Yesterday's OWW service was a somewhat odd experience.

The congregation was mostly Baptists (my lot and D+1 who were sharing our worship this time) a fair smattering of Methodists (who were hosting and leading) and exactly 4 Anglicans (all taking part in the service).

The service itself felt clumsy, although based on supplied material, with some overlong pauses and miscommunications along the way. The ending was very ragged with no one sure it was over.  Once it had ended, the Bappies all started chatting to each other, and continued so to do until the hosts switched off the lights!  Many of my folk commented on the lack of a cup of tea after the service, and I smiled inwardly recalling the uphill struggles to get them to do tea in the first palce!!

A couple of people made it quite clear they did not agree with what was being shared.  One said he was not convinced that there was an environmental time bomb waiting to happen - if there was surely the gvernment would do more about it.  Another delcined to take a 'carbon footprint' questionaire, delcaring 'charity begins at home, this church is far too hot, turn your heating off.'  Whilst I agreed with him, it was far too hot, I have regualrly had my skull roasted when visiting his.

The commissioned hymn was sung - and it felt all rather odd.  Heavy on complex language and not quite fitting the stresses of the tune (Sine Nomine).  Prize for the most obtuse line must go to "whose depradation despoils creation" - I had to get a dictionary out to be sure I'd understood that.

The sermon certainly made some people think, judging by their expressions, and one retired Methodist minister said it was 'a good message' - something he wouldn't say if he didn't think so.

I am still pondering what all of this care for the planet means for us with our Victorian barns of buildings and decrepit manses, all heated inefficiently, lacking insulation and double glazing, burning lots of gas and using loads of electricity all for a couple of hours a week.  I am trying to guess how the hymnbooks/hymnsheets vs technology debate works out from a conservation perspective (as these things are never as trivial as they seem) and whether some form of practical ecumenism withshared buildings and resources might not be sign of the kingdom.  Hmm.  Lots to think about.

I don't know, she takes a week off from blogging and comes back more plethoric than ever!

The Baptist Historical Society will 100 years old next year and is having a big jamboree to celebrate this - right at the same time as I have to be in Bristol at a DPT summer school, typical.  Anyway, as part of it they are holding a competition to write a biography of a 'Baptist Worthy' - either one of 75 (76) blokes in a composite picture or 'someone else' presumably allowing us to scrabble around for a female worthy.

 

I won't be entering the competition, I have more than enough other things to do, but it is intriguing... Who are the Baptist worthies?  Who is included/excluded from the composite picture and why?

The BHS (the society, not the shop!) are also commissioning a history of themselves, which I will be very intrigued to read when it is published.  Given my growing interest in hisotriography, literary analysis and hermeutics (and eating dictionaries for breakfast) it will be fascinating to deduce who it is written for and what it is trying to say about itself.

Maybe all this makes my work quite timely - and makes me wonder how my thoughts, when they eventually get onto paper, might be received.  Hmm.

In the meantime, I'm going to make a plea for the inclusion of people like Miss Hargreaves whose "help in preparing a clean type-script, reading the proofs, and preparing the index' is acknowledged by A C Underwood in the preface to his 1947 publication "A History of the English Baptists."  Without these worthy folk, the great and good would not have been able to be so great.

Pictures downloaded from Baptist Historical Society website www.baptisthistory.org.uk

I decided I couldn't title this post 'God is Dead' - the title of the book I'm currently reading - as it'd be a tad inflammatory.  The book is unsure about its genre - and that is part of what makes it quite clever I suspect.  It is in one sense a collection of short stories but it has an overarching metanarrative that is stronger than the 'these people all travel on the same train' link that some collections of stories have,

In the first chapter God dies.  For anyone who has progressed beyond the 'God is a man in a long white dress' image, the idea that God chooses to visit earth as a Dinka woman is not espeically original; the idea that God can die and stay dead without the whole cosmos collapsing is a necessary precursor to what follows.

I have read about half of the book, and it isn't a happy collection of tales, though it is thought provoking.  Essentially, I guess it explores not so much 'what if God died' but 'what happens when organsied religion dies?' 

An intriguing read, 'God is Dead' by Ron Currie available from all good bookshops, and will make you think a bit

Sean has a new meme running on his blog which is fun and informative.  However, after racking my brain (or is that wracking?  I never did know) the only response I can come up with is

"I have read enough theology to know that I have not read enough theology"

So, I'm going to mutate his meme a bit (after all that's one of the things genes and memes are meant to do...)

I have read enough piano music to know that no one can possibly play every note on the page of most 'proper' scores

I have read enough risk assessments to know that most people don't know what they're talking about (you hadn't spotted that before had you?! ;-) )

I have read enough novels to know that I have forgotten what 99% of them were about, except that most novelists only have one or two plots

I have read enough books to know that even the best proof reading misses a few vital errors

I have read enough to know that reading enough is something I will never have enough time for or feel I have had enough of

 

So there you go, anyone want to add anything?

so '?????' to 'Union'

Like all the bestest Baptists in BUGB, I know that we are not a denomination but a union.  But I need a word equivalent to 'denominational' if I am to be able to reflect this overtly in my writing.  Anyone help me out?