Church as comfort, not challenge (Category: faith)

Some wise words from Stanley Hauerwas, (Hat tip to Andii). Go read, and ponder.  ¶ 10:16 am 0 comments

  "Airfix made me the man I am" (Category: life)

A nice little whimsical and thoughtful piece from the good folks at the Beeb, now that Airfix have gone into administration. I rings a lot of bells, and I still have two 1:35 Tamiya kits in my playroom awaiting construction or sale...

Happy days!

(And it's true, they did teach literacy... and patience!)  ¶ 1:06 pm 0 comments

  Six Weird Things (Category: life) It's a meme thing...

Helen Lousie, bless her, tagged me several months ago to write about my weird habits, but as she has (at least) two blogs, which repeat most of the material I managed to miss this one.It's certainly given me food for thoughts in my idle moments.

Once you are tagged you MUST write a blog entry about your 6 weird habits/things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose the next six people to be tagged and list their names.

Here's what I came up with:

1 using sitemeter to check on who has been reading my blog (and hence, after several months!) this entry. Call it assuaging my ego.

2 the inability to go anywhere without taking a notebook (or at least some manner of recording idle thoughts and observations). More often than not I don't need or use it, but that's not the point.

3 a tendency to talk to myself, to run ideas through, so long as there is nobody close enough to hear.

4 more an observation than a habit: I'm far less excited, motivated and enthused by/with my faith now that it's "work" than when it absorbed much of my "hobby" time. Strange but true. (Or to put it another way, "now, I have a life!" or even more cynically, "now I mix with far more non-Christians and have far more non-Christian friends" - which on the whole has to be positive.)

5 if ever GLW starts showing interest in my hobbies obsessions, CDs, DVD's, etc etc I have a nasty tendency to lose most of the interest (especially noticeable with Babylon 5 and Serenity)

6 on the rare occasions that I read (as opposed to writing) I rarely finish the book. My life is filled with books filled with bookmarks and memories of the last attempt.

So... my six nominees for the next step are... (drumroll)

John (Barefoot in the Wilderness)
Kathryn (Good in Parts)
Andy (Emergent like Slime)
Andii (Nouslife)
St Casserole
Andrew Rilstone (I don't believe you're even reading this Andrew, but what the heck!)

I might get 2 or 3 responses, if I'm lucky.

:)

  ¶ 8:19 am 4 comments

  Norwich and Greenbelt, Unwired. And unwise? (Category: Life)

OK, I confess the Greenbelt part of the title is an attempt to get attention, but it worked. That doesn't remove thae fact that it is also true.

While I am something of a technophile (an 'early adopter', rather than an' innovator', if you follow Hägerstrand's model of diffusion, I have to admit), I have only recently taken the Wireless Networking revolution beyind the home (or rather I will do, once my Centrino laptop actually leaves home!) I have, however, been intrested to see in many places where I travel that where coffee is served, so is Wi-Fi internet access available. Sometimes for free, sometimes not.

This year, not for the first time I suspect, the same could be said of several Greenbelt locations, and now, according to the Beeb, the entire city centre of Norwich.

On the whole I have to say that I think this is a good thing. Yet within me there remains a niggling doubt. I know how hard it was for me to stay off the internet even for the few days at Greenbelt, and even then I finally cracked. I can make light-hearted comments about addiction, but I know how my work rate is affected by having broadband here at home (after all, I should be writing a talk for Sunday afternoon at this very minute!) - and I can see from the bulletin boards I frequent and the mailing lists upon which I'm active, just how much difference there is in activity between working hours (high) and out of work (low).

Of course, reservations may well have been expressed about the availability of the radio programmes once the equipment became portable, and the (anti-)social influence of the walkman, and it's successor, the iPod, are pretty clear as users shut themselves off into a private bubble that barely need acknowledge the outside world. Likewise mobile phones have revolutionised personal communication - just ask any long-term Greenbelter about the diffrences it's made to the festival - at the expense of breaking down the boundaries of work and leisure. But what are the social implications of ever-greater connection to the virtual, I wonder? Taking my online hobbies obsessions to Greenbelt, just as to "work", must have an effect... and one that cannot be wholly beneficial.

None of that, however, removes the fact that being able to surf the net at night while sitting in bed next to the GLW is pretty neat!  ¶ 10:15 am 0 comments

  Impressions Another one of David's Poems, while I try to motivate myself for the work of the day, not to mention thinking of another blog post...

Impressions

The wood pigeon,

drawn by daylight showing through,

flew forcefully, fiercely, frantically

into the window pane

leaving behind it no broken body

lifeless on the ground below

but its ghostly image on the glass

an image of itself

mirrored in a snapshot of its liveliness,

its wingspan, head, beak and chest

clearly visible, as if some long left over

Christmas time stencil,

as my friend thought mistakenly.

And again, in the next room,

another ghostly image of etched agony,

another of the same striking species.

If I, through a window mistily,

were in more things to see God’s outline

and more, his stretched out body

spent for love such as his,

would his impression within me

etch outwardly into clarity?

Would that it would.

Lucille Clifton  ¶ 8:46 am 0 comments

  Correspondence from Greenbelt (Category: Life, Faith)

Well, this post is living proof that I am, if not an addict, then at least in some degree dependent upon the Internet! I've been on site here since Friday lunchtime and I have finally cracked. From the window just above the monitor here I can see the big top housing the Performance Cafe, most of the marquees in the centre of Cheltenham Rececourse, (including the Organic Beer Tent, which may well be my bext destination!!) and a portion of the tented township that is GB06. The sun has set and the light is fading. I've had a good time, but I'm ready to go home, although I won't be leaving until tomorrow morning - a four hour drive would not be sensible now.

Reflections on GB: It's been a good one, even if the weather has been less than perfect. Some years I am very busy, squeezing in seminars left, right and centre. Not this year. Instead I've been slobbing, all the while being a little worried about GLW, since my mobile phone is on the blink.

On Friday night I was priveleged to see Martyn Joseph live on GB's new mainstage, while catching up with some old friends (including LMP's godparents). I was luck to see Martyn again this afternoon, with the poet Stewart Henderson in the wonderful "Centaur" venue (an indoor conference hall rated for 3000 occupants!) And very good it was too. In fact "Centaur" has been 'my' venue this weekend, seeing a fantastic Jazz set from Courtney Pine on Saturday, and a much-needed (for this slightly world-weary vicar) from Randy Stonehill, an embodiment of the best (and profoundly simple) Christian Contemporary Music from the 70s and 80s.

Otherwise I've caught up with Steve Croft (of the Emmaus Course and Fresh Expressions), as he was speaking of the latter (after all Tea Time Worship in MLPK is one of the latter, even if a rather un-radical/conventional one). He has also written a piece of fiction, which has become Darton Longman and Todd's first fiction publication - and judging from the extracts he read today "The Advent Calendar" (aimed at older children but entirely accessible to adults) is nothing less than superb. Buy it and read it. You heard it here first. GLW will love it!

Possibly the line which best describes Greenbelt though has to be that I coined after Maria McKie's performance on Friday night. I happened to comment to an old acquaintance in a late night que that it was "a disturbing mixture of intimacy and quirkiness." It was too - but AL then pointed out that the phrase could equally apply to the facilities we were queuing for at that time - the Portaloos!

And with that, and three minutes of my time remaining I must call it a night....

"It's a night!"

Good night, Greenbelt. Good night, good readers, wherever you are....  ¶ 7:10 pm 3 comments