A good time in the North West - then back home to the usual batch of gloomy emails!  Still, the good stuff first.

Mary & Martha were amazing well received.  Towards the back of the church sat a small group of black women who kept making 'mmm hmm, ay-men-sister, preach it' type comments.  I assumed they must be penties - no they were Roman Catholics!  Great fun, superb tea and incredibly generous financial gift.

DPT presentations went well - all were interesting to listen to and came in a variety of styles from one who read part of a paper to us, through to one who began with with asking us to do a little activity, via variations on 'chalk and talk' with PowerPoint.  I think that almost everyone was equally afraid of looking dim and it was certainly a very encouraging environment in which to share our work.  Great start by Kez on discipleship, complete with whizzy PowerPoint, fluttering angels and top content, then talks on such diverses topics as pastoral care, spiritual nuture, and church health.  Unlike Strictly Come Dancing and the like, there was no 'bad judge' to shoot people down in flames.  Lots of work still to do, and the bizarre concept that I am allowed to send a draft of my essay for comment before I formally submit it, but a good experience (if a tiring one).

Good to see friends and catch up on life in Warrington.  Managed a barbecue with folk who claim it always rains when they plan one, so they whisper the word, rather than speak it.  Tried to put the world to rights but ran out of time.  Enjoyed sharing worship with my 'old' fellowship, and found plenty to reflect upon in the process - not sure I like being compared to a chip in a piece of MDF though!

Came home to a big pile of emails telling what is wrong with the world and what I need to find solutions to, along with another mega pastoral crisis, so normality is back with a vengeance.

Anyway, to those loyal readers who I saw this weekend - it was great to see you all and catch up on some news.  Some of you I'll see soon at Baptist Assembly (hint hint: loud shouts and cheers in minister presentation bit desired as no one from here going), so maybe can catch up more then?  Any 2002/2003ish NBC students and/or 2007/2008ish NAMs fancy meeting for coffee? 

In the meantime, I'll just have to get back to doing everything in my small church!!!  (Pace Richard, Anglican DPT student who just knows way too many theologians, way too much about way too many things and is still an OK kind of a guy).

Off to Manchester/Warrington for a few days - bliss!  Maybe not everyone's idea of a holiday, not entirely mine, but the only way I can engineer the time I need for my studies and also an opportunity to see some friends.

I'm looking forward to the ladies' meeting today - congregation of 70 will be a rare treat, and some great Wythenshawe hospitality to follow!  Just hope Mary & Martha is the right choice.

Mixed feelings about DPT presentations - don't feel mine's up to the standard I'd like and have not a clue what is expected/required; looking forward to hearing what others have been doing, so long as they don't make me feel "three fikk" (that's Catriona language for 'too thick').  Still, I have my PowerPoint slides on a memory stick and a few quotations from suitably reputable writers, so blagging here I come!  That and large wads of used notes to bribe tutors!!

Definitely looking forward to catching up with friends in Warrington, and addressing all the ills of society whilst eating 70% cocoa organic (fairtrade?) chocolate and sitting on the silly sofa.  Just no 'purple juice' for me please.

So, peace and tranquility in Blogland for a few days but, like Arnie 'I'll be back'

Yesterday I was conducting a funeral, nothing particularly odd about that, except that I came across a weird local superstition that there must not be an odd number of people following the coffin, so one of the mourners went straight into church.  No one seemed to know why it mattered.  Can anyone help me?

Am I getting old, or is English just getting worse at an alarming rate?  We all mis-spell words and my typing skills are pretty poor, but increasingly I find myself cringing at the English I see online.  And as for grammar, well, the less said the better.  I am not against colloquial English nor even am I the grammar-fiend my mother still is (evidently they teach English better in Scotland than they do in England) but sometimes.... ugh!

Anyway, I was reminded of this little gem, which I tracked down via Google...

Eye Halve a Spelling Chequer

I have a spelling checker.
It came with my pea sea.
It plane lee marks four my revue
Miss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,
Your sure reel glad two no.
Its vary polished in it's weigh.
My checker tolled me sew.

A checker is a bless sing,
It freeze yew lodes of thyme.
It helps me right awl stiles two reed,
And aides me when I rime.

Each frays come posed up on my screen
eye trussed too bee a joule.
The checker pours o'er every word
To cheque sum spelling rule.

Bee fore a veiling checker's Hour
spelling mite decline,
And if we're lacks oar have a laps,
We wood bee maid too wine.

Butt now bee cause my spelling
Is checked with such grate flair,
Their are no fault's with in my cite,
Of nun eye am a ware.

Now spelling does knot phase me,
It does knot bring a tier.
My pay purrs awl due glad den
With wrapped word's fare as hear.

To rite with care is quite a feet
Of witch won should be proud,
And wee mussed dew the best wee can,
Sew flaw's are knot aloud.

Sow ewe can sea why aye dew prays,
Such soft wear four pea seas,
And why eye brake in two averse
Buy righting too pleas.

-- Sauce Unknown            

I have been reading a couple of books on Church history as part of my formal studying.  Both seemed to say a lot of the same stuff - but Rowan Williams was more succinct than Euan Cameron!  I guess what struck me was that their focus on "continuity and change" seemed to centre on doctrine more than mundane everyday stuff.  This makes me wonder am I being too trivial in what I'm thinking about - e.g. is change from not singing hymns to singing hymns (a C17 Baptist thing) actually all that important compared to say, what constitutes the 'true church' or the 'doctrine of God' or of 'God's mutability' (or otherwise).  Then I start pondering how human mutability and divine immutability can possibly fit together (where my understanding of immutability is something about a 'still centre' not an impassive being).  Then I think, hey, no one beyond academia will understand a word of this, and the whole point, surely is to be a PRACTICAL theologian, doing stuff that does relate to people in pews arguing about whether the green or red hymnbook is the one we ought to use...

I think that "continuity and change" is an important factor to hold in mind - Christianity has continued for a couple of thousand years and has evolved (am I allowed to use that word!) in all sorts of ways along the way.  The 'kernel and husk' views of people like von Harnack clearly have a valid point - but what is the kernel, is it specific doctrines or is it a shared story?  Is it something around liturgies and ordinances (or sacraments) or is it about mission?  The contextual theologians who remind us about inculturation and aculturation pick on on some of the same threads.

All this is doing wonders for my 'I am thick' genes, makes me aware of how little I know about anything, about how much more I could/should read just to be able to articulate one simple thought.

So here's what I think I think today!  Studying and trying to understand our past, the stories of how we got to where we are today, can be useful in appreciating something of the continuity and change that are part of our Christian heritage.  Almost from the beginning, people have tried to work out what is essential to Christianity, and to church (not the same thing) and have fallen out over it more times than enough.  Diversity and even (perceived) heresy are part of that story, orthodoxy seems often to be more about who shouted louder or lived longer than what or how they stood for - we have just forgotten that there was ever another viewpoint.  A lot of theological energy goes into determining the essentials of Christianity and using this to determine what is a 'real' church; less perhaps goes into accepting that church exists and thinking about how church 'does' change.  That church 'does' change has been true since it emerged, is true today as emergent churches, cell churches, you-name-it-it-does-it expressions of church come along.  But who is looking at the process of change?  Does one have to have a process theology of God (which I can never quite get to) to have a theology that says churches change?  Is the doctrine of God at the heart of this?  Or can I just say, actually we aren't very good at managing change, can we do it better?  Which is what I want to think about when all is said and done.

So, lots of questions and no answers... now I need to get back to practical theology of sorting out the jobs that need to be done for our Pentecost Party, from chair shifting and tent pitching to what games are and are not permitted.  All good fun - and "nothing changes here"!!!