Placement: Week Two

It was a very different week last week. Not as much 'impact' as I settled into parish life and the routine in Belvedere. Sunday was a great day mixing and socialising with the parish, as well as sampling some of the various dishes provided by people from different nationalities for the 'bring and share' lunch.

Monday's funeral visit was very different from the one a week before. Little had been prepared by the deceased family so the conversation was a test of Fr Clive's abilities to tease out snippets of information from the family. He did this particularly well and with sympathy. I'll be attending the funeral service at the crematorium this coming week. With the different dynamics of these visits, Fr Clive is particularly sensitive to each 'occasion' and seems very natural at his pastoral care. I guess that comes with years of practice, but he does seemed skilled at it. I have much to learn.

The visit to the local Church Secondary School was a particular highlight of the week. Taken on by the church after two schools were failing miserably and put into special measures, there was a merger and today, a number of years later there is a thriving, friendly school that produces good results and children. I think it was the first time I'd been in a secondary school since leaving mine (which at the time I was pleased to see the back of). Here was a school with its own chaplain, chapel and Christianity at the heart of the daily life. Why do we, as a society, seem to run away from 'public' Christianity and faith rather than embracing it? I don't have any answers here and now but the church must be doing something right when they can rescue a school from a dire state and develop it into one that people fight to get into. As many will know, I'm not a natural academic, but the gut feel I got from the school was one that was very proud of itself and achievements and that so much was driven by it being a church school. Good luck to them.

The biggest challenge of the week was the youth group. A new initiative. We had prepared for a game that looked very interesting and would help the children understand the importance of fair trade and ethical trade. However, we didn't have enough people - just 6 teenage lads who were full of energy and being typical teenagers! We took them for a runaround outside, but even so there didn't seem to be a diminishing of energy and I felt particularly sorry for Fr Clive as he tried to have a sensible conversation with them in church about the future of the youth group. Whether the group has a future, only time will tell.

Finally, this morning I learnt of the death of a friend of mine who was in Taize at the same time as me, many years ago - late 1980's. Mariusz, a Polish Permanant. I can't say that I've had any/much contact with Mariusz since we last saw each other in Taize, but I remember with great fondness of our time together, his wonderful humour, warm smile and warmth of friendship. Those were tough times for those from Eastern Europe, but there was a great communion of spirit and friendship. They had little material to to share, but this was not important in the sharing of themselves.

Whilst I can't, in 2010, claim to have known Mariusz. I have my memories and the commonality of our time together and therein lies my mourning for his passing. If, in the last 20 years, he was anything like he was in the time I knew him, he would have brought a great deal of joy, love, humour and friendship to those he knew.

I've posted this link on Facebook, but someone with a much better way with words and someone who knew Mariusz better than me has written the following........

http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/new/blogs/muravchik/RIP_Mariusz_Handzlik?sms_ss=facebook

Reflections on a week of placement

It's been a week of placement now and important to reflect back on it.

Belvedere is a foreign place to me. It's a strange context, one that I'm not familiar with. Out of my comfort zone. Part of the reason I chose it for my placement. A parish of about 6,000 which 'stretches' about a mile and a half of South-Thames urban sprawl. It's an interesting mix of run-down looking council flats to 20th Century semi-detached housing as well as having a good amount of green, open space.. The census of 2001 doesn't really reflect accurately the population today as there has been a significant immigrant population taking residence since. But it is a multi-ethnic parish. A richness of diversity. 

Looking back on my week, there has been a wide variety of experiences, from the Churches Together meeting, Wednesday experience of a home visit that shocked me (prior blog), a tour of the crematorium, a funeral visit, number of masses and morning and evening prayer.

I have enjoyed immensely the formality of morning and evening prayer in the church. Being next-door to the Vicarage has meant we have popped into the church and said prayer in the Lady Chapel, just the two of us and that has been powerful and important to me - very different from my private devotions that are said at home or work.......also a different format, taking the Catholic rite of prayer. I haven't quite got the hang of where what comes where, but I am sure by the end of next week I'll get the hang of it! 

Yesterday's Sunday Mass was a highlight. I acted as Master of Ceremonies and sat beside Fr. Clive. It's a very different view of the church from behind the altar! It took me back to my days growing up in my parent's parish in Essex. A wonderful cloud of incense filled the church and the ceremony really did move me. I can't comment on my preaching, but this again was a new experience. Not the 15 minutes I am used to, but 6. Adapting for this was difficult and I had a moment of having a re-think on Saturday afternoon. not a good time to think about re-thinking a sermon. I preached on Jesus' commission to Peter and his question of Peter loving him. A very moving passage......one that I could picture happening quite clearly in my mind. People commented very positively after, so I was pleased with that. 

What I reflected on most and talked over with Fr Clive was how I felt the first time I attended Sunday Mass at St Augustine’s. I came here with the family and found the service and connecting with God difficult due to the nature of the liturgy – it went from one thing to another with nothing announced and as a result found it difficult to see how anyone new to the church would be able to connect as well. However, this last Sunday was different. I could see people connecting and entering into the mass with all their heart and soul and the importance of it to them. It was also the first time I had worn my new alb (photos next week)and felt strangely comfortable in it. The first time I had a sense of getting closer to ordination and being ready for it. The waiting is coming to an end.

The congregation is a mix of people from the area - a rich diversity represented. About 130 for mass, so a full church. I know that in speaking with Fr Clive and a few long standing members of his congregation the congregation has grown significantly from when he first came and there is clearly love for both the church and Fr Clive. There is a broad mix of black and white, young and old.....and it is encouraging. The church is certainly not dead in this neck of the woods! Although it has it's challenges, the main one being one of the mix of cultures and how the church 'is' in serving and providing service for the diversity of its congregation. This was discussed at the APCM that followed Mass.

After the APCM there was a bring and share lunch and a chance for me to get to know some of the parishioners better. They were wonderfully welcoming and I enjoyed chatting to a number of people. One conversation struck me of a young family who had been attending for only a couple of years. What was interesting was the articulation of their faith and what it was they liked about St Augustine's; their connection with God there and that in talking about his faith, people assumed he was evangelical.......but St Augustine's couldn't be more Catholic, really! In talking with the people from the church I was humbled as to what had been done here. As well as sampling an interesting mix of food.....including being told, quite firmly that I was to sample a Caribbean speciality of banana fritters........something I had never had before, along with some very spicy rice! I look forward to the goat curry this week (although I suspect the goat won't be as enthusiastic!). 

There was a true community spirit at the lunch and I look forward to continuing to get to know people within the parish over the next couple of weeks.

The rest of Sunday was spent relaxing and reflecting. So....onto another week.

Placement: Day Two

Due to my IT incompetence, this wasn't actually posted.....better late than never!


Wow! What a day. I can’t give huge detail about this morning, but it was an eye opening experience. I accompanied the Parish’s Pastoral Assistant on their sick communion round. Our first visit was the eye-opener.

I was told in advance that it might be best not to accept an offer of a drink and that there would be a nasty odour......what that was, I wasn’t prepared for. The door was opened in a fog of cigarette smoke and odour, but I was actually probably quite relieved as I could live with that as it probably disguised a number of other nasty smells. The only way I could describe the dwelling was something out of the reality programmes where one sees the local council go into a home that has been left to decay and people have lived in squalor. I’ve never seen anything like it. That and the three dogs, clearly well looked after, but allowed to use the floor as their toilet.

The invalid to whom we had come to administer to was chatty, but softly spoken and it was an effort to hear and understand. A space was made on the only available clear surface, his wheelchair and the pastoral assistant careful laid out a cloth, candle and the Blessed Sacrament. She passed him the service book and he found from his pouch his rustic cross which he clasped. It had clearly seen some use over the years. He then went into his own meditative space as the prayers began. I observed and prayed with them whilst fending off his very friendly dogs; with one, at one stage relieving itself in the hall.

Communion received, the small make-shift altar was packed away and sweeties doled out to the dogs. We departed, but not before one of them again left a ‘gift’.

I had not seen anything before like it and it shocked me. Here I was face to face with squalor and poverty. Posters of semi-clad young men adorned the bedroom walls. It was a sad state of affairs, but one that I was assured they had lived in for sometime, this couple (gay), who had been together for many years.

Beneath all of this, though, and away from the odour, Christ shone through in the bedridden man. He was a devoted servant of the church and through his sickness he was unable to continue this. He did, apparently get out, but I’m not sure how often. It brought it home to me that it would be Christ that would be more concerned in places like this than the predominantly white, middle class suburbs of my home-town. He was needed much more in this situation. The two elderly gents were welcoming, accepting, friendly and had a smile. If I was in that situation, would I be the same? I can’t say that I would be. There was real emotion in receiving the sacrament, it clearly meant much to him, this visit. I don’t have to do this every week. The church here does and I have immense respect for that faithfully witness to Christ in this community. I struggle with that ministry and I pray that I have the strength for it.

This afternoon we visited the local crematorium and had a ‘back stage’ tour. Absolutely fascinating how things happen behind the closing of the curtain. Saw how everything went on, as well as the humour the team have.

The day ended with my Placement Supervisor and me saying evening prayer together in the quiet of the Lady Chapel in church. A great way to end the working day. 

Placement

Tomorrow I go off to my placement. It's a three week stint living and observing the work of the Anglican Church in Belvedere, North Kent. I am excited about it, but at the same time nervous - at the end of my time there I must look inward and reflect on things theological, anthropological and sociological and come up with some words on a page that reflected my time in Belvedere.

I will be in the safe hands of Fr Clive Jones, incumbent of St Augustine of Canterbury Church (link here; augustineofcanterbury.co.uk/). It's a very different parish to my own, that being St Mary, Eversley (link here; www.stmaryseversley.org.uk), my home church being rural with a congregation and worship that befits it. St Augustine's is Anglo-Catholic, a tradition that I grew up in, but in a very different sociological area, with a church school and, I understand, much poverty. It will, I am sure, be an illuminating experience. I ask that for those reading this, they offer me up in their prayers during this time.

Now for some packing. Mustn't forget my Missal.