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Keswick. Good week. Weather typically Keswick. Stayed in the most amazing flat, looked like it had been completely refurbished just before we arrived, all new and shiny; I don’t even know how to operate a microwave, let alone a dishwasher as well. Thank you Keswick ministries for your “missionary hospitality fund”. Interesting teaching threads on Genesis, Isaiah, and working with marginalised people. Need to go back and re-read my notes next. Greatly appreciated the well stocked creche, complete with live link-up to the teaching; shame it wasn’t open for more of the sessions, difficult to see why it couldn’t have been. Made the most of the opportunities for walking; pottered around Dodd on an unusually sunny afternoon and spotted ospreys and buzzards, enjoyed some airy views from Catbells ridge on the other sunny afternoon, trudged around Derwent water in the rain, bit of a plod but hey I’ve done it now, and the last afternoon was Skiddaw or bust. Excessive wind and rain meant that no-one else wanted to come, so I took Joni, he doesn’t object (yet), he even seemed to enjoy spotting the sheep when they emerged from the low cloud which was pretty much all we saw above the 500 metre mark. Sometimes I need to do these things to prove to myself that I’m still the person I thought I was. We shared the week with some fantastic people, longstanding friends of Martin who I didn’t really know that well before; I’m risking embarrassing you guys, but I don’t think you realise quite how much I have appreciated having this time with you. Little gifts from God found in unexpected places.

This week I just bought my first thing on ebay, and set up a pay-pal account. Does that mean I’m in the 21st century now, or do I have to set up a facebook account… oh please don’t make me have to join facebook.
Yesterday we went to see some wonderful people near Dartford. We even volunteered to drive round the M25 and queue for the Dartford crossing on a weekday because we really wanted to see them. Some people really inspire us, not flashy types, just quietly getting on with walking the talk in the place where God has put them. And they have Battenberg cake.

Tomorrow we’re off to Keswick convention for a week. I’m hoping for good teaching and some nice weather to climb hills. I’d like to climb Skiddaw with Joni on my back, and see the ospreys at Dodds Wood.

I’m working on writing something about the whole Gafcon / homosexual debate thing. It’s disturbing me and I probably need to write about it in order to think about it.

Meanwhile here’s a few gems from the last couple of weeks…
Bumped into a kid who I’d met at a school Christian union meeting. Greets me warmly. Her friend asks “who’s that?” She replies “Oh she came to that thing at school, you know, the one where you get food and that…”

Old man up the road from us, not sure what to do with his cardboard waste… “I think I’ll just put it in with the re-circulating”

At a church service, person leading worship; “this is an internal notice for Ann…. How great the father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure… no everyone it’s not a message from the Lord, I’ve just forgotten to write the words out”

“Don’t let your husband’s mind wander; it’s too small to be allowed out on its own”

Seen on a postcard “Cracked people are valuable because they let the light through”

Have a good week everyone

Question; What do Tony Blair, US tourists, and mission leaders have in common?Answer; “It’s Tuesday, must be Holland”.

It’s been a bit like that the last week or so. Last Sunday we were in South Darenth, followed by Welwyn. Monday we were in London. Tuesday we were at a school in Baldock, and then Potters Bar. Wednesday we were at a school in Letchworth, and then Cambridge. Thursday we were in Bristol. Friday we were in Oxford. Saturday we were in Lewes. Sunday we were taking part in the service in Baldock, and then the service in Bygrave, followed by going to Reading.

On Saturday, someone whose job-title means that he jolly well ought to know better, asked us “How is your holiday going?” Naturally we forgave him…. right after I’d dumped my pasta and sauce over his head… not really, just thought about it… Jesus says that amounts to the same thing.

Friends who we were at college with tend to have one or two big churches who provide most or all of their support, so homeleave basically involves popping in to say thank you very much, couple of weeks, job done. While part of me is envious of not spending however many hours on the M25, I also very much value the relationships that we have with our supporters. We put effort into them, we find them rich and meaningful, and we like to hope that we have a role in peoples’ lives as they have in ours.

Meanwhile, I’m also glad that this week has some blank spaces in it. That place-to-place thing is good for a few days, but it wouldn’t be my long-term choice for a life-style. Which I guess is one of many reasons why I hope never to be Tony Blair, or a US tourist, or in mission leadership.

“It is our hope that this Statement on the Global Anglican Future will be received with comfort and joy by many Anglicans around the world who have been distressed about the direction of the Communion. We believe the Anglican Communion should and will be reformed around the biblical gospel and mandate to go into all the world and present Christ to the nations.”
Gafcon Final Statement can be found in its entirety on www.gafcon.org

Rather a long way from being comforted and joyful, I sincerely hope that my continued employment never becomes conditional upon my signing this document or any other like it. Nor do I give permission for anyone else to sign it on my behalf. Dole office next week?

This is the cleverest cartoon I’ve seen in a long time, It’s had me thinking for a week about sheep and goats, and how a “non-homogenous sheep” might find themselves less welcome than a “goat” in some places. The original and a whole lot more can be found on asbojesus.wordpress.com which is a blog belonging to a Jon Birch and well worth a visit. His work reminds me of Adrian Plass in cartoon form, perhaps sailing a bit closer to the wind than AP, but often dealing with the same sort of issues from a similar perspective.

The global conference of influential evangelical anglicans is about to get under way in Jerusalem. Under the acronym of GAFCON, it ought to be good for a few jokes, but I haven’t heard any yet. I haven’t seen the agenda, but I’m confidently predicting that it will contain an item or two on homosexuality, the most high-profile issue currently facing the global anglican church. Chatting with a friend, himself a studious evangelical, I expressed surprise both that the anglican church has managed to hold itself together for so long, and then that the issue of homosexuality looks to be the one that finally rends it asunder. He said “it’s an authority of scripture issue”. Other issues, such as ethical decisions on whose regimes we endorse with our spending power, loving ones enemies, the rights of refugees, and responding to the needs of the alien, the orphan and the widow, apparently aren’t authority of scripture issues, otherwise presumably our learned colleagues would have chosen to hold their conference in an alternative location.

This is a sweet little gimmick (thanks Tia…). If you click on the graphic you can take a little quiz to find out what time you are. Apparently I’m 10.02… Funnily that’s probably quite accurate, it’s a time of day I like… late enough to be awake, and early enough still to have lots of day to have fun with.

We’ve been on the road the last few days, enjoyed staying with Viv, and visiting friends in Colchester, Mersea, Cranham, Felixstowe and Cambridge. The weather was fantastic, so we managed four walks in four days in between speaking at meetings. I saw my first cuckoo ever; I was listening to a cuckoo calling in a small clump of trees, when a cuckoo-sized, cuckoo-shaped bird flew out; and it still took the mighty brain cell five minutes to figure out what it was. Oh well. Heybridge Basin (temporary residence of said cuckoo) is a truly superb place for a walk; plethora of birdlife, and the ice-cream in the tea-shop was pretty good too.

One thing that Argentina and the UK have in common is that both countries used to have a world-class education system.
“Schooling” (I stop short of describing it as education) in Argentina has largely been reduced to a series of facts and procedures to be memorised and reproduced in response to the corresponding question, which is itself previously memorised by the student; i.e. really rather similar to the SATS system in the UK.

Argentina is different to the UK in that internal auditing reveals that state schools have both the highest and the lowest results, with the private schools occupying a nicely-dressed block of mediocrity in the middle. This seems rather strange to me as an English person, but it was confirmed by a friend who teaches at an expensive private school in Argentina, who explains that many parents appear to prefer a “creche service matching their social class” as a priority over educational content.

In the few weeks that we have been back in the UK, we have witnessed something of a genteel back-lash over the SATS tests. The non-stampede has been led by the Head Teachers Association, followed up by a less than complimentary report from a few education advisors. What I find most surprising is that parents are virtually nowhere to be seen; they’re certainly not leading the revolt, and they’re not even coming out to support the efforts of the head-teachers et al. When parents are prepared to move house, lie about their address, send kiddo to live with Auntie Jemima, give sizeable “donations”, or change their religion to secure those elusive places in a prime school for six years, it seems very odd indeed that the same parents apparently don’t mind very much if two of those six years are frankly wasted.

Could it be that the SATS have survived this long because they actually hook into some parents’ need for competition between themselves? Witness a place where I used to shop for books. Today in a space previously housing “books of fun activities for kids”, I find racks of “books of exam papers, poorly disguised as fun activities for kids”. Who buys them? I wonder. A head teacher friend confirmed “Oh the parents love SATS, it’s all about your child getting a higher score than someone else’s child”. My sister came across a magazine article on “packed lunches to help your child get ahead”. Among the recipes for alfalfa and apricot on ciabatta, the article included the advice that although a parent might relapse and include the odd chocolate bar, this should not be done on days when child goes to play at friends’ houses after school, lest lax parent be looked down upon by parents of friends. Key learning outcomes:
Image is everything
Lie if it helps to preserve image
Never give anyone a chance to accept you as you are
The old adage said that “education is wasted on the young”. I suspect the real issue may not be entirely the fault of the young.