The SuperMoot

It's this marvellous post from Asbo Jesus that has given me the inspiration.

The future of Beaker Folk worship is clearly not in a medium-sized community. What we need is a SuperMoot where people will meet in regular celebrations of 1,000 souls. Of course we will have nurture groups of 10 or so Beaker people, but the main thrust of the Beaker way will be the 1,000-strong weekly knees-ups. In that way the need for Beaker People to join in largescale worship, lifted up by the sheer loads-of-other-people-ness will be met. That's the way forward - and surely the Beaker Mission will be easier when people know that it's a big, successful fellowship they're joining. Who knows? From 1,000 we could easily reach 2,000. And then we would split, and create Beaker SuperMoot North in Newport Pagnell - and SuperMoot South in Dunstable (although it might be demolished on a regular basis).

The vision is great. Now I've just got to find another 950 people.

How to Create a Church Mission Statement

Making Church Harder for Men

I note David Keen's article referencing the theory that Church is too easy for men. Which saddens me as I like to think that, through providing endless opportunities to light tea lights or dabble with scented oils, and endlessly talking about our inner feelings, we make it hard enough for them already.

So we're introducing a new and rigorous programme for the men in the Beaker Folk. When walking down the "corridor of uncertainty" between the Great House and Moot House, they will in future be sprayed with ice cold water from the corridor walls. If any man is caught looking bored during a sermon, I will lob a conker at them. And we've rigged the television schedule so that, whenever there is a football match on, instead we will be re-showing a DVD of "Truly, Madly, Deeply".

I'm not sure exactly how this is going to help us in our mission to men, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Back to Church Sunday

Inspired by Back to Church Sunday we decided it would be a good idea to hold a Back to Moot House Sunday.

So we've made some good coffee. We've put up banners. We shoved some leaflets through doors. And we even invited some people along.

And some people even turned up. But now they're here we don't know what to do with them. So we've given them coffee. Thankfully we've cunningly coo-ordinated Back to Moot House Sunday with our Harvest Festival so at least they've some rude-looking veg. It's funny how Agnus only ever finds rude parsnips (not turnips, as the'acclaimed thespian Mr Rowan Atkinson thought) to donate to us. I'm sure The Prophet Malachi would Have Words.

And now a dilemma faces us. When can we turn to face the Moot House?  And why did we have to turn our backs on it anyway?

American musings

I am in America at the moment, on a leave of absence, at the Archdruid's suggestion after the Anglican revelation, and have noticed that it is, in many ways, different from Husborne Crawley. Or even Luton.

For a start, it turns out that the drive on the wrong side of the road. And that, if the lorry (sorry: "truck") driver I met as I drove the hire car out of the airport is anything to go by, they have a large and expressive vocabulary.

But two things have struck me forcibly. And I am worried that there may be a correlation. First, Americans cannot, just cannot, grasp how to make a proper cup of tea. I have tried explaining, and even the hotel staff for whom English (though not the Queen's English) is their first language fail miserably to understand. And it's not as if there are Polish, Turkish, even French staff in Enhlish hoyels who have such diffuculties. I'm not being unreasonable. I'm not asking for loose leaf tea. Or even a pot. A bag in a mug will do. But please, please, I beg, pour the water straight off the boil onto the tea. Or it doesn't work. And I just want standard tea. Not a poor Earl Grey. English breakfast, or similar. With milk. Not, for the love of all things Beaker, "half and half".

Second, the average Episcopalian (yes, I'm indulging my Anglican leanings) congregation is enthusiastic, thriving, welcoming, generous and has a good proportion of people in it under 40. Under 30, come to that. This, as any regular Church of England churchgoer will tell you, is against the natural order.

Is there a connection? And if so, can I fix their errant Anglicanism by teaching them to make tea? I think I may have found a mission.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.9