Ilkley Baptist

The other night I went back to my old church, Grove Lane, Cheadle Hulme, to watch a play they were putting on. It was an utterly wonderful experience.

The play was Grove Lane's contribution to an ecumenical mission, and it was specially written for them by Michael Forster, a former Baptist minister, and a friend of Grove Lane's new minister, Jo Harding. It's in nine short scenes and is called Fool's Journey.

It tells the stories of various people meeting a fool, a character dressed like a traditional jester, with a balloon on his arm. He always says the surprising thing, asks the flummoxing question, and arrives and moves on unexpectedly. It doesn't take long to realise that this friendly fool is Jesus, and around him are people we recognise from the gospel story: Mags, an ageing goodtime girl must be Mary Magdalene; Si, the over-confident loud mouth must be Simon Peter; Matt is a commodity trader raking in a margin and a half. You get the picture.

The fool's character resembles that of a psychotherapist or counsellor (which is one of the things that Michael Forster does these days) and offers the others in the play realistic understanding salted with sharp insights. Always focused on the person in front of him he shows them their choice: to carry on as they are or to become the person they were meant to be. Each time, the person rejects the fool then, when he has gone, thinks again and chooses life.

Meanwhile some sinister masked men and women, dressed in black observe it all silently. These are the 'wise ones.' Though they have their own exuberant cheerleaders, there is nothing cheery about them. They are against all change, alarmed by the fool and the things he is doing. Their special agent Nick O'Demus investigates the fool's activities, and they mean to stop it. (I couldn't help noticing that these dark characters were the church's deacons!) So tension builds towards the climax, death and resurrection. This is a Passion Play.

I don't know how to explain how good it is (I do sincerely hope that it is put on many times by many churches). It has the lot. Plenty of humour. Parts for children. Solo songs and choruses for the audience to sing. Pace and colour. The script is superb, with witty dialogue and a profound theology, expressed with audacious simplicity, and a playful relish for the power of words and story. There are so many levels of meaning that I want to get a script and read it through slowly. As the fool says, 'That's the beauty of English, it's never plain even when it sounds it.' This play is also as good an exposition as you'll find of Paul's wonderful words in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians: The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.

Best of all, though, was the sense of rightness about it all. The play has involved more than half the members of Grove Lane, in fact nearly all of those who were available and willing. They have gone to town on lighting, sound, costume and design, transforming the church into a fully functional theatre. Rehearsals have dominated diaries for two months. They have sometimes regretted the size of the task they took on. But what else should a church do than inhabit the Easter story, and embody the ministry and life of Jesus? I'm not sure I would be at all happy with a professional company putting on this play, but as an expression of living faith it works triumphantly. I was moved and exhilarated.

I think a play such as this can have a sacramental effect. It can build community and heal hurt, and be a long remembered witness to the power and hope of the story of Jesus. So hat's off to Michael Forster; in this play a lifetime's deep theology is expressed with irresistible impishness. And Grove Lane ... well done, and thank you!

We had Vernon, Helen, Will and Jessica Young for lunch this Sunday, together with Dylan Whittaker.

I have a new picture to go on the wall in church - the last of the prints by the German RC priest Sieger Koder. I think I will put it up on the first Sunday in Lent. I wonder what people will think of it?

I'd like to get a discussion going about the interior of the church - pictures and art work, chairs and arrangement, the carved chairs, the pulpit and lectern, the sound system, etc. Does it serve the worshipping congregation as well as possible?

Next week I hope for heavy snow in east Yorkshire, setting in on Tuesday and persisting for a month. I will then be snowed in at Cober Hill conference centre, just north of Scarborough. For company I will have sixty Baptist ministers. Perhaps I'll pray for mild weather instead.

The conference lasts till Wednesday lunchtime. I usually enjoy them very much. A break from normal life, time for conversations, welcome input from the speakers, and a little ghastly worship. And a walk along the coast. There are immense cliffs near Cober Hill, with fulmars nesting on them.

I'll take with me a book about the Resurrection which I am reading in preparation for Easter. It starts with the text of a dialogue between Tom Wright and Dom Crossan at an event in America last year. There are then the comments and reflections of an assortment of academics. Crossan is, as usualy, exhilaratingly cheeky and delightful. Wright, as usual, is careful and ponderous and dull, and possibly right. But I'd rather be gloriously wrong with Crossan any day. I've read a few of the other comments and not found them very inspiring yet, but there are still a handful to go. Perhaps things will pick up.

The main point of Crossan's contribution seems to rest in his distinction between the resurrection of Jesus and the (general) Resurrection. He argues that the raising of just Jesus would amount only to his exaltation. The new Christian faith was in Resurrection of which Jesus was just the first. Death was defeated for all. This was the politically energising conviction of Easter. I think I like this, and it's sure to emerge in preaching in April.

I've bought a router. It's a woodworking tool, a bit like a drill that you can slide sideways along bits of wood, cutting out channels and grooves of varying shapes. I've been looking into what sort to get, and was recommended two at the £100-£150 level, then saw one at £200 that looked good. Finally I went into the local hardware shop, Mortens, and in their sale saw an £80 Black and Decker reduced to £20. At least I can learn on this one and make a better choice of a good one eventually. And perhaps it'll be all I need.

So I've used it already to repair some drawers. What a racket! You need the vacuum cleaner on to extract the dust as you work, and our vac is a Dyson that has a dreadful whine, but the router completely overwhelms it. It screams! I wear earplugs of course, but the neighbours must be suffering real hearing loss.