Mike's musings

Something from Moo

For Moo, much of the woman debate is about preservation of male power and hierarchy (don't forget that "hierarchy" is government by priests...). And I don't disagree. She read this after a long discussion over supper, and so I thought I'd post it: Face to faith from last Saturday, by Rabbi Elizabeth Tikvah Sarah. It's worth a read:

"Is Anglicanism a form of progressive Christianity - and if so, what are its progressive credentials?"

Labels: christianity, Moo, women

Daddy's squidgy ordination cake

Moo insisted that I take this picture and show it on my blog, simply because it looks like a cowpat. Things went wrong (separately) with not only the sponge, but also the icing. It tastes lovely, and meant that I had some fun Daddy-Jojo time, but it really looks pretty darn awful.

Things are taking off with SecondLife: more information to come, because nothing's official, but please keep an eye out.

Moo and I both took the day off today, which was lovely. We spent most of the morning together while Jo was at school and Mel looked after Miri, and after lunch at a pub we sent Mel home (with a bottle of wine which she probably _shouldn't_ have finished on her own this afternoon) to spend time together with the girls. It was a real holiday, and what we all needed, I think.

Although I get pretty upset at some of the Gafcon and anti-women bishops stuff, this is nothing compared to how riled Moo gets about it, so I've taken the step of inviting her to write piece for this blog. I'm not sure if she will, but I'm going to keep prodding. I've said she can write whatever she wants...

Lots of contact over the past 24 hours from friends around the ordination, which is great. Some good pictures up on Chris Newlands' pages on Facebook, if you can see them.

Oh, yes: this morning, Jo had asked if I'd take her to pre-school in my "priest's clothes", to which I'd agreed. It turned out that she meant my cassock, but I did consent to clerical shirt and collar. With it I wore what I'd have worn anyway: sandals, cut-off jeans, and mirror shades. "TV Comedy vicar" is how Moo labelled the look, somewhat hurtfully, I thought. I had to dash to the kennels to pick Buster up immediately after, and got accosted by someone there: "Ah, a vicar!" he said. I explained that I'm but a deacon, and it turns out that he's the vicar of Balsham, across the border in the Ely diocese. I'm going to have to get used to being stopped in odd places when I'm collared-up.

Last, but not least, my good friend Sally published a lovely post for me yesterday, to which I promised to link. Thank you, my friend.

Labels: church, food, ordination, secondlife, women

Ordained. And out

I've made some great friends on the retreat: Chris, Sally, Neil, Paul, Geoff and Chris all spring to mind. I've rediscovered some friendships: Sue, Iain, Mandy and Terry particularly. And made more that I hope to explore in the next few years. After a last service in the morning and breakfast, we all got ready and the Colchester and Bradwell area ordinands headed off to Chelmsford Cathedral. I met Dad and Mum, and Moo turned up in good time for the sponsors' rehearsal/training thing. And after getting all vested up in cassock and surplice, stole ready to go, it was time to start.

The service was joyful. Just full of joy. Great singing, lots of grinning from me, and a few tears after the actual ordination (from me, that is: Kate, my mother-in-law, cried pretty much throughout). The actual laying on of hands was very powerful for me. Heavy, really heavy hands. But more than that. I closed my eyes and there was a great depth. Not an emptiness, but a great depth. I need to reflect on this, but it was very powerful for me.

And then I was wearing a stole, across my body, over my left shoulder, which is how a deacon wears it. And I received the host from the Bishop of Chelmsford, and the wine from the Bishop of Colchester, my area bishop, which was a particular privilege.

Now I'm a deacon.

We had a meal at home, and it was fantastic to see the girls: they were both so pleased to see me, as well.

And out

About three years ago, I was told very firmly that until I was ordained, I should keep quiet abut a couple of issues. These are:

• the ordination of women to the episcopate (women bishops);
• the position of homosexuals in the church.

I was ordained today, and the gloves come off. For regular readers of this blog and my friends , this is may be pretty clear already, but here's a statement or two.

I am disgusted that women cannot occupy every position in the Church of England that men can.

I believe that sexuality should have no impact on the treatment of any man or woman, whether lay, deacon, priest, bishop or archbishop.

I intend to campaign on these issues. I intend to engage with those who hold different views. And I hope to do so in love and respect. But this is where I stand. God help me.

(Oh, and this post is for Moo. My love).

Labels: ordination, sexuality, women

Tomorrow

(backposting) More of the same. Quiet, some chat, getting to know my fellow ordinands, prayer, worship, reading, some sleep. It's tomorrow, and I'm ready.

Labels: ordination

More retreat

(backposting) There are (as I've already mentioned) lots of services on the retreat. Four today: Morning Prayer (0800), Holy Communion (1200), Evening Prayer (1800) and Night Prayer (Compline), following an address at 2000. There's lots of space during the day to do your thing, and as well as reading some trashy novels to relax, I've also been doing some interesting theological reading. I have to note that the Homilies have got some pretty anti-Romish sentiment in them.

Anyway, to get back to the point, with each service there's a hymn or song. Luckily, there are two of us who play, and from very different backgrounds. I'm taking the standard traditional-type hymns, and Geoff has been handling the "songs", or less traditional ones. He's a star. Jazz piano where he comes from, and his "Amazing Grace" was brilliant, and gave me a chance to have a seriously good sing.

Although I'm very aware that life isn't easy for Moo when I'm away like this, but I think it's really important to take the time to concentrate on the ordination, and the journey that I've had getting there, not to mention taking some time to allow work to dissipate a little.

Labels: music, ordination, services

Rehearsal and retreat

(backposting) This morning, as I've taken holiday, I spent the time getting stuff ready. This included clearing the area around my office up a bit so that you can get round it, realising that my surplice (which is second hand) has some unremovable stains, emptying the bins, packing and the rest. Then headed off to Chelmsford via Tesco's (razors, if you care), before parking up (quite a long way from the cathedral), and then walking over to the town centre, getting some food and heading off to the cathedral.

The first rehearsal was for the Bradwell and Colchester episcopal areas (which includes me). We had to do it in cassocks, mainly because we practiced kneeling and getting up, as well as processing. If you don't know what you're doing, and you're not used to kneeling (and getting up) in long dresses, cassocks can be quite dangerous, and this was a good plan. It all went pretty well: though it's scary that we're at this point already. Sunday's the day.

After the rehearsal, three of us (Mandy, Iain and I) agreed to walk back to our cars in our cassocks. And I needed to put my sunglasses on, of course. The problem was that I discovered that _my_ car was parked rather a lot further on than theirs, but decided to go with it. So, I walked through the centre of Chelmsford (including through Debenhams) in my cassock. English people are very funny. Nobody looked at me particularly as I approached them, though I was sure I could feel their gazes boring into my back. So, after some problems getting my satnav to work, I made it to Pleshey.

Pleshey is where the Chelmsford Diocesan House of Retreat is. I had a room in the Gatehouse which was entirely fine: you don't expect luxury on a retreat. The next few days will have lots of services, some addresses from the retreat leader, and a fair amount of silence (though you don't have to be silent when you're out of the house, which is useful when you want to pop out to the pub).

Labels: clothing, ordination

Work, preparation

(backposting) More work today, and an interesting meeting over lunch. I'm on retreat from tomorrow afternoon, so have taken the entire day off tomorrow, as well as Friday and Monday, but I've managed to close off some important pieces of work, and don't intend to spend much time looking at work email for the next few days.

Labels: work

A veritable wee!

Miri managed her first wee in a potty before her bath today. Yay! We've been sitting her on it from time to time, but she's never performed, so we made a big thing of it today. She's young for potty training, but has been patting loos quite often (and patting, for her, means that she wants to sit somewhere), so we thought we'd give it a go.

The other big news for the girls was Jo's first big-girl book. She's really enjoyed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on DVD, so we thought we'd try her on the book. It's the first non-picture-dominated book she's had, and she loved it. The chapters are a good length, so I read one to her before the bath, and Moo read her one as she went to bed. Go Jo!

I had lunch with Viv, and talked about my first month as a deacon - which really isn't far away now. Things are really getting close.

Despite the upcoming excitement, I've got lots of work done today, and I'm quite pleased with it.

Labels: books, Jo, miri, ordination, work

Barbecuing a bishop

(backposting) This evening Moo and I went to the Bishop of Chelmsford's place for a barbecue (hog roast) with all of the other ordinands for the diaconate. This really isn't Moo's sort of thing at all, but we both had rather a good time. I re-met a bunch of people I'd not seen for a while, including a good friend, Susan, who Moo got on very well with, and a few others, too. Moo even found a Scouser to talk to (they're everywhere), though there were a few frosty moments when she discovered that we are a Reds family (rather than Evertonians) but we got over it. A good time, and a good chance to speak to people in the same position I am in (and the same for Moo) .

Labels: ordination

Being lay

The girls slept in till past 0700. But as Jo was awake for around 2 hours during the night, this isn't so good. But we got up and went for a walk with the dog before church at 1100. Moo looked after Miri (got her to sleep) while I took Jo to Great Yeldham for what may be my last service as a member of the laity. Certainly in a parish church - I think there will be some services on the ordination retreat this coming week. Had to look after Jo for quite a lot of it, but read the Epistle, which I enjoyed very much.

Lunch, then a bit of gardening: why does garden machinery hate me so much? The mower all but died, and the strimmer lost an important part as I was using it.

After this debacle, Moo and I took the girls swimming at the Braintree Swimming Centre. We all had a great time, particularly as Miri has decided that she can go down the water slide. She can, but around 20% of the time she bangs her head on the way down...

A little recap: over the past week, the girls have really come on. Jo's coordination has developed significantly, and she now runs beautifully. She also enjoys forward rolls and similar, and we're thinking about finding her gymnastics lessons. Where she gets all this from is beyond us!

Miri, also, has come on astonishingly. On the movement side, she now can both walk and run, and is happy to carry things around all over the place (preferably bags), and to go downstairs forward, on her (well-padded) bottom. But the biggest change has been in her language. Not only are we getting more and more words from her ("Buster", "dog", "shoes", "oh dear", "good girl", "cat", "there" (well, "dere") and "sorry" spring to mind), but she understands enormous amounts of what we say to her. "Would you take the bag to Mummy?" "Would you like some more yoghurt?" "Let's go to your bedroom." All well within her grasp. And she's getting good at letting us know what she wants: her favourite is to point at things, or to pat a chair that she wants to sit on. The most confusing thing is when she's very certain about something: a strongly shaken head means either "definitely no" or "very much yes". I think that Mel's going to notice some big changes.

Labels: clergy, Jo, miri, Moo

Ballet, new shoes

(backposting) After Jo's ballet (Moo left her, for the first time, and she was fine), we all headed off to Freeport, as Miri needed her first pair of walking (as opposed to "cruising") shoes. Don't I know some friends who have special outfits, let alone shoes, for cruising? That's a discussion for another entry - and probably another blog.

We had lunch at an all-you-can-east Chinese, did the shoe-shopping, and headed home for a quietish afternoon. Jo finished watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which I have to say is excellent. She particularly likes the squirrel episode, and we've now got a new phrase in the family lexicon: when Jo forgets to say "thank you", we say "Daddy, I want another pony". You have to know the film.

Before I went to pick Buster up from kennels, I changed Miri's bed from a cot to a bed. We decided that it's time. Moo was a bit sad (it's another "I don't have any babies anymore" moment), but it seems like a good plan. We moved the bed guard from Jo's bed (she really doesn't need it anymore) to Miri's, and at bed time, I got Miri to sleep in around 12 minutes, which isn't bad, given how disruptive her sleeping arrangements have been recently.

So, Moo and I settle down to watch the DVD extras on C & the C F, which are, like the film, excellent. We're just about to go to bed when we hear a "THUMP". We turn to look at each other, then both say "cat".

Then the crying starts.

Yes, poor little Miri had managed to throw herself off her new bed, head first. She was fine, but spent the night with Moo in our bed, while I went into the spare room (to be joined by Jo around 0320, of course, but hey).

Labels: films, miri

Home - via Somerset (and utter, utter incompetence)

(backposting) Yup, we left the cottage around 0900 (not so difficult, as we'd mostly been up since around 0530. Headed for my parent's place in Somerset, and got there whilst the morning was still fairly young. Mum was there, and we had doughnuts (and why not). My parents' new broadband was due to come live today, so I said that I'd investigate. I turned on their PC and rebooted the router. Good news: the router had an ADSL connection. Unluckily, the connection to Demon (their ISP) wasn't working. Odd.

A bit of history. Why, you may, ask, did they need "new" broadband? Well, they have two lines coming into the house: a main line (very old) and a fax line (newer). They decided that they never use the fax, so they might as well cancel it and save themselves some money. You're ahead of me, aren't you? One day, they tried to access the Internet, and it didn't work. Why? Because the ADSL was on the fax line. So, they recommissioned the fax line.

To their surprise, when they did this, ADSL didn't come back on. No problem: they phoned up BT, who said that it would take 5 working days. Today was the fifth day. Can you spot the mistake earlier in this paragraph? Yes, they'd not phoned _Demon_: they'd phoned BT. Some bright spark (a sales person, of course), said that it would be back just as before, and they'd still be able to use their old email addresses. These were both lies, but, as I discovered after about an hour on the phone, they now had BT Broadband.

Not what they wanted. After a great deal of discussion, they cancelled this, and reordered Demon Broadband. They shouldn't be charged by BT, as they were missold. However, in order to speed things up (they'd been without an Internet connection for over 2 weeks), they paid the standard £175 + VAT to fast-track things so they should be up on Wednesday. Cancelling the fax line did _not_ save them money. Somewhat the opposite...

If I hadn't spent nearly 2 hours on the phone, spoken to at least 6 people over at least 10 phone calls, I'd find it more funny.

Jim, Nina, Florence and Frankie joined us in the afternoon, and all the kids got on very well. We headed home after supper and a bath for the girls and got home around 2220. Jo went straight to bed, and Miri didn't. B*gger.

Labels: computing, family

Princess

(backposting) We went to Sidmouth again today. Jo had some pocket money, and Moo, Kate and Mac took her shopping (Miri was asleep in the car with me). "Please, Mummy, just this once, can I have something with a princess on it?"

We're fairly firm about the pink thing and the princess thing. I'd generally say not firm enough, but on this occasion, maybe just firm enough. Luckily, Moo couldn't find anything.

But then Jo wanted a shrimping net. Specifically, a pink, princess shrimping net. I'd joined the party by this stage, for coffee and cake. It appears that nobody manufactures pink, princess shrimping nets, or if they do, then they don't sell them in Sidmouth. Even finding a pink one was causing a problem, but once we managed that, our joint brilliance (and a set of Disney Princess stickers) suddenly gave us options. We headed down to the beach.

Took a while for the sea to go out sufficiently, but once it did, we had a fantastic time in rock pools. Nobody had told me, when I was a kid, that I'd get a chance to do rock-pooling again when I was older. And, to be frank, it's even more fun when you've got kids to share your successes with, and their successes to share. We caught shrimps, (very small) sea slugs, a couple of small fish, crabs, sea snails and seaweed. It was great. It was really great, and this, for all those who were wondering, is what being a Dad is really about.

Miri just wandered around sitting down in the sea whenever she could. Chips on the beach, then off to Ottery St Mary to look around the church with everyone and "enjoy" a frankly catastrophic tea & cakes, then back for our final evening. (Foot note: Jo was more than a little disappointed to find that Disney Princess stickers come off shrimping nets when wet. Useful to know next time).

Labels: family, holiday, Jo

Rain and fossils

(backposting) I'd like to say that I'm a great fossil hunter, but I've discovered that I'm really not. Charnmouth is supposed to be pretty good for this sort of thing, but I took a while to find anything, and it wasn't very impressive. I'm sure that 2 of the 4 fossils _were_ fossils, though. It rained. Moo got concerned that if I didn't find anything, I'd force everyone to stay on the beach in the rain for ever until I did.

We then went to Lyme Regis. Not as posh as Budleigh Salterton, but pleasant, and we had a decent fish meal. The restaurant was astonishingly child-friendly, but the people at the next table were very, very weird. Sounded like an Internet date, with a _very_ dull bloke talking to a poor (?Eastern European) woman about how he didn't really like white wine, but they could have a glass of champagne in the hot tub in the evening if she liked. Oh, and his stomach problems. And how big spinach salads are in the US. And what happened when he visited HP. Et cetera. I wanted to sidle over to the table to her and say: "run, run for your life! We'll keep him occupied. It's not too late to save yourself..." On a side note, when I take Jo to the loo, and we visit the Gents, and I use the urinals, she's started to complain if I don't aim for (and hit) the hole. It doesn't help the concentration.

Despite the forecast (we're back on weather now), the day was pretty good. We wandered round Lyme Regis, and Jo got a braid in her hair, which she's very pleased with.

In the evening, Moo and I went out together (on our own) for dinner for the first time in over a year, we reckon. The last time was before Miri was born. It was lovely, and work was paying (some sales thing we won in Europe a few months ago). We really ought to try it again soon. Nothing romantic afterwards, however, as Miri decided to wake up and take over an hour and a quarter to get back to sleep.

Labels: family, holiday, Moo

Eden Project

(backposting) Although it's over an hour and a half from Venn Ottery, we all wanted to visit the Eden Project. Moo, the girls and I had visited it twice last year, but Kate and Mac had never been. Combined with the facts that their tickets were only £10.00 each (OAP), and the tickets we had bought last year were still valid, it was an easy decision. Miri did lots of walking, partly because Jo had failed to sleep in the car on the way down, despite being very tired from too little sleep the night before, so hogged the pushchair. Miri, however, was in her element. She particularly liked the tropical / rainforest biome. She held my hand and walked through almost all of it, raising lots of smiles from those around, and shrieking at all of the little streams and waterfalls.

Moo drove back to the cottage and I slept, as did everyone else. This caused problems later, as Jo just refused to go to bed, and ended up staying up early (she got "early" and "late" confused today, for no obvious reason).

Labels: family, holiday

Budleigh Salterton

We went swimming again in the morning, and then my Mum came to visit, given how close the cottage is to my parents': only a little over an hour. We felt strongly that we needed to visit Budleigh Salterton. One of the reasons that we wanted to go was because of the fantastic Giles Wemmbley Hogg, Budleigh Salterton's most famous resident. Budleigh Salterton is quite posh. Kind of. It has a very pebbly beach, and dogs aren't allowed on it during the summer. Which is fair enough, but a bit awkward, as my mum had brought their two dogs in the car. And as she'd initially forgotten they were there when she arrived at the cottage, we did feel that they deserved to be out of the boot. So, we took turns heading down to the sea-shore with the girls, and then sitting with the dogs on a bench. Had tea at a lovely tea-room up a side-street: Jo wasn't allowed ice-cream on its own, after an incidence of disobedience earlier in the day (and two warnings), but I did allow her to have it _with_ some chocolate cake. And I got to eat quite a lot of the cake as Jo wouldn't finish it (and that was after a lovely scone with jam and clotted cream).

Labels: beach, family, holiday

Church at Ottery St Mary

(backposting) Kate and I made it to the 0800 BCP Holy Communion service at the beautiful Ottery St Mary parish church. Fascinating place, modelled on Exeter Cathedral. After we got back, we all headed off to Sidmouth beach. Even better than Exmouth, for my money. Random Morris Dancers (female, though they would have been equally random if male, IMHO) on the promenade, then down to the rock pools. Great stuff, and I felt that I did my fatherly duty by finding a hermit crab. Rock pools are fun, they really are.

We wandered into town to grab fish and chips and started eating them on the promenade (morris dancers gone) until the rain really started to come down, when we headed to the car.

Played in the garden in the afternoon, after a trip to the Donkey Sanctuary (which Miri loved, as it had lots of donkeys in it - d'oh- and she loves donkeys, as they are animals, and she loves all animals...), had a good barbecue.

In two weeks I'll be ordained...

Labels: beach, church, holiday

Exmouth

(backposting) In the visitors' book, someone had suggested that Exmouth is a good beach, so we all went out, and had a lovely time. Jo and Miri both loved the sand, the sea and the rockpools. Jo also loved the ice-cream, which, for her, is a - no, make that _the_ - main reason for going to the beach in the first place. Both the girls got a little cold, and had to be bundled up to warm them up: Jo, for some reason, believes that ice-cream will do the same job...

In the afternoon, all of us bar Mac visited Woodbury Park Country Club's swimming pool, which rental of Burrows gave us access to.

Labels: beach, holiday, Jo

Actually to Devon

(backposting) We had a lovely morning with Rosie and Andy, sitting in the garden, watching people play tennis, and getting a quick tennis lesson for little Jo. It was interesting: after a few minutes, she sat down by the net, really dispirited, saying, "I'll never be able to do it: I'll never be able to hit the ball". It's really hard, as Rosie pointed out: it looks like you ought just to be able to swing the racket back and hit the darn thing, but, particularly if you're only 3 and a bit, it's really hard. In the end, she got it, and did very well indeed.

But we need to watch it. She's very sensitive to not being able to do things, and she's also reacted badly in the past to being called stupid: ability is important to her. This isn't surprising, given that "clever girl" has always been important praise from us and Mel.

We discovered, around 1030, that somehow, two bags hadn't been packed (this explains why it wasn't too difficult to get it all into the car). Neither of them was mine. Jo's, and ... Moo's. Oh dear. Rosie lent us lots of clothes, and we stopped off in Dorchester for a few more (including Upsy-Daisy pants - for Jo). We then headed off for Burrows, in Venn Ottery, where we met Kate and Mac. Lovely cottage. Settled in, had a barbecue, let the girls stay up a little (not point otherwise).

Moo was _very_ good about the fact that the bag-packing incident (or lack of it) could quite easily be laid at my door. And probably quite fairly...

Labels: holiday, Jo

Off to Devon (via Dorset)

(backposting) After a day at work, it's off on holiday! Moo got back around 1700, we fed and bathed the girls, and then drove down to Rosie and Andy, my aunt and uncle, who live in East Chaldon (or Chaldon Herring). Their daughter Merryn was there, which was an added bonus, and we got there sometime after 2200. When we set off I phoned them, to no answer, and as we were going round the M25 I tried again: no answer. So, we tracked down their local pub, and phoned them there. Yup, that did it...

The girls took a long time to get to sleep, and I probably shouldn't have stayed up till 0130 drinking single malt and rum (separate glasses)...

Labels: family, holiday

Bishop

The deal is that before you're ordained, you need to meet the bishop who's going to ordain you. He (and they're all still men in the Church of England, I'm afraid) has the final say as to whether it's a "go" or "no-go". I met the Bishop of Chelmsford and had a good chat about a number of things, including preparation for the ordination retreat and the office of the diaconate. He was very positive, and I think (and pray!) that we're ready to go. He mentioned that several other people had told him that it feels a bit like getting ready to get married: apprehensive, but sure you're doing the right thing.

Labels: marriage, ordination

Spiritual direction

I had my final session with my spiritual director pre-ordination today. A good session (which I managed to arrive 30 minutes early for, which beats the whole month early I managed once), and it came together nicely. I'm feeling ready, I really am. Apprehensive, but ready. I think that's probably about right.

Labels: ordination, spirituality

Finished!

Still demob happy. Took the dog for a walk after the girls had gone to bed, then barbecued. It was great just being able to sit and not feel that I should be doing some reading!

Labels: dog, walk

Finished

Last day of ERMC. A final Group D worship session, breakfast, a 3rd session on global Christianity: Cathy did a fascinating presentation on Indian Christian spirituality. I'd really like to find out more, actually. So would she, after doing the research, apparently. A round-up Q&A session with staff, then photos, then the final Eucharist. The choir sang the Stanford in G Nunc Dimittis, and I did the baritone solo. Half-way through, I was shaking so hard I could hardly hold the copy still, and nearly threw up. But I kept it together. And it went well.

Sad to see people go. But it's done. Nearly 3 years of my life, and the next step is ordination in 3 weeks. I was talking to someone about this last week, and it's a little like before I married Moo. Of course I'm apprehensive, and of course I don't know exactly what I'm letting myself in for, but it's the right thing, and I don't have any doubts about that.

Got home, took the girls out to the local playground, and a little later did a barbecue for a family supper. Ironing in the evening.

Labels: ERMC, singing

Last weekend

(backposting) Well, I didn't stay up too late last night - in bed by 1230 or so. We had a couple of interesting sessions on global Christianity last night. We also had an Exposition of the Sacrament service, which I'd not been involved with. The choir sang Byrd's Ave Verum, which was great. We sang pretty well, I think, and got lots of appreciation. Today we had sessions on the sacraments: detailed ones on baptism and the eucharist, and a more broad one on the sacraments in everyday life, which didn't really gel for me. A final session with Ian, the course director, telling us, mainly to take time off and look after ourselves. Went out to the pub with Sally, Simon and Gary: three folks I'm going to miss. But on the other hand, we all Facebook a lot, so we'll definitely be in touch.

Then back to the bar. I'd intended to get to bed around 2200 or 2230, but it ended up being more like 0130. Silly me.

Labels: ERMC

Fog

(backposting) So, at Moo's suggestion, I took today off, as she'd swapped her usual Friday to today, and I'm off on an ERMC weekend (my last!) from tomorrow afternoon. We decided to go to Felixstowe Old Harbour, and drove there through beautiful bright sunlight.

But as we approached the coast, we could see cloud. And then fog.

Do we care? No, we don't! We had a lovely time at the seaside, both girls, us and the dog.

Labels: family, photo

Miri's sense of humour

(backposting) Miri thinks that lots of things are very funny. In particular, warlking over to you pretending that she's going to give you something (a toy, a book, or even a cuddle), getting close, then shaking her head madly, turning away and toddling off. This is hilarious (particularly the head-shaking), and everyone gets to play.

Labels: family, humour, miri

You know when...

... you have lots of work to do, and life conspires against you? One of those days.

Labels: work

Home alone

With the girls, obviously. Moo's off for a couple of days on a course. The girls behaved beautifully, and went to bed very well. Miri took 40 minutes, but was only messing for half of that.

Labels: family, travel

Last sermon

Today I preached my last sermon to my current benefice, in Little Yeldham. Keith, my incumbent, had asked me where I'd like to preach this last sermon before my ordination, and I'd chosen Little Yeldham as I know and like the people, and feel at home there. It was also an opportunity to preach with Keith taking the service, as often I've been taking the services at which I've been preaching. I preached on eschatology, and how we can move from a partly realised eschatology to a realistic, realisable future eschatology throughan undestanding of he perichoretic opportunities of friendship. This sounds complicated, I guess, but it really isn't: it's about understanding that although Christ's life, death and resurrection began to usher in the Kingdom of God, the world we live in is still very broken, and we're a long way from the Kingdom right now. How can we work towards it? By realising that it's not just an individual thing, and that when Christ called his disciples friends, he called us all to a friendship which can hopefully make us more mature, as individuals and a community.

The scary thing? I'm due to be ordained this month.

Labels: preaching, theology