I managed to miss the delivery of my Commonwealth Games tickets today as I was at work... I love that they are described as CG Tickets.... how personalised is that?!  Am also glad I live close to the sorting office to pick them up.

And it's only Wednesday!

Yesterday evening, just before I turned in, I did one last quick check of emails - and one landed from New Zealand to say that they have a publisher lined up to publish our papers - how exciting is that!  There is something slightly wonderful that a publishing house that specialises in Aotearoa - New Zealand spirituality might be willing to include a paper by an English woman living in Scotland.

BUGB life official and not-quite-official is bubbling with creativity and energy after a very special Assembly, and that is a delight to behold and be part of (not everyone will agree, I'm sure, but we're Baptists, that's the point!).  I really hope some of it comes to pass because it will be so good.

The sun is shining and, for me, life is good... how blessed am I.

Isaiah 43:19 is one of the most overworked verses in the Bible, often expressed almost in desperation as if suddenly someone has spotted the 'new thing' God is doing and tries to convince a sceptical, resistant old guard.

Social media can be a terrible distraction - and this morning it has certainly been very distracting, but I hope in a good way.  It all began with someone posting a question asking how people had found the Assembly in West Brom.  Attention drifted to next year's one day Assembly, accompanied by mutterings, then someone said something that had that 'new thing' feeling about it... so how about people go for two or three days and organise stuff themselves for those days, inviting others to join in?  Now the creative juices seem to be flowing and people are making suggestions of what they might like to offer or be part of... it could be very exciting, and it could be good.... and it could be worth having achieved not a whole lot this morning... all kinds of possibilties. Will we actually move from words to deeds?  Who knows, but it could be very exciting indeed!

I will admit that I was sceptical about the two-day BUGB/BMS Assembly, fearing that it would feel rushed and that the things that I value would be squashed or lost.  In the event, it was a great Assembly and, although I did miss some elements, I had a great time.

I didn't enjoy every last moment - some of the music wasn't to my taste and was over loud, there were late starts and several over-runs - but all that faded into insignificance compared to all that was good.

Just three significant bits to share for now.

• The BMS 'Happy' video which you can see here brought lots of laughter as well as presenting lots of information - a good year for BMS

• In the BUGB session this hugely significant statement was read out.  For some it does not go far enough, for others it may go too far, but overall it is good, Baptist unity-in-diversity stuff.  As was said at the time, this is not the 'final word' but it is massively significant and, in my opinion, a really helpful step... just a shame you have to dig so deep into the website to find it!

• The closing communion service was the high point... presided by a minister with significant and visible physical disability, served by people who were children and adults, black and white, female and male, married and single and all sorts of other expressions of diversity, it was, for me, a glimpse of the eschatological banquet.  Singing 'For everyone born, a place at the Table' a capalla was heart-burstingly wonderful, knowing that in the congregation were people of all theological hues and with the whole of life as their experience.  I can't really capture it in words - but as one of the servers, I was so proud and so humbled to be a tiny part of it.

Sometimes I am proud to be a Baptist - this weekend was one such time.

After lunch I will be heading southwards for #bapt14 (I'm only just getting the hang of this hash tag thingy a bit late in the day!)

I have a list as long as my arm of people who'd love to catch up over a coffee - that's lovely but some people are going to end up disappointed, there just aren't enough coffee breaks to go round!  Really hoping to catch up with my bestest-minister-friend-in-the-world-ever who is now based in north Wales and also some of my Dibley folk who will be there for the first time.  Have a check list of folk I'd like to bump into including college friends, the former-sec-of-the-church-that-said-no, folk from churches where I did student preaches, folk I know from Didcot, and so on and so forth...  Please may I have a ten day Assembly just to see my friends?!

The laptop is staying home, neither of my phones is smart (the one I use for church is especially dull) and kindle withdrew the free browser on my model so no contact with the www for a few days - something I really value as it gives me the freedom to 'look up' and 'look out' and be differently alive.

Reporting back will happen in due course but quiet here for a few days.