Life over Christmans

Life has been a little fraught in the Chambers household of recent and I have not got round to updating this blog. Also, being dyslexic I'm always full of ideas but never seem to get round to putting them into print.

Gill and I managed to get away for a few days before Christmas. We visited Ledbury and Leominster before moving down near Raglan Castle, just outside of Monmouth. Both Ledbury and Leominster are places we frequently pass when travelling down to re-enactment events but never visit. Monmouth and the surrounding area was visited by us some nineteen years ago - the same year we joined the White Company which began our long involvement with the re-enactment world. Interestingly, the ex-members of the White Company have just formed a Facebook group and many of the old photographs and video footage have come to light: some of which may best be forgotten!

Christmas was spent at Gill's sister's house in Suffolk. There was something nice about walking across fields to attend the Midnight Communion. The family joined us and were able to have a relaxing time, punctuated with visits to the Butt and Oyster Pub.

On boxing day we watched the Morris Dancing which is a traditional event. I was to read later the Morris Groups are finding it hard to recruit new members and are in real danger of dying out. What a shame after all these years! It seems life is getting blander (just like drink with Real Ale being taken over by chemical lager)

People are forgetting how to celebrate as a community. Perhaps now our pastime of 'retail therapy' is being taken away we shall remember what life is all about.

Time for a Break

Today is my birthday. It seems like no time at all since the last one!
Gill and I are coming to the end of a week down in Suffolk. It has been a nice relaxing time: I have even ploughed my way through three novels, which would normally take me months. I brought one book with me but bought another two at Second Hand Book Shop in Felixstowe.
I also managed to get Elaine out to her boat, something which she has not been able to do this year. It really needs to be brought ashore next spring and some work done on it. However, I'm not sure if Elaine can really keep it if she has nobody to help her. If she does decide to keep it I really need to get my Skipper's Certificate - something to think about.
I'm now looking forward to the week after next when I am away on a retreat/course in North Wales and then it is back to work on Chrurch matters, including sorting out next year's training sessions.

Small Actions Make Big Changes

St Mawgan-in-Pydar

On Saturday, as I sat in the Thirteenth Century Church of St. Mawgan awaiting the start of Sarah and Jon's Wedding I began to think on all the hundreds of other weddings that must have taken place there in the past seven hundred and fifty so years. There would have been many rich patrons and vastly more poor couples who had stood and recited their vows before God. Ceremonies would have changed over time and,as the site is even more ancient that the church, some may not have even been Christian.

However much time and customs may have changed, all those couples, from whatever age, would have held similar hopes for the future. Prosperity, children and a myriad other things would have been on their minds. Some would have married for love, some for local political expediency, others because a child was on the way. Each ceremony would have represented the coming together of two lives that were, without them knowing it, going to change the future.

As today, many of those couples would have no idea that the simple act of their union would bring about change. We may think that real change is made by those in power but the more I study history the more I realize the part we all have to play. John Donne said that 'no man is an island'. Each life and each action of life changes the actions of others, and so the effect of the original action is multiplied.

It is a sobering thought to realise the things I do today may well have repercussions not only today but well into the future

Simple Joys

This weekend we are at the wedding of my cousin's daughter, Sarah. She is getting married in Cornwall so it is a long way for us to travel. We are breaking our journey at Taunton, making the rest of the trip on Saturday morning.

I was thinking how much weddings figure in the Scriptures. Of course, the first recorded miracle of Jesus was at a wedding: Jesus himself is referred to as a bridegroom and the Church as the 'Bride of Christ', and apocalyptic writings talk to us of 'the wedding feast of the Lamb. Whenever, weddings are mentioned in Scripture they are nearly always associated with fun and rejoicing. I wonder how much of that fun is lost in the recent phenomenon of having bigger and better weddings. Some of the popular venues here in Liverpool cost between five and ten thousand pounds - and that is just the venue. Add to this the dress, the catering, cars, flowers and all the other paraphernalia that goes with a modern wedding and I can see why some people say that a good wedding costs over twenty thousand pounds It is as if to have fun we have to spend more and more money. It seems to me that twenty thousand would make a good deposit on a house.

I don't believe I'm an old killjoy - of course a wedding will cost money- even Jesus had to step in when the organisers of a wedding underestimated the amount of wine required. What I am saying is that fun and rejoicing does not have to cost a lot of money. When we look back on life, often the times we remember enjoying ourselves the most are those times when we did not spend an absolute fortune. I believe we all need to become more childlike and get back to some of the simple pleasure we enjoyed in those early years of discovery.

I am sure we have all had the experience of visiting somewhere, only to find that there seems to be something special, something sacred about the place. It has happened to me on a number of occasions. I have visited grand cathedrals which despite their beauty have left me cold. Yet I have also entered small, insignificant, churches where I have felt that I have been standing in the presence of God.

A few years ago, Chris Peck, who was director of Lay Training in the Diocese of Liverpool (UK), set out on a journey around Britain to seek out sacred places. In his mind was a series of questions, for example: did some places have a natural sacredness of their own which was recognised by our forbears, or were places made sacred, by acts of worship over the centuries? Chris came to the conclusion that both seem to be true. Some places, like the island of Iona, seem to have a holiness of their own.

I visited Iona some nine years ago, staying at the Abbey. It was a difficult time for me, made more difficult by the fact that I did not get on at all well with the rest of the guest. The services in Iona Abbey where not to my liking and the whole thing could have been a disaster. However, releasing myself from the guests and the abbey I spent quite some time sitting outside on a rock, said to be the place where St. Columba had his cell. Here I communed with God, and it was as if heaven and earth were the same place. It was a sacred place.

As a family we have just returned from the Isle of Mann. Towards the end of the holiday we visited Peel Castle. One the two occasions I had visited the island before I had wanted to visit the site but had been thwarted; finally I got my wish.

The castle is built on St. Patrick’s Isle, an ancient site that has been used for many things throughout the years. At one time it was a Celtic Monastery and one of the original chapels still stands. Despite there being the ruins of far grander churches on the site, it was in this small space that I felt the veil between heaven and earth lifting. It was if I was at one with all my brothers and sisters who had worshipped there in the past. – Truly, for me it was a sacred space.

Creating our own Sacred Space

Sacred space is good; it is a place where we meet with God. Visiting such places is also good but it is also possible to create our own. We must remember God is omnipresent and can meet us anywhere Why not think about setting aside some place where you can meet with God on a regular basis. It need not be large; it can be the corner of a room. Place in it something like a picture or a candle on which you can focus your attention as a window into heaven. As you use your space so it becomes sanctified. It becomes the place where you and God can meet. A place that draws you into God, a place where your strength is renewed.

Dave

Birthplace of the Industrial Revolution

Recently we had a short break in Shropshire. We had been promising ourselves for some time that we would visit Ironbride where, it is claimed, the Industrial Revolution Began. Perhaps thinking of the Industrial Revolution is not politically correct, what with all the issues surounding global warming, and it is true to say that people were exploited, but it has determined how we live today. For that reason alone it is worthwhile examining our roots.

The following are some of the notes I made at the time, to which I have added a few comments.

10/04/06

Away on the first day of a short break to Telford, Shropshire.

We traveled down this morning, stopping at Stafford Services for coffee before taking the A Roads into Telford and the Iron bridge Gorge.

Our first stop was the Gorge Museum, where we purchased a years pass to all the museums for 14. We toured the museum which gave us a brief history of the area, and then walked alongside the Severn to the Iron bridge itself. A marvel of its day, it was the first structural use of cast iron.

After a sandwich, which we eat overlooking the bridge, we made our was to the open air Victorian Town. A bit like Beamish, it tries to portray life and work in 1900. It was quite good, if not 100% accurate. However, there were many interesting things to see and do. Children would enjoy changing their modern coins for Victorian pennies, half-pennies and farthings to spend in the shops, which are obviously quite different from the ones they know today.

At closing time we made our way to the hotel in Telford and, after booking in, had our meal in the adjoining pub.

11/04/06

The second day of our short break. We were not promised good weather but in the end things were not too bad. There was light rain in the morning but it cleared up after lunch and the afternoon was very pleasant.

We spent most of the day visiting more of museums on the pass we had bought. First, was the Museum of Iron, were we saw more of the history and plenty of exhibits showing the range of items produced over the years. Obviously, I was interested in the items to do with early steam engines, but many of the items made for the Great Exhibition were also fascinating.

Next we visited the "hands on" museum called Enginuity. The focus here was on children with lots of interactive displays. It's the sort of place our grandson Callum would like. However, I think it would be a good idea to get there early as it seems to be very popular.

On the same sight one can find the protected remains of Abraham Darby's blast furnace where the iron for the bridge was first cast into ingots. The importance of this sight is immense, here was the real beginning of the Industrial Revolution and the start of the modern world. Whatever people may think about this change ( and it had many bad points, including bringing about global warming ) Despite that, I could not help feeling a just a little emotional - the furnace stands a ruin, as does Britain's industrial past and the way of life it represented.

Moving on from the furnace we took a short walk up the hill to visit the two houses built by the Darby family. Although grand for their time, they were modest compared with the later houses of the mill owners. Whether this was due to the Darbys being Quakers is hard to say.

Next stop on our tour saw us at a different site looking at a different industry - tile making. The Jackfield Tile Museum has a fabulous collection of decorative tile spanning the centuries. I must admit there were some I would have liked at home. All the tiles we saw would have put the kind bought from places like B&Q to shame. One time there were tiles everywhere, shops, offices, factories, railway stations etc. Yet another thing that has gone, perhaps for good.

The last visit of the day was to the National Trust property at Benthall Hall, a 16th century house. We were particularly pleased that the sun was shining, which made walking in the Hall gardens a pleasant end to the day. We had been out for seven hours and it was tine to return to our hotel in Telford for a short rest before our evening meal.

12/04/06

The last day of our short break, and we decided that we would fans off with the museums we had not yet visited, before returning via Bridgenorth and the Severn Valley Railway.

Our first stop was the Tar Tunnel. This was a tunnel that was dug into the hillside to carry a canal. However, during the construction streams of bitumen were found and, being profitable, the tunnel was never finished for its original purpose. At its height over 1000 gallons of bitumen per week was extracted. The bitumen still seeps out of the walls. There was no way one could ever get Gill in such at tunnel, so I went down on my own whilst she sat and read in the car. I found it quite fascinating as I had never seen a natural pool of tar in my life.

Our last visit in the gorge was to the Coalport Museum. Here, over the centuries, exquisite pottery was made. Most of it is now quite collectible and very valuable. The collection in the museum must be worth millions of pounds. Like all the museums, there are things for the children which are both entertaining and educational. I'm sure Callum would like it down here, as there is so much for him to see and do.

As mentioned earlier, we made our way home via the Severn Valley Railway. We had lunch there and watched one of the trains depart, before heading home via Shrewsbury. The only incident on the way back was a hold-up getting onto the Runcorn Bridge because of an overturned lorry.

What I would like to do now is spent some quiet time reflecting on what I have seen and learned, as I feel that hidden in all the history is a message for today. Whether that is the attitude of the Quaker families like the Darbys, or something else, time will tell.