Heavy Weather

Maybe it's just one of those days but everything feels like hard work today. I got the all-age sorted for this morning, and people were very appreciative at the end; it's just that sometimes it feels harder work at the front for no obvious reason. The singing was very subdued as well today - maybe it's just that end of half-term feeling.

Now struggling to put all my diverse thoughts about this evening into order before going into set up PA etc. Not exactly how I hoped to round off a few days off, but it's no-one's fault. Perhaps I just need a longer holiday!!

Church chairs dilemmas

One of the big positives of our campus chapel is that it doesn't have pews. We can have all kinds of flexible seating arrangements, from formal rows to the café style seating we use on a Sunday night for our new venture, Inspire. The down side is that the chairs are rarely left how you want them for the next activity. What's more we usually get blamed if User A leaves the chairs wrong for User B and we haven't been in to rearrange them first. It was the same for the Church Hall when I was in Coventry.

Today (Saturday) I called in to the chapel to leave some music for tomorrow's practise to find all the chairs, tables and other bits and pieces around the walls. Not exactly ideal for breakfast in the morning, or for Inspire in the evening. However, I didn't feel it should be my job to do all the lugging.

I fear Chaplaincy may yet have to produce a detailed diagram of "How Chapel Should Be Left", but that would be tedious and probably irritating to users. It all depends whether the irritation of stuff in the wrong place outweighs the irritation of us becoming sticklers for detail.

Hmmm

Italics.

The blog has just all gone into italics except for the last entry. No idea why. Maybe a Scribefire issue

Parking

One of the tricky things about managing parking is the permit-to-available spaces ratio. If you only issue the same number of permits as spaces, then your car park has a lot of empty space most of the time. Too many permits, and you have frustrated permit-holders looking for a space that isn't there. It's a bit like airlines and seats.

That was me on Wednesday, but sadly they didn't offer me an upgrade; I just had to park on a nearby road.

Petrol emotion

There seems to be a lot of people venting steam about the recent petrol price increase, which finally took the average in Britain over £1-00 per litre. Thresholds like that don't really mean very much, of course. After all when petrol went from 66p to 67 p a litre, that was a bigger percentage increase than 99p to £1-00. It's all to do with the symbolism of the figures, rather than their inherent value.

People get very hung up on figures - the Millennium, wedding anniversaries that are a multiple of ten (or 5!), etc. It's interesting how some things capture our attention. Some people even get excited about Bible verse numbers, especially all the [Book of the Bible]3:16s Worth remembering the chapter & verse system we use was invented centuries after the text of the Bible was finalised. (Archbishop Stepehen Langton in the 13th century, I believe)

Back to petrol. I also notice that a lot of the people who complain seem to be drivers of pretty thirsty vehicles. There are a lot of well-powered, spacious and quality options that still return very good fuel economy (and CO2 figures). My son's encyclopaedic knowledge of cars available in Britain keeps me well aware of that! He'll provide stats for a small fee (or you could just buy What Car magazine*)

* other motoring magazines are available!

A day of disparate bits

Just wanted to log something today. I have done an online ASDA shop, moved furniture, cleared up, printed Christmas cards and congratulated John Pritchard, the new Bishop of Oxford on his appointment (he was my tutor at Cranmer Hall). Now I'm trying to find inspiration for the service tomorrow. Something interesting to prepare for Christmas for Encounter, which is a worship/teaching/breakfast happening for 11-16s at St Thomas', Lancaster that uses St Martin's Chapel.

PS to the Arthur and George entry. There is a Damaris discussion on it here, but it gives away some stuff I quite enjoyed discovering as I read the book, so beware

Thought for the Day

No, I'm not providing a thought for the day - I'm talking about the BBC Radio 4 version. Yesterday Alan Billings was lamenting the number of worthy gifts he received, and wishing again for ties and v-neck jumpers. Having read it again, I know what he means, but the delivery was so dead-pan, and the text included religious technical-speak like eucharist and divinity, that he just sounded rather miserable. Today's came across as very intellectual and cerebral as well.

I have come to a conclusion about Thought for the day, which is that the Jewish contributors, especially Rabbi Lionel Blue, are far better at it than anyone else. Lionel Blue always tells vivid stories, usually a bad joke, but leaves you thinking about something all day. Maybe the Christians ought to go and have a lesson on story-telling at their nearest synagogue.

Temporary apostrophe misuse apology

I have now corrected Green Christian, as it contained that awful horror - the misused apostrophe. There was an occurrence of "it's" in a context where it was the genitive of "it", when we all know that should only be used to abbreviate "it is". For some inexplicable reason, it really gets to me when I see that wrong, so the typo on my entry was very irritating.

Anyway, I must rush, as I'm off down to the market to buy some tomatoe's.

In Search of God

This programme looked at belief in God in a very personal way. John Humphrys described how he had been brought up in the Christian faith, but had lost it in the wake of all the cruelty and suffering he had seen. In three programmes he talks to three leaders about why they think he could believe in God. He sits there and seeks to be convinced. The first was with Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I was quite disappointed with Abp Rowan's response. He could so easily have addressed some of the axioms of John Humphrys' argument, but he kept it at quite a theoretical level. There was a very good section when he ended up questioning JH on what his issues were, but somehow he didn't build on it.

What was most surprising was that he didn't keep the focus of his response on Jesus Christ. It seemed to me that one thrust of JH's points were that he didn't believe in God, because if He exists and He's 'out there', why doesn't He come down here? Given that He doesn't, He can't exist. That seemed to me to be his case.

Central to addressing such an argument must surely be to refer to the incarnation. God isn't sitting 'out there'; He's here (and there). God has entered the physical realm in Jesus Christ, and has lived, suffered and even died. At the very least, God has tasted the human condition, and at the crucufixion, Christians believe that in Jesus Christ, God actually articulates the cry of all suffering humanity: " my God, my God, why have you abandoned me?" Suffering still has no causal explanation, but the presence of suffering no longer necessarily indicated the absence of God.

Moreover, God's presence continues to be expressed in human beings. That's not to dismiss all 'supernatural' interventions by God, but experiences of God are often much more in the normal, everyday, material, and sometimes negative and distressing events of life. That is the Christian story.

My wife, Debbie, also observed that the Abp. made little reference to story. What case could a Christian put to a journalist to commend Christianity? The Christian story makes more sense of what the world is like and what it means than any other story. A journalist ought to find that sort of case engaging, even if it's not ultimately convincing.

Looking forward to seeing if the Jewish or Muslim contributors put a better case.

Laboring the point

US spelling doesn't usually bother me. Another country is perfectly entitled to adopt its own linguistic conventions, even when they involve rearranging the spelling of our own tongue. I'm not even too worried about Americanisms entering UK usage. In fact, I remember Bill Bryson provising a list of words that aren't, but everyone thinks they are.

The issue that bugs me is this. In the New York Times recently, they have been reporting on British politics, and they repeatedly refer to the Labor Party. We all accept that Americans have colors, travelers, etc, but Labour Party is a proper name. It should be spelt exactly as the organisation (or is that organization?) spells it. In the same way, we shouldn't have Technicolour, as it is an American brand name.

I'd write to the NYT, but somehow, I don't think they'd be very interested!

New Wine North

This year this Christian gathering in tents/caravans (apart from cowards in B&Bs) was held at the Newark & Notts showground. That's north if you're from Watford, south if you're from Durham, and familiar east midlands if, like me, you're from Nottingham.

Immediate comments:

Weather baking hot again (apart from the thunderstorm). Peatmans are getting a reputation for bringing good weather to NW gatherings. It was brilliant, if a bit exhausting.

Excellent time with church. You can't beat camping for a week with a load of people from church as a way of getting to know everyone much better. Only something like New Wine would provide the incentive to persuade most of them to do it.

Toilets plunged new depths. (quite proud of that tabloid-esque headline) I don't expect luxury, but a mobile wagon with a urinal not visible from outside would be nice. Apparently some people even had hot running water! Luckily there were better loos elsewhere on site.

Teaching patchy. Isn't it always at these things? Well, yes. Graham Cray did very good sessions on eschatology*, and the main morning Bible readings on Ephesians had good moments, although speaker tended to shout a bit too much. (and one morning diverted onto an evangelistic address based on John 19). The evening sessions were very variable, and at one point contained some interesting Christology* that wouldn't have passed at Chalcedon*. With such a large clientele, I just think it's important to seize the opportunity and you need to get those things right.

Chips with everything. could describe the diet on offer from the small number of food vans on-site. They were also let down with regard to an on-site shop, so fresh milk & other perishables were only enjoyed by those with refridgeration or in limited form later on.

The phrase was also once used by a high-church priest complaining about the prevalence of Diocesan* and Deanery* meetings including communion. Despite his theological preferences for communion daily, he felt this slavish adherence demeaned something important. Chips with everything sprang to mind again at New Wine, as lots of meetings seemed to find it hard to resist a 'time of ministry' (ie invocation of the Holy Spirit and offer of prayer/laying-on hands) at the end. I went to one session on bereavement, and the leaders bravely didn't offer such a time, although they did encourage people to stay and talk and pray if they wished. They acknowledged the need for some quiet reflection.

The work of the Spirit isn't a routine or a ritual, and yet, oddly, those very churches which claim to be spontaneous create their own new rituals with 'times of ministry'.

Excellent kids programme. Ok it does seem to involve a lot of revolting games with goo, food, etc. However, our kids love it, and if that means Christianity is a positive experience for them at this age, I'm more than happy. Jonathan (12) went to worship songwriting workshop for his age group, so look out for the album at Soul Survivor in 2012.

Radio. Following an appearance on New Wine Radio at Shepton Mallet 2 years ago on a late night 'grumpy old Christian men' type slot, I had fun with Dunx from our church who was running programmes this time. We did a spoof thought for the day from Reverend Lovejoy (Simpsons). Seemed to go down well with our group. No idea if anyone else was awake/listening/amused.

Pastoral. I always struggled to do this on CYFA Ventures, as I busied myself with the running of things. With no running to do (apart from a hike to the car park and drive to supermarket periodically) it was great to have so many conversations about almost anything. Maybe all this Chaplaining has helped.

Waitrose. Newark's got one. Result.

So, I don't like camping, and I still struggle with the "am I a charismatic or did I make it up" type questions, but it was still a week well spent.


*sorry about the technical theological speak. Kept the length down. Happy to provide a translation on request

Tent

Off to New Wine soon. (Newark, Notts this time)

Not a great N-W fan, for a number of reasons, mainly as it requires a week's worth of camping. I also have to work hard to avoid excessive numbers of people whose enthusiasm I am failing to share. Brilliant for time with people from our church, however, which makes it a priority.

Anyway, bought a cheap tent from Argos. Not only can we not test it in our garden (no grass), I have just realised that it is 7 x 3.2 metres. That's more floor area than most people's living rooms. I think we may have to pay council tax on a structure that big!

Anyway, should fit the four of us and all our stuff in, and give me space to ponder what I really think of the charismatic movement. (that's the movement that emphasises experiences of the Holy Spirit for readers who - quite reasonably - aren't into this Christian jargon)

Final comment on footie

OK I feel I need to get a last football post out of the system, so please either bear with me or ignore as appropriate. Other kinds of content will resume tomorrow!

Here goes with observations on our demise from an observer who could never play much, and who isn't a big watcher of the game. (Quite good at FIFA06 for XBox, though!)

1) Motivation. There has to be something wrong when that many good players look ordinary playing together. If the group dynamic and motivation are right, I suspect that formation, etc become less of a problem. I seem to remember the Aussies had a 'lone striker' at times, but they always had three in the box when they needed it. Once we were 10, we played much better. What stops someone like Gerrard inspiring a comeback like he did for Liverpool in the Champions League?

2) Penalties. It's got to be about confidence. We are so spooked by earlier defeats, like 1990. The only English player who scored a penalty this time plays in... Germany. Coincidence?

3) Midfield. I suspect if the motivation and group dynamics were sorted, this would sort. All the 'lone striker' stuff came from the midfield seeming indecisive about who was going forward and who was covering. Two questions: a) Is our defence that unreliable? b) Why can't players of the quality of Gerrard and Lampard sort that out? If they can't, shouldn't we drop one, play 4-4-2 with Hargreaves/Carrick in the middle 4, and only play one of Gerrard/Lampard. Or play 4-5-1 with a proper lone striker like Bent or Johnson. Needs a brave manager to drop the expensive guys, but if they don't deliver...

4) ...Speaking of whom. Beckham. On his day, brilliant, but he's slowing down and not at his best. Time to start with someone else in that position. The left-side problem appear to have been solved! The two Coles did well, and we even have a left sided sub in Downing. It's the right side that now needs some work.

5) Manager. He takes 4 strikers - one injured and one novice. Another with fitness queries and one he doesn't really like. Was there really not room for one more like Defoe, Bent or even Andy Johnson? Also what about the impassive sitting on the bench. It might be good to calm down an Italian team, but I was sitting there wishing for a manager like Pearce who would have screamed his head off for the whole game and had a free and frank exchange at half time.

Not sure that has added to the accumulated wisdom of the world, but I feel better for it. Thanks for bearing with me. Here's to South Africa 2010. We'd better hurry up. If we don't win it soon, the Aussies will have learned football properly, and no-one else will get a look-in.

Pushchair conspiracy

The other day I was nearly run down by one of the latest generation of pushchairs. It was one of the deluxe padding, safety cage, Michelin ZX tyres, air-con... variety. Even more intimidating, it was double-width for twins, and was MASSIVE.

Not that long ago, most push-chairs were of the "fold up nearly as small as an umbrella, except for the wheels, which have a bit of dog poo attached" variety. What happened?

My theory is that it is a conspiracy between push chair manufacturers and the makers of big 4x4s and SUVs. The bigger the baby vehicle, the bigger boot (trunk to US readers) you need. So it's in everyone's interest to expand. Always thought it was a bit suspicious that some pushchairs were made by McLaren. Just wait, there'll be Volvo and Honda ones soon.

brass plaques

Life's full of them, especially of the 'in memoriam' variety. Having lived and worked round many items sporting such a tag in the past, I have worked out a strategy. I'm going to donate items to churches every so often with a wording something like:

Donated by Mike Peatman for no apparent reason. The moment this item becomes obsolete / an obstruction / a liability, please destroy immediately.

That ought to do it.

It never rains but it ...

Apparently there's a drought. At least in the south of England there's a drought. Up here in Lancaster a better word would be quagmire. Just to give you some idea, I walked my dog along the top of a hill just behind our house. The sun had been shining all day, but even at the top of the rise it was very soft going, and you could hear the water draining out of the soil with gentle clicks and gurgles. Any serious activity in a field round here, and it would be reduced to those scenes of mud on grainy photos from the Somme.

So if we have lots of water, and the south east has none, why is it beyond 21st century technology to move it from one place to the other? I suppose no-one has enough interest in the national picture to invest in pipelines or whatever else it requires. Time for lateral thinking here. How about sending spare water down the canal system? Mind you, would you want to drink it afterwards?

The moral of the story is, if you want a lush green lawn without the use of a hosepipe, move to the north-west.