Weekly Email 27 June 2010
June 27, 2010
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| Scenes from Clerical Life (and not by George Eliot!) by Fr Alan Gyle, Vicar 
On Monday evening at 10pm, BBC Two shows the first episode in a new comedy series about the life of the Church of England and its clergy. Set in the gritty city (filmed in Shoreditch in East London), ‘Rev.’ is as far from the frothy rural idyll that was ‘The Vicar of Dibley’ as it’s possible to imagine – and pulls fewer punches as it paints an amusing but acutely observed and sometimes punishingly honest picture of the Church’s struggle to minister, to proclaim faith and to maintain integrity in an urban context. It focuses on a clergyman – The Revd Adam Smallbone – a good man who is compassionate and committed but who sometimes struggles to see the connection between his ‘vocation’ and the reality of church life and who lives with all the frustrations common to most clergy. If the fictional and failing ‘St Saviour’s’ seems a world away from our own fuller and more confident St Paul’s Knightsbridge, it is, though many of the issues are recognisable: the church as a place where transcendence, vision and hope meet (and sometimes clash with) all-too-human frailty, need and wilfulness; ‘big’ characters who are unaware of their impact on others; the tensions of holding onto church as a place of encounter and holiness while at the same time making sure that as a business it is financially viable; the internal politics of an institution obsessed with market ‘success’, still in hoc to the legacy of the past and to powerful societal expectations and projections. You’ll also recognise some of the actors: Tom Hollander as the reassuringly human vicar (he read, and lit our Christmas tree, at the Foundation event a couple of years ago) and Alexander Armstrong ((congratulations, by the way, to him and to Hannah on the birth this week of Edward) who’s a worshipper here) as a pushy parent and local MP who wants to get his children into the local C of E School.
Will it go down well? I suspect that some will be a little shocked at the honesty – many may feel it is irreverent. But if so, it is worth living with your discomfort. ‘Rev.’ is certainly witty, but also well-observed and absolutely of the moment. Watch and enjoy! |
THE WEEK AHEAD
SUNDAY: (Trinity 4: 27th June 2010) Family Mass at 09:00 / Solemn Mass at 11:00 (Byrd & Palestrina) Preacher: Fr Alan Gyle WEDNESDAY: The Wednesday Evening Service at 18:45, followed by refreshments THURSDAY: The Parish Garden Party from 18:30, with jazz, drinks, sunshine* and good company (*sunshine isn’t guaranteed!) NEXT SUNDAY: (Trinity 5: 4th July 2010) |
Weekly Email 2 May 2010
May 2, 2010
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| “Noises off…” by Fr Alan Gyle, Vicar
The plight of the Prime Minister, speaking unawares into a live radio microphone on Thursday, reminded me of the fate of an old Scottish clergyman who – living in retirement and helping out as an honorary assistant priest in a rather ‘sophisticated’ English parish (with the sort of church that has all the latest technology, not least radio microphones) – thought it wise, before the lengthy liturgy, to pop into the smallest room, just in case… One inadvertent push of the button on his radio microphone control left the whole congregation ‘flushed’ with embarrassment as the sound of cascading waters had quickly to be drowned by a hastily improvised prelude on the organ. I heard about the incident from his own lips when, visiting to preach, he handed me a similar contraption to pin to my cassock: “be very careful!” he said.
In the world of theatre, “noises off” is the stage direction that designates sound from the wings or elsewhere – indeed anywhere but from the stage. Sometimes they’re intended: off-stage sound effects calculated to add something to the on-stage plot. More often, “noises off” are entirely unintentional – and preventing them is one of the reasons why stage managers are always (in my experience) such severe, serious people. Serious with good reason: the whole art of theatre has to do with luring the spectator into a credulous world in which what is being created and played out – artificially – on stage envelopes those who are watching so that they ‘forget’, and nothing is more calculated to destroy the illusion in a moment than someone tripping over a stage brace or prop!
Of course even in a political arena now obsessed with the arts of performance and presentation, the issue for the PM (as for all the candidates in the election) is not quite the same. What concerns us about politicians is not that someone might ‘drop a clanger’ and break the spell – but is rather that we hope and expect that there is a connection between what is said and done ‘aloud’ within the public’s eye and earshot, and what is said and done privately. Having trust in public figures means being able to know there’s a connection between behaviour in the public and private realms: something to do with integrity.
That’s not just an issue for public figures, of course. We’ve all said and done things we later realize were silly and misguided… As Alexander Pope said, “to err is human…”. Thankfully for us he knew also (and continued the poem)“…to forgive is divine!” We all go off piste and make mistakes, and Prime Ministers are no more immune to that than the rest of us; the real question – and this for all of us – is whether, and to what extent, the pattern of our living is marked by integrity between what we present ourselves to be, and what we actually are.
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Bank Holiday Weekend
Sunday 2nd May At 09:00: Family Mass Celebrant & Preacher Fr Richard Coles, with Godly Play for children led by Sarah Bender. At 11:00: Solemn Mass Missa brevis in D K.194 - W.A. Mozart Achieved is the glorious work - J. Haydn Praise ye the Lord (David’s Songs) - William Albright Organ voluntary: Hamburger Totetanz - Guy Bovet (b.1942) Celebrant: Fr Andrew Sloane, Rector of St Paul’s K-Street, Washington Preacher: Fr Richard Coles At 13:00: Parish Lunch in the Hall At 18:00: Evening Prayer (said) On Bank Holiday Monday Morning Prayer wil be said privately; Mass is, as usual, at 18:00. The Week Ahead Wednesday at 18:45: The Wednesday Evening Service with Fr Richard Coles followed by refreshments. Low Masses daily at 18:00 (12:00 on Saturday) Morning Prayer said daily at 09:00 The clergy are available daily for conversation and counsel by appointment; please ring the Parish Office on 020 7201 9999. Next Sunday at St Paul’s: At 09:00: Family Mass Celebrant & Preacher Fr Richard Coles, with Godly Play for children At 11:00: Solemn Mass Celebrant: Fr Andrew Norwood Preacher: Fr Richard Coles At 18:00: Evening Prayer (said) |
Weekly Email 25 Apr 2010
April 25, 2010
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| “We don’t do God…” by Fr Alan Gyle, Vicar
Only eleven days to go in an already-exhausting General Election campaign… and still – apparently – all to play for. How will you vote? How will you decide… and will your Christian faith have any impact on your decision?
When former Prime Minister Tony Blair was asked about his Christian faith, Alastair Campbell famously silenced his reply and interjected, ‘I’m sorry, we don’t do God.’ Much later, the former PM said: ‘If you are in the American political system or others, then you can talk about religious faith and people say “Yes, that’s fair enough” and it is something they respond to quite naturally. You talk about it in our system and, frankly, people think you are a nutter.’ Odd for a country with an Established Church to be so reticent about discussing religion in the realm of politics. In the Members’ cloakroom in Parliament, the coat-hangers have a red ribbon attached to them so that – historically – MPs could safely store their swords before entering the chamber. One recent Archbishop commented, ‘In the modern world there is great pressure to treat faith in the same way – to put it safely aside before entering our workplaces, and to pick it up again at the end of the day.’ One working assumption among many in our contemporary society is that religious faith is a private, individual concern – something to be got on with in our spare time, and not to be mentioned in public.
I find this an odd – and ultimately indefensible – view! Faith is not something I keep in a compartment… nor is it just a matter for Sundays. On the contrary, my whole world-view is informed by a sense of the call and challenge of Jesus Christ – and by the imperatives that flow from that glimpse of God’s love we see in him. The challenge, it seems to me, is constantly to be making the connections between what we believe and how we behave, individually and together: between, that is, faith and politics. What do I think about criminal justice, or immigration? What is my view on employment or care of neighbour? Do I care about the environment? As a Christian, my views are profoundly informed by what my religious tradition has to say.
We could do worse, in these final days before polling on the 6th May, than examine the policies being dangled before us from a Christian perspective. How? Well: ‘Votewise Now!’ (published by SPCK - available from the Parish Office and on the Bookstand) is one very accessible and readable guide to current political issues. The Christian think-tank ‘Ekklesia’ is providing daily analysis of politics on its excellent website. And on Tuesday (for the technophobic!) – at St Mary le Bow in the City - there are good, old-fashioned hustings. “We don’t do God”?! Nonsense. Go on… engage your faith before you vote!
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Downloads:
You can DOWNLOAD a PDF of the full Weekly Sheet here. Details of the MOISSAC Retreat in June The Week Ahead: Next Sunday: |
Weekly Email 28 Mar 2010
March 28, 2010
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| ‘This is Holy Week’ by Fr Richard Coles, Senior Curate  Russell Harty is perhaps not a figure one readily associates with Holy Week, but every year, when it comes round, I find myself thinking of him. Do you remember that notorious interview with Grace Jones on his ITV chat show? She was somewhat the worse for wear and when Mr Harty unavoidably turned his back on her to speak to another guest she started slapping him quite viciously. An Amazon attacking a poodle, I thought, or did until I got to know Mr Harty better.
Unusually, I only got to know him after his death. I was asked to write and present a documentary about his life for Radio Four, which turned out to be one of the most enjoyable jobs I’ve ever had. We interviewed his friends, from Oxford, where he was a contemporary and pal of Alan Bennett and Ned Sherrin; from Yorkshire, where he lived, including a hilarious interview with Madge Hindle from Coronation Street (or Myra Hindley as he absentmindedly introduced her at the opening of Giggleswick Fête); and his family in Blackburn, who never really understood Uncle Russell and his fancy London ways. They were pretty fancy – confidante of the stars, chat show host, arts journalist for the BBC, and a man of great gusto and occasional mischief, to the delight of his friends. He was irrepressible, incorrigible; Ned Sherrin remembered visiting him as he lay dying in hospital in Leeds. As Ned approached his bedside Russell feebly pulled at his oxygen mask; what is it Russell?,asked Ned, aware that the end was near. Russell whispered,Princess Margaret… asked how I was… twice!
There were other famous stories; of how he was once at a do near Leeds with the Princess of Wales who asked him if he’d like a lift back to London in her helicopter. He gratefully accepted, talked non stop all the way to RAF Northolt, and on arrival promptly hailed a cab to drive him all the way back to Yorkshire where he actually needed to be.
Although I never met him in reality, making the programme made me think I had, that we too were friends. His biography was so vivid, his personality so striking, that when those who really knew him told their stories he came to life for me. I could see him in my mind’s eye as as they did. I suppose I felt part of his story.
Holy Week is here and over the next seven days we share the story of the climactic events of the life of Jesus of Nazareth, another vivid biography of a man who died young, in disgrace, leaving an indelible impression on his friends. But, as the great liturgies of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter remind us, he was more than a striking personality, and this this is more than mere story-telling. It is nothing less than an invitation to share in his life, in his death, and in the glory of his resurrection.
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THE WEEK AHEAD
Palm Sunday at St Paul’s: At 09:00: Family Mass & Blessing of Palms At 11:00: Blessing of Palms, Procession & Solemn Mass At 18:00: Evening Prayer (said) Monday & Tuesday in Holy Week Wednesday in Holy Week Maundy Thursday: Good Friday: Holy Saturday: Easter Day: |