Please complete the sentence using the comments facility!

This is not formal research - it does not satisfy any suitable criteria, but I am interested to test out whether I get the responses I anticipate.

If you happen to be a (BUGB) Baptist minister and happen to recall how the experience of "doing" Baptist history and principles felt, how it was taught, what books you used and what essays you wrote, I'd also be interested to know that.

For example, when I 'did' them back in 2001 'might as well get it over with as early as possible' we spent 8 weeks working with Methodist and URC students - 2 on the Protestant Reformation, 2 on each tradition - and then 2 weeks as a group of three Baptists: an RSC probationer, a final year student and me, a second year (of four).  I wrote an essay on Baptism, one on the formation of my college, and another on the role of womwn in Baptist history (which I think every woman who ever trained at Northern also wrote!!).  Eight years later I am far more fascinated by our history - and more specifically our historiography - than I would even had thought possble, so much so in fact that I'm asking these questions!

It would also be good to know what non-BUGB Baptist did/think.

Please be honest - uncle Paul isn't looking!  (Or is he?!)

Having just received my Baptist news esweep and followed the link to the Guardian's report on the case of Nadia Eweida and BA I am dismayed.  Not with BA, who in my opinion were never in the wrong over this anyway, but with this lady who, having lost the case, reportedly has said 'it's not over until God says it's over.'

As I understand from people I know who have worked for BA - and other airlines for that matter - it is pretty standard practice to be told that you cannot wear any jewellery beyond prescribed limits - with BA it used to be pearl earrings apparently!  Further, there is absolutely no faith based requirement for a Christian to wear a cross, a dove, a fish or any other weird or wonderful article; indeed were I to turn biblicist and opt for a few out of context proof texts, I could make a case that she (and we) shouldn't wear such things.

Seemingly BA offered this lady a tidy sum of money to settle out of court - but no, she declined.

I think what troubles me is the kind of God this story suggests and the apparent assertion that God will decide - and presumably tell this lady - when 'it is over'.

A God of justice is not the same as a God who allows believers to flout employers' dress codes and then claim religious discrimination.   A God of truth is not going to give us the outcome we want just because we want it.

I am glad that BA has relaxed its rules a bit to allow discreet religious symbols to be worn - this seems to be an honest and valuable expression of the multicultural nature of Britain today.  But any idea that God might still have wrath to exact on BA - at least over this issue - seems utterly crazy to me.

I don't claim to have infallible spiritual hearing, but I feel that God is probably saying 'it's over, move on'

Otherwise known as Dibley Mothers' Union.  There is no one under 70 and many are maiden aunts.  Neither of these is bad, nor means that they should not be part of the Mothers' Union.  One day I will tick both of those boxes.  It is just that it is demoralising thing when I get my annual request to speak to the January meeting when it is cold, the weather inclement "and we don't like to invite someone special when many of our members will be afflicted by colds and flu."  The Baptist minister will do because she lives less than 400 yards away, so can make no excuse for not coming along.

I know I will get a warm welcome.  I know I will get what passes for a cup of tea.  I know the ladies will be everso grateful and will feign great interest when I talk about how they imagine Mary and Martha as a prelude to my, now well travelled, 'three portraits' talk.  I know they will go home as they always do, and do whatever Tuesday afternoon always dictates.

It just saddens me that this is all so far from the vibrant, family focussed, world-aware work that is Mothers' Union.  I doubt these ladies even know that the MU is coming to a town near us in June (I found out today on the website) and even if they do, doubt that they will attend.

Once these ladies were young mothers - or at least some of them were.  Once they presumably thought they could change the world, as I certainly did (and occasionally still do).  What happened to turn them into this ritual of priest-does-communion-and-speaker-talks-for-no-more-than-20-minutes-then-we-have-a-cup-of-tea ?

Pray God I am always young inside!

Looking for some ideas for this Sunday's intercessions (something I usually get others to lead so it isn't just my favourite topics we pray over) I found this in The Intercessions Handbook....

Sisters and brothers in Christ

Let us come to the Lord in hope

Let us pray to the lord in faith

And let us hold to the lord throughout our lives.

 

Lord, keep safe the new-born baby who struggles for life in the hospital incubator

Hear us, good Lord

Give reassurance to the child unnerved by the sound of his parents arguing

Hear us, good Lord

Guard well the teenage tempted to gain acceptance by taking drugs at a party

Hear us, good Lord

Guide clearly the young woman whois not quite sure if her current man is really the one who is tobecome her partner for life

Hear us, good Lord

Give patience to the young man who could make money so much more quickly by bending the rules

Hear us, good Lord

Be close to the young parents, both delighted and stretched to the limits by their first child

Hear us, good Lord

Give hope to the distraught mother, frightened by her anger with her crying baby

Hear us, good Lord

Call back the tempted husband, following his instincts towards another woman

Hear us, good Lord

Give self-confidence to the man in middle age, redundant, bewildered and afraid

Hear us, good Lord

Open the heart of the embittered 50-somerthing who was passed over for the bteer job

Hear us, good Lord

Give freedom and hope to the woman who retired early but is not sure whether she should be elated or depressed

Hear us, good Lord

Guard closely the lonely, the sick and the dispirited, and touch them with your deeper wholeness

Hear us, good Lord

Keep watch with those coming close to their destiny, afraid of the pain and unsure of the future

Hear us, good Lord

And so in your mercy gather to yourself every faithful believer, and those whose faith is known to you alone, and present us all, complete in Christ, to the joy of your coming Kingdom

Hear us, good Lord

Yes, hear us, good Lord.

 

The Intercessions Handbook, John Pritchard, London, SPCK 1997.  p87

There are other volumes now available too.

As they say around these parts.

This sentence in a paper I was reading this morning made me smile, and wonder how firmly emplanted in his cheek was the author's tongue...

"We should avoid jargonistic neologisms where relatively self-explanatory terms would serve the same purpose"

Wilson, W Daniel. "Readers in Texts." PMLA 96, no. 5 (1981): 848-63.

 

Or, as my parents used to say regularly when we were growing up, "never use a big word when a little one will do."  Not sure academics always agree, or practise what they preach.