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This morning, Anita and I travelled out to Alton Barnes for another and our  final coffee morning before the Pewsey Deanery Pilgrimage starts officially tomorrow.  It was a beautiful day, and a wonderful day to drive out to the Vale of Pewsey, and to sit beneath one of Wiltshire’s famous White Horses.

We pulled up in front of the Coronation Hall at Alton Barnes, after quickly showing Anita the cherished Saxon church in the village.  Ours was the only car in the front of the building, and we suspected the fine day, and a Saturday would not be popular for the coffee morning.  How wrong could we be.  Inside was a welcome party of  four people, who quickly poured some very decent coffee, and implored us to choose freely from a selection of delicious cakes.  I picked a lovely slice of coffee cake, and an apricot slice.  No charge – donations only!

We took a table and chatted to the couple sat alongside, and within a few minutes the hall was packed with chatty neighbours, who clearly saw this opportunity to get out and get caught  up with the local news and views.  There must have been around 40-50 people in the hour we were there.  I managed to speak to most people, and found out so much from just listening to their story, their thoughts and ideas about community and the values that they try to live by.  Some recognised me from the Sarum Link articles [well done editorial team!], others had heard about the Pilgrimage week with the Bishop, and were looking forward to various events in the diary. 

Another indication of how this community welcomes people, was demonstrated when a local farmer’s wife, who has diversified into gypsy caravan holidays, brought into the carpark her lovely caravan, Tom the horse, and the family from Bexley who were renting the van for a few days.  I came out and chatted to the family, and visited the van – basic, but romantic, if that does it for you – and wished them God’s blessing for their journey this week, and asked them to remember us in our journey.  Anita took some photos – just for you to enjoy the caravan, and to show that my rolled up clerical shirt sleeves, and the cool but casual/smart chinos are still making me fashion fit and a fine fellow! Fancy the chance of a similar holiday?  Try your luck at: http://www.whitehorsegypsycaravans.co.uk/

I am now really ready and geared up to enjoy all that our Pilgrimage brings us – remember to check the diary to see what we are up to: http://www.unitefc.org/events.html

Countdown to the Ramsbury Area Pilgrimage Week 2010 has started, and events and visits will have been noted in the past couple of weeks, but for me, today was the start of some serious mission activity.

First thing, I went over the Burbage church centre, where a coffee and browse morning was underway.  Coffee and yummy jam doughnut for just £1, and a chance to browse around a few table top sales.  Good stuff too!  But for me the opportunity to chat a residents was priceless.  I chatted to a group of mums, and their children, about the village, the church, and their lives – fascinating.

Then, this evening I went back to Pewsey to the Bouverie Hall where we watched a film called Mugabe and the White African.  The synopsis of the real life documentary goes as follows:

Michael Campbell is one of the few hundred white farmers left in Zimbabwe since President Robert Mugabe began his violent land seizure program in 2000. Since then the country has descended into chaos, the economy brought to its knees by the reallocation of formerly white-owned farms to ZANU-PF friends and officials with no knowledge, experience or interest in farming. Mike, like hundreds of white farmers before him, has suffered years of multiple land invasions and violence at his farm.

In 2008, Mike, 75 years old and a grandfather – unable to call upon the protection of any Zimbabwean authorities and unable to even rely on the support of his fellow white farmers, all facing the same brutal intimidation – took the unprecedented step of challenging Robert Mugabe before the SADC (South African Development Community) international court, charging him and his government with racial discrimination and of violations of Human Rights. 

This film is an intimate account of one family’s astonishing bravery in the face of brutality, in a fight to protect their property, their livelihood and their country. The outcome of the court case potentially determining not just the future that lies ahead for Mike and his family, but the future of millions of ordinary Zimbabweans who continue to suffer at the hands of a dictator who, in setting his own countrymen against each other, has demonstrated that he cares only for power.

On the brink of losing everything, Mike and his family (wife Angela, daughter Laura and her husband Ben Freeth) stand united by their courage, their faith and their hope. Mike knows the personal risk to himself and his family that this case brings. Whatever the verdict by the court, this audacious and unprecedented stand may yet cost them their lives.

The evening was made very special – we were honoured to have Zac Freeth, the father of Ben Freeth present, to update us on the family’s situation, and to offer some insights into the worsening state of affairs in Zimbabwe.  A huge turnout was rewarded with a heartrending account of adversity being overcome by prayer and faith.  If you want to know more check out: http://www.mugabeandthewhiteafrican.com/  I was asked to give a short reflection and then end the evening with prayer.

Great stuff, and a great start to the Unite FC  pilgrimage in mission week.  I hope to blog each day, but that may depend on signal and internet access, but please stick with us!!

I’m inspired to write a blog – it’s got nothing to do with the wonderful countryside I have travelled throughout this diocese over the last couple of weeks. Nor the lovely people I have met, nor the interesting churches and villages I have visited – some of which I have never visited before.

No it was a herd of pigs on the outskirts of Shrewton. It was a lovely hot afternoon and some of the pigs were wallowing in the muddy pools the farmer had left for them. But this was not good enough for one of their number – this pig had decided that it wanted its own bath and had got into a drinking trough and was lying full length in it. The trough was surrounded by about 6 other pigs all trying to drink but couldn’t because of their co-pig.

I managed to get a look at the face of the pig in the trough and it seemed as though that pig was smiling and enjoying to the full their bath. I have no idea how long it stayed in the trough as I had to get to a meeting and I was unable to take a photo to put with this text. But the image of that pig has stayed with me and I expect will always come into mind whenever I pass a field of pigs.

Sunday saw me go up to Burbage, some 5 miles north east of Pewsey for a pre-Pilgrimage service.  Check out the latest plans at http://www.unitefc.org/events.html

The service was a lay led Service of the Word, and we welcomed Peter Grant, International Director of Tearfund, who had coordinated the project to build a new bridge at Kembedole, in Yei Diocese, Sudan.  Burbage’s website gives the following details:

The appeal to raise £6,500 launched at All Saints in September to help build a bridge in the southern Sudanese village of Kembedole has reached its target, thanks to the amazing response of the church and community of Burbage.
The need for a speedy completion of the bridge was brought home recently after news of the tragic death of a Kembedole primary teacher who slipped from the temporary rafter crossing and hit his head on a rock in the waters below.
Construction of the new bridge started last April and by the end of June, all concrete works were completed. The community took responsibility for mobilizing local resources in the form of stones, sand, unskilled labour and food for construction workers – much of the work done by village women. Steel and cement was provided by Tearfund’s partners in Sudan, Across, and the local government stepped in to donate a 15 metric tonne truck chassis which has been lifted on to the concrete columns.
Tearfund representative in Nairobi Jonas Njelango said he was so grateful to the people of All Saints for playing a part in lifting the community of Kembedole out of physical and spiritual poverty.
The project caught the imagination of the church and the community through a whole range of fund-raising events – from dancing lessons to sponsored runs, jewellery auctions to a head shave – and these were boosted by individual and group donations.
Appeal chairman Barry Smith said the response was beyond his wildest dreams.
“It has been so exciting to see how the build a bridge project really took off and a lot of people have worked really hard to make the dream of the Kembedole community come true.
“It looks like we have exceeded our target and we are thrilled about that because any extra money raised will be kept by Tearfund in a special account to be used for another project to be decided on in the next few months.
“We hope this will be just the start of links between All Saints and southern Sudan because we don’t want to just build a bridge and forget about it, but build a bridge between our communities which will not only enrich them but us too”.

They raised the money with some really innovative ideas, including dance classes with Robert and Nicola Grist, the assistant curate with the team, who are professional dance teachers – they raised £2191!  That’s a lot of footwork.  The bridge project was achieved by raising £6291, and the excess, some £3500 will go towards the next project, which will be to train Church volunteers in Yei to companion people affected by HIV, making sure they attend clinics and get the right medicine, so that death is not the only outcome.  They are needing to raise £7000 more for this, so if  you wish to get involved – contact them via their email: clergy@savernaketeam.org.uk

The morning’s service was followed by a tasty BBQ outside the church, followed by the presentation of the cheque for the bridge to Peter Grant.  Well done Burbage, church and community uniting to make a difference.  A great prelude to Unite FC – the Ramsbury Pilgrimage for 2010.

A simple meal – or was it?  I needed to cook a relatively simple meal recently, a few prawns, some salmon fillets, and some vegetables – cooked indian style from a new cook book my family had treated me to!  Such is life!

I called into a cheaper high street supermarket, to purchase the goodies, and usually I always try and source local produce.  Time was tight, and so I did a trolley dash, collecting the fish, prawns, cauliflower, green beans and spices as I went.  I was amazed when  I came home and unpacked the food.  The prawns were from China, the salmon from Finland, the cauli from France, green beans from Israel, and the chillies from Zambia.  The goods may have been cheaper but at what cost to the carbon footprint and the Fair-trade world?  I’ll try and shop more wisely next time, and even so, the dishes were very nice and all gobbled up!

This week I’ve been able to take some time to relax and enjoy a few days away from the hurley burly of Area life.  Last weekend I was chatting to an ordained colleague, and said that I was taking the weekend off.  What’s that, he replied, a weekend off?  I was rather embarrassed, and felt guilty – but then I thought, why should I be?  I was rather more concerned about my colleague – and will offer to cover a weekend for him at some early stage.  I presume it was some kind of joke – but it does reflect rather poorly that we joke about such things.  It feels like we need to stretch like a high jumper and clear the bar which enables us to get that much needed space.

This week has been a week full of walking and reading, and visiting place and people.  Having just celebrated Rogation and beating the bounds, I was thinking about boundaries as I meandered up the Woodford Valley on a walk this week.  Fences are useful things – keeping the things we want kept in, in; and keeping the things we want kept outside, outside.  Whilst up on the ridge above Durnford, I came across many pigs in their shelters, and noticed that the wire fence keeping them in was just one strand of wire [no doubt electrified] and only about six inches from the ground.  Surely I thought the larger [or long legged] pig would simply step over that?  Obviously not – otherwise they would be roaming up and down the Woodford Valley!  But if pigs could fly – then they would only need to glide over seven inches to escape.

Fences are useful things; helpful navigation aids for walkers, and when you get to a stile or kissing gate there is a sense of crossing from one part of the journey onto the next.  They mark safe places, and also mark areas we should not trespass into.  I also know to my personal cost – that you can’t actually sit on the fence – it hurts, and you have to come down on one side or the other.  In the forthcoming elections this next week, please think carefully about where you stand, and make your vote count.

Good Morning,

Today I would like to tell you about someone who has inspired me for some time – my mother.

She grew up in Norfolk, managed to pass the exams to go to grammar school but her parents could not afford to send her, she met my Dad when she was in her late teens but they didn’t marry until 1945, Mum was in the WAAF and Dad was in India/Burma. After they were married she moved with Dad where his work took them, finally ending up in Somerset where she has stayed for the last 51 years. She raised my sister, brother and I and ran the house on a farmer workers salary.

In her 70s she had cancer and had to have major surgery, whilst the rest of us were getting anxious Mum was very calm telling us that God had given the surgeon his skills so she would trust the surgeon as she trusted God. She has bad arthritis and a damaged shoulder but still keeps going.

My father died last July and my Mum has begun to manage her life without the love of her life whom she had known for about 70 years. She has now decided to move again and will be living in Durrington by the end of March.

Throughout all her life Mum has had a faith which has remained strong through all the ups and downs of her life. She looks at nature and sees God in everything she sees and finds it hard to, understand why others can’t or won’t believe in a God who can create so much beauty and diversity. This faith has helped her through so much and I hope that my faith will become as all encompassing as hers. She is definitely fully alive.

O what a wonderful weather week we are enjoying!  I love these fresh spring mornings, and I have to say, I love the opportunity of dropping the hood on the MG [or Hoover, as she is affectionately known in parts of the Nadder Valley - see an earlier Blog!] and heading out to meetings across the different directions of Salisbury Plain.

Notwithstanding the purring sound of the gentle throb of the finely tuned engine; the breeze whiffling through my finely coiffeured hair; the cool look of the UV filtering Ted Baker sunglasses – it is so good to experience the sights, sounds, and smells of the countryside around us.  Most drivers I guess will look around them from time to time whilst driving, but usually with the windows up, and the radio or CD player on.  But in the MG there is a valueaddedness to the journey; a connectedness with the living environment that we are part of.

As I drove up to Devizes from Salisbury recently, I could smell the freshly ploughed soil in the field where the tractor still laboured; and I knew long before I could see, that there was the field of pigs, happily snouting their noses in the mud, thanks to my keen sense of smell.  I heard the birdsong and the helicopters, and the chatter from the refreshment vans parked in the lay-bys, and the children in the school playgrounds.  Outdoors - engaging with sight, sound, smell and taste and touch really makes life exciting and full. 

I wish much more of our daily life engaged with as many of our senses as possible; to be fully aware, and Fully Alive - that is why I think the Eucharist for me is the most sensual of our liturgies – sight, sound, touch, smell and taste. 

Switch off the radio, slow down, open the windows, and be aware.  The Lord is good indeed.

Thursday saw me travelling to West Lulworth to meet folks who were going to help with the Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) forms in that area. It was a lovely drive, through some wonderful countryside – even the sun shone for some of it. Whilst I was driving I noticed the change in the hedgerows and remembered a comment my mother had made last weekend about the trees seeming to be near bursting point. She meant that they were ready to burst into bloom and/or leaf, and there was certainly a greeny glow about the hedgerows and trees which would support that. Now again I came across groups of daffodils, crocus and trees with white blossom, all heralding the arrival of yet more colour in the weeks to come.

When I arrived at the meeting it was to find that the house was near a barn full of ewes waiting to lamb, another sign of creation soon to be bursting out and the ewes made certain we knew!. During the meeting it went across my mind that even in here there were signs of people waiting to burst forth -  and not only because we had eaten chocolate cake!

In all cases creation, be it people, plant or animal, was preparing itself to burst forth and it was humbling to think that all of this was going unnoticed by so many people but that they would eventually benefit from it.

So if you are preparing to burst forth may it be a good time and that you find yourself much loved by those around you.

It has been one of those weekends – you know, a lighter than usual weekend, so you can catch up – but one that rapidly became rather more pressured than you would have wished.  How do you prioritise?  Work, domestic, personal – urgent, necessary, what I would like to do, what others would like me to do.  On Friday I had hoped to have one of my regular walking days, but meetings and other priorities made that impossible.

Saturday night saw me with the Army Cadet Force, for their Officers’ Mess Dinner.  We were at the Shaw Country Hotel near Melksham, and it was a good opportunity to catch up on news, as well as to lend my presence as their County Chaplain.  One of the areas that interests me in the ACF is map reading.  I have a good collection of Ordnance Survey maps – which I find fascinating, as well as really useful when it comes to planning walks etc.  Planning routes, identifying landmarks, and safely navigating across country are all satisfying aspects of belonging to a group that uses OS maps.

This morning, I wanted to try and combine some of my tasks on my list, and so I decided I would go to church and then walk.  After a hearty breakfast, I asked Anita to drop me off at Coombe Bissett, where I knew that their new Team Vicar, Jenny Taylor was celebrating and preaching at the 1100 Eucharist. All went well, and the service was well taken, and the sermon encouraging and challenging.  Having arrived in my walking kit, I bade a hearty farewell, and shouldered my rucksack – sending the pile of hymnbooks on the welcome table flying in all directions.

At the lych-gate, I paused and looked at my OS map.  I wanted to come home to Bemerton, and looked for suitable off-road route.  Studying the map for some time, I noticed the line of a Roman road, clearly and as straight as was possible, carving a line through to Old Sarum.  I’d not noticed that before, and in fact recognised that Roman Road in Bemerton is actually a metalled section of the original road [why did I not notice that before?] and also the little section of short cut road that takes you down from the Race Course road to Bishopstone, bypassing Stratford Tony, is also a metalled part of that Roman road.  Fascinating I hear you cry!

I decided to take the old drovers road from Coombe Bissett to the Cattle Market, up to the Race Course, then alongside the course until I dropped down towards the cattle market itself, turning off to take the footpath to Harnham, and then a little piece of suburban road in Harnham, before heading across the water meadows through Broken Bridges, and into Bemerton.  Four miles and just a tad over one hour.  My goodness though – the wind cut right through me as I walked along the ridge by the race course, and the snow flakes bit into my cheeks.

It was a good walk – and after a reflective time in church, gave me space and time to work out some of the more important details in my own mind.  I did notice however, that there was a lot of fly-tipped refuse along much of the path, as well as the usual consumer through aways.  Should I have taken a black bin liner with me, and picked up as much as I could?  After all, much was plastic bottles, and crisp packets and beer cans – not very heavy but much of which I could have recycled.  What do you think – what would you do?

Above all, I thought about all the other people who had walked the route I was walking, thinking about their prayers and mine, rejoicing in the Way, and the sense of belonging to the companions of Christ, who we celebrated as the Light to lighten the Gentiles on this Sunday.