Happy New Year

Happy New Year. I saw you!! God Bless to everyone for 2015 xx

First Christmas Day in Fiji

I'd scoured Suva for a Nativity set thinking I'd find one handcrafted out of dried palm leaves or wood carved. Disappointment. Not a sniff of one. I could do you numerous turtles, masks, little ships and Buddhas, but no Mary, Joseph and Jesus. The wonderful specimen above, having whined about the lack of one in their hearing, was therefore a gift from Josiah, Mercy, Wes and Jerusha, the American Baptist/UMC family - see previous blog - serving at the Methodist Theological College in Nausori. They fashioned it with their own fair hands and a whole bunch of love and care. I was hugely touched. The four seashells in the front represent the stable animals. The coral on the right definitely has the essence of woolly sheep, don't you reckon?

Not only did the wonderful Neals produce a Nativity scene, they came with me to see the Paddington film which was released here before Xmas day. It's terrific: just great, and with many a powerful and poignant theme in there too about being far from home, finding welcome or rejection as the stranger, London as a warm, embracing, global city or a cold, harsh and impenetrable place. I came out with moist eyes going, 'Awwww...!' It's side-splittingly funny too, however. So it gets a 5 star review from one who's been devoted to Paddington since first being able to read and has a full set of the original Penguins enhanced by Peggy Fortnum's inspired line illustrations. I had this one stuck to my filing cabinet all last year, hurtling towards the PhD finishing line.

And so Christmas day dawned in Suva. The previous day, to be on the safe side, I had pre-booked Yogesh and his cab for 8.30am to run me to Dudley Memorial Church where I was preaching at 9.00. Yogesh works the patch outside our College and I'm a regular. There he was, on the dot. 

'Hi - Happy Christmas!' I said, and held out fruit cake and one of the Methodist Church in Britain's 'Gift of Christmas' booklets I'd ordered in bulk for sharing here. 'May I give you this small gift for Christmas?' I ventured politely, only to learn for the first time that Yogesh is Christian, actually - I'd assumed he was Hindu. You see? He was off to his own Church, World Harvest Centre, later at 1.00pm. 'But I cleaned the cab and came to drive you first, Talatala', he said. 'It's important'. The meter clocked up $5.00 but he wouldn't take it. 'My Christmas gift to you', he said.

These were our Bible readings at Dudley this morning.

Isaiah 52.7-10 

How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!" 8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. When the LORD returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. 9 Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.

John 1:1-14

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. 6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

I suggested in the sermon that Jesus was 'Good News' for three reasons that can be found in these passages. Firstly, in a mysterious way we'll never fully grasp, Christians believe that Jesus was in at the very heart and start of things. As God spoke creation into being, according to Genesis, the Word that we've come to know personally as life and light in Jesus was somehow in that very forming and shaping. Secondly, Jesus is 'Good News' because he knew what it was to be unrecognised and unwelcome - even in Bethlehem his birthplace. Therefore he stands in complete solidarity with many in this world who are faceless, voiceless, rejected: for whom there is no room at the inn, no welcome in the land. Cue sermon illustration from the Paddington movie! Thirdly, Jesus is 'Good News' because he glorifies God even through his childhood humanity and gives us hope that we can too. If we receive him and believe in his name, he gives us the right to become children of God. We don't just live with nervous expectation that we might be acceptable, flawed and failed as we are. We boldly claim our family status - warts and all - as beloved children. 

I hope that was sufficient Good News for one sermon!

And talking of children, the invitation to preach had kindly come from Dudley's minister the Revd Dr Immanuel Reuben who's pictured here with granddaughter Letitia - and a little girl from next door who'd wandered in sensing Christmas cake and a cuddle might be on offer. It's open house at the Reuben's. I was touched to be so warmly and generously included for Xmas lunch along with different branches of their family, some of whom live in Australia and New Zealand and had come home to Mum and Dad for Christmas. Goat curry, rice, roti, green veggies with fiery chillies and a great tomato chutney were on the menu, followed by fresh pineapple and ice cream. How was your turkey?

It's lovely, I must say, to have fast internet and be able to e-mail and Skype friends and family in the UK, Zambia and other sundry places. Also to have received lots of 'snail mail' including some chunky jiffy bags. Nothing like a chunky jiffy bag under the Xmas tree... I'll be saying personal thank you's of course, but why shouldn't my gratitude be blogged as well? There are some very, very lovely people in my 'world' who've remembered me and been in touch. Thank you.  And I think I'm grateful - to more than one person, actually - who's been a touch elf obsessed this year. 

I therefore include, for your delectation and delight, the uplifting (or mildly disconcerting) offering my dear God-daughter Lydia came up with. 

Click here if you dare....

I'm going to go out now (6pm) and continue my first Christmas Day in Fiji with a long walk down the beautiful seafront, just two minutes from the house. I expect I'll meet the neighbours walking off their goat curry (or whatever) too. And gazing at the vastness of the ocean I'll give thanks again for a tiny Christ-child, born to offer the world God's light and life. 

Mission partners in Fiji, or anywhere else for that matter, only go because he came.

Alana, Revd Reuben's latest grandchild, will be
baptised on 5th January.

Merry Christmas!

Advent defiance and Christmas confidence

A Christmas Card with love

Suva has Christmas saturation. In case you'd wondered if the commercial 'trappings' of the season are as evident here as anywhere else, they certainly are. Santa wears a bula shirt and advertises merry mobile phone deals. (Other networks are available).

There are jolly, holly offers everywhere, and of course the lure for all ages to keep up with festive fashion trends. 

But many from Suva, including families on the College campus, travel to villages and the smaller islands to see relatives over Christmas, where life may lack the Suva glitz but perhaps gets to the heart of Christmas more effectively. 

For me, as campus is quiet because it's the long 'Summer' holiday, I'll be pressing on, this week at least, with the production of BD courses, tackling an article I've been asked to write, finishing off a newsletter 'Conch Shell' which goes to all students studying by extension across the islands, and assignment marking. Always assignment marking... 


But it's good, and I can work a bit at home and a bit in the office and still enjoy walks by the sea and visiting neighbours on the campus. My next door neighbours Auntie Selai, younger Selai, Selah, Elena and Disele came over for a meal on Saturday evening, accompanied by their new ukelele! So we passed a pleasant time strumming and feasting. 



I shall have charge of a pastoral group next year made up of student and staff families, so the plan is to make visits to them over the Xmas period too. Cakes will be made and distributed because I've invested in a table top electric oven. Wondrous! A Christmas blessing if ever there was. No more buns with burnt bottoms...

Sally Lowe from St Martin's, Dorking shared this and I'm grateful to her.

CHRISTMAS  SOUNDS

by U.A. Fanthorpe

Boeings wing softly over Earth

Humming like enormous Messiahs

Bringing everyone home for Christmas;

Children wailing impossible wants,

Housewives worrying in case enough isn’t,

Parsons, with prevenient care, sucking Strepsils,

Telly jingling twinkling mistletoe-ing,

Cash tills recording glad tidings of profit,

Office parties munching through menus  -

Crackers!  Champagne corks!

At the heart of it all, in the hay,

No sound at all but the cattle

Endlessly chewing it over.

Not quite a stable, but still plenty of room for contemplation about simplicity, earthiness and the newly born.

(Photo with grateful thanks to Wes, Jerusha, Mercy and Josiah Neal serving with UMC Global Ministries at the Methodist Theological College, Davuilevu, just outside Suva. We took a walk on their campus, which included a visit to the piggery....)

And you'd like a carol, I guess? Well here's the choir of Nasinu Methodist Circuit doing their stint of carols in the park this Christmas.

Wishing you and your loved ones
God's hope, peace, justice and joy

this Christmas and New Year

Val x

Advent musings

You know, I'm really missing morning Chapel. Once the academic year closes at PTC - not that PTC Education by Extension closes - the community doesn't gather for daily worship any more. I'm not implying that we aren't worshipping and praying as families and individuals in our homes and congregations - indeed we are - but it seems strange to walk past a deserted Chapel every day, on an ecumenical, Christian campus, not least in the season of Advent, which I love. It would be great, to my mind, to have a gathering for worship at some point each day for anyone who'd like to pause and pray with colleagues, students and families who are still around. Not a compulsory, official summons by the Faculty, demanding hours of choir practice and sermon and liturgy preparation, but a more natural, simple gathering, perhaps. A daily office, by any other name, with the same form of words used as a guideline each day and people taking turns to lead? Or songs and readings and prayers led informally, with some silence too, around an Advent wreath? I muse on these things and then come up against the perennial mission partner dilemma: to suggest or not to suggest. Just over three months in, it still seems right and respectful to 'go with the flow' and accept the norm. I'm probably not understanding something. And anyway, if this is about my need and nobody else's, why should PTC change its ways to accommodate the new, British mission partner? But then, it is Advent... And I'm not sure prayer conforms to an academic year...

So, I've turned to the RC Cathedral of the Sacred Heart for the four Sundays of Advent, God Bless 'em, and the opportunity for a day's retreat too. On Advent Sunday last week, much was made at the Cathedral of Pope Francis's dedication of 2015 as a Year of Consecrated Life, with its brilliant strapline 'Wake up the World!' See the banner above the High Altar. Have to say, I just love that!

Some Protestant sceptics regard this declaration as no more than a massive Papal recruitment drive for vocations to the Priesthood and the religious orders. (There are worse things to be recruited for, mind you). But I think the intention's a lot broader than that, as Pope Francis has tried to make clear.

"Religious life ought to promote growth in the Church by way of attraction. The Church must be attractive. Wake up the world! Be witnesses of a different way of doing things, of acting, of living! It is possible to live differently in this world."

He's also big on joy, which is always a relief to hear. There's a lot more about the vision here. 

Then today, Second Sunday of Advent, Fr Pio Fong preached the Cathedral sermon/homily and presided at the Eucharist/Holy Communion. I found his Advent reflections challenging and astute as he talked about John the Baptist's different and vital invitation to people to repent, act and be baptised in anticipation of a Saviour who would soon challenge and change everything and demand action of his followers. He related this to the potentially deadening effect of habit in our lives: to how the seasons of the Church year and the 'routine' of Sunday worship can run the risk of becoming merely habitual, suppressing the senses. In the way that repetitive work in an uninspiring job or the ceaseless round of chores in daily life can also drain energy and claim us in negative ways, or simply numb us. God wants to wake us up. 'Did you know,' he said, 'that if you throw a frog into boiling water, it immediately knows that life-saving action is necessary and leaps out. But if you put a frog into a pan of cold water and slowly heat it up, it just sits there...' 

I didn't know that.

It was a great illustration. 

Still feeling for the frog.

Have no fear, I haven't deserted Methodism. The Deaconesses of the Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma held their Annual Retreat from 2-4 December and kindly invited me to lead three Bible Studies over three mornings. It was very good to be with them and to see again Deaconess Meresiana who's Administrator at Deaconess House and responsible for training and formation. Mere did her Masters degree in Birmingham in 2002 and lived at the United College of the Ascension in Selly Oak when I was tutoring there. Great to be reunited and we're going to have a good catch up at some point when she can draw breath. As well as a full ministry, she's married to Maciu and has bouncing boys to attend to. She's front row, cross-legged on the right, in the bright green blouse.

Methodist Church Fiji has adopted language about the 'New Exodus' to try and articulate its hopes and intentions 50 years on, and look beyond all the Jubilee celebrations that dominated so much of 2014. We tried to unpick and unpack some of that at the retreat and I was interested to discover which topics got people going the most. To be or not to be 'vocal' was certainly one. We looked, in keeping with Advent, at how Luke portrays Mary, as a questioning and pondering young woman, and then as one who raises her voice in songs and shouts of praise, communicating with the world her new found sense of vocation and blessedness. There was a lot of sharing from experience among the Deaconesses about how giving voice to what matters to them and being heard in the life of Church and society can be really tough going. There's a lot to be worked on, clearly, and I listened carefully. Having the courage to be vocal as part of a vocational life is holy work and definitely of God, we agreed. And Mary's not a bad teacher, for starters.

I needed a filing cabinet for home. You know, for the electricity bill, and the Xmas pressie list, and the personal papers, and those very, very useful leaflets that aren't really but somehow need to be kept and there's a limit to how many you can stuff under fridge magnets. 

There are indeed shiny, designer-office filing cabinets for purchase in the shops of Suva but I couldn't justify the expense quite frankly. So what do you think of this? Ta da! Three rubbishy, dog-eared archive boxes lying dormant in the Education by Extension office, now transformed by jolly plastic and the skill of my own fair hands, she said modestly. Not lockable, true, but I'm not keeping the crown jewels in there. And just for general reference, it's possible to transform one archive box and lid with a merry plastic covering in the same time it takes to listen to The Archer's pod cast. No, not the omnibus; a single episode. I know you're impressed; you're just trying to hide it.

I shall leave you with words in English and Fijian for Advent, some fiery blossom currently on display by the sea wall, and my Advent wreath in a tub of mini ferns. God Bless until next time.

Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths: all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Ni caramaka na sala ni Turaga, ni cakava me dodonu na nona gaunisala. Era na raica tale ga na veivakabulai ni Kalou na tamata kece.