Thank God for the “disinterested” of this world.

The plaque in the ruined Church of Holyrood in Southampton. "The Disinterested"

A man was telling us all the “beautiful” places in the UK we ought to have been visiting. We listened but we have not really come here for natural scenery. To be honest, if natural scenery is what we want to see, we would not have to move from NZ. I look at some of the photos by my facebook friends of NZ places and I am astounded again at the amazingly beautiful country we live in. We are not travelling looking for beauty, though there are nice spots in the UK.  No, we have been enjoying looking at old buildings, reading up on history and catching a feel of the movements of time that led to the society we enjoy today. It has been fascinating and each place we visit opens up new understandings.

In Southampton we came across this plaque. There had been a deadly fire in the Parish and a group of men had rushed in to save the people, but they were killed or mortally injured in the attempt. When the Church was rebuilt the grateful town placed a memorial plaque that was headed up;

“Sacred to the memory of twenty two brave and disinterested men … who in attempting to check the ravages of a calamitous fire in this parish … perished in the flames etc…”  When we first read it we thought “disinterested”? What do they mean, “disinterested”? These guys got involved? How could they be described as “disinterested”?  What it means, it seems, is that they got involved, but they didn’t have to. It wasn’t their responsibility. It wasn’t their families burning! They could have been spectators.  Saving the fire would not have brought reward or return to them.  They were “disinterested” but they were still prepared to get involved. That was why they were valued so much, they went above and beyond what could be expected of them to help their fellow humans. 

There is a second thing that I have noticed.  As I have learned about the movements and events of history there has been some horrible times for people. Economic systems, feudal ways of running society, changes in farming or industry, disease and such like have brought miserable times, poverty and hardship for people. But alongside that I have found that there have been a few people in each age who have felt called to be there and provide help for the poor. A rich Lord in North of Scotland employed proud poor people on a project just to give them some money to live off without making them feel like charity cases. The structure they were building he did not need, and he even got some to pull it down regularly so that the work would still exist. He had made money elsewhere but felt the need to share it when he saw the poverty back home. In Scottish cities there were often church based groups who reached out to the poor and vulnerable in the midst of times of hardship and change. Sometimes enraged preachers would provide programs, but also bravely preach against injustice.  In Southampton in the 1200’s Franciscan Friars set up accommodation, hospitals, gardens and markets for the poor. Again in Southampton in medieval times Church sisters set up a hospital and community for leprosy sufferers. Thank God for disinterested people of ages past who have gone the extra mile to help fellow humans when they did not need to.

I am thankful for those who do the same today. The people with me on the Dunedin Night Shelter Trust. They needn’t worry about the running of a night shelter, fund raising, employing, providing a facility, but they feel compelled to be involved. In my St John chaplaincy there are many volunteers who give hours and hours for their community. They share themselves in compassion.  Thank God for the “disinterested” who nevertheless are prepared to get involved when they don't have to. Great stuff! 

Thinking out loud. .. again.

If the Church disappeared…

Most people could not really care if the Church stopped existing.  Many would in fact be pleased, because they see religion as the source of many evils. I am not impressed with much Church life, and often think it deserves to die. I am sure western societies would continue without the Church. But something is going wrong for people in our communities.  They need help!  I would be concerned if the church was lost or ignored because there are many indications that people still need the Church as “the keeper of the way of Jesus.”

Here are some indicators…

I encountered one man at a chaplaincy and asked after his welfare. “Life is a shit sandwich Dave,” he replied. “You’re born, you die and everything in between is just shit!”  We went on to talk about his experiences that prompted the comment. But for many people I believe they experience lives like this. There is not much that is good in their existence and they do anything to get at least some jollies.  Reflect a moment on these items. A father involved in addictions, steals a donation box out of a store and flees leaving his children in the store. (duh!) A well-known restaurateur dies drunk in his swimming pool.  When we go to a wedding these days, as the couple say their vows we wonder, “Yeah right? For how long?”  I have heard conversations on the buses (the Scots speak loudly) and I am astounded at the attitudes, the cattiness, the threats and the sick level of interaction. Because the Brazil team got soundly beaten at the football world cup, Brazilians tipped over cars, burned buses and vandalised.  Many people seem to live for the superficial distraction and meaning that following sport brings.  We are living near Government housing estates and there are some sad looking families coming out of there. Life looks miserable for them. Even though we know it kills, I am surprised at how many people in Scotland are smokers. It is deeply sad that they do not value their life more.  Binge drinking and alcohol and drug abuse seem to be a real problem in Western cultures.

Anger - We were on a bus in Inverness and a man climbed on demanding that the bus driver to do something for him. He expressed so much unprovoked anger and left still yelling abuse.  Again at Inverness a few times we encountered a man standing talking aggressively with others. It was like he was looking for a fight. He is not alone. In my hometown some intoxicated 15 & 16-year-old girls beat up and kicked some 19-year-old girls in the street. In another city security camera footage showed four 15 & 16 year olds mercilessly beating up a liquor storeowner for a few beers. In a New Zealand rural area some people shot 195 sheep for no reason one weekend. The next weekend they shot 20 others.  People seem to live on the verge of destructive anger.   

Sexual distortion - Rolf Harris, entertainer and star of children’s programs and one of my favourite entertainers in days gone by, has been exposed for his sexual abuse of under age girls and women.  But he is not alone amongst well-known people.  A Catholic bishop in Australia is involved in sexual abuse claims and I know that some leaders in other denominations are not innocent of abuse either. The secondary school girls around here wear school blouses, with ties and skirts to school, but they are arranged in such a way that they look like a stripper done up as a fantasy schoolgirl for a men’s bachelor party! We live in a sexualised society.  Sexual violence and things like date rape are frequent.  In spite of women’s lib and our PC world, men still treat women as sex objects in destructive ways.

Missing out..

I could go on. But watch the news on TV, the Internet or in the newspapers and there is something deeply wrong with people. They are sad, angry, bad, unhinged and leading miserable crisis riddled existences. I am not judging these people, I just feel sad because of their troubled mixed up experience of life.  While there are many people living beautiful lives, without the need for “religion”, there seems a need in many others’ lives for an anchoring point, breadth or depth. We need “spiritual depth” some how and need it badly.  I read in a museum here in Scotland how, in times past when the cities were bogged down in drunkenness, prostitution, greed and miserable living, Church preachers have saved the day, reversed the trends and changed society.  The Church potentially has something to offer today too, but it has been so distorted, wrapped up in old ways and in other baggage, that it is largely ignored.

Jesus’ message to me…

I am so grateful for the difference that Jesus has made in my life. That sounds like a fanatical religious evangelistic exaggeration. I simply say though that my knowledge of Jesus’ way has profoundly impacted my life for good. I am not a saint, but I would be so much more of a mess without his influence. Here in summary is how I read Jesus “speaking” to me.
“You are important!

Everybody is important!

You are brothers and sisters.

You are so important that I invite you

to a lifestyle

where you

so live that you

devote your personality,

your gifts and abilities,

to enhancing the lives of those about you

- your family

- your community

- your nation

- your world.

When you do that

you will discover transformation

in your life and world.

Your personality will grow,

your gifts and abilities will be extended

your life will be full of adventure and significance.

You will sense a partnership with

the sacred, the significant and the ultimate,

and when you die

your life will continue

to impact the world

for good. …

because love never dies.”

I look at the people around me and I so wish that more people could have that simple profound direction, ongoing transformation and sense of significance that I have been lucky to experience.

Bishop Spong’s writes…

I have used these words before but he puts the essence of the above very concisely. He quotes the words of Jesus given in John’s gospel Chapter 10 verse 10. “I have come that they might have life, life in all its fullness” (or “Abundant life”)

Bishop John Spong says that Jesus calls us to;

“Live fully,

love wastefully,

be all that you can be,

and dedicate yourself

to building a world

in which everyone

has the opportunity

to do the same.”

I long for people to know that message deep in their living. While for me most current church life sucks, I would love to be part of a community of people who model that in the way they live and share that in love with others.

Another theologian Hans Kung writes,

“By following Jesus Christ,

the human being in the world of today

can truly humanly love, act, suffer, and die,

in happiness and unhappiness,

life and death,

sustained by God and helpful to others.” 

Eat humble pie

Interior Knox Church Dunedin Enclosed pulpit on the right.

On May 27th last year I wrote a post entitled "Religious Snobbery".  I stand by most of what I said then but I have learned a bit more since.  In the post I ranted about a presbyterian minister who insisted that I preach from the high up pulpit one evening when I was preacher at Knox Church in Dunedin. I would have preferred to have stood down the front and done my thing. It annoyed me! Well I learned something that may bring some insight into the situation.
We visited the Edinburgh Museum and learned about the reformation and early Church happenings in Edinburgh. Of course this was the beginnings of the Presbyterian Church, and the Presbyterian Church in Dunedin began from Presbyterians moving to New Zealand from Scotland. The ethos and emphases would have been passed down. In the museum there were at least two or three pulpits on display. There was an explanation that said that the Bible and the "preaching of the Word" were seen as important in the reformed Churches, so the pulpits became a central focus in Church architecture and worship. That is why they had ornate, big and high pulpits, it was an important theological change and statement. 
Now when I got directed in an important Dunedin Presbyterian Church to preach from the pulpit ("You will preach from the pulpit!") it may be that it was this theological position that led to this insistence? If it is, I still disagree, but I guess I understand why it seemed so important. It would be like him coming into a congregation of my denomination and saying, "We will not have communion this morning." (Churches of Christ have an important tradition of weekly communion.)
You live and learn. ... sorry for being so harsh.

What future for the Church?

A beautiful chapel on Orkney Italian prisoners of war built and decorated so that they could worship while imprisoned.

St Magnus Cathedral on Orkney took 300 years to build.

Augustine United Church - An old building but a relevant ethos for today.

The sad reality
We have been wandering around Edinburgh and Scotland. There are Church buildings galore!

• Some have become community halls, theaters or restaurants, their intended purpose of worship long since forgotten.
• On our bus trip to John O'Groats we saw many church buildings for sale, and others just deserted, with grass growing all around them, vegetation in the cracks of the edifice and in some cases doors left ajar.  Obviously they have ceased to function.
• The many still functioning Churches we have passed look locked up, enclosed fortresses with outdated noticeboards trying to entice people in. 
• We attended the local Church, (Tron Kirk) a large building which has at one time been quite popular but is looking past its prime. It is in the centre of a big population. There are high rise housing estates. There are streets and streets of quite intense close housing. It is the "establishment" denomination in Edinburgh, and yet on a Sunday morning there were only around 30 people there at best and most quite elderly. 
• The Church there is doing some good things to make contact with the local population. We were quite impressed when we first read about it. But... the services and ethos are really not much progress on the 1950's. They are there to "win souls"... to add to those attending Church. The motivation for any community contact was to "get them in" not service out of unconditional love. The second (and last) Sunday we were there a guy who preaches frequently there, gave a sermon which consigned those who did not believe his interpretation of the passage to hell. We left at the end of the service not hanging around for a cup of tea. It was so irrelevant and old theology, we sadly literally felt repelled and just wanted out of there.
• I see much modern "successful" Christianity as a real distortion of the way of Jesus.
• Before I left Dunedin I wrote directly to more than 50 local Churches on behalf of the Night Shelter to see if they, through youth groups, women's groups or whatever could participate in raising some money, even a little bit, for our Night Shelter. It would be an easy task, just raise $100 or some similar amount toward caring for the homeless, the needy - a very biblical cause endorsed by Old Testament instructions through to Jesus' Good Samaritan story in the Gospels. As far as I know these letters have produced no response.... from over fifty congregations of Christians - What sort of discipleship are we producing? I am pretty disillusioned by that! For me followers of Jesus that do not want to respond to the needs of the homeless in their midst are not being true to their Lord.

A good example...

After our experiences with the local Kirk, we looked on the internet for Progressive Christian Churches. We discovered the Augustine United Church, a congregation of the United Reformed Church in the UK. We knew that many congregations from our movement had joined this group, so decided to attend there. It was an inner-city Church just around the road from the Castle and Greyfriars (which they have a partnership with) and a half-hour bus ride from my son's house. I loved its ethos.   We enjoyed the service which was made easy for visitors to navigate their way through and feel at home in. I would probably have added a bit of variety to it, but it was thoughtful, relevant and we felt at home. We will go back. There were around thirty there, and mostly older folk, but some were away at a conference. I have long given up on the idea that big numbers mean a church has the "Truth".  This community, though of course not perfect, rang bells with me. It is inclusive, takes into account modern Biblical scholarship, has a handle on relevant language, relates in a positive way with its community and is aware of justice and environmental issues. But...The numbers are low and elderly.... the building maintenance costs are high..... And for the most part the world ignores it.

What is the future?I ask the question... "What is going to happen to the Church?"
- My wife says of the empty and for sale Churches - "Probably the real followers of Jesus left them and are following Jesus in their own way."
Having spent my life as a minister I can look back and know I have helped others live more full lives. Church ministry has given me a base from which to make a difference in the world so I do not regret that.  But have I wasted a lot of my energy propping up an establishment that is bound to die?
I say the future lies in four areas...

• Jesus' followers need to be radical servants in the world and get back to compassion as the core of what it means to follow Jesus. ("Be compassionate as God is compassionate." Luke 6:36 )
• Jesus followers need to be inclusive in outlook.. seeing their way as one spirituality among others.
• Jesus followers should be catalysts for good in the community working with people of good will to enrich human living, to work for justice and to encourage community. (breaking down walls and building bridges)
• Jesus followers need to divorce ourselves from the perspective that the point of being Christian is to get to heaven.  Transformation of life now is our calling.

Today I visited Edinburgh Museum and learned of the disruption of Scottish life and Church that the reformation had in its day. A new understanding of faith and "Church" emerged and brought real changes in the way people saw the Church. We need a profound reformation that is just as disturbing!  ... And maybe  communities of "real" followers of Jesus will have a place in the world of the future.

Inverness and beyond

Inverness Castle from a bridge across the river Ness.

A very early house in Inverness

A cairn and markers in memory of those killed in the Battle of Culloden.

An ancient cottage on the edge of the Culloden Battlefield

New Zealand gets a mention at John O'Groats. Bluff (Southern tip of the South Island) is 12,875 miles away.

How and why did they transport and erect this circle of stones 5000 years ago?

Northern adventure...
We decided that we wanted to go north of Edinburgh and see the Highlands.  On line we booked on a bus to Inverness and sorted out a Bed and Breakfast place there. We took two small backpacks and left Edinburgh, arriving in Inverness at around 2 p.m. So began our exploration.  For the rest of that day and on two other days we wandered around Inverness enjoying the ancient buildings and the history of the place. A visit to the Museum on our last day there put it all together for us. In New Zealand we are a relatively young country so to see buildings built in the 1600's and earlier is amazing. We also enjoy looking at different farming methods, different lifestyles and the different ways of speaking the English language. I share two special visits we made.
Culloden
We visited the Battlefield of Cullodon.  Here the last battle on British soil took place in 1746. It was between the Jacobites and the Government forces. At school we used to sing the "Skye Boat Song" ("Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing" etc.) Bonnie Prince Charlie was a much romantacised hero in my childhood mind. The Battle of Culloden came at the end of the Jacobite Rising. Prince Charles had been in exile with his father James in France and had come across to Scotland to reclaim the crown of England for the Stuarts. He and his Jacobites had been successful moving down the country virtually to London. But the better resourced government troops slowly drove them back to the Highlands and Charles decided to take a stand at Culloden. He was defeated. At first glance one could believe that this was the Scots against the English, but it was far more complicated than that. The Jacobite risings were more widespread taking in Ireland, Wales and parts of Northen England. There were political issues, religious freedom issues, lifestyle issues (the Clan system annoyed the government) and royalty questions involved. There were English and Scots on both sides. Charles was a 24 year old wanting to claim the crown, and he gathered support. The Government troops soundly defeated the Jacobites, killing their injured, then went on to "Pacify the Highlands" by cruelly treating anybody, men, women and children who they deemed as being supportive of the Jacobites. The Clan system was crushed and many aspects of Highland life and culture discouraged.  Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped, dressed for a time as a woman, ended up on Skye and from there caught a ship back to France. He later died in Rome, having lost his wife and children and becoming a hopeless alcoholic ... neither a "prince" nor "bonnie."  In my childhood I had read about some of this history, it has been interesting to catch up and learn about it as an adult. It is very sad. It is all about men, of various sorts on both sides, wanting power and control over other men. They want to control others' rights, thoughts and freedoms. Lives were lost, misery multiplied and nobody really was a winner. It happens again and again in human history. Sometimes it is nation against nation. Sometimes it is ethnic groups within the one nation. Sometimes it is people on a school committee or a Church board or in a family or... where ever humans group together there seems to be power and control conflicts emerging.  The visit to the Culloden Battlefield was so interesting but sad and disturbing as well. I was talking once to a man from another country asking about life back home. It was for him pretty good, better materially than he could hope for in New Zealand - at least for a long time. I asked him why he wanted to live in our country if it was so good. "Here you can think what you like. It is terrible to be in a country where they tell you what to think, and you dare not voice a different perspective." Power and control out of control. 
Orkney Islands
Amongst the many tourist brochures we discovered a day trip from Inverness up to John O'Groats and across on the ferry to the Orkney Islands. It involved a guided tour around places of interest there for six hours, a ferry trip and bus trip back to Inverness. It would be a full-on fourteen hours, but we decided to do it. The trip up to John O'Groats was interesting seeing the different parts of the North of Scotland, the villages and towns. This was made more interesting because a hostess on the bus gave us information about each place and stories about some of the history. We enjoyed the journey to John O'Groats and it was a treat being there because as a boy I had read about this northern "end of the road" point of the UK.  It was a pleasant ferry ride to Orkney Islands and we had a very special time there.  There are eighty something Islands with only 21 of them inhabited. I learned that there are 21,500 people living there, which was quite a surprise for me.  I learned too that there was a prisoner of war camp there for Italian prisoners during WWII, and that the British Navy sheltered there in Skara Flow, but that a U Boat crept through and torpedoed a british battleship.  There was lots of history but it was the Prehistory that moved me. There has been a neolithic village uncovered there called Skara Brae inhabited 5000 years ago. This was the stone age just when people had begun to farm as well as be hunter/gatherers. Having been covered in sand the houses were intact and we could stand and look into them. There were places where people slept. A rock "dresser" (Shelves) was a focal part of the room and a central fireplace gave warmth. The houses were joined together by passage ways and there was a "Workshop" area.  I stood there amazed. People lived, loved, raised children and worked in this spot 5000 years ago, I could see their handiwork, and their open plan lifestyle! These are representatives of our ancestors, learning how to live and forging family and community lifestyles! I studied prehistory a little bit at University, and now I was seeing it. A few miles from there we went to the "Ring of Brodgar".  There are 27 big flat stones (2-4 metres high) in a perfect 103.6 metre diameter circle. There used to be 60 of them and they were transported some distance to the site in Neolithic stone age times.  These predate Stonehenge and the pyramids. They are thought to have some religious/ ceremonial significance. And there are other prehistoric sites we were introduced to around the area. I walked around the circle of stones and marveled! I am treading a path where people walked 5000 years ago. I am seeing their handiwork, their expressions of the depth and mystery in life.  I simply loved that experience, it has enriched my life and spirit. We get so "now centric"! We forget that the lifestyles we enjoy were forged by centuries or millennia of living, loving and exploring.   I am truly grateful for the opportunity to visit there, even though the ferry ride back was quite rough.
Last night was rough... Lying in bed for some unknown reason I had a few hours  of palpitations?.. It has never happened before.  You feel a long way from home when that happens. They went but I imagined going home in a ashes urn for a while. I am fine now.  

Eleven Days in Edinburgh.

The family.

I learned today that the early name for Edinburgh was Dun Eideann - which means "Citadel of the slope." Of course my home town "Dunedin" get's its name from that... "The Edinburgh of the South." Edinburgh Castle is certainly on a slope.

The Project.

Knox's house and a "Well" or where the early people of Edinburgh came to get their water.

We have been in Edinburgh eleven days and we are getting used to the city.

A project with my son.

I have been working on a project with my son. He has a small backyard with a deck, which is very close to neighbours. The fences on the side are picket style fences which are not very private if you are eating on the deck or doing things outside. They had decided to put up panels to make the yard more private so Daniel and I have been working on that. I enjoy working on projects with my sons. It is a bit tricky because I have to allow them to make choices about things and respect them as the boss of the job no matter what I think, because it is their house. I think though that they gain confidence from my presence and involvement. So most late afternoons and evenings this past week have been spent building this fence. We had built a back fence which encompassed a shared access way.  A neighbour checked about her access and we assured her that it was still OK.   This prompted my son to check the local building regulations. To be on the safe side we pulled our panels down and relocated them. This slowed the project down.  With tomorrow being Saturday we ought to finish the job. This next project is to sand and repaint the deck.

Getting to know Edinburgh

My wife and I have been slowly exploring Edinburgh. We have enjoyed doing things that people do, like going to the supermarket. We caught a bus and then a tram out to a hardware store one day. We are getting quite confident on the bus and even advised a local about the tram the other day. We poked around the central city a few times. We came across two charities caring for the homeless so we visited them. While we are not into gathering souvenirs and not inclined to be ripped off by touristy things, we have enjoyed exploring some historical sites in our own way and time. It has been good riding the buses, walking neighbourhoods, shopping and getting to know another city in another country.

Their talking…..

In Dunedin we encounter Scots who have immigrated to NZ. Most are now older people so when we hear a Scottish accent our minds assumes “elderly”. Here of course all ages speak that way. We were in a burger store and heard a young girl speak emphatically with her mother in this broad accent.  It seemed so “different” to us that we both giggled. It is strange too hearing an Asian or an Indian coming out with a broad accent. We decided that Scots speak loudly. (We thought the same about the French) In a bus or restaurant you hear people conversing or talking on their phone and you hear every word! I think New Zealanders are more shy or converse quietly so that others are not privy to their conversation. We have encountered couples having an argument. New Zealand couples when they argue in public tend to almost whisper through clenched teeth, sometimes smiling, so nobody will hear. On the bus, in the street, on park benches we have encountered couples arguing openly and loudly.  On the bus was so funny – He was sitting across the isle and a row behind his wife. They were going at each other with periods of silence between. The people around did not know where to look and just when you thought it had stopped one of the two would blurt out some other point! I laughed today – a young woman was pleading with her boyfriend who obviously had too much to drink watching the football. In frustration he yelled at her, “Och! Speak “Inglis” y’daft bitch. Y’d’na’ken.” (Oh. Speak English you daft bitch. You do not understand.) They speak quickly and efficiently. In a pie shop - “Y’ right tha?” (Are you all right there?) the shop keeper says. I love their “Aye” pronounce “Ei” which means “Yes”.  I hate Subways, even in New Zealand, because the people serving you blurt out questions about things you have to make decisions on, and I often struggle to hear.  On our first day here we went to a Subway and with a Scottish accent blurting out questions, I was lost and had to guess. Our ears are getting attuned to their way of speaking and mostly we get by. It is the same language, English, but somehow it sometimes sounds very very different. “Y’ken?” (Do you understand?)

Our talking..

But… there are times when in shops we ask for something and we get a blank stare back at us. They have not understood because of our accent! At a café we were asking for soup, scones and tea for two and we had to repeat it several times… speaking slowly with gestures.  At church a lady said to my wife, “Oh you have a lovely quaint accent!” In your mind you want to say, “I speak English, it is you who have the accent!”  But no, here, we are the foreigners with the quaint accent that is hard to understand.  In a poem entitled “To a Louse” one time Scottish National poet Robbie Burns wrote this; “O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us.” (O would some power the gift to give us to see ourselves as others see us.)

Seeing from the outside

There have been a number of experiences like the language encounters, which have reminded us of the above quotation. There are things in a city or a country that “everybody knows” except if you come from elsewhere. I was on the top floor of the bus the other day and a lady lurched up the stairs looking for a seat. I was perched on a seat and she, struggling to stay on her feet as the bus bumped and swayed, asked “Are y’leavin’?” “No” I replied, “But you can have the seat.” I was taught to give my seat to a lady needing one. I stood as the bus continued on and when our time came to leave as we walked down the footpath my son said, “You don’t give up your seat on the top floor of a bus. You are not allowed to stand up there.” How was I to know? “Everybody knows that!” he replied. We have been reminded by such events that often groups of people, - churches, cities, countries – have things “every body knows” except those visiting. I had great difficulty in ministry trying to get church leaders to see what we were doing in church from an outsider’s point of view. It has been a reminder of Robbie Burn’s words, “O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us.”

Greyfriars Kirk

We visited Greyfriars Kirk, a famous church not far from the castle with plenty of history. The history was interesting but the information about its current directions warmed me. As I read its mission statement and some of the community involvement I thought “That is the same sort of directions I was trying to lead my Church in St Andrew Street, Dunedin.”  They pictured the Church and its activities as a tree, with branches reaching out into the community, involving lots of people and groups who may or may not worship on a Sunday.  The worship on the Sunday was the roots feeding the branches which went wide and far into the community. “That’s the sort of vision I had, but somehow most in the Church never understood nor accepted.” I went away from Greyfriars thinking, “I am not so weird after all.”  - “D’ya’ken.”

Life flushed down the sewer!

My son's caption - "Spot the tourists"

Princess Street Edinburgh.

Dave's dead!
I got a text message from a guy who went to the Drop-in centre at our old Church. He let me know that Dave had died. Over the last couple of years I had expected Dave to die a few times. He had ruined his body with alcohol and drug abuse. He came into my office perhaps twenty-five years ago and asked for some cans of food. He had run out and he was hungry.  I gave him some and gave him a cup of tea. He called back quite frequently for a chat and cup of tea and I got much of his life story. He asked if he could play the piano, and from then on he would call in, have a cup of tea then go up and play the piano and sing. He had forgotten the words to the songs, but that never stopped him - he would just make them up. He would roll from tune to tune, song to song and often played for an hour or more.  In his younger days he used to be in a dance band, playing piano, or keyboard, guitar and singing.  They had won talent quests and were quite sought after…. During this part of his life he was quite handsome and popular, but it was at the after-gig-parties where his heavy drinking began. Now as he played and sang he used to express his moods and his frustrations through his music, sometimes really pounding the ivories. He had a “crooners” voice, a Dean Martin style, and was quite pleasant to listen to in the background when he was in a good mood and playing quietly.  I was pleased to allow him the use of the Church piano so that he could keep his music alive, though one of my musicians was quite uncertain about this. Whenever Dave asked, I would allow him to play and then secretly pray that she wasn’t in town and likely to drop in at the Church. We had some ups and downs over the years. When he was boozed he could become stroppy and be disruptive so there were a few times he went off down the road abusing me because I had told him off.  I knew him years before we started the drop-in centre, but in due course he became one of our drop-in guys, and often played on the old piano in the hall during the night.   I recall once he told me how important the drop-in was to him and his buddies.  It is like a “pub with no beer” he said.  “If it wasn’t for this on a Friday night we’d be getting into trouble at the pubs.  Its bloody good!” The last few years his abuse of both drugs and alcohol caught up with him and his liver, veins and kidneys were not functioning properly and everything went down hill.  We did not see him much at the drop-in. The last time I saw him was when he came one night last year and asked after my health.  (Toward the end he sounded drunk even when he wasn’t. - nobody could convince me that regular use of marijuana doesn’t impact the brain!) I told him how I was and he responded. “You’re a good bugger – do you know that? – You’re one of the best! You’ve been good to me over the years – bloody good.”  “Happy to help when I can Dave.” I replied, but in my mind I said, “But I wish I could have changed you, healed you or made life much better for you."
This is the sad thing. Here was a guy who was talented, likeable and full of potential. In many ways he had more talent than I ever had or will have.  But his life has been progressively flushed down the toilet.  In spite of being in hospitals for rehab, in spite of all sorts of counselling and even imprisonment, Dave’s life has been stunted, and never reached anywhere near it’s potential. His death has reminded me of that. There are people throughout the world who for all sorts of reasons (poverty, oppression, mistreatment, bad choices, peer pressure etc etc) whose lives are messed up.  Such waste is tragic!  I have been in a sort of floating mode in recent weeks/months since retirement. I have been a “taker or user” of life and not contributing much. Currently I am not doing much to make this world a better place. I need to get back to living responsibly again to make life even just a little bit better for the Dave’s of this world.  Dave’s death is a wake up call to use responsibly the life I have been given.

It’s a small world.

We are in Edinburgh, a sizable city on the other side of the world from our hometown of Dunedin (The “Edinburgh of the South”) We were standing outside a pharmacy in Princess Street, perhaps the busiest street in Edinburgh with thousands of unknown people going by.  Out of the blue this woman stops, takes two steps back and says, “Hello Jean! Hello David!”  We knew her through Habitat for Humanity projects in Dunedin, she used to help with the catering. What are the chances of accidentally meeting in a big city on the other side of the world? She too was visiting family. We stood and chatted briefly as if we were in Princess Street in Dunedin, and she went on her way.  It was then that the amazing coincidence sunk in.  My kids and my wife tease me about knowing so many people. They reckon wherever I go I bump into somebody I know! – But in Edinburgh? - On the other side of the world? Really?