Green Patches

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Three Ways of Making a Rule of Life

With Francistide and review of my TSSF Rule of Life still fresh in my mind,  here's some advice on the process applicable to anybody looking to live life more intentionally and holistically:

 

A rule is a document embodying the values which are central to your life, and the praxis which allows you to live this out with genuine integrity. 

 - Hermit Sr Laurel from notes from stillsong.

Developing a Rule of Life 13 Tips - from soulgardeners

 

and

Balancing Life by The Rule by Debra Farrington

I came across a wonderful piece of advice yesterday -  that  rule of life should not be a list of 'to do (s)' but of 'to be (s).'

Words, words, words...Over on the Franciscan Support Thread on Shipoffools posters are asking - Is it possible to make a rule of life without using them ? It's been suggested for the TSSF Principles in the past. Could you sign it? Paint, sing or dance it? Any other medium? Suggestions please...

For Franciscans I"d have thought creative ways like these would be spot on, given their sprituality and the famous "Preach the gospel. If necessary, use words," saying popularly attributed to our founder.

Granted we might have problems at annual renewal presenting them all at the altar - still I'm sure there are ways and means of getting over that one!

Late Blog of The Week - The Cartoon Blog

Welcome to my Blog of The Week - 'late' this time, not  - thankfully - in the Precious Ramotswe, Alenxander Mcall-Smith sense, more in the 'unexpected diversion caused by fault at the telephone exchange and subsequent circuitous and ultimately time-wasting wanderings round the labyrinthine bowels of a certain provider's website and call centre system' sense of the word.  But that's another story, which, I hope, will not be set to run and run...

So, to BOTW: this time round, I chose what I call one of the 'Big Blogs,' Dave Walker's Cartoon Blog and his reflections on his struggles to maintain his creativity under pressure.  I've had a bit of a sea-change myself, lately, partly prompted by the examples of other people who've not been afraid to be seen to be vulnerable. (At times in the past, the dreaded words:"Now, I'd like us to turn to our neighbour and share..." has had me glancing at the door to locate  the nearest exit for the loo). Hence, I have a great deal of respect for those of us who have the courage to stand up and share their 'seagulls,' or in my case, 'seabirds.' Yes, I know the picture here shows a stork; there is a perfectly simple explanation for this here.

Seagulls, seabirds, storks; which gives me a chance to make an even more tenuous link: Wildgoose and tertiary and actor Paul Alexander's classic reflections on the work of the Holy Spirit: Chasing The Wildgoose which he originally wrote for Franciscan enquirers.

"In the Celtic tradition ‘the wild goose’ is the symbol for the Holy Spirit. The

 

wild goose is an enigmatic creature; once seen, never forgotten; once

 

heard, always remembered; here one moment, gone the next; fond of

 

desolate places and freedom; a romantic figure living a wild life; almost

 

impossible to follow, but once pursued, almost impossible to give up."

 

Keep your seagulls flying, Dave. They're an inspiration to us all. 

When I started this feature, I'd planned never to repeat a blogger, but, as it was International Talk Like a Pirate Day yesterday, I simply couldn't resist linking to Archdruid Eileen's Liturgy. 

                                                                                                                                                          aarrmen!

 

 

 

Greenbelt Part 1

A few thoughts on my experience helping out with the TO presence this year, taken from 'The Ship.'

I thoroughly enjoyed my stints on the TO stall at Greenbelt. Plenty people stopped to make enquiries, browse through our literature and just to chat. I had some really inspiring conversations there. 

It was also good - if amusing - to note how many tertiaries, apart from those of us involved with the organisation of the stall - were there 'incognito' but who sidled by and 'outed' themselves when they realised we were there! 

 Taint always easy to meet with TO folk out of one's immediate area; (come to think of it, it isn't that easy to maintain contact with tertiaries within our own areas). I came away feeling quite encouraged.

Should any of the organisers be lurking here, this was definitely A Good Idea and I'm looking forward to next year's stint.

 

 

'Rule of Life' - Commitment to transformation

"The keeping of a rule is not an end in itself. It is not so that  we can feel more in control or that our lives might be in order. It is not even so we can feel closer to God. Its purpose is transformation: that we make become more Christlike... It is not about a one-off change. It is rather about an ongoing, life-long openess to keep on being changed, with and by the communities which we are committed to."

 - from Alan Hargrave's Living Well: Finding a 'rule of life' to Revitalise and Sustain Us, SPCK Publishing 2010

'Living Well' is one of my current reads.  It's compact, accessible and practical  yet deep. Would that it had been around when I was working out my own rule  with TSSF (Third Order, Society of St Francis). He uses the ancient rule of St Benedict as a structure for his reflections, but the book is designed for anyone who is searching for life-giving transformation and a pattern to their lives.  And 'community' includes : family, partners, work, church, friends; any and all of the groups we live and work with day by day.

Blogging up and down like this

Welcome to Green Patches on this bright and sunny summer's afternoon.  An especial 'hi' to those Shippies  who've dropped in via a thread on all things blog. I hope you've managed to gain some inkling as to what  on earth a Franciscan tertiary is, and if not, at least had a good laugh. 

 

 

 

 

Pondering Franciscan Spirituality

Alongside ballroom dancing, quite a few visitors to Greenpatches seem to arrive here via a search for Franciscan spirituality. Obviously, I'm not the only one out there trying to pin down that (sometimes) elusive something or other.  It's always good to discover other souls out there, often far wiser than myself, who are pondering and trying to live out a similar path.  So, a happy discovery  - a newish blog: Franciscanponderings  who says:

 

Like a many-faceted diamond giving off different colours and hues as it is turned in the light, so the unsearchable riches of God encountered in Christ are reflected in the great variety of Christian approaches to the spiritual way. Each spirituality has its own tone and unique flavour, with its own particular emphases. I hope in ths blog to share a taste of the Franciscan contribution to the quest of the human heart for what will refresh our soul and give light to our path.

 - to read more, link here

Thank you for sharing your ponderings. I'm looking forward to listening to what you have to say.

 

Franciscan joy, foolishness and daring

"People think St Francis was about the bees and butterflies, and charming birds and taming wolves; but that’s the smallest part of the story. He was a monumental figure in his humility and littleness. He has so much to tell us in this modern age…

 

The Third Order has grown and is very autonomous now. It used to be very much run by the First Order, but as that has shrunk, as most reli­gious communities have, it has had to sort itself out and run its own affairs.

 

It has tended to become full of older people, and is starting to get top-heavy; so we’re trying to address that. As it grows and gets more organised, there’s always the trap of falling into an “organisation” spirit — as against the Holy Spirit — but people in the Third Order are far too individual for that to happen. I don’t think we’ll lose the sense of joy, foolishness, and daring that Franciscans have always had a reputation for. "

 -  from Church Times Interview: with Paul Alexander, Franciscan tertiary and actor

(for the full interview go here - online edition subscribers only) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going Green on Staffa

 

or to be strictly accurate - a whiter shade of pale.  Eagle-eyed readers with 2o/20 vision may just be able to identify the faint blobs in the water as puffins.  When the time came, and after one posponement of the trip - from Iona to Staffa, the sea was so rough that the boat owner decreed that it wasn't possible to land. Happily, we were still able to circle round the coastline to view Fingal's Cave and umpteen types of seabirds, including these cheerful little stripey chaps, with the emphasis on the little. 

 So, yes, I did fulfil my ambition, albeit not quite in the way I'd expected. In the event, I spent most of the trip down in the hold throwing up, as did a growing number of passengers as the trip went on. At one point I raised my head for air to find myself surrounded by silent, grim-faced teenagers, (we were sharing the trip with a school group staying at the McLeod Centre), paper bags held to their mouths, looking for all the world like some new and weird species of elephant.  You'll have to forgive me the hyperbole; after downing enough travel sickness pills  to fell your average pachyderm, my imagination was running along strange lines indeed.  Never mind, in true Blue Peter tradition (Here's one I made earlier), Mr GP rose personfully to the occasion and conducted a mini-photoshoot with one battered 'Old Teddy,' who, after the best part of 200 miles spent stuffed into my rucksack, was brought out to strut his stuff and model his owner's original Puffin Club Founder Members Badge . 

We rolled back home to Iona after that, and, this (still somewhat wobbly) seabird was plunged straight into lunch duty, followed by daily chores - cleaning the loos! 

Was I glad I went on the trip? From a safe distance of over a week...yes.   And the whole holiday/pilgrimage - a hefty 200 miles or so winding our way from Durham to Oban on foot? A definite yes! Which is just as well, after three years in the planning. (It's amazing what daft things one can think up on a rainy week in Cornwall over a pint!).  At time of writing - over seven days since we returned home, I'm still processing it all.

To the last section of the trip, one of the gathering weeks spent with the Iona  presence in the Abbey, again, I'm still pondering what was (for me anyway), a very new, and often challenging experience of living in and building community. If you're not familiar with what staying there entails, this blogger here gives a good account of a typical week.  [would have commented, but this Puffin is technically challenged and wasn't able to get my id to work].

As a member of a dispersed community myself, (TSSF), I was particularly interested in the various takes on living out the Iona Community's rule and purpose out in the world, particularly as to how this works out in practice, and, in retrospect, would have liked to have asked far more questions on the topic: Does it really operate 'as it says on the tin?' Like TSSF, the community has a small, local  group structure  which is intended to serve as a member's primary support structure. What are different peoples' experiences of these? On paper, we appear to have a good many similarities, with maybe a slightly different nuance placed on some forms of service. Overall, I got the impression that that Iona membership is more of a tough call than TSSF; it's ecumenical in name as well as in spirit, and, that  concerted (and unlike tertiaries, group ) social and political action is more than just an obligation for Those Who Like That Kind of Thing , it's an imperative. 

Both communities are growing, evolving and constantly trying to work out how to live as an example of authentic Christian witness 'in the world.'  Both are - or should be, profoundly countercultural. Tertiaries share a common spirituality; but looking at the order through a more sociological lens as in the examples here it's plain that members' experiences, expectations and sense of vision vary enormously. As I expect will be the case for any community or association.  With the rapid growth of  dispersed communities of all kinds today, I guess we can all learn so much from each other. 

Little did I know, over forty years ago that I was effectively, making out a community rule of life! 

 

 

 

 

Songs of Protest and Praise

Garnered at the last minute from the Greenbelt Blog; if you're near Dorchester, it may be worth checking to see if there are still some places left at this weekend of folk music and poetry,  at  Hilfield Priory.

"Songs of Protest and Praise" will be led by Gill and Alan McIntosh, Franciscan

tertiaries based in Weymouth, who sing and play regularly in local folk clubs. The weekend promises music and poetry to assist in "celebrating community with each other, with the marginalised and with the land".

More details here.