Wed 2 I've been very fortunate in the books I've been reading over the last few months. It started with the Ralph Neighbour book on cell church in Toulouse in August and continued with the three books by James Thwaites: Church beyond the Congregation, Renegotiating the church contract and Church that Works. I'll be talking about all of these to the Fraternal tomorrow morning. The latest is Men Behaving Badly by John Goldingay. It's a close exposition of 1 and 2 Samuel and full of careless erudition and touches of humour an personal insight. I remember Goldingay coming to Spurgeon's to talk and he was refreshing back then - no tie, natty grey outfit, prematurely greying. Must be about 65 now. Another book of his that's tremendous is God's Prophet, God's Sevant on Jeremiah and the servant songs in Isaiah. I'm on my third copy of it now. His type of writing is obviously like Brueguemann but perhaps even more like Ellul in bringing out theological and thematic ambiguities close to the text.

Thu 3 Lots more violence in the Paris banlieues at the moment so I've got the French radio going a lot. There's nothing new in that - during the time we were over there there was trouble at Mantes and when we were in Toulouse the Mirail erupted from time to time. There were even those big demonstrations in 1996 and I think a lot of violence associated. People seemed to find it hard to believe that the conditions we saw in Belarus could be even remotely paralleled in France but it's more than a tourist destination and some of those banlieues are real ghettos and we've seen things there quite hard to evoke. And that's without even touching on the phenomenon of homelessness.

Mon 7 Busy time at the moment. I had a great time talking to the pastors at the fraternal and met Laurence Weaver who has begun at Duckpool Road. Very warm fellow and he mentioned Ellul as a great influence so that was marvellous straight away. Incidentally, out of the blue in a later chapter of Men Behaving Badly John Goldingay mentions Ellul and his Politics of God, politics of man so my instinct about the type of writing it is proved correct. I wouldn't quite describe Ellul as an amateur theologian though. I know he had a wide range of interests but there's a rigour in his theological writing all right.

On Friday the bonfire party. The hog roast was wonderful. Several people said they'd never tasted anything quite like it. A great pity that salt is a banned substance! The dreadful weather all over Britain hald off for the afternoon and evening and it all went according to plan. Jonathan and I set up the PA system outside the shed where the hog roast was but I think the songs could be heard at the bottom of the hill where the bonfire was. A great relaxed evening and I think we had about fifty people there.

Saturday saw a meeting for the Raglan festival so that was interesting - there are one or two different theories on how things shoudl develop from here and I had a few long chats with the protagonists.

Sunday was one of those busy Sundays. A good time with the children before they went out - they seem to be into the procedure of choosing songs now although we still get Shine Jesus Shine suggested nearly every week. I suppose if we sing it every couple of months that would be about right. Had a great time preaching a verse by verse exposition of John 5:1-15. Lots of peole away again but plenty of visitors including Jane Downing's sister and Richard and Larrie Sherlock. Then to Rachel and Colin's for lunch - very nice pasta based meal. A good, harmonious church meeting in the afternoon and then an intimate communion service in the evening. Then the cat woke me to go out at two o clock in morning. Still, I've managed to get the early start I needed today: A big church meeting tomorrow night at what I'm calling 'Church in difficulties.' Needless to say, there's been a lot of phone calls in connection with that pretty well non-stop for about a month.

Wed 9 Read The Magician's Nephew to prepare for the Narnia film coming out at Christmas. Better than I expected with plenty of Christian themes apart from the ones I'd absorbed by osmosis from others' talking about the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Interesting material in connection with Charn about the nuclear issue. Still reading God's Prophet/ God's Servant by John Goldingay - very illuminating about how Jeremiah - and Christ and the Paul of 2 Corinthians incidentally - go naked into the conference chamber and have to soak up unprincipled opposition with only the hope of the God's vindication to sustain him.

Thu 10 A bemusing email from a missionary in Toulouse. This is not a parody or a windup, this is how the person genuinely thinks. Be assured that it's ok for other people to minister at the sharp end though:

As most of you know by now, France is experiencing a time of civil unrest
and Toulouse is one of  the cities involved in the riots.  Last weekend,
the violence spread to Toulouse.  I am blessed to live in a quartier (
French neighborhood) that is relatively calm.  I am praising the Lord for
that and the choice I made to rent an apartment here versus another area of
the city. 

I have received several e-mails expressing concern about my safety and
wondering how the riots are affecting me personally.  I am safe and sound
and taking the necessary precautions to avoid being near the violent
quartiers.  Unfortunately, the actions of a few have penalized the rest of
us.  Tuesday, as I headed for my regular ministry responsibilities, I
arrived at the metro to find out that there were no buses.  This was in
response to a bus being burned and a driver beat up the night before.  As
most of my fellow Toulousians, I totally understand the position of the
drivers and if it was me, I wouldn't want to drive under those conditions.
Tuesday evening, the metro only ran to my "half" of the city.  For those of
you familiar with Toulouse, "Arenes" was the final stop as of 5 pm.  Today,
the buses ran until 5 pm in sensitive spots of the city and until 6:30 pm
in other areas.  Once again, this evening, the metro is only running in my
half of the city.  Tomorrow will be much the same but they will be
extending the metro hours in the other half of the city until 8 pm.
Needless to say, transportation has become a bit of a nightmare for much of
the city. 

I would appreciate your prayers for the situation here.  It appears to be
improving in Paris but that is not the case in Toulouse.  Someone lost
their hand last night in one of the altercations with police.  Today, I
heard that one of those involved in the riots was sentenced to 8 months in
prison.  The sentence was not well received!!  Thankfully, there have been
no deaths reported  in Toulouse. 

I would also like to request your prayers as I lead the Bible study with
B. tomorrow morning . . . Thanks for praying as I take on these
additional responsibilities for the next 4 or 5 weeks as well as continue
with my normal ministries and prepare for the Christmas Coffee on December
3rd. 

Fri 11 Spent yesterday morning in the school. It was a great time all based on the Children in Need appeal and the teachers managed to bring Welsh, English, Maths, History and Art into it. Unfortunately, I'm not doing the Roy Noble programme on Radio Wales next week or I would have done something about the children's fund raising ideas. Did the assembly on the theme of remembrance but the year sixes were in Hilston Park so it was quite hard to engage with the younger children.

The people from the Raglan Festival came round in the evening and we had a good time planning for the concert on 9th December. Played the CD of All Shall be well and Writ in Water to everyone and they all liked it very much so we should have a Raglan hit on our hands.

Ted Wragg has died - I heard him a couple of times most recently at the Spring Governor's Conference last year. Wragg often rushed to the aid of state education when it was under attack. In 1994, after the Prince of Wales had criticised schools for failing to teach children the rudiments of spelling and grammar, he accused the Prince of "slagging off" state education in what amounted to "an insult to all the teachers who spend their lives trying to teach children good English". He was gratified to learn that the Prince had based his observations on the fact that people in his own office could not spell, "but they turned out to have all been privately educated." (Telegraph obituary)

Mon 14 Just surfacing after a busy weekend. The concert with Huw and Catherine was a big success. There were about 45 there including the children so it was financially viable and the atmosphere was great. Several people from the village came in on spec. Huw had a lot of tuning problems in the first half but those went after the interval and he was on top form - very humourous as well as a storming second set including 'Nothing to Show' and a couple of other up tempo numbers. They came back to the house afterwards and they seem a bit down but actually there are some great things on the horizon. The new album looks great and they are doing festivals.

The remembrance day service was very complicated. I think in the first twenty minutes we had Mel, John Lodge, Me, Rachel Spaven and Ian Scott all speaking. Then I welcomed John and Celia into membership - getting John's name wrong in the chaos. Having said that, someone came up afterwards and said they thought the early part of the service was great so you never know. It was full up downstairs with a few upstairs. In the evening we had the next of the BWA talks - Steve Chalke on the Church the real health service and we were 20 for that.

Packed day ahead.

Thu 17 Good week so far. great deacons meeting with plenty of positive things to plan for. The youth work continues to strain at the seams but once again this is going to result in something much more sleek and efficient. I was astonished to count that there are 17 people involved in youth and Sunday school work. I am tentatively mooting a prayer breakfast for those involved to see what people think. Great Wednesday night group in Colin and Rachel's last night.

I read a review of the Babyshambles album citing quite a few French influences including of all people Huysmans! Got the album and the first track could easily be the translation of a song by Pigalle, Soldat Louis or even Louise Attaque. Otherwise, it's an updating of the Clash, produced by Mick Jones. Doherty has got a great gift for language, though.

Fri 18 Teaching about Luther yesterday. After the first seminar one of the students came up and asked, 'So what have I got to do to be justified.' Had a good four way conversation on the back of that.

The CD single of 'All shall be well' and 'Writ in Water' is almost ready for launch. We are billing it as 'Frost at Midnight with Jonny Quick'. Charlie sold a couple of advance copies in Ireland last week and said that Jeremy Irons who is a family friend was interested in it: Fame! I'll take a few copies to the ministers' conference in Saundersfoot next week and then we'll launch it properly at the Eddie Walker concert on Friday next. We'll have Jonny up in our set to sing the songs. I might take a piano along for 'Writ in Water'.

Sat 19 The publicity for the Raglan Festival concert on 9th December has been done and it's brilliant. It's very different from the minimalist style I use for church publicity - many typefaces and colours and graphics - but it's effective.

Did the epilogue at the Footsteps club and in a tumultuous evening they listened well. I explained that the apostle Paul wanted to use every means he could to tell others about his faith and that we are doing the same. I talked about the Narnia film, our CD and the church website. They all went away with a fridge magnet.

Mon 21 Great service yesterday again - quite a few said it was the best for some time. We had over thirty of the shoe boxes and a lady from Usk who'd seen the article in one of the papers came along specially with one. Once again some new people from the village which is an encouraging feature these days.

Went to Abertillery to pick up the bunk beds in the afternoon. Colin and I were about to set out in his estate car when one of their friends turned up out of the blue with a removal van having just completed a house move for his brother in law so we went in that. He's one of the people we talked to at Joshua's dedication party. He's worked a lot with travellers and now works with alcoholics in Hereford.

We're going to the funeral of our neighbour Ian Turner in a moment then I'm off to Saundersfoot for the ministers' conference for a couple of days. Derek Tidball on 2 Corinthians. I've got a funny feeling that he gave those talks on a European missionary retreat but I may be wrong.

Sat 6 Funny incident - I went into Staples to get some red paper for the insert of our CD single 'All shall be well'. They had a ream of every colour you can imagine except red. So I bought a mixture pack and took it to the checkout where I noticed a sign - box of red paper for every business account. Me: 'Is that red paper for sale as well as in this offer. Cashier: 'Yes, it's over there.' Me: 'Well, I'll leave this and have a box of red paper, please.' Cashier: 'It's not red in colour it's just called red paper, it's white really.'

Rehearsed for the Raglan Festival gig on Thursday night. I used a separate amp for the bass instead of going through the PA and the whole things improved many times. It's a good tight band. A littel unimaginative in the arrangements but that takes much time.

Launched the CD at the Eddie Walker concert last night. It was a slightly disappointing turn out. There were 81 tickets sold but I'm told about 60 there. Trouble with the guitar meant I had to borrow a nice Takemine and we were playing seated - ever try driving standing up? was my quip to the audience. Matt, Jonny and I started with Cannonball, In Dreams and You're Beautiful and then Catherine came on and we did 'I want to see the Bright lights tonight' - that was too fast but still ok. Then Both sides now - fine. Then we called up Jonny and we did the two new songs. They went down well, but we could have done with Catherine Handley to run through the arrangement. Then we finished with 'You got a friend.' After that, Eddie Walker did about half an hour then a break followed by John Tribe and a guy called Lyndon and then Eddie Walker again.

Busy time coming up. Wednesday Word on Roy Noble's programme this week and also some more talks for Radio Two but this time under a lot of pressure because Karen the producer is coming back from a long break. I'll probably have to write them, revise them several times and record them in the space of a day or two.

Mon 28 Another -pretty good Sunday although the last page of my sermon notes had vanished by the time I came to preach. I remembered most of it, though. Did the Gift Aid presentation and it's still a source of wonder to me that if you give £40 in a month the church gets £51.20 - amazing. Several people away but several visitors too including Rob and Sue Wixey's nephew David and Caroline and the twins.

Went to Abertillery in the afternoon and was reminded that Catherine's great great grandfather was called Vavasor Powell. I'll have to spend some time investigating a possible link with that great 17th century Baptist leader in London and Wales, fifth monarchist too - Vavasor Powell! I'll start in the Dictionary of National Biography although I'm pretty sure he had only daughters. Here next: The Life and Death of Mr Vavasor Powell (1671), attributed to Edward Bagshaw the younger; Vavasoris Examen et Purgamen (1654), by E. Allen and others; D. Neal, History of the Puritans (1822); and T. Rees, History of Protestant Nonconformity in Wales (1861).

	The beginnings of dissent Vavasor Powell (1617-1670)
	An itinerant preacher According to his enemies, he was the son of an innkeeper and oatmeal dealer of Knucklas in Radnorshire. He worked for a while as an hostler at Bishops Castle before being sent by his uncle, the vicar of Clun, to Oxford University. Vavasor, however, dropped out to become a schoolteacher at Clun. He first married a widow, Mrs Quarrell of Presteigne, and after her death married Katherine, the daughter of General Gilbert Gerard. Probably influenced by puritan thinking at Oxford, he became an itinerant preacher around 1638-9.
	He went to London at the outbreak of civil war in 1642, returning to Wales after the surrender of Raglan Castle gave Parliament control of Wales in 1646. He resumed his evangelism and created a band of missionary preachers, earning him the nickname, "Metropolitan of the Itinerants".
Goetre, Kerry Photograph by kind permission of the Powysland Museum	Purge of the clergy He became pastor of Newtown, and built a house at Goetre in Kerry. With the 1650 Act for the Propagation of the Gospel in Wales, he was one of 25 Approvers who advised the commissioners, being very active in replacing clergy for alleged incompetence and substituting puritans. He caused the rectors of New Radnor, Gladestry, Cascob, Cefnllys and Llandegley and the vicar of Llanbadarn-fawr to be deprived of their benefices between 1650 and 1653.
	In the heady climate of religious freedom which came with the Commonwealth there was a turmoil of discussion, with new sects springing up. Powell became certain that the time of earthly powers was over and that the second coming of Christ was imminent. Along with other Fifth Monarchists he protested at Cromwell's assumption of title of Protector, was briefly imprisoned in 1653-4, and became involved in the suppression of a Royalist uprising in the following year.
	Arrest and imprisonment At about this time, Alexander Griffith, who had been expelled from his living at Glasbury for "drunkenness and lasciviousness", published the vituperative pamphlet, Hue and Cry after Vavasor Powel. Powell was arrested at the Restoration and released the same year. He continued to preach, was arrested several times, and was then imprisoned for rejecting the oath of supremacy. He was committed to the Fleet Prison between 1660 and 1662, and to Southsea Castle from 1662-67. After the fall of Lord Clarendon he obtained his release in November1667, but was arrested on a preaching tour in October 1668 and was returned to the Fleet Prison, where he died.

A day of second guessing the BBC today. I must make sure I have access to all the talks I've written or roughed out whenever or wherever they phone. My opening gambit is to keep them on a floppy disk with me at all times and then stay quite close to the home phone . . .

Wed 30 Went down early to the BBC. Traffic was ok so I arrived with about half an hour to spare. Sain Baker was quite talkative as usual this timeabout St David's Praise but Roy Noble wasn't in a bantering mood although he told me a funny but mildly unsuitable for broadcast joke off air which unfortunately I can't remember. My talk was about politeness and the golden rule so it wasn't exactly ground breaking. Met Karen after and we talked about the Radio 2 recordings we need to make soon.

A bit of shopping in Tesco then on to Bridgend for the mentoring group. There's a big number of students coming our of college this year and hoping to settle in Wales but not enough churches . . . This was the last meeting I'll go to in Bridgend as they're moving the HQ to the Baptist College very soon.

Back just in time to teach piano to Geraint. He continues to be able to play all the pieces at sight but haltingly. He takes quite some time to play them appreciably better however. Perhaps I'm training him in my own image - I usually play hings better at sight than after lots of practice.

Then back home for some tea and straight out to the house group - baptism and the Lord's Supper. A great discussion led by Helene.

By the way, I found out during some research that Vavasor Powell was a heroin Wales well into the nineteenth century so to call a Powell child after him might not be too unusual and probably doesn't indicate a family link.