Author: David Herbert

My name is David Herbert. I started growing up in Leicester. I’m currently growing up in Ellesmere Port. I am a priest in the Church of England. I was ordained in Sheffield in 1974. I have been privileged to serve in communities in Sheffield (Manor and Gleadless Valley) and communities near to Chester (Ellesmere Port and Tarvin). I am a keeper of learning spaces and support continuing ministerial/professional development in the Diocese of Chester.

>Leonard Cohen’s anthem

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http://www.youtube.com/get_player

There’s a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in. That’s a line from Leonard Cohen’s anthem – play the video while reading the rest of this. He advises “forget your perfect offering”.

That sounds pretty sound advice to me because there is no perfect offering. I have just returned from a a training event led by Bishop Stephen Platten who is Chairman of the Liturgical Commission. One of the exercises we chose to do together was to devise a liturgy to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the NHS. We decided that there had to be opportunity to confess how the NHS had not lived up to its ideals and that we needed to avoid triumphalism. It’s only when we admit there are problems that we can improve – institutionally and personally. Forget our perfect offering. There is a crack in everything – that’s how the light gets in.

I wonder if God designed us as “seconds” – cracks included. Without the cracks what use would be the light of the world?

>Side by side by God

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>Yesterday we played with our text from John 14:15-21 -particularly “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth.”

At one stage “counsellor” was translated “advocate” or more obscurely “paraclete”. Both those words carry the meaning of “called to the side of” – so Jesus is promising another one to be “on/at our side” (the other one being Jesus himself). It’s quite something to have God “at/on our side”.

Preparing yesterday’s sermon I came across these words: “We observe some people who are seriously ill and marvel at their courage and doggedness. How do they do it?, we wonder. What enables them to go on and not become discouraged and bitter? Then we notice a worn bible and prayer books by their bedside; the regular visits of a eucharistic minister bringing them communion and words of support from parishioners; family and friends who assure the infirmed of regular prayers and visits.” – All these at her side – as advocate, counsellor, paraclete and all those other words we use to describe the effect of God’s work at our side and on our side – encourager, comforter and peace. I wonder how this understanding inspires a more effective ministry of advocacy – the nurse, solicitor, neighbour, friend and priest.

It reminds me of another reference to God being at our side in his creation of companionship and relationship when kneeling on man’s side removed one of his ribs to create a woman. (Genesis 2:21) There’s a good cartoon here with Eve saying “No Adam, I don’t want to see your scar.”

>Getting off my high horse

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> How do you climb down from a high horse? When you’ve decided to ride a high horse, how do you get down? That so much better than what might be a more modern phrasing: “how to get out of the car without showing your nickers” – but that video – see below – does explain the steps we need to take to climb down with dignity.

1. practice

2. gather your material – (not your skirt, but your thinking)

3. get someone to help you down

4. avoid heaving – it should look effortless. Let people support you

5. balance – make sure you have a firm footing – falling on a curb or banana skin isn’t going to help the dignified climbdown

6. make it swift – should be done with one flowing movement –

When you’ve committed to an issue, how do you withdraw? How do you withdraw from Iraq?

This image: http://rubyshooz.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/high-horse.jpg

Here’s how to get out of a car without showing your nickers – (I love the wink at the end):

http://www.youtube.com/get_player

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“How are we going to cope with this?” or “What on earth can we do about that?” is so often the starting point for a relevant and exciting piece of theological work, even though it begins on a negative and worrying note….. It is a fact that good theology is more likely to derive from a problem rather than a statement, more likely to arise in a prison than a palace.
Laurie Green

The whole team are leaders

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Leadership is not the personal responsibility of the team leader. It is to be exercised by all both collectively and individually. So the role of the team leader is to encourage growth in leadership in your colleagues. Just as a cricket captain seeks to bring out the best in bowler or batsman, so the team leader encourages, motivates.
Geoffrey Cornell – How to become a Creative Church Leader

>Now can you see over the wall?

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How we need each other! This celebration of cooperation is enacted in Catalan at various festivals.Besides the people who actually climb, many are also needed to form the the base of the castell. They help sustain the weight and act as a sort of safety net. How about this as a team building exercise for our clergy conference, or something for our all age worship?

Dee Hock agonised over what makes an institution or organisation and has this to say: “Healthy organisations are a mental concept of relationship to which people are drawn by hope, vision, values and meanikng, and liberty to cooperatively pursue them.” (p120) Healthy organisations induce behaviour whereas unhealthy organisations compel behaviour and are destructive. He adds: “Without a deeply held, shared purpose that gives a meaning to their lives …. communities will disintegrate, and organisations become instruments of tyranny.”

“People deprived of self-organisation and self governance are inherently ungovernable.” (p121)

A free image from wikimedia commons

Nature

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The striking of a match is every bit as wonderful as the working of a brain; the union of two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen in a molecule of water isevery bit as wonderful as the growth of a child. nature does not class her works in order of merit; everything is just as easy to her as everything else: she puts her wholemind into all that she does … she lives through all life, extends throaugh all extent, spreads undivided, operates unspent.
Stephen Paget