Solstice at Stonehenge

Wearing my Volunteer Police Chaplain’s hat I attended the Solstice celebrations at Stonehenge a couple of weeks back. (Actually, I don’t have a hat – though I have a very nice yellow fluorescent jacket with Police Chaplain on the back!) It was an interesting experience.

I spent most of the night being driven around the area in a police car. So I did not get up close to the stones themselves. We did drive past the site very closely (along the road that leads to the Stonehenge car park.) And we were close by at dawn on 21^st June – though by this time I had fallen asleep!

For many of the people their being at Stonehenge was nothing more than a bit of a party. Many were stopping at Stonehenge on their way to Glastonbury for the Festival. But for others marking the Solstice at Stonehenge is a religious experience (my words not theirs). These are of course the assorted druids, pagans and witches who believe that the sunrise on the longest day has some religious meaning.

I found on the Daily Mail website an interview with Gina Pratt, a 43-year-old housewife and a self-described witch. She said being inside the circle as the sun came up gave her 'a kind of a grounding feeling (of) being in touch with the earth again, and the air we breathe.' She added 'It makes you feel small and insignificant ... but it makes you feel like you're here for a reason,' she said.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1288546/2010-summer-solstice-revellers-Stonehenge-mark-longest-day.html

In an odd sort of way I know what Gina Pratt means. Because I find that there some places I’ve visited that feel ‘special’. It’s hard to put your finger on what it is. But there is something about them. For me Avebury is one such place. On another occasion standing at the base of a giant redwood tree in Yosemite National Park in California.

So what is ‘it’? I think that what makes both of these places special for me is that at both of them I felt very close to God. Celtic Christianity described such places as “Thin places”. In other words places were the gap between God and people, between heaven and earth is so narrow that it is possible to have an encounter with God. "Thin Places" are the places in our lives where the divine and the natural worlds come so close together that we can catch a glimpse of God. For the Celtic Christians these places were very real - places within creation where we could physically go.

Or the Thin Places in our own lives are those moments where the space between us & the Kingdom of God is thin, when we are introduced to a greater glimpse of Who He is through our experiences and through the stories of others.

Maybe you have a “thin place”? A special place where you go to encounter God? Perhaps you’ve just never thought of it in those terms.

God of thin places, we are grateful that you invite us to come very near. We give you thanks for your choosing to come close to us in the whispering wind of the Holy Spirit, who passes gently through our days and emboldens us for courageous faith, and in the person of Jesus Christ in whom we catch a vision of your faith. We see you as creator of all that surrounds us and praise you for the beauty of special places, where we find our hearts at rest in you. We are grateful that you welcome us into your love and desire that we be your children seeking compassion and mercy for those in special need. When we fail, you pick us up and hold us close and teach us to walk again. Teach us to walk through these dangerous days as ambassadors of your peace in our communities and in this world. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. (C) Rev Dr Agnes Northfleet.

Dustbin priorities

Today the ConDem govt announced that it is to stop local councils implementing forn ightly refuse collections and insist that bins are emptied weekly.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23846371-eric-pickles-blocks-bid-to-drop-weekly-bin-collections.do

Our bins are emptied weekly here in Swindon and we have weekly recycling collections. That said we in this part of town don't have a wheely bin we have bags. So I suppose we do need a weekly collection. But if we had a wheely bin I don't see that a fortnightly collection of rubbish would be a problem.

Presumably fortnightly collections save money? So why implement weekly ones? Ah, of course it is because the ConDems always do what the Daily Heil sorry Daily Mail says http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-409070/Councils-fortnightly-bin-collection-stealth.html

Better weekly rubbish collections than spending the money saved by fortnightly ones on children in care say or home helps or libraries.

West Cumbria Shootings

This is the text of a Thought for the Day I gave on BBC Wiltshire on Sunday 6th June.

Following the talk I spoke about how the police must feel in situations like this and also spoke to the Bishop of Carlisle who was being interviewed "down the line".

The day after the shootings in West Cumbria the church leaders issued a statement in which they said that

All the churches from across a very wide area have been, and will continue to be, involved in supporting those affected by yesterday’s tragedy. In addition to ministering to people in our communities, clergy will be available to support the hospital and emergency services chaplains as required. The church will continue to play a longer term role in providing support and sanctuary to those who need it, and we strongly encourage all churches in the area to make their buildings and people available for people to come and pray, light candles and have someone to talk to.

And in an interview he gave last week the Right Rev James Newcombe, the Bishop of Carlisle said:

The Church is there for everyone, giving support long after the funeral flowers have wilted.

Emotional wounds of this kind are not quickly healed and we will all continue to pray and listen in the months ahead.

Faith can give me, and others in Cumbria, hope that we are not alone.

Only with faith can we begin to grapple with something as awful and difficult to understand as this.

Despite living in a time when many people no longer attend church, it’s still a common instinct among what is rudely called the “unchurched” to stumble into church at times of national bereavement and violent tragedy. We associate Princess Diana’s death with the masses of flowers left outside Buckingham Place and many other places. Yet I remember how people came to churches at that time to light candles, to say prayers and to write in books of remembrance.

On 9/11 small crowds of dazed bankers found sanctuary in London’s City churches, as they did in Manhattan, as they heard of what had happened to friends, colleagues and strangers in the Twin Towers in New York. On 7^th July 2005, some of those same City of London churches offered spiritual solace and practical refreshment for the emergency services that descended selflessly into the Underground hell of the bombing at Aldgate.

And it is quite possible that today, this morning, people in West Cumbria, in Whitehaven and Egremont, Frizington and Lamplugh, Wilton and Gosforth, Seascale and Boot, all places where Derrick Bird shot his victims, it is quite possible that some people who normally do not attend church will be there this morning.

They will be going to find some peace in their troubled minds. They will be going to try and find answers. They will be going to be alongside others in the community who have suffered the same sorts of trauma and shock. And maybe some of them will be going because they want to get angry at God for allowing this to happen.

All those are good and valid reasons for being at church today.

At times such as these the Church is recognised as being a place all in a community can turn to whether they are people of faith or none.

I imagine that for the families of those killed by Derrick Bird, and indeed Derrick Bird’s own family, the major question must be Why? Why did he do it? Why did he shoot my wife, my husband, my son, my daughter? We’ve all heard the theories about the disputed will and his worries about unpaid tax. But those theories still do not explain why he shot as many people as he did. And chances are no one will ever know Why.

That is what will make this dreadful event all the more awful to come to terms with. There will be lots of questions and perhaps very few answers. And I hope and pray that for the people in West Cumbria most closely affected by the events of 2^nd June, they will at least be able to find some comfort and support from their Christian neighbours even if there are no answers.

I’d like to conclude by reading the prayer that has been written by the Church Leaders of West Cumbria in response to the shootings on 2^nd June.

O God, Creator of us all,
in your Son, Jesus you have walked the way of darkness and death,
you send your Spirit of healing and truth to all in need

We pray for those injured or bereaved by inexplicable violence
May your gracious compassion surround and uphold them

We pray for all individuals and communities whose lives have been changed by this tragedy
May your sustaining love be present in all expressions of support offered and help received

We give thanks for the commitment and dedication of the emergency services
And pray that they may be given the strength they need to serve others

We give thanks for the resilience and courage of West Cumbrians
And pray that the bonds of community care and concern may hold fast at this time

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer
And let our cry come unto you

Amen.