shotleyfieldsforever

This blog is an introduction to an event held recently in the parish. St Andrew’s Grey Mare Hill 22 nd June 2019 Welcome to this evening of Music, Drama and Poetry in this ancient Church where community has been made and celebrated for over 300 years. We will hear music and poetry reflecting the landscape of this place, we will also meet some of the characters who have lived in and around Grey Mare Hill and we will share something of the lives they lived. Relax as you listen to music that has been especially commissioned for this evening by Chad Langford, a local composer and musician who lives in the hamlet of Snods Edge.  Chad’s music is composed using a computer and incorporates rhythmic ‘found’ sounds and material; footsteps, doors locking and unlocking, birdsong and weather, much of which was originally recorded in the church. A group of local musicians accompany the music, playing an introduction to a traditional song. If you are familiar wit...

Ministry? The man from the ......... The man who offers ......... The Tax Man ........ Or the man who is the minister? What is ministry? How is it defined and offered, delivered and received? After 50 years I might, should, have some insight? 50 years ago I would have defined it as being amongst, being with and supporting people who were in some way struggling, either with health or with faith or with the challenges that life has presented them. So pastoral visiting, hospital visiting, prison visiting, attending meetings, celebrating the Eucharist, hearing confessions, each of these were part of what overall ministry meant. In one parish I was told how wonderful it was, after a long vacancy to see the lights in the Vicarage on. I pointed out that an adaptor with a time switch would've been cheaper and probably more reliable. Now it seems that Ministry is more complicated. There are more meetings, there is safeguarding, there are DBS checks and there is more time ...

I once owned a juke box, it was a RockOla, and rock it did, Abba to the Zutons, with Lola by the Kinks around halfway. I sold my Juke Box when I downsized. Then I gave my Vinyl away. Then Amazon, Apple and Spotify took over my life. A couple of weeks ago in the Oxfam shop in Hexham I bought a record player, a Crosley. It is packaged as a suitcase. Opens up as a record player so now I am buying singles, mainly singles. Groovy Kind of Love by Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders is so far my best buy. However nostalgia is not what it used to be. Last night the new Bruce Springsteen flowed out of my Amazon Echo on demand. Always difficult to know whether to be up with the birds or down with the kids. It's difficult to imagine any one of the current candidates running a campaign never mind a country but we are left with the prospect of a Prime Minister elected by the last surviving 200 members of the Conservative and Unionist Party all burning with the desire to lea...

Today I attended a conference. The speaker was excellent and I learned a good deal from the wisdom she shared. But I sat on the edge. On the edge of the conference. On the edge of delegates. I separated myself. Increasingly I find that I prefer my own company. Some years ago my attention was drawn to my habit of always sitting in meetings at the end of a row sometimes with a whole row of separation between me and the other attendees. Even now in the Cinema, the Theatre or at a concert I prefer a seat on the end of a row where I can relax. Put me in the centre where the view is supposedly better and I stress, but on the end of row with an easy escape route, then I can relax and enjoy the show even if my sightline is a little off to the left or the right. I guess that it is true to say that I have never been a 'clubbable' person. My hobbies from cycling to motorcycling have been activities that I have undertaken on my own without company. As my PE Teacher comme...