My friend Gordon has pointed to a great video illustrating the sacraments here.
It made me laugh and I’m sure I could have used this to add to my recent assignments on baptism and Eucharist.
Sacraments funny video
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the rest of the day …
On my way home from Waltham Forest it was exciting to meet up with Wulf and Jane.
I have been following Wulf’s blog for a while and it’s great to meet other members of the blogging community. It’s on days like this that I am really glad that I started to blog as it has opened up a great new network of friends as well as encouraged my discipline of writing.
This evening I ventured into youth work and had to skip a SEITE lecture. I had promised a while ago to lead a group of lads as we chatted about sex and relationships. It always amazes me how open young people are and how little they actually know about relationships generally. Tonight’s lads were fun to work with and we got a good mix of humour and serious chatting.
Jesus on the road
I started the day with the Waltham Forest YFC team at their morning prayer meeting. I used the journey on the Emmaus Road from Luke 24 to help us to think about where we may not be noticing Jesus in our lives. I have a current theme from God to share – that we are so busy rushing from A to B that we do not notice what happens on the journey. The journey just becomes something we use to arrive.
It strikes me massively that Jesus meets these 2 disciples on their journey to Emmaus. They are in the middle of nowhere when Jesus turns up. They are not at the start and neither have they completed the journey when Jesus arrives. It is in the journey itself that they encounter Jesus but fail to recognise him.
At the end of the story the disciples make an interesting remark:
‘Weren’t our hearts strangely warmed when he walked with us and explained the scriptures’
The clues were there for the disciples. Their bodies were giving them the clues, but they were failing to register them. They were experiencing something of God, but due to their grief they were refusing to listen to what that something may be.
Reading that passage causes me to ask
what is it that prevents me from noticing when Jesus is so clearly there?
It seems to me that it is easy to miss Jesus in the journey.
It is easy to be so keen to reach the goal, the destination or the aim and miss Jesus traveling alongside us.
When that happens we are truly missing a life changing encounter, and the richness of the road is lost to nowhere.
the reunion
The reunion was a fantastic chance to catch up with loads of people who have become very special friends. It was great just to be able to spend some time with these people. I hope it is not another 10 years before we are able to catch up!
It’s also been a weird weekend. Sarah and myself do not feel like we started the ball rolling as long as 10 years ago – I guess time flies when you are having fun. I guess it has been so much fun, amid the massive hardships and sacrifice that go with ministry, that the time has sped away. This weekend was special, not because it was 10 years, but because it was loads of people whose lives ave been changed by choosing to get involved with God.
I took a fair few pics and they can be seen in my FLIKR page by clicking on the flash button in the side bar.
10 years
This weekend we are celebrating 10 years of YFC Gillingham.
It’s an exciting thought to think that Gillingham YFC has been working in the town for over a decade (we ran for 2 years before chartering with YFC officially) reaching young people on a daily incarnational basis as well as giving them good and exciting opportunities to respond to the gospel through different media.
But … for me today, the weekend is all about people. I’m looking forward to catching up with old volunteers and people I used to spend a lot of time with. (The picture shows the first real ‘full time’ team of many years ago). The weekend will hopefully be a weekend where we remember those forgotten stories and get excited by seeing what God has been doing in each of us since our paths last crossed on this journey.
Touching the Shadow?
I had my SEITE annual review today.
Before I met with my personal tutor I had to complete quite a hefty self assessment form asking questions about my formation, my theological training, my spiritual life and so on and so on. This time I also needed to complete what the Church of England calls ‘Appendix B’ which those with the power use to help in making decisions about where the curacy is to be held.
I had difficulty completing this as I have to choose what sort of parish I wish to be based in, whether it is charismatic, catholic, conservative, liberal etc etc. I had difficulty mainly because really I stand in that centre ground and am far more interested in the churches willingness to try anything regarding fresh expressions and allow good experimentation with strong oversight and accountability than I am about where it sits on the theological spectrum.
Anyway, I guess I’ll get a chance to chat about this with the bishop in a few weeks time.
In the meantime – it looks like the acting is going well as the college seem happy and look like they are going to recommend I continue training! mwah ha ha – only another year of fooling them to go!
But in seriousness, the implications of appendix B hit me today as all this is now starting to take on a reality of fresh significance as with not a little apprehension I dare to try and touch the shadow of God and hear from him something of what may be lying in wait for me.
Spidy 3
I caught the film tonight thanks to the generosity of my friend Sheena – thanks!
The film was great but you may need to be a bit of a Spidy fan to think so. A good mix of emotion, action, thoughts on choice and other stuff. Great lines in the film to use as well when it comes out on DVD – particularly Aunt May’s’it all starts when you are able to forgive yourself’.
If you’ve not seen this yet then go watch – its cool!
Sacred London
I met up with the London cluster of YFC directors today in the coffee shop of the British Library. It’s a pretty outstanding place and behind us there were thousands of books in glass cases representing hundreds of years of work. When we prayed for each other at the bottom of this glass case of history it struck me as a special moment signifying that at the root and base of all this history, research and talent was God – whether God is recognised or not does not alter that.
Later in the day I met up with Damien at the Sacred Cafe just off Carnaby Street – a good place to have a meting to talk about furthering our mission.
made me think
How not to speak of God by Pete Rollins was one of the best theology books I read last year. It is an engaging and provocative read which challenged me to think beyond what I have thought of as orthodox teaching.
You can get a flavour of Pete’s thoughts on this post called Turn the Other Cheek.
Mind Body Spirit
I came away from London with an odd mix of excitement and fear again today. I felt the same about a year ago. At next weeks Mind Body Spirit festival in London Dekhomai are again running a stall. This year I am going to be on the stall on Wednesday and Friday morning.
I am really quite excited because this was easily one of the exciting mission experiences of last year. Serving the spiritual searchers that are at these events is an awesome privilege. This year we have been invited to lead a meditation in the meditation room, which I find quite incredible.
I’m really looking forward to listening to people, to praying with people and just generally welcoming people to our space (dekhomai means ‘welcoming place’). Last year I was struck by how keen people were for prayer and I remember thinking if people in churches were as hungry as these people were that maybe things would be different!
This year we are trying some new stuff and will have some outstanding postcards to give away with text on the back. Jonny has uploaded these here.
The Shiny Headed Prophet 