All posts by Craig Muir

Minister

Be Blessed

What does it mean to be blessed?
Your answer might depend on what you understand by the word. For some it means they are lucky, they have good fortune, they are happy and content with life. For others it has a deeply sacred tone. My thesaurus lists – holy, sacred, divine, hallowed, sanctified, adored,
exalted, revered, spiritual, canonised, godlike. Others may use it to replace a swear word or to ward off the perils of a sneeze.


If our preacher on 29th January chooses to follow the lectionary readings then we will hear Matthew 5:1-12, a passage known as the Beatitudes or “The Blessings” and in the two weeks that follow until it is interrupted by Lent, we will hear the beginning of Jesus teaching known as the Sermon on the Mount. These passages are key to Matthew’s telling of Jesus’ life and teaching as they speak of a community that is blessed, that knows God’s favour and spells out the ethical and moral responses expected of such a community. The first remarkable thing about this community is that many people would not look upon them
and see people who are blessed – they are broken, vulnerable, grieving, meek, angry, do-gooders – who are persecuted and insulted because of their perceived weakness. Yet they are the salt of the earth, the light of the world called to let their light shine so that goodness can be experienced and God be praised. The second remarkable thing is that the vision of what it means to live as a Blessed Community is a radical way of life that is a struggle to achieve because it involves an openness, a love, a care for people who are different from ourselves and a trust in God to care for each of us in place of material possessions.


Ghandi was one who was greatly influenced by the Sermon on the Mount, so much so that he modelled many of his teachings on non-violence upon it. The problem for Ghandi was that much of what he experienced as passing for Christianity was a negation of the Sermon on the Mount. I would love to be able to claim that was no longer so – but in reality as I look around I know that it continues to be so. So what are we to do about our own struggles to live as the community Jesus calls us to
be? I think we need to be honest with ourselves, and know the ways in which we fail one another, we need to know our own brokenness, vulnerability, grief, meekness, anger and hunger for goodness and welcome the ways in which we receive God’s blessing despite
ourselves. In such ways we might just discover the salt and light that Jesus promises and we can be a church that invites and joins with other broken, vulnerable, grieving, meek, angry, hungry people in order to know blessing and share blessing.


be blessed
Craig

Resources

Hub of Hope

https://hubofhope.co.uk

What is the Hub of Hope?

The Hub of Hope is the UK’s leading mental health support database. It is provided by national mental health charity, Chasing the Stigma, and brings local, national, peer, community, charity, private and NHS mental health support and services together in one place for the first time.

Initially a simple spreadsheet of local services populated at the kitchen table of Chasing the Stigma founder and CEO, Jake Mills, the Hub of Hope was born out of Jake’s own lived experience of extreme mental and emotional distress. He witnessed first-hand the difficulties in finding relevant, accessible and nearby support when it was most needed and decided to take action.

To date, the Hub of Hope has directed hundreds of thousands of people to life-changing and even life-saving support and it is now the UK’s go-to mental health support signposting tool, with thousands of local, regional and national support groups and services listed.

Minister

Family History

One of the things that my parents enjoyed doing together was Family History, our own and helping others to trace theirs. It began, when my Mum’s father began tracing his history, which led to Dad quizzing his parents about the Muirs and Porters, they knew very little – my Grandpa Muir didn’t have a lot of interest and my Gran had been orphaned aged 5, so the details were vague. We started going through to Edinburgh to find out who we came from and found ourselves tracing the loss of a fortune, discovering the bigamist who told whatever truth was convenient at the time, hearing about cousins who missed being on the Titanic by taking the next ship to America, and many stories of how families come together, split apart and the way fortunes change over the generations.

The gospel writer, Matthew, begins to tell Jesus’ story by tracing his family history. On the one hand it is a list of names, but on the other it is an account of the history of God’s relationship with Israel told through ancient genealogies handed down through the generations. Some of these are people whose lives are familiar and not all of them are filled with goodness and peace. There is scandal and shame, there are families who fell apart, and people who are good and wise, who many would be proud to have as ancestors. Rather confusingly it’s not even the same list as Luke uses. There is lots of debate about why that should be so – but in the end, it looks as if they wanted to highlight some different points. For Matthew, it emphasises Jesus’ right to be considered a King and we see that in the nativity story he uses. Foreign mystics seeking a new king and bringing gifts that would symbolise kingship and suffering. His gospel will follow through on that theme – Jesus is a king, but not like any earthly monarch seeking their own power and glory. He is the ultimate shepherd king whose purpose is to care for the flock. It means that when we use Matthew’s nativity – as we will this year, that we see different aspects of Jesus highlighted from the one where we sit with the shepherds and listen to an angelic choir. 

It’s all about how we tell the story and which of our ancestors we want to focus on when telling our story. The narrative that follows will remind us that Jesus is being born into a dangerous world where children are in danger from despotic rulers, families are forced to flee, seeking sanctuary. And in the midst of all the tensions of human life we find God’s grace, God’s gift to the the world and a reminder that even in such troubled times, God is with us. 

Each Christmas our task is to cut through all the tinsel, turkey and tasteless jumpers to rediscover God who is with us, God who comes to us as the unking-like King and offers an alternative way of living that is the way of Jesus. 

be blessed

Craig

Minister

Living with Grief

I’ve been learning about grief. That seems a strange thing to say for someone who has been a Policeman and a Minister for the last forty years and has seen grief played out in many different ways. But, as many of you will know my Mum died in May followed by my Dad in October. In many ways it was a relief, their dementia meant that they were no longer the vibrant people who had shared so much with us. Yet, there were times that you could look through the dementia and see the people they had always been. Plus, caring for them had become part of the routine – along with the worries about how long we could afford to do so before seeking help! Now, I’m putting off dealing with the estate – trying to distract myself with work! And failing.

I’m realising that grief is not just about dealing with the tears bubbling up when people are too kind, or too interested. It’s about the dull mush that my brain has become, and the memories that jump in from nowhere, and managing the expectations we carry. Many of you know this, you have been here already. You live with it in various degrees of disquiet. Others will discover this place one day and you will find people who have been here before. Their experience will not match yours, but they will hopefully understand that you are living with a new reality and that is difficult.

However, because Dad did not leave the detailed instructions for his funeral that Mum had left, I was able to introduce a couple of hymns that I wish people would use more often on such occasions. One is by Shirley Erena Murray and is sung Sine Nomine (For all the Saints)

Give thanks for life, the measure of our days

Mortal, we pass through beauty that decays,

Yet sing to God our hope, our love, our praise:

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Give thanks for those whose lives shone with a light

caught from the Christ-flame, gleaming through the night,

who touched the earth, who burned for what is right

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Give thanks for all, our living and our dead,

thanks for the love by which our life is fed,

a love not changed by time of death or dread

Alleluia! Alleluia!

Give thanks for hope that, like, the seed of grain

lying in darkness, does it’s life retain

to rise in glory, growing green again;

Alleluia! Alleluia!

  • © Words: 1987 Murray, Shirley Erena (Admin. by Hope Publishing Company)   CCLI Licence No. 45363

So wherever you hold your grief at this time, may you know God’s blessing

Craig.

Minister

Same-Sex Marriage

We are delighted to announce that following the agreement of the Church Meeting we are now registered to conduct same-sex marriage as well as opposite-sex marriage.

We are one of the few churches in Leicestershire to be registered in this way and offer it as a service for the whole community.

If you would like to discuss getting married here then please contact our Minister Craig Muir Tel: 07483 107735.

If you would like your own Minister to be involved and their denomination allows them to do so, then we are happy for them to to do so

Minister

August

Once upon a time August was a quiet month. I would catch up on all the admin I’d been putting off, use up some days I was owed from working days off, do some forward planning for the Autumn, I’ve even been known to plan Christmas! But this year has been a busy one, whilst at the same time, the heat has made it difficult to concentrate and get some of those tasks done.

It’s been great to welcome Grub Club to the community space for 4 weeks over the school holidays. Grub Club is primarily about ensuring that families who usually receive free school meals can get a good nutritional meal, but it also provided some time to engage in activities and model good ways to play with children.  Chris got fully involved with helping in the activities. I made sure I was around most days helping with some activities and talking with families and volunteers, We engaged with 8 families made up of 20 children aged 1-10 and served 238 meals. It was a good time, and yet we know that there are more families that would have benefited. So, in the future we need to be better at advertising and encouraging people to come along. At the same time – I really don’t want to be running Grub Clubs. In a country as wealthy as ours, people should not be needing support to feed their children. But then as Jesus said, “The poor are always with you,” and whilst they are, we need to be part of supporting short and long term solutions.

Of course, all of this happened in stifling heat. Making us reflect on another concern, that of Climate Crisis, this is not a temporary blip that we should just enjoy. This is going to become our reality, year on year and we all need to do something to cut are carbon emissions and change our lifestyle. It doesn’t help that the heat means that people are running electric fans, or air-conditioning systems – all of which create even more heat! But looking ahead, it is going to be a hard winter, many people are not going to be able to pay their fuel bills, or are going to fail to heat their homes so that they can afford meals. We have discussed whether we need to run Grub Club in all the school holidays, some people wander if we could open up some space as “Warming Rooms” especially if we have the heating on anyway. But of course, church heating bills are also going to rise and we may be faced with some hard decisions about our own finances. We live in strange times. 

At the same time, there have been some discussions with the Ukrainian community about supporting some people with a space to meet, and to help with their conversational English. We wait with interest to see what develops. Along with Grub Club, and discussions about Warming Rooms, it highlights the need for the sort of space we have available and the need for a church that is open to initiatives like this. 

1 Peter 3, says, “All of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind. …  It is for this that you were called—that you might inherit a blessing.” I believe that blessing comes from being a blessing to those we engage with and letting those we work with also bless us. May we do so in love, with generous gentle hearts.

be blessed

Craig

Minister

URC @ Greenbelt

I first went to the Greenbelt Festival 40 years ago. In those days it was a fairly traditional festival format, with one big stage and a few smaller venues around that had speakers or smaller bands. It was a showcase for a vibrant Christian music scene and was very youth orientated. I throughly enjoyed it and went for the next few years until in 1988 we tried it with a young baby, and decided it didn’t really work with a push chair! 

In the meantime Greenbelt started to change, becoming more of a an arts festival with a heavy emphasis on social justice. But, it also had some financial problems, a couple of wet years and an attempt to buy it’s own permanent site had almost brought the festival to collapse. It moved to Cheltenham Racecourse and began to be re-imagined. We heard enough good things about it to return in 2000. Our children were old enough not to need pushing around, the racecourse site gave the opportunity for a wider variety of talks, activities, music, but most of all, for me, it became a wonderful place of spiritual renewal. It’s inclusive theology was in step with my own and its focus on a whole variety of social justice issues, fuelled by a strong faith identity provided a place to be challenged as well as renewed. The music by now was less upfront Christian, but the artists were also people asking questions about our world and how we engage with it and i discovered lots of artists and speakers who continue to inform, challenge and influence me. 

In 2008, as part of my sabbatical, I decided to volunteer and found myself managing a venue. That meant that I couldn’t pick and choose who I listened to, I found myself watching films, or hearing speakers that I would never have chosen to sit through. So often, I was glad I did. I also got to meet Grommet when one of the animators from Aardman brought him along to a talk he was doing. I’ve continued to volunteer, managing venues as diverse as the Big Top, or small niche venues. I’ve managed equipment failures, floods, artists who overrun, or arrive late, audience members who co-operate and those who don’t! More recently, I’ve provided oversight of a number of venues, wearing a very fetching high viz, pink jacket whilst supporting the often young stewarding teams as they deal with whatever a festival can throw at them. 

In 2009 over a few beers, a number of URC friends started grumbling about the almost exclusively Anglican offerings in the worship venues, and decided to offer something different. UnReCognised was born, and you met some of the group at my induction. Over the years we have produced a number of worship activities that seek to engage with scripture and find different ways to worship than a liturgical stereotype. As the URC became official partners with Greenbelt, we were able to offer our experience to the URC and support URC led activities. This year we are doing that again.

Greenbelt returned to a greenfield site in 2014, at Broughton House, Northamptonshire. It is a wonderful venue. Like many festivals the last two years have been difficult, but the festival continues to develop and with the support of a loyal base hopes to be able to thrive again. The URC are taking on a larger role; running the cafe, inviting speakers, and on the Sunday afternoon putting on an act of worship to celebrate our 50th anniversary. That is where UnReCognised is involved, and the big challenge is that we are going to link up with yourchurch – a digital church linked to the URC. From a field with terrible mobile signal we will stream this celebration live! So  put 4:30pm, Sunday 28th August in your diaries and join us online marking the URC at 50 in a (I expect) very different way from the one that will come from Westminster Hall in October. Or even, better come along to Greenbelt 26-29 August, there are special deals for URC groups on the Sunday https://urc.org.uk/greenbelt/bring-your-church-group/.

We all need spaces of renewal, and times when we see the world in a new light. Greenbelt has been that for me and we have been on a long journey together that has been fruitful and creative. I hope you have such places and if you are looking for a new one – why not give Greenbelt a try? 

be blessed, Craig (see if you can find me in the picture)