8.5.2005 I've been interested in having a go at a log for a little while now and I think this is as good a place as any to to try. I'm not all that confident of being able to keep the thing going for very long but we'll see how it works out.
I've been spending loads of time doing this website recently after Cheryl showed me how to update it. It's been great to share the enthusiasm of everyone who's looked at it and it's certainly a great opportunity. There are news updates and bits of information as well as some creative input. So far, I've been able to tell people that it's updated daily although it's probably not realistic to keep going at that rate. Something about human nature though - nearly every comment on the website begins, 'You know there's a mistake on the website . . . '
Always check your facts - I spent ages at the hospital Wednesday looking for a lady who wasn't there - wrong hospital. It wasn't a wasted journey though because I ran into a couple of people it was nice to see as well as visiting somebody else. It's great to have some new hospital visiting material from Scripture Gift Mission - one booklet is striking in that the promise it gives for the future is not so much one of heaven as of a new body. Thoroughly biblical of course but not easy for 21st Century Brits with our Greek philosophical conditioning to get our heads round.
Just back from the Heath hospital. Shame on you, whoever is responsible for the parking. £2.10 to make a visit - and a friend tells me even the staff have to pay. Still, you do get four hours for that money so think of all you can do in a hospital in that time. There's the Christian book shop in the foyer - 20 minutes. There's Boots the chemist - 5 minutes. Nice cup of tea in one of the stylish bars - 20 minutes. A leisurely meal in the hospital restaurant - an hour. Oh - and the visit, too! Most patients get bored if you stary for 3 and a quarter hours, though. If people have to pay to park at a hospital (and frankly, isn't it bad enough just having to go there without having to pay) how about an hourly charge?
10.5.2005 In Abertillery last night at a Golden wedding anniversary do for my mother's cousin who is also our sister-in-laws mother - and father of course. Confused? It was a marvellous evening made more poignant because the 'bride' hasn't been in good health recently. It was also a bit of a gathering of the clans. Great music by Aled Liddington and his jazz combo - very fine bass playing and trumpet. Anyway, the most moving moment was when the couple stood up to respond to the greetings of the gathering and couldn't really do it for emotion. But I thoughtm perhaps you don't need to say anything - the fact of staying together for 50 years says a lot already. There's not much marital breakup in our family: good examples, perhaps?
11.5.2005 There was a great amount of participation in the service yesterday morning. People came in to worship led by Mel with the music group. Next John Lodge gave the announcements. I started the service with a reading and prayer and drawing attention to David's birthday. Andrew Downing gave a great children's talk about building on the foundation of Christ and based on his building project. Marion Thomas gave the reading and Janet Payton prayed after the sermon. Steve Heath was in charge of the technical side - a safe pair of hands. There were friendly faces behind the coffee bar in the Fellowship Centre. Great teamwork!
12.5.2005 Read some extracts from Tozer on prayer at the Leadership Team meeting last night. Hi individuality is not only one of viewpoint but of language. His biography shows how carefully he worked to come up with the telling phrase. Last night he talked not only about the merry go round of church activities - anybody could say that - but of the fact that it's carried on 'to a pleasing musical accompaniment.' And then something like this - men who don't pray have no right to be leaders in the church. I must reread some of his books as well as enjoying these morsels arriving by email every day.
Some more 'Frenchisms' at the Leaders' meeting. I've already spoken about the 'inscriptions' for the away weekend and last night was telling them how important it is to 'disengage' or to 'disencumber' a fire exit. Perfectly good French but not le mot juste in English.
John Tribe came round to talk about the Raglan Festival in June. Watch this space.
13.4.2005 With Jonathan Kier yesterday talking about the venue for the SOAPBOX concert on 20th May. It's an interesting exercise. At first you think of the 'neutral venue' argument - that kids are more likely to come to a concert if it's not in a church. Then you go to see the community hall and you think it's not really a very intimate place if say only 50 kids turned up. Then we looked at the church and of course we've had all that work done and it's turned it into a very nice, warm, welcoming little hall which would be great with 50 but could still accomodate 150 or even 200 standing. So . . . probably it's a matter of trying to change people's perception of the church as a venue for live music. And what better than a gig with SOAPBOX to start changing the way people look at it? We still haven't decided, by the way!
15.4.2005 It was out day off yesterday so we went to Cardiff mainly to see the Augustus and Gwen John exhibition. Once again, it was the Gwen John paintings done in Meudon which gave the atmosphere to the whole show, inward variations on a few themes of a person, a room. I found quite disturbing one wall with scores of obsessive repetitions of sketches based on a photo of Therese of Lisiuex and her sister in infancy. I know that photo and can't at all understand why Gwen John would have done that. In fact, we were left wondering what the source of all that quite pervasive melancholy might have been so ordered a biography on Amazon in the afternoon. Perhaps it was the year in Toulouse! Or the time in Meudon!
This was my second visit to this exhibition. The first was on the afterhoon of my preaching date in Ararat, Whitchurch. Reminds me of the time Catherine and I went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle at the Elephant and Castle. We asked one of the ushers how to get to the Tate Gallery and he very courteously directed us. When we got home we were horrified to read an article in their church magazine, Sword and Trowel, all about Christians who break the sabbath by going to concerts, sport and . . . art galleries! Perhaps it's a sore point with them, so near the Tate.
16.4.2005 Some Australian peoiple are interested in getting a photo of the old chapel opposite. When I do that I must have a go at photographing the strange carvings on some of the stones on top of the garden wall. Last night I noticed when showing them to Paul and Mel that not one but two of the stones have crude outlines of a hand, one of them apparently framed. Another has an open book and a fourth has what looks like a cross on a base and perhaps an H. It would be interesting to get someone to look at them.
17.4.2005 We've decided that the Soapbox gig will be in the Chapel rather than at the Community Hall. As well as Soapbox, we will have Five Stories Falling as the support band. This is the band with our nephew Tomos Phillips as lead singer. They're just part of quite an exciting time for music over in the valleys. Rachel is going to see Funeral for a Friend supported by When Reason Sleeps, the latter from Abertillery. So we should get a good few people over from Abertillery for the Soapbox gig. I expect Tomos's parents to come. I'd love to follow this gig with one on the grass at the back of the church or someone suggested in the courtyard of Mel's place.
19.4.2005 We had the closing meal for the current Alpha course last night at the Beaufort. We'd decided to have the whole course there as a neutral venue but the results were not convincing and probably we won't go there again. It didn't help that we were rarely in the same place in the Beaufort twice in a row. I think we settled down to about five people at most sessions and aimed to finish by Christmas but as we're only just finishing now it went on a bit. We're looking at different courses at the moment and will probably settle for 'Christianity Explored' the course based on Mark's gospel and coming out of All Souls Langham Place. I've seen the videos and think they're a lot closer to what we are trying to do than Alpha. I've liked the brevity of the material and the mix of talk to camera with vox pops and interviews. I also think that the teaching on the Holy Spirit is likely to be much closer to what we would like to put across than Alpha. Oh, by the way . . . the meal was great so thanks for that, Andrew. Bangers and mash - rich full flavoured with a hint of the Thai flavour (is it lemongrass).
20.4.2005 The latest incarnation of Cardinal Ratzinger as Benedict XVI is all over the papers today. In my work on catholicism of course I had to deal with him in his most recent role at the Faith desk and had to read him on Scripture as well as on liberation theology. An altogether more sympathetic glimpse of him though was as a young peritus (theological advisor) at the Second Vatican Council canvassing on behalf of the inclusion of the permanent diaconate in discussions on ministry. Hold your breath - he may even have been . . . wait for it . . . one of those . . . seen . . . distributing leaflets . . . in favour of . . . a married permanent diaconate. At my doctoral viva, the external examiner suggested that the young Ratzinger was worthy of lots of research. He has certainly been eclipsed by the more recent one but I am more than ready to suppose that he is personally quite different from what his official role has required him to be.
21.4.2005 Sold 'The Theology of Josef Ratzinger' by Aidan Nichols for twenty-two pounds! Perhaps I'd better start speculating about his successor right now and start buying up his books in the SCM sale. But what am I going to do with that job-lot of five hundred biographies of Cardinal Martini I bought in 1985?
22.4.2005 Talking to Huw Chidgey last night about the future of various projects including the Raglan Ceilidh Band and the project about South Wales so we're going to get together for lunch pretty soon. A big thrill to hear that he and Catherine Handley have recorded 'Writ in Water' for their next CD. It's a story song recounting the life of Jacques Humbert, one of the people who used to come to our breakfasts in Toulouse. The chorus is based on the idea that the water you drank as a child is what you prefer when you grow up even if you live far away. This is true - Abertillery tap water being the best on earth. Unfortunately, I accidentally stole the melody from Lindisfarne's 'Meet me on the Corner' but some cosmetic work soon changed that.
24.4.2005 Up to Birmingham for the Baptist Assembly yesterday. I foolishly followed the signs rather than the map from Digbeth coach station to the ICC so got a poor impression of the centre of Birmingham. That surprised me given that I've really enjoyed being around the new Bullring every time I've stopped on the way to Preston. Anyway, the lunch break and walking back alon New Street soon changed that. A great set of civic buildings and lots of great spaces for the people to loiter. When we got to the ICC there were crowds of people with English flags - a BNP convention? Not at all - they were there for a St George's Day concert in Symphony Hall. It made for a bit of confusion. I don't think this venue is as good as the Cardiff International Arena for the same type of event. Reflections on the assembly tomorrow.
Idea for Roy Noble - living in a key marginal = being human. 'I'm a man and a man's a muddle . . .'
25.4.2005 We had the church meeting yesterday to discuss the two key areas of calling a youth worker and becoming a self-supporting church ie coming off Home Mission support. I thought there was a remarkable degree of unanimity even at a human level. What struck me more, though, was that the church does seem to have grown in faith and hope. There was a confidence in God that once the right path has been identified, he will provide.
Once again at the Baptist Assembly I was a bit perturbed by the contrast between the attenders in the hall and the participants on the platform. Once again, there seemed to me to be a large number in the hall who according to my judgement of their appearance (!) would probably have like to sing some older hymn-type material. I think with only one exception that I heard (an uptempo and lyrically updated version of Praise to the Lord, the Almighty) all the songs were recent and were mainly fast crowd pleasing numbers. One would also get a different picture from the platform presence of the ethnic make-up not only of the attendance in the hall but also of the denomination as a whole. The theme was of course Celebrating Diversity but I seem to remember that the same was the case last year. Of the Bible readings on John 4, I thought the one by the Arab Christian was the most incisive although I didn't understand what he meant by likening Islam to Jonah's great fish.
26.4.2005 Home mission visit yesterday with Martin Gillard of Ebbw Vale and Mel McDonagh of Duckpool Road. They were delighted to hear that we're coming off home mission support and are also planning to give the advised contribution per member to the home mission fund. Mel was astonished - not even Duckpool do that, he said!
In the evening, had a meeting for the Raglan Festival with John and Charlie and Shirley of RCA. It's coming together well, although perhaps Raglan Baptist Church are peaking too soon with Soapbox on 20th May. Still, later in the evening I spoke with Mel about getting Kool Kats for an afternoon barbecue at the chapel so you never know. If that comes off it could be a highlight.
27.4.2005 A sequel to yesterday. Charles, one of the committee had a contact from a Christian rock band asking to come and play at the Festival so I'm thinking now about an afternoon with Kool Kats and a BBQ plus this other band all before the main evening gig at the Beaufort.
I like the early morning - it really is the best part of the day at this time of year as far as I'm concerned. All the same, I wasn't best pleased when my doorbell went last night at half past three. I couldn't find my slippers and bounded to the door barefoot on the cold floor but there was no one there and no sign of anyone in the street or lurking in any neighbouring gardens so I stumbled back to bed muttering curses on people for ringing doorbells and running away. I was just dropping off again with the World Service nattering away when the same thing happened not once but twice and in our house it's not the sort of noise you can ignore - Westminister Chimes I think they call it. In the end I carried out a simple experiment, went outside and just touched the bell push ever so lightly and it rang again - there must have been a short circuit in the box so even a breath of the wind would set it off. So, I simply took the batteries out and then slept through the alarm. It's a good thing it didn't happen next week or I'd be late for Wednesday Word. When I came to think about this incident, I remembered the boy Samuel in the Bible. He was sleeping in the sanctuary of God and a number of times in the middle of the night he heard a voice calling his name. Each time, he went to ask his elderly mentor what he needed but each time, Eli told him to go back to sleep. The last time, Eli realised it was God calling the boy to a special task as a leader of the people and he told Samuel to say, 'Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.' That's what Samuel did and he began a long career as a prophet that very night. Why am I telling you all this? Well, it's simple. I think that throughout our lives, God is communicating with us, trying to get our attention. Most of the time, we decide to take the batteries out.
29.4.2005 The Soapbox gig is coming together well. We've decided to have an admission fee of £2 for non-members and £1 as usual for members. Now that's clear I can do the publicity. It hasn't been easy to find a good image so far but I've had the idea of a two tone fluo poster made by cutting two pieces of paper up and sticking the different colours together and then laminating them so they should look great with a simple design. Unfrotunately though when I printed them it looked as if I'd made the £1 concession to Church members, not youth club members . . .
Looking into getting to France for a while this summer. In August it looks as if a Normandy ferry is not that much cheaper than flying to Toulouse so we'll probably do the latter and try to borrow a car when we get there. I'm looking forward to getting the new Francis Cabrel and this new album by Pauline Croze which sounds just right for us.
"It remains to be seen what O'Sullivan's exit [from the World Snooker Championship] does for the viewing figures. It was Alex Higgins who began the snooker boom, and the switchboard was jammed when the BBC interrupted his 1980 final against Cliff Thorburn to go to the Iranian Embassy siege despite the fact that the only burning Embassy the viewers were interested in was the one in Higgins' ashtray." Today's Telegraph
30.4.2005 The Ratzinger boom continues - I sold a copy of his easter retreat book for eighteen pounds yesterday to a lady in a convent in Arundel..
The bass guitar arrived from Tesco! What a thought. You go on the net, go to Tesco and your bass guitar arrives in two or three days. It's all in one big box with an amplifier, a strap, a plectrum, a video, a tuner . . . and a sheet of guitar chords. The sound is a bit twangy and the construction a bit basic but it's a bargain at £159!
Nice sunny evening yesterday so spent a bit of time before youth club reading 'La Peste' in the back garden and then round the front when the sun went round there.
In the evening I did the epilogue about John Newton and the kids were pretty attentive.
1.5.2005 I'd probably be better off starting a new page for May but it's a bit too much organisation on a Sunday morning so I'll probably try to do that in a day or two.
Got onto Chuck and Cathy in Toulouse about going over in August. We've ascertained that it'll be not all that much more expensive to fly to Toulouse than to take a Brittany or Normandy ferry. Charles says they will probably have two cars in August so it's all systems go. I think we'll aim at about 10 days.
Got 'Jeff Buckley live at Sin-e' yesterday. There are some extraordinary moments when he begins the three Bob Dylan songs out of nothing and one or two other cover songs that are worth getting to know better. The sequence of songs from 'Grace' is very revealing as you can hear what makes these songs tick. The big arrangements on the album add a lot of mystery to them though.