My shiny new laptop has arrived, bang on time as predicted by DHL, and looking very lovely.  I'm doubly pleased, as I need to set off soon for today's training course.

I have yet to get it set up (this evening's job) but all is looking good for Sunday now... and maybe taking it with me tomorrow to work on the train journey to/from Manchester.

God is good - even when my theology is terrible!

As part of my prep for Sunday, I was searching for a version of the Lord's Prayer in a specific African language (not disclosing which yet, it'd spoil the effect) and came across this book which includes a speically comissioned version in Egyptian hieroglyphs.   It certainly made me smile!

As part of my preparation for Sunday, I'm reading, as fast as my kindle and brain will allow me to, a biography of Scottish misisonary Mary Slessor.  It's a good read (albeit a bit repetitive in places) and reveals a feisty, somewhat short tempered, pioneering woman, very different from the Sunday School storybook with which I began.  Not quite sure how I'll work with it yet, but it's good stuff.  Just another seven biographies to find and read, then!!

This week is one of those where I am somewhere different each day, and one when there is a lot to fit in.

Yesterday, I had a lovely day-off trip to Carlisle, something I'd booked several weeks ago.  I visited the castle, the cathedral the Tullie House museum and a particularly wonderful secondhand bookshop which had a whole floor devoted to theology.

Today I headed off to Stirling to attend a training session on Safeguarding, something that BUGB require me to do every three years, and that BUS happened to have a course planned.  It was really well prepared and delivered, thought provoking and practical.

Tomorrow I'm basically in and around Glasgow, with a meeting in the morning and then lunch with the Coffee Club.

Thursday sees me back to Stirling for some more CMD (Continuous Ministerial Development) and a session on time management.  I reckon I'm quite good at this, and have done oodles of compulsory courses on it in my time in industry, but it will be good to see what new hints and tips I can discover

Friday I am up very early to head down to Manchester to attend the funeral of the friend who died suddenly a couple of weeks ago.  A long journey and one which I plan to put to good use doing some reading or writing.

Saturday will be a day given over to finishing preparations for Sunday which involves... an all age interactive service, a retirement lunch and a wedding (I may yet bunk off the evneing service!)

It's a week packed with good things - and I am really enjoying myself - but it's also a week with rather a lot of juggling, so I'm actually glad that next week will be somewhat more mundane!

One of the programmes I enjoy in television, when I get to see it, is The Last Leg which combines great humour with serious reflection.  If you can handle colourful language, it's always worth a watch.

Last night was a two hour special remembering MP Jo Cox who was murdered a year ago, and celebrating diversity, recognising the truth that we have #moreincommon

The logo, choose love, combines Manchester worker bees and a heart-shaped London tube sign, honouring those affected by recent tragedies in each of these proud cities.

The programme was great, in places really funny, as it brought together politicians of most parties in good humoured exchanges (best for me was Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson, which combined a gentle challenge to Scottish stereotyping and some much needed smiles).

This weekend, across the UK, many places are holding #thegreatgettogether street parties to celebrate diversity, and this is good. 

Today is also Edinburgh Pride, combining celebration of the diversity that is LGBTQI+  with protest about ongoing injustices.

This morning, I went into Glasgow and, as I emerged from the railway station, heard the unmistakeable sound of an Orange Order fife band, as they marched through the city centre.  The overt sectarianism represented by such an event seems to contradict the #moreincommon flavour of this weekend, but I have to concede that diversity means making space for that which troubles or offends me.  I can express my disquiet, but if we claim to permit relgious and political freedom, and to promote tolerance, then it has to include those whose views I reject.

Tonight I am helping to marshall a huge charity event in Glasgow, which will see people clad in pink teeshirts (and bunny ears and tiaras and leg warmers and tutus and goodness knows what) walking 5, 10 or 20 miles around this city to raise money to support people affected by breast cancer.  United by a common cause, people will encourage each other to walk to raise money, people who otherwise might have nothing in common.

In my personal utopia, there will be no need for groups who feel marginalised to take to the streets, because marginaliation will be no more.  In my personal utopia, there will be no religious or political parades, because respect and peace will negate them.  In my personal utopia, there will be no need to raise money for charities, whatever the cause, becuase the cuases will all be gone.  But until then, I will continue to do my best to celebrate diversity, to focus on the #moreincommon and to #chooselove.

Now it's time for a catnap before the all-nighter!!