Sat 1 april 2006
This is Jamie and Jon our youth and children’s pastor and apprentice. We were
meeting to put together the Easter labyrinth idea for next Friday’s youth
eggsperience. We’ve planned . . . well, I was about to put in what we’ve
planned but of course someone who might come might be reading this and find out
beforehand. It’s going to be great.
Here are some photos taken at the Rural Churches Fellowship Prayer Breakfast at Garway. I had to set out early to get there by 8.30 but it was quite a nice early spring morning. The breakfast was great and I had a good chat with John Whatmore partly about the Send a Cow charity which he called brilliant and very experienced in the field. Then I chatted with Robin Hill whose had some trouble with one of his knees. It was nice to talk to him as I haven’t seen him for a while. We had ham and corned beef, cereals, teas, juice and toast ably provided by the ladies and then came to the service. I brought a message based on Psalm 56 all about bringing our real situation to God rather than an imaginary situation or an idealised one or one where we pretend to feel differently about it than we really do. It was quite a sobering RCF meeting: they’d been expecting 30 odd but there were fewer than twenty. I enjoyed the meeting though, and it was good to hear some rocking accordion from John. I was back by about eleven and then went straight out to the Christianity Explored away day which was maginificent. Ann put on a fabulous lunch with duck, broccoli cheese, swede and carrots and mash with plenty of garlic. Bread pudding to follow. Plus, the discussions were great and far reaching. I am increasingly pleased with the CE material.
L to R, Ken Prosser, John Whatmore, Jonathan Greaves, John Smith
At the Christianity Explored lunch. The
untouched plate (not!) in the foreground is mine. I’m going to make the photo a
bit bigger than the others to show the contented expressions!
Sun 2 Here’s a photo of Simone’s baptism last Sunday. We had a great time this morning in Romans 3:21-30. Jenny read it really well and the Powerpoint seemed to help it be quite clear, I thought.
Mon 3 Some of the people at the Leadership Team retreat today at the wonderful Ty Mawr. In trhe morning we were looking at the book Church that Works by David Oliver and James Thwaites and in the afternoon looking at ideas for the site.
John Ison and Helene Grant 
Mel Knight and Paul Goncalves
John Lodge
Val Heath
Janet Payton and John Kear a day or two
after his shave and haircut –
and all in the interests of a children’s talk!
Rosemarie Morrison
Wed 4 Rob Wixey is the first to do the grass this year but he managed to start the mower first time this morning. No wonder he looks happy!
Sat 8 A tremendous amount of effort went into preparing the Easter Labyrinth. We had two bands playing at the Fellowship Centre and gave tickets to all the about 50 kids who came so that they could go into the chapel individually or in small groups throughout the evening. When they arrived, they were to wash their hands and crawl though the plastic tube into the right hand side of the chapel – it was divided in two by screens. The projector was showing stills of cinema portrayals of Jesus and there was trance music on. There was UV lighting on this side and a display of secular signs of easter – chocolate and bunnies. There was an empty tomb constructed in the entrance to the vestry at the back. On the other side of the chapel were tables with displays of bread and wine, a barbed wire crown and nails and then the display of the Raglan Church Family with a mirror attached. At the end was a real live lamb in aan enclosure with the legend ‘Beware the Lion’. That had the younger children discussing endlessly the meaning. Two suggestions I heard were, ‘Is it because God is as strong as a lion but as gentle as a lamb?’ and ‘Is it because sin pretends to be weak but is really powerful.’ A great suggestion, that one. When they left, the children had to wash their hands again and were given chocolate and a sheet of paper with pictures to remind them of what they’d seen.
Today we went to JOG Brown’s induction at Llangeinor. There was a big turnout – perhaps two hundred and it was nice to see Cambrensis again. Stuart Olyott preached and that was very good and even lightly humourous in parts. There was a puzzlingly unsupported assertion that there are no apostles, prophets or evangelists today. Or at least that’s what I thought he said although it seems increasingly unlikely the more I think about it. The bit about evangelists, I mean. The service could have done with some more input from women. In fact, there wasn’t any at all, except for Anne’s answer to the question on coming into church membership. Oh, and apart from the women of Cambrensis, the musicians and the ladies doing the catering, of course. It was great to see Graham Thomas and Gareth and Linda. Lisa was there with Bethan. We went there from Abertillery in a minibus with the people from Blaenau Gwent – always a very happy, contented, tightly knit, unassuming and unpretentious group of people to be with. That Blaenau Gwent Baptist Church, Abertillery incidentally. Head Office nearly always describe it as Blaenau, Gwent. This is an old church, though (1660, first building 1715) and the designation Blaenau Gwent is long before the county description BG
Fri 14 Sorry for not updating this for a while. I’ve had a busy week leading up to Easter and unfortunately had to spend a day in bed as well. I soldiered through a great closing session of Christianity Explored on Monday night but then went to bed shivering and headachy and didn’t really surface till four the following afternoon. Still, some great things happened this week. I did some leafleting up at Dingestow and hadn’t realised there’s quite an estate up there so that’s worth adding to our regular leaflet drop, that and Great Oak. I think we should do a brochure about our youth work and get up there. We do get at least a couple of kids from Dingestow. We also had one person from Dingestow at our Da Vinci code meeting on Thursday so it is worth doing publicity there. The da Vinci code meeting was interesting – has the Bible been corrupted. I’d come prepared to talk about the Gospel of Judas but it only came up in passing. I’ve been reading Contemplative Youth Work by Mark Yaconelli. He has a great account of his early, frustrating years in youth ministry and then a couple of good explanations of Lectio Divina and Centring prayer – among the simplest and most accessible I’ve read before recommending being present and attentive to the children. That’s up to about page 80 where I am at the moment. I’ll finish it tomorrow and pass it on.
Huw Chidgey and Catherine Handley’s album with Writ in Water on it is delayed yet again but they are philosophical about it. In the meantime, there are lots of visits to www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight where our own version of Writ in Water can be heard with Catherine Handley on flute.
Mon 17 A big turnout for the Easter events yesterday – about 50 for the breakfast organised by the men and then a full house for the service. The singing was magnificent – a solid body of ladies sound and a solid body of men’s sound. Jon and Jamie did a talk based on ‘taste and see that the Lord is good’ and then Catherine sang ‘Come taste and tell’ my song based on Isaiah 55. Then a talked based on things that people shouted at Easter: Hosanna, Crucify, Remember me, Tetelestai, He is risen, Maranatha . . . and today – Here I am.
Thu 20 Went up to Preston for a couple of days and everybody is fine. We didn’t do much – didn’t even get up to the shops. I had to get into the office by seven today, though but when I did, I made good headway and even managed to write a whole service for BBC Radio Wales. Now that’s out of the way I can start thinking a bit more about the Wednesday Word for next week on the theme of the Chernobyl disaster on the 20th anniversary.
I’m just printing out an invitation to the Raglan Festival Songs of Praise. I was sad that no one got the joke of the original version though. It was a man singing in the shower with the caption, ‘Don’t waste that God-given talent’. I don’t think anyone could work out what it was meant to be so this is what I’m printing instead:
Don’t
waste that
God-given
talent!
As part of
the Raglan Festival, the Baptists are
organising
a Songs of Praise
morning on Sunday 11th June at eleven.
All the songs and hymns will be chosen
by . . . you!
#……………………………………………………….………….
Name…………………………………………………………….
Song/hymn
…………………………………………………..…
Any reason for your
choice?…………………………………….
………………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………….
Return this slip to Raglan Baptist Chapel, Usk Road
Or phone Rob with your choice on
01291 691119
Or email it to
robyatkins@yahoo.co.uk
Mon 24 Yesterday we began to rehearse
the material for the BBC Celebration services from the Raglan Festival. I’d
done an arrangement of God is fro Me which was very well received and we sang
through All My Days. Very good. I’m returning to Romans 4 next Sunday and in
fact had quite a session on it today. Not easy.
Today
I was also working on a script for Wednesday’s anniversary of the Chernobyl
disaster but I had to rewrite it quite extensively to make it incisive enough.
It wasn’t wasted effort though because the revised version is far more punchy
and communicative.
I’ve
been working on a new song about a gite we used to go to near Montpellier –
always in the spring or autumn to make full use of the open fire and the logs
everywhere. Here are the lyrics: it’s set to a lilting 6/8 tune not unlike
Kendrick’s Let all the earth hear his voice. I hope to get this recorded and up
on www.myspace.com/frostatmidnight
pretty soon.
Crackling of kindling in the firelight
Scintillating stardust
through the pines
White horses dream in
the moonlight
Gazing away at the
silver fingered vines
Craggy the russet oaken
settle
Shimmering with shadows in
the shine
Flickering the fat copper
kettle
Singing away as our voices
intertwine
Get that guitar in the glow
Strike up the flute so you
know
You’ve been revelling
Let the harmonica play
Blow the winter away
Play till my joy is restored
Play me that deep open chord
Instrumental
Play till my joy is restored
Over that deep open chord
Crackling of kindling in the firelight
Scintillating
stardust through the pines
White horses dream in
the moonlight
Gazing away at the
silver fingered vines
Get that guitar in the glow
Strike up the flute so you
know
You’ve been revelling
Let the harmonica play
Blow the winter away
Play till my joy is restored
Play me that deep open chord
Play till my joy is restored
Play me that deep open chord
Thu 26 Today is the 20th
anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster and it was a Chernobyl day for me. I went
to the BBC for Roy Noble and spoke about the FOCC charity although they only
let me mention it by name once. Then in the afternoon at Monmouth I took part
in the street collection. People wqere very good and very generous. It remended
me of the days I went collecting from ABERYSTWYTH FOR RAG. First, people had
had enough of Aber rag and the minibuses had to go increasingly far to get good
results. And then, in those days, if you made twenty pounds you’d made a
fortune. I don’t suppose there were pound coins in those days but if someone
gave 50p you put the flags out. Nowadays, the normal donation is a pound . I
remember going to Coventry one day I suppose in 1980 and making a measly ten
pounds. You had to get about 20 for a ticket to the Incentive Ball so that was
two rag trips. Some really keen students were going out about three times a
week. That year, the incentive ball was a group called Silly Wizard. I left
after about three numbers thinking, stupid name, dull music. Sill, relay
because since then they’ve turned out to be one of my favouirite groups of that
type!
Sun 30 The church meeting this afternoon was great and once again there was a marvellous unity about the decisions taken. Mel and John Ison both gave very clear presentations about aspects to do with the buildings. There was a very far reaching decision about looking at the redevelopment of our site to include more parking and more accommodation for church acitivities.
I’ve
had a great time working on the recording of that song about the Montpellier
gite. I added a couple of harmonicas played by John Tribe and panned them hard
left and right, first of all putting them in a cathedral acoustic but later
adding some delay and making them swirl around the speakers. I added some bass
guiter myself. Now, I think all that needs to be done is to add some flute and
to rerecord Catherine’s singing. It’s a very relaxing sound.
Here’s
a letter I’ve written to everyone:
Dear
member or friend of RBC,
Our church houseparty weekend has the happy knack of coming round just
when we are busy discussing something important in the life of our fellowship.
Or perhaps we are always discussing something important.
This
time last year we were busy taking two decisions with far-reaching
consequences. We were about to come off Home Mission support and the invitation
to Jon Kear to become our children’s pastor was about to be made. The away
weekend was so helpful as we tried to work out how we could each be personally
involved in the outworking of those decisions.
That
was nothing, though. The houseparty weekend is just round the corner again and
this time we have taken decisions about the use of our Usk Road site which have
huge financial and practical implications. The workshops and small group
sessions will be buzzing this year!
I’m
writing now to ask each of you to come to the away weekend. We’re in this
together so let’s make sure we support one another and make use of all the
opportunities God gives us to listen to one another and to make our voices
heard. D’you know that God speaks in this way, too?
The
house party is at Hill House near Bridgewater. We’ll be going down there on the
evening of Friday 2nd June and coming back on the afternoon of
Sunday 4th June. Of course, it is possible to make a day visit or
just to come for part of the time. It should be possible to arrange transport
as well for anyone in need of that. The accommodation is comfortable, the food
is excellent and there is plenty to see and do in the free time included in the
programme. A full range of children’s activities is built in. The weekend is
not too expensive but in any case, there is help available.
This
is a personal invitation but I’m sure you won’t regret taking part even if you
sign up just to please me. Please come.
Best
wishes,
Rob
Atkins
10.45
I just sent an email to Adam Walton live on Radio Wales, telling him about the
Send A Cow Ball at the Cwrt Bleddyn
next week and he read it out!