All the Fat belongs to the Lord…

I am encouraged – my meager efforts to actually work hard appear to be paying off.

I recently discovered that if I were on the course I want to be on then I would by now be having to write a 1500 unassessed word essay a week/every fortnight and have a supervision with 5 others on my essay/essay plan with the same frequency. This might sound a lot of work, it certainly is more work than my course – but the difference is when I hand in my first essay it will be for assesment for my overall degree. It will also be my first essay. As in ever. This is the reason I am now desperately trying to change degree – I would like to have tuition throughout my learning, to make sure I am on the right track and doing things right. Space is all very well provided you know what to do with it!

I realised yesterday however that part of my desire to change to the Cambridge course was in fact a rather large fear that if I stay on this course I will end up getting a 2:2 or lower. This is not a bad mark at all, but I managed a Desmond in my last degree, Electronic Engineering, which I had zero interest in and less enthusiasm. I feel it would be a mortal sin to get the same mark in a subject which I find stimulating and enriching and which I actually seem to have a mind for.

As I have alluded to in a previous post, I have started some reading on my “Introduction to Church History” module and have been finding it interesting although I haven’t been sure of myself. I sent an email to Angela Tilby who is one of the lecturers asking if I had got my essay title right, and whether or not it would be a good topic. Not only did she email me back with a very positive response, with big long words and lots of interest in what I was proposing, but she then went on to say in todays lecture exactly what I had hypothesised about the topic (whether or not the ascetic/monastic movement of the 4th century could be linked back to the dead sea scrolls community).

That probably sounds pretty small to most of you – but to me it is an indication that I am on the right track (when I put the effort in at least) and I can possibly suprise myself in the course of these next three years. And as my wise roomate said – God has given me three years to grow and learn and develop self discipline and he knows what he is doing. I am encouraged.

Well we have had a federation ship meet in our house – and it consisted of Fermat – Mr Fermat and Dies Irae – not to mention Jenn R and Andy. Names which seem meaningless to most of you I am sure, but the moment I get round to linking them to Ship of fools profiles you will know who they are. Suffice to say a wonderful evening was had by Amy and me. I hope everyone enjoys their extra hour of sleep.

It’s official, October has been the busiest month (most visitors) so far for the world famous and extroadinarily silly blog “All the Fat belongs to the Lord”. Just in case you haven’t worked it out yet it comes from that famous verse in Holy Scripture Leviticus 3:16. I have been told that I am taking scripture out of context with this usage of the writ – I say to you – it is you who take it out of context! I mean it purely in its ceremonial understanding. So there.

Madness over. Oodles of reading to do – does anyone know of a good book on the Cumran community? I am seriously stretching one of our essay titles in order to do some research on it, but I’m sure a 1st century Jewish monastic sect has lots to do with the impact the ascetic movement had on the early church circa 400AD. *whistle* (if anyone can explain what I just said that would help)

This is the problem with only having one essay per module, choosing between the titles is so hard. Do I go for something I have an opinion on already, or something I feel I could do (not many) or do I do the essay I have most interest in, but the least knowledge about? I haven’t even started the work and I’m already befuddled.

Yesterday I experienced a good all age service. I am quite shocked. Simon has blogged about it here, but although some of the “knock knock” liturgy didn’t work brilliantly (the response came before the bidding as you can well imagine) and I found it hard to pray for the persecuted church in a laundry room (either way you read it!) it did seem quite a success. As Simon says however, it wasn’t just for children.

At Ridley after lunch on Fridays we have an hour of Gospel choir which Amy, who is on half term, dragged me to. We absolutely loved it. Brilliantly led, a lovely atmosphere, and actually quite good singing (my uni revelation choir prided themselves on letting just about anyone do a solo – ouch!). The only bad pea in the bunch was myself – I seem not to be able to tell if I am in the same octave as those around me.

The other day we walked past Richard Dawkins. It was a most exilerating experience. In fact I just walked past someone vaguely familiar and smiled at him, in case I knew him (he looked bemused back at me), and only a short while later did Amy say that she thought she had seen him. So it must have been.

This follows seeing Germaine Greer the other week in the UL. What an exciting life I lead.

In other news – now that I have an Anglia Ruskin email address I am a member of the facebook community, which seems fairly ok, if a bit bizarre. Suddenly lots of people from school want to be my friend (how sweet)

Here is my “badge”;

It is now 2:27 am and we have just come back from a night with some of our old Cambridge friends (the perpetual students who are still here from our undergrad days) and we are very tired. We played Monopoly until just half an hour ago when I eventually beat Alex, the last player to crumble under my empire.

We began the game before 10.

Anyhow, it was lovely to see them all again, and we thank God that we have people around we know from previous times – it feels like we never left. So thank you our Cambridge friends – for a wonderful evening – here is to many more to come.

Hurrah! I have done it. I might just pass my course! I actually did some work out of lecture time!!!!!!

So today I am inspired to share with you all what I have been learning, so you know where that hard-tithed ordinand money goes on.

Last night I went to a lecture called “Reading the bible through agrarian eyes” which was being delivered by a lovely American lady who didn’t really pronounce her r’s (you work it out!) all about how our western post agrigultural mindset has blinded us to the importance of land in scripture and in Gods plan for creation. It was fascinating. She told us about how the naughty Babylonians and Ninevites have ruined huge plains of the middle East by their aggressive redirecting of rivers and ignoring the needs of the land – so now they are salt plains and nothing can be done with them. Also she told us about how in Deuteronomical law land had no financial value because it couldn’t be sold – only rented for up to 50 years – but it always had to go back to the family who owned it. Thus everyone had land or their family had land. This is because of the corporate memory of the Israelites who remembered what it was like to have no land back in the exodus. This makes the story of King Ahab trying to buy some fellas field story make more sense – that actually in trying to use his position of power to buy land was wrong in itself, and why the fellow owning the land went to die rther than sell his land for a lot of money. Oh well.

Did you know that the greek word for confess actually means simply “to agree with God”. How brilliant is that.

And apparently I worked out in 5 minutes what some guy called Kenneth Bailey took 35 years in the desert to figure. According to the lecturer. I think he was being kind. (it was about oral tradition using jokes as a western parallel). Certainly boosted my confidence though – why is it that the subject I find most pointless (Literary criticism) I also find most enjoyable and seem to have a good head for? Wheras the mission module, well, don’t get me started…

For those who read/prayed for my placement situation it seems to have been sorted out. I am going to spend 3 weeks a month at LSM (incredibly high Church in Cambridge city center) and one week a month at Madingley preaching to the lovely people there. This seems to be quite a good solution – I get to experience LSM and learn how to swing a thurible, whilst being able to continue preaching at Madingley so I can improve that which I enjoy most (but am not very good at). Then next year I will probably do a placement in a more “normal” Church, probably slightly lower but style is less important than location at this point.

Off to have a cup of tea with a dozen DDOs.

I have finally got back on my bike! After doing around 60 miles in my first week at Ridley I got a puncture, and have spent a couple of weeks fixing it – partly because of time but mostly because I quite liked the excuse to drive in. Perversely driving actually takes longer, mainly because I have to park 10 mins walk away from college, but boy is it easier.

So I finally managed to get up early enough to pump up my tyres and get going. And as a reward God gave me the most amazing sunrise I have probably ever seen. Just as you leave the village where we live there is quite a vast plain of fields on your left and the sun was sitting just above the horizon, all glowy red. And for some reason I beat my record for the 4.5 mile journey by half a minute (average speed 13.12 in case anyone cares). I think this has a lot more to do with staying on the road and not the cycle path rather than my buns of steel. Achem.

I suppose this mornings experience should have inspired me to be creative or prayerful or whatever, but actually today has dragged on a bit. I am finding it really hard to engage with the worship here – perhaps because suddenly I am obliged to attend it it ends up feeling like another lecture or talk I have to go to. Or perhaps I am falling into the trap of thinking the community around me will take responsibility for my prayer life so I don’t have to.

Either way, I managed quite a definite “thank you” this morning as I passed the skies daily offering, and was about to break out into a triumphant hymn of praise when I started an uphill, and promptly ran out of breath.

Joining with Simon and Dave I have finally completed my Ridley Hall Lent Book reflection. Just in the nick of time.

I found writing to such a short word limit very hard, and my piece just doesn’t flow very well, but maybe someone will find it useful (if it gets in!). Amy has done one as well, hers is far far better than mine;

I chose Luke 12:4-7

“This passage can easily fall into the trap of being split into two parts: a rather mean bit about hell and a rather nice bit about sparrows. This would be a mistake as the two go together like peas in a pod.
Our reading begins by explaining how we should not fear those who would harm our bodies but instead fear God who can condemn our souls. An important point to note is that fear in the bible doesn't mean simply being afraid; it also means being reverent and obedient, and is usually a very positive action. To fear God is to worship Him.
To be honest the image of a God who is just waiting to kill us and then cast us into hell is a little removed from our idea of a loving God, but this has to be seen in the light of what Jesus says next. He tells us that the creator of the universe remembers even one sparrow, and that we are worth more than many sparrows. Just as a sparrow is worth very little in pounds sterling, so we often feel of little worth to God or the world. But God's value system is not like ours because he has bestowed upon us the greatest value of all, that of his only son, Jesus Christ.
To the God who does not forget us and strengthens us in our hour of need, please be with all those who suffer torture even today, Amen”

I will hopefully find enough time tomorrow to blog as it is the biggest blog in history day. A day in the life of Tiffers blog preserved for ever. Indeed…

Just to give you all a break from blogging about college I shall subject you all to a few of my thoughts on online anonymity – sparked by a post by Dave.

This was all started however by a lot of furoury by a priest in Reading – also a Priest Vicar at Westminster Abbey, who alledgedly (the evidence is pretty overwhelming and his Bishop is involved) held several different identities on a couple of Christian/church forums all seemingly set up to give himself and his Church a good name. He also issued a couple of reports on his Church (Mystery worshipper) about how amazing it is and what a good voice the priest has etc etc. For more information (and more accurate) go to Daves post for a list of media links.

Dave gives some pointers for blogging – and they are well received, many people don’t really think about their readership. I am getting better at this, but often I am a little too honest and forget the sorts of people who might be reading. The main people I try and keep in mind are parents in law (hello!), aunties (hello!), people at Ridley, staff at Ridley, Cathedral Staff, friends from uni and then random people from the internet, who make up the majority of my readership. I think my brother and sister check occasionally too. A part of me thinks it shouldn’t matter who reads it, I’m me, and that’s that, although that’s what Simon Heron said until he found out his new Diocesan Bishop was reading his reflections…

I think the day my mother learns to use the internet I might have to rethink, but for the moment I will just try and balance news with views, and keep it kosher.

Of course the other thing about not being anonymous and occasionally posting pictures is that you don’t know how much someone might know about you. I was walking along Grange road in Cambridge yesterday and I saw someone coming up who I recognised – but only just. Thinking perhaps she was off the telly or something I continued to stare – I have seen Germaine Greer walking around recently and it was the same kind of thing. Coming a bit closer I realised it was Maggi Dawn, a fairly famous Christian blogger (in the world of Christian blogging I mean), who is very likely to be walking down Grange road for a number of reasons. No biggy – but I wondered if the knowing smile she gave me is the knowing smile she gives to all people she passes on the road, being I’m sure a polite sort of person – or because she knew who I was from the blogosphere. I am sure it was the former – but still, an interesting thought.

Sorry to keep you all waiting so long – I know you are just itching to hear how college is going and all that. Apologies also to those who I have not been in good communication with.

Greek has got harder – but at least all the other lectures are starting proper now. Yesterday was a lot of fun – we had “Reading the NT”. Lots and lots of info and reading to do. Quite excited really – now I just have to get down to all the work! I very nearly did some work yesterday afternoon, but not quite. I have 14 hours of contact time (per week) this term – and only 7 hours a week for the next two terms. So lots of time then to do work….

I am writing this on my computer at home, which is being remotely controlled by my laptop in my study at Ridley. This is probably very unimportant to anyone else but it excites me greatly. Scared Amy slightly when I printed a message on the printer for her

Sorry got distracted. Oh yes, college. Well I am glad I haven’t blogged too much because it has been so up and down you would have got quite giddy reading it! Lots of great people here – not least my room mate Harry, the one with the tattoo. He is very cool – very funny and friendly, and peppered with a healthy dose of cynicism. Apparently cyncicism, κυνικός, is derived from the Greek word for dog. Hmm.

Dave (of wannebepriest.org.uk fame) has been really helpful to have around also. I really need to get round to telling people this kind of thing! It has been so nice at least having some semi-familiar faces around, especially when they are as encouraging and helpful. Everyone is pretty friendly though, and I am getting used to the worship. It takes a bit of getting used to the way we do liturgy at Ridley, but I have quickly realised that everyone is going to do services differently and sometimes that will be something I like and sometimes it won’t, and I can try and worship through it. But it would be nice to say the Psalm just once in the week, rather than singing it in loosely based choruses! Must try and be less snobbish in future.

A bit stressed about attachment churches. I am not officially anywhere yet and I am not quite sure where I am supposed to be. I was going to be at Little St Marys in Cambridge which is a brilliant Anglo Catholic church, but it’s looking like it might not be ideal, mostly because I wouldn’t have a tremendous amount to do – and because it is a lot more like the Cathedral than I thought it would be. Then there is my local church in Madingley, where I would be doing a lot, preaching fortnightly or so, and doing some visiting. The problem there is mainly that Mullit, who is a retired clergyman, is probably not the best person to supervise me, as he is meant to be enjoying his retirement. Of course somewhere completely different might be the answer, but the less mucking people around I do the better. Ridley is being very patient with me as I worry and complain at God for making it all so jolly complicated. Prayers for this would be appreciated.

Lots of brilliant staff members here – all very different. I think one thing really strikes me about some is a vulnerability – this is not an us and them sort of place. What you see is what you get – and that is a very hard thing to do in a place like this. I was actually moved to tears in a lecture the other day, that never used to happen in Mathematics for Engineers classes. And then we have gems like these from Canon David;

Q: Why did the Anglican cross the road?

A: To get to the middle.

I must get home now – as we are going to a staircase social tonight. We are hoping all the introductory socials and the like are over now so that we can get on with life tonight is a games evening so should be good fun. Will update again soon.