Roshi's ramblings

My blog is currently being ignored, not because I have nothing to say, quite the opposite in fact! However I am currently working as a supply teacher at a school 50 miles from home so the daily commute is taking it out of me and along with the work I don't have much time to post my ramblings! I have recently started a 3 month placement at my ADDO's churches and have lots and lots to write about. Once I finish this work at the end of November I will be back in full force I promise!

The same day as I went to the family mass at St Tee's I also went to their '7 @ St Tees' service. This was very clearly designed as a fresh expression of worship for students and young adults such as myself. As such it really appealed to me. To begin with there were coffee and cakes on offer as you entered the Church and everyone was happy and very welcoming. The Church was lit by stage lighting to provide ambience throughout At about 5 to 7 a 5 minute countdown came on the projectors accompanied by fly through of areas of natural beauty. It also had dramatic countdown music as you would associate with news programmes or such like. It was a good display, much like I used to use as a starter for lessons to help bring people's attention to the front and prepare for what's to come. The projectors and computer were used to good effect throughout the service. From showing a video to make you think about taking time to think about God.; showing a selection of image...

This has been a very interesting read. It takes the 9 selection criteria for becoming  ordained and uses pop culture, art and film to explore them in depth and realistically. Whilst the book doesn't give you all the answers to what you need to show for the criteria it does a very good job of guiding you in reflecting upon them. In using modern culture for the examples it makes the criteria instantly more accessible and understandable to young people such as myself.   It definitely helps me as I go through each criteria. I'm currently exploring criteria B and C as part of my exploration and go back to the relevant chapters for inspiration!

I'm writing this blog post having just been to the family mass at St Tees... And I loved it! The sheer sense of joy at worshipping Christ, the fact the Church was packed to the rafters with people and that there were multiple Sunday schools running was wonderful to see. The Church was full, ground floor and balconies!  As with the Wednesday service the focus was predominantly on the scripture. And the preaching that followed, but there was also time given to the young people to talk about the summer camps they had been on and what they had been up to. This was at the very start of the service, giving a clear focus to the youth, rather than tagged on at the end. Making sure everyone can see and get involved The Church itself has 2 projectors with screens either side of the altar and for those behind pillars there are televisions set up above each row.  There is a camera at the back that's used to follow the 'action' throughout so everyone can see what's g...

Another good book on calling. I read this whilst on the SCP vocations weekend and it tied in perfectly with what I was learning about. It covers callings and vocation in an accessible and easy to read fashion that, as the title suggests, are about vocation in young people. Each chapter is based on a different person's experiences, though the editor and compiler have done a very good job of maintaining the same writing style throughout. The chapters also coincide with callings in the Bible, making them relevant to the modern day. It's a very good read if like me you are young and exploring your vocation. It's also good if you want to understand the feelings behind callings in the Bible. I highly recommend it.

Hi everyone, a few weeks ago I had the privilege of having a casual meeting with my sponsoring bishop regarding my vocation and calling. We discussed my time line of faith, what the good news is, what the role of a priest is, what I envision as being important within the Church and what I am to expect in the coming months. Timelines, past, present... Perhaps not future thouvh He was impressed with my time line, though noted I had a tendency to refer to how I had left things behind, using negative terminology and suggested I put a more positive spin on it all. Rather than saying 'I went from this church to that because I didn't like this' I should phrase it more like 'after having my faith shaken at 16 I decided to explore different denominations within my faith as well as other faiths until I realised that there really was only anglicanism for me.' which sounds much better. Pray tell?  I gave a 5 minute ramble, as I am want to do (this blog is called...

The very first book I read to help me explore my call to vocation was this called or Collared by Francis Dewar.   It was the first title in the bibliography I got off the callwaiting site that jumped out at me. I found it a very illuminating and useful book. It laid out very clearly what a calling is and what vocation is. The author uses his own personal experience, as well as information provided by a wide variety of would-be-ordinands to help describe the feelings and thoughts a person may go through, as well as the myriad reasons people feel called by God to do or be something - even if this may not actually be ordination. In chapter one he addresses callings in general, before specifically talking about callings in terms of how you want to be and what you want to do in the following 2 chapters.  These first 3 highlight the difference between being called by God to ministry and being called by God to do what you are naturally good at.  In summary every...