Athiest Bus Adverts - Richard Dawkins Again

Here we go again! The British Humanist Society has raised thirty grand or so for some ads to be put on London buses which say 'There probably is no God so go out and enjoy life'. I was thinking maybe they could try a few more. What about...

'Make someone's day - tell them there's no heaven.'

'You dont have a soul - after death you cease to exist.'

'Your just an accident of atoms. Your life is meaningless.'

or what about the more scriptural

'Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.'

since Dr Dawkins believes that athiesm should be indoctrinated into children - maybe a school bus could have the banner about Christmas, Easter or what happens to a parent, sibling, when they die. I'm sure nothing is too cruel for BHS.

City Bonuses

When we first arrived here I recall this story. A local was selling his cottage in Salcombe and as we know this has statistically the highest house prices outside London. A young couple in their twenties were looking around the house and the owner cautioned them that the price was 650K and beyond most folks mortgages. The response was "we're using our christmas bonus money". The couple worked in the city. I wonder what the future lays ahead for people like this?

Dawkins on Channel 4!

Does Channel Four have a love affair with Richard Dawkins? This time they have given him a three part mini series on Charles Darwin to which he can have his rants on religious faith. I caught ten minutes of this week and couldn't believe my eyes as he had a go at some science teachers for not trying to "reason" children out of religious faith. In terms of impartiality I cant see them giving the same time for the Archbishop of Canterbury, let alone the same editorial power. If they did it would probably have some added scandal or warped twist to it.

I'm not a creationist and I could easily sit and watch a TV programme about Darwin with some interest. I do think Richard Dawkins is a narrow minded self-publicist who has little idea about religion.

St Andrew's South Huish

On Sunday 3rd August at 3pm we are having our yearly service at St Andrew's Church, South Huish. This ruined church lies not far from the beach at Thurlstone and is within the Benefice. Weather permitting we will have a Eucharist followed by picnic.

The readings reflect that God is building and rebuilding, that Christ is our cornerstone and the the Gospel is the foundation to our lives as Christians. One my favourite stories is of how the young Francis of Assisi visited runied church of St Damiano and when he looked up at the icon cross he heard Christ's voice - "Francis, go and rebuild my church, which you see is in ruin." Hurriedly he did not realising until later that his master was actually talking about the universal brotherhood.

TS Eliot said that the Church is constantly in need of building and rebuilding. Like the bread at the Eucharist the Church is taken, blessed, broken and given back. I think we come to places like not only to hallow the memory of its sacredness, or even to perpetuate worship, but to offer our lives to building of his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Pennies from Heaven

We've just put on the church website www.salcombechurch.co.uk a link to easyfundraising. This allows on-line shopper and folk using search engines to help the church funds. Every time you use one of these major on-line shops or search engines through our link we get a small percentage at no extra cost to you. Its win win.

Mid-season Trailer of Doctor Who

For sci-fi fans of Doctor Who here is the new trailer for the next series.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/s4/videos/?episode=S4_08&character=&action=videostream&playlist=/doctorwho/playlists/s4_08/video/s4_08_trl_02.xml&video=1&date=&summary=A%20special%20preview%20of%20what


It is interesting to note how the whole concept of multiverses has grown since CS Lewis' Narnia Chronicles. The cosmological theory that our universe is one of many, or even an infinite number of universes has been developed by a number of fantasy/sci-fi writers. According to the theory each universe is slightly different from the next. Some theoriests have even posited the idea that every action in this universe creates a spontanous flowering of universes. Therefore for every action you do there could be a universe where your actions are played out differently.


CS Lewis had Narnia as one of many alternative worlds and this gave him the opportunity to explore what the redemptive plan might have been like elsewhere. Philip Pullman's athiestic children's novels, the 'His Dark Materials', is based on a multiverse concept and the first story imagines a world strangely not unlike ours. The new series of Doctor Who also uses this concept and in 2006 series 2 saw an earth where humans become cybermen and cross over into our reality. The trailer for the next part of this series implies that this is idea played out again with the evil Davros (creator of the Daleks) trying to expunge our universe.


Over the past three years I have been working on my own children's book- something of a tribute to the Narnia concept. It is called 'Deep Magic' and takes some rough kids from a rather grotty council estate to a distopia where they have to prevent a book falling into the hands of an evil Alchemist. When we lived and ministed in a housing estate in Aberdeen I initially wanted to write a version of Narnia for the kids we got to know. I felt CS Lewis' style was a bit too 'Famous Five' to be accessible for these young people and they needed something grittier. Now I also feel that the Pullman attack on the Christian faith needs to be redressed.

Law Tightens on Psychics and Mediums

As from today the UK law expects psychis, mediums, clairvoyants to make clear that their trade is purely entertainment. I bet they didnt see that coming!

Baltic Exchange 3

On Saturday Salcombe people celebrated the Christening of the Baltic Exchange 3 RNLI lifeboat. Over 800 people crowded in the town centre to see the proceedings. Seven old lifeboats lined up behind the ship to salute her in an amazing sight. The rain did not dampen spirits and Salcombe and Malborough school choirs along with Kingsbridge Community School Music group provided wonderful musical backing. The vicar particularly enjoyed going for a spin on the boat and it took all his strength not to touch any of the hi-tech buttons.

Richard Dawkins Really Irritates

Last week I got particularly irrittated by the nation's evangelist for athiesm Richard Dawkins. Given airspace on Radio 4 he babbled on about religion being not founded on reason and that believers like me are simply talking to an imaginary friend rather than praying to God. He is entitled to his opinions but I cannot believe he was let off the hook so easily on religion, in particular Christianity, being unreasonable. For something to be devoid of reason it would have to be incoherent, implausible, and illogical.


It strikes me that it is quite valid to believe that an intelligent reasonable being was able to create the universe from nothing. Further more, it I can't see anything unreasonable or illogical in believing that this being would incarnate himself into a living human being. You may not believe it, you may not like it, but you have to accept that it is possible. Likewise it is no dimunition to someones intelligence to believe in this. Instead we should remember that some of the best brains have been, and are, practising Christians.

So if there any militant athiests out there, come on, tell me how is my faith unreasonable?

School Gets Award

Hoorah!!! Salcombe Church Primary School has just won the Quality Mark awarded by the Basic Skills Agency. We cannot underestimate just how difficult it is to get this. So well done to the headteacher, staff and pupils! This is real gold standard stuff! For more stuff about the school why not visit the website is http://www.salcombe-primary.devon.sch.uk/index.htm

Four Weeks of Youth Services

Its been great that from Easter onwards we have had four main services at Salcombe which have focussed on children and youth. Easter Day was packed with families and chilren (over 300), then we had a baptism, then the family Eucharist, and then the visiting choir from Streatham, Bishop Thomas Grant School. This has really helped demonstrate to the wider world that we are serious about being a young people and family friendly church.

Our God Rains

Despite the drizzle the parish church enjoyed a good attendance at all the services with over three hundred folks at the family eucharist at 10am. We held the easter egg hunt inside the church and within a short space most of the eggs were gone. The church mouse will be disapointed. The rest of Britain seems to be in a snowstorm but Salcombe continues to hold off with its own microclimate.

Easter and Holy Week

Service times for Holy Week are advertised on our new parish website www.salcombechurch.co.uk Its very basic at the moment and is just a single page. The big service is going to be Easter 10am and we are looking forward to welcoming lots of visitors, especially families and children. Afterwards there is a great big easter egg hunt.

County Council Prayers Ban

According to the Western Morning News 12th March - front page - NALC has asked Devon County council to ban prayers at the start of meeting. They apparently could fall foul of the Human Rights Act and the Race Discrimination Act. NALC are worried of a potential challenge in the courts.

Are these people COMPLETLY bonkers? A UK survey done last year concluded the vast majority of other faiths in Britain are more than happy that prayers are said - even though they are Christian. In fact the report implied that people of other religions wanted to urge Christians to be more vocal and be more assertive. They were not offended by prayers, Christmas, Easter, Whitsun, crosses, crucifixes, church bells, etc, etc. Rather, they got comfort that they were in a society with a religious heritage.

Who is really complaining about this? I suspect its a small group of politically correct pen-pushers who are keen to marginalise the Christian faith. You wonder, did they have a bad experience at Sunday School all those years ago?

Mum's the Word

A successful Family Eucharist this morning has given us all great optimism for the future of our church. On their first Sunday the new choir of Salcombe CofE Primary school led the music while children led prayers and gave readings. The church was a buzz with babies, wandering toddlers and lots of local folk happy to be with us. The service was geared towards a family friendly version of the Eucharist using Common Worship Order 1. To their credit the church community rallied around the new format and everything ran really smoothly.

The basic premise I used for simplifying the litugy was trim down some of the Anglican verbosity that remains in our liturgy and to stick to have two readings and three hymns. Out went the Collect of Purity, most of the pentintential rite, the Nicene Creed, the prayer of humble access, and Agnus Dei. I love all these bits I extracted and especially love the creed. But our liturgies are often so wordy that it easy for the modern (or post-modern) ear to feel that you are drowning in a sea of words.

Time and time again research in the Emerging Church cultures have found that my generation (Gen X) are much more visual than textual. A picture is a thousand words! This means that the many of our prayers and litanies have to be trimmed down. Long collects are no good and very involved interecessions will not impact. For too long Anglican rites appear like those confusing overly complicated menus which always start an episode of Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Every dish has been thrown in for good measure and the restuarant staff cannot deliver. We dont need to use everything at once. It is overwhelming. What we need is for a noble simplicity where the signs and symbols speak for themselves.

Today, I decided to have a Eucharist as the family service. This could have backfired since the Eucharist is a complicated service on the face of it. But in the end, it remains the central act of Christian worship. It is heavy in signs and symbols coupled with a mysterious tranformation of the bread and wine which further more transforms us. The Eucharist is both mysterious and "touchy feely". In this way, done with a noble simplicity, it can offer all generations something.

However, having said that the next problem is allowing children to receive Holy Communion. I am not sure what the policy is here? In the Diocese of Aberdeen we were allowed to initiate children at primary school age. Later on, in their teenage they would then be confirmed. This struck me as an excellent policy since it included children into the fullness of the liturgy at an age when they are likely to come.

Aberdeen Church Roof Blown Off

This is a bit of old news and I shall try and a get an accompanying picture soon. On Feb 1st the fifty year old copper roof of St Clements Church in Aberdeen was violently ripped off by strong gale. Looking like a piece of crumpled paper it was discarded by the wind onto Mastrick Drive. How in this densly populated housing estate no one was killed is a miracle in itself. This humble congregation has struggled financially for years and have always wondered what the future lay for their building? Now they will get a new roof and much more from their insurance company. One of the senior clergymen viewing the spot is reported to have exlcaimed, "There is a God!"

Listen and Act

Before the induction service I flicked open the Bible, closed my eyes and put my finger on a text. Amazingly it was from St James - "Listen and act." I dont usually use the Bible in this manner but for once this seemed brilliantly profound. Back home I found a framed embroided text from my ordination (ten years ago).. Receive the Gospel of Christ. Believe what you read, teach what you believe and practice what you teach.

Google Page Creator

One of the dangers of clergy workloads is that we become jack of all trades and master of none. Or even worse we try and do everything. Sometimes in a false economy we think that doing it ourselves will save time in explaining it to others. For a number of years I have edited the diocesan website for Aberdeen using an old version of MS FrontPage and beforethat Dreamweaver. Trying to teach non-computing folk these packages is not a battle worth fighting. So recently I transferred the whole website to Google and used the very simple web-based Google Page Creator. Its very basic but the beauty is that now the diocesan secretary and anyone else with a password can keep it updated. Have a look, see what you think. http://www.aberdeen.anglican.org/. Not bad for a night's work.

The Real Santa Claus

For anyone interested there is an excellent website http://www.stnicholascenter.org/ which is packed with historical information and teaching materials on Saint Nicholas aka Santa Claus. I was lucky to have spent some of my childhood in Bruxelles where Father Christmas was referred to by his proper name. The more I have read about St Nick the more I feel that this is great saint who has much to teach us today. The use of his large inheritance, his ministry as a bishop and his imprisonment during the Diocletian tyranny point to a spiritual giant. There is also compelling evidence that he was present at the Council of Nicea - something which the idiotic pseudo-historian Dan Brown would probably never concede. Just when so many are trying to rubbish the modern Church as a calculated invention of Emperor Constantine here is a friendly familiar voice from that era telling us otherwise. So here's parting thought, the next time you are in church with a child and you hear the Creed - tell them Santa wrote it.

A Cautionary Tale for Hall Managers

As I begin to wind down ministry at St Clements Aberdeen there are a few odd administration jobs I am trying to complete. The first is in re-marketting our excellent large hall with one of our parishioners appointed as a contact person for potential bookings. In the past we have had a pretty full schedule but recently the weekly usage has become a bit sparse.

So with posters placed around the precinct I was pleasantly surprised to find out that an enquiry was made the next day. However, our new contact person was in a terrible flap because she had not realised that the exercise class was based on POLE DANCING! Now I understand this is not a re-run of 'Calender Girls' and the participants keep their clothes on but if you are an anxious person like me then you can imagine the local paper headlines on this one.

Is there a patron saint for church hall? There should be. Regulation, health & safety, licences and equality laws make hall use a potential mine field. Luckily the pole dancing instructor saw this was not going to work and could do the church a lot of harm. Yet what if she had argued her case and said that I was discriminating against her? Would I have a leg to stand on? My understanding of the law is that if you offer a public space then you cannot pick and choose who uses it. A similar case happened to us last year when a 'New Age' Reiki healer wanted to book a regular evening slot. I said that this went against our Christian ethos and again thankfully nothing further happened. If anyone has any thoughts on this do feel free to post them.