Midwife and Palliative Care Specialist

Isaiah 43:19

I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

As a hospital chaplain, the two areas I spent most time in were the Maternity Unit and the Palliaive Care Unit.

As one life was being propelled into the world or as another was ebbing slowly  out of it, I was often called to be present, to wait quietly, with nothing to bring except my presence in beginnings and endings.

Sometimes, in the maternity unit, new life emerged in a wail of protest, sometimes it slipped in calmly, with a sense of timeless wisdom.

And, two floors away, death oft times withstood raging and protest and, other times, snuck in with hardly a murmur.

In the ministry to which I am called today, I often find myself tiptoeing through those sacred spaces of life and death, of birthing and dying. And, once more, I am not sure that I bring much more than a quiet affirming presence. And, having learned in the stark corridors of the hospital environment, the value of that calm accompaniment, I seek to focus, not on the impotence but on the vitality of persistent non anxious presence.

As the church struggles with the throes of death and in the places of new birth, our call requires the gifts of midwifery and of practitioners in palliative care, letting go of one way to take hold of another in the calm assurance that the God of all life invites and inspires us to bring about good death and to make room for new life, sometimes at one and the same time.

Unless we are prepared to sit with death we have no right to expect to welcome new life.

Birthing the new requires letting go,of the old and taking care of the tasks of grief as we do that.

Resurrection demands that we position ourselves by the empty tomb, in prime position to witness new life when it comes.

Midwifery and palliative care - skills required in ministry today.

A right perspective

As I sit looking out at the snow in Londom, in an overcrowded airport lounge, hoping for a flight home today, I'm trying to regain a sense of perspective. 

I'm warm and dry. I have coffee! I have a mobile phone and tablet and can speak to loved ones and catch up with work. I'm also in my own country, albeit south of the Scottish border!!!

This is not the experience of many, in their normal, everyday life, never mind in this snow caused chaos.

And I'm drawn back to these words that I've come to know as the Isaiah vision: 

Isaiah 65:21-22

They shall build houses and inhabit them;

they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

They shall not build and another inhabit;

they shall not plant and another eat;

for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,

and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.

We pay more attention to refugees or to those sleeping on our streets in extremes such as the last few days, yet tolerate it all the other days. Suddenly the homeless are newsworthy!

Of course there are no easy solutions. Injustice is convoluted and complex and the vulnerable are always the ones who suffer most. But I'm trying to dial back on my first world frustration and regain a sense of perspective on what, in the end, is a mere inconvenience.

Belonging

For waters will break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert 

Isaiah 35:6

It's been an inspiring few days at NEXTCHURCH 2018, a gathering of leaders mainly from the Presbyterian Church USA.

Probably the most affirming aspect, for me, was a sense of belonging. Belonging with people who welcome and are prepared to embrace the new thing that God is doing in the world today - and the implications that has for church. Belonging with those who are re-imagining church for today. Belonging with those who value ministry in all its varied forms and who welcome creativity. Belonging with those who are not threatened by others who are called to non traditional forms of ministry. Belonging with those who value the support of an institution and who are not afraid to challenge that institution about its priorities. Belonging with those who are hopeful and encouraged about God's purpose and vision for church today - and who gathered to tell their stories, to share their pain, to listen to God and to one another, to acknowledge that this work in which God invites us to participate is hard and that makes it all the more important that we support one another in it. Belonging with those who believe that the desert will bloom.