Starting them young...

Most pleased to see that St Geoffrey's Church of England Voluntary Aided School is paying proper attention to the minutiae of theological discussions, not just with regards to iconoclasts and iconodules, but also the difference between homoousious (Jesus as being homooúsios with "God the Father" — that is, they are of the "same substance" and are equally God) and homoiousios (similar in substance with God the Father, but not equally God).

And all this in year 3! Most impressive!

At least, that's how I interpret studying "images of Jesus and how different people believe him to be."

On books and bookishness

It has only taken two years, but I have finally sorted out which of the books I kept from Dad's massive library will be staying and which will be going; hopefully to the council library service. However, two especially noteworthy reflections have presented themselves.

Firstly, it has taken an external influence to get it done - we need the guest room to help put up a friend for a few months until he can find new accommodation. (And there are still thousands of CDs too).

The second thought was a little more disturbing. I have not been able to access most of my books for those two years, as they have been obscured by rows of CDs and boxes of books. I haven't read much in years, and so to see so many good, hardback books in the boxes, and having to decide to let them go, has reminded me a lot of about Dad and my nature. There is every reason to presume that most of them had never been read. Instead they had been bought simply because they looked interesting, on offers in Borders or Waterstones or Amazon. I can't quite say my purchases were made in the same bulk (as I have not had the same bulk of disposable income) but the motivation looks suspiciously similar.

And as a final thought. What did I read, when I read more? Science fiction? Yes, but not seriously for maybe 15 years. Theology? Yes, but mainly as required by the theology degree, and even then my study is full of books I have never read. History? Yes, but only for the purposes of researching alternate histories, geofiction and the like. Which begs the question as to why I don't carry out research in that way anymore . The answer lies in the changes of technology. I live behind a computer screen, arguably too often. Now I look on the internet first, rather than heading into the library and searching contents tables and indices.

There is room for more thought here, methinks.

Running on...

...Faith? ...Alcohol? ...Empty?

Probably a combination of all three, but the last seems most likely. Doing by and large the same thing, week in, week out, and with precious little input. The other half of the "job" is energising and enjoyable, but that's also been getting harder of late. Except it's closer to plodding...

There are frequent days when I wonder why I bother... but then again I'm not sure what else I could do. My faith isn't going, or anything like that, but my enthusiasm for the church part of it certainly isn't very strong! I'm in a rut, and whether I like it or not, a rut doesn't leave much space for innovation - it's not quite "going through the motions", but the only revolutions are the ones that send you on in exactly the same direction, or as I sometimes think many would like, back the way we came! :)

Seeing Graham Kendrick last weekend was good, but the stresses of family didn't help. Never mind.

And of course I'm blogging this in a notionally "public" environment, when I meant to use my anonymous space and now don't have the time to change it.

To quote, as best as I can remember, Michael card:

Sometimes we soar in the power of his might,
On our own at the best, we can plod.
The Kingdom we look for is just beyond sight;
We are pilgrims to the city of God.

So, time to re-engage "plod" mode, and continue Plodding to Paradise.

Hints of Successful Time Travel Research!

Since when does a round-robin email from Information Services spark questions of time travel? Well, readers may be interested to seer the text for themselves:

Reminder ! On 2010-03-13 00:00:00 Exchange, staff email , will be unavailable due to scheduled maintenance until 1900-01-00 00:00:00

Dr William Ho, Senior Lecturer of Temporal Physics at Poppleton New University, said "I can neither confirm nor deny that the department has cracked the problem we set ourselves," although he did confirm that the department enjoyed extremely close connections with Information Services, including frequent night-time intensive use of the computing reserves of PNeUNet.

Questions had been asked last month about the sudden appearance of a large quantity of funds in what had appeared to be a dormant Temporal Physics Coffee Fund. Dr Freeman-Guise, Lecturer in Practical Stock Market Manipulation, had speculated that the sum matched that which would be generated by "about 110 years" of compound interest upon an investment of 1 old penny. When questioned further on the matter Dr Ho merely smiled and offered this reporter a jelly baby.

Honesty Box

There was a programme on a little while ago, and I can't remember whether it was on the TV or Radio, which sought to address the question about whether art could ever be a substitute for faith. I didn't find out any more than that, and my gut reaction might be summed up as “Maybe, but...” in the sense that art might well engage with the senses of otherness and the unaswerables of life, but couldn't in my opinion replace faith, although I'm sure others would disagree (although there could be a very interesting dialogue upon whether art can bring salvation.... and just what this salvation thing is anyway.)

This, however, is no more than a preamble, a setting of the scene.

I was providing the weekly free tea and coffee at the more arty of Poppleton's two campuses (campi?) this afternoon when a group of folks came along into the foyer and constructed nothing less than a black plywood booth, looking for all the word like a Confessional, although I'm not sure how many of the students would have even understand the term (after all I understand the concept although it is alien to my experience). But the similarities didn't end there. It turned out that this was part of a piece for Poppleton's main theatre – the Republican and Bradway. Students were being invited individually into this miniature version of the 'Big Brother Diary Room' (as the staff handling the task called it) to recount their tales of student drunkeness and high jinks, captured as a 'talking head' responding to questions being given by either an interviewer behind the partition wall or a very clever computer program (I'm unsure which). The end results were to be edited into a sort of rolling video montage for a piece of art entitled “Honesty.”

So why this little reflection? Well, on the one level I was struck by the similarities of an individual ensconsed within a plain box recounting their “sins” to a invisible listener, hidden behind a screen. Art, perhaps, imitating church, if not faith.

But then, maybe not so similar, perhaps? After all, here were willing volunteers (or at least compliant passers-by) recounting events or the sake of art. Events that, I strongly suspect, they would regard not as sinful, shameful or in any real way as wrong.

Initially I was a little worried that my presence there in the foyer might hinder the art work, but then I realised I was not even a part of the equation. If anything the presence of the project brought me, and by extension the Chaplaincy, to greater prominence, if only as a purveyor of warm beverages.

So the “Honesty Box” provided just that. Not, maybe, an awareness of sinful humanity's need for a gracious God, but a reminder of both the willingness of people to open up with true (or, from their conversations, not so true) stories, but also of the gulf between the givens of the oft-called Pre-modern mindset of faith and the Postmodern mindset in which we find ourselves.

PCC see sense, "divine intervention a definite possibility."

In shock news from St Geoffrey's a source who wishes to remain anonymous disclosed that the decades-old tradition of Car Boot Sales wasn't worth the effort of the declining number of folks who "wanted (their) Bank Holidays back".

Speaking upon guarantees of anonymity the vicar said "This is clearly a case of divine intervention, getting them to see the obvious in less than 10 years."

Maybe of even greater importance is the apparent manifestation of multiple Were-Lemmings faced with the approach of the next Annual Parochial Church Meeting. "Once one member of the council decided to go, now it appears many more are also jumping." The long-term implications of this phenomenon are far from clear. Rev'd Dr Andreas Alcine was heard to say it will either "Kill or cure" - while trying to hide what one parishioner described as "an evil smirk." Reports of cartwheels in the street and cries of "Chaplaincy here we come" have been strenuously denied by sources close to the Vicarage.

A Little Too Easy?

OK, my blogging has been woefully lacking of late, and even this is intended to be a quick one.

Regular readers may know that I have very definite plans for "career progression", which sounds far too managerial, suffice to say that I know where I want to go, what direction I should be going. That path is into Full-Time University Chaplaincy. It's an area where jobs can be highly-sought after, and highly-prized. I wouldn't call it an easy job and I would expect long hours and hard work.

All this means that the latest job advert I've seen has left me somewhat incredulous - an historic Oxford College, a regular pattern of Sunday and weekday worship (of rather traditional bent at present, boo hiss) Diocesan Scale stipend (£23k), "possible" housing allowance (since having children is an excluding factor for most accommodation), and this is what I find had to believe, a 35 hour week (averaged over the year) and 38 days off over the year including Bank Holidays. A Thirty-five hour week! To include Sunday worship! Pastoral care of 500 or so students and no more than 200 staff.

Am I tempted? At face value, absolutely - except that knowing me I'd be unable to work as little of 35 hours!