Today I spent around 7 hours on the road and managed to find two of the Little Chef outlets that had been closed on 3rd Janaury when the company was sold after going into administration (did you know this?  I didn't until I checked online tonight).  Whilst it wasn't the most amazing food outlet in creation, it was preferrable to MacDonalds, which I ended up at today and had a singularly foul cup of coffee.  Ah well.

I left home at around 6:30 a.m. and finally managed to park in Manchester (in the second car park I went to) at about 10:10 a.m. before running along Oxford Road (not a pretty sight (the location or my running)) to get to my meeting 15 minutes late.  Thankfully my kindly supervisors were understanding and gave me a cuppa before we got going on 'business.'  Late is not good for my stress levels, I don't 'do' late; it's a good job others are more laid back about it.  The homebound journey was far less horrendous, wasted 'stops' not withstanding.

It was a good, productive meeting, and I came away feeling that I do now have something adequately concrete to work on for the next 5 months.  For anyone who reads this and did the BA with me, I have managed to develop a three circle model for it, so honour is satisified (for those who taught us, one of our student secrets is not secret any more!).

It feels like getting to this point has been quite a long journey - metaphorically as well as literally - but I think that it has been worthwhile, despite the McCoffee and closed down cafes along the way.  Just a small matter of 12k words to  research and write by mid July...

Tomorrow night my little sister is leading her college's Holocaust Memorial service as part of the follow up to a course she did on Jewish-Christian relations.  The blurb she found online suggested that during the service 6 candles be lit to commemorate the 6 milliom Jews killed under the Nazi regime.  However, as part of her course she visited the Beth Shalom centre in Nottinghamshire where she discovered that in the 20th Century alone there are records to suggest that around 160 million people were killed in genocides - so her service will include the lighting of 160 candles.

I have a problem with the word 'Holocaust' used to describe what happened to Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, mentally ill and frail people: the word used properly means 'a whole burned offering', I cannot see genocide in that way.  I prefer the Jewish term 'Shoa' which means 'destruction' or 'catastrophe.'

However, a whole burned offering of 160 candles as an acknowledgement of the destruction of so many people is something that I do find helpful.

Although there are no commemorations here, and I have a leaning towards Yom Ha'Shoah over Holocaust Memorial, I will be remembering.

Recently while playing that joyous weekly game of 'choose the hymns' I came across a new song that I almost chose -then changed my mind when I discovered it contained the words ...

You were lifted on a tree, crying 'Father God, forgive them, Place their punishment on me.' 

I don't mean to be pedantic, well yes, actually I do, but from which gospel is this a quotation?  It certainly isn't in the canon to which I am accustomed.

It is a shame, the song says some good things, and I could, I suppose, simply correct the quotation and write 'altd' on the song sheets.  But I am saddened that there is such a seemingly cavalier attitude towards quoting scripture.  People get very hung up over interpretation of the Bible; it might be nice if we were clear what it said first.

I don't think I'm being 'an old literalist,' just trying to avoid eisegesis (reading 'in' what we think) when we are called to exegesis (reading 'out' what it says).  Misquoting (as distinct from paraphrasing) almost inevitably does the former.

I have a nice little HP3200C flatbed scanner that I purchased for £2 on Ebay to replace my defunct 8 year-old model. The only problem was that the XP driver downloaded from HP's site doesn't have 'logo testing' and my IT skills are not up to fixing XP if it got broken by the scanner driver.  So I bought another secondhand scanner - and still less than buying new - that does meet the needs and is now serving me well.  As a result I have a lovely little scanner available free to good home.

If using a PC you need to be operating under Windows 98/2000/NT; if MAC you'd need to download a driver or see if there is one in your standard options.

You need a parallel port on your computer - that's the big one with pins/pin holes that can also take a printer.  Some more recent laptops evidently don't have them; steam driven desk models should.

The scanner comes with power pack, one parallel lead and CD.  Youi can link a printer to it via a parallel port, so it isn't either/or but both/and.  Set up is pretty obvious/intuitive.

So, the criteria for getting it are...

• You need to be able to collect it or be somewhere I can drop off without making an (extra-)special trip (postage would be more than I paid for it so not economic sense)
• Make a good case why I should choose you (so it helps if I know you!) e.g. poverty, community work, children's/youth work, HMF church and don't have a scanner... you get my drift
• It helps if your case is entertaining to read!

'Bid' by comment no later than noon Dibley Standard Time (aka GMT) on Saturday 27th January 2007.

This morning I read a Maundy Thursday sermon that employed an argument that the foot washing story in John is to be understood primarily as a parable of the purpose of the incarnation, with the stooping signifying descent/kenosis and the footwashing signifying cleansing from sin.

I can buy this up to a point, but am left wondering what I then do with the words of Jesus that form the mandate.  The text is explicitly of example (John 13:15), so if I take literally the idea that the act is a parable of kenosis and atonement do I end up with disicples as either mini-Messiahs or some kind of priests who are able to atone for or absolve sins?

I need to mull this over a lot more as I'm sure I'm missing the point somewhere.  In the meantime I'll stick with my simple reading that it is an example of servant ministry, nothing more complex or less demanding.