Anarchy in the UK(ulele)

I've just spent the evening with the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.  An outstanding evening's entertainment,

More here.  http://www.ukuleleorchestra.com/main/home.aspx

Here, have some more...

Questions Questions

On one of the forms for completion before my selection conference I am asked to talk about a book I have read that had a significant impression on me, and the reasons why it made an impression.

Hmmm.  Tricky.  I read a lot.  Fiction, non-fiction.  Doesn't matter.  I like reading.  So to pick an important one from all those titles could be taxing.  And you are thinking to yourself, what does my choice of book say about me to those who will read the form.  Tricky indeed.  I would imagine that some people will feel compelled to suggest the Bible, this being a ministry form and all.  Others may look to great literary works from history.  But today I realised what the most important book was.

"Thomas the Tank Engine" by Rev. W Awdry.

I don't know what the first book I ever read was, but I do remember going to the small library near where I lived and hunting down the Railway Series books by Rev Awdry.  I loved reading the stories of the engines, and looking at the pictures.  This was where my love of books started, with my parents taking me to the library.  The most important books for me are the ones that made reading accessible and enjoyable.  Without these early books, there's no way I could be where I am now, surrounded knee deep in books, trying to get my head around St Augustine.

Forgiveness

Over at Sunshine and Shadows, Danny talks about forgiveness.

I thought I was pretty easy going, generally forgiving sort of person.  But about three years ago, the demons came out.  I had a motorbike crash.  A bad one.  This happened.  If you want the full story, it's here on my old bike blog.   Mrs Gerbil had a few things to say as well

I had more than a few dark spells post crash.  At one point, in the day or so after the crash I was angry enough to wish the other driver had died.  In actual fact, she was lucky.  Had we hit her car about a foot further forward then the bike may have went right through her car, probably killing the three of us.

I am led to believe that the driver turned up at a local mechanic who does car sales on the side.  Alledgedly she said "how was I supposed to see them, they were wearing dark clothes?"  which is the wrong thing to say in front of a group of bike owning mechanics...  She didn't buy a car that day...

I found out later that the driver wasn't going to be prosecuted, as the Procurator Fiscal saw it as a matter for the insurance companies to sort out.  So you drive a few miles over the speed limit and get a £60 fine, but you nearly kill two people and you walk away scot free?  I wrote to express my displeasure at their decision...

I pretty much got over the dark spells when I got back on the road, but I can't go past that junction either in the car or on the bike without backing off the throttle.

I don't know, and I don't want to know who the other driver was.  In the unlikely event we ever meet, I'll probably say shit happens and leave it at that.  There's nothing any of us can do to change things.  It's behind us, something from our mutual past.  In the big scheme of things, it was nothing.  Why should I find forgiveness so hard when someone like Eric Lomax can forgive his captors?

I came to realise that I'm probably not the best example of forgiveness in action. There's a dark side of me deep down that I'm not sure I like.

Help Wanted Please

I'm looking for a quick favour please.  The reading for Sunday is Act 4:32-37, the  believers sharing their posessions. Does anyone know how well this went down in McCarthy era USA where anything that smelled of communism was forbidden?

I've found a cite for a church where the leaders refused to state that they weren't communists and were subsequently lost thair tax free status. 

This isn't going to be the centre of the sermon, more a musing.

Cheers.

I'm Christian, Unless You're Gay.

"Today’s post is not about homosexuality. It’s not about Christians. It’s not about religion. It’s not about politics. It’s about something else altogether. Something greater. Something simpler.
It’s about love.
It’s about kindness.
It’s about friendship"

These words taken from a blog post by by Dan Pearce.  I really encourage you click here to go over and read it. (opens in new window)  It's long, in places it may be uncomfortable, but I think he's hit the nail on the head about how we show love for one another.

There is a part of me woud like to publicly read Dan's post as a sermon on the theme of love.  

As the post goes on to show, if you take out gay, and replace it with someone developing an adiction or mental illness, it's amazing how their friends fall away.  And yes, I've  been guilty of this in the past myself.

Showing Christ's love isn't about tollerance for people that are in some way different to us.  Tollerance is pretty insulting and condescending.  Tollerance places conditions on love.  On the day that Christ showed his absolute love for us, right up to the end, this is when we need to show absolute, unconditional love.

Otherwise, we are missing the point.

Local Review Decision

Looks like I need to keep my diary clear for June. Quote "I am pleased to say that the decision of the Local Review panel is that you are ready to proceed to be further assessed at a Local Assessment Centre" More information will follow when I've actually read the reports.

I've got some time to kill before then, and I suppose I should keep my hand in. Will do pulpit supply in exchange for cake.

Update.....

The result of my local review...









is....








Still in the capable hands of the Royal Mail.


Waiting continues.