Defending champions?!!

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

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

Christianity Rediscovered

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...

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

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...

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!!!

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

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

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.

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

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

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...

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...

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

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...

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

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

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...

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)