I am pleased to report that the Anglican Dominican Order of Preachers is growing!
One more Formation House has recently opened, with another one planned for after Easter.
God is working in the Order - evidenced by the numbers of people showing interest and numbers of seekers who are prepared to make a commitment.
The Dominican Mission is an active one. We are a dispersed Order and, like the early Dominicans, we are sent out to heal and to preach, and to bless those we meet. The Dominican infinitives - To Praise, To Bless, To Preach become imperatives in our lives.
The early church lived with a sense of urgency, they felt there was little time to spread the Good News. Early disciples fully expected the Second Coming within their lifeimes and they were charged to spread the news of the Kingdom to as many people as possible before that time. The harvest was plentiful but the workers were few! Today, we have to a great extent become complacent - I am not sure our church congregations are expecting the Parousia any time soon.
The reality is that the mission to spread the Good News is as important and as urgent as it was in the first century and it is wonderful that there are people hearing the call to go out, in humility, and make God's love manifest in small acts of service and kindness in the many and varied communities to which we have been sent.
To God be the glory!

Tomorrow my son will be flying to Rome to spend a couple of weeks with his dad. Naturally I am sorry to lose his company, but I am looking forward to playing my favourite music without using headphones (he can't bear my taste!) I will play my favourite CDs loudly and may even sing along - something else that normally gives rise to complaints! Teenagers can be so intolerant of the older generation!!

Today the news is full of an aftershock in Haiti that has caused even more devastation. News pictures included the miraculous discovery and rescue of a young woman found unscathed and in good health after a week buried in the rubble. The joy on her face and the reactions of the rescuers moved me to tears. She has been given the gift of new life after what must have seemed a living death entombed in the ground. I can't help but wonder what her future will hold?
The same news programme showed a hospital car park. Patients and staff had been evacuated from the building following the renewed tremors and on the car park staff were helping mothers give birth. Bringing forth Life - urgent and unstoppable life. May God anoint these new creations, born to a people in turmoil.

Today was the last day for nominations for Church Stewards and I have tossed and turned and changed my mind repeatedly this last month about whether or not to put myself forward for this post.
I am already heavily involved in the church with Worship Leading, Local Preacher training, pastoral work and Bible Study; not to mention being Circuit Administrator. Was this a step too far, would I be overstretching myself?
At the very last minute one of my friends offered to nominate me and I watched my form go in the box along with the others. Time will tell if I have done the right thing. If I were to be ordained at some point, I am sure my full-time ministry would include administration, teaching, preaching, leading worship and pastoral care of others, so maybe the practice will do me good!

As I write my first blog entry for 2010, the snow is swirling outside and getting deeper on the ground, minute by minute.
Looking outside, it is difficult to tell where the pavement ends and the road begins. A soft blanket covering the treacherous ice underneath. What we see on the outside, a picture of calm tranquillity does not reflect what lies beneath.
The same is often true of people. The face they present to the world, a calm, assured exterior, often covers a mass of anxious thoughts and insecurities. It is so easy to put on a front that masks what is really going on inside.