All the Fat belongs to the Lord…

What has Tiffer been mostly doing this week?;

Some reading for his Early Church essay, and having his first ever essay supervision with Barnaby, who is probably the best supervisor in the world.

Forgetting his student card, so that he has to prove his studenthood by quoting greek phrases and showing the empty space where his wallet used to be.

Getting 88% on his Greek test, closely beating his wifes mark. Tiffer should probably point out that his wife has only made it to 3/5 of the classes, and so in fact did incredibly well.

Reflecting on the ordination of women. Being a balanced open evangelical at a proper anglican college he is in favour of all this, but thinking it would be good to have something to say to the Free Presbyterians who cajoule him from cottage windows.

Learning about silence and augustinian spirituality. Shhh!

Enjoying his last week whizzing about on Michelle, who is soon to go to her rightful owner. Prayers for Amy on Monday as she learns how to ride a motorbike with a big group of 16 year old speed demons on mopeds.

Reflecting on his weekend in Whitnash, and realising how homesick he is, and bemused at the new life that seems to have been injected into it since he left (maybe because?). And how silly it would be if his curacy was at his sending parish. Wondering about the concept of a “sending church” and what part it should play in the ministry of those it sends.

Enjoying Bill Bailey and Peep show, which he has borrowed from various friends. Chuckle.

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Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

This cartoon (which is very funny) refers to the current fandango about CUs and their relationships with SUs (Christian unions and Student unions). The twist in the tale is that the media is now very involved, and it all seems to be getting mixed up in the BA Cross situation and I suppose the muslim veil stuff as well. This does worry me slightly.

The reason I feel even the tiniest bit qualified to comment is that I was at Warwick CU when it was kicked out of the Student Union. Essentially what happened was;

Student newspaper wrote a spoof email to CU president saying “I’m a gay Christian and I’m proud of it”. CU Pres wrote an email back saying “Hell hell hell brimstone and more hell” and the email was printed in the Newspaper. CU was told they could get kicked out of the SU for their beliefs on homosexuality and the Pres promptly apologised, and they gave out a statement which said something like this “We allow anyone regardless of sexual orientation to be a member of CU, however we would ask that anyone taking a position of authority submit to certain Christian values, namely in this case that Sex belongs within marriage”.

Which is essentially the Church of Englands official line…

The CU then got kicked out of the SU in an un-official/not quite legal vote and CU had to use a different room to meet in and starting being a bit more chaplaincy friendly.

Considering one of the main reasons for the CU joining the SU in the first place was to get some free PA equipment in the long run this was no huge loss. But the fallout was quite big. Overnight homosexual people on campus started to think that people they went to lectures with and shared kitchens with hated them. Overnight CU members thought that if they didn’t stand up for their CU and its stance they might go to hell. The homosexual support/lobbying group on campus appropriately named Warwick Pride began leafleting brochures explaining why the CU was bad and wrong which naughtily had the Warwick CU logo on them. The Pres started talking about the persecution they were facing.

I tried not to get too involved, although as a Christian on campus I certainly had something to do with it. I decided that as much as I enjoyed disagreeing with CU about doctrine and practice the statement they made was one thing I agreed with them on – and certainly agreed with their right to make it. The fallout wasn’t all bad – a lot of good conversations were had between Christians and the people around them who were worried about the developments, a lot of people were told that God loved them despite what was going on. The Pres learnt from his bad email writing episode and mellowed somewhat. The ironic thing is that the CU exists to make Jesus Christ known to students – I fail to see how someones views on sexual orientation make much difference to that mission.

My conclusion is this; everyone is being a bit naughty. Student unions and gay lobby groups at Universities do take PCness to new extremes, and do tend to start attacking the Christians before the Jews, Muslims etc, I suppose because they are the safer target. I don’t mind there being a minority of people who disagree with the values I live my life by or how I behave, that’s life – I feel some people need to realise that (Christians too).
On the flipside CUs need to stop allowing their agenda to be hijacked and get on with doing mission. In my experience not much actually goes on (effective mission at least), although it gets talked about a lot. They bring this on themselves by using their silly DB – it doesn’t technically stop a homosexual Christian from speaking at their meetings anyway – and what would be the problem with that – do they think Cu members would be lead astray! Why is it that Fusion cells/groups or evangelical chaplains rarely get this kind of bad press?

And please can we stop using the word persecution. Logging on to Amnesty International or Open Doors might help these people to realise what persecution actually looks like.

I am delighted to find out that I am number 1 on a google search for “Fat person on a Moped”. Charming.

As some of you will have noticed I have been trying to keep a set of links of ordinand type people blogs. This isn’t because they are special people (well they are in some senses…) – it is because I found reading through the experiences of those who have gone before me really helpful when on the discernment/looking at colleges process, and continue to as I now go through the joy that is theological education.

With the number of Ridley Hall bloggers rising by the day, and my less than easily updateable wiblinks, I am currently looking for somewhere that I can easily make a page of ordinand blog links. Preferably one which anyone can add to and see without having to log in. Kind of like a wiki. If anyone has any ideas let me know.

More testy type thingys;

I have no idea what this means.

And this is some personality test thingy – it is far too nice to me. Hover over the colours to see what they are. How silly.

I think that having a “Robust doctrine of human depravity” means I have low confidence and only average trust. Low authoritarianism is quite amusing as well. Average masculinity! I roasted a pig – an entire pig – with nothing but my bare hands and 12 other people. I ask you.

Some things I find annoying here at theological college, not because they are necessarily wrong, but because they are said a lot;

-The word dialogue used as a verb. It is just a pretentious way to say talk. Talk is both a noun and a verb. Why don’t we use it.

-Tom Wright (pbuh) as the authority on everything. Will someone please disagree with him. Just once. I’m not clever enough to do this.

-The assumption that a hebrew mindset is better than that of greek thinking or that of our own. “But that’s a very greek way of looking at it” seems to be the stock answer to a lot of questions. Maybe occasionally we could make a case from scripture, or reason, why do we instead use one human way of looking at life in order to trump another.

Other than that – everything is great. Enjoying whizzing around on Michelle. Haven’t crashed yet.

All the fat gets political.

This story really caught my attention, partly because of the BNPs earlier antics to do with the Church, and partly because of my love of all things Don Camillo and the link between the two.

I link to the Daily Mail because I found the comments below the article very interesting – almost everyone thought that the very concept of denying communion to BNP members was incredibly wrong. I have mixed feelings about this – the closest parallel I can think of is in Don Camillo, although I haven’t been on this earth long so if anyone can think of a better one please comment.

In Don Camillo, the fictional story of an RC priest in a little town in post war Italy, the Roman Catholic church (at least in his area) has decided to deny the sacrament to members of the communist party – not to those who vote communist however (I think). Although this is presented simply as background there is a little bit of debate about the issue in the Priests heart, who, although delighting in being able to one up the Reds in his village, also knows that there are some faithful Christians amongst the deceived who would still put Christ before their politics. Perhaps the fact that after a fight or political battle with Pepone, the leader of the Communists, he always polishes off a few bottles of wine with him makes up for it…

I assumed that the general concencus amongst Christians would be that denying communion to these people might be the right way to go, but it seems I would be wrong; see this thread on the Ship of Fools forum

I am in two minds about it. Of course sin has never and should never be thought of as stopping us receiving or celebrating the sacrament. At the same time some would argue (the BCP has quite an extensive section on this) that unrepentant sin is a problem when it comes to fellowship, Jesus talks about resolving issues before making offerings to God, and one of the reasons for the Peace in our communion service is to make peace with those who we are bearing grudges with. It seems there is emphasis on being right with each other and right with God, or at least trying to be, before taking bread and wine.

It is a tough call. I think that Trevor Phillips asked too much of the Church, and I don’t think many will be going all the way. It is shocking the number of folks in our churches today from all traditions and denominations who vote BNP or similar, so perhaps making a clear distinction between the values of the Church and those of BNP types would not be a bad idea. But when Mr Phillips asks us;

“Are we ready to use weapons of faith to turn these people into pariahs and outsiders?”

Unfortunately, I can’t justify turning anyone into an outsider. It is important the BNP are kept out of leadership and positions of authority in the Church, and perhaps there is a place for “reserving” the sacrament for those who acknowledge their sin and turn to God, but perhaps it is fighting the battle in the wrong way. We should be fighting against injustice and sin in the world, and it is easy to get sidetracked.

Anyway, I am interested to see what you think.

I am a man of few hobbies, of which I am not proud. I would like to say this has something to do with time constraints, but the truth is I am in fact just very boring.

However I have some occupational hobbies; things I have to do anyway so I might as well let them take over my life (cycling, theology, Big Bus, motorcycling) and then I have lazy hobbies; activities which require nothing of me so no effort is required (watching TV, reading blogs, writing blogs, eating and drinking gluttoneous amounts) and then I have potential hobbies; things I would love to get (back) into, but haven’t got the time, skill or money.

Of the latter, gadgets are one (as well as Warhammer 40k, amateur electronics, proper writing). Whenever I can I try and catch Channel 5s The Gadget Show, because it is quite good. The presenters are nice and quirky and they assume a fair amount of knowledge when showing a new bit of technology, unlike various News programmes; “Some scientists in Cambridge think they can make a keyboard from bendy metal stuff”* doesn’t really hit the right level for me.

One of the presenters has a blog which picks up on the best stuff that goes on. They are genuinely helpful in what they do – I found it useful to know that after being burnt, submerged very far under water, crushed by a tank etc etc the standard USB memory stick still has recoverable information on it, wheras all other media storage has given up by then.

The most interesting for the blogger being the Life Cam. Imagine if every few seconds your camera phone took a picture and instantly uploaded it to a live picture feed. Your entire life “blogged” automatically and uneditted. Obviously a scary concept and not one I am planning on starting (due to lack of money, skill or time), but certainly this is a great way to give someone an insight into what your day looks like, or to capture a particularily special event, or to ensure at least one good photo of an evening out. See some examples here and the blog post about it here .

I am taking my Compulsory Basic Training tomorrow so I can ride Amy’s motorbike when she isn’t (her license is still pending). If you see a lunatic riding in the cycle lanes on a Honda c90 as of tomorrow evening it will probably be me, forgetting myself.

*A friend of ours is working on that and it does have some cool implications

An odd couple of days with respect to churchy things.

First of all I have to correct my post of earlier – Michelle is very definitely a motorbike, according to the previous owner – particularily because this makes more sense with regards to her alliterative name.

Back to Church. I preached at Little St Marys yesterday, at Benediction. It was very nerve wracking. After last week’s episode I decided to preach from notes again, even though it was my first time there and I had quite a bad cold (Tiffer was a little horse). I preached on loss and hope – but as it was from notes you can’t have it, sorry. I’m sure you are all very upset.

I may talk about Benediction another time, as it is obviously a fairly interesting service/concept, but I need to know a bit more about it before I make any measured comments. Suffice to say I quite enjoy it, although seeing the service through fairly neo-orthodox lenses (see earlier post).

What struck me was the feedback. There can’t have been more than 20 people there, and yet I got far more helpful feedback than I have ever had at any previous church. Both positive and negative, and given completely honestly. One person quibbled with an assumption about the authorship of John (I made it clear it wasn’t necessarily my view, but I did then go on to preach on it), one person advised against beginning a sermon with “Good evening”, and so on. I was really impressed. Amy was critical as ever, but it was great to have people caring about quality control (I need quite a bit of that).

Then tonight Amy and I led a Taize evening prayer service at Ridley. We had quite a few people attending – CYM people, for whom it is compulsory! CYM is the center for youth ministry, and therefore is stocked full of youth workers with enthusiasm and cool oozing from their pores in equal measures. Quite a threat to middle aged types like myself.

The service started badly – we only discovered fire 3 minutes before the service began, and there were a lot of candles. Then after a very brief introduction Amy led us in the chant – and no one joined in. After three repeats I stopped everything, pointed our where the words Amy was singing were, and we began again in earnest.

Throughout the service I was aware that I hadn’t done a comprehensive enough introduction. I realised that my assumption most people would have been to a Taize service before was not entirely well grounded, and that singing chants in Latin or French (with the english translation below) might be quite an oddity to someone who doesn’t know about the Taize community itself. I began to remember how much I struggled with Taize worship when I first went to stay with the community, and how long it took me to really embrace it and value it as a way of worship and prayer. Have I managed to forget what it was like as a young Christian, or even a non conformist, to have to try and work out what is going on with, well, everything?

Speaking of which – I take back all I said about the BCP – I didn’t realise we have three solid weeks of it!

In the past couple of months I have had a few people from different groups within the Church ask me what I am. “Are you an anglo-catholic then?” or “So how high up the candle would you say you were?” Usually I am a huge fan of labels as it can be useful to know in which tradition someone stands, although of course sometimes they are unhelpful. For the ordinand just saying what college you are going to/would go to/have been at is often a helpful pointer, but there are exceptions. So here it is, for all you curious people who want to know, according to some dubious multiple choice quizes;

First the heretic check.

And now a bizarre look at what tradition I might be. Interesting mix.

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God’s most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 79% Roman Catholic 75% Emergent/Postmodern 71% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 64% Reformed Evangelical 50% Charismatic/Pentecostal 43% Classical Liberal 39% Modern Liberal 39% Fundamentalist 32% What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

I would like to mention I have never read either of the theologians mentioned.

For one or two weeks a term we switch from using modern Common Worship liturgy in our services to jump back 350 years to the good ol’ BCP. When this happens we have an interesting dynamic in college, due to the very different backgrounds we all come from. I don’t suppose it is quite the same in colleges of a more Catholic persuasion, but here at Ridley people range from being quite irate that we even use it at all to those who have a warm affection for the language and theology, with most of us being able to poke fun at it regardless. The reasons for our different views range between those who come from entirely non liturgical or barely liturgical churches or who feel the language is out of touch with the world and those who were brought up on it, or are fond of it on behalf of the more elderly in our church who still use it. All these feelings are completely valid, as long as we are sensitive to the feelings of others.

Even though I only became an Anglican (joined an Anglican church) in 2004, I have always kept my confirmation copy of the BCP quite close, despite my difficult relationship with the Church of England. In it I found a spirituality seemingly far removed from that of the Anglican churches I had worshipped in, a scriptural, gospel centered faith where integrity is integral to worship. A liturgy which cares about the spiritual state of the people and handles the eucharist with reverence and respect. As I continued to read it and pray through the words I felt I was participating in a tradition that I felt drawn to, although I didn’t completely understand it.

And the rest, as they say, is history. In fact the first public service I ever officiated at was BCP evening prayer, in the Church of Fools (interactive church). When I was a Pastoral Lay assistant the service I learned to preach in was a mid week BCP Holy Communion, and I was impressed at how well the Rector led it, as well as the way the congregation knew the words off by heart and meant every word. All in all for me the BCP is a large part of my spiritual journey, particularily into Anglicanism, although I understand the limitations of it and have a few liturgical and theological issues with it (namely the 39 articles). There are some unfortunate changes in word meaning, for example the indifference of God is now commonly replaced with the impartiality with God, because the meaning of the word indifference has changed somewhat. Despite all this however, I am still fond.

Probably about 50% of Anglican churches still have at least one BCP service a week (although it may be hidden at some ungodly hour on a sunday morning), and I realise this percentage will decrease as those who love it most will gradually lie down to rest. However I hope that just occasionally I’ll always be able to have some excuse to use some prehistoric liturgy.

I remember once being told the story of a man, let’s call him Bob, who had an extraordinary relationship with his maker, who absolutely hated someone else in his church (let’s say Charlie). Bob just couldn’t stand Charlie. One day God told Bob something really juicy about Charlie. God also said, and I quote “But if you tell him that you know, I’ll have to kill you”. Apparently God often threatened Bob with death, it seemed to be a running joke (Bob is in fact a Christian comedian, although I don’t know his real name).

God told Bob that he would have to learn to put aside his revulsion for his fellow brethren and learn to love him before he could tell him that he knew about this bit of juicy gossip. So that is what he did, and Bob helped Charlie to overcome this particular bit of secret sin (probably a minor tax dodge) and they all lived happily ever after.

Well I am in a similar situation. I’m Bob, except the bit of juicy gossip came from my eyes, not God, and I don’t exactly hate Charlie, although I could see it going that way. And it is something kind of important, and I should probably tell someone. Tough one really.

(slightly bizarre photo courtesy of http://www.churchsigngenerator.com
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