Pilot of the airwaves

Dearly beloved, I stand before you with my head hung low. There are things I have failed to do this week. Sins of omission, you might say. Becoming the new BBC Radio 2 'Pause for Thought' presenter was one of those things. Verily, it seemed a good idea at the time. All I had to do was write a two-minute religious reflection that would offer a thought for the day.

The 'Pause for Thought' contest was announced at the beginning of July, although I only heard about it three days before the competition ended on 5th August. A slight disadvantage but I reckoned this would help me focus on the challenge - which was (fortunately) not in the style of Big Brother or X-Factor but simply required me to write and record a thought-provoking message. "I could do that", I told myself.

To start with, everything ran very smoothly. I compiled a list of useful words from Victorian sermons, ensuring I would beseech my listeners to hold fast and hold forth to whatever it was I planned to tell them. Yea, and it was so. Unfortunately I then turned to the terms and conditions of the contest. One of the judging criteria was "Is the theological content in keeping with the basic tenets of the contributor’s stated faith position?"

Uh-oh. Not only did I need to decide what I believed in, I also needed to be consistent. This was going to be a problem.

Or was it?   Last month I visited the All Saints Centre in Lewes, which was a church until it was transformed into a community centre in 1980. (I was there to talk to the Lewes, Glynde and Beddingham Brass Band during one of their rehearsals; you'll find my interview on p25 of this month's Viva Lewes magazine unless my mother's collected all the spare copies, marked the page with a post-it note and given one to each of her friends). And only last week I took a short-cut through the churchyard in Ringmer.

I'd be the first to admit that those visits don't make me a regular churchgoer... but it did get me thinking. Much as I enjoy wandering round an old building, it's people who really constitute a church. I'd argue that churches are all about community rather than being places with a pointy roof - and it's people that matter. You could even say the All Saints Centre is as much a church today as it ever was.

Which, I suppose, is my 'stated faith position'. I like people and I like a good story. It's a bit vague, I know. It's also a bit late for the Radio 2 competition. Perhaps they'll run it again next year.

First published on vivalewes.com 8th August 2013: http://www.vivalewes.com/pilot-of-the-airwaves/