Welcome to The Chaplains Corner!
Rev Dominic Hubbuck
My role at the Federation involves supporting the spiritual input, faith development and the pastoral care of everyone in the school community.
My background before being ordained was working with children, young people and families. It has often included play, creating safe spaces for families and supporting people to explore faith as they do life.’
You’ve been waiting for days.
Phone not on silent. Waiting for that call.
And then just like that – you’ve missed it.
But you’d been listening really hard, thinking about it, ready for it, poised to answer. And now you don’t know when it will come again.
I was struck this morning by a line in John’s Gospel:
John 15:11 ‘I have told you these things so that my Joy may be in you, and that your Joy may be complete.’
I imagine complete Joy to be like the feeling you get when you finish 1000 piece jigsaw and it has taken tears and time to complete.
Or when you’ve moved the furniture around the room several times, hoovered, tidied and then sat back at the new arrangement and it looks complete.
For me, Joy is not about excitement and happiness and bouncing up and down but the happy feeling you get that comes with a sense of satisfaction and a side order of peace and contentment.
We have a book indoors. It has beautiful illustrations and imaginative words.
It is called The Lost Words and is written to remind our children and ourselves of all the words in nature that we are in danger of not passing on to the next generation. Words that are in danger of being removed from the dictionary because not enough people are using them any more.
Words that lose their meaning. Words that are in danger of dying out.
I went to college and did a Degree as a mature student.
I drove over each week from Bristol to Wales (not a long journey really) to study.
My subject was Community Studies and Play. Yes I have Degree in Play.
They sat each with a slice of quiche, some new potatoes with a drizzle of butter and some green beans.
A glass of wine sat beside their plate and a candle lit, shining a light on the table and the tablet.
They ate together and valued the company of each other.
They were determined to keep their dinner date even though they couldn’t meet.
Our Father, Padre Nostro, Pai Noso, Notre Père…
This morning’s Bible readings in the Church of England cycle of prayer included Luke 11:1-13 – Where Jesus teaches His disciples about how to pray.
It reminded me of the visit I made to the Pater Noster Church in Israel where the Lord’s Prayer is displayed in over 100 written languages.
It made me think of the things we know that increase our faith and the things we teach the young people around us to give them words to use if they need them.
When you don’t feel like you can plan the future, it’s often a positive step to look back and smile.
When we can’t plan our summer holidays this year,
it has warmed our hearts to look back at photos of holidays gone by and remember those moments.
When we can’t get close to those around us,
it helps to make us smile talking about the meals we’ve shared, the laughs we had and the stories we hold of the times we’ve spent together.
And so begins another week. It looks a bit different to last week. It feels a little different too.
Some weeks it’s hard to work out how it will go – Will it be uphill all the way or be manageable and steady and gentle on us?
We might start the week with essential questions like ‘Who finished off the milk?’ or important questions like ‘Am I a good person?’
Monday mornings have a tendency to get us to look at ourselves as we look at our week.
Have you ever sat and watched a candle as it burns?
Have you watched the way the flame stands up straight, reaching upwards, stretching continually for what is above?
Have you looked for its bright centre, the warm pool of wax feeding it beneath, the heat around it that makes the air flicker and ripple?
Have you ever felt like you have just got over one thing and then another waves slaps you in the face?
You’ve just struggled to get back from something that’s hit you hard and Wham!, something else takes your breath away.
You get back on your feet, your head feels a little clearer and Boom!, something big lands in your lap that you just have to pick up.
There seems to be so much at the moment to get passionate about at the moment.
But when it all gets too much we are in danger of switching off and losing the joys as well as the pains.
A man stood in front of a church and held a hymn book in his hand, waved it around for all to see and then went back to what he was doing.
Millions seeing this thought it was a Bible. He thought it was a Bible. It was not a Bible.
But he didn’t know because he hadn’t looked at it or in it.
Everyday we link up with a lot of people.
Whether we get social media notifications about friends and family.
Messages and posts about things to watch, groups to join or silly quizzes to take.
They are all there to link us in.