This morning we had the delight of blessing a baby girl, born to Nigerian-born parents, with one set of grandparents present along with neighbours, friends and relatives.  It was a very colourful and happy morning and a real sense of community.

I just booked some flight tickets to go to Malta in October.  A holiday with a friend which has become something of an annual treat, but has thus far always meant me travelling by train to Manchester so we can travel together... sometimes turning into a right fandango with late running trains, cancellations, rail replacement buses and who knows what.  So this year we are travelling separately and meeting at the airport in Malta - a new adventure for us both.  Still a convoluted route for me (via Gatwick, no direct flights from Scotland) so scope for "issues" but I am sure it'll be fine :-)

And it was good because I used "easy fundraising" to link to a flight search provider who make a 0.65% donation on every flight - which should mean £1.75 or thereabouts towards the cost of our shiny new church, when we get that far!

And it is good because it will be over five years since my cancer diagnosis so just maybe the insurance will be a tad less extortionate...

But above all it is good because I just booked it without even blinking - not that life is taken for granted, but that realism has re-established itself at last.

There is a lot in the press and in social media about the launch of the film version of "Fifty Shades of Grey" to coincide with Valentine's Day, and the sudden realisation that this is actually the story of a blatently abusive relationship.  What has puzzled me - who has never even looked at, let alone read, any of the books - is why now.  Why is it only when the story is translated into film that people begin to see what it is?  This puzzles me.  How is reading so different from viewing?  Or is it maybe something about the privacy of one's own head compared to the voyeurisitc viewing of a cinema audience?  Are we perhaps more discomiftted in community than in private?  Or do our minds operate an internal censorship facilitiy?

Books with abusive and violent relationships are hardly new - the Bible has plenty of them!  Not as intricately described for sure, but rape, murder, daughters handed over to violent men, and so on. 

I suppose it is in part the timing - not Valetine's Day, that's just commerical - the fact that there is growing awareness of the need to recognise and address gender-based violence that makes this so disturbing, not leaast as it is written by a woman. 

Perhaps, not having read or seen it, I have no right to express a view, but it seems plenty of level-headed, non-prudish women have been disturbed by it.  And I am still puzzled why it is the film version that has triggered this and not the written word...

Lent is rapidly approaching... and this year I've decided to join in with the "Forty Acts" thingy, whereby each day you are invited to perform an act of generosity or kindness... it's not "religious" it's about shared humanity, shared values, so worth considering if you are still "stuck" deciding what to take up or give up for Lent this year...

by Paul Field, is a song to which I return from time to time, and which came to mind again today as I was reading the chapters of the book "The Bad Christian's Manifesto" by Dave Tomlinson that our Deacons will be discussing as part of our devotional time at our meeting this evening.

It was one of those mad ideas, I can't even recall where it came from now, except I was chatting to one of the Deacons and mentioned the idea of reading a book together, and they suggested this recently published work.

I think it's been a good experience so far - it will have taken us around six months by the time we get to the end of it, so a lot of commitment to stick with it and recall what we've read.  We don't all agree with each other or with everything in the book, and that's the point really.  We are theologising together, talking about the stuff of faith and doubt, the messyness of real life and the Christ who enters and transforms all of that.

Tonight I am going to use some pictures and two muscial tracks... "One of Us" by Joan Osborne and "God of the Moon and Stars" by Paul Field...