What is in Kelvin's Head?

Dedication

24/10/2013

We are marking Dedication Sunday this weekend. That is a Sunday for giving thanks for St Mary’s and rejoicing in the opportunity to build on what has been built before us.

Over the month of October, I’ve been asking members of the congregation to give “Two Minutes for Stewardship” each week at the Offertory and this week will be the last one.

One of the things that I learned directly from my travels in North America last year was to be more up-front about money in the congregation. I saw the Two Minutes for Stewardship idea over there and immediately knew that I wanted to invite people to do it here. Rather than it always being me who asks for money, it is a chance for members of the congregation to say something about the congregation and about how and why they give money and time to help build on what we are already thankful has been built before us.

Those who have been doing the slots in the service have been brilliant at capturing something of the essence of St Mary’s whilst also talking about why and how they give.

That will be one of the themes that we think about on Sunday. There’s some fabulous music scheduled too, particularly at Choral Evensong.

I’ve heard a sense of excitement in what those doing the stewardship slots have talked about. A sense of fun too, which is all to the good because the bible bids us to give out of our bounty and with a sense of cheerfulness.

So, hurrah for St Mary’s and for all those who have brought us to this point. And a big hurrah for those who have spoken each week in October about how much they love the place and why they think it is worth giving in order to build on what we already have.

5 responses to “Tanzania”

Raspberry Rabbit

31/01/2007

A bit picky, yes. Idris will no doubt correct them when he’s there.

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Simon Sarmiento

01/02/2007

Umm. So Northern Ireland is part of Britain is it?
Four churches in the UK maybe.

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kelvin

01/02/2007

Well Simon, you are correct in your assumption that I was thinking of the Church of Ireland in Northern Ireland, rather than perhaps the Church of Rockall.

People who are being picky deserve to be picked up for slack talk. However, speaking as I do from the Second City of Empire, I hide behind this quote on the website for Number 10 Downing Street:

http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page823.asp

“The United Kingdom is made up of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Its full name is the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Great Britain, however, comprises only England, Scotland and Wales. Great Britain is the largest island of the British Isles. Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic form the second largest island.

The UK is just under 1,000 km long from the south coast of England to the extreme north of Scotland, and is 500 km across at its widest point. It shares a single land border with the Irish Republic. Despite its relatively small size the UK boasts incredibly varied and often very beautiful scenery.

The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are not part of the United Kingdom. They are largely self-governing with their own legislative assemblies and systems of law. But the British Government is responsible for their defence and international relations.

On this site the term ‘Britain’ is used informally to mean the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.”

I’d also refer interested parties to the Wikipedia page on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Isles_naming_dispute

I offer this topic as a free gift to Bishop David.

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Bishop David

03/02/2007

As you would expect, I am all knotted up on this one. I am a citizen of Ireland – or the Irish Republic – or the Republic of Ireland. Nor Eire – or, as many of my parishioners in Portadown would have called it [never having moved on from 1922], the ‘Free State’. Meanwhile President Mary MacAleese is often termed President of Ireland which seems to me to be as notable a piece of ‘overlooking’ as when Ian Paisley refers to the ‘people of Ulster’ [which means some of the Protestant/Unionist population of Northern Ireland] and Gerry Adams refers to the ‘Irish People’ [which means not the Protestant/Unionist population of Northern Ireland]. I like Wiki’s rather coy description of Ireland as ‘currently split’ – meaning just the most recent 85 years. Which in the context of thousands of years of British misrule in Ireland is but a blink. And finally one comes to the interesting use of the term ‘mainland’ …

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steg

04/02/2007

Must admit when I saw you were writing about primates in Tanzania I thought your blog was going to be about ape conservation………………….

In my experience people from outwith the UK confuse Britain and England a lot. And they have a point. Do you always refer to the Netherlands or sometimes to Holland even when you are refering to the non Holland bits of the Netherlands? And how do you think that makes the Friesian’s feel? And so on.

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