Peter Kay John Smiths Advert

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

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...

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

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!

England Rugby / Cricket and last weekend

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

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...

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

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...

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!!!

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...

…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

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!!

Crime in Comberton!

Comberton, where we are living at the moment, is a really nice village 5 miles out of Cambridge. So small and quiet that it took us a long time to get used to living here having been in the inner suburbs of Liverpool before. It's got some pretty thatched cottages, a village pond and green, 1 shop, 1 pub, and generally it's an idyllic 'English' village. We get a village magazine, with news from around the village, tips for the garden and other such cutting edge stuff called 'The Comberton Contact'. When we first moved down we saw a little section in this reporting 'crime' that had occurred in the village, and the only thing it had to report in that issue was a 'missing' bike from the caravan site on the edge of the village! Then, a while back there was an issue about a mobile kebab van that used to be in the village 5 evenings a week, and supposedly caused a gathering of 'unruly youths' around the crossroads and green. It all made me laugh a little bit!

However, recently things have been more serious with vandalism at the primary school and verbal attacks and things being thrown, when there have been people there for evening events and so on. I think part of the problem is that there is very little for teenagers to do in the villages around here - I'd have hated it when I was that age!

Then a few weeks ago our neighbours car was broken into one night on the road outside the house. Now it's happened to me! Got up to cycle in to college this morning and as I was pulling off noticed a load of glass in the road, and realised that someone had smashed the one of the little quarter light windows on my parents car (which we're 'looking after' while they're away travelling in Asia) and had a look through the glove box etc. They don't seem to have tried to actually steal it, and there was nothing in there to be nicked anyway. Sat here now, having reported it, waiting on a 'scene of the crime' officer who's coming to have a look shortly (funnily enough, at different times Lisa and I both had cars broken into in Liverpool and reported it but no police came to the 'crime scene' there!). Anyway, this is not the sort of thing I was expecting to be dealing with when we moved in to this little 'idyllic' English village that only had missing bikes to worry about - or so we thought!!!

**Update**
Car now in Cambridge Autoglass having window fixed through the insurance. Police 'scene of crime scientist' came and checked for 'evidence', but didn't seen too hopeful. I then spent a bit of time sweeping up as much of the glass as I could - interested me that while I was doing that a number of cars slowed right down had a good nose at me and the car and then drove on. Hmmm...human curiosity is a funny thing isn't it. Also reminded me a bit of what two of the characters in 1 of Jesus' more famous parables did!

We're ready to stun Barca...

...according to Steven Gerrard, as quoted in the sports headline of the Liverpool Echo earlier today. Man was he right! Playing Barcelona in their Nou Camp stadium is a big deal, current champions of Europe, favourites to hold on to the title and supposedly the best team in the world. But what does all that matter to the mighty Reds! Gutted that I wasn't able to get to see the game and had to be content with listening on the radio. Barca scored an early goal and it sounded like they then battered us for the rest of the first half, until 2 mins before 1/2 time when Bellamy equalised. 2nd half sounded like we were very organised and just didn't give them a look in, and actually missed a few chances ourselves before Riise scored the winner. Both our goals were supposedly helped by poor keeping / defending - BUT WHO CARES!! Typical that the goals were scored by Bellamy and Riise - the 2 players at the centre of last weeks stupid headlines.

"A quite sensational result" according to the BBC website, "one of the most stunning results in their proud European history" says the official LFC website, "a famous win...in most impressive fashion" according to Sky Sports. One very happy Liverpool fan sitting here - just hope we don't implode and get stuffed back at Anfield in the 2nd leg in a couple of weeks!

Dangerous Wonder: The Adventure of Childlike Faith

Great book all about how boring we have a tendency to make our Christian faith seem, and the need to recapture the adventure and excitement of a childlike faith. Very readable, lots of very perceptive and challengingly true comments etc., and various quotes might well appear on this blog from time to time. At the start of each chapter he quotes short verses / poems / stories etc. that he picked up from elsehere. Let me share this one with you:

Life is tough. It takes up much of your time, all your weekends, and what do you get in the end of it? I think that the life cyle is backward. You should die first, get that out of the way. Then you live twenty years in an old-age home. You get kicked out when you're too young. You get a gold watch, you go to work. You work forty years until you're young enough to enjoy your retirement. You go to college; you party until you're ready for high school; you go to grade school; you become a little kid; you play. You have no responsibilities. You become a little baby; you go back into the womb; you spend your last nine months floating; and you finish up as a gleam in somebody's eye.

Sounds good to me!

Life's struggle...

Following words were shared with us at morning prayer earlier today:

Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world rather than to God. A little criticism makes me angry, and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the time and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me.

Henri J.M. Nouwen

Piercingly true words - I feel like this guy knows me!

I'm the man! I've got it sorted, my priorities are right...

...according to a guy who shook me profusely by the hand as I stood with a glass of beer watching the last 1/2 hour of the England v Scotland game on the opening day of this years 6 nations rugby.

This was something else that I meant to post a comment on last week and never got round to it with everything else that was going on. But what happened was that while the 1st 2 matches - Italy v France and then England v Scotland were being played Lisa and I were on the Eurostar travelling to Bruges. When I realised at Bruges station that I was still in time to see some of the England game I was very keen to get straight to somewhere showing it, before going on to check in at our hotel, and Lisa very graciously agreed. So a taxi driver dropped us suitcase and all, at the 'Irish' pub pictured below, and in we went to a pub full of folk shouting at the TV - all English and Scottish accents, not another language to be heard. Anyway, dumped our bags, went to the bar to get a drink, and then the next thing I knew this English guy was shaking me by the hand and paying me the above compliments. Why? Because I had just arrived somewhere and gone straight out on the 'lash' without even going to our hotel first! He seemed seriously impressed. Ever wonder where the stereotypical images of 'Brits' and maybe especially 'Brits abroad' come from?!!!!! I had only gone there like that because of the rugby - honest!!

My week...

Sat here feeling a sense of relief at having got today over with! This last week has been a bit of a blur - in fact I can't believe it was only this time last week that Lisa and I were travelling back from Bruges. Since getting back last Monday night I've finished an essay on the theology of baptism; done some reading and prepared an essay plan on what Paul means by 'righteousness of God' in Romans; prepared and preached a sermon at one of my attachment church's for a 9.30am service on Sunday, as well as preparing and leading all of a more informal service at my other church at 11am on Sunday - both on the one Sunday as the vicar is away for 1/2 term; attended various lectures and done bits of reading for them; and then today had supervisions based on the theology of baptism and righteousness of God work, as well as a pastoral seminar for which I had to read someone elses essay and give feedback to them about it. Busy few days - hence the lack of much meaningful entry on this blog!

Amidst all the busyness though I did take a few mins out last week to enjoy Ridley in the snow:

and also at the weekend to watch the England v Italy and Ireland v France 6 nations rugby matches. Not much to say about the England game really - victory as expected, but a bit of a 'nothing' game and performance, very uninspiring stuff. Kind of expected that really, after all the silly media hype after the Scotland game the week before - why do things get built up so quickly on the back of 1 game? Anyway, the Ireland game was a different matter altogether - what a match! Lisa and I were so gutted when France nicked it with that try at the end, but on what I've seen so far Ireland and France are head and shoulders above the other 4 teams this year. Still not convinced that anyone can really challenge the All Blacks for the World Cup later this year though. In other sport - great victory for England in the cricket one dayers down under, especially after the awful time they had been having. The less said about football, and especially Liverpool the better!

With the lack of time over the last few days, not had a chance to say about our weekend away in Bruges. Really enjoyed it - beautiful city and well worth a visit, and getting there via the Eurostar from London to Brussels was so easy. Burnt a lot of sole rubber wandering round the city and its sites, enjoyed a boat trip on the canals, enjoyed a tour of a brewery and drank some very good Belgian beer, had a couple of really nice meals out, bought some good Belgian chocolate and beer home with us, and stayed in a really nice hotel. Great time! See a few of my photo's below:

A church in trouble...

For anyone who is wondering, this is for real - I took the photo myself! Worrying isn't it? Not the sort of message I want to see in church doors!