Category Archives: children

All the baptised

I read a tweet that said ‘Church unity is the responsibility of all the baptised’.
Great, I thought: another one to add to the church this afternoon when we celebrate the Sacrament of Baptism for Jacob, who is 5 years old.
I’ll suggest he joins a Church Unity Commission straight away.
That’s the problem with unity; it has a musty smell and is reminiscent of stale biscuits. More 5 year olds doing Christian Unity would be a great thing. Too much of the time we think these things are just for adults.
This is a false idea. The church is all of us. It’s not about waiting until some of us are more grown up before we take our place. We already have a place: remember that.
The children and young people with whom I work are the Church now and for most of them these division in the Church and ‘different sorts of Christians’ is unfathomable. They just get on with following Jesus where they are alongside each other. To most of them denominational labels have less meaning than the sort of biscuits they prefer.
This afternoon, I shall ask him ‘Do you want to follow Jesus?’ not ‘and shall we dress like this, and meet at these times and say these words only, and let only these people do this, and exclude these ones and make these rules and so on and so on and so on. I realised years ago that once again I’d ‘gone native’ with them. But it makes sense to me too. The wide appeal of Messy Church points to it: make it messy, keep it simple, welcome everyone.
We are doing Christian Unity already, every day. As usual its taking the adults a while to catch up.

In our life and our believing
The Love of God.

on a cold and frosty morning

Today I went for a walk with Preschool. There were about 18 of us and we put on our coats and wellies and went out to look for frost and ice, or which we found some patches. We also found some frozen leaves that were quite crisp, and a pond covered in the green algae. I know it was green algae because one four year old boy told me what it was. We sang a well known song, but we kept changing the words depending on our experiences. Rather than going ’round the mulberry bush’ we went ’round the pond’ and ‘looked at the algae’ and so on. The other pond was still and clear and just like a mirror reflecting back the winter branches. Altogether our walk took about 20 minutes. It reminded me of the ideas about Forest Church I read last year. This was a good short act of adoration and exploration. I look forward to more similar opportunities in the days ahead.

Song for Aleppo

All of this term we have been thinking about Aleppo and the children living there under seige. Here is a song for Aleppo. Please sing it – the tune is Forest Green (the tune we use for O little town of Bethlehem).

O broken city of Aleppo,
Before our eyes you die.
We see the dust we see the blood,
And hear your wretched cry.
But we are too distracted,
Can’t think of what to say;
We turn you off, we block you out;
Will you survive today?

O shattered city of Aleppo,
We hear your weeping still;
As bombs and bullets everywhere
Seek out children to kill.
We see your tweets and videos
Not sure what to believe;
But unlike you besieged, denied
We can turn off and leave.

O ruined city of Aleppo
For you I sing lament;
For you I pray now every day,
My intentions are well meant
For Christ was born in Bethlehem
Two thousand years ago,
But every day on your cruel streets
Children all hope forgo.

Sun rise

Talk about the sun rise with your children:
Of how the colour creeps from pinky-grey
To orange, the sky parting, pushing back
Streaking, cracking, leaking an artist’s palette
Greeting, breaking, welcoming, soft at first
Then louder, brighter, bolder, calling out,
Shouting, the world’s awake, the day’s alive.

Talk about the Son rise with your children,
Of how the dark dewy garden seemed serene,
The smell of earth, the sounds of birds,
The light coming creeping across the grass,
The shadows being pushed back,
The sorrow clinging to the branches,
Waiting to be challenged,
dispelled by a gentle footfall.

Talk to your children about the Son rise with the sun rise:
Affirming, confirming, ascending,
Father-wise, Spirit-filled, Welcome One,
The kiss of hope, nudging away reluctance.
May we greet you Sun-wise One,
Who greets us every morning,
That we may share the truth
Of the Word alive in us.

In our life and our believing
The Love of God

Dance, then, wherever you may be

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Video of Harry and Jacob showing us a dance they learnt from children in Tanzania at Chapel yesterday.

Each day this week we have had a presentation from members of the Tanzania Team telling us of their experiences during half term. It was an opportunity to hear them give voice to the experiences that they all acknowledged as ‘life-changing’.

In a week that has also seen us undergo a full school inspection, it is true to say that what they said sums up what we are about: the development of the full potential of each child and young person, not just in academic terms, but as rounded human beings.

In 14 days, 46 young people and 6 staff, working with members of the local community and a voluntary organisation they transformed two schools together, both inside and outside and made resources for the local community and school to share, principally to improve the local supply of water. On the way they ate, slept and used toilets way outside their previous experiences and interacted with people of all ages. Life-changing for all involved.

On our life and our beleiving

The love of God

I want to live

I want to live
To see an albatross
Glide over the southern ocean.

I want to live
To know that babies
Are born safely world-wide.

I want to live
To understand
How East and West can feast together.

I want to live
To read the books
The children of Aleppo will write.

I want to live
To ensure that any woman
Can walk any street anytime anywhere.

I want to live
In peace with justice
Sharing the promise of abundant life
With all of you.

Messy life

On my walk today I saw Jamie, about 3 years old, his parents and his little brother. Jamie was jumping in puddles and showing his brother how to do it. He picked up a pebble and threw it into the next puddle showing him how to make the ripples that scattered the reflection of the sky and trees in the world mirror. Then he crouched down and got ready for the mega jump. He launched himself into the next puddle and the muddy water flew everywhere.
His mother said ‘No, Jamie’ as the drops cascaded round us all, and apologised to me.
‘It’s OK ‘ I said ‘it looks fun’ and it did. It was certainly messy. It reminded me, we each have a messy life. Celebrate it today.

Adventures on Twitter

Since my walk on the Cleveland Way in August I’ve been more active on Twitter. I have found some fun things, often with a serious intention like conservation with @Spokesbird or @LostWombats, from Australia. There are accounts I follow about British Wildlife, a keen interest of mine since childhood, and climate change.
Feminism has been my lifeblood since puberty so it’s been good to follow @Dangerouswomenproject.org as well as particular women like @JoanneChocolat and my former research supervisor, Dorothy Bishop (who always fed the body and the mind).

I follow a number of different voluntary organisations: For example, Scope I used to work for, but also UNICEF who we have supported at school.
People of faith of many different paths are kindly following @silcoateschapel, a small corner of dissenting Christianity in Yorkshire.
All this has helped me to feel more connected again after a period of feeling isolated as a result of the recent review process by my local Synod.
One of the most recent examples of this sense of new connection had come through joining the Finnish churches movement Bellsforaleppo.org.
Since the beginning of term, now 7 weeks ago, we have been thinking about the people of Syria, particularly children in besieged cities and towns and in refugee camps. The young people have many questions and lot of compassion so ringing our small bell in solidarity with people in Aleppo was quickly taken up.
We have now been ringing for a few days and many conversations have also followed from this involvement. We also have a lot more followers on Twitter and from many different places. We must remain focused on our aim of supporting Aleppo through our prayers and actions. But another challenge is I need to learn Finnish.

In our life and our believing
The love of God

Ring for Aleppo

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Audio…

Some churches in Finland have been ringing their bells in solidarity with Aleppo. We only have one bell but we are joining in today. Each hour we will ring our bell in solidarity with people in Aleppo.

Here is our Senior Chapel Steward, Tim, ringing for Aleppo this morning. He has been ringing our chapel bell since he joined the school 7 years ago.

God bless Aleppo.

Keep her people safe:

Give them peace.

Chapel+BFG=Fun!

We had a return visit from the BFG today. One pupil in year 5 said I thought the BFG would be bigger than that, which is fair enough, although if he was much bigger we might have had trouble fitting him in.

Since his last visit we have all been trying to find him a country in which to live since he doesn’t want to live in Giantland anymore. Each class was assigned a country to research and had to present their findings to the BFG so he could choose a new country. I just wish it was as easy of that for children looking for a new country today.

After all the countries were allocated, Scotland was left over, so I got Scotland which was fine with me because I love Scotland and think it would be a great place for the BFG to live. After all, Scotland was created by the female Giant, Beira, who according to legend created the mountains and lochs and stirs up the whirlpool of Corryvreckan. Scotland has been home to many giants and some still live there, including the Giant Pandas of Edinburgh Zoo and Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster.

Scotland is a place of early memories for me: the rain in Ullapool, the beware of the Adders sign in the Cairngorms. Most of all Scotland is a place of deep spirituality, a cradle for Christianity in Britain at Whithorn and Iona. These have been described as thin places: places where the distance between heaven and earth is narrow and the spiritual domain palpable.

Actually when you have the BFG in your Chapel then it feels like that there too as we had fun together. Not that Chapel is just about fun but on World Mental Health Day it is an important dimension of life worth celebrating for all young people, and a time to remember those still looking for a country to call home.

Notes from Chapel

a blog from Silcoates Chapel