There are NO PICTURES of LICHENS
and no pictures of SETTLE in this post,
Bishop Nick of Leeds' talk on SPEAKING TRUTH and PROPHETS (Sun 28th Jan 2024) is at the end. This was a relevant talk - to Meg's various jobs - and also to Extinction Rebellion's three principles:
1. TELL THE TRUTH 2. ACT NOW 3. DECIDE TOGETHER.
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When I am in Ripon I attend Allhallowgate Methodist Chapel. A few years ago I met Meg (Margaret) Munn who attends this church and soon after went to hear her give a talk to a women's group there. Meg used to be a Labour MP in Sheffield Heeley (2002-2015). (See Wikipedia for details - including now being chair of Peer Talk). Since then she has done many jobs including going and running some training sessions for new MPs and equivalent people in some newly developed / developing countries. It was a fascinating talk.
I was at Ripon and on Sun 28th Jan I heard that at Choral Evensong at 3.30pm she was going to be installed as Ecumenical Lay Canon at Ripon Cathedral.
So I trotted along at 3.25.
It was in the Choir Stalls. ..the same choir stalls that I had sat and sung in just 3 days earlier (Thurs) for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Service when the preacher had been Bishop John Pritchard (who now lives in Richmond Yorkshire) .. He had told -repeated - a good account of how many Baptists / Catholics / Methodists etc it takes to change a light bulb.
There were at least three times as many of us here today.. PLUS the choir PLUS some canons and more clerics.
Let me describe the Choir stalls : To get to them you enter the main cathedral building at the Entrance and walk through it to the organ then walk underneath (or to the side of) the organ to the space beyond. The Choir stalls are the large area the other side of the organ to the main church.
On the east is the truly huge east window - really made up of lots of smaller windows - rising up to the distant arched wooden ceiling high, high above. Below them, brightly lit, is a row of gold painted figures- are they saints? Below the saints is the alter .
On each side of the room (N and S) are three long rows of chairs facing each other. With side rooms behind each side where extra people can sit. There is a gangway / open space between the facing rows of chairs.Then further along, westwards, also facing each other are the actual wooden choir stalls (dark brown or black) The choristers - the boys wear white and the girls magenta/Midland Railway colour, as do the clerics. In the stalls near to us are seated clerics, then beyond, nearer the organs, the choristers, who also sit below the organ.. There are bright lights shaped like candles about the height of the choristers faces. The choristers have a conductor, the choir master.
As I enter I walk through the first three rows of chairs, across the narrow open space to the rows of chairs opposite. I see Meg dressed in a smart black dress as I enter and I am glad she sees me and we smile.
I am sitting in the second row of three rows of chairs, near to and with the alter on my left. So the choir is a long way to the right, I have to look between the three rows of people to see it.
But during the service various people march up and down the narrow gangways from one end to the other.
/and being right at the front end near the alter I have a superb view of the (legal) signing ceremony and of Bishop Nick giving the sermon.
Meg read the Old Testament Reading - the calling of Samuel
The service sheet was very useful. It had all the readings written out in full. So I am able to go over the readings now and indeed the bishop told us which page numbers to refer to. (So if we had been sleeping during the reading there is still a chance to see what he is taking about.
Bishop Nick gave the sermon.
He pointed out that Prophets were not just people who magically divined the future.
They were people who understood the politics and situation and science of the day - and could thus advise the leader what was likely to happen next as a result of this.
They were people who had to tell the truth to the leader.
He told us us that the story of Samuel is not just about a little boy being called by God at night 1 Samuel 3. 1 - 20
Read verse -- To find out what message God had for Eli, Samuels master, the high priest. (God's message via Samuel to Eli was I am about to punish his house for ever for the iniquity he knew and because his sons were...)
No wonder Samuel did not want to tell Eli this message.
The second reading was from 1 Corinthians 14 12-20
Paul said ".. In church I would rather speak five words with my mind in order to instruct others also than ten thousand words in a tongue.... .. do not be children in your thinking; rather be infants in evil, but in thinking be adults."
I had opportunity to chat to Bishop Nick and remind him of his first day in the Bradford Diocese 21 June 2011 when we climbed up Pen y Ghent in the Rain.
He did come back two years later when we went on a similar - but lowland walk - when we walked from Austwick to Elaine's Tea rooms at Feizor
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