Rev. Chris Upton, Pastoral Supervisor

16/07/2024

Over half the year gone and I am basically on track for my challenge to ride/run the length of the UK canal network in the year.
https://www.justgiving.com/page/chris-upton-1706198737144

All donations gratefully received. thanks.

PS big ride coming on Friday...

31/12/2022

Doing the diploma this year was another great stepping stone in my PS learning. I recommend the IPCS to anyone who is keen to start in PS. Contact me for any more details.

09/06/2022

Trees

Seeing a tree growing through the calendar year is a delight.
The barrenness of winter giving way to the tender clean fresh green leaves of spring. Spring deepening and growing through summer into the beauties of the autumnal shades before leaf loss and the harsh realities of winter again.

However on a recent walk through the village I noted a number of trees that were not completely in the first flush of youth and that were still a mixture of barren leafless limbs and emerald green canopy from the same trunk. These trees were a mixture of living and dead wood and this made me reflect again on the nature and life cycle of churches. My doctoral studies on the closure of churches considered the equivalent of long dead trees that had been cut down and cut up for firewood, where there was no ongoing sustaining sap in their veins. But these half-alive-half-dead trees hid in plain sight surrounded by other trees and it was only by close inspection that I could tell which branches were dead but still standing. Looking at them from afar it was impossible even to see that the trees were not healthy.

Returning to thoughts about churches I guess something similar might be true and pastoral supervision might be key to seeing it for yourself.

Many churches might look completely alive and healthy when simply glanced at, but on closer inspection will have areas of growth but also some areas where growth and fruit are no longer possible. As long as these dead limbs do not overbalance the live ones, the tree will continue to stand but if the live wood is not strong enough to carry the dead then the tree may be destined to topple over. Perhaps Jesus’s metaphor of God being the good Gardener who prunes rather than fells is appropriate here.

As I finished my walk I came upon the tree stump of a maple that had been felled two years ago. I knew it was there because over the last few evenings I have been harvesting the trunk to fuel my log burner at home, but for the first time I gave the (useless to me) sawn off stump my attention and saw 8 inches of new shoots growing from the very base…. the roots were still good and after the drastic surgery of the chainsaw… healthy life was coming up again.

What can we remember that has grown and thrived and died?
What is currently in need of pruning back?

Who knows what will grow in the space that is created!

07/06/2022

I have just writen this about a tutee:

"It has been another fruitful year for ###xx. She has grown in confidence and experience and should be well pleased with all that she has achieved.
As her ministry grows and extends she will need to continue to ask the edgy questions about inherited models of church and their interface with the 21st century. If she can encourage any church that she is the minister of to ask these questions for themselves I can see a revitalised and re-energised church community fit for purpose coming into being. My fear is that because she is very caring and capable she might be tempted to work too hard maintaining an outdated status quo rather than encouraging the necessary paradigm shifts in inherited ecclesiological structures."

On reading it back to myself a day later I note that (apart from the gender) I might have written it for myself!

Thanks be to the seven eyed model...

29/05/2022

I don't generally like 'waking up'... but still...

19/05/2022

Found whilst doing some research into Appreciative Inquiry. I like it and the overlap with Pastoral Supervision seems useful.

12/05/2022

Have posted very little on here recently, but I shall be looking to address that in the months to come.

I just gave a paper at Theology North on "Attention" and it seems to have been well received. It was inspired by a quote from Simone Weil... “Attention (taken to its highest degree) is prayer.”

a growing itch in my mind suggests that if the church, and we as ministers have lost our attention, our ability to properly attend… to God, to others, to self… then we have lost the ability to pray…

A few more quotes from my paper (plaigiarism... research... call it what you will!)

Elizabeth Lesser: Marrow.
"When I pray, I pray to just settle down and trust the mystery. Prayer for me is relaxing into the mystery."

Helen Cameron: Living in the gaze of God.
"focused or deep observation is the beginning of attentiveness, and that attentiveness is the beginning of faithful witness.”

Euan Kelly: Personhood and Presence: Self as a resource for spiritual and pastoral care.

“Weaving moments of intentional attentiveness to life... affords opportunities for grace filled life enhancing moments.”

and then I wanted to quote almost everything that Annie Dillard has ever written...!

31/08/2021

Wondering if I can legitimatley use this image as a tool for supervision when I took in on a mobile phone...🤔

18/08/2021

Not strictly on the topic of Pastoral Supervision, but the idea of safe and conscious scrutinizing of long held assumptions surely is! (Oh and btw... I am a big fan of The Raven Foundation)
😀

Pastor Adam Ericksen explains how, as social beings, we imitate others consciously and unconsciously, even our enemies. He offers a model that leads us into love and inclusion.

12/08/2021

Having just been to the wilds of Scotland and done some walking I was reminded of a simple question. Is it possible to blend 'wildness' with 'accesibility'? Or are the two mutually exclusive? Walking 4 miles to get to Sandwood Bay or climbing to get to the top of Cairn Gorm... much would be lost to both if there were a red carpet and handrail!

This is just one of the thorny but useful 'geographical' questions I have been wrestling with whilst on holiday but it is also an 'theological' one as well. Pastoral Supervision would be a safe space to think through such thoughts as they might apply to church/God/Jesus... How are we to rightly talk about the mysteries of such in an accessible way without overly simplifying things?