What is in Kelvin's Head?

Christmas Day Sermon 2012

25/12/2012

Many of you will be aware that I recently have returned from a big sabbatical trip to churches in Canada and the United States.

I was there to learn and reflect and grow and I did that by making contact with the most interesting folk I could find in church life on the other side of the North Atlantic.

Inevitably I spent quite a lot of time poking around churches over there and coming from this cathedral, I was interested in what cathedrals over there were up to.

Which is how I found myself in the National Cathedral in Washington DC just a day or two after the American Election in November.

It is a mighty building. Far bigger than we are but when I saw it, it was not looking its best. Still recovering from an earthquake which wobbled all its stonework, they have netting strung all across the nave to catch falling fragments. So you stand in this enormous church unable to look up and appreciate the great spaces.

Unable to look up, instead I went down. For underneath the nave is a maze of twisty passages which lead (more…)

8 responses to “Guides and God”

Tim

19/06/2013

I like the change from `country’ to `community’ most of all.

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PamB

19/06/2013

I still remember my Brownie and Guide promises, but think that the Chorister’s prayer takes a lot of beating.
Bless O Lord us thy servants who minister in thy temple. Grant that what we sing with our lips we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe in our hearts we may show forth in our lives, through etc, etc.
Don’t know why this isn’t an essential part of the Voice for life scheme, same as the Brownie/guide equivalents are to their development process.

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Rosemary Hannah

19/06/2013

The only one of the above I could take (Pam’s chorister’s apart) without serious finger-crossing is the Rainbow pledge. I MIGHT want to serve my community, but it would usually be by challenging it, and that is, based on childhood experiences and why I never got to play Mary in the nativity play (despite being in every other way well qualified) that is NOT what people want from children, generally. Or adults, by and large.

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Robin

19/06/2013

> To be true to myself and develop my beliefs,

This is meaningless. Beliefs, in themselves, are neither good nor bad. Nor are all beliefs equally valid or moral – people can have horrible beliefs.

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Rosemary Hannah

19/06/2013

Indeed Robin -and similarly, on occasion setting about me with a mace would have been being true to myself, and not a good thing to do, but THINKING about what one believes, and being kind and helpful … yes, let’s stick with the Rainbows.

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Robin

19/06/2013

Agreed. I like the Rainbow pledge.

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Rosemary Hannah

19/06/2013

Yup – promise less, deliver more. Way to go.

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Erp

20/06/2013

Don’t forget these also go with the Brownie and Guide Laws (the Rainbows don’t have a separate law)

Brownie law
* A Brownie Guide thinks of others before herself and does a good turn every day.

Guide law
A Guide is honest, reliable and can be trusted.
A Guide is helpful and uses her time and abilities wisely.
A Guide faces challenges and learns from her experiences.
A Guide is a good friend and a sister to all Guides.
A Guide is polite and considerate.
A Guide respects all living things and takes care of the world around her.

What I like is the organization consulted with the Guides and even the Brownies when considering changes to the promises and not just those over 18.

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