The Olympics come home!

The opening ceremony of the London Olympics takes place tomorrow .I will watch intrigued to see what they come up with..In the weeks to come there will be wall to wall coverage of every Olympic sport.

The BBC will understandably spend millions covering all the events, on a multitude of sites, and I would expect them to do it well.


 I haven't seen what the projected audience figures around the world will be but they must be massive.

It is  Baron Pierre de Coubertin who is deservedly given the credit for founding the modern Olympics but what is less well known is that he got his inspiration from   Dr William Penny Brookes from Much Wenlock in Shropshire see here

Brooks who was decades ahead of his time was convinced that sport would make local people healthier and that exercise was essential to a healthy life style. To that end he campaigned vigoroulsy for PE to be taught in schools, and for that reason too,Dr Brookes  founded the Wenlock Olympian Society which staged their first games in 1850. It was on Brookes  insistence that"the Games  was open" to the working classes   despite pious people complaining  that this  would mean having  a large number of scantily-dressed young men performing in front of women. It was felt that such an event would cause drunkenness, rioting, lewd behaviour, and that men would leave their wives.".... None of these things appear to have happened( because of the games!)


Following the success of the Wenlock Games the first Olympian games were held at Crystal Palace in 1866 drawing a crowd of no fewer than 10000.The legendary cricketer W.G. Grace took part in the hurdles 


Baron Pierre de Coubertin  was invited by Dr Brookes to Much Wenlock to see the Wenlock Olympics in 1890 and spent time talking to and learning from his  enthusiastic host ,who also became his friend. Drawing inspiration from his visit  the Baron determined to re start the ancient games and the first modern Olympics were held in Athens in 1896.
Brookes was not present having died just a few months earlier but Coubertin  said of him


“If the Olympic Games that modern Greece has not been able to resuscitate survive there today, it is due not to a Greek, but to Dr W.P. Brookes. It is he who inaugurated them 40 years ago, and it is he, now 82 years old but still alert and vigorous, who continues to organise and inspire them.”

Baron Piere de Coubertin, 1890.

We can learn a lot from William P Brookes about the importance of vision and how critical it is, whatever the odds, of persistence in pursuing that vision

The Wenlock games still exist today see here

August is busy!

The sun has come out ,the temperatures are rising,the school holidays have begun and church life moves into a different phase.
Different but it is just as busy, for even though various ministries have stopped and those that run them are having a well earned break,we still have various projects on the go.

August in particular is a very busy month .In our Central building we have various things going on that relate to the big Flower Show that is such a popular annual event in August, these include an afternoon tea (complete with speaker ) for Senior Citizens,  various children's activities and an art exhibition ,we are hopeful hundreds of local people will come and see these as they go past our building on the way to The Flower Show See here. This is a great opportunity to meet and bless people.

Roy and Mary Ellis are running Senior Moments at Crowmoor  for the second time from 14th -16th August  and I am, hearing bookings are going very well indeed, and many of those booking in are not regular members of our congregation which is great!

Then last but not least there is The Holiday Club. This has been run annually for many years and is hugely enjoyed by those primary school  who come along.
August is therefore not a quiet month but certainly a very exciting one giving us loads of opportunities to engage with local people
I am looking forward to a good month!

Decline in Church in Wales

I was interested to see the huge decline in the Church in Wales press here
Reading the article (and briefly glancing at the original report) the most encouraging thing is a recognition of the seriousness of the problem; quotes like this indicate how dire things are: "Those parishes that do have any serious work with young people are tiny compared to the number that do not."
Diagnosis is always very important and the fact that the report states there is a desire for change is hugely encouraging ,though in my experience one only sees how deep the commitment to change is when change actually starts happening
Nevertheless many of the recommendations seem radical and  offer a positive way forward for the Church in Wales to reconnect with the culture in order to share the gospel. It is interesting that these discussions are happening in a whole variety of denominations and my hope and prayer is that we all have the courage not simply to reflect on the changes needed but to change
One of the histories on my own church states that a minister a century or so ago  shared with the church meeting the idea that we should start evangelistic meetings in local homes , the church minutes records "The brethren thought this was a good idea and decided to defer it for another time"
It was from memory during a revolution in the 1980's in eastern Europe that the students took to the streets chanting  "If not us then who? If not now then when?"
I think there is a recognition that the church needs to change. Is there a will to see those difficult and painful changes through?

Changing church for changed times

We are about to begin a new series in the book of Daniel .As a part of the preparation for that I have been reading Gerard Kelly's stretch" Lessons in faith from the life of Daniel,"which I have found helpful and at points even inspiring. The book contains some great quotes like " The ultimate triumph of Daniel is that he does better in Babylon ,than many of his fellow Jews had done in Jerusalem" and Daniel's God is not too small for Babylon,he is too big for Babylon"
As you may guess from the quotes Kelly draws a convincing comparison between where Daniel was in exile and where the church today is in a post Christendom age and suggests that while there are differences between his time and this time, there are also similarities and therefore important  lessons we can learn in not so much surviving but thriving in this new exciting time when the church is in transition
Kelly helpfully quotes Stuart Murray seven key points of transition

Stuart Murray, (cited on p.21) mentions seven transitions for the church as it moves into post-Christendom:

from being at the centre to being on the margins;
from majority to minority;
from settlers to sojourners;
from having a privileged place to being part of a plurality;
from controlling to being a witness in a culture controlled by others;
from maintenance to mission;
and from institution to movement.

While reading this I also came across a post in  Simon Jones blog a sideways glance which struck me as both provocative and containing some important truths for our age about living in exile

Light a virtual Candle !

Grasmere church interior

I was in the Lake District at the weekend and popped into Grasmere Church and was fascinated to see the numbers of people writing prayer requests on small bits of paper and sticking them on the noticeboard provided.  I think it says something very positive  about how spiritual people are even if the do not regularly attend church and how much they value being prayed for.

Equally visit any of the great Cathedrals and for a few pence you can light a candle for a loved one,which for many people is a very meaningful act and from time to time I have done it myself, as an aid to concentration as I pray
I think I might draw the line at this though  London internet Church

What do you think?

The Olympics are coming closer and.....

I thought this was  clever .Saw it at Outreach Media

Shropshire Prayer Breakfast 2012

Despite being in Shrewsbury since 2004 ,I had never got along to the Shropshire Prayer Breakfast before.
I went along to this and it was good to be there.
Arriving in jeans I initially felt a little underdressed as there were lots of people in suits arriving at the same time as me at the Lord Hill Hotel

The breakfast the hotel offered was superb and seated at large round tables ,there was plenty of chance to meet other people

Mark about to tuck in!

Once the plates had been cleared ,we sang a couple of songs and then settled back to hear Ian Coffey ,now at Moorlands College speak

It was a highly relevant message on the good Samaritan
Pointing out that the Good Samaritan
Came to where the man was
Saw him
Made a practical response

we were encouraged to do the same

Ian also came up with some excellent quotes
For example "we are welcomed as the prodigal son and sent out as The good Samaritan"
And " if the 1950's come back the church is ready!" perahps most tellingly
"do you want to lead a successful or a significant life?"

Following the talk we heard from 3 people about the excellent local projects they are involved in .these were good to hear about but I did wonder if they could have been slightly shorter, because if I had a small concern about what was, all in all ,an excellent morning we were left with only about 15 minutes of prayer together,before a final song and an encouraging  blessing from the Bishop of Shrewsbury

The day was organised by the amazingly energetic Stephen Derges who did a great job in pulling it all together.
It was good to be there!