shotleyfieldsforever

When I first moved to Shotley Fields I was not entirely sure whether the woodland between the house and the road belonged to the house, or whether it belonged to someone else. Consequently I was delighted when I was told yes, it is your Wood aka Spinney. Within the woodland there is a particularly lovely tranquil space which I immediately thought of as a possible chapel. The clearing consists of a space around which stand a number of trees in a half circle like columns with the 'walls' beyond being almost entirely filled with Holly and Ivy, glimpses of the sky through clerestory 'windows' in the ceilings, each feature brings the sense of a natural God given space where it is possible to reflect on the mystery of nature and the sheer wonder of creation. Today I came one step nearer to achieving the possibility of the chapel's creation as I  cleared the ground and set the floor with wood chippings. Googling Chapel in the Woods elicited a response a...

Will Hutton, writing in Sunday's Observer, comments on the current right wing drift of politics, and offers reassurance that it will soon be overturned by a new revolution of common sense. His argument is that the current right wing groundswell is not deep rooted and will be swept to one side by winds of change. The most recent observations as reported in the press and on BBC Radio News of Mr Farage addressing an audience  in Australia, seem to be a clear case of Lese Majeste, it remains to be seen what the outcome of Mr Farage's reported comments might be. But we have a situation in our political life where individuals are seen promoting policies against the advice of other more sensible heads. Rational thought has been exchanged for a do or die approach to any problem. Whether it is Brexit or Climate Change, the two most pressing problems of our civic life, the solution seems to be lets press on, see what happens, claim back sovereignty, or as Norman Lamont observe...

This Sunday past we held a Cafe Style Church in Shotley Fields. Coffee and Bacon Sandwiches, followed by a meditation on the Lord's Prayer. Sung, read aloud, signed and concluding with distribution of this familiar prayer translated as emojis which was then printed as Bookmarks and shared. I had my leg pulled by the congregation because I was typecast in a mini drama as God, constantly interrupting someone who was praying the prayer, as we all do, a bit by rote, a bit sub-consciously through familiarity and a bit repetitively through practise. Focusing on one prayer, repeating it in different forms, modes, translations and usages could have been risky, the potential for boredom hurdle was probably set quite low but by the end most people had learnt something, most people had renewed their interest in this ancient, biblical, family prayer of the Church understood in its widest and most commonly used form. And Bacon Sandwiches always help ....... Worship does need to be ...