Thoughts From Just Another Passer By

 A third Church in a row under the patronage of St Mary - and specifically the last two St. Mary the Virgin.  As I shut my laptop down at close of the work day I had hoped I would catch a very local church to me open and visitable on the sunny afternoon of Friday. And whilst it spoils the story slightly I walked around the beautifuly kept ( and as I would find out documented ) graveyard I was unable to make entry to the church. So after a fourth round of walking and after a call with my parents to hear about there day I went to leave. I was walking to my car but paused as another vehicle turned up. Upon making small pleasantries I had said how I was unable to enter and the delightful gentleman was here to work within the church on bell maintenance and said he was happy for me to pop my head in the door. Whilst the story is much more involved (as with many church going folk in North Norfolk  there is usually less than six degrees of seperation) the welcome recieved and inf...

In inappropriate foot wear and ignoring the lure of the Roughton Fish Shop , I ventured past the end of the playfield and found the beginnings of a footpath over a small bridge leading to a small patch of trees and what could be the last uncut field of corn in these parts. This small pathway was also green - unusual in the North of Norfolk with the ongoing warmer weather.  As I walked the hidden path to Church number Seven, I did wonder - partially as I had also been listening to Manda Scott's 'Boudica' series  - how much our local landscape would have changed in the last millennium. Would the copse of trees be morec copious than the surrounding of the of Roughton's Church now? Whilst the area likely had farms ( the name meaning rough farm or rye farm ) are the extensive as the fields today - clearly not as agricultural practices have certainly changed. Further to that as I took the road less travelled - well footpath - this church is upon the main thoroughfare to Crome...

A suprise trip to Reepham in my lunch hour did not leave me put out at all when I found myself welcomed into a prayer within the Porch of St. Mary's. This was not the only suprise as whilst I knew Reepham had a Church or two at least (one Anglican and the Methodist which is a delight to preach in further through the town), the Anglican Parish grounds actually hosts the walls of three Churches! This church clearly has captured my heart as I have sat typing and exploring books and online for the last few hours and not greatly delved into the stained glass, how the churches our now joined through expansion, the unusal placement of the church tower that is also the Vesty and has the most amazing door (photo of really old door a long way below) - I may have to go back and do a Church 6.1, 6.2, 6.3 part 2! As ever the local churches are a wealth of information regarding there history and the lovely pamphlet and 'Reepham and the Shared Churchyard' by N. W. Groves and illustrated ...

 Sunday came and whilst I thought about doing more exploring, there was only one church I was going to.  My own for Worship. Todays service was also Holy Communion, a celebration of a succesful Strawberry Tea and Week Three in the book of Philippians for the Circuit bible month.  My amazing Chapel is different from the others so far featured in that it is of the Methodist Tradition - I feel I should say other denominations are avialable. One of course could suggest that Methodism really is a funny cousin of Anglicanism given that its principal leader remained a life-long Anglican but thats a conversation for tea and biscuits some other time.  This Rural Chapel (very rural Chapel) does not remind people to turn their phones to silent on Sunday as there is no signal. It shares the space with Gresham All Saint's and therefor the excitement of finding out that Gresham had a castle, windmill and watermill applies very much to this post as well. The afternoon service is we...

   Having visited two churches and a Strawberry tea, I had a new mission. One with grave consequences if not fulfilled to the utmost! I needed to by cat food for my moody cat Archie. So a trip from Gresham to the centre of the universe and local commerce - Cromer - was required. On my way having skirted around numerous Anglian Water Workers - working jolly hard by the number of times I subsequently saw them - I routed past a Church on a Hill. St John the Baptist at Aylmerton.  Turning off to the car park prior to being blocked in by Anglian Water briefly - told you they were busy - I carefully climbed the beautifully viewed incline to this delightfully bright church. This Church has a wonderfully produced leaflet prepared by William Bestelink in 2025, some of the information shared here is from this publication.  As ever, please note this blog is the combination of my scrawled notes, further research and reflection once home and are my own views and not that of the c...

  After a enojying a strawberrty tea and fellowship with freinds from church I hopped across from the Village Hall to my First Round Tower of this adventure - both on Saturday and of the wider exploration of Churches.  This beautiful Flint building has one section partially rendered - potentialy reminiscent of the likley state of this churches early beginning. Stone being expensive and this being an easy adaptation to smarten up a building. Today the flint is a wonderful reminder of our local history and a way of spotting the growth, expansion, development, heriatge and legacy of building. One might wonder if Matt Redman song 'Heart of Worship' here to would apply:  "When the music fades, All is stripped away, And I simply come. Longin' just to bring, Something that's of worth, That will bless Your heart. I'll bring You more than a song, For a song in itself, Is not what You have required. You search much deeper within, Through the ways things appear, You'r...

  On a busy Saturday, I hopped around 3 churches and Gresham Methodist Church's Strawberry tea.  Armed with my newly acquired 'The Church Explorers Handbook' by Clive Fewins, OS Explorer 252, Notebook, Pen and Cherry Cola, I finally pulled over at St Andrew, Metton. This is a church I pass on the way to my own worship on a Sunday Afternoon, and on more than one occasion have turned around to avoid localised flooding.  The church is in itself so welcoming, in a popular walking area it offers - for a suggested donation - water and biscuit bars. It has a well stocked book stall, and a wonderful set of benches to rest weary feet or to recover from nearly spilling all of the cherry cola.  Metton itself is a small village in the North of Norfolk, noted in the Domesday Book as having 8.5 households with the primary occupation being that of working the land. Possibly the the origin of it's name (meadow/mowing settlement). My handy Church explorers guide needn't be the thing...

 I love churches. So many footsteps of faith - both big and small - from Saints and Sinners, entwined through history to gather at the Alter of the Trinity. Such a mystery you can't always describe it.  A quiet place was needed this week to have a picnic of all things and gather my own thoughts after a moment in life that happened. And so I found myself stumbling across Horsford All Saints. - www.horsfordbenefice.org.uk/our-parishes/horsford-all-saints-church/ . This delightful Parish church shared articulately it's history, noted that it held common wealth graves, regular worship and Eco Awards.  A quiet place to eat my lunch and to offer prayer and quiet praise (and annoyances with God.) And whilst - as the pictures show - the grass may have been dying my own heart was encouraged to grow closer to God to m visit to Horsford All Saints.   It also stirred a fascination in Church architecture with enough zeal to do further research - all because of a line between...

 So how do you record your happenings of what you are doing with the Rebel Badge Book Challenges? How to record a problem like RBB-ing? For more information about Rebel Badge Book go here: www.rebelbadgestore.com/ The premise is to complete challenge badges like you did when you were - in my case - a Girl Guide or for other a scout or other similar Uniformed Organisation.  Well handily there is a badge that I can get for doing that about  - The writer badge.  Whilst not a RBB thing I am hoping to explore Local Churches in Norfolk. There are so very many to explore.  So my plan is to explore churches and record a record of what I am doing for challenge badges.  We shall see if I can claim my writers in three months time or if I need to start again. 

I mentioned in my previous group about one of my lovely youth groups. Its reasonably small and all the young people come from a church orientated background or have been going to church for a while. We  started back in January and as a leader theres that post Christmas panic when you realise you havent planned a session let alone the rest of the term. So I used a cop out, I used my first session back to help get the young people to plan the sessions - brilliant, right! Over the last five months in post here in Conwy, theres been a real theme emerging from my work and my visits and my volunteering/volunteered(ness) at things like Faith and Order and 3Gen. This is the idea of questions and having a safe space to ask questions discuss them and not necessarily come out with a definitive answer, but having explored deeply the topic at hand. At Uni I hated the big questions discussed late at night, when one should have been writing assignments because then it felt like wor...

I've sat down to write the second part of this blog many times, but it wasn't until a conversation I had yesterday that I realised where I was going with this. The previous blog I spoke about how the covenant prayer as an individual was really important to me. Two weeks later I still have my head reeling in the enormity of the promise made through the words. I was however slightly disappointed that none of the young people in my one of my Youth groups had been invited to join in that part of the service involving the covenant, nor did they know what a covenant was, (you will get to here a lot more about this particular youth group as we explore some big questions they've asked). So we looked at the prayer and with an honesty and a conviction said that it would be difficult for them to pray this prayer and truly mean all of it and rejoice in it. I admire their honesty as it is a difficult prayer. Even when I pray it, I strive to achieve the covenant I have made...

I was walking to my car this morning and I had this sudden thought 'next week everything will be back to normal.' I've had a reasonably hectic weekend travelling to be part of an amazing rep training weekend for the youth reps of the Methodist Church (I will be one of two youth reps on the Methodist Council) and this coming weekend, if the weather holds out, I'm heading home to my family and home church to be accredited as a local preacher. Them two events are enough to make life hectic, add in the exciting launch of the CYWeCare campaign ( see what its about at the blog or follow it on twitter @CYWeCare) and boom another non normal monday. SNOW yes its also is snowing.... life at the moment is not normal. Then another though occurred to me, my life is never normal. After next weekend there will be no normal week. No two days are the same. Even when you think its just meetings or planning its still different conversations, different questions,...

Happy 2013. (2013 is so hard to type I keep having to correct it from 2012) I could make the usual promises to blog at least once a month or even once a week, but as these never last maybe not. However, my boyfriend keeps saying that I haven't written lately so I'm sure his prompting will help me blog more regularly.  However this weekend is the first weekend in 2013, and that means that for many in the Methodist Church they will be juggling Epiphany and the Covenant service.  Its wasn't until the year before Cliff that the Covenant service became such an important thing for me. It was there that the Covenant prayer became very real in conversation with a member of the Salvation Army. That night was a huge night in my life because of the life changing decisions, a story I've only ever told in person and never written here, its one of them days where God starts to join the dots, and even now as I think back I only just start to see how clearly that day wa...

When they had gone, an angel  of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.  “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt,   where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled  what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.   Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah,      weeping and great mourning, Rachel  weeping for her children      and refusing to be ...

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.   An angel  of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.   But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people.   Today in the town of David a Savior  has been born to you; he is the Messiah,  the Lord.   This will be a sign  to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven,      and on earth peace  to those on whom his favor rests.” Luke 2 v 8-14

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,   and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them. Luke 2:6-7

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem  the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.   He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him  and was expecting a child. Luke 2:4-5

One month later God sent the angel Gabriel to the town of Nazareth in Galilee  with a message for a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to Joseph from the family of King David.  The angel greeted Mary and said, “You are truly blessed! The Lord is with you.” Mary was confused by the angel’s words and wondered what they meant.  Then the angel told Mary, “Don’t be afraid! God is pleased with you,  and you will have a son. His name will be Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of God Most High. The Lord God will make him king, as his ancestor David was.  He will rule the people of Israel forever, and his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1 v 26:33