We lost a parish today.

What can I say? It's a real tragedy to close any Church and my prayers really are with the congregation up there. I know so very little about the situation and really don't want to put my foot in it and cause upset where there is enough already.

But something came to my attention and I thought it well worth praising. Bishop Terrence Drainey, our Bishop, celebrated the final mass today at Holy Name.

It's must be hard enough making the decision to close a Church, but to face those people at that final mass. That must be really tough. I don't know if I could do that.

At a time when Arthur Roche of Leeds Diocese is being lambasted for informing parishes of their closure through the medium of DVD video and then not being available for comment, our Bishop has shown real courage.

Very impressed.

I just hope that next time he shows real courage, it is in happier circumstances.

Imagine... Fr Aidan Nichols talking pretty much non-stop for an hour - deep, rich, hard to follow in places. Then a man I'd never heard of, one of those speakers you sit through while you wait for Scott Hahn, but Dr Michael Waldstein turned out to be the highlight of the day. An interesting and entertaining speaker he gave an excellent talk around the themes at the recent Synod on Scripture. After the break, the man who translated the Pope's book "Jesus of Nazereth" did his thing before it all ended with the legendary Scott Hahn. His wife wasn't with him, so he was Hahn Solo.

That's four fantastic hours of speaking.. far too much for me to blog in any kind of detail, even if I dedicated a week to it. So I'm not going to blog about it in detail. I'm going to give a few thoughts.

The theme of the conference was Scripture and Liturgy in the Theology of Benedict XVI. I must confess to having been far more interested in the liturgical aspect than the scriptural. Not because scripture isn't important (it clearly is) but because I already have a wealth of resources regarding scripture but when it comes to the liturgy I feel I am only scratching the surface.

I felt that the first speaker (Fr Aidan Nichols) used very difficult theological language to express concepts that could have been explained in more straightforward language. I managed to follow a lot of what he was saying, but I found myself thinking "If that's his point, why doesn't he just say so? Why is he making this so hard?". Still, he made some good points.

One of the things I found interesting was the conflict he identified between a Christianity which is very much about individual, personal relationship with Christ and 'opposite pole' liturgical actions where we act as a group, for instance when we speak the same words or make the same gestures. I found that interesting because while it's not a tension I've ever struggled with personally (My siblings and I have a personal relationship with my Mum, but we all sing Happy Birthday together) it explains a lot about some of the things people say and do. Especially when they clamour for individual 'jobs' in the mass.

As I have said, the second talk by De Michael Waldstein was pleasant surprise and a real treat. I recorded the talks and I plan to listen back to this one especially closely (and perhaps blog on it separately). A point he made (I think it was him, the talks are all blurring in to one) is that Scripture depends on Liturgy because deciding on the Canon of Scripture was originally deciding on 'what shall we have read at mass'. The idea that the Catholic Mass can in a sense be considered the cause of the New Testament is really interesting and it means that the scriptures are primarily meant to be read at mass. Not that private reading is forbidden (far from it) but that the scriptures are most at home when they are being read at mass.

Another point I found interesting... one that is perhaps obvious to my readers. It was Adrian Walker who reminded us that the meaning of symbols is inherently a part of the symbol and not something we project on it. The example he gave was water. Water is used a symbol for life because God gave water that meaning - not because we decided like some kind of code that water would mean life. Bizarrely, I knew that already in one specific circumstance - marriage. We didn't say "How shall we describe Christ and the Church, oh, how convenient, marriage will do". Marriage has that meaning inherently and we simply discover it. Interesting how I had managed to know that for marriage (I've thought about marriage a lot) but had failed to apply the same logic to symbols we see more regularly such as water and bread and wine.

Now. Before I descend in to full on critical mode, I want to say that it was a great conference. It really really was. I got loads and loads more out of it than you can see in this blog entry. Many thoughts and puzzles I had put on the back burner to worry about again someday suddenly awakened. New puzzles and questions and challenges to face. Well worth the cost of admission, I hope they do it again.

It was a great pleasure to meet Scott who is both good humoured and one of my heroes. In fact, it is precisely because he is one of my heroes that I feel obliged to write the following. Even though it pains me to do so.

There's a very real sense in which I think this conference fell short of what it could have been. Not to say that it wasn't excellent, it was, but something was missing for me: Practicality.

I remember a time when I was really struggling with questions about the Catholic faith, specifically questions from evangelical Christians. I remember having questions about the authority of the Pope vs the authority of Scripture. Questions about the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist and the meaning of human sexuality. I remember looking within the Catholic Church in England and Wales and finding nothing. Most people I asked were not particularly interested, some simply reassured me that God would love me whatever I believe (which is true, but not helpful) and some even went to far as to say that (especially when it came to contraception) that other Christian denominations had it right and hopefully the Church will change to match them soon.

While the Catholics I knew were busy taking a pluralistic view (one type of Christianity is as good as any other) guys like Scott Hahn took a very different view. Scott Hahn has been a no-nonsense voice of reason. A valiant warrior on the side of a truly Catholic way of reading scripture. Biblical apologetics used reason, logic and evidence to give explanations for beliefs and demonstrated why some theological views are incorrect and others are true.

In the programme for the conference Stratford Caldecott, who chaired the conference, refers to "the tragic mistakes that have been made in the course of liturgical reform in the last forty years". It was very much my hope that at this conference these tragic mistakes might be identified, the reasons for the mistakes found and remedies suggested. Especially since the conference title ends 'in the Theology of Benedict XVI'. Pope Benedict's 'reform of the reform' has been intensely practical - changes in the style of vestments, arrangement of the altar, methods of receiving communion etc.

When during the Q&A I asked for practical suggestions, the panel deferred to a priest who gave an immensely unsatisfactory answer. Only when somebody else asked a similar question did the panel get involved and then I was immensely disappointed to hear Scott Hahn of all people say that if there's one thing he knows about arguments over the liturgy it's that he doesn't get involved. He spoke of having been to many kinds of masses (guitar masses, high masses, low masses, Latin masses, English masses, etc) and then said that the differences really don't matter. What's important is that at mass we are transported, really, to heaven.

[Update: In fairness to Scott, he didn't say they don't matter (see the comments below). He was unwilling to enter in to discussion about the differences and I took my trademark sloppy paraphrasing too far.]

Can you imagine asking Scott Hahn for practical suggestions on reading the Bible and him saying "I've read the Bible in English, Greek and Latin. I've used the historic critical method and the literal method, I've used the NIV, New Jerusalem, Douay Rheims and King James versions. They are all the same - What is important is that it's the Word of God"? I can't.

I'm sure Scott would feel able to say something about the pros and cons of reading the Bible in the original Greek. I'm sure he would have something to say about the relative merits of the NIV and King James bible translations. I know he would have something to tell me about the historical critical method of reading scripture.

So why the stonewalling when it comes to the liturgy? Why the pluralistic "it's all good" claim when Benedict XVI clearly doesn't think it's all the same. Benedict XVI clearly thinks that some things are a mistake and others are not. When the conferences own programme refers to "the tragic mistakes that have been made in the course of liturgical reform in the last forty years"?

It is absurd to speak of 'tragic mistakes' and then to dodge questions about what is a mistake.

My guess (and it's only a guess) is that there's a political motivation to the silence. Perhaps a desire not to upset the Bishop's Conference and to remain mainstream. Speaking out in favour of Pope Benedict's practice of giving communion only on the tongue to those kneeling would be a very good way to lose friends. I don't know that this is the case but it certainly seems plausible.

Pope Benedict's theology on the liturgy has real practical liturgical consequences...

If this book were to encourage, in a new way, something like a "liturgical movement", a toward the liturgy and toward the right way of celebrating the liturgy, inwardly and outwardly, then the intention that inspired it's writing would be richly fulfilled.

Joseph Ratzinger
Preface to The Spirit of the Liturgy
August 28, 1999

In the programme for the conference, Stratford Caldecott writes: "our gathering today in Oxford may be taken to mark another turning point - the coming of age and flowing together of the Liturgical movement with the Biblical movement in the Catholic Church".

But I simply cannot see how a liturgical movement can be truly said to have 'come of age' so long as it remains paralysed, unable to say with any clarity what a 'right way of celebrating the liturgy' even is, let alone how to start moving toward it.

I hope and pray and look forward with great joy to the day when the intention that inspired Pope Benedict's writing is richly fulfilled.

Yesterday was a good start, but we (just because I'm not a priest or internationally renowned author doesn't mean I can't be part of a liturgical movement) need to do better.

Ladies and Gentlemen... I present to you... Middlesbrough Cathedral:

Ignore the chairs. This is a photo from just before Bishop Drainey's ordination, he doesn't usually sit directly in front of the altar during mass.

No, I don't like the ugly cross either. Still - at least it's a cross and not once of those weird resurrection statue things where Christ appears to be sort of flying off the wall. Yes, I know that Pope Benedict has upgraded his ugly cross for a much nicer once but Bishop Drainey has been busy and I'm sure he's working on it.

Spot the Tabernacle? Me neither. That's because it's in it's own special chapel. It's the latest thing (if by 'latest thing' you mean 'it was hip in the seventies').

Anyway... what you will have spotted is the awful unspeakably ugly puke dribbling down the wall. Since Pope Benedict has recently got rid of his ugly alien altar. I thought it might be fun to speculate... if Bishop Drainey were to get rid of his ugly puke wall, what might he replace it with?

It shouldn't be too expensive to get a large format print of some decent art and paste it over the top. A Pantocrator might be good. How about this one from Cefalu...

It shouldn't offend anybody because it hasn't got any sort of crucifixion in it. Alternatively, you could go 'Last Judgement'. I like this one from the Duomo in Florence:

Lovely. I particularly like the way it has religion in it.

Of course, if money is a problem, they could always go for the St Joseph's, West Hull look (paint the wall white and stick a cross on it):

In all honesty though, anything would be better than what we have at the moment. Even a picture from the front of a department store in Hull...

That's right, there's more religious symbolism on BHS than on Middlesbrough Cathedral. I reckon you could have someone actually puke on the wall and it would be an improvement. At least then it would be sacred art... what with our our humanity being our divinity and all that.

Don't forget to enjoy my fruity comic strip on the origin of the Middlesbrough Reredos.

This is awesome...

Impatient people should skip to about 40 seconds.

I'm wondering...

What is a Facilitation Course and who do they expect to go to it when it's from Monday 9am until Tuesday 5pm with an overnight stay?

Where is this Liturgy Training Day, Hull and who do they expect to go to it when it's on a Tuesday from 9.30am until 12.30pm (that's not a day)?

Perhaps if they actually spoke to the people run youth groups they might discover that we have jobs.

(Yeah, so I could be nicer, but they don't speak to the nice youth group leaders either...)

Every blogger has been there and if they haven't, they will (if they are blogging properly)...

But you went public! Duh! The letter to my 12 year old lands on our mat at half term while we were minding our own business & we were shocked to see Clare Short's name. Am I mistaken...but isn't Ms Short a Public Figure? Or is she coming in Privately? I'm absolutely furious about this (Sr to me), me..to tell you the truth we're equally furious over this. But you could have come & ...me..but you could have NOT invited her in the first place. Sr..we had a great conference in the spring..me..I know Sr..it's at the top of my blog...Sr..oh blogs..I haven't got time for them.

[link]

What is it about Priests and Teachers etc who think they can run things that directly affect hundreds of people and then their misdeeds (not mistakes, intentional misdeeds) be kept a private secret and everybody will ask them things privately and accept what they are told and not question anything.

Bullies is what I call them.

Big fish in little ponds who get away with being their own miniature pope's with "I spent years in seminary so I think I know more than you..." or "I've been teaching twenty-five years..."

Well the blogs are here. The ponds just filled up and merged in to one. The big fish ain't looking so big any more. Bullies don't operate so well when everybody is watching.

Anyway, a big well done to Jackie Parkes whose daughter got a letter in the middle of half term informing her that Clare Short (pro-abortion MP) would be coming to give out awards at her Catholic school (Jackie has four girls at the school). Catholic Hero Mum of 10 is kicking up a storm, she's even had a letter from Clare Short though it's even less impressive than the letter I got from Alan Johnson.

I think Jackie deserves our support, we can help by sending polite emails to the School at: enquiry@stpaulgl.bham.sch.uk.

It will only take a few seconds. In my short email, I told them that I've heard they are inviting Clare Short to give out awards, that I know about her pro-abortion voting record (she also voted for the recent HFE bill) and that I do not think it appropriate for her to be held up as a role model for young girls.

I don't think a rant is required... they just need to know that people have noticed. Let me know in the comments if you receive a reply.

This...

Reminds me of this...

Welcome to the youth service section of the Diocese of Middlesbrough website.

...

Please read the following Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy. By using this site you agree to be legally bound by them.

[link]

By using the Diocese of Middlesbrough website you agree to be legally bound by these terms, which shall take effect immediately on your first use of the site. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all the following terms please do not access and/or use the Diocese of Middlesbrough website.

[link]

By visiting this blog you have agreed to send me miiiiilions of dollars.

Mwah ha ha.

Or not.

Richard Dawkins has, as I'm sure everybody knows by now, stepped down from his post as Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at the University of Oxford (who knew) with plans to write a children's book.

"appeal to children to think for themselves; to look at the evidence. Always look at the evidence" - Richard Dawkins

What I continue to find fascinating is the way Richard Dawkins continuously makes appeals to our freedom to think freely. As far as I can see, our intellectual freedom is the most convincing evidence for spiritual reality that we have.

Richard Dawkins says...

"I am very comfortable with the idea that we can override biology with free will. Indeed, I encourage people all the time to do it."

"...Free will is a very difficult philosophical question and it's not one that has anything to do with religion..."

"I'm not interested in free will."

[link]

But I can only really see two options:

No Free Will - If there is no free will then we can't, as Dawkin's puts it "override biology with free will". Without free will we are simply highly evolved meat machines following the rules of biology. Under one set of physical conditions we will murder our wife, under another set we won't. It's out of our control. If a man does something "wrong" we can't blame him, it's not his fault. Physics did it.

Free Will - If there is free will then we can "override biology with free will". But think about what that means for a moment. Under one set of physical conditions we would have murdered our wife but we can choose not too, under another set we wouldn't have murdered out wife but we can choose to do so. Free will means that man has the power to defy the laws of physics. It means that man is more than a machine. It means that man is a miracle.

GK Chesterton says...

This is the real fact. You cannot live without dogmas about these things. You cannot act for twenty-four hours without deciding either to hold people responsible or not to hold them responsible. Theology is a product far more practical than chemistry.

[link]

It doesn't matter if we take a Newtonian deterministic view where the world is like a snooker table and if we know the position and speed of all the balls then we can predict what happens next (in which case, our minds are not free, they are as predictable as balls on a snooker table) or if you take a Quantum mechanical view where the world is a bit crazy and has apparently random phenomena (in which case, our minds are not free, our choices are random).

Even unknown unimaginable sci-fi scientific discoveries of the future - if they involve 'stuff' (particles, snooker balls, fields, whatever) that follows rules (e.g. if science can say anything about them) then that's not free will. That's stuff following rules.

Free will cannot be explained scientifically. Every act of free will requires some exemption from the laws of physics.

If free will isn't a natural biological phenomenon, what is it? A supernatural phenomenon? A spiritual phenomenon?

It has everything to do with religion.

Coming to a curial office near you?

For the first time in almost half a century, Vatican administration staff will clock in for work as part of a clampdown on slackers

...

All Holy See employees will be given magnetic badges and forced to clock in and out in an effort to track their movements and ensure they're working a full day

...

The Holy See, which according to its annual financial statement has 2,748 employees including priests and lay people, has also devised an evaluation system to reward hard workers and punish slackers, the spokesman said. According to the new measures, prolonged absences will result in pay cuts while virtuous employees can benefit from bonuses.

[link]

Reminds me of when I sent off for an application form for the recent youth worker position...

Diocese of Middlesbrough Youth Office Working Practices

1. An email outlining the week's work will be sent on Monday morning from Youth Workers to the Youth Manager. On Friday, a further email detailing the success of the work will be sent.

2. Written records detailing contents of all sessions undertaken by the Youth Service members should be sent, either electronically or by surface mail, once a week to the Youth Office. They can then be used by lay leaders and form an audit trail for the Trustees of the work undertaken.

3. Regular email or telephone contact is to be maintained between the Youth Workers and the Youth Manager.

4. All members of the Youth Service will complete the Youth Service weekly log sheet and send copies to the Youth Office.

5. There will be regular meetings...

It goes on...

I am particularly interested in the phrase "They can then be used by lay leaders." How do lay leaders set about getting hold of these "Written records detailing contents of all sessions undertaken by the Youth Service members"?

It's been at least year now since Ella and Michelle filled in forms as parish youth volunteers and sent them off to the Youth Service giving their contact information so they could be kept up to date with what is going on.

So far they have heard nothing.

At what point does the word slackers become appropriate?

One of these men is Rev Rory Dalgliesh, he's the Methodist Chaplain at the University of York. The other is Fr Tony Lester, he's the Roman Catholic Chaplain at the University of York.

Can you spot the Roman Catholic Chaplain?

If you must know, it's the guy on the right. It's not really fair of me to make remarks about priests who don't dress like priests based on this one photo. Perhaps he was working in the garden or something when they took that photo.

It would be much fairer, to take a glance at the vestments he chose to wear when Bishop Drainey came to bless the chapel at More House.

I can imagine it now... "The Bishop is coming to bless our chapel, the actual Bishop, successor of the Apostles.. better dig out the posh vestments..."

Oh never mind.

To cut a long story short, a friend is in need of help. I don't want to put my foot in it and say something that harms the cause (so I am being as vague as possible about the details) but she is a Catholic widow in need of professional legal help and completely unable to afford it.

She writes...

I have prayed on this whole situation, normally I can deal with any adversity, not this one. I question why? God through prayer can grant every gift and blessing, his wisdom also, to allow me to do as I have to with this legal matter.

We are in effect calling upon our massive Catholic family to come forward and help a family member.

I am in no doubt that there is a Catholic whiz in legal matters might even be a Priest. I prayed and so many people have come back to me saying there must be someone in the Catholic community that can help. I do not know how to reach them.

I know there are lawyers who do some work pro bono (for free) - this is a very good cause. If anybody is (or knows of) somebody who may be able to help - please get in touch. If you email me (james@lovingit.co.uk) I can pass your message along.

"The world is rapidly being divided into two camps, the comradeship of anti-Christ and the brotherhood of Christ. The lines between these two are being drawn. How long the battle will be we know not; whether swords will have to be unsheathed we know not; whether blood will have to be shed we know not; whether it will be an armed conflict we know not. But in a conflict between truth and darkness, truth cannot lose."

She started it...

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops is meeting all this week for their Fall (Autumn) General Assembly.

This meeting is open. Journalists are allowed in. The minutes are published. You can read the agenda, watch streaming videos of the press conferences and read transcripts of what was said on the Bishop's own website.

In England, the Bishops Conference meetings are held in secret. Why is that?

Just askin'...

Places where they don't call themselves Catholic (because, like, my granny was Catholic) and then spend all their time coming up with intricate relativistic excuses for removing everything even remotely Catholic looking (nice Churches, latin, chant, habits, crosses, belief in God, that sort of thing)... they seem to be doing okay.

If only there were more such places.

She made me do it...

Ella's mum's mum came over from Poland during the war. Every now and then we get sent some tasty sausage and yummy asbestos like sweet stuff and little yellow sweets with cows on.

I had no idea it was a special day in Poland. Nobody tells me anything.

The Bishop of Lancaster has noticed that they are missing...

"As the consultation progressed I would ask: 'What are you doing for young people in your community?' and would get the answer: 'Oh we have lots of things for young people.' But when I asked: 'Where are your young people in the Masses?' they would say: 'Didn't you see them? They were behind the pillars or just outside the doors.' But they often meant children because I'd have been there all weekend and more often than not I could count the people in their 20s and 30s who had been in Mass on one hand. Sometimes there were five, or three, or nil over the course of a weekend."

[link]

What he doesn't mention is how many are girls. ¿Dónde está The Men? That's the question...

You're going to like this one. Especially if you are an orthodox Catholic who works with young people...

Step 1: Go to google.com and type in 'catholics come home'. Click the "I'm Feeling Lucky" button...

The "I'm Feeling Lucky" button takes you to the page that Google thinks is the best match for your search. In this case, it's the website of catholicscomehome.org, an American ministry that invites lapsed Catholics back to Church.

Step 2: Go to google.com again, only this time instead of 'come', type 'go', like so...

Remember to click "I'm Feeling Lucky"

Still feeling lucky?

Good eh? Remember - Google is never wrong.

Yeah, yeah, this joke is older than Queen Victoria...

But it's a classic...

This dyslexic walks in to a bra...

[chart source]

Exploring the Advent Theme as a Family

10am - 4pm
St Mary's, Brigg
Saturday 29th November

Activities, Talks, Mass & Confession, Benediction

Lunch will be a shared table - Tea and Coffee Provided

Telephone: 01652 652221
Email: stmarysbrigg@btinternet.com

These 'credit where credit is due' posts, especially about our Bishop, are becoming more frequent. He's doing us proud...

I suggested as I was leaving that perhaps a new set of chalices might be in order to enhance and add even more dignity to the liturgy.

[link]

Mum of 10 goes where Bishops fear to tread...

ANGRY Birmingham MP Clare Short today branded her old Catholic school "incredibly rude" after it withdrew a prize-giving invitation because of parents' objections to her stance on abortion.

Ms Short, the now independent MP for Ladywood, was due to have attended her former school, the Catholic St Paul's School for Girls in Edgbaston tomorrow night.

But the invite to the 62-year-old former International Development Secretary, who captured Ladywood for Labour in 1983, has now been scrapped after a group of parents threatened a vigil outside the school gates during the prize-giving event.

When news of the withdrawn invitation was revealed by the Birmingham Mail to Ms Short, she said: "This shows how incredibly rude they are and is the same reason so many Catholic girls cease to be Catholics.

"It is the height of bad manners but I am pleased to have the evening to myself."

No Shorty - The height of bad manners is voting in favour of making it legal to have little babies ripped out of their mothers womb and shredded in to tiny pieces.

The reason so many Catholic girls cease to be Catholics is simple - we stop teaching them about Catholicism when they are six. They are still singing "who put the colours in the rainbow" when they are fourteen and when they turn sixteen we invite pro-abortion MP's to come and give them awards.

Also bad manners, is calling your school "Catholic" and then requiring parents to organise protests before you tell the aforementioned MP to get lost. Once upon a time, a Catholic school was a school that was Catholic, now it seems a Catholic school is one that feels obliged to occasionally humour religious people when they make a fuss (and only if it's a big fuss).

The planned protest was co-ordinated by parent, and mother of ten, Jackie Parkes through her blog on the internet.

Mrs Parkes, 46, who lives in Edgbaston, said: "We found out by letter that Clare Short was being invited to the school to present awards to pupils.

"But it's a Catholic school and Clare Short has a record of voting in favour of abortion. Just because she's an MP, and a former pupil, doesn't make her a good role model.

"I currently have four girls at St Paul's and we are very much into Catholic education."

Mrs Parkes, who has eight daughters and two sons aged eight to 21, said about 20 parents were due to attend the peaceful protest outside the school from 7pm.

She said she was later told by the Oratory Catholic Church in Edgbaston that the invitation to Miss Short had been withdrawn.

"This is a victory for the wishes of parents who felt she shouldn't have been invited," added Mrs Parkes.

As I have said before - Many headteachers and priests literally bully parents and laypeople by abusing their position of authority to claim authority to re-define what it means to be Catholic. A headteacher has no authority to re-define what it means to be a Catholic school. A priest has no authority to re-define the Catholic faith. They have authority only to pass on what is true.

When a layperson stands up for what is right or true, they can expect to be put down with ad hominem arguments. You know the thing "I've been a teacher for 25 years so I think I know better than you" or "You should be less judgemental and have more trust for your priest" etc...

As Jackie Parkes has ably demonstrated. Those people are now dinosaurs. The days of a localised magisterium are coming to a close. It's only when the tide goes out that we find out who is swimming naked. The tide is rapidly going out because the blogs are here.

The people who should have changed their ways because God is watching, will soon find out that the world is watching.

[link to article]

I've just received the latest e-zine from CASE (Catholic Agency in Support of Evangelisation) which can be read online here.

Very exciting news for anybody who wants to see more evangelisation...

‘Fanning The Flames’: Strategic parish evangelisation training on the largest scale ever

Parish Evangelisation Training 2009

Are you passionate about your faith but feel you need some support in knowing how to share it? Does the word ‘Evangelisation’ conjure up feelings of fear or confusion? Maybe you and your parish would like to take a concrete step and explore starting up an outreach team? Perhaps you’re already doing it and are in need of resources? Wherever you are on your journey, a unique training opportunity is being offered to Catholic parishes during 2009.

The initiative is called ‘Fanning the Flames’ and is being offered by the Catholic Agency to Support Evangelisation (CASE), which is working in partnership with Catholic Evangelisation Services (the creators of the CaFE resources). A full list of training dates will be published in the New Year, and fliers and posters will also be made available.

Mgr Keith Barltrop, Director of CASE, said: “This is a first for England and Wales. Never before has evangelisation training been offered on such a large scale and in such a strategic way. Everyone is welcome to attend an event. Come and be supported in playing your part in home mission, and if you can’t come, please pray for its success. We all have a role in fanning the flames of faith.”

During this Jubilee Year of St Paul which ends in June 2009, the theme of the tour is sourced from one of his letters to Timothy. We read: "That is why I am reminding you now to fan into a flame the gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. God's gift was not a spirit of timidity, but the Spirit of power, and love, and self-control. So you are never to be ashamed of witnessing to the Lord ..." (2 Timothy 1: 6-8). In the same vein, it is hoped that the training days will enable people to make active their gifts and give them the practical tools to go out and bear fruit.

Every region in both countries will host an event. The hope is that the venues offered will include a good geographical spread so as to enable as many Catholics as possible to attend an event. Many ‘tour dates’ have already been confirmed and include Gateshead, Nottingham, London, Hull and Portsmouth, amongst others.

Go Hull!

Liesel Detemple, who is the Resources Manager at Catholic Evangelisation Services, said: “What better response could we make to the year that the Church has dedicated to St Paul, than by taking the call to evangelise more seriously. We don’t have to look very far to see that now is the time for mission, and the training days and resources are here to build on what parishes are already doing, as well as enable them to reach out in new and creative ways.”

It is hoped that every parish will send at least four representatives to receive training. A suggested donation to help cover costs is £10 per person. To find out more and to register the names of participants from your parish please see: www.caseresources.org.uk; e-mail: info@caseresources.org.uk; tel: 0207 901 4863. Also see: www.faithcafe.org.

[link]

Sounds like a step in the right direction.

My big worry with anything like this is that we drop everything we would have done in order to do this and then it turns out to be pap.

We should all pray really hard that it doesn't turn out to be an attempt by CaFE to hijack CASE and sell more outrageously priced (£99 for 3 hours of video) DVDs.

And MAN they are cheesy.

Don't forget, if you haven't done it already, you need to sign the LiveChastely promise.

http://promise.livesimply.org.uk/LiveChastely

If you have done it. Have you asked somebody else to do it? Huh? Huh?

Sorry that the blogging's been a bit slow lately. A busy weekend, spent most of Saturday working on a website for Fr Massie (what's the going rate for IT contractors these days?) and Sunday afternoon helping lift a very large organ (or rather, multiple large parts of a large organ) on to a choirloft. One of the men said I could come and help put it together if my parents said it was okay... (heh)

Anyways, I thought I would help you pass the time with this wonderful collection of tilt-shift photography - photos of real things taken to look like models. In the olden days you needed a special lens but these days it's all done with computers (I think).

I had a little go myself on the West Hull Parishes...

Update: As Mark correctly surmised in the comments below, I haven't forked out for a helicopter, though I may be forking out some hefty legal bills if I don't credit the source of the Aerial Photos which was Microsoft's Live Search Maps which has a cool 'Birds Eye' view that Google maps/Earth lacks.

Now that is a mega church...

The pastor of a mega-church says he will challenge married congregants during his sermon Sunday to have sex for seven straight days – and he plans to practice what he preaches.

"We're going to give it a try," said the Rev. Ed Young, who has four children with his wife of 26 years.

Young, 47, said he believes society promotes promiscuity and he wants to reclaim sex for married couples. Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages, he said.

"God says sex should be between a married man and a woman," Young said. "I think it's one of the greatest things you can do for your kids because so goes the marriage, so goes the family."

[link]

Sniggering aside, I agree. Sex belongs to married couples and like the man says... "Sex should be a nurturing, spiritual act that strengthens marriages".

It is not a good thing that sex is widely perceived to be an intrinsically bad thing that the Catholic Church reluctantly allows it's people to enjoy under certain circumstances.

Update: Just noticed that this also answers Fiona's question... How Young is Young? He's 47. Case closed.

Wherefore art thou?

Being an agency of the Catholic Bishop's Conference of England and Wales is a pretty big deal. CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) have a big office in London, employ quite a few people and have a definite presence in every Catholic school. CASE (Catholic Agency in Support of Evangelisation) have only been going a couple of years but they already run three web sites and are churning out resources all over the place.

Catholic Youth Services, therefore, is pretty important. They have certainly hindered my life in youth work on many occasions - many times when I have disagreed with something our Youth Office has done, they have come back with "we are following the guidance from Catholic Youth Services".

Imagine my surprise then, when I read this...

Following the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year, the Bishops of England and Wales have instructed that research is to be carried out to determine the current provision for youth ministry within the Dioceses, and directions for further development. This work will be carried out by an Interim Youth Ministry Co-ordinator under the supervision of Bishop Kieran Conry, within the Bishops' Department of Evangelisation and Catechesis.

[link]

Does anybody else recall the closure of the Catholic Youth Services earlier this year because I didn't. Did they run out of money? Were they closed down for being a big pile of pap? What happened? It's a mystery. Agencies of the Bishop's Conference don't just disapear.

I always said that you could close down Catholic Youth Services and nobody would notice, turns out it's true. Somehow, this year's National Youth Sunday got organised anyway. According to the Reclaimthefuture.org website it was a joint effort by the livesimply network and the youth ministry community in England and Wales.

It raises serious questions for our own Diocesan Youth Service - what exactly are they for?

I wrote recently about the "closure of Catholic Youth Services earlier this year" and the subsequent 'research' which is "to determine the current provision for youth ministry within the Dioceses, and directions for further development".

I won't lie to you, I'm pessimistic (now there's a surprise). Bishop Kieran Conry, the man whose name is down to supervise this research has his name on the front page of the reclaimthefuture.org.uk website. He and his interim team will speak with the existing Diocesan Youth Services and ask how things are and they will all reply "great thanks" and then they will be asked about future development. "More of the same please.." they will reply. "Only this time, can it be less religious looking..." National Youth Sunday 2009 will be entitled "SimplyCafod" and will come with liturgical suggestions such as getting somebody's mum to say mass in the garden in vestments made from bin-bags.

As has been pointed out before - it's one thing to write a blog criticising those who are working with young people, quite another thing to say something constructive.

So, here goes. Here's my attempt to talk... constructively... about youth ministry...

General Formation

I think we can all agree that youth services and youth work in general exists to fulfil a need. Otherwise there is, quite literally, no need for them (duh). If we can identify the need then we can identify what youth work services are for and then (my favourite part) we can figure out what went wrong and fix it.

Beginning with the wider concept of formation. Formation begins as a baby when we first experience the love of our parents and continues throughout our lives. It consists of learning (as we are evangelised and receive catechises) but also spiritual growth as our prayer life develops and we partake in the sacraments. The ultimate goal of formation is to form ourselves in the image of Christ.

Charting our Formation

I find the following visualisation is very helpful, it's not perfect, but it's helpful.

We can't measure formation empirically (like we measure height or weight) but we are all aware of different levels of formation. A five year old who has just learned the Our Father clearly has 'less' formation than a thirty year old priest. We talk about people being 'well formed' or who have 'not had much formation'.

I think that allows us to draw the following chart...

I hope I didn't lose you there. Charts like this (usually with distance and time) are a part of GCSE physics (I know, because I recently helped Ella's brother with his revision) but many of you may not have been to school for a while so allow me to explain.

The chart above has two axis, along the horizontal axis we have 'Age' and along the vertical we have 'Formation'. The line traces the amount of formation a typical Catholic might have received according to their age.

At the left hand side you can see young Catholics begin life with no formation and rapidly get lots and lots (hence the steep curve). They are constantly learning hymns and how to pray, about love and friendship, about Noah's ark and Jesus and so on.

As the Chart progresses it levels out. For much of adult life (the right hand end) much less formation happens. I'm not saying that's how it should be, I'm saying that's how it is. For most Catholics, most of their formation occurred when they were a child.

If this were an inspirational blog entry, I would now ask you to break in to groups and talk about what your own chart would look like. Joking aside, I would be interested to see what other people's charts might look like.

Now, I'm going to mark up that chart a little bit...

The Required Formation Line

I spoke earlier about a five year old having less formation than a priest. Somewhere in between I think we can say there is a line that is crossed, a 'level of formation' which is required to get by in life as a Catholic adult. I don't want to get in to a discussion right now about what formation is required for a Catholic to survive in a very hostile secular adult world. The point is, that there is a level of formation required.

The grey line on the chart marks this point. The point where our formation crosses that line and we become mature Catholics, perhaps it happens at confirmation, perhaps not until we are much older. Clearly a child who just completed their first communion preparation is below that line (contraception? what's that?) while one would hope that most adult Catholics are above it. I would suggest that any adult who is below that line is probably going to end up a lapsed Catholic sooner or later.

Think about this for a moment - what level of formation are you at? Are you over this line or under it? What sort of formation do you think a person needs to survive as a Catholic in a hostile secular world?

The Age Line

The vertical blue line on the other hand, marks the age at which a person has to live in the adult world. Don't mistake this line for the age at which a person is an adult. If you are fourteen when your friend turns to you and tells you she is thinking of having an abortion - bang - you have hit that line. For most people I would guess that line is around sixteen (when you can buy beer, have sex and get an abortion) but perhaps for some it is older. Certainly it is getting younger and younger and we are kidding ourselves if we think it is anywhere close to thirty-five.

Again, it might help you to stop and think about your own life. When did you cross that blue line? When did you hit an adult challenge to your faith? How old were you when, for instance, you started taking yourself to Mass?

Limits

The interesting thing is this. The blue age line creates a hard limit by which the grey line needs to be met. If we don't have enough formation to survive in the adult world, by the time we need to live in the adult world - we're going to have problems.

That's the real challenge of youth work, that limit. I'm, sure all of us can think of friends who have hit the wrong line first, perhaps it was us. Maybe they got a boyfriend and had sex before they understood the Churches teaching on human sexuality or maybe they still found mass boring (because they didn't understand it) at an age when they were expected to go to adult masses. Maybe they met an atheist friend with clever arguments... You get the idea...

The two lines form two areas...

I think this chart is really nice because it shows neatly the relationship between youth work and adult formation.

The Two Areas

The yellow area is the shortfall between the formation required to survive and function as a mature Catholic. The youth work exists to make this yellow area as small as possible.

The green area is the extra formation above the bare minimum. Adult formation exists to make this green area as big as possible.

The Adult Formation people, in order to make their area as big as possible, should be grabbing young people as soon as they are over that grey line. If a seventeen year old can cope with a diocesan training day for extraordinary ministers or a talk on the creed, they should be encouraged to go.

The Youth Department, in order to make their area as small as possible, should see the conversion of young people in to young adults as their primary aim. They should be looking at what adult formation are doing and asking "how can we prepare young people for that?

The Two Tasks of Youth Ministry

Diocesan Youth Services, Chaplaincy Teams, Youth Officers, Parish Youth Groups, Youth Masses and Children's Liturgies all exist for only one reason and one reason only: That yellow triangle.

People are not born adults which is why youth ministry exists to achieve two vital goals: Bridging the gap and closing the Gap.

Bridging the Gap

The requirement for bridging the gap is most extreme when we are little children. Little children can't follow readings, can't understand homilies, don't want to keep quiet, need to ask questions. We bridge that gap by giving them children's liturgies - a place where they don't have to keep quiet, can ask questions, get a simple explanation of the readings.

As we get older, the need to bridge the gap should get smaller. Older children can follow readings, though perhaps they struggle to understand the homily and socialise with old people. So we bridge the gap with youth groups where they can socialise with one another and where the priest can preach to their level.

By the time a child is turning in to an adult, the bridge should be getting imperceptibly small. They should be getting better and better at following readings, understanding homilies, socialising with old people and so on. If the bridges are getting bigger and bigger - something is seriously wrong.

Closing the Gap

We can't compensate for the gap forever. We can make the mass simpler, but we can't make the arguments for remaining chaste simpler. We can't ask the atheists to kindly write books with easier arguments in them. Eventually, young people will need to get by as adults.

Closing the gap means forming our young people so that they need less and less bridges. If they find mass boring, we need to teach them to appreciate the mass more for what it is and not for it's entertainment value. If they struggle with the Churches teaching on human sexuality, we need to teach them to understand it.

Closing the gap is vital. Closing the gap means giving young people the formation they need to be confident adult Catholics with a firm grasp of the Catholic faith. Able not to just to understand it, but to appreciate it and live it and want to share it.

What Went Wrong

The above charts were hypothetical. The chart below is, sadly, very real. The chart below shows the formation of, well, pretty much my entire generation and the children in our Catholic schools to this very day...

Firstly. Formation is not continuous - many parishes have no children's liturgies or what they do have is just colouring in sessions, no Catechism classes like the Indian children have. Religious Education in schools is a joke. Formation occurs only in sudden bursts around the time of sacramental preparation. Three times - first communion/confession is the first, confirmation is the second and (for some) marriage preparation is the last.

See that red arrow?

That is the key. Right there. That's what we need to fix. That shortfall.

Formation is totally inadequate. Young Catholics are completely unprepared for adult life. The secular world hits them like a freight train. That shortfall is the reason pretty much everybody I went to school with no longer goes to mass.

That red arrow is their inability to reconcile suffering with an all loving God, it's their inability to understand the Church's teaching on marriage, it's the way they find mass boring (because they don't understand it), it's the way their history is so bad that they read Dan Brown and think 'oooh, how interesting', I always wondered if the Church might have albino assassins.

The Main Problem in Youth Ministry Today

The mistake we have made is simple, we have done everything precisely backwards:

Our bridges (which should be temporary) are permanent.
Our gap closing formation (which should be permanent) is temporary.

Our bridges (children's liturgies, youth groups, simple language, etc) should be temporary. They should be short term things that young people grow out of. Instead, we are attempting to make them permanent. Instead of young people growing up to join the adult world, we are trying to pull down the adult world to meet young people, even when the young people are thirty and have kids of their own.

This is exemplified by the Diocesan Youth Manager who on hearing the Pope lead the Lord's prayer in Latin did not say "we need to be forming young people to deal with this" but instead said that the Pope "came across as exclusive". Better that the entire worldwide Church refrains from using any Latin (a permanent bridging of the gap) than young people are formed to learn a few Latin prayers.

Meanwhile, our formation (which should be formation for life) is temporary. Instead of forming young people so that they can cope with all the challenges ahead, we form them for their first communion so that they can cope with saying "Amen" when the priest says "The Body of Christ". We form them for that but we don't form them for waking up one Sunday morning at university and wondering "Why do I even bother going to Mass?"

Turning Things Around

If we are going to fix youth ministry, we need to literally turn it on it's head.

We need to begin to see bridging the gap as temporary (you can't go to children's liturgy forever) and closing the gap with formation as a permanent. We need to start asking ourselves "okay, so these kids need entertainment during mass, how are we going to make sure that's not still true when they turn eighteen?"

We need to begin to see formation as permanent. Formation needs to stop being a last minute elastoplast job where we teach kids a couple of prayers by rote in the hope that they don't embarrass us too much when they make their first communion. The formation we give today needs to serve our young people for the rest of their lives.

A Quick Example

It's really very simple. When we spot a shortfall in formation (let's imagine young people can't say basic Latin prayers with the Pope) we need to do one of two things.

a) If the young people are really incapable (because they are six, or deaf, or law graduates) then we bridge the gap. Temporarily. While we work towards a time when...

b) If the young people are capable of learning "Hello, My name is John" in French at school then they can probably learn a few Latin prayers as well. Help them to stop depending on the bridge.

So what now?

Two things need to be done. Firstly, We need to find out exactly what that red arrow up there represents. A list could be made of everything from "People find Mass is boring because they don't understand what's going on" to "People disagree with the Church on... [whatever]".

Second - just this: Start making an effort to form our young people so that those problems are no longer problems. If young people find Mass boring, we should be seeing teaching from the youth service on how to help young people appreciate mass for what is it (and not how much fun it is).

I don't really have much to say beyond that. This is supposed to be a blog not a piece of coursework - my final point is this. That people are not falling away from the Church because they don't understand the importance of living simply, they are falling away because they don't understand the mass and because they don't understand Humanae Vitae.

I will be confident that youth work is being done properly when instead of using her space in the Middlesbrough voice to bash Latin, the Youth Manager begins to use it to write articles like "How to get the most out of a boring Mass" or "Why I won't be having sex until I'm married". Heavens, even "I believe in God" would be a start.

As the previous two Popes have pointed out. Young people thrive on challenges. We need to challenge them to (literally) reach for the heavens, to stand up as heroes and saints against the problems the world is going to bring.

As Chesterton observed: It's easy for a dead fish to go with the current, but it takes something alive to go against it.

Let's not repeat the last twenty years all over again. Let's have decent youth ministry that brings our kids up to swim against the current.

Because the current is getting stronger.

Okay, so it didn't settle, and there was barely enough to make a snow-teaparty let alone a snow-ball. But for Leona it was very exciting. It's not the first time she's seen snow, but it's the first time she's seen it and been old enough to get all excited.

The snow gets a definite thumbs up (sort of)...

Ella then remembered that normal people (grandparents etc) would be shocked and horrified at these photos of Leona in snow with no hat and gloves. We put some on sharpish...

Very Stylish.

I think it's rather good.

Let me just share one or two things with you.

The Holy Father began by reminding us all that we have been specially chosen and loved by the Father who has called us into existence for a very specific reason.

Rather, he has loved us into existence and wants us to search and find him in all that is good, beautiful and true in our lives and in our world.

That is why we have been given the great gift of freedom. So that we might choose the good, the beautiful and the true. And it is in doing this that we will find genuine happiness.

He said, do not be fooled by those who see you as just another consumer in a market of undifferentiated possibilities. Where choice itself becomes the good, novelty usurps beauty and subjective experience replaces truth.

He reminded us that Christ is truth and only he who is truth can be the way that leads to real life.

What our faith teaches and brings to those who will receive it is life, life in Christ. This is what the Church is all about and we first began to live this new life at our Baptism when God drew us in to his very own life and we became his adopted Sons and Daughters.

Listen to the whole thing...

[mp3 download]

Around a month ago the Diocesan Youth Officer (the Priest in charge of the Diocesan Youth Service) resigned. I remember talking with a friend about possible replacements and my friend was pretty negative.

There's only seemed two options. Either they would pick a mushroom (a fun-guy) who would entertain the kids with jokes, talking about football and recycling tips (sigh) or they would pick somebody good (I thought the existing guy was quite good) but they wouldn't be able to get anything done because of the prevailing culture of pap.

The only way out that I could see would be if the Bishop himself decided to personally see to the task of forming the young people of the diocese. My friend said that there was no way the Bishop would have time. Based on what he says at the end of this message (from about 4:45), I reckon he is going to make time.

Throughout this coming Lent I want to meet with you.

I want us to get together to share, understand more deeply and begin to live Jesus' life giving words. Each week I will come to three different venues in the Diocese for the first four weeks of Lent.

Will you come? I hope to meet you there, and if you listen, if you're open to what the Lord is saying, your life will never be the same again.

I promise.

Before we had wimpy flakey snow. Yesterday we walked to Mass in real snow.

Leona was loving it. So excited, desperately trying to escape out of the house before we finished putting her wellies on. Eventually we popped her down, she wasn't so sure at first but then she was away (no gloves of course).

This is a very special photo because these are Leona's first ever footprints in the snow.

There are days when you wonder if it was worth spending so much on a camera and days when you know if was worth it.

Eventually, Leona got cold and allowed us to put some mittens on. It's hard to carry your sheep with mittens on.

The sheep, by the way, was a gift at Leona's baptism from a friend Ella and I went to school with. It's a little bag and Leona takes it to Mass every week filled with little toys to keep her entertained. She likes to take the little toys out and offer them to people while they are trying to play musical instruments.

I haven't time to blog about the celebrations of Christ the King, National Youth Sunday here in Hull (watch this space). I know that Mulier Fortis didn't have a very good time of it at Blackfen...

I was expecting something a little special for National Youth Sunday...

Alas! I was to be very disappointed. Not only did Fr. Tim say the Mass with his back to the people (thus preventing me from checking whether he had donned a red clown nose for the event) but he also omitted to do the comedy skit after the sermon on the subject of sheep and goats.

Of course, the last straw for me was the fact that I didn't get given any chocolate (Fairtrade or otherwise) ... not even a sniff of a cocoa bean appeared after Communion. Think of the loss of opportunities to exhort the congregation to avoid over-filling kettles and to use low-energy lightbulbs...

So now I'm sulking...

In the meantime, one of the young people who attended the Diocesan gathering in York sent me this clip they recorded on their mobile phone...

Okay... only joking.

As a subscriber to theyworkforyou.com updates, I get an email whenever my MP makes a statement or what have you. I don't really feel like he's working for me...

Alan Johnson (Secretary of State, Department of Health; Kingston upon Hull West & Hessle, Labour)

On 20 September 2007, I announced that I had asked the organ donation taskforce to look at the complex issue of an opt-out or presumed consent system of organ donation.

As GK Chesterton said: "moral issues are always terribly complex for people without principles."

The taskforce's terms of reference were:

"To examine the potential impact on organ donation of introducing an 'opt-out' or presumed consent system in the UK, having regard to the views of the public and stakeholders on the clinical, ethical, legal and societal issues, and publish its findings"

The taskforce has concluded that introducing an opt out system in the UK at the present time, whilst having the potential to deliver benefits, would present significant challenges on a number of fronts, and may not be necessary to deliver the improvement in donation rates we all want to see. The taskforce has therefore recommended not changing to an opt-out system at this time, but monitoring progress of implementing the recommendations of the taskforce's first report.

The taskforce has given a clear indication that donation rates can be optimised successfully without a change in the legal framework. I therefore accept its recommendation that we should aim to raise donation rates without the added complications associated with a change in legislation, only revisiting the question of a change to opt-out if the implementation of those recommendations does not deliver the projected increase in donations.

[link]

The trouble is, most people (myself included) just have this mental image of somebody needing an expensive operation and being down as an organ donor. Let him die, we need his liver for somebody else.

That's right Alan, quite a lot of people (especially the elderly) go in to hospital wondering if they are going to be killed or allowed to die for some utilitarian reason.

If you want more people on the list, stop turning hospitals in to places that kill people.

I've tried to be offended by this. Really I have, but I can't do it...

It's just. So. Boring.

I suppose next they'll be saying that God is a woman, and she's black.

Yawn.

It began with a log fire.

Snow outside, a dining room table pushed out of the way and sitting around on the floor beside a real log fire. That's how it began.

"Do you know why are you here?" Fr Massie asked. I thought that was a bit deep, but it turned out he was checking they knew what Sunday it was. Hands went up, somebody knew that it was the feast of Christ the King and Fr Massie explained that it is also Youth Sunday and that for this occasion the Bishop has recorded a special message.

We sat by the fire and listened to Bishop Drainey's Message to Young People to Mark Youth Sunday 2008 which was maybe a bit high brow in places for some of the younger kids. I thought Fr Massie did a good job afterwards of explaining it. He asked them what they remembered and one girl said "God loved us in to existence".

He made sure they understood three points. That God loved us in to existence and wants us to search for Him, That God has given us gifts and He wants us to use them and finally that the Bishop wants us to meet with him this Lent and it will change our lives.

Next, Fr Massie gave a short talk on two saints who made Christ king of their lives. Jose Luis Sanchez del Rio and Maria Goretti. I had never heard of the former but he is a good Saint. Fr Massie had to tell the latter's story very carefully because some of the children present were quite young so he said only that she was attacked and forgave her attacker (the forgiveness part is the most important part anyway).

After that we went over to the hall for a fun bit of cutting and sticking. The kids made (well, decorated) candles. A good time was had with PVA glue, glitter and shiny shapes.

After the candle making they processed over to the Church, four of them carrying a statue of Christ on one of those, um, statue carrying things - the very same one I once carried Mary on when I were a lad. Here's some of the candles they made...

Lovely. The atmosphere in the church was great as they knelt down for Adoration and Benediction. For me, this is the most important part of the day - when we come before the Lord himself and adore him.

After Benediction we gathered back in the hall for some of Michelle's excellent Chi Rho Cakes...

All in all a great day with a great bunch of kids. Let's end with a wonderful quote from Pope Benedict...

Dear brothers and sisters, this is what interests God. The kingship of history is of no importance to him -- he wants to reign in people's hearts, and from these, in the world: He is the king of the entire universe, but the crucial point, the place where his reign is at risk, is our heart, for there God finds himself encountering our freedom. We, and only we, can block his reign over us, and so we put obstacles to his kingship in the world: in our families, in society, in history. We men and women have the ability to choose which we wish to side ourselves with: either with Christ and his angels or with the devil and his followers, to use the Gospel's exact language. It remains with us to decide whether to practice justice or iniquity, to embrace love and pardon or vendetta and the hatred that kills oneself. From this our personal salvation depends, but so, too, does the salvation of the world. Because here Jesus wants us to associate ourselves with his kingship; because here he invites us to work together for the coming of his Kingdom of love, of justice and of peace. It remains with us to respond to him, not with words, but with deeds: choosing the way of active love and generosity toward our neighbor, we ourselves allow Him to extend his dominion in time and space.... Let us renew with courage our decision to belong to Christ, to bring about in service his Kingdom of justice, of peace and of love.

[link]

Another public service announcement...

Phishing is the practice of getting in touch with you, pretending to be somebody and trying to 'phish' for personal information such as credit card numbers.

People think that Phishing is only done by email but it is increasingly being done over the phone as well. Here's how it works...

By Phone... You receive a phone call, "I am calling from Big Company about your gas bill" they say, or "I am calling from Big Bank about your account". They pick big companies because it increases the likelihood of you being a customer. If you are not a customer, no harm done - they just apologise "must be a mistake in our records" and hang up. If you are a customer of the bank/company they claim to be then they will say something like "I need to check some security details, can you confirm your name and address and mother's maiden name" shortly followed by "We've had trouble processing your credit card, please can you confirm the number..."

By Email... It's basically the same trick - you receive an email pretending to be from a big name bank or online store, it will have logos on and look as legitimate as they can manage. They usually have a story along the lines of "Your account is going to be closed unless.." and they ask you to click a link to visit the site. You click the link and end up on a page that looks exactly the same (to the untrained eye) as the online store. You fill in the form to log in and in doing so you send your details to a scammer.

Scary Stuff.

How to avoid Phishing Attacks

You can try to spot fraudulent emails and phone calls, you can try and sooner or later you will get it wrong. There is only one 100% guaranteed way to avoid phishing...

If you receive a phone call or an email from your bank, phone company, gas company - always remember that you do not know for sure that they are who they say they are. Whatever problem they say they are having - listen to them, but DO NOT give any information. Explain that you never give details to people who called you because you cannot be certain that they are who they say they are. If it is your "bank" with an "urgent problem" then say you will call them back right away.

Then: Pull out the phone book and call your bank or phone company or whatever using that number. Now you know that you are calling your bank. Ask them if they know anything about it. If they don't - you probably just dodged a phishing attack.

You have been warned.

For Mark...

"I found the Baby Piano in Inverness.The ukulele was a broken one I had laying around.I just put two and two together, seamed sensible to me."

[link]

Bishop Drainey's message (which was originally released around National Youth Sunday) has been released again in text form. The whole recorded message thing is nice (and it was really good to be able to play it on National Youth Sunday) but somehow having it in print makes it a bit more easy to digest.

You can read it in full here.

The print version is slightly different from the recorded version at the end. I've put the new bits in bold...

I want us to get together to share, understand more deeply and begin to live Jesus’ life-giving words. Together I want to begin to answer Jesus’ challenging question “Who do you say that I am?” Each week I will come to three different venues in the diocese, Hull, York and Middlesbrough, for the first four weeks of Lent. Will you come? I hope to meet you there and if you listen, if you are open to what the Lord is saying, your life will never be the same again. I promise.

Who do you say I am? A very good topic for young people in Lent.

Better re-read Matthew 16...

Okay, Okay. So making is a bit of a strong word. More like assembling. If you're looking for step by step instructions on how to make an Advent wreath then - you may be disappointed. Try here. Having said that, if you do what we did, you end up with an Advent Wreath - so we're happy.

Back in the day (when I was a student and lived with Mark in Exeter) we got an Advent wreath. We had no trouble locating the candles (in the church supplies shop by Iron Bridge) and picked up a faux-wreath in a shop, um, I forget what it was called but it was right next door to the narrowest street in Exeter if that helps...

What we struggled with was candle holders. They were either outrageously expensive (we needed five of them) or rubbish. In the end we found some that did the job (though they were a bit tall) and while I have a vague recollection of being disappointed at the price (even if they were only £2 that's still £10 on candle holders) it must have been a price we were willing to pay.

When I returned home from University, I brought that Advent Wreath with me and to this very day if forms the core of our Advent Wreath. Ella thought it was bear last year so she sewed some red beads in to it. It's not as good as picking your own greenery and tying it to a purpose built frame (someday...) but for now it provides a hermeneutic of continuity of sorts (like when Pope Benedict wears Piux XI's clothes)...

At the back of that photo you can see the new wreath. My mum gave us a 'Jane Packer Wreath Kit' last year and it's intended to be hung on a front door but we decided to use it horizontally. It came with all manner of decorations, some of which we decided were too gaudy for an Advent Wreath and are saving for the tree.

We went oobly-doobly and put the new wreath on top of the old one. Ella took over and used her style and good taste to decorate it by winding ribbons around it, strategically placing glittery gold apples and shine red fake leaves and cinnamon sticks for that authentic Christmas smell.

Here's the fruit of her efforts...

Very tasteful... On the right hand side you can see the Candles which we bought from Our Lady's Bookshop in Hessle. £9.50 for six very professional looking candles (like the ones they use in Churches). You don't actually need six, they give you an extra purple one to take account of the different colour combinations people use on their Advent wreaths.

As you can tell from our serious expressions - placing the candles in to their holders is a very serious business...

And Voila! The finished article:

Ideally, the candles would be a bit further apart and a bit lower down but the shape of the wreathes and candle holders doesn't allow it. Someday I am going to build some kind of proper frame and Leona is going to pick greenery and attach it with wire magic but for now, we are very happy.

...very excited about lighting the first Candle on Sunday!

Well, as disappointed as I am that I was not able to make the family day in Brigg I did have an awesome time on the Catholic Deaf Association North East Recollection Day. I have come home feeling refreshed and invigorated and ready to get a lot out of Advent.

There were four talks by Deacon Nigel Bavidge, which were made especially good as he was so enthusiastic and excited by what he was saying. The four talks were focused on the four Gospel readings of Advent.

To begin with we looked at what Advent means... expecting, preparation, hope etc. and how the one of the virtues that encompasses all these aspects was patience. In the world of today when everything is so instant we get things so quickly but they do not necessarily bring us happiness, but it is partly the anticipation that helps us to appreciate what arrives more fully.

Naturally we drew on the fact that Christmas is not just about celebrating a birthday that happened 2000 years ago but looking "with joyful hope" for the coming of the Lord again. By looking to the old testament and covenants we can see that God fulfils his promise which gives us the knowledge to trust in the Lord no matter how long he may take to help us or guide us.

The message from the Gospel of the 1st Sunday of Advent is "Stay Awake" it must be important because it is mentioned 4 times in that short reading! It is so easy to go through the day almost sleep walking we know the message but we are not as prepared as we should be. It is like we were reminded in last weeks Gospel do we see Christ in the needs of those around us and help like the sheep or do we walk along blindly as the goats?

A good way to look at if we are hearing God is doing the Examen, taking 5 min to rewind your day and play it back, thinking of the times God has challenged you and you have accepted it, times that you are thankful for but also when did God call and you fail to answer? why was that? by looking at our failings and trying to understand where we went wrong and why we take up the challenge of Gods help that we can strive not to do it again. It is an opportunity for God to help us in our failings.

Before we looked at the second Sunday we took a moment to look at Mary...

Most of us picture her as this quite, gentle, fragile woman but was she? After she received the annunciation from Gabriel, which must have put her in a challenging position in society, she then walked about 70 miles across dangerous country by the looks of it on her own to see her cousin that is quite hardy! "But what about the donkey?" I hear you cry, well there is no mention of a donkey, in fact they came from a poorish family and may not have been able to afford one. But we all know Mary arrives at Bethlehem on one?? again, no mention it is one of those marvellous things added for symbolism - the Messiah comes on a donkey! It is like the three Kings... "What!?" I hear you cry, it is true there is no mention of Kings, except in the Old Testament where "the Kings of the world will come and pay him homage" In fact Christmas in the early Church was not a big thing, it was epiphany! When after Jesus is revealed to his people (the Jews) he is the revealed the the Wise men/Kings (the gentiles) Man I love symbolism.

Talking of symbolism lets just take a moment to look at the various Gospel writers...

We will begin with Mark who we are looking at through advent. Now it is pondered that Mark might be the one and the same as the chap in the Garden of Gethsemane who was in the loin cloth. Now you may be wondering what that has to do with anything but it is symbolism-tastic! because... Mark is writing to the persecuted Christians in Rome, now, some of the informants to the Romans were fellow Christians. By giving in and denouncing their own people they gave up their white baptismal robes. Some of them realised the error of their ways and wanted to be rejoined to Christ but naturally the other Christians were umming and aarring over this. Mark is saying beautifully in the garden look the disciples left Jesus and so did these people "where?" I hear you cry... that is right they are represented by they man in the loin cloth, he looses his baptismal robe but Christ still welcomes him back. So? Well Mark gives no account of Jesus' infancy because it was not considered relevant to the audience he was writing to.

Luke however, writing to the gentiles wants them to feel comfortable with Christ, and so mention his birth... the three wise men etc. Matthew likewise, he wants the Jewish converts to see Jesus genealogy. Matthew also shows us that by looking at the genealogy we see some less than perfect characters in the past showing us that Jesus was born into a real family not a perfect one that we cannot relate to.

Anyway we deviate...

The second week of advent "Prepare a Way for the Lord" We look at John that "voice who cries in the wilderness" initially reminds us of our need to listen to God. We don't need to literally go to the wilderness, the wilderness of our hearts will do! It is important to take that time of silence to listen to God but we cannot always be cut off from the world we need to enter back into it. We are supposed to be tabernacles for God and yet we pay little attention. As St Augustine said " I could not hear the sound of your secret song because I was deafened by the noise in my mind" Again advent is a good time to find that stillness.

Also prepare a way for the Lord or be prepared by the Lord. We are sinners but with Christ's help we will be set free and guided. But we can only be prepared if we stay awake ;o)

Third Sunday of advent "Good news for the poor" which as you guess is the poor in spirit those who may be rich in wealth are often still lacking and they don't know what that's right its God! But how can we bring the good news... if we stay awake then we can be prepared that's how ;o)

Four Sunday, they are getting shorter, am I getting tired? That's right! "Let what you have said be done" Mentions the two announcements that to Zaccariah re. Elizabeth it is impossible he says ehh ehh wrong! and Mary who does not worry or question and just accepts. Gabriel tells Mary to rejoice, she is picked above all to bear Christ! But there is a bit of message for us too we should rejoyce as Christian we have been chosen to bear the good news not all are blessed with the gift of Faith, some search for it their lives and only God chooses who He will reveal Himself to, we should rejoice.

To finish with we looked at the last line "and the angel left her" how nice... no not really he has just charged Mary with an ultimate challenge which she has accepted no questions asked and then bye! Mary left to explain herself to her family, her husband to be, the villagers I am not sure many of the would believe the "well there was this angel..." story. But sometimes God does that to us maybe we know he wants us to do some thing or we even know what it is but not how to achieve it and we are left thinking "a bit of help please? just an arrow? a clue?" but we put our trust in God as did the people of the Old Testament and it all falls into place.

As St Augustine said "we search of God and when we find Him we start searching again because He is always beyond us"

Let what you have said be done, how, stay awake, I will prepare you and you can pass on the Good News.

(That was the short version!)