Mike's musings

Suzy continues to improve, which is a surprise, but fantastic. For the second day in a row, she's lost 300g in fluid overnight, which means that the treatment they're giving her seems to be having some effect. The worry is that her kidneys may have problems now, but again, she's apparently gone out for a quick walk today.

On a different note, given that I start my training at ERMC in a week or so, I've started trying to go to different churches around, just to get a feel for how other nearby churches operate, styles of worship and so on. Today I took Jo to Gosfield, while Moo stayed at home (she's not really a churchgoer), and Jo had a lovely time, and was very well-behaved. I had her in a sling in front of me, facing forwards, and she very much enjoyed the hymns (even the one where the vicar - Geoff Bloor - and his daughter played the guitar and flute!). She'd have preferred to have been the one holding the hymnbook, but a) she would have chewed it, b) she would have changed the pages, and c) she'd have droppred it. So I held it, instead. The style of worship was very informal, but I suspect that Geoff is in some ways quite "high": we had the angelus rung three times at the blessing of the sacraments, which suggests quite an anglo-catholic practice. He also wore a cope, which is sometimes a sign (though not always, I think). The Church of England has so many practices, styles and traditions, and it's sometimes both difficult and unhelpful to try to untangle them too much.

Yesterday I also ordered three books that I'm going to need for the course from Amazon with a token that Jim and Nina (my brother and his wife) gave me for my birthday. They are:

• New Testament Exegesis: A Handbook for Students and Pastors - Gordon Fee
• The Postmodern Bible - the Bible & Culture Collective
• Old Testament: An Introduction - Rolf Rendtorff