Yesterday we joined D+2 for a picnic and open-air service at Bosworth battlefield.  The sun shone (so presumably their prayers received their desired answer) and a pleasant afternoon was had.  But I was uncomfortable with the choice of hymns - lots of war imagery and battle language - which, whilst it connected with the location and the reading chosen (Jehosophat's victory) didn't sit too well with the daily reports of military deaths in Afghanistan, to say nothing of the civilian deaths in endless violence.  Wars on terror and battles with knife crime... not helpful.  Nor, for me, was singing 'onward Christian soldiers' (a hymn I've never liked anyway!)

This Sunday should be Ephesians 6 - the 'gospel armour' passage, but we are deferring it a week due to a songs of praise we already had planned.  So, what do I do with it?  Last time I spoke on the unhelpfulness of war-imagery I got a load of verbals from a small number of folk at church (I vaguely recall blogging about it at the time and an alternative concept of PPE - personal protective equipment).  At one level the passage is really easy to work with, a nice shopping list of stuff, but in a violent world I need something more to say.

Tricky.

HT Julie

This is funny but in inverse alas cited far too often...

Ten reasons men are unsuited to pastoral ministry and therefore should not be ordained...

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. The pastoral duties of men who have children might distract them from the responsibility of being a parent.

8. The physique of men indicates that they are more suited to such tasks as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do ministerial tasks.

7. Man was created before woman, obviously as a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. Their conduct at football and rugby games demonstrates this.

5. Some men are handsome, and this will distract women worshipers.

4. Pastors need to nurture their congregations. But this is not a traditional male role. Throughout history, women have been recognized as not only more skilled than men at nurturing, but also more fervently attracted to it. This makes them the obvious choice for ordination.

3. Men are prone to violence. No really masculine man wants to settle disputes except by fighting about them. Thus they would be poor role models as well as dangerously unstable in positions of leadership.

2. The New Testament tells us that Jesus was betrayed by a man. His lack of faith and ensuing punishment remind us of the subordinated position that all men should take.

1. Men can still be involved in church activities, even without being ordained. They can sweep sidewalks, repair the church roof, and perhaps even lead the song service on Father’s Day. By confining themselves to such traditional male roles, they can still be vitally important in the life of the church

Offering to give away the stuff I don't want to take with me to Scotland has been interesting.  Requests have come in fairly thick and fairly fast, ranging from the very diffident 'if it's not too much bother and if you still have it might I be considered' to 'so-and-so passed on your list to me and here's my shopping list for a few hundred quid's worth of stuff.'  Interesting to see the attitudes of those making requests, and interesting to be alert to my own responses to them: from disgruntlement that the list had been passed outside the intended 'circle' without anyone asking me ("how dare they offer people MY stuff withut asking me?!") to humbling repsonses ("you've saved my life I've been searching for one of those for AGES").

At the end of the day, I am encouraged that one or two HMF churches have been able to have bits and bobs for events they are planning - holiday at home in Jamaica in Nottinghamshire for example - some Brownies, GB and BB some craft equipment, a new AOG Sunday School some basics, a toddler group some cushions, a Methodist children's worker some basic stuff and a youth group some games stuff.  Seems like good Kingdom redistribution to me!

Yesterday I went to visit the Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial centre in Nottinghamshire.  Finding it is not trivial - there are exactly two brown signs for it, right at the entrance.  Maybe it is appropriate that, located in the sticks, you have to know where it is to find it... the friend I went with had been three times before and we still got lost!

The place is very quiet, and has beautiful gardens with rose bushes planted in memory of survivors and victims of the Sho'ah, along with a massive pebble cairn to remember the child victims of this, and other, genocides - Rwanda, Kosova, Cambodia...

Having visited many other exhibitions on this theme, and having researched it as part of my undergraduate work on political theology and Biblical studies (as one does!) there was no shock value.  Indeed, to be fair, the exhibition does work in that way, most of it is understated - a single recovered shoe is more poignant than enormous cases of them in other exhibitions.

The Journey is a wonderful interactive exhibition on Kindertransport, complete with the 'aroma' of chicken soup in the fanily dining room.  A fascinating means of engaging with history using fictive characters alongside genuine artefacts and oral history.  It was interesting to compare the experiences of the kindertransport children to those of (at least some) English wartime refugees (this isn't done in the exhibition, rather in my mind).

An important resource for Jews and Minims (honourable/righteous or otherwise) alike.  Well worth a visit if you're in the area

Today my copy of the book to which I contributed arrived, and I looked up my bit... which had been completely re-written!  A salutary lesson methinks.  The title and list of further reading matched, and most of what it said I agreed with... but it had changed dramatically since it left my computer a year ago, if you put the two side by side you'll see what I mean.  Overall I am still chuffed the entry is in, and think it's positive to have the entry attributed to me...

So, you can check out the authorised version in the book, or read the Q-equivalent here!

For the record, in case anyone wonders, whilst 'applied theology' is a form of 'practical theology' the two are not, in my view, entirely synonymous.