Friday was a day of meetings.

First I met with Alan le Grys, the principal of SEITE. This was an interesting conversation and now I need to decide whether I feel able to take on the demands of the course. To be honest, I am not sure I have too many options to go with. The course is interesting, and will be demanding with weekly evening lectures, 7 residential weekends and an 8 day residential school at Easter – and all that for 3 years! Maybe I should be seeking therapy for even considering such a course!

Next I traveled to Bluewater for a much less scary experience to meet up with Gordon. We had a coffee and shared stuff that is currently happening in our worlds. It’s events like this that make me really glad I started to blog. Having a new friend to share and talk with can only be good thing. I hope we will be able to do this again soon.

Sharing and bouncing ideas can, I think, only result in more rounded and holistic people. Interestingly both Gordon and myself have been toying with a film club idea. I have a great love of film but for the last few years I have not been able to watch a film without thinking two things: ‘What is God saying in this?’ and ‘How can I use this to illustrate something of God?’

What I would love to do now is move this on a bit. To meet with a group of people, watch a film and then have a chat afterwards along the lines of what can we hear about God/society/etc in this film. I fear such an idea in Gillingham just would not take off. Maybe that’s just an excuse for my laziness!

My final meet of the day was with Mark Thirkell, the local Salem minister. I am in great need of an accountability person/mentor/spiritual director. We are meeting to see if this works. Mark knows me, but is far enough removed as to speak what he says. He is also one of the few people that I will take a telling off from if I need one. I hope this works and I hope Mark’s eye will pull me up short where I need to be pulled up.

A great day in all – but now I need to finish my talk for Sunday night … ‘When God’s not there’ – why do I get all the difficult titles?