Today began where the last sermon left off… The Lord’s Prayer. This was my first time in the church of the paternoster where the lords prayer adorns the walls in languages from all over the world. We spotted Scottish gaelic and Doric (a dialect of Scots).

My sermon the other week was about focusing on God as the Lord’s Prayer help us to do. It was an appropriate place to begin our exploration of the Holy Land.

We journeyed down the Mount of Olives, with its amazing view of the old city, to Dominus Flavit. We were met at the gate by a monk, sitting under a tree with a pipe and a pint of what looked very much like beer! He reminded me of friar tuck in Robin Hood!

The church commemorates the place where Jesus looked out over the city, and wept. It struck me that things haven’t changed much. A city of God which is divided equally by walls and belief. Today was Friday prayers and it’s still Ramadan so the Muslim Quarter was packed with people. The police were out in force but the rest of the city was quiet.

Gethsemane next and my favourite church, the church of all nations. For the first time the connection between the lord’s prayer and Jesus’ prayer in the garden struck me. Read them together and you’ll see what I mean.

Onwards to the tomb of Mary. Down lots of stairs into the dark of an Orthodox church. And the smell… Incense and candles.

From there we walked around outside the city walls to avoid the crowds to the dung gate and the western wall. The wall is as close as the Jews can get to where the Temple housing the Holy of Holies and the Ark of the Covenant once stood.

And that was our morning. More later but it’s time for bed. Off to the Holy Sepulchre at 6.30am.

At 3am to drive to Manchester to meet the young people in our group and my colleague Leo from North Western Synod at the airport.

We arrived in Jerusalem early this evening to be met by good friends. It was so good to see them and doesn’t seem like a year since we last met.

Last year we came to help with a summer camp, this year is for a pilgrimage to see the Holy Sites and to meet with people to hear about life in this beautiful broken country.

Tomorrow we are starting our day at the top of the mount of olives and working our way down the hill. Ramadan and the Sabbath collide tomorrow night so we will be steering clear of what promises to be a tense afternoon in the old city.

I’m interested to see how our group experience this Holy Land. And I’m interested to see how I encounter it with more time and space to see and think and feel it.

I think most of the places we’re staying have wi-fi so I’ll try to blog as we go but no doubt the detail will come next week when we’re home.

Now, to sleep. It’s been a long day. And we’re sleeping in the Knight’s Palace hotel, where the knights of the crusades gathered centuries ago. I wonder what the people of those times would make of it now?

This weekend was the United Reformed Church’s Synod of Scotland meeting.  For the last few of years Youth Forum for 12-16 year-olds has met alongside Synod.  This year, following FURY Assembly’s plea to highlight the plight of the Invisible Children of Uganda, Youth Forum spent the weekend considering how we could tell the story of children who are abducted and forced to fight.

Every night hundreds of children gather in towns because staying at home in the countryside at night is too dangerous.  The Lord’s Resistance Army abduct children, kill their families and force them to become child soldiers.

The issue, highlighted by Invisible Children, is one which shocked and moved us.  We were delighted that following the young people’s presentation Synod discussed and debated how they could help.

The Synod of Scotland resolves to encourage churches to investigate the issue of child soldiers, to raise awareness of their plight, campaign for an end to this inhuman practice and to pray regularly for these children, their families and their communities…. to make these invisible children visible.

We also heard a report that the project we highlighted last year, a leprosy colony in Malawi, has been successful in achieving some of it’s ambitions, a process kick-started by the Youth Forum highlighting the needs of the project to Synod.

It’s easy to think that the problems of the world are too big, too far away, and that we are too small to affect change.

This weekend has been a reminder that we can make change.  It reminded us that we can shine light into dark places.

When you drive up the M6 the signs eventually start to say NORTH.  I’ve always wondered where that place is because the end of the M6 is Scotland but if you keep going long enough you get to what might actually be the place signposted as NORTH… Thurso.

We have just returned from visiting NORTH for the first time and it’s an amazing place.

The landscape is bleak, battered by wind and weather.  It’s a truly wild place.  And it is beautiful.

This is the beach at Strathy, just along the coast from Thurso, past Dounreay.  It was stunning in the rain and the wind so it’s hard to imagine just how amazing it looks in the sunshine.

We spent a weekend with some of the warmest people we have met.  Saturday was spent having interesting conversations with people who really care about their church and the children in and around it and Church on Sunday was full of fun and laughter and chocolate.

If you ever get the chance follow the signs and head NORTH.  You won’t regret it.

Who the Heck Are We? Exploring the Identity of the URC

The United Reformed Church are hosting their 1st Webinars – “Who the Heck Are We? Exploring the Identity of the URC” on:

Wednesday 24th March 2010, 12:30pm – 1:30pm:
This is an invitation to all our ecumenical and external partners who work with the United Reformed Church.

Saturday 27th March 2010:
This is an invitation to EVERY member or visitor of the United Reformed Church.
There are 4 time slots available between 9am – 2.30pm. More details can be found if you click on “Q&A re: The Webinar” below.

What is a Webinar?

A Webinar is a convenient way of hosting a meeting online for up to 1000 people to attend. All you need is connection to the internet to join in and a computer or laptop. For maximum participation, use your computer’s built-in audio (i.e. speakers and microphone or use a headset) to contribute. You can also participate in the meeting by “calling into the webinar” using an ordinary landline at a cost of a local telephone call. You can attend the meeting via your mobile, if your mobile supports internet connection.

But how does it work?

You will be sent an invitation by email and asked to register your details (i.e. your name, address and some questions e.g. which Synod or organisation you belong to etc). Once completed, a confirmation email will be sent to you confirming your place. The email will feature your direct link to the webinar. This link is UNIQUE TO YOU and enables you to securely gain access to the meeting. At the time that you have decided to attend the webinar, you must click on your direct link.

If you don’t have my email address already, how will I be invited?

To attend your exciting online event, please contact Denese Chikwendu, Campaign Co-ordinator at: denese [dot] chikwendu [at] urc [dot] org [dot] uk or call her on 020 7916 2020 or Lawrence Moore at: lawrence [dot] moore [at] urc [dot] org [dot] uk . Please be ready to give us your full name and correct email address. Denese Chikwendu can also send you hard copies of “Save the Date” cards for you to hand out to members, visitors and friends. (They are the size of business cards for convenience).

Help! I’m not convinced – I haven’t done a webinar before…

Don’t worry, we will be hosting test runs so that everyone can try out the application and feel more comfortable with it. We plan to host test runs from w/c 22nd February 2010 to w/c 15th March 2010; so that’s 4 weeks of practice! Each session will last approximately 30 – 45 minutes. There will be:

• 2 sessions per week for all URC members to join an informal webinar where we can discuss church related issues or general current affairs/ news etc. EACH TUESDAY AND THURSDAY between 2pm – 3pm.
• 1 session per week for all of our URC external partners to join an informal webinar. EACH WEDNESDAY between 2pm – 3pm.

More details will shortly be available on the topics below:

1. A full set of Q&A re: The Webinar, including time slots for 27th March 2010
2. Email template/ Invitation – for URC members and friends – invite more people!
3. Email template/Invitation – for URC ecumenical and external partners – invite more people!
4. Save the Date card – A4 notice for your church/ church notice board/ share at the next Church meeting
5. Save the Date card – A4 notice for external partners and colleagues
6. View Webinar Demo – https://www2.gotowebinar.com/en_US/webinar/pre/G2W_Demo.tmpl or https://www2.gotomeeting.com/en_US/pre/quickTour.tmpl

Image on the front page and above is ‘Mouse’ by pure9 , Licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/deed.en

I was leading worship at Hamilton URC this morning.  Nothing unusual in that except that I was early.  I usually follow the ‘the closer it is the later I’ll be’ rule but today I was early.  Good job because it turned out it was communion today… and I didn’t know!  At least I had time to nip home and collect a communion liturgy.

I was early because my friend Thomas was coming over to Hamilton to join us for our worship.  Because of my missing communion liturgy he was left to fend for himself which probably gave him a more realistic insight into the congregation.

It’s funny how the unexpected or unprepared things often have more significance.  I grabbed the only communion liturgy I could find this morning.  But if was ideal.  It fitted with the sermon.  It fitted with the feel of the service.

The best bit was sharing the peace, greeting each other and wishing God’s blessing of each other.  The congregation don’t normally do it.  But today they did… with relish.  People wandered around the church hugging and shaking hands for quite some time.  It was brilliant.  People were warm and genuine in their sharing.  A real community.

And I liked being a part of that.

Today I’m learning about VOLE.  Apparently that’s something to do with Virtual and Online Learning Environments…

I’ll let you know what that means as the day progresses.

This morning we have been looking at MOODLE.  We’re playing with forums, profiles, feedback, messages and stuff.  Good fun.

The afternoon was spent doing more of the same.  We each have our own little Moodle sandpit to build stuff.  It looks like an interesting tool but I’m yet to be convinced that it would be worth investing in the hosting costs for us yet.

Lunchtime was an unexpected surprise.  We went to the church next door to the London office.  Lumen URC has been completely renovated and is now a stunning space.

It has meeting rooms, a multi faith prayer space, a sanctuary, a cloistered courtyard and a soon to be open vegetarian cafe.  It is quite simply stunning.  If you are passing Tavistock Place in London then go and have a look at what a falling down 50s building can be transformed into.

Perhaps that was a bit of a metaphor for the the day?  Is VLE something that can transform learning in the church?  Will it help to engage people?  Will it bring new life to an old idea?