Simon Marsh

ANGELOS

Simon Marsh — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:47:09 +0000

HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS to each and every contributor to Bramhall Parish Church’s Faith+Angels Centenary Celebration in Art & Flowers – to artists, to Architects John Prichard & Chloe Maher, and a large team working with John Lambert, including Centenary Works foreman Grant Lyons, to arts and crafts supremo Pauline D’Souza, to bakers, to Bishop Robert of Stockport, to my colleague Ann Hyde, to Churchwardens George Foot, Tricia Munn and Ralph Luxon, to choirs, children, ecumenical supporters, Festival Chair Olive Roskilly & Flower Club Chair Val Huxley, to florists, musicians, Parochial Church Councillors, parish administrator, sexton, schools (& generous hearted teachers!), teenagers, vergers, to my predecessors the 4th & 5th Vicars of Bramhall for inspiring colleagueship and appreciated ministry, Young Church, and countless angels known and unknown. We’ve had the joy and privilege of welcoming hundreds of delighted guests to a never to be forgotten celebration of our Faith – and of our calling to be ‘angelos’ – messengers of good news. With all my heart: thank you. Thank you – 11 July 2010

A SMILING CELEBRATION …

Simon Marsh — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 17:12:44 +0000

FAITH+ANGELS is uniting dozens and dozens of people in the joyful art of smiling today … it’s been marvellous … more here

WE’RE ENTERTAINING ANGELS

Simon Marsh — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:04:33 +0000

AND THEY’RE LOVELY! … see more here

FAITH + ANGELS

Simon Marsh — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 22:06:39 +0000

FAITH + ANGELS is the theme of a series of Centenary celebrations at Bramhall Parish Church throughout 2010. From Thursday – Sunday this week, 8-11 July, the doors will be open wide to receive visitors to our Celebration in Art and Flowers. If you’re in the area do please stop by and say hello. Bishop Robert Atwell of Stockport will preside and preach at the Eucharist on Sunday at 10am.

ROOMS WITHOUT WINDOWS

Simon Marsh — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 08:00:04 +0000

ONE WEEK AGO I hardly drew breath as, in the company of several hundred others I listened, awestruck, to Martin Luther King Jr speak of his travels in the US and of the poverty, racial segregation and hopelessness he encountered in the lives of countless thousands. With gravelly voice and indefatigable will the prophet set out, again and again, his high and hopeful vision of a universal human dignity, graphically portraying the misery he witnessed in so many lives in the meantime.

We were in Swanwick in Derbyshire for the 2010 Chester Diocesan Clergy Conference. An excellent sound system made it seem that Luther King was physically present among us. And those with eyes to see could witness the truths of the man engraved now into the DNA of his biographer, Rick Lischer.

Lischer recalled the invisible line on public transport over which black people were forbidden to cross, and the hatred and the passion in Luther King’s opponents that led to his “only ever being comfortable, in the later years, in rooms without windows, for he was forever on the lookout for the fatal shot that he knew would surely come one day.” Life in a tomb: but Luther King was not to be silenced. Day after day, keeping a gruelling schedule whilst smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, he cajoled and preached and prayed “his one story”.

I recall that Bishop Michael Marshall used to speak of a preacher’s having only really one story to tell, and of the calling to tell it over and over and over again. The story of God’s love for Creation. The story of God’s reckless liberality. That’s the Gospel that captured my imagination at 8 years old. That’s the Gospel that captures my imagination and my service still.

But I don’t fear for my life as Martin Luther King did. Here in the UK I don’t need to seek refuge in rooms without windows. I can live in the light. I can tell my one story without fear. I can hear Luther King, I can hear Jesus Christ, living today in a conference hall, and in my heart. I fear windows neither from the inside nor the outside. I’m glad of the light.

So let the Church – let me – be big enough, brave enough, confident enough, to speak out loud and long the one truly important story in the Universe: that of the Divine Love that brings all things into being, sustaining them at all times and in all places. Let the Church be the “sound system” for the voice of Luther King’s Lord and mine:

Jesus said, “love one another” … in Birmingham, Alabama, in Southwark or Soweto. Love one another. Acknowledge no invisible dividing line. Is there a vacant seat? Then take it. It’s yours. Live in the light.

REV …

Simon Marsh — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 23:25:43 +0000

IT’S HEARTENING that the BBC want to air a programme about a parish priest let alone a series. And an absolute delight tonight to see little Adam Smallbone (Tom Hollander) – with a spot of help from the (horrendously smooth) archdeacon – see off the take-over bid of the tall and swaggering, wealthy “evangelical” Darren. There’s a touch of the prophet in old Auntie yet to be celebrated. Remember the camel and the eye of a needle?

“More show than sacrament”, the vicar said of Darren’s having “given” a service. Smoothies and sofas and large screen tv’s in this context give me the creeps to put it politely. And “Growing Churches” that are intent on seeing off anything that doesn’t quite come up to scratch are the very antithesis of the good news entrusted to the truly “evangelical”.

So the empty pews and the discordant singing of Adam’s core congregation were, oddly enough, welcome sight and sound by the end of tonight’s episode. Joy in heaven, I like to think, that “nobody loves me” Colin’s contribution is still being valued and welcomed, because somebody does.

The “weak liberal” Rev, the present writer, hoping and praying for a really Christ-like outcome to the kerfuffle of the past couple of days over the Southwark appointment, is altogether more cheerful after a half hour in front of the telly than he was at the beginning of the day. For I find myself thanking God that sometimes it’s the little guy who wins, that sometimes the struggles with finances, and bums in pews, really do give way to the enervating good news of real gospel, and that the “cost” turns out to be worth the candle.

God bless the little guys (not such a bad translation of Adam Smallbone) ; God bless those who laugh and cry whilst watching Rev. And may God bless the Diocese of Southwark, again, with the gift of another gifted, holy, teaching, welcoming and inclusive pastor. May we dare to hope that “his name shall be John”? The much vaunted “cost” would surely turn out to be worth it – for the the ensuing illumination.

“Your church is ours now” said the confident and ghastly Darren. Not so, Goliath. Not so. My church belongs to God.

PREACHING INTO POVERTY

Simon Marsh — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:15:41 +0000

The Preacher or The Poor?

YES! YES! God help me.
I’m just a tiny Money Spider
Up, up, up
And down in a rut.
Up, up, up
And down in a rut.
Up, up, up
And down in a rut.
Hot-footing it across
This radiator plain
Or, you might say,
Playing with fire.

[Andrew Rudd, a former Cheshire Poet Laureate, led another wonderful poetry session at Chester's Diocesan Clergy Conference. An element involved in Preaching into Poverty is keeping one's eyes open ... seeing what's around us ... maybe writing or speaking about what things "Out of the Ordinary" say to us. For the umpteenth time: thanks Andrew]

BRING ME LAUGHTER

Simon Marsh — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 01:00:31 +0000

I’M AWAY AT CHESTER’S Diocesan Clergy Conference and we’ve got off to a great start.

Lutheran Richard Lischer of Duke Divinity School set the ball rolling with Preaching into Poverty. I’m instantly struck by Lischer’s passion and grace and have a strong sense that the Conference is ready and willing to grapple very seriously indeed with what poverty is in our world today and what it says to us about all that humankind needs to become. Lischer demonstrates Luther King-like passion laced with a gentle humour … and humour is all to the good wherever there’s some really serious examination to be done.

So it’s been great that there was some good banter over supper, followed by an achingly funny “Evening with John Archer“. Very, very funny. Recommended to other diocesan conferences. There couldn’t have been a better start for this gathering than the sight and sound of a large room full of clerics holding on to their stomachs with mirth. And there are some thoroughly good sports amongst the folk who were “picked on” too.

Someone spoke tonight of the “bonds of affection” that reveal themselves each time we gather here. This is my tenth Chester conference (we used to have to queue at the phone booth clutching handfuls of change to be in touch with the outside world when I first started coming here) … and “bonds of affection” certainly rings true for me.

RE-MEMBERING … (how dry they were)

Simon Marsh — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:33:18 +0000

RE-MEMBER ME: the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th JULY will be dates long remembered in the collective memory of St Michael & All Angels Bramhall. There’ll be a coming together on those dates of many elements of God’s wonderful creation … women and men, children, and art, and music, and flowers, and prayer, and faith, and hope, and love, and re-membering. To celebrate 100 years. To celebrate Life.

Re-member me, said Jesus: co-create with me. Put flesh on the bare bones of life. Think about where you came from and about where you’re headed.

From the prophesy of Ezekiel 37.1-6

The hand of the LORD came upon me, and he led me out in the spirit of the LORD and set me in the centre of the plain, which was now filled with bones. He made me walk among them in every direction so that I saw how many they were on the surface of the plain. How dry they were! He asked me: Son of man, can these bones come to life? “Lord GOD,” I answered, “you alone know that.” Then he said to me: Prophesy over these bones, and say to them: Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: See! I will bring spirit into you, that you may come to life. I will put sinews upon you, make flesh grow over you, cover you with skin, and put spirit in you so that you may come to life and know that I am the LORD.

GOD, the fount and source of all our lives doesn’t rest with having created only the bare bones of things. GOD clothes bare bones with liveable-in, touchable, comfortable, beautiful, sensual, sensitive, feeling, vulnerable, hopeful, LIVING bodies. GOD breathes:

‘Sleepers wake’ (the watch-cry pealeth!). Come alive. Stand up. Look around you. Don’t lie down, dry and hopeless in the “plain”. Look at the birds of the air! Rise up like eagles. Dream dreams. Run and never tire. Love and love some more. Hand on today’s gift to another and you’ll be given the cup filled to overflowing in return. Lay down your life—and you’ll be raised to life. Be hospitable, be open to all. Have faith, have hope, have love. Therein you will find a Holy Communion which will feed you, and bless you, and fill you—and just when you think the party’s over the water will be turned into wine. A hundred years old you say? Ah. But the night is yet young and life is a wedding feast. Re member me. I love you.

This is our God. And the night is yet young. So we celebrate!

Jump for Joy by bingbing on Flickr

HERESY? FIRST ORDER?

Simon Marsh — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:37:17 +0000

THERE’S NO GETTING ROUND IT: I’m spending more and more time in company with people who tell me that they’ve been called “heretic” by “Christian friends”. And I love being with them – the “heretics” I mean. They’re immensely attractive. They’re almost always lovely, open-hearted, self-deprecating, generous people. They’re often people whose hearts have been hollowed out by suffering of one kind or another so that they’ve become Real – with themselves and with others. They sniff out cant and hypocrisy in an instant. They’re suspicious of religious claims that we’re all called to lifetimes of uncomplaining suffering because they see and hear and smell and taste and touch joy in the air. They’re living, breathing, walking Jubilate!

The “heretics” I delight in spending time with are so often people who are filled with Life and are life-giving. There’s a light in their eyes. They’re almost always the people who have most patently taken to heart that great teaching, always on the lips of Jesus, to “LOVE”. They’re frequently the people most bemused by the agonising that goes on in religious institutions about “first order issues”. Their hearts and their houses might properly bear the name “Bethlehem – birthplace of the Christ” because out of them comes the bread of life and the new wine of the Kingdom. And instead of talking about mission, instead of breast-beating about the kaleidoscope of opinions that life brings to the fore in each of us, they just get on with it. They are the mission. They’re alive and changing. Twisting and turning. Looking at life this way and that. Never minding when there’s a new hymn-tune. Happy to sing-along anyway. These are the people who are always at the wicket. They never take their bat home. Jesus loved them. And they inspirit me.

Some of them are musicians … today I thank God for one who writes “With a Song in My Heart” about Order and Orders. Some who’ve been called “heretic” (and worse) are Cathedral deans, and there’s a decidedly prophetic one in Southwark … who’s also a great Bible teacher amongst other gifts: Colin Slee preached recently about

the revelation of the presence of God that we can discover and proclaim in the most ordinary experiences of life.

Others of my aquaintance who’ve been described as “heretic” are wonderful people who are getting on with the daily business of living “the most ordinary experiences of life” – blessing and changing the lives of those around them by their very willingness to think, to listen, to challenge prejudice, to translate and interpret, to “unfold the Word of God” for our times and our people and our place. So many of them could easily be mistaken for Jesus of Nazareth, men, women and children amongst them.

In his recent Charge to the General Synod of the Scottish Episcopal Church the Primus, Bishop David Chillingworth said:

“… the church is energised when we begin to explore what mission means. Even to talk about it brings to people a feeling that they are handling what faith is about. No longer is the discourse about the church – no longer is it for insiders alone. The church becomes a Pentecost place where everybody can speak in their own language the wonders and the richness of God in their lives”

I’ve just spent another morning in a café church of just three persons. (Don’t miss another “Song in the Heart” here). After we’d ordered the coffee the other “first order” issues involved shared recognition and passionate conviction that we’re all called to “consider the lilies of the field” … many lilies in many fields … none of them truly heretical … “See how your Heavenly Father cares for them” … and to celebrate the importance of each and every one of them. And if that kind of Christian discipleship is to be called “heresy” then we’ll just let it be so. For that kind of “heresy” isn’t a bad thing.