shotleyfieldsforever

Mothering Sunday usually referred to the day in the middle of Lent when congregations travelled to the mother church. The Cathedral or perhaps here in Shotley Fields the Mother Church which was Blanchland Abbey. More recently the day  has become confused with the American Mothers Day which is focussed on 'Mom and Apple Pie'. Two biblical mothers, Hannah and Mary are recalled in our readings, Hannah whose son Solomon was dedicated to God's service and Mary whose heart was pierced with a sword. There is apparently a current TV show about houses.  I understand that it makes fascinating viewing. Of course not all houses are of interest. But yesterday when the carpet fitter came to measure he asked some interesting questions about the house we live in here in Shotley Fields. As Glen Hoddle famously commented about a game of football, ‘it was a game of to halves’. And this is a house of two halves. With the upper landing door firmly closed and ...

Sometimes, like the weather, the week can be somewhat crazy and mixed up. This last week and the weekend was definitely in that category. Illness meant that some key people were not able to take forward their roles and responsibilities so I went into 'recovery mode' and hopefully we are on track. I guess that age and experience count for something. My new Tonka Toy is old and weather beaten, a bit like me, and climbing the 900 feet from the Tyne to Carterway Heads, a sudden loss of power and a discharge black smoke, made me think that the worst was happening. Fortunately it was simple, a jubilee clip, which responded to a little gentle persuasion and soon we were good to go. If only everything was that simple? I know when my back decides to go, a family failing, it can take a few days of R and R to shake of the rigours and to stand again without discomfort. I once attended a meeting in the very North of the Diocese in or around the year 1980. It was a difficult m...

Now the Woodland, the Spinney, has been surveyed. Some trees now have a red bull's eye on them to indicate that they must be felled, damage, disease, decay has affected them and they can no longer hold their own. So they are marked with the spot, not the mark of Cain or the Jim Hawkins black spot, just a red dot to say that their days are numbered. But you cannot just fell trees, you have to think of the future and so like the Admiral in Simon Schama's book Landscape & Memory, I shall become the gatherer of Acorns and I will plant Oak Trees, not for myself or my family but for future generations so that this wood will continue to be an asset, adorning this area, a place of beauty, quiet and peaceful prayer. Some years ago the indoor critic and I with our son William took a forest walk guided by a forester. At one point he stood by a great Oak Tree and said reflectively this is my favourite tree in the whole forest, it was planted a couple of hundred years ago by on...

My first thoughts on seeing the Vicarage Wood was what a wonderful, serene woodland Chapel it would make. What a lovely space to sit on a summers morning and to rehearse the words of the Te Deum: O Lord, save Thy people: and bless Thine heritage.  Govern them and lift them up for ever.  What I didn't think was that here was risk and hidden danger.  At least not until 5 00 am or thereabouts on Wednesday when the whole house was plunged into darkness. After checking, clearly we had no power, but there was power in the Church and in the Church Hall, then we discovered that a tree had been blown down in the storm the previous night bringing our power supply  with it. We had seven for lunch and a meeting in the Vicarage. Ultimately the main casualty was the Lent Group which had to be cancelled, trying to re-enact The Greatest Showman as charades by candlelight seemed a challenge to far. And then it transpired that the oil feed to the boiler...

The removal men's faces sank when they came to move me from my retirement cottage to my new lease of life Vicarage. It was not the furniture, the white goods or the beds it was the books. Having counted the pennies for most of my adult life, often with too much month at the end of the money, often without two half pennies to rub together, mysteriously there has always been money for books. Despite the occasional thinning down, occasionally selling a few selected pieces to fund a particular project, despite downsizing when I retired, nevertheless the books attract comments, the most common being: Have you read all of these? to which the answer is, pretty much. As a student I once returned from my vacation to a note from the person who had used my room during a conference, the note complimented me on my library and thanked me for the opportunity to read a couple of my books. Around the corner from the College was a bookshop that, it being the early sixties and they didn...

On the first Sunday of the month our Local  Ministry Development Team take responsibility for the worship at our main service. Yesterday we focused on the need for clean water as a key source of health in Burkina Faso ( The Land of Incorruptible People) the speaker was a GP who raises money to provide water filters to ensure that the water people collect is potable. During the service the young people experimented with the water filter, drawing very dirty water from a bucket through the filter and into a glass. The congregation supports the charity and was engaged by the talk and the demonstration. After the exchange of the peace I left the church with the young people to be interviewed in the Hall. It proved to be a thoroughly enjoyable but rigorous test. The whys and wherefores of the life of a Vicar were put under the microscope and forensically examined. Put on the spot I had to describe how I, as young 19 year old, decided to to seek ordination? (the example of ...