Green Patches

Calling The Midwife (2)

There's a newly started discussion thread over on Shipoffools on Call The Midwife for anybody who's interested.

Green Patches - Five Years On

As we've been here in blogosphere for nearly five years now I think  that  new readers - who might have stumbled upon us  in the mistaken impression that Greenpatches is all about midwifery - are owed an explanation.  So, here for your edification, we have...'Greenpatches - Five  Things You Wished You'd Always Known.' 

1. Greenpatches began in February 2007 when I accepted the Methodist Church's No New Shoes Lenten challenge to Live Simply.  I was following a module on environmental issues and vocation with St John's College Nottingham at the time and taking my first tentative steps into simplicity with  the Anglican  Franciscan Third Order ; No New Shoes was a useful way of helping me to remain accountable. Have I succeeded? Who knows...

2. TSSF, Third Order Society of St Francis  part of the Anglican Franciscan family is a dispersed community whose members try to live a life  of simplicity, love, joy and service after the manner of their founding Saints Francis and Claire -  in the midst of their everyday lives.  I was professed into TSSF in Spring 2009 after three years of discernment and formation.  For the moment I'm convening our local small group. (For the uninitiated, each larger area is divided into three or four smaller groups; much of everyday tertiary life and community takes place at local level). I'm not sure what Francis would have made of me; to be honest, I'm more Claire than Francis, but so far they've not thrown me out.

3. For any confused cyclists, Mr GP has in the past taken part in La Marmotte, the LEL, Kelloggs Tour of Ireland and many other competitive events. I blogged a fair bit about him in the early days as well as co-authoring his own blog for a while, which might account for why you ended up here in the first place!

4. The metaphor of the search for God as journey has always spoken to me and has taken me to places I'd neither have  imagined nor had the confidence to go.  Moving churches gave me valuable  space and time for reflection which in turn led me to some  wonderful experiences of formation in spirituality and spiritual direction skills. The journey continues...

5. Look here to learn about some of our experiences of pilgrimage. Since I made that decision to move, Mr GP and I have walked  along sections of  the Way of St James, the Wayfarers Walk and, finally last year a wonderful 200 + mile trek through the North of England and the Western Scottish Highlands to Iona.

So there you have it. Greenpatches in a nutshell...or a rucksack.  Whether you're a confused cyclist, midwife, methodist,  tertiary, oblate or other religious (of whatever denomination), pilgrim or spiritual searcher, I hope you'll enjoy reading along with me for the next five years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Calling the midwife

 - My late mother's pupil midwife casebook, 1946-7

It's Sunday evening, it's snowy outside, warm and cosy inside and I'm just about to make a Nice Cup of Tea and settle down with the BBC Drama Call The Midwife.

I've written about why the series has a special meaning for me over on my Musings blog on The Wibsite. Do feel free to pop over there.

"I saw that he is to us everything that is good"

St Julian's Church, Norwich

 

He is our clothing. In his love he wraps and holds us. He enfolds us for love, and he will never let us go. 

I saw that he is to us everything that is good.

 - Julian of Norwich

Who do you say that I am?

 

When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

  They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

    “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

  Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

 - Matthew 16, text Biblegateway

 

To return to our wandering shepherd, now reunited with his friends after a brief if inglorious career as a visual aid at our church's prayer group.

"Who do you say that I am?" Jesus asked  his disciples. The Sunday before during the service, we'd been encouraged to reflect on who Christ is to each of us wherever we currently find ourselves on our journey of faith.  I say encouraged - maybe 'gently challenged' might best describe it. I picked up on this, leading  into our customary time of silent prayer with Matthew's text and a short meditation posing the question once more "Who do you say that I am?"

I guess any of Christ's questions could equally well have   applied just then.  Maybe they did.  He asked plenty of them, after all. "What do you want me to do for you?" Who are you looking for?" "Who touched me?" "Where is your faith?" "What concern is it of yours?" "What is your name?" and dozens and dozens of others.   

But later I fell to thinking about the approaches different  branches  of our faith communities take to those questions, to discipleship and encouraging  each other to grow and change.  Particularly after glancing through another 'Ship' discussion on Altar calls and 'decisionism': the good old call to the front, altar call, sinner's prayer and whatnot. Not all of it unfamiliar to me, in a fairly restrained Anglican version of from my old church. I'll try  not to  get into arguments about soteriology here; they've been pretty thoroughly covered on the thread.  However, my own reflections did get me pondering some aspects of my own journey - and  where I stand now on some of the methodology used over on the more evangelical and charismatic wing of the church, now that I've spent a few years in a slightly broader and more catholic setting. 

More so  given my own moves since into discerment of a possible  call to spiritual direction, my deeper appreciation and understanding of the nuances of peoples' faith journeys. 

Was,  for instance, my group  meditation  an 'altar call' in a different guise? It certainly didn't occur to me at the time that it might be considered to be this.  That my initial feeling was one of slight...only slight and probably  misplaced  - guilt at even an unintended hint of manipulation on my part  is maybe just the lingering remains of  hangups from my previous experiences.  Certainly I find the more laid back style of 'Newchurch' is enabling me to   grow into a way of relating to both God and my fellow Christians that's far more autonomous, less dependent than  before. Living, as well as living with...the questions.

Likewise, I consider my own style to be less 'directive,' more 'fellow pilgrim,' 'companioning.'  That could account for my ambivalence. Am I confusing  directiveness (is there such a word?!) with challenge? That should pose some implications for my own companioning. 

So after all that hot air, no answers...more questions. Which neatly brings us back to Matthew 16: "Who do you say that I am?" 

 

 

Epiphany Four - Wandering Shepherd

..and as we wind our way towards the Fourth Sunday in Epiphany, Chief Shepherd left his post at the stable for a few hours this evening. But don't worry; the outing was planned and he's now back safely in the creche.  More to come later.

Christus Mansionem Benedicat - Return of Wiseman 3

Yes, Wiseman 3 has returned!  It turns out he never went AWOL in the first place. Mr GP found him the other day - in the Nativity scene, sheltering behind a gigantic magpie (made from a kit given to me for Christmas by Ms GP). So much for my policy of inclusivity (and the state of my eyesight). The little chap has been reunited with his friends on the windowsill amidst much general rejoicing and merrymaking. I broke open a late Christmas pressie of toffees to celebrate  and in an absent-minded moment bit down on one way too hard and broke a filling. I'm now trying hard not to wonder whether the cost of a new one works out any dearer than the original cost of the Wiseman...

Christus Mansionem Benedicat

Alas and alack - I've turned the place upside down; still no sign of Wiseman 3. 

 

 

Never mind. The Greenpatch dwelling has been well and truly blessed. Maybe our prayers and the generous whiff of incense (which an hour after the event is still around -  and  is certainly an improvement on our house's normal Parfum de chien..et chatte), will bring him out of his hiding place.

Epiphany: The Three Kings

 

One of my favourites, to make up for the tone of my past post. Sung here by The Academy of St Martin in The Fields, soloist  - Gerald Finley.

One of our wise men is missing!

Horrors! I dropped into our creche earlier  - to move the magi to the alcove window ready for the Epiphany House Blessings tomorrow evening and ...Wise Man Number Three was nowhere to be found. He's gorn, scarpered, gone AWOL, taken the long and winding road back to Persian Lands afar... Oh Where oh Where Can He Be? Was he left abandoned in the nativity shoe box all Christmastime, with only a Provencal lavender bag and a pile of wood shavings for company? Or was he ever there to begin with?

This is worrying. Not the best way to begin the New Year methinks. Thank goodness not all creches are as disorganised as the Greenpatch one: Over on Spiritually Directed, the magi have at last reached the stable.Thanks to the wise words of their landlady, they've escaped the scarey prospect of remaining stuck in a Permanent Advent. Thank you, miniature Magi; I've loved  following your journeyings along the bathroom shelf.  It's helping me process my own sense of Advent discombobulation. If you should come across my missing Wise Man, speak kindly to him and point him back across the Atlantic.