Ilkley Baptist

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.

My first thought on the Late Quartets of Beethoven is that they sound very good! In Terry Pratchett's Discworld there is a person (the supreme governor of Ankh Morpork, I think) who reads music. He doesn't need to listen to it, indeed would rather not have some musicians' interpretation interfering with his pleasure, he simply sits down and reads it, hearing the music in his head. Having sat down with the score of the Late Quartets and looked at them, picked out the tunes on the piano, and read a discussion of the pieces, remembering the tunes the writer was referring to, I have to say that hearing the music is essential.

The sound is so much more than the memory or the imagination. It is alive and full of rich presence. It is far more powerful than the idea of the sound. I can read about the movement, study the score and hear it in my head, but when I play the recording it becomes real.

Is this like telling someone you love them? They know, of course, but hearing it counts. We might watch a film we've seen before. We know the story, but we can't have the emotional experience unless we follow it through again. In prayer and worship we rehearse very well know things - God is love, there is hope - but it's not about knowing them, but taking them into ourselves, and that means having them actually turn up for us to engage with.

Here's an amusing read. What are the most unwelcome things foisted on us in churches? Ben Myers has asked the question and offered a poll, but the responses are the best bit. You can find it here.

A busy weekend at church: a wedding on Saturday, and an 'Infant Presentation' on Sunday morning. Both events brought many people into church who wouldn't normally be there.

I always relish the opportunity to talk to such people. I've always believed that if you understand something properly you should be able to put it in non-technical language, and I've also always believed that people 'outside' the church know as much about God as people 'inside' the church. A church may sometimes be called God's house, but it isn't God's home.

I said this at the wedding and, as always, found people deeply appreciative. It is possible to speak about God in ways that respect the spirituality of non-church people, and which make sense in their terms. We don't have to drag people inside the Christian frame of reference first, we can step outside and enter theirs. And I think this is precisely what Jesus (and Paul, for that matter) did.

Unfortunately the wider Church seldom has the confidence to do this. It concentrates on getting people inside the institution, on persuading people to come and, if possible, belong, and it fails to connect to the minds and spirituality of the people around.

I first got to know Beethoven's late quartets when I was a teenager. (I was a little strange in those days, and am only now, after so many years growing up, becoming truly peculiar.)

The version I got to know in those days, on vinyl, is by the Quartetto Italiano. Beautiful playing - very posh and sumptuous. This year I bought a new version by the Takacs Quartet, which has been receiving top reviews. The difference is considerable. The Takacs relish the sudden lurching shifts from sublime melody to bouncy ditty without any apology. They emphasise the changing colours and varied pace of the music; there seems a lot more to hear. The QI version left no doubt that this is great music. The Takacs force you to ask why it is great, and what place the fun tunes play in greatness.

So I've bought a listening guide and a score, and am going to listen as hard as I can and track the shape and progression of these pieces. I may even try to paint a picture or diagram of them. Whatever the label great means when applied to a work of art, it represents a claim that intense attention will never be wasted.