There is to be a concert in Durham this Thursday evening 30th November, 2006 in aid of CMS co-missioner work in Russia. Part of this work is a feeding and support programme for children. I hope this photo piques your interest.
If you would like to know more and/or can attend then do give me a call on 0785 907 4343.
Advent
I am beginning to think about Advent. As will be clear from the other posts hereabouts.
God desires the spirit he has put within us . . . that could be hard to hear . . . but he offers us love and in gentleness he desires our time, our very selves, our love. But like the coming of the Christ his advent is gentle.
Serenity
Serenity does not beckon
it is its own invitation
its own party
it provides the food and drink
it is not worried about entertainment
it is content however many come or none
it requires no rooms no notice
and there is no chucking out time
the neighbours may be disturbed
but not in the usual way
and the refuse disposal folk
need not fret or labour
to carry the detritus away
Serenity, its own joke,
its own laughter,
does not beckon
it remains its own
invitation
(c) Colin Darling 26.011.2006
Alternate lines by anne and me
I see in darkness
All that I am and notsometimes the candle, sometimes the pot
blackened by soot and shadows castan oil-full lamp lights long, ends black
(c) Colin & Anne Darling 26th November 2006
Strange obliteration brings life
God's love
strange obliteration
reveals all
dawn of glory
dawn of stillness
dawn of being
dawn of prayer
(c) Colin Darling 26th November 2006
Lord grant
Lord God
bread of life
grant
a gift of humility
a darkening
your holy silence
abandonment
that each,
knowing and unknowing
the jealousy of your yearning
and that each,
famished and content
may devour you
in the holy desire of prayer
(c) Colin Darling 26th November 2006
James 4 v 5
Or do you suppose it is for nothing that the scripture says; "God yearns jealously for the spirit he has made to dwell in us?"
well this was a verse that was in a set reading just before the Advent retreat. Blew me over. Not just God loves us (tolerates us and just about manages to accept us in spite of everything).
But yearns jealously for the spirit he has made live within us.
It is important that we have some prayer time which is not dutifully or however enthusiastically remembering needful things and people. It is esential that we allow God to love us in our spirit and to respond to him with our love. Maybe this starts with just allowing a silence in which we are not using God for anything. In this space adoration can begin. This love thrives both ways. (it amazes me that i can write stuff like this - the nerve of the man!. . . . Lord Jesus Christ, precious Son of God, beautiful Saviour, have mercy on me a sinner!)
"Let there be Dark for us to contemplate"
Anne and I went to the excellent Offa House, at Offchurch, near Leamington Spa for an Advent retreat. Nicola Slee led it. Nicola is a poet and theologian and author of "Praying Like a Woman" (2004) ISBN: 0281055998
The title of the retreat came from a poem by another woman. Basically the themes were like my meditation last week. How can we find the darkness of God in which his gentle light shines. This may mean moving quietly away from a focus on our own strength, our own theology, our own prayers, our own activity and into the kind of unknowing that is meantioned in the authors of the classic Christian texts on cotemplative prayer. John of the Cross, the author of "The Cloud of Unkowing", Therese, Teresa, Mother Julian, and so on.
Anne created a wreath of seasons, and I made a dark sun in gouache. We also took the risk of writing a poem where each of us wrote a line. It may well not be a classic but we enjoyed doing it.
The weekend was liberating for us both. I did not have to achieve anything or learn anything and Anne was able to do a different thing and just enjoy it, to stand out from the crowd and feel OK.
Darkness
Two Sundays ago I went to Gosforth to preach. I left early in the morning to be there comfortably for 09.00h. This meant I was on the road soon after 05.00h and saw a massive, tumbling column of flame high in the sky above Nottingham. It was not like a shooting star more like a fireball of flame travelling northwards high in the sky.
There is a good graphic of this at
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/blobrana/news/leonids.html
I later heard an astronomer on BBC Radio 5 talking about this. He pointed out that when you get away into areas with little artifical light you can see hundreds of these trails as the comet dust trail hits our atmosphere and the whole effect can be quite beautiful and moving, apparently.
There was a connection with what I was going to say at All Saints, Gosforth. It is sometimes only in the darkness of our weakness or when we are able to remove away from the bright lights of westernism that we are in a place where the subtle beauties of God can be seen. The kingdom of God may be easier for a little person to see that a giant intellect. I little child may see it when the wise and degree laden struggle.
People complain that they cannot see God. Perhaps a little more silence might help us to see. Some of us affirm that in gentleness, simplicity, darkness, weakness and in the little faith of mustard-seed nature there is a different kind of sight, and God is there.
