| End the Week with CME - May 22, 2009 | 22nd May 2009 | Download | Email to a Friend |
Welcome to End the Week with CME! This weekly email is sent automatically to Clergy and Readers in the diocese (if you don't want to receive it, please send an email to CovEW-unsubscribe@lists.covlec.org) but anyone is welcome to subscribe to the list, and we are especially keen to pass it on to any interested lay people, especially those who may have responsibility for preaching. To subscribe they simply need to email CovEW-subscribe@lists.covlec.org.
Due to a combination of holidays and residentials, End the Week will be taking a short break, and will return again on 19 June.
News
Foundations for Free!
The Foundations 21 project, which originated in Coventry Diocese, is now available online free. This is an extraordinarily rich resource and uses a distinctive set of four pathways, each linked to a particular learning style. Take a look at www.foundations21.org.uk for more details.
Expenses…
…are in the news (just in case you hadn’t noticed!). Full details of what clergy can claim are available on the Church of England Website at www.cofe.anglican.org/lifeevents/ministry/workofmindiv/dracsc/parochialexpenses/.
‘Together for a Season’ Special Offer
Together for a Season is a three-volume series packed with ideas to lift the Common Worship liturgy off the page! Covering every season of the Christian year, it’s an invaluable resource for all who plan or lead worship with adults and children in groups.
Church house Publishing are currently running a special offer - if you buy the third volume Together for a Season: Feasts and Festivals (£24.50), you can get the first two volumes - Advent, Christmas and Epiphany (usually £22.50) and Lent, Holy Week and Easter (usually £24.50) - half price. Buy two volumes for £35.75, or all three for £47. To take advantage of this offer, just quote code CHPMC0109 when ordering. Telephone 01603 612914 or email orders@norwichbooksandmusic.co.uk.
CME Events Coming Up
June 18, 2009 - Under the Wings of Refuge - Exploring the book of Ruth
A Ministry Reflection Day with David Runcorn, Thursday 18 June at Offa House, 10am-3pm with an abbreviated repeat from 7.30-9.30pm. Cost: £30 (including lunch) for the daytime course, £12.50 (including coffee and cakes) for the evening. Grants of half the cost are available for clergy and Readers. Book through cme@covcofe.org.
September 22, 2009 - Spanish Mystics
A Spirituality Reflection Day with Ruth Tuschling, Tuesday 22 September at Offa House, 10am-3pm with an abbreviated repeat from 7.30-9.30pm. Cost: £30 (including lunch) for the daytime course, £12.50 (including coffee and cakes) for the evening. Grants of half the cost are available for clergy and Readers. Book through cme@covcofe.org.
Other Events Coming Up
Vocations Taster Morning
The 2009 Vocations 'Taster' Morning will take place on Saturday 6 June 2009, 9.30am - 12.30pm at Warwick Gates Community Centre. A programme for the morning can be downloaded at http://www.coventry.anglican.org/ministry/vocations/exploringvocations/
This is a morning for people wanting to explore vocation to licensed ministry in the Church of England. There will be an opportunity for them to hear more about the different types of ministry (such as ordained ministry, Readers, pioneer ministry and ordained local ministry), to ask any questions they may have, and to hear how the Coventry Diocese can help candidates to discern their vocation. For more details about the Taster Morning, please email Susan Mileham at susan@mileham.net.
A Vision for Discipleship: Preaching and Teaching in the Local Church
This will form part of a day run by the West Midlands Church Leaders on Thursday 11 June 2009 at Driotwich Spa Methodist Church, Worcester Road, Droitwich Spa, from 10.00am to 3.00pm. The morning session will be on preaching, designed for preachers, Readers and clergy. The Revd Neil Richardson will give a keynote address: The role of the imagination in Biblical Preaching. To book a place please let Jenny know, email jenny@birmingham.anglican.org or telephone 0121 426 0437.
Space for Worship
18 June - 9.30am-3.30pm Red Hill Christian Centre, Snitterfield, Stratford upon Avon CV37 0PQ
Space for Worship – Creating and using areas for worship, outside in the school grounds and inside the classroom.
This is a Diocesan Board of Education (DBE) course, which will be useful for clergy colleagues, and also for teachers and governors in your congregations. Booking is through Joanne Evans at the DBE via joanne.evans@covcofe.org. (Clergy are charged at CME rates.)
Bishop’s Study Day - Advance Notice
The Bishop’s Study Day for clergy will be held at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry on Monday 2 November 2009. Further details will be sent out in due course.
For details of all the events coming up, which have been advertised in recent editions of End the Week, please go to http://www.coventry.anglican.org/ministry/learning/trainingstudy/
Notes on the Gospel Readings for Sunday 31 May (Pentecost)
John 15. 26-7; 16. 4b-15
Coming and Going
There’s a lot of coming and going in John’s gospel, sending and being sent. The Father sends the Son, the Son sends the ‘comforter’ (John 16.5-7). At the end of the gospel the disciples are included in the movement: ‘as the Father sends me, so I send you’ (John 20.21). In the parable of the sheep-gate Jesus promises the disciples that ‘whoever enters through me will be saved; they will come in and go out and find pasture’ (John 10.9). This feature of coming and going characterises John’s distinctive contribution to thinking about mission – a word which of course means ‘being sent’.
The language reminds us of messengers in the ancient world, usually slaves used by their masters as couriers for messages and money. These people enjoyed great trust from their masters. But they were not sent off, never to return. Their role was to go out and come back, ready for the new task which the master might entrust to them.
It is perhaps not too much of a caricature to say that we usually see mission as simply being sent: ‘Go!’ is the command. I’d say that the book of Acts may be unwittingly responsible for this, because it tells a pretty linear story of how the gospel went from A to B (my own subtitle for Acts is ‘How we brought the Good News from Jerusalem to Rome’). Probably this echoes Paul’s own strategy, pushing the boundaries of the church ever further west, perhaps as far as Spain, his longed for but likely never-reached goal (Rom.15.24). The pattern, familiar from Victorian missionaries, is like the call of Abraham: ‘Leave your country, your people and your family and go to the land I will show you’ (Gen.12.1). It’s a one-way ticket.
The picture of mission which we get in John’s gospel is different. It also, intriguingly, seems closer to Jesus’ own practice reported in the synoptic gospels than a simple sending-out. There Jesus sends out the disciples but then gathers them back again (Mark 6.7-13, 30; see also Luke 10.1-12, 17). The pattern is one of coming and going, a circular rather than linear one.
In a pioneer situation the linear pattern of mission is the right one. In a situation which is not a pioneer one, however, a circular pattern for mission may be much more realistic. Arguably that is the situation for which John’s gospel was written, late in the first century, for a church which was established though facing new challenges and threats. In that sense it may be close to our own position.
So the pattern of mission envisaged in John’s gospel seems to be of going-out and coming-in. The emphasis is on how God provides the resources to enable Christians to go out, and the need for them to return, again and again, to the source, which is where the crucial role of the Spirit comes in. For Jesus is no longer with them, for them to return to. But he is present with them in their worship, where they hear the Spirit speaking to them (John 16.13) in the words of Jesus himself. The pattern of sending-out and return is one that even characterises the relationship of Jesus and the Father (John 16.5).
The pattern is one which we still have in the regular round of worship. But how far do we see that worship as an end in itself, and how far do we see it as the means of being sent out, in order to return again? John might ask some sharp questions of our churches in general and each of us in particular. The circular pattern of mission which emerges from his gospel does not so much confront the world as encompass it, infiltrate it and pervade it as Christians come in and go out, bearing the good news of Jesus.
And Finally...
… a topical joke sent in by Terry Colling
While walking down the street one day a 'Member of Parliament' is tragically hit by a truck and dies.
His soul arrives in heaven and is met by St. Peter at the entrance.
'Welcome to heaven,' says St. Peter. 'Before you settle in, it seems there is a problem. We seldom see a high official around these parts, you see, so we're not sure what to do with you.'
'No problem, just let me in,' says the man.
'Well, I'd like to, but I have orders from higher up. What we'll do is have you spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity.'
'Really, I've made up my mind. I want to be in heaven,' says the MP.
'I'm sorry, but we have our rules.'
And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is a clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends and other politicians who had worked with him.
Everyone is very happy and in evening dress. They run to greet him, shake his hand, and reminisce about the good times they had while getting rich at the expense of the people.
They play a friendly game of golf and then dine on lobster, caviar and champagne.
Also present is the devil, who really is a very friendly & nice guy who has a good time dancing and telling jokes. They are having such a good time that before he realizes it, it is time to go.
Everyone gives him a hearty farewell and waves while the elevator rises...
The elevator goes up, up, up and the door reopens on heaven where St. Peter is waiting for him.
'Now it's time to visit heaven.'
So, 24 hours pass with the MP joining a group of contented souls moving from cloud to cloud, playing the harp and singing. They have a good time and, before he realizes it, the 24 hours have gone by and St. Peter returns.
'Well, then, you've spent a day in hell and another in heaven. Now choose your eternity.'
The MP reflects for a minute, then he answers: 'Well, I would never have said it before, I mean heaven has been delightful, but I think I would be better off in hell.'
So St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell.
Now the doors of the elevator open and he's in the middle of a barren land covered with waste and garbage.
He sees all his friends, dressed in rags, picking up the trash and putting it in black bags as more trash falls from above.
The devil comes over to him and puts his arm around his shoulder. 'I don't understand,' stammers the MP. 'Yesterday I was here and there was a golf course and clubhouse, and we ate lobster and caviar, drank champagne, and danced and had a great time. Now there's just a wasteland full of garbage and my friends look miserable.
What happened?'
The devil looks at him, smiles and says, 'Yesterday we were campaigning...
Today you voted.'
That's all, folks!
Richard
Richard Cooke
Coventry CME
Richard.Cooke@CovCofE.org