Scouse Ordinand

Self-worth...

2008-03-30T19:08:00.004Z

Nipped into a pub near the library I was working in for a quick bite to eat at lunchtime on Friday. Heard an interesting series of statements spoken by a guy, I'm guessing not too much different in age to myself, for all to hear as he sat at the bar with a pint. Went something like this:

"I love alcohol! It's the best thing God created."
"I'd be permanently drunk if I could effing well afford it, it's just too damn expensive; effing government and their taxes."
"I'm a better person when I'm drunk..."

Without wanting to be patronising this made me feel sad - the last bit especially. Maybe it was just bravado / drink speaking, but I think there was more to it than that. He sounded like he genuinely meant it, and it said a lot to me about his own self-worth. Self-worth - such a big issue, that underlies so much, causes so many problems, for so many people. Hmmm...sad and thought provoking.

Post-Easter blues...

2008-03-30T18:37:00.002Z

Why do things have a tendency to go wrong after something's been really good?!! Feel like having a little moan on here for a change!

After a great Easter weekend (see previous entry below), we've had a really rubbishy week. Having really wanted a complete break from everything for a week, we'd decided to treat ourselves to a couple of nights B & B up on the North Norfolk coast - 1 of those parts of the country that we've been meaning to explore a bit while we're within reach, but not quite got around to it yet. But Lisa got knocked for 6 by a really heavy cold / flu and we weren't able to travel. Things like this always seem to happen to her in school holidays - though this was particularly bad, for a couple of days she was as ill as I've ever known her to be! So instead of heading for Norfolk I ended up spending a couple of days trying to get started on my penultimate essay in the library, while Lisa was recovering - not the week I had in mind!

Shouldn't moan too much 'cos fortunately I seem to have avoided coming down with it as well. Also we've only lost out on a small deposit for the cancelled B & B, and have just taken the risk of re-booking (though different B & B this time) and so barring any mishaps we're heading off in the morning for a couple of nights to a place called Wells-next-the-Sea. Might get a few pics up here at some point.

...and having said all that the last few days haven't all been that bad - just enjoyed a visit from my Aunt and Uncle for the last couple of days, which gave me yet another excuse to play Cambridge tour guide (still not bored of that, despite doing it countless times now!), and have just got back from the pub where I enjoyed Liverpool's victory in the derby match against Everton. Maybe things are looking up again...

Holy Week / Easter 2008...

2008-03-24T18:18:00.015Z

...A Holy Week and Easter Sunday with a difference this year! Due to Easter being so early it meant that Holy Week fell within the Ridley term. This doesn't happen very often so it was decided it should be marked in style with a series of services and events over the whole week. Morning prayer each day with a series of talks from Richard Bauckham on 'the pattern of the cross in Genesis' and optional daily Holy Communion services. Then a really poignant and special series of services:
Maundy Thursday - a dramatic, lively, funny, meaningful all age ceder (agape) service / meal, and a far quieter, extremely moving footwashing / chapel stripping service later in the evening;
Good Friday - thought provoking morning prayer with various Crucifixion images and then an amazingly creative, well thought out 'liquid worship style' Stations of the Cross service making use of all kinds of things: handcuffs (!), music, artwork, film, hammers and nails, clay and much more besides;
Holy Saturday - an impressive performance of the Passion story put on by people from various Cambridge churches in the town centre in nightmare-ish weather conditions unfortunately;
Easter Sunday - just a fantastic time, starting pre-dawn with a vigil from 5am (even Lisa made it into college with me for this) and going on to include lighting a fire; processing to chapel behind the Easter 'paschal' candle; remembrance and renewal of baptismal vows and promises; music such as Eastern Orthodox style chants, Taize music, trad Easter hymns, modern worship songs, all done amazingly well; celebration of Holy Communion; all of which was then followed by 'optional' sparkling wine, a fry up and then a snowball fight (not sure I ever remember an Easter snowball fight before)! Just an amazing celebration of the risen Christ!

Like I say - a Holy Week and Easter Sunday with a difference, a time I will never forget. I feel more than ever this year that I've been taken on an incredible journey of remembrance of, and focus on, the amazingness of the Easter story and what God has done for us all in Christ - in a way that's made it all more real and more meaningful than ever for me. Alleluia, Christ is Risen - He is risen indeed, Alleluia!!

Here's a few photo's - though unfortunately I've only got a selection from the Saturday passion play and Easter Day celebrations:

Holy Saturday

Getting Ridley chapel ready for Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday

He Has Risen - Jesus is Alive!

2008-03-23T15:04:00.005Z

"Woman," he said, "why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?" Thinking he was the gardener, she said, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). (John 19:15-16)

HE HAS RISEN, He has risen,
He has risen, Jesus is alive.

When the life flowed from His body,
Seemed like Jesus’ mission failed.
But His sacrifice accomplished,
Victory over sin and hell.

In the grave God did not leave Him,
For His body to decay;
Raised to life, the great awakening,
Satan’s power He overcame.

HE HAS RISEN, He has risen,
He has risen, Jesus is alive.

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, was not with the other disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!" (John 19:24-28)

Holy Saturday

2008-03-22T18:56:00.003Z

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance...The next day...the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. "Sir," they said, "we remember that while he was still alive the deceiver said, 'After three days I will rise again.' So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first." "Take a guard," Pilate answered. "Go make the tomb as secure as you know how." So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard. (Matthew 27:59, 60, 62-66)

Good Friday

2008-03-21T18:48:00.005Z

Come and see, come and see
Come and see the King of love
See the purple robe and crown of thorns he wears
Soldiers mock, rulers sneer as he lifts the cruel cross
Lone and friendless now he climbs towards the hill

We worship at your feet
Where wrath and mercy meet
And a guilty world is washed by love’s pure stream
For us he was made sin
Oh, help me take it in
Deep wounds of love cry out “Father, forgive”
I worship, I worship the lamb that was slain

Maundy Thursday

2008-03-20T22:00:00.003Z

...so Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel... (John 13:4-5)

Meekness and majesty
Manhood and Deity

In perfect harmony

The Man who is God

Lord of eternity

Dwells in humanity

Kneels in humility

And washes our feet

The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in

remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." (1 Corinthians 11:23-25)

Happy St Patricks Day (well in 2 hours...)

2008-03-16T22:27:00.001Z

Psalms...

2008-02-07T11:46:00.000Z

For different reasons the Psalms are becoming quite a recurring area of reflection / study for me at the moment. I've been working my way through a course in the Ignation Spiritual exercises with the help of a spiritual director over the last few months which has encouraged a fair bit of reading of and reflection on various Psalms. During the Ridley prayer retreat last weekend one of our staff gave some of us what I found to be a really inspiring session on praying with the Psalms. Also one of my MA modules this term is at the moment focusing on the Psalms and different ways in which they have been understood, interpreted and used down the years.

Before arriving at Ridley, coming from quite a non-liturgical background, I had relatively minimal knowledge and experience of the Psalms - and it would be fair to say that at times over my 2 1/2 years here I've found that the daily recital of them in Morning Prayer can be slightly monotonous, and so not always approached them with the right attitude and given the words the attention they deserve. But I'm realising more and more how much there is in there that can connect with where I'm at at any given time and express so powerfully what I want to say to God at certain times. To take an extreme eg Psalm 22:1 'My God, my God why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me..' There is so much to encourage: Psalm 139 'O Lord, you have searched me and known me...', Psalm 136 'O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever...'; so much to challenge: Psalm 133 'How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity...', Psalm 127 'Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labour in vain...'

I really feel that they are enriching my life greatly at the moment; and that they could be of so much benefit for Christians generally - both individually and communally, if only used and taught more widely - but creatively and imaginatively!!

On a lighter note, in my MA module reading I came across this 'modern translation' of Psalm 23 written, I'm surmising, as a bit of a tongue-in-cheek dig at attempts to modernise liturgical language. It appeared in the Telegraph titled David Lyric Two-Three. Makes me chuckle:

The Lord and I are in a shepherd/sheep situation, and I am in a position of negative need. He prostrates me in a green belt grazing area; he conducts me directionally parallel to non-torrential aqueous liquid. He returns to original satisfaction, levels my psychological make-up; he switches me on to a positive behavioural format for maximal prestige of his identity.
It should indeed be said that notwithstanding the fact that I make ambulatory progress through the umbrageous inter-hill mortality slot, terror-sensations will not be instantiated within me due to para ethical phenomena. Your pastoral walking aid and quadruped pickup unit introduce me into a pleasurific mood-state.
You design and produce a nutriment-bearing furniture-type structure in the context of non-cooperative elements; you act out a head-related folk ritual employing vegetable extract; my beverage utensil experiences a volume crisis.
It is an ongoing deductible fact that your inter-relational empathetical and non-vengeance capabilities will retain me as their target focus for the duration of my non-death period: and I will possess tenant rights in the housing unit of the Lord on a permanently open-ended time basis.

Shrove Tuesday / Ash Wednesday...

2008-02-07T11:40:00.000Z

Enjoyed some pancakes on Tuesday and then went to a 7.30am Cambridge Theological Federation Eucharist yesterday at which I was 'ashed' to mark Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Afterwards I noticed this on the asbojesus site:-

The Batman Band...

2008-02-07T11:30:00.000Z

Made to chuckle again by the asbojesus cartoonist!

6 Nations Kick Off...

2008-02-01T13:41:00.000Z

Off to the back of beyond (somewhere on the Norfolk / Suffolk borders) later today for the annual Ridley Hall prayer 'retreat' weekend, and while I'm looking forward to a change of scene and some 'quiet' time I must admit I'm already trying to work out how I can factor in TV access to see tomorrow's Rugby 6 Nations kick off with England playing Wales and Ireland taking on Italy! Will be interesting to see whether England's run to the World Cup final was a sign of good things to come or whether they'll come back down to earth with a bump, and similarly whether Ireland's disastrous time in the W.C. was just a blip that they can put behind them in this 6 Nations. As ever my loyalties are torn between the 2 countries and I'd like nothing more than to see England and Ireland taking the tournament by storm and being the 2 left fighting for the crown at the death - destroying France along the way! Ok, ok, dreaming maybe...but you never know!

Liverpool also happen to be playing Sunderland tomorrow. Surely that's 1 the Reds can wn at least?! Not blogged about Liverpool much recently - a combination of the general mess the club seems to be in with all the gossip and rubbish flying about regarding the owners and Rafa's job as manager just doesn't fit with the Liverpool FC I know and love! Combine that with the atrocious playing form of the team at the moment, and it's just all far too depressing for me. So that's enough about that!

Simon says...

2008-01-16T22:18:00.000Z

Hahahahaha...
Is this what's going to happen to start happening with me following my ordination in a few months time??

(Just in case anyone out there is slightly worried - I'm not really big headed enough to go with this thought. Did make me chuckle though given my name and impending ministry!)

Thanks again to the asbojesus site.

God and church

2008-01-16T22:04:00.001Z

Came across this today on the asbojesus cartoon blog:

Some not easy to accept truth for the church (very much including me) to consider here? Challenging?...Any views on this?

(If too small to read click here to see it properly)

Liverpool: European Capital of Culture 2008

2008-01-11T14:37:00.000Z

Really wish I could be in Liverpool tonight for the people's launch of the city's year as European Capital of Culture - it sounds like it's going to be an amazing event, including Ringo Starr playing a new song from the rooftop of St Georges Hall. From the websites and things I've looked at it does seem like there is lots of good stuff going to be happening over the year, so that's another thing to look forward to as we move back there in June. I have heard that there have been grumblings about the organisation of it and the way things have been run - as Phil Redmond put it:

"It's like a scouse wedding - a lot of rowing but it gets there in the end."

So I'm hoping that the rowing etc. can all be put to one side and that the year shows Liverpool off as the great city that it is, as well as being of real benefit. Hoping that it is something that people will really be able to feel part of and proud of!

Liverpool's a good place to visit anyway, but I'd say even more so over this next year - so if you get a chance go for it! Here's a few links for info about the culture year and events etc.:-

http://www.liverpool08.com/index.asp
http://www.bbc.co.uk/liverpool08/
http://www.visitliverpool.com/site/welcome-to-liverpool
http://www.liverpool08.com/Events/2008EventsProgramme/index.asp

Christmas / New Year etc.

2008-01-07T11:31:00.000Z

Just sat in my study at Ridley getting used to the idea that another term is about to kick off - my 8th out of 9! One thing I'm going to have get used to quickly after leaving here is not having the long holidays, having just enjoyed a 4 week break. Having said that the best part of 2 weeks of it was spent working fairly hard on the 6000 word MA essay that was due in today. Had 2 weeks completely clear though which was great! Spent 10 days including Christmas itself over in Ireland at Lisa's parents place near Dublin - guessing it will be a long time before we will be there on Christmas Day itself again! Did a fair amount of walking on Portmarnock beach just a 5 min walk down the road from the house, enjoyed a few pints of Guinness, saw some live Gaelic football, did a bit of shopping, visited my godmother who was over there staying with her daughter and my 97 year old Great Aunt who lives over the other side of Dublin, caught up with various friends etc. A good break - though it went very quickly.

Flew back to Stansted on the 30th - got home about 5pm, and by 7pm were in the car heading off up the A14 to spend a couple of days with my family. Stayed with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece in Shropshire, did a bit of shopping at the Cheshire Oaks outlet village, saw my Aunt and Uncle, and then on New Years Day saw my parents, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and went to the hospital in Warrington to meet our new nephew Joshua for the 1st time. He was born 8-9 weeks prematurely in December, but seems to be doing really well and is hopefully going to be out of hospital any time now. Came back to Comberton for a rest late on New Years Day!

Anyway, enough waffle. Here's a few photo's:

Portmarnock beach

Christmas Dinner (from left Ross, Michael, Pat, and Lisa's Aunt May)

Dublin Gaelic football players in a friendly match at Portmarnock Gaa Club.

Ross on the sand dunes

Our nephew Benjamin

and his sister Amy - 1 of Liverpool's youngest fans!

That's the life!

Pete (my brother) with Lorriane, Benjamin and Amy

Me and Nathaniel (nephew / godson)

And his younger brother Joshua on our 1st visit to him with Louise and Kev.

A Guinness a day...

2007-12-19T11:34:00.000Z

Heading for Dublin for 10 days tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with the in-laws, so was delighted to spot this among the most read news items on the BBC website this morning!

Guinness good for you - official

The old advertising slogan "Guinness is Good for You" may be true after all, according to researchers....

Go listen...

2007-12-18T17:07:00.000Z

Have newly discovered the delights of Sigur Ros and Sufjan Stevens this week, and have really enjoyed having the below to accompany my essay writing this week:

Sigur Ros - Takk

Sufjan Stevens - Come on feel the Illinoise

and on a festive note:

Acquired taste some of it maybe - but I'm enjoying them and definitely recommed!

Have also enjoyed a re-discovering (though not to Lisa's liking unfortunately!) of the delights of Led Zeppelin via their new compilation album Mothership. Treated myself to the bonus edition with a live DVD included. Fantastic!

Go read...

2007-12-18T16:45:00.000Z

Have really enjoyed reading this over the last few days. Really engagingly written, and extremely moving and thought provoking. Click here for a brief synopsis. Won't say anymore than that, other than to highly recommend if not read already. Also just heard that it has just come out as a movie - will be interested to see how they have done it in film form, so that will be a trip over the Christmas period.

4 goals and a baby!

2007-12-12T22:12:00.000Z

Came home from my essay writing at college yesterday slightly on edge about Liverpool's match away to Marseilles which they had to win to stay in the tournament. Was not expecting my pre-match tension and build-up to be rudely interrupted by a phonecall to say that my sister's baby was on the way 9 weeks early! Louise had taken herself to the hospital for a quick check as she had not felt quite right during the afternoon, only to find that she was 8cm dilated and the baby was coming! 40 mins later just a short while after the football had kicked off had another phonecall announcing the birth of Joshua Ethan - less than 2 hours after Louise had driven herself to the hospital!! He's now in the special care unit being well cared for and may be there for some time, though he seems to be doing well at this stage and not giving any particular causes for concern. Here's a few photo's:

The proud parents.

And proud grandparents.

So congratulations to Louise, Kev & Nathaniel, and welcome to Joshua - thank you for forcing me to keep my nervousness about silly football matches in proper perspective!

Having said that, despite everything going on it was still a pleasure to see Liverpool win what could have been a very tense and difficult match so comfortably. 4-0 away in Marseilles is a great result! Torres and Gerrard were amazing. So from a position of needing to win all 3 matches to qualify Liverpool have beaten Besiktas 8-0, Porto 4-1 and now Marseilles 4-0. Fantastic! But it makes even more of a mockery of the silly results in the earlier matches that left us in the position of needing those 3 wins, and also mean that we only qualify in 2nd place from a group that we should have won comfortably. Means we're likely to end up with a far harder tie now in the next round against 1 of the likes of Real Madrid, Barcelona, AC or Inter Milan etc. Still Liverpool have shown that they can beat anyone on their day in these European knockout stages. Here's hoping we'll do it again!

Ordination Service

2007-11-29T10:30:00.000Z

Had a letter through on Tuesday confirming that (assuming nothing goes badly wrong in the next 6 months!) my ordination service will take place in Liverpool's stunning Anglican Cathedral at 10.30am on Sunday 29th June 2008. Thinking about it - it's actually not very far off! It's all becoming quite scarily real all of a sudden, and I'm getting the impression that these next 6 months are going to fly by. The letter had details of what I need to wear in terms of robes for the service - I'm so clueless on that sort of stuff, any advice from anyone who happens to know about C of E clerical wear etc. will be gratefully received!

Anyway, if you pray, please pray for Lisa and I over this time as we go through our final months here, begin to get ready to move, and prepare for the next step of our journey along the path that we believe God is leading us along.

2 down 1 to go...

2007-11-29T09:57:00.001Z

Another pretty good win for the Reds yesterday against Porto at Anfield - even if they did leave if fairly late, scoring 3 goals in the last 15 minutes to give a slightly flattering 4-1 victory. Having left ourselves in the silly position of needing 3 wins from our last 3 matches in the group to qualify for the next round, that's now 2 of them dealt with convincingly and just the 1 to go now. The fact that we're beating these teams 8-0 and 4-1 just goes to show how poorly we played to be in this predicament - these are not particularly good teams and we shouldn't be having this difficulty in qualifying. Going to be a really difficult and tense match against Marseilles at their ground now to see if we can get the 3rd win needed. But if we can do that, and with our league form picking up again, this season might just not be a write off yet. Here's hoping...

England, England, England...

2007-11-22T10:03:00.001Z

Nearly tempted to say I'm glad because England have made such an unbelievable hash of what should have been a relatively straightfoward qualification group, and simply have not deserved to go through. But I'm not glad - in reality I am gutted! What I do honestly believe though is that if we had held on for the draw last night and qualified it would have just been a papering over of the cracks, and could have led to a continuation of what has been an extremely mediocre couple of years.

I think McClaren got things horribly wrong with his team line up and tactics and has consistently done so over his whole time in charge. The only area I feel slightly sorry for him in terms of last nights game was the defence where injuries / suspension meant the entire 1st choice back 4 were missing. But to change the whole formation that England are used to and to bring in a new and inexperienced keeper for such a key game was just crazy. Never saw the game, but poor Scott Carson will have nightmares about that 1st goal for the rest of his career and the midfield (from what I've heard) just didn't seem to know what they were meant to be doing, where they were meant to be playing. The players must take some of the blame, but ultimately when the tactics go as horribly wrong as that the manager has to take the ultimate responsibility.

Also think the FA need to have a long hard look at themselves. For 1 thing the pitch at Wembley was in a shocking state which didn't suit the England players at all. Something seems to be wrong throughout the English game as well, we've got supposedly the strongest league in the world and yet our national team is in such a mess. Is it just down to things like the number of foreign imports playing here - does that restrict the progress of English players?

Finally, I know it is easy to say in hindsight, but I did say at the time he was appointed that I thought McClaren was the wrong choice - and I do feel sorry for him, good club coach and nice guy, but not the right man for the England job. When Sven went I wanted someone to come in fresh, wipe the slate clean and bring new ideas and impetus, instead they just appointed Sven's sidekick and though he tried to make a couple of changes to stamp his authority at the start it was pretty much just the same old England. Why they didn't bring in someone like Martin O'Neill is still beyond me! Hopefully this will be rectified with the right appointment of the next manager now, but who will that be? It's like being handed the poisoned chalice, volunteering to be the next back page hate figure! Will be interesting to see what happens. I would still like O'Neill, and as much as I'm not a big fan of the guy to say the least Mourinho could be an interesting choice. Hmmm...

24 - 13 years ago!

2007-11-14T17:31:00.000Z

Enjoying watching 24 series 4 at the moment, and came across this spoof clip via Ellen's blog. Quality!

(Unfortunately can't get the video itself to appear directly here - so click HERE to watch)

Only in America!

2007-11-13T09:26:00.000Z

Enjoyed the 2nd 'most read' news item on the BBC webaite this morning. The title and 1st sentance says it all:

Man hurt using gun to change tyre
A US man has injured himself in both legs after attempting to loosen a stiff wheel-nut by blasting it with his gun.

Click here for the full story.

Let him who is without sin...

2007-11-13T09:21:00.000Z

Asbojesus making me laugh again:

Graduation Day.

2007-11-11T16:59:00.000Z

Spent most of the day yesterday wandering around Cambridge feeling like a bit of a prat in the get up you'll see in the photo's below. Having worked hard over the last couple of years to get a 2:1 in my BTh degree I thought I might as well attend one of the 'degree conferral congregations' as they call them here to be 'admitted' to my degree and receive the certificate officially. Ridley can't validate its own degrees, so I have also been a member of Wolfson which is one of the University colleges - but not had time too get involved in much there or got round to going to any of their formal / posh dinners etc. They're not really my scene anyway. So this was my 1 last chance to do the 'formal' Cambridge Uni bit while I'm here, and my parents were happy that I was willing to go anyway!

Anyway, talk about pomp and ceremony! The instruction email about the day set the tone for what to expect - here's an extract from it about dress code:-

CLOTHING TO BE WORN WITH ACADEMICAL DRESS : BY MEN
· The overall effect should be formal and tidy.
· When proceeding to Degree, men must wear a plain dark suit or black dinner jacket and trousers. “Dark” means black, or very dark blue, or very dark grey. A plain white shirt with a white dress tie and academical bands must also be worn. Shirts with a pronounced pattern are not permitted. Cummerbunds are also not permitted.
· Men must wear academical bands, except when service uniform (see below) or national dress is permitted to be worn.
· Shoes must be black and of sober style. Sandals or boots are also not permitted. Socks must be black or very dark blue or very dark grey.

PLEASE CONTACT THE PRAELECTOR IF YOU WISH TO WEAR NATIONAL DRESS (The Praelector must request of the Registry, special dispensation if you wish to wear national dress)

Having been sent this in advance I was then told that I had to arrive at Wolfson in time for a guy called the 'Praelector' to inspect me to make sure I was correctly dressed - they weren't joking, he even asked me to lift my trousers so he could check my socks!! After that we got to go to the President's lodge for a drinks reception and then to the Dining Hall for a very enjoyable 3 course lunch. At the end of the lunch the 'Praelector' gave us a bit of a talk about the history of Cambridge graduation - I didn't realise that no women were awarded Cambridge degrees before 1948! He also talked about the University Police called 'proctors'. Supposedly in the past they used to prowl around Cambridge to catch any students not wearing their gowns etc. and also to spot any students out and about with girls! They had the power to arrest the girls and send them for 30 days to the local 'spinning house' as 'correction'! Nowadays they are there on graduation days to make sure that 'graduands' are dressed correctly and behave correctly at the ceremony, and the reason why the Praelector was checking our attire so carefully was that if the proctors spot anything wrong with our dress or if we 'misbehaved' he gets fined a bottle of port! Only in somewhere like Cambridge! I was slightly bemused and finding the whole thing a bit surreal at this stage!

After that I had to go with the other 'graduands' for a run through of what would happen at the ceremony. Then we had to 'precess' from Wolfson; in the order that we were to go forward at the ceremony mainly in rows of 2 or 3 - but with me as the only person there receiving an undergraduate degree bringing up the rear on my own, the 'dunce' of the group; to the University Church in the centre of town, where the ceremony was held. There, I had to walk up the aisle, take hold of the praelectors hand while he presented me in Latin, then move forward kneel down with my hands held out together while the person doing the award held them and spoke some more Latin, then stand take a step back and bow to her, before walking off and receiving the certificate. And that was it. All a bit formal and surreal, and not the sort of scene or clothing get up that I'm normally comfortable with. But I did kind of enjoy it and am glad I did it. My parents seemed to enjoy it, and think Lisa did generally too. Here's a few photo's:

Long time since my Dad last had to dress me! But I didn't have a clue what I was doing!

With Lisa, Mum and Dad at Ridley.

The University Church of Great St Mary's - where the ceremony took place.

On the University 'Senate House' lawn after the cermony.

Ludicrous laws...

2007-11-08T15:05:00.000Z

Came across on article on the BBC website yesterday that amused me. It was about some research done by UKTV Gold into ludicrous laws that have supposedly never been repealed in England. Here's a few examples:

* It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament

* It could be regarded an act of treason to place a postage stamp bearing the British king or queen's image upside-down

* Eating mince pies on Christmas Day is banned

* In the UK, a pregnant woman can legally relieve herself anywhere she wants

* The head of any dead whale found on the British coast automatically becomes the property of the King, and the tail of the Queen

* It is illegal not to tell the tax man anything you do not want him to know, but legal not to tell him information you do not mind him knowing

* It is illegal to enter the Houses of Parliament wearing a suit of armour

There were some other even funnier ones on there yesterday as well as the above (including 1 about it being illegal to be topless in public places in Liverpool unless you work in a pet shop!), but when you visit the page it now says: "This is an amended version of an earlier story which included several examples of laws from the survey which we have been unable to verify, and these have been removed." Pity!

8-0!!

2007-11-08T12:46:00.000Z

What a performance and result by Liverpool the other night! Makes a nice change after a very poor few weeks. Sometimes though, football just makes no sense! How can you get beat 2-1 by a team and then just 2 weeks later beat that same team 8-0? Nonsensical! I know it does make a difference playing in your own stadium rather than at the other teams place, nut surely it shouldn't make that much difference? Reminds me of a couple of matches Liverpool played in the same season when I was a teenager against Crystal Palace (early 90's I think). We beat them either 9-0 or 9-1 in the league, but then were beaten 4-3 by them in the FA Cup semi-final. At least they were a few months apart though - not just 2 weeks!

Didn't get to see the match, but it sounds like it was totally one-sided and that we could have scored even more. Wish we'd playe half as well in our previous matches in this group. Have read that it is the best ever winning score in the Champions League. Nice record to have, but it will count for nothing if we don't qualify for the next round. That's still going to be an uphill struggle as we have to win both of our remaining matches against Porto at Anfield and then Marseilles at their ground. Just hope we can keep the momentum from this result going...

Preaching as confessional?

2007-10-28T22:36:00.000Z

On the note of preaching this morning (see below entry), I was reading a book about preaching recently where the author made a comment that interested me in a list of 'do nots' for preachers. The author said that preachers should not use the pulpit as a confessional - that his confessional is done in private between him and God. I'd be interested in quizzing him further about what exactly he meant by this. I agree that it is right for a preacher to be wise and careful about what they say - and especially if they are in a leadership role of some kind in the situation in which they are preaching. I wouldn't want a preacher to spend a whole sermon sharing their own faults or dark secrets or whatever. A sermon shouldn't be self-centred. But at the same time I'm not convinced that there is anything wrong with a preacher admitting that what they are preaching about is difficult to accept / understand sometimes and that they themselves often find whatever it is hard; to admit that they do often find it a struggle to practice what they preach. I think that it is often easier for people to relate to, and accept what they hear from, preachers who can be honest about their own struggles and difficulties - their need for God and the strength of His Holy Spirit. Like I say I know that a preacher should be wise about this, and the appropriateness of saying certain things has to be judged according to each context / situation - but surely not to the point of not being real at all and running the risk as coming over to people as aloof??

Epitaphs...

2007-10-28T21:21:00.000Z

Preached this morning on a passage from 2 Timothy 4. Not feeling brave enough to share my sermon text on here. But when I was preparing and 1st read the passage it made me think that Paul could have been writing his own epitaph:

'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day...' (2 Tim 4:7-8)

When my earthly end comes (hopefully not for many a year yet!!) I'd be happy to have such words as these on my gravestone!

With these thoughts going through my mind I went google searching for some of examples of real epitaphs which I used in my introduction:

Winston Churchill – I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

Unknown dentist – Stranger! Approach this spot with gravity! John Brown is filling his last cavity.

Mary Weary, Housewife –
Dere Friends I am going
Where washing ain't done
Or cooking or sewing:
Don't mourn for me now
Or weep for me never:
For I go to do nothing
Forever and ever!

and one that I didn't use but one of the congregation told me about after the service:

Spike Milligan - I told you I was ill!

Lord of the Rings the Show

2007-10-28T21:15:00.000Z

Treated ourselves on Monday just gone as it was Lisa's 1/2 term with a trip down to London to go and see the new stage version of Lord of the Rings, having managed to come across some very reasonably priced tickets which included a pre-show meal as well on lastminute.com. Had a very enjoyable evening!

Having said that my views on the show are slightly mixed. As a big fan of the book, I did wonder how they could hope to do the story justice in a 3 hour stage show - and to be blunt I don't think it did the job storyline wise. I found myself wondering whether someone who didn't know the story at all would be able to work out what the heck was going on - or would they actually enjoy it more because they didn't know all the ins and outs of the story? Also none of the songs struck me in the often annoying but memorable way that musical songs have a tendency to strike me.

There were some real highlights though - the accompanying / background music was at times fantastic, the actor who played Gollum carried the role off brilliantly and visually the whole show was absolutely stunning! The way the stage worked - different bits of it moving in all kinds of directions including up and down throughout the show (so much work to get that right in terms of sequencing and timing etc.); the different scenes and backdrops; the way 'awkward' characters like the orcs, the ents, the balrog, and especially Shelob the spider worked; was all just incredible! Couldn't find a picture of Shelob unfortuantely, but here's one of the ents and one of the orcs (also showing something of the amazing stage mechanics):

For more amazing photo's and info about the show click here.

Verdict: A must see simply for being so visually amazing! LOTR purists just put your knowledge to 1 side for 3 hours and enjoy this show as the visual spectacular that it is!!

Robbed...

2007-10-24T16:12:00.000Z

Following on from my brief mention of last weekend's Liverpool derby match a couple of posts below this - just been sent this by my future boss. Couldn't resist sharing it on here!

Jason Robinson

2007-10-23T10:07:00.001Z

To follow on from my below entry, I felt this guy was worthy of a brief post in his own right. He's been a bit of a hero of mine since moving from Rugby League to Union however many years ago it was. He literally lit up matches when he was at his best - I hadn't seen anyone like him when I first saw him play for England. Pity his career has had to end with going off injured in a world cup final defeat, but I don't think there would be too many arguments about him being classed as the most succesful and best league to union convert! His autobiography is a very worthwhile and enjoyable read as well. All the best for your retirement Jason!

Not this time...

2007-10-23T09:25:00.000Z

...unfortunately for England in the Rugby World Cup. Don't think we can have any complaints though. Partly shot ourselves in the foot in the 1st half gifting SA 6 points from easy penalties that came from Tait's slip and Moody's stupid and pointless tripping of an opponent, but other than that I think England put in a massive and admirable effort but were just not quite good enough! Kept the dangerous Habana at bay (stopping him from breaking Jonah Lomu's record for number of tries in a world cup), but just couldn't break through to get the points we needed. Obviously the key moment was Cueto's disallowed 'try' - at 1st I was pretty incensed at what I thought was a clear injustice, but having seen it a few times I do think we have to say fairplay to the video ref for getting a very tight and crucial call right. Cueto's foot did just touch the line before he lifted it off the ground and grounded the ball - unfortunately! In terms of hope for the future I think it has got to bode well that we have got so much further than anyone imagined - there are definite signs of improvement and hopefully it will give a much needed kick start after 4 disastrous years, also it was good to see Tait (apart from his slip) playing so well - and hopefully a good blend between youth and experience can be found to take things forward now as players like Dallaglio, Catt, Robinson etc. drop out of the scene. The 1 worrying thing is the lack of commitment at this stage to Ashton's role as coach from the RFU etc. - I think it would be criminal to lose him at this stage, he's made mistakes but given the state he inherited things in and the injury problems he's had to deal with that was inevitable. I don't think there is anyone better at this stage to take the job on.

...also, unfortunately, for Lewis Hamilton. Not a F1 fan particularly, but I still appreciated the magnitude of what it would have meant to be the 1st driver ever to win a world championship in his 1st season. Incredible achievements this season though, and I hope that is not forgotten because he fell at the last!

Can't leave a post about the weekend's sport without mentioning very briefly Liverpool's rather controversial derby win over Everton at the weekend. Having felt very aggrieved at Liverpool's suffering at the hands of a ref against Chelsea earlier in the season - I have to say I have every sympathy for the Everton fans for a change! Don't believe that there can be much argument about the 2 pens given to Liverpool or the red cards that went with them - but do think that Kuyt was very fortunate to stay on the pitch, and that Everton should have had at least one penalty. Glad that Liverpool got 3 points though - and really hoping that it will kick start us a bit, our form has been atrocious! Big match against Besiktas in Turkey on Weds that we really need to win to stay in the Champions league after the disaster against Marseilles 2 wks ago. Just read that Torres still isn't fit to play, which worries me. Come on Reds!

Preaching...

2007-10-19T10:18:00.000Z

Another asbojesus offering that's given me a bit of a reality check. I'm preaching next Sunday for the 1st time since I finished at my previous placement church last Easter, and as well as the regular congregation some fellow students from Ridley and a member of staff are going to be there. We'll then get together at some point for them to give me feedback on my sermon. Hope I provoke a better reaction than those above!

The cartoon has set me thinking though - as preachers are we called to constantly reinvent the wheel so to speak? Do we need to constantly find new things to speak about? In fact can we? Or is it more about getting the same messages and challenges across but at the same time being innovative, inventive, situationally relevant etc. in the way we do it, finding ways of speaking to people who've been sitting in the pews for many years as well as those sitting there for the 1st time? Do we have to accept that we can't please / speak relevantly to everyone, or is that being too defeatist and not trusting God and his work in and through us enough? This is tough and challenging stuff! Time to stop before I scare myself too much...

Empty worship?

2007-10-19T09:58:00.000Z

Have been provoked to think a fair bit about what worship means over my time at Ridley. In particular sung worship and the extent to which I really understand a lot of what I find myself singing (well trying to sing in my case!), or even think about it, let alone whether or not it affects my actions and life generally. So many words just trip off my tongue out of habit and familiarity. Came across this on the asbojesus site - I find it rather apt and challenging!

Final here we come!

2007-10-13T22:49:00.000Z

That man does it again - though only after a few misses this time! Another unexpected victory for England, beating the hosts in the semi-final in Paris itself. Impossible to even think of this happening as England were being trounced 36-0 by South Africa just a month or so ago - it's not been pretty rugby, but its proving effective. Can they really win the trophy again? COME ON ENGLAND!

Homeward bound...

2007-10-07T20:54:00.000Z

Great to be in a postion to say for definite that we will be heading back to Liverpool in June when I finish at Ridley. It was what we had hoped for all along, but it's good to have it finalised - see it here in black and white! It was agreed at the church's PCC meeting on Weds evening, but I've waited until now to mention it on here as it was announced in the church services this morning. Really pleased as well that it is Crosby we are going to. I feel like I'm heading back to my roots in some ways - it's just a few miles from where I grew up in north Liverpool, and I had plenty of visits to the marina and beach there as a child / teenager. The funny thing about it is that it is St Luke's church where my Dad was a curate in the early 70's - he left there in 1974 2 years before I was born; and also my brother was the news editor, until about 2 years ago, of the Crosby Herald - the local weekly newspaper. There is lots going on at the church (checkout the website: http://www.stlukecrosby.org.uk/), and we've really enjoyed the welcome we've received on our visits there. It's going to be a really exciting place for Lisa and I to be based, and it will provide great training opportunities for me. The trick now will be to keep some focus on / motivation for (and enjoy!) my studies and the rest of our time at Ridley!

Tale of the unexpected...

2007-10-06T21:06:00.000Z

...seems to be an appropriate way to describe the goings on in the 1st 2 quarter finals of the Rugby Union World Cup today. If you'd told me this morning that England and France would go through to the semi-finals at the expense of the Aussies and the All Blacks I'd have laughed at you, and I don't think I would have been alone! 2 incredible matches both decided by only 2 points, and both upsetting the form books. All part of the excitement of tournaments like this - especially when they get to the knockout stages, previous form counts for nothing.

It goes without saying that I was especially pleased with the England game. Our forwards were immense and the Aussies just had no answer to them. To think it was just a few weeks ago that we were beaten 36-0 by South Africa! Since then there has been a steady improvement by England that I think has had a lot to do with Gomersall and Wilkinson playing together again at scrum half and fly half. But it was the likes of Sheridan, Moody and Shaw who were the stars today - even meaning the normally dependable Wilkinson got away with a few uncharacteristic misses.

Enjoyed the post-match celebrations and interviews, especially the comment of the day from Nick Easter the No 8 who sarcastically thanked the British press "from the heart of my bottom for their support through the tournament so far!"

Strange minds...

2007-10-04T08:44:00.000Z

This is weird, but interesting!

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too Cna yuo raed tihs? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs forwrad it

Liverpool 0 Marseille 1

2007-10-03T22:31:00.001Z

It's not been a particularly good few weeks for Liverpool, but this result at Anfield this evening was especially disappointing and worrying. Never got to see the game, but from what I have just been reading about it I'm quite glad! Was my rather cautious early season optimism (see here and here) misplaced??

Defending champions?!!

2007-09-22T21:15:00.000Z

Not posted anything about the Rugby Union World Cup so far, because as an England fan who also has a soft spot for the Irish team it has all been far too depressing to think about! Really is hard to believe that just 4 years ago England were the team that the others were scared to play against and ending up winning the tournament. So much has changed since then and we have seen nothing from England that is worthy of the defending champions tag. The win today against Samoa was a bit more promising apart from the 1st 2o mins of the 2nd half when some sloppy mistakes nearly brought Samoa level, but I'm not sure that the likes of the All Blacks / Aussies will be quaking in their boots at the prospect of playing the 'defending champions'! And the less said about Ireland the better. Supposedly after France the Northern hemisphere's best chance of challenging the Southern hemisphere teams for the trophy, but 3 awful games have left them on the verge of going out in the 1st round. It'll take an unlikely beating of Argentina by a margin of at least 7 points with a minimum 4 tries scored to gain a bonus point in the process to keep them in the tournament. At this stage I've got to say the All Blacks are standing head and shoulders above all the rest and it's hard to see past them for the trophy.

Football isn't much to shout about at the moment either. Having been so positive about the 'new look' Liverpool a few weeks ago, they seem to have gone into a slump that has led to 3 pretty unimpressive draws against Portsmouth, Porto and worst of all Birmingham. I'm not one to jump onto managers backs too quickly - I like Benitez and hope he is at Liverpool for a long time to come, but I do wonder sometimes about his rotation policy that has seen Torres (our best striker) left on the bench for 2 of those games. It's all well saying they need to be still able to perform come the end of the season next April / May - but what is the point of that if we are not still in contention to win the league at that point due to dropping too many points earlier on?! Sort it out Reds!

Phoning God

2007-09-22T20:47:00.000Z

Was made to laugh by a friend's story of a recent conversation with his 3 year old son:

Son: Can we play football?
Dad: It's going too dark.
Son: Why is it going too dark?
Dad: God's turned the lights out!
Son: Can we ask him to turn them on again? What's his number? I'll give him a call.

Worship funny

2007-09-17T21:36:00.000Z

Christianity Rediscovered

2007-09-14T09:22:00.000Z

This is 1 of those books that I've heard mentioned time and time again over the last couple of years as a 'must read', and kept intending to but had never quite got round to getting hold of a copy. Anyway, finally have and got to say I have not been disappointed. An amazingly challenging and thought provoking read.

The author Vincent J Donovan is an American Roman Catholic priest who went out as a missionary to the Masailand of Tanzania in the mid-60's to a mission compound that included schools, a chapel, a hospital etc. After a year there he writes a letter to his Bishop talking about how well run the mission is, the fact that there are good relationships between many of the priests and the Masai etc., but that even though the mission by then was into its 7th year there were no practising adult Masai Christians, that no Masai child on leaving the mission school had continued to practice Christianity and no indication that any would do so. He writes:

The relationship with the Masai, in my opinion, is dismal, time consuming, wearying, expensive, and materialistic. There is no probability that one can speak with the Masai, even with those who are our friends, about God. And there is no likelihood that one could actually interest them to the point of their wanting to discuss or accept Christianity....I have heard one missionary say that it may take one hundred years before the Masai are willing and ready to talk with us about God, but we must stay here so that we will be present when that day comes.

He then goes on to ask for permission to: simply go to these people and do the work among them for which I came to Africa. He proposes that he would cut himself off from the schools and the hospital and just go to the people, to their 'kraals' and talk with them about God and the Christian message:

I know what most people say. It is impossible to preach the gospel directly to the Masai. They are the hardest of all the pagans, the toughest of the tough. In all their hundreds of years of existence, they have never accepted anything from the outside. You cannot bring them the gospel without going through several preparatory, preliminary stages.

But I would like to try. I want to go to the Masai on daily safaris - unencumbered with the burden of selling them our school system, or begging for their children for our schools, or carrying their sick, or giving them medicine.

Outside of this, I have no theory, no plan, no strategy, no gimmick - no idea of what will come. I feel rather naked...

What follows is an amazing account of what happened when Father Donovan did just that. He went to these kraals approached their leaders to ask to share his message with them, he would visit a particular community once a week and tell them as a whole community (individualism was alien to these Masai) about Christianity - but stripped right back to its bare essentials and using examples from their life and culture to explain things. This led to whole communities of Masai accepting the Christian gospel and being baptised, and he'd then move on to other communities. I can't do justice to the amazingness of what God did through him here!

In the book he's critical of the way mission has been done in East Africa by the western church over the years. He's critical of how the word mission came to be used to refer to a group of static buildings (i.e. the 'mission compound'). He argues that by trying to build churches and staying their to run them, putting leadership and diocesan structures in place the western church is trying to import a 'westernised' church and Christianity into a culture that is completely alien to, completely at odds with, the western way of doing things. This doesn't fit with his understanding of what mission is, and he argues that it is not the understanding or practice of mission seen in the early days of the Christian faith. He talks of mission as being dynamic, as being about actively taking the gospel out and meeting the people where they are at with it - not about bringing people in to something that is static and at odds with their culture, somewhere that they are uncomfortable with and unable to relate to. He completely deconstructs what he sees as the western understanding of church, and takes it right back to what he sees as actually the basic, bare essentials of what church really is.

Like I say - it is an amzingly challenging and thought provoking read and I highly recommend it! As I've thought about what he writes one line of thought that has struck me is that he is writing about mission to the Masai in the mid-60's, but I'd love to know what he would make of the mission and work of the church actually in our own western culture today. I feel so much of what he says needs to be applied to the way Christians and the church need to be working and practising mission in the western world today as well as in other parts of the world. We need to be willing to deconstruct and change our understandings of what church is sometimes. We need to accept that there are many in this country for whom talking of God and the Christian message is completely alien. We need to learn to accept that many people will not come into our churches or be comfortable in them with the way 'things have always been done'. We need to be out there meeting people where they are at sharing the basic gospel message without all the 'extras' by word and action. I'm not advocating change for changes sake, but God guided change for the gospel's sake. Challenging stuff!

As he draws the book to a close Donovan returns to an original question of it, What is missionary work? and writes:

...that work undertaken by a gospel oriented community, of transcultural vision, with a special mandate, charism, and responsibility of spreading and carrying the gospel to the nations of the world, with a view of establishing the church of Christ.

Gospel oriented community - a community of public witness to evangelical values, formed by the gospel, dedicated to the gospel, understanding of the gospel, reflecting the gospel...

Transcultural vision - implying a stance and a view that seeks to break away from ethnocentric culture blindness. A wider vision, a freer vision, a humbler vision recognizing the richness of the human race...

Special mandate, charism, and responsibility - a unique and proper function and calling of certain members of the Christian community, discerned and authorised by that community, to a task beyond mere witness and holiness; a function to be distinguished from the general missionary obligation of the universal church, and from the apostolic responsibility of all Christians.

Spreading and carrying that gospel to the nations of the world - not a mere witness to the gospel in the palce where one is, but a reaching out with the gospel to where the nations are; a centrifugal motion outwards from the center, not static, not an inward, self-centered, self-salvation oriented movement...the urgency of forever reaching out with the gospel to the place where people truly exist, where they are and as they are.

Towards establishing the church of Christ - which is the sign of salvation and hope raised up for the nations, the light to the Gentiles, not the Ark of Salvation for those who dwell in it; the church for the 'non-church'...Missionary work should not envision the setting up of mission compounds or permanently dependent ecclesiastical colonies, but rather the coming into being of autonomous, adult, self-propagating, open-ended, unpredictable, Spirit-controlled, many-cultured responses to the gospel, which are the church of Christ...

Finally, the church described here should be seen as, itself, on the way to the kingdom, and as only part of the mission of God to the world, as only one step in the pursuit of him who is hunting down all of mankind.

I've said it a few times already, but I'll say it again - challenging, thought-provoking stuff! Go read.

Right man in the right place at the right time...

2007-09-12T21:24:00.000Z

He'll never be the same player again, he's lost a yard of pace, he drifts out of games too easily, he misses chances, defenders are wise to him blah blah blah blah... All comments that I've heard said or seen written about Michael Owen over the last few years, and for the most part what a load of rubbish! There might be some morsel of truth in some of the comments, but so what if he doesn't do much for 85 mins of a match if in the other 5 he's scored the 2 goals that have won it! After so long out with injury he's proved again in these last 2 England matches against Israel at the weekend and Russia this evening that he's a top quality goalscorer - he just has the knack of being in the right place at the right time, and England haven't got anyone else like him. 2 great goals against Russia tonight making him the 4th player ever to pass 40 goals for England, and now well within sight of Bobby Charlton's English record. Wish he was still playing for Liverpool!

Feels strange to be able to sit here writing about England playing well twice in a week, but they have done - 2 3-0 wins is more than could have been hoped for. Very impressed with Gareth Barry alongside Gerrard in midfield. Hopefully now McClaren will realise how much better England look with a more defensive midfielder leaving Gerrard a bit more free to break forward - yeah Gerrard was maybe more quietly effective than dominating, but Barry and him worked well together and it gave the team a better balance. Gerrard and Lampard just does not work - should be 1 or the other with a Barry / Hargreaves in there as well, and I know I'm biased but I know which of Gerrard / Lampard I would pick every time! Heskey did the job he was brought into do well, and generally England did look pretty good. Having said that Russia were a bit unfortunate to have a goal disallowed which would have made it 1-1 and could have changed the course of the game, and they did create a few chances with their build-up play. England were at times quite sloppy in defence - Ashley Cole and Ferdinand in particular, both quality players but just seem to switch off sometimes and can be punished for it. The other slightly disappointing aspect for me was Wright-Phillips - great energy, great pace, great skill etc., but so often his end product whether a cross, pass, shot or whatever let him down. England could have had a couple more goals if he'd taken chances to score himself or if his final ball to put others in had been better. Imagine an English right winger who has his pace and skill but with Beckham's crossing / passing ability - he'd be perfect!

Have to applaud Scotland this evening as well - 1-0 win away in France is a fantastic result, meaning they're still in with a great chance of qualifying and considering they've had both France and Italy in their group no-one would have thought that possible. Less said about Ireland the better though, unfortunately...

The Sound of Laughter

2007-09-06T11:07:00.000Z

Decided that with having such a long break from college this summer I really needed to get my teeth into some deep, meaningful, thought provoking reading this summer to keep the brain ticking over a bit. So I was really happy to be given this for my birthday - it gave me an excuse to put more serious stuff aside!!

As you'd expect from Kay it's a laugh a minute book full of funny stories of his childhood, youth and then early adulthood with the various jobs he did and the time he spent performing in plays ands performing in pubs and clubs etc. before making it big time. Well worth a read for any of his fans.

One section from it really struck me though, so I thought I'd share it here. It comes at the end of a section where he has been talking about his experiences of going to a Catholic school and the nuns that taught him, and also of being an altar boy at his local Catholic church:

I like to think that by serving on the altar I've more than done my bit towards securing my place in heaven. And what a vision of heaven it is too. Millions of people queuing in single file up an endless white marble staircase, there's plenty of mist and tireless angels fly to and fro on administration duties...

Hopefully, I shouldn't have to queue up for too long before I get to the pearly gates (like I say, being an altar boy is a bit like having one of those fast-track passes that Alton Towers do, remember wink, wink). And my idea of heaven is that I get to settle back in front of a large television and watch the best bits of my life all over again. All of my friends and family can sit with me too and hopefully we'll be able to settle any outstanding arguments about who said what and when. I can also stop the tape once in a while and go for a swim in a pool full of Vimto. I always wanted to do that, especially on a summer's day, so I could swim and drink at the same time. I might as well request it when I get to heaven because I wrote to Jim'll Fix It in 1982 and heard sod all back.

I know it might seem hypocritical of me to talk about a heaven after all the criticism I've thrown at Catholicism, but at the end of the day I can believe what I like, it's my life. I like to believe in a God of some kind, in some sort of higher being or force. Personally I find it very comforting plus it also gives me somebody to talk to on long train journeys when there's no phone signal.

And if I do get to my heaven and find that it doesn't exist then it'll be much too late to do anything about it and hopefully I will have lived a deluded but happy life...

Lots to think about there wouldn't you say? It really strikes me in all sorts of different ways and on many different levels. But the one thing that really stood out to me straight away was the level of faith that is there, and how there must be so many people with some kind of faith like Peter Kay. People who have in some way been impacted by a more 'institutionalised' Christianity through their upbringing, their school days or whatever brought them into some kind of contact with it. People who, whether rightly or wrongly - from actual personal experience or hearsay, have negative perceptions of Church and the Christian faith (see entry below). But still people who have a faith in God and a hope of heaven. As a committed Christian and church member I really do believe that the Church does have a lot to answer for, but I also passionately believe that it has a lot to offer and there are so many people out there with faith looking for answers that the Church needs to be giving relevantly and with care and love, sharing God's love and grace with a people who are searching.

People's perceptions of church...

2007-09-04T12:52:00.000Z

Noticed this on the asbojesus website, and from what I've come across in discussion boards and so on online it seems to accurately sum up so many people's perceptions of church and Christianity. Whether these perceptions are right or wrong and on what they are based is a massive discussion with no easy conclusions. But keeping it simple I really want to see the church working to change these perceptions, working to show that talk of God's grace and love is not just empty meaningless talk but that it really is what the Christian faith is ultimately all about!

Top of the league!!!

2007-09-03T20:55:00.000Z

Barclays Premier League Table
02 September 2007 17:59
1 Liverpool
2 Arsenal
3 Everton
4 Chelsea

In the football entry below I said Liverpool needed to keep things going starting with Saturday's match against Derby County. Well we certainly did that! As the above shows Liverpool are currently sitting pretty at the top of the premier league following the finish of the last round of league matches yesterday evening. We went to top spot on Saturday after the 6-o thumping we gave Derby, and I was shocked to see it was the 1st time for 5 years that we have actually been in 1st place at any point of a season. Was fully expecting to see us drop down to 2nd yesterday with Chelsea set to go top if they beat or drew with Aston Villa (though they have played a game more than Liverpool), and so was delighted to hear that Villa actually beat Chelsea - great result!! No premier league matches for 2 weeks now though due to internationals - means I get to see Liverpool's name at the top of the league for at least 2 weeks! Bit of a pain though because I'd like us to be playing our matches while we're in such good form, rather than seeing all our players go off to different corners of the globe to play for their countries. Really hoping that none get injured. But for now I'm just going to savour that premier league table. Keep it up redmen!

Nathaniel's baptism

2007-09-03T20:28:00.000Z

Just enjoyed a great though full and hectic weekend up in the northwest! It was great to be able to catch up with various family and friends in different places, and especially to be able to celebrate our nephew Nathaniel's baptism and be a godfather for the 2nd time - it's a real privilege! It was also really nice as godfather and uncle to be able to lead the prayers for Nathaniel and others as part of the service, and the service seemed to go really well. The church was packed! Anyway here's a photo of me with my godson / nephew:

After the baptism we went to meet a vicar for an initial chat about a possible curacy for next summer which I felt went well, so we'll just have to see how things develop over the next few weeks. We went to the evening service at church as well before heading back down the M6 and A14. Late arrival home and Lisa and I both pretty tired, but worth it. I'm still on holiday fortunately so plenty of time to recover this week - but I did feel sorry for Lisa getting up and going into work for the start of the new term this morning!

New football season

2007-08-31T08:50:00.000Z

Not posted anything about the new football season yet with being on holiday. But so far so good for Liverpool - in fact I almost feel like I'm tempting fate by posting about it in case it all goes pear-shaped. Hopefully not though, Benitez has spent a lot of money on new players and re-couped a small percentage by letting a few players go, and so far the signs are promising that his choices have been good this time around. Still a long way to go though - will be interesting to see how the season progresses...

I've managed to watch 3 matches so far - league matches against Chelsea and Sunderland, and the Champions League qualifier 2nd leg against Toulouse. We played Sunderland off the park - major gulf in quality was very apparent. I know that a large part of that is down to the money Liverpool have available, but the manager has still got to make the right choices and the players still have to perform. We coped without the talismanic Gerrard and lost both centre backs to injuries during the game, but still never gave Sunderland a look in. Was pleased to see Sissoko (above) score his 1st goal for Liverpool. My only worry was that with the number of chances we created it took until the 87th minute to kill the game off completely with the 2nd goal. Call it missed chances or great keeping by Craig Gordon but Liverpool should have scored a hatful! Similarly against Toulouse the other night - played them off the park, scored a couple of goals but missed a hatful of chances again before a couple of late goals when the tie was all over made it 4-0.

Even thinking about the Chelsea game makes me angry still! I thought Liverpool were the better team and good value for the 1-0 lead given by Torres' great goal, and I still can't believe how abysmal the decision to give Chelsea the penalty that got them a 1-1 draw was. I don't normally have too much of a go at refs because I think they've got a horrendous job that I would never want to do - but this was perhaps the biggest howler I've ever seen!! Enough about that...

So signs are promising - lets see if it keeps going, starting with the match against Derby County on Saturday. I'm not going to make any silly claims at this stage about Liverpool's chances of winning the league this season - but what I will say is that I will be very disappointed if we are not a lot closer than last season and still in the mix with a chance of winning going into the last few games. We shall see...

Talking of Liverpool, Lisa and I are off up there today for the weekend for my nephew and godson Nathaniel's baptism, so looking forward to catching up with various family and friends. Also going to have an initial meeting with a vicar about a possible curate post for me for next year. More details about this will follow if and when appropriate, but for now any prayer would be appreciated!

Signs etc.

2007-08-31T08:30:00.000Z

Some funnies we saw on our travels round Ireland:

Security!

Crime!

Good advice!

Church advertising

But it's fine anywhere else?!

Interesting t-shirt as well!

Also, I'd forgotten how much better, funnier and more enjoyable I find Irish radio compared to radio back here - particularly some of the more local stations as you move round the country. In a morbid kind of way, 1 thing in particular that amused me this time was hearing them giving the death notices on Radio Kerry. I turned on expecting to get the sports news at the end of the 6pm news and instead got the death notices being read out followed by an advertising of them stating that they are read 4 times a day and not only that but if you miss them there is a number you can ring to hear them at any time, calls costing 1 euro per minute! Made me chuckle a bit - hope that is not being disrespectful! Would love to know what the uptake on the phone line is!!

Ireland holiday

2007-08-30T13:51:00.000Z

Finally getting back to the blog after a few weeks holiday break. Spent just under 4 weeks over in Ireland, and had a great time despite the weather being fairly rubbish for a lot of the trip. I reckon out of the 25 days we were away we saw at least some rain on 22 of them.

From Cambridge we 1st headed for Liverpool to meet the guy in the diocese who is responsible for helping to place me in the right curacy role for when I leave Ridley next summer. He had some interesting things to say, but not going to say any more about that for now - watch this space! We then spent the night with my brother, sister-in-law and nephew before carrying on the next morning to Holyhead for the ferry. Arrived at Lisa's parents near Dublin that evening, before heading over to Roscommon the next day for a friends wedding. Then had a couple of days back in Dublin with Lisa's family, but also managed to catch up with various friends of Lisa's as well as my 97 year old Great Aunt and my cousin and his wife. I also managed to get with my father-in-law to 2 of the All Ireland Gaelic football quarter finals: Cork vs Sligo and Meath vs Tyrone at the massive Croke Park stadium which was a real bonus (though not quite up to the enjoyment and entertainment levels of my last visit there - for U2 on the Vertigo tour in June'05!!).

Lisa and I then headed off down to what was my grandparents house near Schull in West Cork - fortunatley we've been able to keep the house in the family. It's an amazing spot right on the Atlantic Ocean on the Mizen Head peninsula (Ireland's equivalent of Lands End). I've spent all of my childhood summer holidays down there, and visited regularly in more recent years as well - though this trip was my 1st time since my Grans funeral 3 years ago. I'd forgotten how much I love it down there! Great views, great beaches, great pubs, great beer, great food! Lisa's parents joined us down there for most of the week, and having left Dublin in miserable drizzle we arrived down and had 3 days of amazing sunshine (though still the odd quick shower). We met up with friends, visited Mizen Head, went out to Cape Clear - an island off the coast, BBQ'd, I swam in the Atlantic etc. We also caught up with my Aunt and 3 of my cousins at their place down there, and the undoubted highlight of those few days was getting out with my cousins in the speedboat and going 'jetbobbing' - basically meant I got dragged round at what felt like high speeds on an inflatable thing tied to the back of the boat trying to hold on to it for as long as I could. Very cool! I didn't do too bad on it, but it was all I could do just to hold and try and stay on the thing - unlike my cousins who were standing on it, letting go with their hands without coming off etc! Unfortunately the weather turned then and our last 3 days there were wet and windy - I still swam once in the rain at Barleycove beach, but it was a pity after the good weather.

From Schull Lisa and I then headed off on a camping trip up the West coast of Ireland. We camped for a couple of nights near a place called Caherciveen in Kerry - enjoying touring parts of the Ring of Kerry and Valentia Island. Amazing views, and the weather wasn't too bad apart from the odd heavy shower - enjoyed a swim and some time in sunshine on the beach at Ballinskelligs. Next stop was a place called Doolin in Co. Clare. This was quite a touristy spot - lots of Americans and continental Europeans, near the famous Cliffs of Moher and reknowned as a centre of Irish folk music. Arrived at the campsite in amazing sunshine - and had plenty of plans for beaches, swimming, pitch and putt, visiting the Cliffs of Moher etc. the next day. Had a great evening in 1 of the pubs with good music. But unfortunately woke up to rain, and more rain and more rain... Long time since I remember seeing more rain in 1 day than we did that day - so beaches, pitch and putt etc. all went out the window. Spent the day driving round part of the Burren - famous area of amazing limestone formations etc. feeling a bit sorry for ourselves. Went to the Cliffs of Moher as well - still spectacular despite the weather! Enjoyed another pub music session in the evening and then spent quite a disturbed night in the tent in the wind - felt like the tent was going to take off at times! From there, (having managed to get the tent pretty much dried out before packing it only for it to suddenly downpour and get all wet again right at the last minute!) we headed round the Burren coast road which was spectacular and into Co Galway. Then had an amazing drive through the Maam valley in Connemara to a campsite near Clifden on Galway's west coast. Again spent 2 nights there, and enjoyed touring Connemara and visiting Westport Co Mayo - more time in the car than wanted again though because of the weather. So 6 nights of camping completed we packed up a wet and muddy tent to head for Galway town and the treat of a B&B, some shopping and a night out on the town. Really liked Galway town, and had a great meal and night out - but unfortunately (as you can probably guess by now!) it hardly stopped raining the whole time we were there!

From Galway we headed back to Lisa's parents and enjoyed a few days back around Dublin area. Again we spent some time with friends, and I visited my Great Aunt. Also had a few Guinness's with Lisa's brother, spent some time in Dublin city - including a Guinness brewery shop visit, and in a bit of decent weather finally played a round of golf as well as getting for a drive down to Co Wicklow to visit some fave spots of mine - The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation in Ireland where I lived and worked as a volunteer for 3 months in 1997, and Glendalough.

Then it was back to Dublin port for the ferry home (which included a complimentary cabin, breakfast and visit to the bridge - meeting the Captain and seeing how it all works etc. - very cool!). While we'd been away my sister-in-law had given birth to our niece Amy, so we went to visit them and meet her for the 1st time on our way back to Cambridge - she was just over a week old, very cute!

Anyway, more than enough waffle about it - here's a few photo's of the trip, including our newly arrived niece at the end:

Arriving into Dublin Bay

Looking a bit smarter than normal! (At Damien and Anne-Marie's wedding)

With my Great Aunt Alison

'Fresh Springs': the house near Schull in West Cork.

View from the front of 'Fresh Springs' out over the Atlantic and islands.

At a favourite spot of mine at the back of a harbour just over the road from 'Fresh Springs'

Michael (Lisa's Dad) and my cousin Benjamin on the boat, myself and my cousin Daniel on the jetbob.

Mizen Head - Ireland's 'Lands End'

Even managed to get Lisa in the speedboat for the 1st time!

Swimming at South Harbour, Cape Clear

Kind of sums up a lot of the trip!

1 of the many amazing views from Valentia Island, Co. Kerry

Evening light at our Kerry campsite

Innovative tent drying!!

Cliffs of Moher in the rain

'Session' in Doolin

On the Burren coast road

Relaxing at our last camping stop near Clifden Co. Galway

Connemara view - on borders of counties Galway and Mayo.

Galway town centre in the rain

Back at Lisa's parents trying to get the tent clean

Portmarnock beach - 5 mins walk from Lisa's parents

Amy Lorraine Elliott - our gorgeous new niece!

Lisa with Amy and big brother Benjamin

Harry Potter

2007-08-01T11:01:00.000Z

Back to the blog far sooner than I thought I would be (see entry below). On holiday now at my in-laws near Dublin, but felt I couldn't let my finishing of the last Harry Potter book go unmarked! For any who have yet to read it don't worry I'm not going to give anything away!! Suffice it to say I think J.K. has excelled herself again with this - fast moving, clever and full of twists. I've really enjoyed the whole series of books, and felt that this really was a fitting climax to them.

Having said that, as much as I have enjoyed them I do hope that it is the end now. I know there are the 'more Harry' petitions and so on doing the rounds but I honestly believe that it is right to end them on a high at this point rather than Rowling trying to keep it going - it has reached a natural finishing point and any more could easily start to lose appeal. I saw her interview on Jonathon Ross the other week where she said that she thinks it definitely is it at the moment but who's to say how she might feel 10 years down the line. If she did go back to it I'd be straight out to get it and read, but I hope she doesn't!

Agree? Disagree? Let me know what you think!

Roll on the last 2 films now! And on that note, back to the holiday...

Busy busy busy...

2007-07-29T21:59:00.001Z

Just a quick post as I've hardly time to draw breath at the moment! Great but hectic few days. Got home from our weeks camping at New Wine at 11pm Friday night, out from 10am till after midnight yesterday at the Cambridge Folk Festival, spent today mowing lawn and sorting stuff out ready to re-pack and load the car to head off around 10-11ish tomorrow morning to Liverpool, Shropshire and eventually Holyhead and the Dublin ferry at 2.15pm Tuesday heading over to Ireland for 3 1/2 weeks!

New Wine was a really good week, with some really good teaching, great worship, and some 'interesting' stuff that was quite thought and discussion provoking (will try and discuss more at a later point but not time now!). It was really good having time to spend with a number of friends from our Liverpool church, enjoyed catching up with them, getting to know their various babies who have arrived since we moved down here, and some lively debates after meetings around our 'camping circle.' My godson Zak was there with his family. Love this photo of me and him:

The weather was variable to put it mildly, with the low point being a wild, wet and windy day on Thursday that I thought at 1 point would lead to us coming home early! It didn't quite come to that, but we did have to relocate our tent due to some minor flooding in our awning area. Would like to have a photo to show of it - but guess that wasn't my priority at the time! Glad we stayed though. Weather was great on Friday so it meant we were able to pack everything dry.

Then on Saturday Lisa and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary at the Cambridge Folk Festival with friends. Really good day out. Really diverse range of music. Highlights were Bellowhead, Sharon Shannon (Renegade), Shooglenifty and Four Men and a Dog. Probably the strangest thing we saw was a Romanian Gypsy brass orchestra called Fanfare Ciocarlia. Click here to see some footage. Photo below of 4 of Bellowhead's 11 members in action:

Definitely something I'm glad to have done while living down here.

Heading for Liverpool tomorrow to go and see the vicar who is responsible for trying to try and match me with the right curate's job for next June to talk about what he has in mind for Lisa and I next. Exciting but scary - any prayer would be much appreciated!

Then after spending the night at Pete and Lorraine's in Shropshire it's off to Holyhead for the Dublin ferry to spend 3 1/2 weeks in different parts of Ireland. Looking forward to some time with Lisa's family near Dublin, a wedding in Roscommon, some time with my family in West Cork, some time to ourselves travelling up the west coast through Kerry, Clare, Galway and Mayo with the tent, and of course drinking some Guinness, taking in some trad pub music sessions, and a round or 2 of golf! Hoping the weather is ok - their summer has been no better than England's so far! Internet access is likely to be sporadic, so this will probably be it for blogging until we get back.

Another trip to London...

2007-07-20T21:48:00.000Z

Trips to London that include a visit to one of the main museums / theatre etc. have become a fairly regular occurance for me of late (see here and here). The ease with which I can do this by train is definitely one of the advantages of living here in Cambridge. This trip was actually to meet up with my brother on his way back from a business meeting. But while I was going anyway I thought I'd make a bit more of a day of it and went down in time to spend a while wandering round the London Aquarium. Unfortunately this is not free like the Science and Natural History Museums. But it was definitely money well spent. Amazing variety of sea creatures from all over the globe of all shapes and sizes, including this 'boxfish' which was definitely 1 of the odder things I saw swimming about:
Anyway, left there to find out that the downpour of rain that much of England suffered this morning had played havoc with the rail network and to cut a long story short my brother having got to his meeting near Swindon fine by train was having immense difficulty getting back again. In the end having wandered aimlessly for an hour or 2 past Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square etc. I sat and had a pint and some food watching the British Open golf in a pub near Leicester Square, and then gradually realising my brother wasn't going to make it in time to meet I made my way back to Kings Cross and the train home. So main purpose of the day didn't happen, but at least I enjoyed the aquarium! I've just heard that having tried to leave Swindon at around 2 my brother made it back into London at 9.30 ish. We don't seem well enough equipped as a country to deal with the sudden freak weather we've been experiencing - the rail network seems to be in complete disarray, Kings Cross was absolutely jammed with people (lots of them very irrate!) because all kinds of train services up to Yorkshire and the North-East were suffering major delays because of flooding around Grantham in Lincolnshire.

And it's on that cheery note that I'm going to sign off for the week to go off camping at the New Wine North conference near Newark, yes camping - in spite of this mad weather just described! Wondering whether we're being a bit daft! Looking forward to it though, we're meeting and camping with a load of friends from our church in Liverpool so it will be really good to have time to catch up with them as well as enjoying the New Wine conference itself. Hoping to pick up a copy of the new Harry Potter book on route to enjoy during the week as well. Just hope the weather isn't too awful and we don't get flooded out in the tent!

Rob Bell

2007-07-13T09:49:00.000Z

This is a name that cropped up a couple of times in some of my lectures at Ridley this year, and then I'd hear various of my fellow students talking about the 'Nooma' series of teaching DVD's he's done or his book 'Velvet Elvis'. He's the founding pastor of a large church in the US called Mars Hill (click here for further biographical info). I'd not come across him before so decided to get hold of a copy of the book. At about the same time I heard he was on a tour of the UK called 'Calling All Peacemakers':

with a visit to Cambridge as his last stop, and so I got tickets and Lisa and I went to see him. Was so impressed! A very engaging speaker - fairly simple and clear, humorous, yet so profound. There are not many people who I could just sit and listen talking to me for an hour and a half without a break without me losing concentration and my mind wandering, but he held my attention for the whole time. Can't really do justice to what he was talking about briefly enough on here, so not going to try...

But what I will do is share a bit from his book 'Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith':
I've enjoyed reading this book so much, and it's 1 that I will return to time and time again. So easy to read, but so much in there. Here's just 1 sample of some of the stuff in it that has really struck a chord with me, more might follow at later dates...

'... the Bible did not drop out of the sky. It was written by people. People who told stories and passed on oral traditions and sat down and wrote things with a pen and paper. The Bible originated from real people in real places at real times.

It is poems and stories and letters and accounts. It is people interacting with other people in actual space and time. It is God interacting with people in actual space and time. We cannot ignore this.

To take statements made in a letter from one person living in a real place at a moment in history writing to another person living in a real place out of their context and apply them to today without first understanding their original context sucks the life right out of them. They aren't isolated statements that float unattached, out in space.

They aren't first and foremost timeless truths.

We may, and usually do, find timeless truths present in the Bible, but it is because they were true in real places for real people at real times.

I heard somebody refer to the Bible as "data". That person was in an intense discussion about what the Bible teaches about a certain issue, and he disagreed with someone else so he said, "I don't see the data for your position."

The Bible is not pieces of information about God and Jesus and whatever else we take and apply to situations as we would a cookbook or an instruction manual.

And while I'm at it, let's make a group decision to drop once and for all the Bible-as-owner's-manual metaphor. It's terrible. It really is.

When was the last time you read the owner's manual for your toaster? Do you find it remotely inspiring or meaningful?

You only refer to it when something's wrong with your toaster. You use it to fix the problem, and then you put it away.

We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God.

Doubting the one true God.

Wrestling with, arguing with, getting angry with, reconciling with, loving, worshipping, thanking, following the one who gives us everything.

We cannot tame it.

We cannot tone it down.

If we do, then we can't say it is the life-giving Word of God. We have made it something else...

Real people, in real places, at real times, writing and telling stories about their experiences and their growing understanding of who God is and who they are.

This does not in any way discount the power of reading the Bible with no background knowledge at all, which is why these words are so powerful. We can enter into them at any level and they speak to us. Whether we are reading the Bible for the first time or standing in a field in Israel next to a historian and an archaeologist and a scholar, the Bible meets us where we are. That is what real truth does.'

Highly recommend getting a copy and reading it for yourselves. I'm about to start reading his latest book 'Sex God'. A few people have said that this is not as good, will let you know what I think at some point.

5 in a row...

2007-07-08T20:17:00.000Z

So pleased to see Federer win the mens singles at Wimbledon today. That's 5 in a row now, equalling Borg's run in the early 1980's - and he's young enough to keep it going, will be interesting to see if he can make it 6 next year! And what a final today was - such amazing quality, so close and exciting. In the final set Federer was 15-40 down in each of his 1st 2 service games, and in that situation with the amount of pressure he was under to come back and win both of those games was just incredible! A worthy champion indeed! But you've got to give Nadal credit as well - to push Federer to the brink like that is pretty much unheard of at Wimbledon. The contrast between the 2 players made it great to watch - Federer just oozes quality and elegance in everything he does on the court whereas Nadal is more about effort, he just never stops, never gives up - heard him described as like a pesky fly who you can't just swot away. But anyway, well done Roger and here's to the 6th...

Just noticed as well that Jamie Murray and partner won the mixed doubles making him the 1st Brit to win any of the senior Wimbledon titles in over 20 years. Cool. Who knows, maybe his brother could be the one who dethrones Federer at some point?!!

Live Earth

2007-07-08T17:32:00.000Z

Overall a really enjoyable day out at the new Wembley stadium yesterday for the London Live Earth concert. There is debate as to whether these big global events should be staged - this event, Live8 a couple of years ago etc. etc. But if the aim was to raise awareness of climate issues and broadcast the things that everyone can and should be doing to be more efficient in our use of the earth's resources giving clear examples of the differences even relatively minor things can make, as well as pointing people in the direction of places to go for further info etc. then I think it was a success to a certain extent anyway. The cause wasn't always helped by the sometimes trite / rehearsed / empty sounding comments made by some of the artists (prime e.g. of this was the comment by The Pussycat Dolls something along the lines of flying in from California for the event but doing their bit for the environment by not using hairspray!). But in terms of numbers at the different concerts and then TV viewers as well the messages about what needs to be done were certainly broadcast to huge numbers of people. Whether it will make any long term difference, who knows...

Music wise it was a bit of a mixed bag, but generally pretty good. There were over 20 acts at Wembley - so it sometimes felt a bit stop and start, with some of the time it feeling like a band / artist was just getting going and the crowd starting to get into it when they were going off stage again, and also the intervals between acts sometimes seeming to be longer than the actual acts. I guess that was what made it different to going to a more normal concert / gig where there would obviously be fewer acts with longer stage time. Despite that there was some really good stuff, though as a general rule it was the performers who've been around a while who stole the show a bit - they seemed to know how to 'play to the stadium' a bit more. Here's a bit of a breakdown of the acts from my perspective:

Definite high points: Metallica (James Hetfield was definitely the coolest performer on show: the guitars in Nothing Else Matters were beautiful and Enter Sandman had the whole stadium rocking!), The Beastie Boys, Foo Fighters.

Not far behind: Madonna (not really my cup of tea musically, but what a performer - still!), Red Hot Chilli Peppers (fully expected these to be the highlight for me. Was slightly disappointed, but they were still great - might have been better if they played a bit later into the evening when the crowd generally seemed to be getting more into it), Black Eyed Peas

Highly enjoyable: Genesis, Bloc Party, Keane, Damien Rice and David Gray (playing together), James Blunt (pleasantly surprised - helped by a decent cover of Wild World made famous by Cat Stevens)

Listenable: Duran Duran, Paolo Nutini, Razorlight, Snow Patrol

Not really my scene & did nothing to change my opinion: Kasabian, Corinne Bailey Rae, John Legend, Terra Naomi

Definite low points: Spinal Tap (truly dreadful), The Pussycat Dolls

Click here to go and view videos of the different acts - both in Wembley and at the other venues around the globe.

Smoking Ban

2007-07-06T23:07:00.000Z

Having enjoyed the no smoking laws in pubs in Ireland on various trips over there in the last few years, it was great to visit our local pub this evening for the 1st time since the smoking ban came into effect here in England. Our local is quite a small enclosed pub where you could literally see the cloud of smoke when you walked in. This evening was great - it was like a different place and still as bustling as ever for a Friday evening.

Happiest country...

2007-07-05T09:09:00.000Z

If you can spare 3 mins click here to watch a report that was on the BBC's 10pm news last night. According to the recognised criteria and 'modern standards' Vanuatu in the Pacific Ocean is 1 of the world's poorer nations. But is that really true of Vanuatu and the greatly named Pentecost Island in particular? Very refreshing to see and hear about a nation (or at least part of it) that is willing to stand by its own traditions and values; to be a special, safe and happy community in its particular way; without feeling the need to be swayed by the values and 'standards' of much of our world - and it appears to be better for it. See here for a related BBC news article.

Following on from this, as I was looking up info about Vanuatu on t'internet I was made to chuckle when I read that their official language is actually a form of pidgin English called Bislami. Here are a couple of examples of it that I came across:-

What is your name? - Wanem nem blong yu? (Want name belong you?)
I don't know - Mi no savee (Me no savvy)
It's delicious! - O i naes! Mi likum tumas! (Oh is nice! Me like too much!)

and my personal favourite...

bra - basket blong titi (basket belong titty)

Personality change...

2007-07-02T11:06:00.000Z

While waiting for the ordination service to start at St. Paul's on Saturday (see entry below) I couldn't help but overhear the conversation going on between the people I was sat next to. They were talking about their friend who they were there to support in his ordination, and saying how hard the whole process of going for ordination had been on him and his wife. They were saying how much more relaxed he used to be, how they used to be able to have more of a laugh and a joke with him but recently he had become more serious and tended to have a really browbeaten look about him.

This process has been a challenging time for me and especially for Lisa, but at the same time much of it has been very enjoyable and a pleasure, we've met great people and made new friendships, and I do feel that it is definitely where God has called us. If people do notice any changes in my character for the worse - please warn me and tell me to get a grip, rather than sitting and chatting about me to each other!!! I found myself feeling really sorry for the guy these people were talking about and wanted to ask them if they had talked to him about it!

Day out in London again...

2007-07-01T16:50:00.000Z

Back in London again yesterday, and after including the Natural History Museum in last week's trip decided to have a wander round the Science Musuem this time:

Again there was far too much to see to do it justice in the time I had and so will be making trips back to both the museums at various points while I'm living in relatively easy reach of them. But as I've wandered around the 2 museums these last 2 Saturday's I've really been struck again by the amazingness of both the natural and human-made world, and am finding it harder than ever to believe that it has all come about by chance. I think it takes more faith to believe that than it does to believe that there is a creator God who set it all in motion, irrespective of what one believes about the nature and character of that God and about how creation happened. I know that this is a very simplistic way of looking at these things - but I don't think being simplistic makes it any less profound, and it's all you're going to get here for now. I do believe in the Christian creator God though, but am not going to get into a discussion of what I believe about that God and am hopelessly unqualified to get into the ins and outs of how creation came about - creationism / big bang / evolution debates etc. (will have to see how much I learn from studying Genesis 1-11 in more detail at Cambridge Uni Divinity faculty next year!!).

Anyway after this enjoyable, and actually quite inspiring time wandering round the museum I carried on across to the other side of central London to St. Paul's Cathedral:

This was to support 4 of my friends from Ridley who were being ordained as deacons by the Bishop of London. It was quite a ceremony! I've been to a few ordinations before, but never one where there were anywhere near the number of people being ordained as there were at this service - 45 in all. It took quite a while! Very special though, and great to see Liz, Graham, Olly and Fran on a special day for them. Beginning to hit home now that assuming all goes smoothly it will be my turn this time next year - scary!

So that's been 2 trips to London in 2 weekends, and very excited about making it a hatrick next Saturday when Lisa and I are heading to the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium having unexpectedly managed to get hold of some tickets last week:
Click here to check out the details. No doubt some comment on it will appear on here after the event.

Blood Brothers and The Natural History Museum

2007-06-26T22:01:00.000Z

Just had a really enjoyable weekend. Instead of getting each other birthday presents Lisa and I had booked a deal on lastminute.com to go and see the musical 'Blood Brothers' and stay in a Holiday Inn near Hyde Park. Blood Brothers was absolutely brilliant and I'd highly recommend it to anyone. Very moving and funny at the same time throughout - and brilliantly performed by the cast (not that I'm any great drama / musical critic though!). Would definitely go and see it again. The story is based in Liverpool, and bits of the humour in it were quite scouse - and Lisa and I noticed part way through that there were a lot of foreign tourists around us who didn't seem to always pick it up, we were aware all of a sudden that we were laughing very loudly at certain points and no-one else around us was! Had some nice Tex-Mex food afterwards near Leicester Square.

Then on Saturday, because of where our hotel was we decided to take the chance to visit the Natural History Musuem:

This place is absolutely massive - you need a week to do it justice. I'd been hoping to nip into the Science Museum next door as well, but there was just too much! Will definitely have to pay a few more visits to those 2 museums before we head back up north. Very impressive - especially as they are free!

End of another year at Ridley...

2007-06-24T17:11:00.001Z

Hard to believe that I've now completed 2 of my 3 years at Ridley - it's flying by! It has been a strange last couple of weeks watching many of my friends who were either already here when I started, or started at the same time as me but were only here for 2 years, packing up their things and moving on. When college starts again in late September out of the 70 ish full time students at that point only 8 of us will be there from when I started in Sept '05.

This last year at Ridley in many ways has been quite tough going as I've battled to complete the BTh degree - I certainly don't ever remember working as hard or intensely as I have done this year generally but particularly over the last couple of months. But at the same time it has been very rewarding, and I believe I've really grown and developed through it. God's been at work in me, and often I've not realised it at the time but when I get into reflective mode like this and look back it's often fairly obvious. My understanding of my own character and nature, who I am as a person, has really developed; my understanding of what I believe and confidence in that has grown. God's still got a lot to do with and in me - but at the same time it is good now and again to be able to look back and recognise what has already happened and how God has been working. It's in this whole area of recognising who I am and what I believe God is doing in and through me, and learning to be confident both in my faith and in the fact that God really is calling and using me, that I've got most reason to be thankful for my time here at Ridley so far (as well as for the many amazing people I have met).

Moving into a 3rd year with just a remnant of the people I started with is going to be interesting, but I've met many more great people this last year who will still be around and I look forward to meeting another group of people in September. It'll be good going into this next year feeling more settled than we have done so far - Lisa finally finding fulltime work that she really enjoys has helped with that. It's going to be a very different year workload wise - with no weekly supervision essays to prepare / write as I have no exams to prepare for (JOY!), meaning that I should have time to spend longer on and go more in depth into the things that I study and write about. But despite feeling more settled here we are also going to be getting excited about and preparing to move on elsewhere. These next couple of months will be interesting as we seek to come to an agreement with the Liverpool diocese and the appropriate vicars / parishes about where my curacy will be and what it will entail - prayer would be appreciated!

But before I have to think too much about my next year at Ridley or the curacy process I've got a nice long summer to enjoy!! These next few weeks are going to involve lots of sleeping, watching DVD's, some bike riding, and reading (stuff purely for enjoyment!) - though I guess there will no doubt be some housework and gardening to fit into all that. By the time Lisa's term finishes in 4 weeks or so I'll probably be bored and more than ready for our trips to New Wine and Ireland, but at the moment the thought of these coming 4 clear weeks is absolute bliss!

The lengths one would go to to get out of cleaning chapel...

2007-06-19T14:00:00.000Z

As term draws to a close here at Ridley, those of us who are returning for another year here in September have the joy of joining in what are called community work days whereby we are put into small teams to help with tasks around the site that need to be done. These include such pleasures as painting, gardening, library stocktaking, clearing out the big college basement, and also giving the chapel a clearout and spring clean - polishing all the silverware and wood in there, clearing all the junk that has gathered in the vestry etc., which is what I was put on the team for. It was arranged that this would be done this morning. However I was looking forward to doing this sooooo much that I went to extreme lengths to get out of it - I conveniently managed to have our car broken into!!

Well, not quite true - the car was broken into (kind of) but I hadn't actually arranged it you'll be glad to know. In all seriousness this is becoming a pain in the backside - I posted a few months back about my parents car being broken into whilst parked outside our house (see here), and now it has happened to our car in the same spot. In fact this time 3 out of 4 households of us who live in a row all had our cars broken into (fortunately the fourth household - good friends of ours were away). Idiot here managed to get my bike out of the garage and cycle off passing 2 of the cars without even noticing, and it was only 20 minutes later as I was nearing college that I heard my mobile ringing in my bag as Lisa was calling to let me know what she had found when she came to get into the car to head for work. Fortunately Lisa was able to get a lift to work with another teacher, and I was able to get a lift home so that I didn't have to cycle the 5 miles straight home again. Reported it to the police - but this time they hadn't actually opened any of the doors and got into the car, they'd literally just smashed a little back quarterlight window on the driver side, so the police said to go ahead and get it sorted rather than waiting for a 'scene of the crime' officer. Like last time, maybe I'm stereotyping too easily, but it does seem to be bored youths rather than anything more malicious - but it is a pain, and hard to know what can be done to stop it happening again!

What did annoy me was the phonecall I made to our insurance company which I now regret making at all. Basically what I found out was that even though my policy is fully comprehensive I do have to pay £100 excess, and also I've paid an extra £50 to protect my no claims discount - but that only covers 1 claim per policy year! So if I claimed for this, but then had another incident that involved a claim before my next policy renewal date I would lose 2 years of my full no claims discount when I renew. It just seems such a scam to me! The upshot was that I have got it done without filing a claim, and it only cost £80 ish which I would have ended up paying even if I had claimed because of the excess. The fact that I called them will probably be noted on my file though - and knowing my luck will mean an increased renewal premium anyway!

Anyway, rant over for now...!

Degree mark...

2007-06-13T18:31:00.000Z

To follow on from yesterdays post, I got the sheet with my exact breakdown of marks today. To replicate exactly what the bottom line of the sheet said:

Overall result = 2:1 (just!)

'Just!' - my feelings at the moment are who cares!! A 2:1 is a 2:1, I wasn't expecting it and I'm really chuffed - irrespective of how close a call it was!! It's been one of those occasions in my life where I've kind of hoped for something without really thinking it would happen and whereas most times I've been proved right and whatever I'd hoped for didn't happen, this has turned out to be 1 of the few times that trend has been bucked (funnily enough 1 of the other 'few' was my first degree, hmmm...maybe there's something I could learn from this!).

The individual breakdown of marks made for interesting reading - very surprised at some of the area's that came out better than others etc. The most disappointing thing was getting an embarrasingly low mark (my lowest mark of my two years here) in what has been both the best taught / supervised and my favourite course. But at the end of the day I didn't think I would get the 2:1, and after what has been a really hard slog, especially for the last couple of months, I'm really happy!!

Passed!

2007-06-12T20:53:00.000Z

Found out today that I've passed my degree. I know I've got a 2nd class of some description - won't find out until tomorrow whether it's a 2:1 or 2:2 or my exact breakdown of marks. Watch this space...

Vicars wife...

2007-05-31T21:36:00.000Z

Another classic from the asbojesus website. For those of you who know Lisa can you see her fitting this role??!!!
This one also made me chuckle, especially given the exam questions that have been thrown at me this week:

Bono at the NAACP Awards

2007-05-22T22:56:00.003Z

If you've got 6 1/2 minutes to spare watch this amazing, impassioned acceptance speech. Last minute or 2 especially worth listening to. Let me know what you think...

Scouse wit...

2007-05-22T07:01:00.001Z

Big match for Liverpool in Athens tomorrow night against AC Milan in the Champions League Final. Can the Reds win it for the 6th time? Will AC get revenge for our amazing comeback victory in the same final in 2005? At the moment though it's taken a bit of a backseat for me because of my viva on Thursday and exams next week - for those that know me you'll know that means I'm quite stressed about the exams etc! Anyway couldn't resist taking just a couple of mins off revision to share these egs of banners going with Liverpool fans to the match - you can't beat scouse humour!

COME ON LIVERPOOL!!!

'Mars bars get veggie status back'

2007-05-20T09:54:00.000Z

Makes me chuckle to see this as currently the 2nd 'headline' under news on the bbc.co.uk homepage!

...and on that note back to the revision.

Revision avoidance...

2007-05-15T19:17:00.000Z

Websites like 'Asbo Jesus' are far more fun than revision. This is just a sample that has cheered me up today - click here to see more from where these came from.

The joys of commuting by bicycle in English weather...

2007-05-09T17:39:00.000Z

Decided to leave college today to cycle home when I thought it looked like the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing. Hmmmmm.....
Obviously not the man to trust for your weather predicting needs!

Though looking at it on here not sure the photo quite does justice to how soaking wet I actually was, the trousers should actually be quite a light grey. Anyway, time for a deserved hot bath!

Phew!

2007-05-04T21:37:00.000Z

One tired and relieved student sitting here. Very glad that my 4 x 3000 word assessed essays and 10,000 word pastoral portfolio have all now been handed in a couple of days ahead of Monday's noon deadline. It's been a hard slog these last few weeks! Might actually get round to putting a bit of info as to what they were all about for anyone who's remotely interested at some point - but not now. Ready for lots of sleep and rest this weekend before getting stuck into revision next week.

Athens here we come part 2...

2007-05-03T10:22:00.001Z

Amazing clip of the fans before the Liverpool fans before the match on Tues. night. What an atmosphere - are there better fans anywhere in the world?!

Anyway, thought I'd add some thoughts to my inane shouting after the match on Tuesday night (see below), especially now that I know who Liverpool are going to face in the final in Athens in a few weeks.

It was not a game for the football purists, but it was never going to be. I know I'm biased but I did think that Liverpool had the better of it and would have actually won it before penalties if it were not for the crossbar and a very dodgy offside decision. Typical Mourinho comments after the game saying that the best team lost and they were the only team trying to win in normal play blah blah blah... Not for 1 minute claiming that Liverpool played particularly well, but Chelsea just did not turn up and never for 1 minute did they look like they were really trying to avoid it going to pens. Love the headline on 1 of the BBC articles: 'Mourinho the Deluded One' - very apt. Admittedly they outplayed us in the 1st half of the 1st leg, but not apart from that and they've only got themselves to blame. Would still love to know what Lampard does to deserve his automatic place in England's midfield - thought he was absolutely useless on Tues.

Heard an interesting fact at the end of the match - Liverpool have now been in 11 penalty shoot outs over the years, and have won 10 of them. Remarkable! Think England need to come and learn something from us!

Then last night AC Milan played Man Utd off the park, and we're now on for a replay of the 2005 final - still the greatest of many great moments in Liverpool's history for me anyway. People kept asking me who I wanted to get through yesterday - and in all truth I wasn't too bothered, just glad that Liv had made it. The revenge factor makes it all the more interesting though! Ferguson had the decency to acknowledge Utd's flaws after the game, but then attacks the Premier League saying they did nothing to help their cause. Aaaarrrgggghhhh...don't you just feel really sorry for them!!! Not quite sure what he expected them to do.

Anyway, and so on to the final on 23rd May. Can't believe that it's the night before I've got a really important viva (oral exam kind of thing) at 9.30 in the morning! Would have loved to be able to nip up to Liverpool to watch it their after the amazing scenes and atmosphere of 2005, but not to be unfortunately. Can Liverpool do it again? AC Milan will undoubtedly be the favourites, but that gives me a sense of deja vu from last time. We shall see...

Athens here we come!!!!!

2007-05-01T21:56:00.000Z

YEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

Poem for the opening of Christ the King Cathedral, Liverpool (a.k.a. Paddy's Wigwam)

2007-04-25T10:33:00.000Z

Driving along a road near to where we lived in Liverpool on our trip up there a couple of weeks ago from which you get a good distant view of some of the city centre's landmarks including the 2 famous cathedrals. Reminded me of this poem by Roger McGough written for the original opening of the Roman Catholic cathedral which a friend showed me recently. I really like it:

O Lord on thy new Liverpool address
let no bombs fall
Gather not relics in the attic
nor dust in the hall
But daily may a thousand friends
who want to chat just call

Let it not be a showroom
for wouldbe good Catholics
or worse:
a museum
a shrine
a concrete hearse
But let it be a place
Where lovers meet after work
for kind words and kisses
Where dockers go of a Saturday night
to get away from the missus
Tramps let kip there through till morning
kids let rip there every evening

Let us pray there
heads held high
arms to the sky
not afraid and kneeling
let Koppites
teach us how to sing
God's 'Top of the Pops' with feeling

After visiting you
May trafficwardens let noisy parkers off
and policemen dance on the beat
Barrowomen knock a shilling off
exatheists sing in the street

And let the cathedral laugh
Even show its teeth
And if it must wear the cassock of dignity
Then let's glimpse the jeans beneath

O Lord on thy new Liverpool address
let no bombs fall
Keep always a light in the window
a welcome mat in the hall
That it may be a home sweet
home from home for all.

Family Snaps

2007-04-22T21:17:00.000Z

Just realised I've not posted since before last weekend's trip up to Shropshire and Liverpool. Far too busy at the moment with my big essay deadline day and then exams looming large, so entries on here are probably going to be brief and sporadic. Couldn't let last weekend just go completely though - it was so good to see family and friends, and to see just how quickly our 2 nephews are growing up. Thought I'd share some of our photo's:

(Drink time for Nathaniel)

(It's a fun life!)

(Louise, Kevin and Nathaniel)

(Benjamin)

(Walkies)

(Peter, Lorraine and Benjamin)

Heading North!!!

2007-04-12T20:52:00.000Z

Lisa and I are very excited at the prospect of heading to Shropshire, Runcorn and Liverpool tomorrow morning for the weekend to see brother, sister, brother in law, sister in law, 2 nephews, godsons and various friends!!! Can't wait to see the nephews at 15 and 8 months old having not seen either of them for 4 months!

I'm happy down here in Cambridge at the moment but there is something about heading back to Liverpool...family and friends are a huge part of that, but there is slightly more to it than that. It's strange the pull that particular places have on us sometimes.

Easter Electric Shock

2007-04-12T20:11:00.000Z

And whatever Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were doing in writing the final sections of their books, they were not telling the story of Jesus's resurrection as a happy ending. They were telling it as a startling new beginning. Easter morning isn't a slow, gentle waking up after the difficult operation. It's the electric shock that brings someone back to life in a whole new way.

Just noticed this from Tom Wright on Malcolm's blog and really like it. As per my below entry Easter Sunday is and should be a real celebration - but it is a celebration of a new beginning, not the end of the story. The truth of Christ's resurrection makes a whole new life possible, and, as Tom says, in the church we often just celebrate it for a few hours before returing to the 'normal' way of things. But what can be normal after Easter? Easter needs to 'electric shock' us to a new way of living in the light of God's grace and love shown ultimately in Jesus' death and resurrection. Praise God! Click here for Tom's full article, as well as some interesting follow up comments.

Easter Sunday!

2007-04-08T13:07:00.000Z

(African Resurrection image)

Following on from yesterday's entry (see below), it really is time to party and celebrate now!!! Enjoyed a lively family communion service this morning, and what better way to sum up what today is all about than with these famous words:

Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son;

endless is the victory, thou o'er death hast won;

angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away,

kept the folded grave clothes where thy body lay.

Thine be the glory, risen conquering Son,

Endless is the vict'ry,

thou o'er death hast won.

Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb;

Lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom;

let the Church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing;

for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting.

No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life;

life is naught without thee; aid us in our strife;

make us more than conquerors, through thy deathless love:

bring us safe through Jordan to thy home above.

Words: Edmond Budry (1854-1932), 1884;

trans. Richard Hoyle (1875-1939), 1923;

Easter Saturday

2007-04-07T10:30:00.000Z

Struggled to find an image that I wanted to use for this post - not quite sure how realistic a picture this gives us of Jesus' body in the tomb, surely it would have been a bit more wrapped up?! Anyway, it makes the point that Jesus really did die - and stayed dead for 2 days.

I don't think that it is too morbid to actually point that out and remember it appropriately, to show sorrow and remorse for our guilt as well as thankfulness for the amazing self-sacrificial love of God. Also to think about our response to it all. This is all summed up really well for me by the words of 'When I Survey the Wondrous Cross' (see yesterday's post below).

Sometimes we can be guilty as Christians (in certain church circles anyway), of really downplaying the solemnity of Good Friday / Easter Saturday, of commemorating them in a wishy-washy way (if at all) that almost makes them seem an inconvenience in the build up to the big resurrection celebration on Easter morning. What a celebration that should be! But at the right time, after an appropriate and real recognition and remembrance of the events that lead up to it.

Good Friday

2007-04-06T18:55:00.000Z

When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died;
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

Rampant Reds!

2007-04-03T21:17:00.000Z

So says the headline on the BBC sport website following the 3-0 victory in Eindhoven this evening. Professional and classy performance against a very poor looking PSV team, 3 good goals which included another header from Crouch (4 goals in the last 2 games now from him including 2 headers - needs to break his nose and have a couple of weeks off more often!), a stormer of a volley from Riise, and a header from Gerrard (makes him Liverpool's highest ever European Cup goalscorer overtaking Ian Rush - 1 of my all time hero's). The way the two teams played you'd have thought Liverpool were at home not away - certainly sounded like that as 'Fields of Anfield Road' and 'You'll Never Walk Alone' dominated the noise from the crowd in the 2nd half! Can't believe that we were playing the same team that knocked Arsenal out in the last round! Only downside was serious sounding achilles injury to Fabio Aurelio - sounds like he's going to be out of action for a long time. Still though, great result to follow on from the demolition of Arsenal at the weekend!

At the end of the game David Pleat, 1 of the ITV commentators made me laugh saying that Liverpool had had an easy run because of the teams we'd played in the group stages and then getting PSV and that the real work would have to start when we go on to play Chelsea or Valencia in the next round (assuming we don't get hammered 4-0 at Anfield by PSV in the return leg!). What a stupid comment to make! Did he just forget that we had knocked Barcelona, supposedly the best team in the world as well as defending champions out in the previous round?

Now sat keeping an eye online to see if Ireland can pull off another shock in the Cricket World Cup against the South Africans - but not looking likely now. Looking forward to going to watch a bit of the England v Sri Lanka game tomorrow, though not holding out a great deal of hope for England.

Currently listening to...

2007-04-03T17:35:00.000Z

Not done a music post for quite a while so:
Kaiser Chiefs: Yours Truly, Angry Mob

Enjoying this greatly at the moment. Highly recommend!

Guillemots: Through The Window Pane

A friend said to me when I first got this back around Christmas that it was brilliant, but a bit of a 'slow grower' and to give it time. He wasn't wrong! (Cheers Rich)

Looking forward to the new Arctic Monkeys album coming out in a few weeks as well - sounds good in the reviews I've seen.

Peter Kay John Smiths Advert

2007-03-26T20:20:00.001Z

Following on from below entry and clip - remember the ads he did for John Smiths? This 1 and the dive bomber 1 still make me laugh!

Peter Kay

2007-03-26T20:17:00.001Z

Enjoyed watching bits of Channel 4's Peter Kay night yesterday. I enjoy the way that like in this clip he just makes fun of every day things. Love Phoenix Nights as well, bored of Amarillo, but did enjoy him as Brian Potter from Phoenix Nights with Matt Lucas as Andy from Little Britain doing the Proclaimers song for Comic Relief this year.

End of term but work to be done...

2007-03-23T10:28:00.000Z

So there ends another term at Ridley - suddenly hit me yesterday that that's now 5 terms down 4 to go, more than 1/2 way through and as mentioned in a previous post starting to think seriously and fill forms in about where Lisa and I move on to next. Does the speed at which time seems to pass scare anyone else?

Got a lot of work to get done over these holidays. 4 essays of 3000 words each and a 10,000 word portfolio made up of 3 bits of work are all due to be submitted 2 weeks into next term. Then 3 weeks after that I've got exams. So at the moment it feels like I'm facing something of an uphill struggle! Quite conscious that I feel like I'm moaning a bit too much to people about having all this to do though, and was thinking about this when I came across the following on the cartoon church blog:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Helps me put things in perspective - when I've got lots of work on like this and exams and things coming up I always worry and feel like things are going to be really bad, but just like in the cartoon getting to the finishing point is normally not as tough as I imagine it to be. These next couple of months will be something of a struggle but I bet they won't be as bad as I think they will be in my lower moments! I need to keep that perspective on it all - so please shout at me if you hear / read me moaning too much, whether on the blog or in person!!

Anyway on that note I'm going too forget about it all for the rest of today and go to see Hot Fuzz with Lisa. Been wanting to see it since it came out and not had chance yet. Will follow it with some nice grub in town somewhere - probably a Japanese noodle place I've enjoyed before.

Happy St Patricks Day No. 2

2007-03-17T10:59:00.000Z

On this Saint Patrick's Day, Please remember those less fortunate Irishmen suffering from floods in their Irish Homeland!

Crowds panic as floods threaten Ireland!

Happy St Patricks Day!

2007-03-17T10:57:00.001Z

England Rugby / Cricket and last weekend

2007-03-16T22:24:00.000Z

Following on from my entry last week (see here) and my negatvity about English Rugby / Cricket I'm glad to say I was proved at least 50% wrong! Very pleased and surprised to see such a good victory in the rugby for England against France. England looked like a different team to the team thrashed by Ireland in the previous game though that was actually partly true considering how many players were either dropped or injured, and the new look team did play well especially in the 2nd half. Having said that France were particularly poor so it's not time to get too excited about the 'English revival' yet - as the papers seem to so easily! Was disappointed in how poor the Irish played against Scotland, but at least they snook the win - by a massive 1 point! Looking forward to the final round of matches tomorrow and hoping that Ireland will hammer Italy, and then Scotland do something good against France to give the Irish a St Patricks Day to remember with a 6 nations championship victory - you never know! Think that's a more likely outcome than both Ireland and France doing badly enough to give England a chance of the title.

The English cricketers have still to prove my negativity about their World Cup chances wrong though after they were beaten easily by New Zealand in their 1st game of the tournament today - very disappointing. Quick improvement needed! In terms of other matches so far, I've been keeping an eye on Dwayne's progress with Bermuda after talking about him last week - but he only managed 1 wicket and 1 run as they got hammered by Sri Lanka, a South African batsman managed the remarkable feat of 6 6's in 1 over in their match against the Netherlands, and trust the Irish to liven the tournament up with a remarkable draw against Zimbabwe!

Changing subject, had a great time last weekend with really good friends who came down from Liverpool with their 3 month old to see us. Really cool to see and have time with them. Weather was fantastic, and I'm really proud of a couple of photo's I took at Kings College in Cambridge, so thought I'd show them off on here:

Weather like we had at the weekend and for most of this week, and shots like these really remind me of the privilege of living somewhere like this for a while!

ASBO Jesus

2007-03-16T09:14:00.000Z

Found a blog yesterday (thanks to Malcolm) with some very funny cartoons called asbojesus. Here's a couple of examples that cheered me up as I was sat at my desk struggling with an essay:
For these and various others click here.

Church for all...

2007-03-15T09:01:00.000Z

Came across this on this blog recently. Ben who shared it was writing about an article that he had seen in the New York Times about 'churches without walls' - unfortunately the link he gives to the article doesn't work anymore, it takes you to a NY Times archive page where you have to pay to get to the story . Anyway, there seems to have been a big move in various cities across the US to take church out into the parks and other places where homeless people who won't set foot inside church buildings gather, and just to 'do' and 'be' church there. As Ben writes in his post, "This is a story about taking church outdoors because the homeless and street people often will not come inside a church for worship. The remarkable thing about it, is that it is working...they are taking the singing, homilies, and Eucharist to the streets. And interestingly, people are lining up to participate. It appears that if you will go to them and show up in a environment where they are comfortable much can be accomplished when it comes to the poor, the homeless, the addicts, and the prostitutes."

He then goes on to tell this story:

Tony Campolo tells a story about when he was in Honolulu to do a Christian event, and late one night could not sleep. So he goes to the local greasy spoon at about 3 a.m. The waiter has a dirty apron on, and Tony orders bad coffee and a doughnut.

The overweight waiter who is also the owner slaps it on a plate and then wipes his hand on his apron. Not long there after all these women come into the place. Its the local prostitutes. They sit on either side of Tony, some 8 of them sitting on stools and they start talking as if he is not there. The one to his left is named Agnes. The girl on his right is ragging on Agnes and teasing her. Agnes makes the mistake of saying that tomorrow is her birthday. "No big deal" says the other girl, "we all have them." Agnes says "Yeah, you're right no big deal. I've never had a birthday party anyway." Eventually the girls get up and leave.

Tony asks the owner--

"Do those girls come in here every night?"

"Yep", says Marty the owner, "why do you ask?"

"Well, what would you think about having a birthday party for Agnes tomorrow night right here, same time? I'll go get the cake in the morning."

Marty calls he wife in the back-- "Hey Louise, this guy thinks we should have a birthday party for Agnes... what do you think?" Well turns out they both think its a nice thing to do.

Marty says to Tony: "No way are you buying the cake. I'm making it."

"Fine" says Tony, "I'll get the balloons and stuff."

Well the day comes and goes, and Tony shows up at 3 again. They decorate the diner, and out comes a nice sheet with Happy Birthday Agnes on it and lots of candles. These girls are all in their late 30s and 40s. Sure enough they show up at 3:30 sharp, and Tony and the owners say "Surprise Agnes", and start singing Happy Birthday to you, and bring out the cake.

Well, Agnes is stunned, having never had a birthday celebration before. Marty says " Blow out the candles."

Tony interrupts and says "Wait, if you don't mind I'd like to say a prayer first for Agnes." And so he does--- thanking God for Agnes life and saying that she is a person of sacred worth created in God's image.

There is an awkward pause, and then Marty says again "Blow out the candles and cut the cake." But Agnes is crying and says, "Could I wait just a bit on cutting the cake? I'd like to take it down the block to my Mom's and show it to her first."

"Sure," says Marty, "It's your cake."

No sooner does she leave then Marty says to Tony, "Hey I didn't know you were a minister. You didn't tell us you were gonna get all religious. What kind of church do you serve?"

"A church where prostitutes are welcome", says Tony.

"Nah", says Marty, "There's ain't a church like that, because if there was I'd go there. I'd feel welcome to.

"Honest" says Tony, "You could come to my church, Jesus loves everybody and accepts them and starts with them where they are."

I think that this is fantastic, and gives a glimpse of how I believe God wants His Church to be. Yet so often it is not the reality - and even where churches are really seeking to be like this they are battling against people's preconceptions, sometimes misguided, but often based on real experiences of the church in their past. For me this all puts up 2 major challenges: how to get our churches and their members to a point where words and attitudes like Tony Campolo's above, and the actions shown by the people taking church out onto the streets, are being spoken and acted out for real, not just as empty promises but in some way being put into practice. Also how to get past people's preconceptions of the church - whether misguided or based on personal experience. It's about showing God's love for real, not just speaking about it in nice words. Challenging, but exciting!

Life after Ridley

2007-03-09T22:53:00.000Z

Had a sharp reminder yesterday that there is life after Ridley. I'm generally enjoying my time here, but it is a bit of a unique and slightly unreal time being in a theological college community - and its good to remember that there is life beyond it, I am where I am for a purpose! The reminder was in the shape of a form in my college pigeon hole that I've got to fill in and give back to the college to then go off to various important people like Bishops and so on who are going to be involved in sorting out where Lisa and I go next for me to be a curate. I have to tick various boxes to say what sort of place and what type of church we would like to go to. It always surprises me how many different types / categories of churches there are within the Church of England - and looking down the list on the form I need to find out what half of the categories on it actually mean before I prioritise which ones I would like to consider going to! When I give it back in I've got to attach my 'CV' as well - that should be fun, I've managed to avoid doing one of those since I had to do it as an exercise at school in what I think they now call 'Personal and Social Education' or something like that! Any tips on what sort of stuff to include and more cruciallly how to lay it out would be most welcome.

Talking sport but not football for a change...

2007-03-07T18:29:00.000Z

Was made to chuckle when I flicked to the BBC sport website to check on England's progress in their 1st warm up game for the upcoming World Cup against Bermuda, to read that England's "best 2 batsmen have fallen to a 20 stone policeman"!!!!! Made me laugh, but not sure how well it bodes for England's World Cup chances - if they've got any to begin with!

Anyway, during and after the game there was banter about, and a focus on, the said Bermudan bowler's girth: He's called Dwayne Leverock and when questioned about his weight by BBC sport he responded "I don't get upset about that, its what the Lord gave me and I just use it to my advantage." - Well said Dwayne, all the best for the World Cup!

Next round of matches in Rugby Union's six nations tournament coming up this weekend. Holding out more hope for Ireland to beat Scotland than I am for England to beat France, especially given the annihilation England suffered at Irish hands last time out. Talking of which my Irish Father-in-law sent me this picture which pretty much sums up the game that day:

Anyway, let's hope England can prove my negativity wrong in both the Cricket and the Rugby!

Come On You Mighty Reds!!!

2007-03-06T22:13:00.000Z

One very relieved and happy Liverpool fan sitting here, having spent the evening as a nervous gibbering wreck!!! The silly thing is that I become so negative about these things. Right from the start I was scared Barcelona were going to comeback after our win out there and win the tie at Anfield, even when we were creating the better chances I still thought they were going to win it, the fact that we came so close to scoring made it even worse, and then when they got 1 of the 2 goals they needed that was it - all over, definitely Barcelona going to go through and Liverpool to go out, and still thought that right up to the final whistle - especially after the silly last minute loss to Man United last weekend. Not going to over analyse this game, just mightily relieved that the men in red proved my negativity wrong - Jamie Carragher especially was immense, and feel it has to be said that over the 2 games the better team has deservedly gone through to the next round. Feels good to say that when your team has knocked out the trophy holders and supposedly the best team in the world! Could it be European Cup no. 6 for Liverpool? Better not get too carried away, but you never know....

Care for creation...

2007-03-01T15:01:00.000Z

…there’s no need for the church of Jesus Christ to be wasting its time gullibly falling for all of this global warming hocus-pocus. We need to give our total focus to the business of reaching this world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and stop running down meaningless rabbit trails that get our focus off of our heavenly purpose.

says Jerry Falwell a nationally recognised Christian minister and TV show host in the US. Picked up on this via Cartoon Church and Ellen's blog. Click here to read the full script of what he said. It reminds me of a sermon I heard not too long ago at a church I was visiting where the preacher basically said that worrying about the environment is a bit of a waste time as God will end the world according to his own timetable / plan anyway. This kind of thing really worries me because to my mind it is so anti what the Bible says about the created world and our responsibility. I really like the email that Ellen has sent off to Rev Falwell (see here) and will be interested to hear if he replies, and if so how.

**Update**
No reply from Jerry to Ellen as yet.

Salvation

2007-03-01T12:04:00.000Z

Been very busy this week and not had much time to think about blogging. Could certainly have done without the incident mentioned in the below entry!

Anyway, spent a fair bit of time last weekend working on an essay about the imagery Paul uses to describe salvation in Romans. One thing that writing that really made me realise is that Paul was very good at using language and images that were relevant to his time and culture, images and language that would have really resonated with and meant something to his readers. I think 1 problem that much of the Church in this era has is that we are still using these same words and images nearly 2000 years later, and they often do not mean anything to or resonate with people in our culture in the same way. Words such as salvation itself, justification, righteousness, redemption, sanctification, have become religious jargon that don't mean much to us as Christians some of the time, let alone people who we're trying to communicate the gospel to. As a Church I really believe we need to be looking for relevant words and images that convey the amazing meanings and truths of these words and concepts in a way that will grab people's minds and attention.

One of the images Paul used for salvation was the idea of reconciliation, and I really like something Bishop Tom Wright wrote about this. Reconciliation is “effected from God’s side, by the initiative of love” and “The fact that God’s rescuing love has found a way of deliverance and reconciliation is part of the wonder of the gospel.” Surely this is something that as Christians we should be trying to communicate relevantly and effectively. We worship an amazing God!!