Myth, metaphor, symbol and uncertainty.

A couple of weeks ago, I was preparing some stuff and got hooked by the ideas of Joseph Campbell. He was heavily into myth and strongly influenced by Freud and in turn Jung. Here's a bit from that great authority Wikipedia

"A fundamental belief of Campbell's was that all spirituality is a search for the same basic, unknown force from which everything came, within which everything currently exists, and into which everything will return. This elemental force is ultimately “unknowable” because it exists before words and knowledge. Although this basic driving force cannot be expressed in words, spiritual rituals and stories refer to the force through the use of "metaphors"—these metaphors being the various stories, deities, and objects of spirituality we see in the world. For example, the Genesis myth in the Bible ought not be taken as a literal description of actual events, but rather its poetic, metaphorical meaning should be examined for clues concerning the fundamental truths of the world and our existence."

 This is heavy stuff if you start your mind running on the possible outcomes. I was blown away by the concept that words have no meaning until you read and understand them. Reading is an interpretative act. Okay, it's within a framework, but not everyone shares the same hermeneutic.

When you ally that to Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle which says you can either know the position or the speed of something but not both at the same time - and it's difficult to be certain about even that, the whole thing becomes an invitation to provisionality and ushers in the great post-modern bogeyman of relativity.

No wonder fundamentalism is becoming popular!

I need to lie down and listen to Pink Floyd at high volume!!!

Because you're worth it

I have just returned from co-leading a residential weekend for the curates in our Diocese - the Anglican diocese of Winchester. Curates are recently ordained ministers who are still in the initial phase of their training and formation which lasts for four years after ordination.

We took the L'Oreal tag-line as our theme for the weekend and set it beside Psalm 8 which contains these words:

³

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
   the moon and the stars that you have established;
⁴what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
   mortals^* that you care for them?

⁵Yet you have made them a little lower than God,^*
   and crowned them with glory and honour.
⁶You have given them dominion over the works of your hands;
   you have put all things under their feet,

We spent the weekend exploring the question "what is the worth of a human being" resisting the temptation to carry out a chemical analysis or explore the Greek notion of a soul weighing 21 grams! It was an enjoyable weekend and the 42 participants all made a really useful contribution. We set out a framework and invited folk to participate by bringing their own experience and questions to provide the material. It worked very well. Each session borrowed a tag-line from the world of advertising.

We began on Friday evening:

Session #1 Fanatical about film (Borrowed from Odeon cinemas) in which we watched Crimes and Misdemeanors together.

Saturday

Session #2 Prepare to want one (Borrowed from Hyundai) In which we shared reflections on the film related to our theme and then explored some recent newspaper headlines and tried to get inside the story from our own perspective through considering how the headline appeared, or not, to value the people the story was about.

Session #3  Challenge everything (Borrowed from EA Games) in which folk were split into small groups to work through a passage of the Bible together and some quotations to continue our reflection on the central theme.

Session #4 Life is random (Borrowed from ipod nano) in which we invited folk into 'open-space' conversations about any subject they were prepared to host that touched on our theme.

Session #5 Wassssssssup? (Borrowed from Budweiser) explored how notions of the individual and their worth are portrayed through advertising. Plenty to reflect there.

Sunday

Session #6 It's good to talk (Borrowed from BT) in which folk were invited to reflect on their priestly vocation in the light of the ministries of hospitality and reconciliation God calls us towards. Participants were then invited to dream what their ultimate church community might be like if there were no resource constraints. Then into groups to discuss the outcomes.

Pentecost Eucharist in which we celebrated the coming and empowering of The Comforter - God's Holy Spirit.

All in all an excellent weekend. thanks to everyone involved.

'yearn' - further reflection

I had the chance of discussing with a colleague training for ordination, my take on Saturday's grace and the inclusion of the f word in the Eucharistic liturgy. It was an insightful conversation in which he observed that the word 'sin' has so much baggage attached to it that induces guilt which therefore invites divine judgement and retribution. All pretty negative really. F**k on the other hand is a descriptive term for getting things wrong and as a consequence putting distance between ourselves and God and others.

I much prefer the intentionality of the latter as it more quickly opens up a way to seek healing, wholeness, forgiveness and restoration. All pretty positive really.

I will keep reflecting.

Grace - 'yearn'

Based on the story of The Prodigal Son from Luke and using poems and songs by the Irish poet Pádraig Ó Tuama we explored themes of yearning for home and identifying with different characters in the story. It began by asking what/where do we consider home to be? Today I saw the answer:

Which pretty much accorded with my response - it's a relationship not a place.

The service included rapping, chanting, rituals, visuals and prayers - all good stuff. It also included communion with a very profound and theologically rich Eucharistic prayer. The prayer included the expletive f**k, in terms of describing how we get things wrong repeatedly, the use of which was at first jarring in that context. I have been reflecting on this and wondered if it was a case of the Church taking communion to the world or whether it was bringing the world - my world - to the brokenness of communion.

In any case a good time of fellowship and worship.

Thank you Sue, Dean and Jonny.

Saints 3 Southend United 1

On a bitterly cold and damp Saturday afternoon the season ended with Saints on 73 points secure in 7th place. It might all have been very different!

It was at one stage possible that the club would go into liquidation. Had we been taken over by a consortium bidding at the upper end of their budget, no money for development would have been available. The assets such as the training ground and the farm may have been sold off.

As it is, we finish with a points tally that in any other season would have given us a place in the play-offs - never mind the 10 points we were docked! The training facility at Staplewood is receiving a major redevelopment, the squad is strong, we have an excellent Manager and the team running the business know what they are doing and have the resources to back it up. As I said it could all look very different to the reality we now face.

The game was even in the first half. Southend play good football on the ground with good moving and passing. Aaron Martin was handed his second consecutive start in central defence alongside Jaidi and both looked assured and were pretty efficient at cutting out any attacks. As a team, we sometimes still become mesmerised when players are dribbling towards the penalty area - we back off and back off and fail to make a challenge thereby inviting a shot on goal. Same again yesterday as Moussa scored a good goal.

As is usually the case, conceding galvanises the team into making a response and Rickie Lambert took his tally for the season to 36 just 3 minutes later. He then scored again from the penalty spot - although Lallana wanted to take it to give him a tally of 20 for the season. He needn't have worried as he scored in the 91st minute by waltzing through the Southend defence.

There were repeated notices on the big screens and over the PA telling fans not to invade the pitch afterwards, otherwise the players wouldn't come out for a lap of appreciation. This was repeated ad-nauseam which really raised the fans ire - with due provocation. There were so many police and stewards around the perimeter of the pitch by the end. that it would have been virtually impossible to invade in any case.

A good end to a very good season.

Thank you Markus Liebherr, Nicola Cortese, Alan Pardew and the rest of the Saints team - on and off the pitch. A great effort.

Looking forward to next season already. Apparently we have signed Calderon from Brighton so it seems the commitment to build and develop is being manifested in real terms. Onward and upward.

COYR

Gillingham 2 Saints 1

By all accounts we were caught by the pace and power of a desperate team playing five strikers and running the game at 100 mph. Gillingham have a very strong home record and have already beaten most of the top sides in the division. It was of little surprise that Saints lost knowing there was nothing but pride to play for. A couple of changes in the side allowed a different formation to be tried and I'm sure Pardew found it a valuable lesson.

It was a dogged performance from Saints who only managed 42% of the possession and in the pouring rain struggled to match Gillingham's work-rate. Connelly managed to pull one back for Saints but it was not enough and Saints suffered a rare defeat.

Well done guys and well done Saints fans with a total gate of 9,504 which included 2,176 Saints fans - more than 20%!

COYR

The Lightning Seeds - Basingstoke

Caught the Lightning Seeds at The Anvil in Basingstoke at the end of their UK tour - good gig. The music was very good with interesting interpretations and variations on the recorded form. Ian Broudie is so laid back and/or painfully shy that he never quite manages to whip even a willing crowd into a frenzy of adulation and 'lostness' within the music. He did manage to get us on our feet bopping along and the final finale song - Three Lions - got a very enthusiastic response in this World Cup year (dream on England!).

It was odd in that the band were not introduced. They provided a very tight and rhythmically pounding foundation for Broudie's guitar picking and syrupy vocal style. The girl playing keyboards - and much more besides - was amazing and has a great voice. Who was she, where else does she play?

There was a good-sized crowd there who were appreciative of what was performed. Looking forward to getting the new album.