I am back home after a wonderful time in Manchester at BMS Catalyst Live (aka Catalyst Olive courtesy of Lucy Berry).  Whichever metaphor you choose - smorgesbord (sp?) or box of chocolates - it was certainly diverse and rich.  Not everything was to my taste, but there was much to delight the senses and nourish the grey matter. I laughed, I frowned, I regretted, I delighted, I chatted, I listened, I hugged, I was hugged, I was on familiar turf, I was with friends for whom it was foreign 'turf', I met new people... With music, art, poetry, preaching, science, history, current affairs and more it was, all-in-all, one of the best times I've had in many a long day.

And then into my inbox came the offical registration for the International Symposium on Theology, Spirituality and Cancer in which I am clearly identified as a speaker.  I am a little apprehensive about this - the paper is not even in draft form yet, let alone honed, and I am 'the' overseas speaker.

Yesterday there were several overseas speakers, chief among them being Jurgen Moltmann.  Oh dear, these poor New Zealanders will get a very pale imitation in me - even I have just spent a whole month preaching on hope and saying pretty much what Moltmann said yesterday!!  Still, for the one and only time ever, I am able to put myself in the same sentence as Professor Moltmann when talking about conference speakers - how smug is that!

In a few minutes I will be heading off to a launch meeting for More Than Gold 2014 followed by a showing of Chariots of Fire.  I remember seeing that in the then ABC cinema in Northampton, a three screen emporium no less: back in the 1980s that was quite the thing!

Nowadays it is one the main centres for the 'Jesus Army' - something that began as a renewal movement in a tiny Baptist church, caused untold problems in its early days, was allegedly chucked out of the Baptist Union (no means to verify that either way) and now is just one among many Christian groups whose origins lie in this part of England.  For sure, they are very good at befriending lonely and vulnerable people and live out their faith with tremendous earnestness.

So 'Chariots of Fire' a film that prompts all kinds of associations for me.  More importantly, I hope it inspires the local churches to get involved in this unique opportunity to offer hospitality and service to those who visit our city.

After that it is down to Manchester for a few days - sermon writing on the train, BMS Catalyst Live in the middle and catching up with a few friends in between.

Thereafter comes Advent - and no day left in my diary without at least one engagement until after Christmas!  All kinds of lovely and exciting things, but I will need to pace myself and remember that I am nearing 51 not 21...

Glasgow's underground system is in the midst of going 'smart' with electronic cards similar to the Oyster system in London (though a long way from being as sophisticated as it will initially only cover the Subway).

So yesterday I registered for my smart card - a painless online process - and in a couple of weeks I iwll bid farewell to paper tickets as the smart card can be used 'pay and go' as well as for season ticket etc.

If all goes well, this system will be fully up and running in good time for the Commonwealth Games next year, allowing global visitors to pack into our tiny trains and be shoogled through the tunnels to wherever they are going.  It would be great to think it might be fully integrated by then, to cover at least the local buses, but overall it feels like a step forward.

If you don't get the shoogle reference, then try an urban dictionary or maybe go here

The title of this post will only make sense to those who reocgised it as a play on the title of a well-known and well-loved paperback book on history.

Perhaps it is just me, but the BBC's 1963 week seems a somewhat odd juxtaposition of the origins of Dr Who and the shooting of Kennedy, neither of which I recall as was eleven months old at the time of the latter, and, to be honest, neither of them particularly interests me. 

The story telling approach, drawing in minor characters and hearing their voices is certainly a post Modern, if not necessarily Post-Modern, phenomenon.  The idea that all history is, to some degree, 'faction', an elision of 'fact' and 'fiction', may not please some historians, but cannot be denied: whilst certain facts can be independently verified, the 'story' told cannot be other than biased, informed by the aims of the writer.  So I am quite intrigued by the dramatised tellings of these stories, but perhaps the more so by the choice of which stories to tell.  Of course drama does not purport to be history, but it semes a lot of people learn their history from drama (not a new phenomenon - lines from Shakespeare have passed into popular historical consciousness).

I do meet people who can tell me exactly what they were doing when the news about Kennedy broke, and others who can do so for the release of Nelson Mandela or the death of the Princess of Wales, but not so many, and not with such clear impact as perhaps was once the case.  Instead, I suspect we have out own significant moments, in the usually unrecorded stories of our own lives, and evolve our own mythology around them, as verifable facts and interpetted memory intertwine.

... but sometimes reinventing the wheel is a good thing.

I was catching up on stuff on the BUS facebook page first thing this morning (how sad is that?) and spotted a reference to 'beer and carols' which was perceived as really radical by the person posting.  To be fair, contextually, it probably is - but it's also a reinvention of the wheel, something we did annually when I lived in Leicestershire, and it wasn't totally novel even then.

A quick look online and I am pleased to see that 'Sing Christmas 2013' will take place on Monday 23rd December at 7 p.m.  I am minded to give my house a blitz, link up via internet and invite some folk round to participate in it (so long as they can cope with 'in jokes' for Leicestershire).  Have to admit to being disappointed that it looks as if Dibley are not hosting this year, epseically as they now own an ideal venue, but maybe they are doing new and exciting things I know nothing about.

One step removed, but in a similar vein, our Coffee Club will be carolling in our local Wetherspoon's Pub to raise money for their chosen charity (CLIC Sargeant) ahead of our Christmas Dinner there - can't wait!