How Long O Lord ?

My first appointment as a Methodist Minister saw me based in St Ives Cambridgeshire where I had pastoral charge of five churches. The Ecumenical scene was good particularly between ourselves the Roman Catholic Church and the United Reformed Church. So it meant through conversations, a group of Christians from the various churches came together to put on Christian musicals at the Methodist Church over a couple of years. "'The Witness "and "Pharaoh to Freedom "saw a packed church enjoy the Christian story. With a wonderful choir, actors, lighting, and in those days 'special effects', the church was transformed for the performances. As enjoyable as these events were, I recall that even then I had a nagging uncomfortable thought; Its easy to tell the Christian story to Christians, but how do you share with non Christians? Plus how do share the very real doubts and questions we all have about God and life? So a small group of us produced our own musical using songs from the Iona Community. Entitled 'Many are the faces' it was an attempt to express the reality that we know so little about God. I think we did this because at times it may appear the church claims to have it all wrapped up. So we played with images and names for God. These images and names expressed the glimpses we have received and yet we have so much more to discover. The last verse of the key song sums it up.

Can we be certain of how the Lord looks,
Deep though our faith and conviction,
When in the face of the Saviour we see
The smile of divine contradiction?

I had great fun in writing sketches which explored a full range of questions we might as people of faith want to raise but very often do not articulate.

One song that we used in the musical springs to mind in the light of our current crisis. It asks the age old question in the face of any kind of suffering - How Long O Lord?
It is based on a Psalm 13. Sometimes we have to call on God's care, because we have been made redundant, victimised, lost out in love or been hurt by people close to us. At such times the words of Psalm 13 can be very helpful.

1.  How Long, O Lord,                                                 2. How long, O Lord,
    Will you quite forget me?                                             Must this grief possess my heart?
    How long, O Lord,                                                        How long, O Lord,
    Will you turn your face from me?                                 Must I languish night and day?
    How long, O Lord,                                                        How long, O Lord,
    Must I suffer in my soul?                                              Shall my enemy oppress?
    How long, how long,                                                     How long, how long,
    O Lord?                                                                         O Lord?


                                            3. Look now, look now
                                                And answer me, my God;
                                                Give light, give light,
                                                Lest I sleep the sleep of death,
                                                Lest my enemies
                                                Rejoice at my downfall;
                                                Look now, look now,
                                                O Lord.                       
                                                                                           Tune new Thirteenth
                                                                            Words and Music (c) 1987 The Iona Community

As a Christian minister you would always hope that you could offer the right word that would bring hope. However I've never been good at platitudes. What I share is what I learnt in the early weeks of  ministry. Elizabeth a church steward was in hospital dying of cancer. I went to visit, a little in trepidation. What I found was that she taught me to sit quietly with her with barely a word being said. Yet in that space and time spent together God was very real. That was enough. No miracle. Elizabeth died. Somewhere in my belongings I still have her Methodist class ticket that she had kept from years before I ever met her. We may want to talk about how we are feeling, others may not. Allowing people to respond in the way to the crisis that works for them is right. In the doubting, in the fear, in the silence you may discover a glimpse of God, and for the moment that is enough, and yes throw up the cry 'How long, O Lord?'

The musical was linked with conversations by two characters dressed in white shirts and black trousers. Josh and Mo, ( a nod in those days to Mel and Griff),just musing. The musical starts in darkness and slowly the choir builds the volume 'Kindle a flame to lighten the dark and take all fear away.'
Then the darkness is transformed as the stage becomes full of light and colour as the creation story unfolds in song, scenery and with actors. And so God as Creator and the question of suffering begins.

Josh:  Not bad eh?

Mo :   Not bad at all!

Josh:   Pretty impressive?

Mo: Amazing

Jo: Well that's God for you

Mo:  What's God for you?

Jo:  You know

Mo:  Know what?

Josh:  Creation

Mo:  Oh Creation.  What Creation?

Josh:  God's creation. The universe, birds and the bees. He made them all.

Mo:  Out of what?

Josh:  What do you mean out of what?

Mo:  Well you have to make things out of something.

Josh:  Now look Mo. We are talking Creator. The ground of all being.We are talking about the one                 who is Transcendent, Omnipresent, Omnipotent, ommm...

Mo:  Ommmi what?

Josh: Where have you been all your life Mo down the steel works!
          Didn't they teach you anything in Sunday School?

Mo: Couldn't do with Sunday school

Josh: Look Mo, God is the one who just has to think and it happens.
         He can think Icebergs and they appear

Mo: That would explain Titanic !

Josh: No No, look God, he's all powerful, all knowing, all loving ever present, everywhere.

Mo: Is he a nice bloke then?

Josh: Yeah of course he is

Mo: Then how come If He's all powerful

Josh: All Powerful

Mo:  He's everywhere

Josh:  Everywhere

Mo:  He can do anything

Josh: Anything?

Mo: How come the world's such a lousy mess if he's so caring.How come people are starving, and theres sickness and homelessness. Why doesn't he do something about It

How Long, O Lord?

Walls rising and a trip to see ten times table

The walls are beginning to rise from the foundations.

It looks rough, and hard to imagine that when fully built right up to the vault of the building, and covered in other materials this is whats there.

But then the lovely blue arch running across the ceiling is in fact hiding the steel framework built over 100 years ago.

Each day progress is being made, and yet while we look forward to the completion of phase 2 , we haven't taken our eye off moving onto to the final phase. So if you know anyone with the odd £300,000 to donate please let us know!!

Well it's an amazing city even at night. Great to take in the view from the steps having walked up through the station.
You go to the Lyceum to watch the Alan Ayckbourn play 'Ten Times Table'. You end up seeing people from the previous nights church council I led at Stephen Hill Methodist Church. As the play gets going its like watching all the worst aspects of church meetings or indeed any committee meeting. I recognised the characters all too well. So of course I chuckled at them and at myself. It was enjoyable enough, though the ending was indeed a farce. Many however left at the interval. When one of the characters spoke of 'the many not the few' I wondered had a certain Mr Corbyn's team based their catch phrase on the play!!The view of the city certainly enriched the evening.

Toilets who would have thought seeing them built could be exciting.

The old UK on line room has now been gutted and the structure for three large cubicles are taking shape.

It means the soft play facility will have toilets that contain baby changing facilities in all three as well as suitable for disabled needs.

It has been a challenge to the builders to discover which way the drainage will be heading. Thankfully all worked out now.

I know they don't look much at the moment but they will.

Why come to inner city Sheffield - part one

I find myself at end of week seven. That's because we are now into a new Methodist year which strangely to many runs from 1st September to 31st August. But this new Methodist year has been different. It saw me step back from my role as a co-superintendent Minister in our Sheffield circuit. After 35 years as a minister, and 23 of those as a Superintendent, I find myself liberated from the sense of, and reality of, being 'responsible' for the life of a circuit. It's been like a switch being turned off and all the energy that was being expended, is no longer being drained from the battery. Now I am beginning to find more time and space to allow myself to be recharged, and that renewed energy  can be redirected to the face to face work of ministry, which is of course where I began when first out of theological college. So I am having to be careful not to refill my diary just to be busy, rather to decide what God wants me to to be doing and so live it out with purpose

This change of role has triggered a reflection on why we came as a family to inner city Sheffield just over eleven years ago. Having served in a variety of contexts around the country I felt  God wanted me to work in the inner city. I had explored in my mind should it be really rural or inner city. But having visited a member of the Iona community in the city of Bradford I was convinced of the need to move into the inner city. So many Christian communities have over the decades been withdrawing into what we might call the suburbs leaving behind gaps of Christian presence. This felt wrong to me. 'Was the church only going to go where the money was?' or 'Where it still had the  numbers to maintain its work?'
So we found ourselves living in Burngreave where we have experienced some of the most thoughtful hospitality, often from our Muslim neighbours, who have welcomed us into their homes and their lives.

On arriving in Sheffield I sought to make clear I had not just come to hold the hands of the dying, in other words not just keep things going as they were. After all it didn't take a prophet or a genius to see that decline would continue if you keep on doing the same old things. I had prior to coming reorganised a circuit and undertaken a major building project and neither were to be repeated.  Eleven years on I have found that I have continued to journey with some church communities who indeed want no more than their hands holding, and refuse to grasp the opportunities to change and grow. I was caught up in the coming together of the eight Sheffield circuits into one not long after arriving (something I still believe was the right course of action for Sheffield Methodists), and find myself in the middle of phase 2 of a major building scheme at Firth Park. Either God has a sense of humour or I keep getting it wrong.

But now at last I can direct my energies towards this amazing area of the inner city. As I reflect I realise I did not loose my underlying theology to underpin my actions and work. God I believe called me into being an itinerant minister . This enables me at key moments the sense of being objective, and not caught up totally in the parochial. So I can speak or ask the difficult questions. It also brings the gift of time to discern what God is saying in a particular place and time. The influence of the Iona Community for me remains deeply rooted to the point I don't always realise it myself. Something of the Iona Community's understanding of what it means to be God people can be seen at Firth Park. Before setting out on re shaping the building we asked the community what it wanted. Christian communities can be too good at telling communities what they need only to discover their modernised or new building continues to remain empty of people. So yes here I am again involved in a building scheme. But we have asked what the community needed and are responding. What is also great is that we continue to allow the vision to be reshaped and so we  discover we are being blessed. By the new year one part of the old Church will have been reshaped for worship, group work, community work and contain a soft play facility for the community. Already the conversations are taking place as to how we are being led on to meet other needs in our community, not least the challenge of mental health. So perhaps the old nursery outdoor play area can become raised beds for community gardening.

What I have discovered afresh is that you can sustain a Christian presence in the inner city. You don't have to withdraw but you do have to acknowledge you can't keep all your buildings. When you do keep a building, it has to be more than just so a group of Christians can keep on doing what they have always been doing. The Christian community at Firth Park is made up of two amazing congregations which increasingly are inclusive, wanting to find a way to serve together the wider community. The prophet Isaiah paints a picture of the Holy City where all nations are drawn towards it. My own vision remains of a building near the  roundabout which is open seven days a week. Where everyone feels comfortable entering because they know or have heard its a place of welcome and hospitality. A place where you will be listened to. A place where you can be yourself and not have to be like them!
In fact not a building but a community of communities underpinned by the God of love who says all are welcome no exceptions.
Mark

A work in progress

Well we have had the builders on site now for about a month and progress is being made.
After cutting away the floor boards and digging out, the concrete foundations were ready to be laid.

So the mixer came to deliver it into the machine that then pumped it along the long tube into the church.

Across the front of the Stubbin Hall where we hold our current soft play days on a Tuesday & Wednesdays 9.30am-12.30

 Through the sliding doors and into the church.

On top of the concrete foundations the new walls will sit.

They need to be firm though the wall will also be connected to the ceiling.








Of course in some ways it appears not much is happening but good preparation is everything. The foundations will soon be hidden as the new internal walls are constructed and the flooring made good. Of course its a reminder that while it has taken us a church community a long time to get to this stage, knowing why and what we need to do was essential. Getting the foundations of this new piece of Christian mission right is vital. 

Licensing of Iain Lothian 1st October 2019

What a joy last night to have been able to share in the re-licensing of Revd Iain Lothian at St Columba's Crosspool and his induction as authorised minister of our Stephen Hill Methodist Church. This new stage in a growing relationship without the traditional legal paperwork!! gives hope that where people are prepared to worship and serve together we can use our resources wisely. This is what our covenant relationship, Methodist and Anglicans in Sheffield, should and is about. Bishop Pete preached well as we gathered at St Columba's before we made our way to Stephen Hill to symbolise that while we have two sets of buildings we are moving to becoming one church.

It's been a delight for me to have spent time with their new joint leadership team and work with Iain. 

Building work

So excited that the building work has begun at the church.

The hidden gem of our window seen from top of the scaffold. Its going to flood the new worship space with light and beauty.

Communion rail gone and space being made ready for the large soft play structure!!! 

We may have a bit of work on the real ceiling to do after years of being hidden by the suspended ceiling. Thankfully not the first stage so we can progress the work, and it will only be certain areas so our fears of high costs may well not come to fruition.

Really well impressed by our builders who couldn't be more considerate and tidy workers. They are getting the groundwork in place which will see new interior walls to create the two new areas- soft play area and worship/cohesion space. 

In the meantime our current soft play days continue to thrive and wider community support for the church grows.

So keep an eye out on social media for up and coming events.