Community bonding

It was such a pleasure to pop into Tredegarville School this morning to see part of the Infants nativity presentation, with lots of singing, dressing up and jigging about. The kids just looked so happy and natural to be up on stage in such a playful mood together. It says a great deal for their teachers that 4-5 year olds are so secure and confident, especially when some of them have a great deal of difficulty settling into school, from home backgrounds which are not quite to secure and confident.

Pedagogy increasingly has to compensate for poor parenting, and grasping the need to do this on the part of schools is indeed laudable and makes teaching so much more demanding. What will improve matters greatly will be the extension of community social education facilities in and around the school. Language and parenting classes for adults are vital add-ons in many urban schools. This stretches the physicial resources of the school to the limit. However, it looks as if the school will be able to make a deal that will release the now empty caretakers house on site for development as a community educational centre on-site, using Communities First Funding. he plan is in its early stages, but to a hard pressed and crowded school team, there is light on the horizon after a long wait.

We had over 250 people in church for a carol service this evening, the second time this week. Tonight it was the turn of the Priory of St John Ambulance to welcome friends and members. It got off to a somewhat shaky start, as the Prior and one other named as lesson readers were disappointingly absent, the chief executive was home with 'flu, and Wyn Owen our star tenor soloist sent his apologies - not voiceless, but with a broken arm after a fall, since his appearance at the GTH concert last week. He was replaced by a young operatic soprano, with a fine voice who amonst other things sang Racine's 'O Holy Night' with the 'Cwm Ni' choir, much favoured on occasions like this with flawless beauty. It's the first time I've heard it sung other than by a tenor or baritone, and her singing made it very special. She was also quite modest about her considerable talent, so that I failed to register her name from the programme change announcements.

Also impressive was the childrens' choir from Garth Uchaf school, the second Welsh school choir to sing in St John's this week. The standard of both these groups, aged 6-11, was high, their behaviour and discipline impeccable, all of them a tribute to their parents, teachers, and the quality of education which is a much a hallmark of Welsh language medium schools as it is of church schools. It's the sacrificial commitment to give the very best to children, to show them what they can be and become, through praise, encouragement and much stretching, which admits no room to time-serving place-holders in the world of pedagogy. Long may they continue to be exemplary to the wider world of secular state education.

Despite the setbacks, good will and humour from all the subsitutes meant that the evening turned out to be happy and successful, an important occasion for bonding amongst members and supporters of such a substantial organisation - and in many ways, that's what that counts.

Taking the order seriously

This afternoon the order of St John held its Prior's Visitation and Investiture service at the church. It was the first time for Michelle, a new young administrator, to work on preparing the event, so more of a trail for her than for the rest of us. Much to my surprise, a month ago, I was asked if I would preach - there being no Prelate available, I guess. This I happily agreed to, and prepared for the occasion, an address relating the life of St Francis, whose feast day it is, to the life of work of the Order of Hospitallers down the centuries. I wrote it when first asked, and was pleased when I went back to it to print it out that it still hung together. I was pleased that it was well received. I am far from used to preaching to 200 people any longer, and was quite nervous, perched up in the pulpit. I only use it on Good Friday, when we never get more than sixty people at a time.

I found myself reflecting with Ben on the rather arcane ceremonial culture associated with the Order of St John services. It's very hierarchical in nature, but organising it involves large numbers of people in active roles. And in this sense it reflects an operational structure which draws on the very best of military practice to ensure its stability and robustness in changing circumstances, whilst making it possible to be free and flexible in handing any emergency or crisis situation. Everyone has a clear role and function, and a strong sense of shared purpose tying it all together.

One should be able to say the same about the church, and its rituals and organisation. However, there is less clarity and less of a common mind about what purpose the church serves, and what roles people are committed to. People come to believe and belong for so many disparate reasons. Finding room for each other is what we seek to do in a spirit of charity, when we're at our best. In all this it's possible that we can lose our way. Too much structure, too little structure, both pose us problems. With a diminished or confused sense of purpose, the church can all to often lose its ability to respond effectively to the spiritual need of the time.

Spiritual Capital project - snail's pace

After a fairly routine Sunday, it turned out to be a busier than usual Monday, with a meeting about Cardiff Business Safe at lunchtime, followed by the re-start of 'God on Mondays' in school. Then it was back home to prepare for the first steering group meeting of the Spiritual Capital research project since November. The research workers seem to have been at a standstill, or at least there's been little visible sign of progress over two months.

The rate of return hovers around 35%, and despite the chasing up I've done, the returns are disproportionately low in Anglican responses. That's part of the data too. People will complain if this is reported, see it as a criticism, knocking the church, but the facts are there to be read as people will. The biggest 'fact' is the poor state of morale. Another of our worries is the lack of responses from Muslim communities, probably a sign of suspicion. Also it's possible that the questionnaires were received by people who really didn't know what to do with them, unable to understand the objective. The same could also be said for the churches that didn't respond.

After the meeting, I had to dress for dinner hurriedly and make my way on foot to the County Club, for a supper to honour Hazel Lewis, PA to two successive Priors of St John's Wales. It was an excellent occasion, at which both former and present Prior spoke warmly and praised Hazel's excellent organisational skills. It's good that a Christian charity should make an effort to value people in support roles that to some would seem unglamorous and insignificant - but in reality, nothing could be done without them, the grandest most imaginative plan would not even end up on paper.