theologian, educator, and  civil rights  leader,  Howard Thurman, until a few days ago, when I chased up the origins of a facebook meme, which turned out to be a reworking of this poem by Michael Dougherty , co-chair of the Social Justice Committee at  Sacred Heart Cathedral  in Whitehorse, Yukon. The original has been used as the basis for a choral carol which seems to be popular in Amrica, but which, despite it's subject and sentiment, leaves me cold. But given that it has been reworked at least once and that I barely have an original thought in my head, I thought I would us both as the building blocks for a 2 verse poem of my own:  When the angel choir has gone home to heaven When the last notes of their song has faded away When the shepherds are back to watching their sheep Whe...

Another Christmas in a new congregation, another outing for this oldie and another reblog. The tune is "Raglan Road..." I chose it mindful of the thousands of people on the move this Christmas, seeking safety and prosperity for their families and of the journey which we as a church are on at present. But Jesus' life from before his birth was a story of journey... Why should ours be any different if we are seeking to follow him? Down Bethl’em road from Nazareth, Came Joseph and his wife Within her womb God’s promise bloomed His Word, the Light of Life. He came to take on flesh and blood To show us all the way And through the night a star so bright Hailed the dawning of His day. And on the hills round Bethlehem, Some shepherds heard the song, The angels sing of a new born King Awaited for so long. They find him midst the filth and grime In a bed of straw and hay, Ignored by the earth that he brought to birth The Lord Almighty lay. And from the east to Beth...

Another old favourite that got another outing this year. This started out as part of New Irish Arts' "I Witness" show in the Waterfront, many years ago, but it has been delivered by a number of different "shepherds" in a variety of contexts since then, most recently at the Grosvenor Hall "Toy Service" at the culmination of their 2018 Christmas Gift Appeal last Sunday. Surprisingly I don't seem to have blogged it before... But even if I have, here it is again... It was damn near freezing out on that hillside… What’s wrong!? My language a bit strong? Or is it the smell of the sheep… Ah, you’re all the same you holy joes… Aye, you’re glad of the wool from our sheep for your prayer shawls and our best lambs for your feasts, but us… we’re unclean… You may sing about God as your shepherd… but if one of your daughters wanted to marry one of us… You’d  have a hairy fit! Admit it! But just remember… God sent his angel to us… not you and your like…O...

I haven't been blogging much this year, but here is a wee Christmas present... some of you preparing stuff at the last minute might even find it useful. I wrote it for our Service of Lessons and Carols on Sunday, and it seemed to go down quite well... There are times when I wouldn’t believe one word that came out of that man’s mouth. My mother warned me. She said “Never marry a shepherd!” she said. “Never marry a shepherd! They spent too much time away from home. Roaming the hillsides… Sun beating down on their heads in the daytime. Drinking home-made hooch in the nightime to stay warm… Addles their minds!” She said “Addles their minds…” And on face value my man’s ramblings this morning when he came in suggested that his mind WAS addled. He couldn’t get his words out fast enough… All I heard was “bright light, angels, good news, singing, Messiah, manger…” None of it made sense… even when I got him to take a breath and slow down… He started again and told me that an angel ...

Our concluding candle liturgy for this year... In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.    He was with God in the beginning.    Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.    In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.    The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome   it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John.    He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.   He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.    He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.    Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believe...

In the early days of this blog, I posted an excerpt from Thomas Merton's amazing piece entitled "The Time of No Room," Over the intervening years, and the advent of austerity Britain/Ireland, it has become even more apposite, so I thought I would post it again... We live in the time of no room, which is the time of the end. The time when everyone is obsessed with lack of time, lack of space, with saving time, conquering space, projecting into time and space the anguish produced within them by the technological furies of size, volume, quantity, speed, number, price, power and acceleration. The primordial blessing, "increase and multiply," has suddenly become a haemorrhage of terror. We are numbered in billions, and massed together, marshalled, numbered, marched here and there, taxed, drilled, armed, worked to the point of insensibility, dazed by information, drugged by entertainment, surfeited with everything, nauseated with the human race and with ourse...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas day. The rhythm of ours was slightly different with it being the first year in a new church. At long last, however, I did summon up the courage to perform this song which I wrote about 4 or 5 years ago, with Owain playing guitar. This was a special joy given how little he has been able to play over these past 2 years. It seems to have been well received and a couple of people asked me for the words. I  have posted it a couple of times previously. But  here it is again. The tune is "Raglan Road..." Down Bethl’em road from Nazareth, Came Joseph and his wife Within her womb God’s promise bloomed His Word, the Light of Life. He came to take on flesh and blood To show us all the way And through the night a star so bright Hailed the dawning of His day. And on the hills round Bethlehem, Some shepherds heard the song, The angels sing of a new born King Awaited for so long. They find him midst the filth and grime In a bed of stra...

Here is the candle liturgy that we will be using in our brief Christmas morning service in Belfast South Methodist... Come and join us if you are in the vicinity at 9.30am this morning. But wherever you are may you know the blessing of the King of Kings. CHRISTMAS CANDLE LITURGY VOICE 1:      The Lord himself will give you a sign: VOICE 2:      A virgin girl will become pregnant and will give birth to a son; VOICE 1:      She will call him Immanuel, meaning “God with us.” VOICE 2:      The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; VOICE 1:      on those living in the land of death’s deep dark shadow  a light has dawned. VOICE 2:      You have broadened the bounds of the nation and magnified their joy; VOICE 1:      they rejoice before you as the starving rejoice at the harvest, VOICE 2:  ...

In honour of those running foodbanks and putting together emergency Christmas hampers in this season of conspicuous consumption and even more conspicuous inequality... Conspicuous to all but the government. Selah

The culmination of our advent candle liturgy at Dundonald Methodist for this year. It can be used at a Christmas eve service or on Christmas morning... We'll be using it tomorrow... Hope, peace, joy, and love. Four weeks, four candles, four promises made by God, and all of them find fulfillment in the one we light this morning: the Christ candle. In Christ we find the hope of transformation, the peace that this world cannot give, the fulfillment of joy and the love that embraces us in all our diversity and fallibility. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made t...

A few days ago I overheard this conversation which Sally later posted as her fb status update: Sally: So do you think Santa is a real person? Ciaran: What?? You can't disprove Santa is real. Well you can, but then you would crush my childhood dreams and I will bring Childline down on your head like a hurricane. Everyday life in the Campton household. Anyway, a few days before I overheard another conversation on a bus which included the line: "I gave up believing in God shortly after I gave up believing in Santa and the Tooth Fairy." I'm sure you've come across similar, and if not, spend 5 minutes looking at the comments on many "Christian" contributions to YouTube or other open-access Christian website. Such an attitude to the idea of God reflects more on our "consumerist" attitude to God... he's there to bless us and to turn painful experiences (like losing a tooth) into gain (hopefully financial!). If you want to start de...

I originally picked this up at the beginning of the year, but Christmas had been and gone by that stage, and with it the season of carolling (to which most ministers generally respond with a collective sigh of relief). But it has now swung round again and anything that gives us a new angle on overly-familiar songs sung repeatedly over a few weeks is worth thinking about. In this case the word "angle" is particularly apposite. Now I have repeatedly pointed out some of the political dimensions of the nativity story as we find it in Matthew's and Luke's Gospels, but Esther Addley, on Comment is Free , suggested that some of our favourite carols had political origins too (though perhaps not always quite in tune with the original gospel story). Her account of 'O come all ye faithful' is particularly interesting. I don't know if there is any truth in it, but she suggests that Adeste Fideles, the Latin hymn from which the carol was translated, was not composed ...