MAY 2021
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FREE AT LAST!
April 12th was the beginning of freedom. At last we could drink and eat out – even though it had to be outside.
Linda took advantage of it by booking two breaks for us in self-catering cottages. The first was a week on the edge of Dartmoor, in a n old stables on an estate by Ivybridge, with the most fantastic gardens with rhododendron trees not bushes. Linda visited her parents quite a bit, while I went for long walks around the moor. I came back much fitter. I also did a bit of marketing, because a small bookshop had just opened in Ivybridge. They took ALL my books on a sale or return basis. We went to the village church for a simple half hour service. Coffee outside lasted an hour, and I met two local writers.
The following weekend we stayed in another old stables in a lovely spot on the edge of the Chilterns. Church in Wallingford on Sunday – excellent. We went for some lovely walks and met up with my old friend Peter Creak in Oxford. The three of us ate at the Ivy restaurant – quite posh – where they gave all customers a complimentary glass of champagne to celebrate the re-opening.
And music has returned to my life. Lunchtime recitals in London churches started again on 19th May There were excellent audiences at our own Friday concerts at St Giles -in-the-Fields at 1.10, Tottenham Court Road tube. All welcome!
THE SHAPE OF THE LITURGY
In 1945 an Anglican monk Dom Gregory Dix published an enormous book – over 700 pages – describing the origins and evolution of the communion service in all Christian churches. It had a profound effect on the worship of all western churches, so that RC’s, Anglicans, Methodists etc follow the same basic pattern. This includes the four central actions of the eucharist (meaning ‘thanksgiving’), copying Jesus at the Last Supper when he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and gave it.
12th May was the anniversary of Dix’s death, and I commemorated him at our weekly Zoom Wednesday worship and chat. I borrowed Fr Paul’s copy and decided to start reading it and did the first 100 pages. I then discovered that ‘Jesus the Troublemaker’ needed to be corrected. It was clear that when Jesus said the Thanksgiving Prayer at the Last Supper ha and the disciples would have stood, so I corrected the text to include that.
I also included a couple more reviews that I had received about the book, including one printed by Premier Christianity Magazine. They only gave me three stars, because they found it a bit odd: “Novel, textbook, journal and devotional – Andy Roland’s ‘exercise in historical imagination’ is hard to categorise.” But I quite like being hard to categorise!
THE CHURCH BY THE SEWAGE FARM
Reviving my Parish Project
Five years ago I started writing a history of the church where I had been vicar for 21 years. The documentation was incredible. I managed to cover the years 1841 to 1968 in just under 50,000 words. I then got distracted by work on ‘A Week of Prayer in Jerusalem’, followed by ‘Five Steps to Faith’ and half of ‘Has The Church Got a Future?’. Covid 19 put the brakes on the last-mentioned. But I continued writing monthly blogs on the Old Testament with the idea of publishing ‘Making Sense of the Bible in 52 Blogs’. That got sidelined when I started on ‘Jesus the Troublemaker – his last eight days’ last September.
So, after having written nothing significant for the last five months, but still been busy. I have now embarked on the last third of my history of All Saints Hackbridge – ‘an everyday tale of parish folk’. The first task is to read and take notes on all the parish magazines from 1969 to date. My guess is that it will take me at least up to the end of the year. Already I have discovered v interesting facts. The closure of the small Borough library in All Saints Church Centre. The creation of Corbet Close and Durand Close and the arrival of over 300 families. The campaign to get a bus service for children to go to school. The new £4 million sewage works which got rid of the Hackbridge smell. Building a new half of the Church Centre Brand new communion services etc.
And that is all just in 1969 to 1971.
I am so pleased that Caffe Nero is open again. A great place to sit and read and take notes. It will certainly keep me off the streets!
ON WITH THE OT
My plan is to continue my monthly blogs and discussions on the Old Testament. Having done 6 blogs on the Genesis last year, my plan is to go rather more swiftly through the rest, starting with: Moses the Liberator, Rules and Regulations, and In Praise of Genocide. Watch this space!