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.