Sorry to be late with the blog this week; as Barbara used to say when we were working together, I'm not sure what I've been doing, but it's taken me all day (or two!) But one of the things I did yesterday was spend some time with a young man who comes into the church at various times. At the moment, ife is particularly tough for him, and I am very grateful to those who, yesterday, were able to provide exactly what was needed. And so was he, and he spent some time telling me just how much it meant to him. The phrase he used several times was "I don't know how this church does it; it's so amazing!" After saying this, in various forms, he then went a little further - "I suppose it's something that has been handed down". I'm not sure exactly what hemeant by it, but it has remained with me as a wonderful description of something important in the life of any church; the formation of a way of being, a culture, a set of habits - I am not sure exactly what to call it - that determines how we will act, and what kind of people we will be.
The thing about this way of exploring and creating an identity is that, unless we pay close attention to just how we are forming such who we are, we will be formed unreflectively, by habits and patterns that are not actually those of the Kingdom.
Part of what is happening when we gather - to hear the story of Scripture, and to explore it together at XChange, in home groups, in Sunday Club; to share bread and wine - and all the other food we eat together; to sing and to pray,- we are given opportunities to develop certain ways of being. We learn to listen and talk carefully and to know ourselves as part of bigger story, to serve one another, and to identify who we are through a pattern of self-giving that is cross-shaped.
One of the challenges of developing this kind of life is to move it from beyond the formal things we do together, and let these patterns invade the normal stuff of our life - the encounters which happen unexpectedly, the moments when we are taken off guard, the times when we are called on to act without time to reflect or to put up our guards.
My friend yesterday was reflecting that, in the matter of caring for people, meeting them where they are, and being practical in our response, is deeply engrained in who we are as a community. This is a matter for deep gratitude. Those who have gone before us have helped to shape a community of the kind that for those of us who live its life now, we are shaped into this generous and effective caring.
Which leaves several questions for us here and now. Not the least of which is, what are we shaping and handing on as the continuing identity, sense of what it means to be here and to be the people of God? And what are we doing to make sure it becomes deeply embedded in us and in the life we offer others?

Various surprising people over the last week have told me that they regularly read this blog; surprising simply because it had not occurred to me that they - you, and you probably know who you are - knew that it existed. One of the frustrations of not being able to manage comments is that our blog appears to live in a vacuum. (Despite my - admittedly not very skilled - best efforts, turning the comments on still eludes me. But our new website is due very soon, and then all will be different, I hope!!) And living in a vacuum is not a good place to be; indeed, I guess technically this image doesn't work, since nothing can live in a vacuum. Interaction is important, knowing how people read what is written, and the impact it has. And many of you have been very kind in your responses.
This need to interact is becoming important for us at the moment, especially as we think afresh about how we make contact with those who do not claim faith. We are grateful to those who have agreed to help us think about this, and there are all sorts of things to think through. And not the least is understanding people and the contexts in which they live and think. It is very easy, especially for those of us who have been part of the church for a long time, to forget that life and ways of understanding the world can be very different; generational differences, cultural differences, linguisitic differences and differences of ways of viewing the world - all of these matter as we try to find ways of communicating. If we are going to make connections, then it will have to be with people as they actually are, and not as we think they should be, nor as we know ourselves to be. I write this blog each (well, most) weeks about things that matter to me, in ways that make sense to me. I am grateful to those who make the effort to contact me - even when technically it is difficult. But it will be so much richer, so much more meaningful, once we can communicate.
And our commitment to communicate beyond our walls and beyond ourselves require even more determination to understand and make links, and to explore ways of communicating that may challenge how we see and think and expect; but which will be in line with the God who moved out of a safe and secure place into the risk and openess, identification and vulnerability of incarnation.

The noise around us continues, and very exhausting it is too. The struggle is that there is nothing to do but get through it; like so many things that happen without our choosing, the only way through is through.
What happens to us when we get "stuck" in a situaiton; when, despite all our best efforts and all our most fervent wishes - even prayers - nothing seems to change, and things remain as they are, ways we don't like.
This can happen in so many areas. It can be our own experience of ourselves (as we move into February, there is in some circles much laughing conversation about how tattered new year's resolutions now look, for example); it can be in our care of each other - when we want life to be better for the people we worry about, and there is nothing we can do to change things; it can be as we contemplate the state and position of the world - situations that look impossible or uncertain, and which do not seem to offer any possibility of change?
I am more and more convinced that the call in such times is just to stay - to hang on in there. In conversations with various people who work in community based groups in the area of the church, one of the regular things that is commented on is that we (the church here) are here for the long-term; we don't dash in and out, we are not dependent on the kind of funding that can all too easily be withdrawn with little or no notice, we are not going to disappear if things get tough. It's the kind of thing we tend to take for granted, so it is interesting to note that it is something others see about us.
It matters in our internal life too. Some of us live in and with situations that appear to offer no hope of change. It may be ill-health, it may be demanding responsibilities, it may be something much harder to put into words. But one of the things we offer each other is staying there, walking the hard - or simply long - path, not giving up when things don't change despite our best efforts and deepest hopes.
Thank God for the grace of carrying on - and thank you to all of you who do it with us and for us.