john davies |
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notes from a small vicar
from a parish in Liverpool, UK
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1 - On rogation beside the River Alt 2 - Bounded by green avenues 3 - Following mislaid tracks 4 - Bringing in the Bacon 5 - Tropical storms over Scarisbrick 6 - Leisure pursuits 7 - The shopping trolley trail 8 - Everyday English 9 - Dog & Gun rogation 10 - Boundary slippage
Related
Talks and articles:
Iain Sinclair in Conversation with John Davies
(at Greenbelt 09: cd/mp3) Walking with the Psychogeographers (Greenbelt 2008 talk) Walking with the Psychogeographers (Greenbelt 08 talk: cd/mp3) Heaven in Ordinary (Greenbelt 2007 talk) Heaven in Ordinary (Greenbelt 07 talk: cd/mp3) Heart of Cheltenham pilgrimage: notes Heaven in Ordinary (Greenbelt Leeds event talk) Reading the Everyday (Greenbelt 06 talk: cd/mp3) Reading the Everyday (Third Way article: pdf) Reading the Everyday (Greenbelt on Iona 2006) Stars of Norris Green (radio talks) Making of the Croxteth Landscape Healing Places retreat programme Towards an Urban Theology of Land Mapping an Urban Parish Donations towards
the cost of my MPhil/PhD theology/psychogeography research project gratefully received via Order online from
THE FIRE
THIS TIME: Deconstructing the Gulf War A permanent record
of the fate of Iraq 
Co-travellers: Pip Wilson Jonny Baker Joe Moran's Blog The Reluctant Ordained ASBO Jesus Dave Walker's Cartoon Blog Paul Cookson Maggi Dawn Dot Gosling: Wildgoose Ellen Loudon Rachel Andrew Walking Home to 50 The Manchester Zedders A Mis-Guided Blog Territories Reimagined: International Perspectives Islingtongue / Leytonstongue Remapping High Wycombe National Psychogeographic Diamond Geezer Danger: Void Behind Door Common Ground Strange Attractor: Further Girardian Reflections on the Lectionary Kristin Hersh Unofficial Fall website Bill Drummond: Penkiln Burn Iain Sinclair Julian Cope: Head Heritage Billy Bragg Rough Trade Second Layer Records Freak Emporium Probe Records Piccadilly News From Nowhere Abebooks The Wire Smoke: A London Peculiar London Review of Books Demos Greenhouse Archives July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 April 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 March 2010 April 2010 |
Sunday, December 24, 2006
My Christmas letter, for those who've not seen it
Happy Christmas!Last year my epistle used satire to spice it up a bit. In other words not everything in it was true. It misled some readers. So just to clarify: I didn't actually get married in 2005, nor did I pose naked on Crosby beach with the Antony Gormley statues. Not that I wasn't tempted. However it is entirely true that in 2006 I appeared on Channel Four's Wife Swap and was spotted wearing a braided wig in a Shropshire country mansion [see notes below, if you're still interested in any of this nonsense]. This year I shall attempt, just for once, to get real. This life [as a clergyperson] can be crippling: always in the public eye, constantly dealing with people projecting their hopes / anxieties / hang-ups / expectations on you, forever returning home exhausted to find more messages on the answerphone to deal with there and then. People complaining you're never here. Actually, you're always here. It's exhausting. That's why you have to try to get away as often as you can. And though you may get away physically, you find it harder to get away in your head. But then again this life can be very creative: you can make time to engage in your particular concerns or interests, you get excellent opportunities to help people shape their lives - working creatively and at depth with families around funerals, weddings, baptisms, giving young people the space to ask questions and explore. The collar gets you into all sorts of fascinating places and conversations and the variety of those encounters - even within the space of one day - can be staggering. Many people, for most of the time, like to have you around. Bit like being a plumber, maybe. That's pretty special. You do live a lie of course. People think you're some sort of superhuman (or subhuman) constantly oozing niceness, tolerance and grace. That's absurd. You know the truth is far darker and that on your way out of the sanctuary after another encounter with someone with a dose of bad religion, those words you're muttering under your breath are closer to the vocabulary of Wayne Rooney than Francis of Assisi. People think you spend your leisure time reading weighty commentaries on the Book of Ezekiel when in fact you're burying your head in your whisky-stained hands listening to radio commentaries on Everton's latest let-down. Someone reading my website emailed me this year amazed that a vicar could like Julian Cope and PJ Harvey. Like them? They define me, get your head round that, was the gist of my reply, pretty shaken by their presumptions. Sometimes you want to give up - when another one of 'the faithful' tells you, 'I know I shouldn't really be saying this, but those Muslims....' and you realise once again that you've allowed yourself to be licensed to an organisation defined by crippling conservatism and bigotry of the worst order (because it masquerades as respectability). Sometimes you want to run - when you're holding the dead baby, your heart pounding and head empty, and the parents are staring at you waiting for a word of comfort. Sometimes you want to laugh - when in the old folks home your communion service is punctuated by an unhinged woman shouting 'HOUSE!' at every pause. And sometimes you want to cry with joy - when, in talking one-to-one, that same woman in a moment of clarity tells you something about her life that reveals to you the fullness of her humanity and the depth of her maturity and you realise once again how complex, mad and wonderful are these human stories you've opted to weave yourself into. My great joy this year was to present some talks and workshops, prompted by Radio Merseyside and Greenbelt, on ideas around the value of reading the everyday, of finding heaven in the ordinary. They've been really well recieved, encouraging me that I may be onto something. And that after two and a half years adjusting I may now be settled enough in my work to be starting to get creative with the mess and miraculous which is life in Norris Green. NOTES 1. Vinny and Nancy, of our parish, were on Wife Swap and they did a bit of filming in our church. 2. Our October parish weekend was at Cloverley Hall, Shropshire, and in an evening cabaret slot I portrayed Cinderella. 2006 FROM THE WEBSITE WWW.JOHNDAVIES.ORG GOOD WALKS IN GOOD COMPANY Mon, Jan 2 - circuit of the Tilberthwaite Fells Fri, Jan 27 - adventures in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire Sat, April 8 - Mis-Guide launch, a derive around Horseguards Parade, London Sat, Nov 25 - Hightown to the Pier Head, the Gormley Statues and Dock Road walls pilgrimage GOOD GIGS Fri, Feb 24 - Julian Cope, Manchester Academy: 'A writer of some subtance... a self-aware rock-and-roll cartoon' Fri, May 12 - Handsome Family , Birkenhead Pacific Road. With The Burning Leaves, a really fine young duo. GOOD TALKS Wed, March 15 - Gervaise Phynn, St George's Hall: education for the children, hilarity compulsory. Sun, Nov 5 - Doreen Massey, FACT: geography for the people, and debunking globalisation's myths. CLOSE ENCOUNTERS Thurs, April 27 - Billy Bragg, in the Far East Restuarant, before his Liverpool gig. Exchanged jokes about overeating. Mon, Aug 28 - Bill Drummond, in a tent at Cheltenham Racecourse - I interviewed him on stage about The 17. ACTIVISM Mon, March 20 - organised a reading of Eliot Weinburger's What I heard about Iraq, on the third anniversary of the invasion Sat, April 29 - wrote an open letter to local people at Local Election time, discouraging the BNP vote May 22 - 26 - co-led a week on Iona for folks involved in working with socially excluded groups DAYS OUT IN THE GREAT INDUSTRIAL NORTH Sat, June 24 - Picnic between M6 carriageways, Shap Fri, July 28 - Manchester Ship Canal Cruise FOND FAREWELLS Tue, Feb 7 - Dafydd Owen, Bangor Cathedral Mon, March 6 - Peter Firth, St Luke's Crosby Wed, April 26 - Lancel Ledward, Tarporley Chapel BOOKS OF THE YEAR Roger McGough's autobiography, Said and Done Nick Thorpe's boat-hitching gem, Adrift in Caledonia Shrinking Cities Project: Manchester/Liverpool report SOUNDS OF THE YEAR Lou Rhodes: Beloved One, Current 93: Black Ships Ate the Sky, Gravenhurst: Fires in Distant Buildings, V/A: Folk, my 06 compilation - ask, I'll burn one for you today. INSPIRATION January 23 - 27 - Radio Merseyside Thoughts for the Day series on the Stars of Norris Green. Sun, April 16 - I rewrote the set-list of The Manchester Passion using only songs by The Fall. August 7 - 11 - Radio Merseyside Thoughts for the Day series of Common Prayers including the now-celebrated We give thanks for the Purple Wheelie Bin... Mon, Sep 25 - I rewrote the spiritual Over My Head to describe 24-hour police helicopter activity around a local gangland funeral. NEXT YEAR'S (SABBATICAL) PROJECT Sept - Nov - To walk the M62. An idea well received so far by artists, geographers, industrial chaplains, vicars, playwrights, and all sorts of others each preparing to walk me around 'their place' on a pilgrimage from Hull back to Liverpool. Plans well in hand. Join me for a day or two...? |
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