I have lost the plot ---Thanks Joe at Cross references H/T

I found this via Google reader this morning as I was quickly scrolling through the usual daren't miss their blogs if I am keeping up with the world and news people in the minority world known as the C of E , and they know who they are.


My prayer partner Shiela and I got together this morning for our weekly time together. Rachel is in Madeira, so our trio is a duet. We prayed about Worship today, and I realised that I have let mine get cold as I network and blog, do this and do that.  So thanks Joe at his blog Cross References for pointing me back.






All the trying to keep up with the Cof E Jones's -Oh dear I have lost the plot- so am going back , turning round, repenting.

Twitter and the Bishop of Hull

I was pleased that our 'Envoy' (our Filey Parish magazine) editor M had asked me to give her half a page about Bishop Richard and Twitter. I did the picture above, sent it to her and went out to the Third Sunday Service , our  ecumenical Praise Service at the Salvation Army Hall. 

As I was sitting there Our God reigns, And can it be, Come on and celebrate etc I was really thinking about the picture I had hurriedly sent to M. So I said to spouse an the way home 'I bet there's a message on the answer machine when we get home , and M doesn't want the article she asked for.'  We got home and I was right. We both had not thought it through. No one uses Twitter in Filey Parish, only me and those at uni. Infact the Hull Daily Mail made much of Bishop Richard on Twitter. BUT he has not done any more than a few tweets, has not followed anyone much, and not even managed his avatar yet. It is still that egg thing.

Once again I have rushed on before Gods Plan I think.

Beverley Minster and Aged Parent

We have been planning today for ages. Aged Parent and I know every aisle, label, and variety of Aynsley Harriot Cup-o-soup in her Beverley Supermarket. Our regular trips to buy the stuffs of life have taken a new turn. We have been to church as well today .

My over 90  mother takes Communion every month. It is brought to the house where she has lived for 26 years by vicar of   St Marys. in whose Parish she resides. She shares this time  with other residents of the house. This is C of E protocol- not stepping across the boundaries . She cherishes those times. BUT..

She always used to go to her own church St Leonards at Molescroft , but a 9am service is just too early for her now. The Mother Church of Beverley Minster offers a said Midweek Communion on Thursdays at the much better time of 10am.

Although not prepared for the roadworks around the Minster we did manage a disabled space, and the flat walk to the disabled entrance.

It was the first time she has seen Jeremy Fletcher. She knew all about him of course because I had given her My Crockfords. I think she might have thought the minster  was going 'high' as he was dressed in  the white robe thing. She doesnt really do 'high', but it was very low key, despite celebrating facing east. The verger was right on the case and very discreetly asked if she wanted the sacramant  brought down to her. It was all so perfect-she could see everything, she knew every word of course 1662. She is hoping for CW next time. Yes there is definitely going to be next time. So many people came up to her after the service , remembering when she was a regular at the service that she was thrilled to bits. She didnt hear all the talk as she has forgotten her hearing aid. I had remembered mine so relayed it to her afterwards, and improved on it I thought. We didn't stay for coffee this time as we had to fit in the Surgery, the Building Society and Tescos before an afternoon party  at the Abbeyfield house.

I am so pleased. She had such a lovely time. Let us not stop meeting together-its all that Hebrews 10 again. 

We are planning a fortnightly visit . I cant wait -I love acknowledging and bewailing my manifold sins and wickednesses now I understand what they mean.

An answer to the Churchmouse

He is right to ask the following questions with regard to the King James Bible


'Mouse would just like to ask what messages we are trying to get across.

So far, the discussion has largely been about how important the King James Bible has been in it's impact on British life and culture.  There has been some talk about how beautiful the translation is.  And all that is true.  Yet is that all we are trying to say?'


The dialogue is only just starting, and more questions will emerge. Like everything in the Blogsphere there are times of # trending.


My answer to the Churchmouse is watch the spaces.

• Schools will use the opportunity to use the KJV in Literacy lessons. It will come in the planning as use and  comparison of archaic language   . The Message will take off, as educators will go first to Bible Gateway to save time, and stumble upon something new. 
• The atheist brigade will use the time to rant about 'eye for an eye', 'the Virgin Birth' etc,
• The Christians will answer them and some will rant 
• people will look and see if they can find their KJV s  at the back of bookcases. The Christians will read their favourite bits:Psalm 23,Corinthians 13 and Revelation 3v20 . Church goers will find their KJVs in the loft and do the same  but will go on with more bits
• those in the order of Melchizedek will use the opportunity to plug EDWJ and the like
• Charity shops will do Bible Displays in their windows
• Waterstones will try and shift some of the White KJVs they have had on the shelves for years for Infant Baptism presents
• The Exclusive Brethren (women in head scarves,standing  at the back) will remind people by shouting out ,at a street corner , but not making eye contact that the KJV is the ONLY one (But must have a black cover)
• The Gideons will be accepted in more schools to give out their red NIV testaments and Psalms to the School Leavers
• Those in other faith groups will agree that the language of the KJV is beautiful
• Christians will pray that  glory goes to God, that lives will be changed, that the ears of the spiritually deaf will be unstopped, and then will remember that the Word of God never returns Void

4 years ago when I was teaching a Yr 6 class week by week for RE  I was having a  terrible time with the appalling behaviour of the children. I would not teach over the shouting out, the rudery and the disruption. The syllabus was not relevant.The Children had no idea how to even open a Bible and find a Chapter and Verse. I would at least teach them that. For several weeks we played the sorts of games done 50 yrs ago in Bible classes. Things changed dramatically when the children realised that I was not expecting them to do the boring syllabus (fine for well behaved middle class children). As we were playing the ancient game 'Draw your swords' the mood of the class began to change.The bribery of the winning row getting  prize at the end of the lesson( a jelly bean), and the banal simplicity of the game won the day. The game was to be the first complete row to find a verse and all sit down with NO NOISE WHATSOEVER. 

Bibles under arms, I say 'Draw your swords for John 3v16'

There is a silent rush

A child finds it

they now have learned OT and NT ,and 4 gospels M,M, Land J

so they help each other silently , no pushing  , no chair scraping

The first row sits down and is checked.A child reads out the verse

Simple or what!

After some weeks , now good behaviour, lessons beginning to go well, the game always promised for the end of session , 36 children all on feet and listening quietly I called out 

Luke 6 v27

The most disruptive child in the class  read it out for his row

But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

He then turned to me and said,

'Miss , did Jesus really say that, WOW'

How will they know , if no one ever tells them?

So , Churchmouse (whoever you are) -go with it , if one person turns to a Bible , whatever version , and turns to Christ, it will all have been worth  it.

Brian -I just love your video

I cannot get the tune out of my head now-it appeals to all my  musical taste-Jan Garbarak to Hildegaude of Bingen via Antony and the Johnsons

The signs of the times...

Once again the glory is going to someone else...........King James. Now I am as pleased as anyone that the BBC is broadcasting excerpts of The Bible today in the KJV. I am pleased that I keep catching snatches of those words  beautiful language, our Heritage, and old familiar words.  I love the KJV, but no longer read it other than as a nostalgic treat. I am sorry that whilst praising the wonderful permission to have in Churches  what is ours anyway by the grace of God ,the Bible in English, that William Tyndale is an unsung hero. So Thank you William Tyndale for having the courage to make the first accessible translation of the NT for those without a classical education in 1534, most of our forbears that is. Now I know that it had very limited availability, and once again this was rather more to do with his comments on  the marriage plans of Henry V111. 

So we had the King James Bible , based on Tyndales translations ordered to be read in the Churches

I am reminded to re- assess my Bible reading Habits. I  had the KJV read to me every week from age 3 to 21. Some of it is so beautiful I want to cry '

See as larger file

Phillipians 2 for example
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
 ⁸And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
 ⁹Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
 ¹⁰That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth'

I do thank God for it.

But accessible NO.


I do not think Mr and Mrs Filey, Master Filey and Miss Filey would understand it at all. I am glad that many translations these days are available in these days of option excess, along with varieties of Breakfast Cereals and other stuffs of life. One may choose the version to read that appeals to personal taste. I am praying that personal taste will be for the Bible, and that God will use all this publicity to his glory.

See as  larger file

I have dug out the Bruce family Bible, well read and thumbed by my ancestors in Edinburgh in the 1790s onward. Though foxed, and unwealdy, it nevertheless stands testimony to a time when some families were able to have the Bible in their own language. 

It also stood as the registration of births and deaths before the law of 1836 . Thank you my Grammar School in Hull. I have engrained in My brain all the acts of the 19th Century, and this is the first time in 50 years I have ever actually needed to recall one. All the boy children of William Bruce and Christian Sutherland are mentioned-but none of the girls!

See as larger file

And for you Brian after your Psalm 16 on the Filey Parish Blog, I have found you the metrical one from the back of my family Bible. Your translation from the Net Bible is not so very different  if one looks really really really hard, and dont confuse s with f or is it f with s.

Why did I use Signs of the times as a header ,well that phrase was coined by Tyndale along with lots more familiar friends.See Wikipedia.

To God be the glory Great things He hath done.