I am the world's greatest rule follower.  I did three weeks of alternate days of sertraline, endured the nausea, nightmares and flushes and all was well.  I've now done nearly two weeks of every third day, and it's getting silly... I am fine when I don't take, it, cheerful, calm, energised, irritated only by things that are irritating... and then when I take it I feel nauseous for 24 hours, sweat like the proverbial porkine creature and don't sleep well... This, to me, says it's time to stop as I'm  now getting adverse effects by continuing the slow wean off.

Hopefully the Evil Monster Me will not return - but, unless she does, that's me done with the sertraline.

In my slightly odd calendar, I am taking my Good Friday lieu day today, and tomorrow will be Easter Monday. Thereafter, I am on annual leave until next Tuesday, so expect no posting!

I am hoping to get some decorating done, and have a trip 'down south' tomorrow but will mostly be chilling!

As part of the evening service yesterday we were invited to go out in twos for a 20 minitues 'Emmaus Road Walk' to reflect on scriptures from other two other faiths, Hinduim and Buddhism.

My co-disciple and I opted to walk in the Botanic Gardens where we happened upon a beautifully yarn-bombed bench  - and he took a photo with me stting on it 'looking ponderous'!!

We jokingly suggested we should create a super-spiritual reflection on how the colours represented the diversity of human experience and how, when woven together they result in a more beautiful whole... but of course with lots of adjectives and superlatives before ending up with the word 'bench'.

It was an interesting way to spend an evening - in the right sense of the word - and certainly our conversations were valuable as we discussed the allocated texts.  But the real 'Emmaus' moment was the bench - the unexpected moment of joy and beauty, fun and laughter that broke us out of the earnest, repsectful conversation about impossibly demanding texts.

That the photo is slightly out of focus seems appropriate - a fleeting moment, not full realised, even on reflection.

Two Revs were walking in the Gardens by evening, discussing among themselves ancient texts of other faiths, when suddenly the God of Surprises did just that...

My vicar-school was called Luther King House, named in honour of Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

I discovered this week that a hymn was written for the occasion when 'The Partnership for Theolgoical Education, Manchester' (PTEM) formally brought together Baptists, Congegationalists, Methodists, United Reformed Church and Unitarians. The story of PTEM is one of joy and sorrow, challenge and change; the values of this hymn continue to inspire all that is attempted...

There is a particularly vile hashtag trending on social media today that speaks about hating and/or punishing muslims.  Sadly, many well-intentioned people are helping it to trend by quoting it when they decry it.

It illustrates a very real and present challenge - hashtags can be very powerful, and can be a great vehicle for awareness raising, such as the #metoo a few months ago.

There are alternative hashtags being used today such as #LoveaMuslim and #LoveaMuslimday but even these are not totally problem free - why only one day to care about the treatment of muslims?  Why, as some of other world faiths who experience hatred have asked, choose one faith over any other (well given the context...)

As Baptists we are supposed to uphold freedom of religion for all people.  To defend the right to choose any faith or none, or to create your own, and to be free from harrasment or interference.  This isn't easy either because it means honouring the freedom of people who choose words and ways that we may find offensive.  The challenge is not a mealy-mouthed 'love the sinner, hate the sin' that somehow frees us of responsibility, but the tricky path of prophetic witness that says, 'what you are saying/doing is wrong, yet I will choose love over hate, forgiveness over vengeance, engagement over estrangement'. 

I'm nowhere near as good at any of that as I'd like to be. But I am learning to be more careful with hashtags.