Isaacisms: The Sound of Music

Graham: You look like something from "The Sound of Music"

Isaac: You can’t see music you can only hear it.

Louise and Graham: Helpless Laughter.

Happy Birthday Isaac

Isaac is six today! (I feel old).

 

Alice and a Pinata

Alice is having a Pinata for her birthday.  She has rather taken to it, infact she has taken it so much that she is a bit reluctant to let any one hit it!

Louise found some soft toys (from the present box, there is a story in its self there).  We gave her a little rabbitt to "look after" for a a couple of hours.  We told her that she could have it on her birthday if she let people hit her Pinata.  She wasn’t very convinced.

A couple of days of persuasion (mainly from Louise) she was saying "That’s my Pinata and I’m going to hit it!" 

Conference

I have a two day conference in Manchester this week.  I will be meeting with other newly accredited ministers from within the Baptist Union of Great Britain.  With the perparation for the services and other things I suspect It’s going to be a struggle for time this week.

Esther

We are starting a new series in the evenings services (which meet on Stanley Road, Morecambe).  We will be looking at the book of Esther, in the Old Testament.

I gave the congregation a choice between Esther and Colossians, having done an introduction to both books.  Esther got 66% of the vote, so Esther it is.

 I will be posting my notes as I do them.  I don’t post them here, because not everyone will be fully interested.  You can follow them here: bible.graham.doel.org.  Should you want an RSS feed for them it is http://bible.graham.doel.org/node/feed/.  I put the notes up as I write them.  They are quite likely to get edited and changed.  But if your interested you can follow!

The church is dead, long live the church!

Through the post this week arrived the thoroughly exciting "Religious Trends 5" report. I’m not big on statistics but they can be helpful. The statistics and predictions in this report seem to be so alarming that Nigel McCulloch suggested that the church faces extinction.  (Full News Report).

This is what the report had to say:

• By the year 2040 only 2% of the population of the UK will attend church.
• By the year 2040 virtually all rural and innercity churches will be closed.
• By the year 2040 6.2% of the population will be active in other religions.

While that may well be true if the current trends continue there are some things that we should bear in mind:

• The statistics are measured by attendance to church, just because people don’t attend churches that are run as institutions it doesn’t necessarily mean the church in the UK will die, just that the institutional version might.
• As the culture changes institutional church things are becoming less and less important to people. That doesn’t mean that people reject the idea of God, just the package that he is dressed up in. The challenge to the church will be to find creative ways of reinventing its self.
• Andrew Jones (aka tallskinnykiwi) points out that the Church of England report "The Mission Shaped Church" contains the phrase "fresh expressions" of church  (Link to his observations here). According to Religious Trends, the Church of England have the most to be worried about.    Anglican Priest, Mike Moynagh provides an inspiring look at how the institutional church can re-invent its self in his book "Emergingchurch.intro".
• In my mind one, the most threatening thing that the church faces is it’s own institutional approach. Seth Goddin suggests that bureaucracy leads to death (Link to his observations here).  I think that the church needs be realistic about the possibility that the fear of change will stifle and prevent innovation and growth.

My hope is that this report will not send the church into a downward spiral of depression and lament about how things used to be in the past. I hope it will inspire the church to think about why people don’t attend, and to think of innovative and creative ways of re-imagining church for the twenty first century.

More development on the Central Promenade in Morecambe

Urban Splash have started redeveloping the Midland Hotel. It is nice to see some work going on on the hotel and hopefully it will improve the way the Morecambe promenade looks. I still maintain that it is a bit of a waste of money. The Midland Hotel falls into the category of "concrete monstrosity" as far as I’m concerned. It does nothing for me and how it ever gained the status of a grade two listed building is beyond me! However, I’m sure once they have chucked 4 million quid at it it will look lovely. Morecambe has a plethora of Hotels but I am sure that the addition of a good quality hotel with such stunning views will benefit the resort as a whole.

There is more development going to happen on the central promenade in Morecambe. The land to the side of the Midland (on the right if you are looking at the sea) is also up for redevelopment. At the moment it is home for the fair ground, flower beds, car parks, the dome, a war memorial and a bronze statue of Eric Morecambe. Urban Splash and Lancaster City Council are seeking a design team

which shares its ambition to produce an inspirational and imaginative mixed-use development, and which realises the potential of the site and reinforces the regeneration of the broader Morecambe area. (Link to competitions.archiseek.com)

I think regeneration in Morecambe is badly needed, but I’m not convinced that the central promenade needs it as much as the Sandylands promenade. It already has the tern project, the stone jetty and the fair ground. Sure, the fair looks a bit tatty, but come down to the other side of the Midland Hotel and you will find nothing to attract visitors. No statues and no art (apart from graffiti on the shelters). You will find the derelict "Frontier Land" site which continues to dominate the prom, and desperately needs a coherent redevelopment plan. Still I think I would have to argue that any regeneration in Morecambe is better than none.

Morecambe is about to hit the headlines again.

The deaths of 21 cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay last year is going to fling Morecambe into the headlines again. The trial of the four people accused of manslaughter has been postponed because of legal arguments (more here from reuters). It was due to start on Tuesday but it will now start on Monday. The trial of these men is expected to last about four months in total. I expect it will hit the news when it starts and when it ends.

Morecambe is such an amazing place to live, it is a shame that it has to hit the headlines because of tragedy.

Protected: Time away from the blog: e.mail me for the password.

I have been away from my blog for a few weeks now. We had a couple of weeks holiday and then I haven’t got back into the rythm since getting back from holiday.

Our holiday was excellent. In fact we have had an ace summer. These are a couple of photos of the kids before and after crabbing with their cousins.