Ilkley Baptist

On Wednesday the local ministers come to me for lunch. We meet every week. We pray for up to half an hour, then eat and chat and josh each other for another thirty minutes. Lunch is mainly soup, so I'll be buying some veg tomorrow, and also some good bread, a bit of cheese, some fruit and maybe some small cakes.

The mix of prayer and lunch interests me. I think it's extremely important. If we just met for lunch, that would be good and useful. Good relationships are invaluable, and there is always a bit of business to do, a joint service to prepare or some resources to share. But the prayer bit - it's tricky. We pray in different ways, because we vary from Catholic to Pentecostal, High Church to Baptist. We pray in different ways because we are very different people in our aptitudes and sensibilities. It would be much more efficient to each pray in our own way (as if we would!) and then come together for lunch and conversation, but we don't. We grapple with this prayer thing, try different ways of doing it, fail, do it badly, and try again, because it we know it matters. In prayer we meet as we do not meet even over the table. We meet, not every time, but from time to time, at our deepest. We sense each other's faith. We hear of each other's need. And as we struggle to find ways to be together in prayer, we are aware of each other's dependence on God. And that is what makes us colleagues. And what we do together counts.

Carrot and spring greens this week, I think.

I came across this.

Dr Ian Paisley was preaching on the agonies of hell, "where there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth."
A little old man at the back of the church exclaimed, "But Dr. Paisley, I don't have any teeth."
Paisley thundered back, "Teeth will be provided!"

It's many weeks since I started thinking to Beethoven's Late Quartets. I have been listening and thinking on and off through the summer, but this is a heavyweight subject and I haven't had anything to say.

A small thought occurs, though. I was interested to read about Beethoven's own studies. He knew Bach's music since as a boy he was taught the 48, but seems to have returned to study it deeply later in life. Many of his late works contain fugues, and he became a master of this form which Bach had so developed. In addition, he became interested in 'the songs of the monks' - plainsong - and modal music. This is present in the Late Quartets, in Op. 132. This music looks back several centuries, as well as, in other places (the Grosse Fuge) anticipating music that would not be written until the following century.

The thought is that Beethoven was here grappling with the limits of music itself, with tonality and the capabilities of expression. There is an I-thou encounter to be had between artist and material (as WH Vanstone suggests occurs between God and us). Until recent times the word 'great' has been thrown around in absurd ways by those speaking of painters and musicians. What on earth does it mean, except that I and my friends approve of this 'great' music above all that third-rate stuff? Well, perhaps it might mean, properly used, that at times artists push the boundaries of themselves, their material, and the tradition of their artform. At these rubbing points there are discoveries to be made. Art is not just self-expression, but encounter.

The impatience of traditionalists with conceptual art, that it does not include craftsmanship or craftswomanship, may have a point in that the limits of materials can be part of the creative process.

I don't agree with what the pope said, but I think it may turn out to be a good thing that he did.

I think he emphasised reason, in his speech, too one sidedly. The Christian faith is about heart and relationships as well as logic and understanding. Jesus, in the synoptics, thinks with his guts. It's not just about being right, even if you are pope, but about being an imaginative friend to others, and he didn't get this right. In fact is was an astonishing misjudgement.

However, he has said he is sorry. He has responded to the outrage (some of it far too eagerly enjoyed) and has looked human, almost warm. There is now a genuine dialogue. Muslims and pope, each are aware that there is a person on the other end of the exchange, and this can only be good.

I've always felt that goodness isn't so much about never getting it wrong, but about how we deal, creatively, with ours and others errors.

Our website is now up, and almost worth visiting! Find it at www.ilkleybaptistchurch.co.uk, or click here.

Now, what should go on it? As you can see I haven't managed to load the one picture that should be there. Perhaps someone can teach me, or perhaps for the time being it would be easier to stick to words only. But what words? More information about current events - or is that better here? (This is easier to add to. I don't have to construct pages with a special 'editor.')

Should there be more detail about the church? General stuff about Christianity? Sermons? Baptist Union links?

Please have a think and let me know.