A question that Rev Margaret asked the staff team recently was “What is the joy in our ministry?” It certainly got me thinking. 17 years ago I had felt the call to take my faith a step further and after 3 years of study and a few interviews when I had to discuss and explain my faith, I was licensed as a Reader. During these years I have had the privilege of preparing and taking services in all of the churches in the Area. I’ve taken many funerals which has involved talking to the bereaved families and preparing a service that they feel recognises the love for their family member and celebrates their life. This despite the sadness that surrounds a funeral gives me joy that I can help in some small way to make a difference for the family. As you can imagine it takes a lot of thought and prayer to put together such a service, but it is also the pastoral work that goes alongside this that is most joyful. Not that these times are joyful.I also find joy in putting together services and other occasions where we all get together to think about and discover what our Christian faith means. It really is fun thinking of creative ways to share our faith and working with other like-minded people in the preparation. Thinking of different ways to explain, discuss and to share our faith is joyful – the hope is that people who attend such services or events also find it joyful! Just a plug here – I hope you will join us at Marchington Woodlands Village Hall on 15th August at 3pm for one of these creative ways to look at our faith and enjoy getting back together over tea and cake!So what is joy? The dictionary definition is a feeling of pleasure and happiness. Defining joy in ministry is difficult. I suppose that it is the pleasure of what I have just described. But then the happiness comes from the feeling I can get when I get the sense that a service has been well received, not that I’m often told! I just hope it has!But the real joy is that I am not alone – I may live alone but I have a companion in all that I do – one who understands me, one who I can talk to, one who puts up with me, accepts me as I am with all my faults and failings, one who will never walk out on me, one who will give me encouragement. There is the continuous assurance that God in Jesus through the Spirit walks beside me always. What more can I ask for!?Maggie Hatchard, Reader for Uttoxeter Area of Parishes.
July 2021 - Team Vicar “Twaddle”. This is my 10<sup>th</sup> year in the Uttoxeter Area of Parishes. I know that is peanuts compared to others; however, somehow I feel long-in-the-tooth. I have now been in the Area for more time than my years in the Probation Service (eight years) and my combined time at university (seven years). In that time I have gone from being fairly green to the whole parish priest lark, to feeling reasonably knowledgeable and competent. When the diocese talks of ‘experienced’ priests it quotes those with at least ‘three years’ in a post, which doesn’t seem long to me but what do I know? I still feel like a bit of a fly-by-night. When I speak with people like Thelma, Hilda and Geoff, who seem to have been around the Area since time immemorial, I know that I am temporary, lacking in local knowledge compared with PCCs, parishioners and Ministry Teams, who have seen a dozen or more parish priests come and go. I hope I have always been conscious of the subservient nature of parish ministry and valued the dependence on volunteers in all churches, which will go on long after my retirement. Whilst obviously I still want to change the world, if I can be remembered half as fondly as Paddy (and Mark) Vidal-Hall was at her funeral recently, I think I will be happy with my stint in the Uttoxeter Area. We do face a different parish situation now. Whilst Leigh, Kingstone/Gratwich and Marchington St.Peter’s/Marchington Woodlands each had their own vicars, there are now 10 parishes in the Area, which bounce around between having 1-3 paid vicars at any one time. If I could wander around Leigh as a full-time post then I could probably do a better job but in 2021 it costs £56, 450 to pay for one vicar (which includes the stipend, housing costs, pension, diocesan costs and around 6% to the national church), which Leigh could not afford. I get £27,000 (gross) in my annual wage packet and am not complaining, but it does make you wonder about the funding structure in the Church of England. Perhaps we should go back to Glebe Land and Livings! Over the last year I have had the chance to look at Parish Shares across the Deanery and have come to the conclusion that different people are looking at the same picture through different lenses. The Diocese primarily sees Parish Share through a Benefice lens but staff deployment through a Deanery lens; the Deanery sees Parish Share and deployment through a Deanery lens but has no real power to effect either; and the parishes tend to see both through a parish lens. At points such as Shaping For Mission, some of the lenses intersect but not consistently enough and not with enough understanding from all parties together. As cheesy as this sounds, we all need to be singing from the same hymn sheet, or at least have the same hymn sheet available to sing from. We need to be focussing on working consensually as one (acknowledging our disagreements) in order to be able to plan well for the future. At the moment there is too much angst, too much anxiety and too little understanding of the bigger picture from all parties. We also need to be realistic about what is achievable and affordable in the 21<sup>st</sup> century, both in terms of finance and practise in the parishes. I crave the traditional parish priest role but find myself more often in front of a computer than in front of parishioners. Vicars often attend more meetings aimed at achieving a bigger impact than actually catching up with people. However, I can wander around as much as I like but unless enough money comes in for the building and Parish Share ….. In the end, I do not believe that the vicar can or should do everything, or can achieve the great charismatic wave of evangelism that would resolve all our problems. I am paid for by the people but cannot be the people. In the end my role must be to do the basics (services) but essentially to encourage and enable the wealth of experience, faith, passion, talent and hopefully compassion that people hold in their heads and hearts for those around them. That will be the wave that needs to come, to make the structures less top-heavy, less deferential to the powers-that-be and for those powers-that-be to more gracious and acknowledge that their very existence depends upon the donations and collections of the people on the ground. At the same time, the people on the ground need to accept that change will come and we should make the most of it and not just mumble into our beer, however comforting and traditional that beer may be. Peace and prayers, Joe Rev’d Joe Cant.
Dear all,Today I am writing this Stuff as a genuine 4D, present time, multisensory experience. I have a cup of honey and ginger tea in my 'Tea's a Saviour' mug, which also has a 3D image of Jesus on it. Jesus actually looks as if he might have been from Palestine rather than the blue-eyed, Aryan versions popular in 20th century Hollywood films. He is a touch orange, however, but as far as I know hasn't been asked to go on Strictly Come Dancing.I am also listening to the first of 3 Bob Dylan CDs that my oldest brother kindly sent me a few months ago. I was asking him about Bob's 'Christian Phase' and if there was anything appropriate for me to play in church services. I have been trying to introduce some different styles of music to broaden what we listen to in church and discourage people from singing. Those who were at Christchurch, Tean on 27th December for the annual Uttoxeter Area tradition of a finding an excuse to miss church, were treated to Bob's version of 'O Little Town of Bethlehem', which is the only listenable track on his otherwise appalling 2009 'Christmas in the Heart' album.The first song on Bob's 'Shot of Love' 1981 album is ..... 'Shot of Love', and starts with the lines,Don't need a shot of heroinTo kill my diseaseDon't need a shot of turpentineOnly bring me to my kneesDon't need a shot of codeineTo help me to repentDon't need a shot of whiskeyHelp me be president How I integrate that with 'Shine Jesus Shine' might be a bit of a problem for me. However, as my oldest brother also told me once (with tone and style at its wryest), "there is no such thing as a problem, only a solution opportunity".As I write I'm really rather enjoying Bob's album. It's a mix of folk, gospel and bluegrass, and I can actually hear his lyrics, which is a plus, as on the two occasions that I have seen Bob live it has just been an electric mash of incoherent noise. Another couple of lines I have heard are,'Never robbed any churches nor cut off any babies' heads,He just took the folks in high places and he shined a light in their face.' which I'm guessing partly refers to Herod's slaughter of the under two's in Bethlehem after Joseph and his family and fled to Egypt.I've enjoyed listening to other types of Christian music over the last few months. It's been one of the pluses of COVID restrictions. I have a bluegrass gospel collection to catch up with, which I was hoping to use at church this week but that will now have to wait. I think that the problem with some church music is that a) it's a bit cheesy, and b) it's a bit formulaic. There are many exceptions of course and much great church music. There is also background to some of the hymns we play that we are unaware of, such 'It is well with my soul', where both the writer of the music and the words met with great tragedy, and Horatio's Spafford's experiences are reflected in the lyrics.That is why I am keen to listen to music by Christians which is not necessarily standard church music. Bob Dylan's songs no doubt reflect his experiences of fame, fortune, sadness and social dissent, as well as his faith experience. Some of the images used might challenge our starched expectations from the hymnal, but they also reflect what seemed to be deeply felt experiences,'you were closer to me than my next of kinWhen they didn't want to know or see'and dramatic changes in approach. Compare Bob's 1960s protest songs to this lyric from 'Trouble','Revolution even ain't no solution for trouble.' Strangely enough, the song from 'Shot of Love' that immediately struck me as the most likely one to acceptably play in church is probably the cheesiest, but most beautiful. 'Every Grain of Sand' is a gentle song that talks of Bob at his lowest but also where God was close to him. Here is the final verse,I hear the ancient footsteps like the motion of the seaSometimes I turn, there's someone there, other times it's only me.I am hanging in the balance of the reality of manLike every sparrow falling, like every grain of sand. Pure gospel. Faith, doubt, hope.Peace and prayers, Joe
