On my way to Synod again

Posted by Steve on February 11, 2012

It can’t be a whole year since last synod can it? Here I am again on my regular routine visit to the Irish Village in Dubai Airport with my traditional Irish Breakfast LOL. Only I’m not as it was a bit too crowded so I thought I’d try something new. I’m at Segafredo’s caff with a tea and Panini (not with computer game and chocolate frog). The single member of staff is trying to keep up well enough I suppose. I can see why the Irish Village is crowded. It’s the whole ambiance really – sitting here on the edge of a busy thoroughfare with ‘modern’ furniture and so on, well it’s doesn’t have the atmosphere to enable you to chill and reflect (though I am doing that now I guess), but is more of a ‘grab a drink in transit’ kind of place.

Another change this year – I enjoyed my ‘keep the phone switched off but check in for texts’ regime so much over my summer holiday that I decided to leave the phone behind all together this week, redirected to those who will answer for me. I’m already regretting it – it has predictive text and I can make notes and reminders where our UK mobile which I have taken instead, (bought in 2003 and still going strong, sort of), is just not the same.

This year’s New Year’s resolution – to not let emails determine my agenda – has been difficult, but very rewarding this last month and a bit. It helps me to keep pausing – every time I shut the email window – to consider, what do I want to focus on? I’m not such a driven sort of bloke and it’s kept me from drifting the way of demand and pushed me back to what I was ordained for. But sitting here, in a pause as it were, waiting for the demand to get on the aircraft or face embarrassment at missing the plane, I turn my focus to what synod holds for me.

I’ll make up for the lack of today’s Irish breakfast there to be sure, that I will. I’ll make up for lack of predictive text etc with pen and paper – I think I can remember still how to do that. I’ll hear what the bishop has to say in his Presidential Address and bring that back with me to tell the folks at CCJA all about it, and the other stuff – the half day silent (well quiet) retreat at the monastery, the good things happening in other parts of the diocese and so on. But most of all I think I will enjoy the stillness of being alone, out of my normal circumstance of life for a week, meeting friends old and new, doing morning, evening and night prayers with a load of people, and taking time out to receive.

Tis the season…

Posted by Webmaster on December 1, 2011

Tis the season - advent at Christ Church Jebel Ali, Dubai

Tis the season to be jolly, Fa la la la la, la la la la! Yay!

Yes, it’s Christmas soon and time to drag yourselves away from the hustle and bustle of desert living to remember your Christian heritage and get all misty eyed over carols from home. Of course it’s pot luck whether we sing YOUR tune to O little town of Bethlehem but you could solve that by coming to ALL the services as which tune you have depends on the nationality of the pianist – oh the joys of being in an international church! But you’ve got to admit haven’t you that ‘their’ tune is quite nice in its way? If you want a particular carol for a particular service, let the church office know the carol and the tune and although I can’t promise you’ll get it, but we’ll try.

Our main Christmas services are as follows:

Friday 16^th December 9.30am Family Nativity service

Sunday 18^th December 7.30pm 9 Lessons and Carols
with the Dubai Chamber Choir and on this 400^th anniversary of the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible, all readings will be from the KJV.

Saturday 24^th December 11pm Midnight Communion
ending with O Come all ye faithful WITH the final verse (you won’t hear it in church before – I give in to popular pressure having Christmas Carols a week before Christmas, but not this final verse – nor any baby in the manger – cuh, next you’ll be demanding Easter Day on Good Friday because that’s the weekend here!)

Sunday 25^th December 9.30am Christmas Day Communion family service

Sunday 25^th December 7.30pm Late comers Christmas Day Communion
(though not as late as the Magi)

I do hope you can ALL come for Christmas. For a location map click here. Parking will be busy on Christmas Evening – just like Bethlehem all those years ago – but well worth the struggle!

First e-newsletter

Posted by Steve on November 16, 2011

In case you didn’t receive it this is just to let you know that we’ve just published our very first e-newsletter

We’ve called it “Christ Church Connect” because we hope that through the newsletter you will get ‘connected’ with other people in the church, or a group / activity / ministry in the church where you would like to serve – and perhaps even share the newsletter (or parts of it) with your family, friends and neighbours.

You’ll see links to articles about the Christmas Programme, the Christ Church Christmas Tree Forest, and the Fayre the same day in aid of our 2011 charities, and how better to prepare for the Coming of Jesus than to discern your spiritual gifts and use them in his service – you can contact Becky for more information about the Spiritual Gifts Workshop that will take place on 26th November.

I hope you enjoy the first edition and I’ll finish this ‘advertorial’ by asking for your prayers for our Senior Chaplain’s endeavour to lead our Chaplaincy Council, local church committees and leaders on an Envisioning Day this weekend on Saturday 19th November. In any case, I look forward to seeing you at Christ Church or hearing from you through the website or on our new facebook page.

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Church Members – how active is active?

Posted by Steve on October 23, 2011

Every now and then I get a request from a British couple who are leaving Dubai for a letter of recommendation for their school back home to show they are active in the work and worship of the church. (I sometimes get requests from Asians when they move for their church back home too.) Competition for places in Church Schools are often quite intense because they are better than the secular equivalent, and are not so afraid of including their Christian heritage in their curriculum!

I have trouble sometimes though – on what basis do I write the letter of recommendation? I look first to my own knowledge – do I know them? Then can I remember how long they’ve been coming to church and how often? If I can say I know them, I can rarely say how long for and how often they’ve come to church. So I look for the paper trail – the membership application form, the Friday School registers, the Reader’s Rota, other people in church who know them and can remember that, ‘oh yes, they came on that parish pirate party in 2009 dressed as The Long John Silver Twins and have come to church ever since’. So they’ve been coming to church since 2009, but the school has to choose between hundreds of similar applications so they then look for how involved you were – i.e. were you really active as a church member or just an attender? This is the footnote to the form from one school I recieved recently:

“Active in the work and worship” of a Christian church means both 1. and 2. below:

1. Regular attendance at a Christian church’s worship for at least twice a month for two years before the closing date of application is required to be eligible to apply for a Foundation Place. NB: Parents/carers who have moved into the area within the two years preceding the closing date for application may still apply for Foundation Places if they are able to demonstrate an equivalent active participation in their previous Christian church and if this then brings the total time of active commitment to the required two year period. A letter from a previous priest will be required.
and

2. An active commitment to the life of your church for at least two years before the closing date of application is required to be eligible to apply for a Foundation Place. This active commitment can be expressed in any one of the following ways :

a. Parish Organisation: Being a member of any church committees. eg PCC, DCC, Maintenance, Activities or Church Action committees.
b. Being an office holder in the church: i.e sacristan, churchwarden etc
c. Music: Being a member of the choir.
d. Worship: Being involved in reading, serving, stewarding, the flowers or intercessions rota.
e. Pastoral Care: Being a member of the church’s visiting scheme.
f. Children: Being a Sunday school or Godly play teacher. Or being a youth club helper.
g. Hospitality: Being part of a team who organise church events or being on the coffee rota.
h. Communications: Being part of the team for either the web or the church magazine.

One sign we have on our noticeboard says: As you pass the church today, be sure to plan a visit, so when at last you’re carried in, God won’t ask, who is it? This school application form puts it much more strongly than that – it’s not mere aquaintance with the church, but ‘active in the work and worship’ that counts.You may not be a saint just yet (come and remember those who were, and others you knew, on All Saint’s Sunday, 30th October, 7.30pm – light a candle and pray for them and for yourself) but you could start to become one.

If you haven’t got one, get that paper trail started!

Symbolic rituals and All Saints Day

Posted by Steve on October 15, 2011

In an email I had recently it finished with the quote: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them – Epictetus” Epictetus was on to a good idea because the principle applies to practically everything. To smile at someone or shake their hand is symbolic, all the solemn marching and lowering of flags etc. to do with 11/11 in Europe is symbolic, words are symbolic. The Arab spring, in which various protestors paraded and burned flags, used it as symbolic action containing power for those who shared the mindset.

Our thoughts, not least our religious ones, are manipulations of symbols of different sorts. We construe the actions of other people to be symbolic of all sorts of meanings which come from us rather than them (though we may be guessing right). If you say something of any consequence to somebody they will call up their data bank of symbols in their brain to find the closest meaning that seems to match it, which won’t be exactly what you thought in the same way, but they will believe it is, and if it’s close enough, we can converse.

Guests accept the host’s household rules when they receive his hospitality. In the early days missionary work was about the missionary as “host” – “Come to me and learn the set of rules that make up my mindset”, but now we try to learn to be “guests” and witnessing to our faith, whilst accepting the recipient’s mindset as being what the rules are. It was of course done in the past, which is why the Christian festivals are often adapted pagan festivals. They were sensitive to, and accepting of, other people’s mindsets in trying to adopt the old festival dates and some customs, but at the same time sought to draw them away from the old ways to the new bit by bit.

Halloween is one of those old festivals which celebrates the destruction of evil as a prelude to All Saints (or All Hallows) when we celebrate the victory of those who conquer evil and live godly lives as a result of their faith in Jesus Christ. We aspire to follow in their godly ways in our own days. We remember them with symbols – lighting a candle, placing it on the table where the bread and wine have just rested, singing songs of today and yesteryear. As we sing the old songs we proclaim our sharing in the ways of those who sang them, eating the same holy meal, from a table set apart, with our lights now upon it set apart as those who are before us are set apart and dwell with God.

Come and give thanks for those who have been an example to you in the past who are now set apart and dwell with God. Follow their good example, and walk in the way of Jesus Christ.

All Saint’s Sunday Service: 7.30pm in the main church, Sunday 30th October.