My goodness it was cold standing outside the back of the Armadillo for two and a half hours, but it was fun!

A few piccies to make you all jealous...

And just as importantly, lots of awareness raising and fundraising.

Every morning as I wake up, I listen to Chris Evans on Radio 2.  I have never met Chris but he comes across as a genuine and generous guy, and as he hales from Warrington where I spent some of the happiest years of my life, there is a vague sense of connection.

Today Chris, along with James May, Gary Barlow and Prof Brian Cox are driving a pink Rolls Royce from Lands End to John O'Groats as the launch of a year long fund raiser for Breast Cancer Care, a charity close to my heart.  You can read more at the website here.  If you happen to live in, or near, Bristol, Birmingham, Warrington or Glasgow, you might want to get laong to see this spectacle - and for a £5 in the raffle win the chance of having use of the car for a day for you and a couple fo friends.

As the SECC is so handy, even though it'll be a late night on a school night, I am hoping to get down there - and even, shock horror, put on a pink top!

Oh, and if you wonder - yes, Chris did his show, live, this morning (almost certinaly by OB judging by some of the sound quality) before the extravaganza begins: mad or what?

Yesterday's PAYG was based on the story of the stoning of Stephen, traditionally identified as the first Christian martyr, with martyr being understood as someone who dies, or at least is tortured or interrogated, for what they believe.  However, given that the Greek word translates simply as witnesses, we discover martyrs (witnesses) in the crowd who observe his execution:

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen.
But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.
Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!"
But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him.
Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul.
While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."
Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.  (Acts 7: 54 - 60 NRSV)

Witnesses are not passive observers, they are there for a purpose - in this case to oversee the execution.  As I was pondering the passage yesterday, and continued to overnight, I was struck afresh by the fact as members of a religious establishment, we find ourselves cast, not in the role of Stephen, but of Saul and the other witnesses.  The temptation is always to defend the status quo, to protect the ideals and values that have served us well, rather than to be willing to hear new things.

Saul, later Paul, must have had plenty of opportunity to reflect on the events of that day, and though he presumably eventually came to terms with his own past, he could not change it.  Of the ministers I know, there are many, myself included, whose theological understandings have changed, sometimes dramatically over time.  We, too, have our pasts, with the bits that make us cringe or that we would now approach differently.  I think perhaps the challenge is to move from passive by-standing to active witnessing - both as we reflect on our own past, and as we observe what is happening around us.

Lord God,

Open my eyes so that I may see more clearly the reality of which I am part

Open my ears to hear beyond the words, to the nuances and codes

Open my mind to engage with challenges and conundrums

Open my heart to the ache of sacrificial love

Let me be no passive observer

No pseudo-objective commentator

Let me be a witness for truth

Let me, even me. be a martyr for your cause

Amen.

Yesterday we were one of the Scottish baptist churches hosting members of the National Settlement Team (NST) who were (are) up for their occasional Caledonian gathering.  We were privileged to welcome Rev Dr Paul Goodliff, head of ministries, who brought us a timely sermon on the ongoing nature of conversion, or reconversion, as well as the need for an initial commitment.  Based on Acts 9 and John 21 (with a couple of verses of Ezekiel for good measure) it continued our lectionary approach, and fitted in well to the series with the working title Extra-Ordinary.

Unusually, I read the Bible passages in the context of worship.  Other than as a visiting preacher, it is incredibly rare that I do so nowadays.  And I enjoyed it very much indeed.  I always enjoy hearing other people when I'm preaching, noticing new nuances in the texts as I do so.  The same was true yesterday, not least because it feels different reading aloud than reading silently.

Next Sunday's service continues the Acts thread, and moves on from Damascus to Joppa, and I am already quite excited about what God might be saying to us in the little story we will focus on.

If praying be your thing, and if Baptistness is something you understand, please pray for the NST as they endeavour to match churches and ministers.

Not much of note been happening this week, just a steady game of catch-up on the admin, several small meetings and the realisation that next week starts the last 'lap' before my sabbatical and there's still a heck of a lot of preparation to do for that if it isn't going to end up as three months wasted.

Anyway, the one thing that is new is that on Easter Sunday I finally relented and allowed Holly Cat into my bedroom.  Having been brought up strictly that 'animals do not go in bedrooms' I had held out for more than 18 months, during which every night a yowling, door-scratching moggie would wake me up several times.  Suddenly, all is quiet!  She knows that the bedroom is for sleeping (or seems to), accepts that the door is closed by day, but trots in purring when it's time for bed.  Up she jumps, curls into a pretzel shape at the end of the bed, and is sound asleep in seconds.  And I sleep better too.

My biggest fear, based on other people's tales was a cat dribbling onto my face, demanding food - so far, so good on that one!

There's probably a moral in there somewhere, or a sermon, but I'll leave that as an exercise to the reader!