Good luck with the job, Geth.

My brother Gethin has been out in the States this Summer working on one of the camps for kids they have. While he's been in the land of the free and the home of the brave he's been offered a job being involved in some way in the organising of next Summers camps. He's undecided about taking it as far as i know, one thing i do know however, is that should he go for it he'll need to get a more permanent visa. This means that the American home office will want to be checking him out fairly thoroughly, including perhaps stumbling across this little piece of wonder-web! I thought two things when i realised this:

First: i could make it difficult for him to get his visa depending on what i decide to type here. I thought i'd start relatively tamely, for instance - declaring my immense love and favour of hyper critical american comic, satirist and protestor Bill Hicks.

Second: If the American home office do decide to check out Gethin's background and somehow find their way here, i could leave them a personal message!

If you have any thoughts on how i could mischievously complicate his visa, or have an idea for a message for the government o' USA leave a comment.

Gethin should perhaps consider getting in touch with me soon, all i want is a text or a phone call and look at the lengths he's made me go to.

It's not the winning...

Bloody Tottenham! This Saturday gone has not been a great one for me, WBCFC have played their first game of the season and we lost 3-2. That is bearable - no, bearable is the wrong word, familiar is what it is. (The only positive i can take from the game is that my goal tally is now three goals from the last two games, that's not bad.) From there i went to find somewhere showing the spurs V gooner *expletive, deleted* game, it wasn't being shown on sky, possibly just aswell since all Tottenham did was toss away a 1-0 lead to lose 3-1 - at home no less! This news was then closely followed by Wales getting spanked, and i don't mean one of those pleasant spankings, by the austrailians in the Rugby. It's been a while since three of my teams have all been beaten in the matter of a couple of hours, and i'm still smarting from it - again, not in a pleasant way.

What denomination would Jesus be?

This post needs putting in context, for that you'll need to check out Glen's post on the question of 'what's becoming of our denominations?'. I would continue to leave my comments there but for two reasons: 1. i think this takes the discussion down a slightly different thread to that which Glen intended and 2. i'm not interested in smearing my ignorance all over his blog.

What follows reflects part of my thoughts on the discussion and also shows me up for the bad Baptist i am:

Having been raised as part of a generation, and in a context, where what counts most is 'the individual in the right now', (and that having had a greater impact on my identity than the concept of 'Baptist') i feel massively disconnected from the past. This leads to a hunger to reconnect and find something of real meaning and significance. However, to attempt to do that under the guise of a specific tradition, brand or label of Christianity just seems a bit unsatisfying and disingenuous. My disconnection puts me in a sort of catch-22, it means that while i do want to rediscover stuff, none of it feels like 'my story'; not the baptist story or any other denominational story. It's not that i don't realise the massive value in those stories, i just don't feel that i own them in any way.

I do feel enormously bound to Christ, but the terms of discussion used in Glen's post, and in the comments, make me feel like that's not enough, like i need a specific denominational framework to hang it all on. My story, probably, is that of a 'humanist for Jesus', or a 'secularist for Jesus', again though, this has no depth whatsoever (since i just invented it), and so i swim around dissatisfied and whiny, adrift from the past, certainly from anything pre-1950, wondering if i'm alone in this, or is it a symptom of my post-modernal state?

Have i missed a point somewhere? Does this match or completely juxtapose your experience? Anyone fancy throwing me a line?

For the child/geek in you...

I took a 'what superhero are you?' quiz; i figure i only came out as The Flash because Jesus can't have been on the list.

Your results:
You are The Flash

The Flash 85% Robin 75% Hulk 65% Spider-Man 60% Superman 45% Catwoman 45% Iron Man 45% Wonder Woman 40% Green Lantern 40% Batman 35% Supergirl 35%

Fast, athletic and flirtatious.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Year's Gone By.

Aaaaaahhhhh, I am beginning to feel that i can now look back on this year that's past, my first of four full-time, training as a minister. I've had my end of year review and this very morning recieved the final set of marks i've been waiting for. There are a heap of things i could talk about, but i'm just going to mention a couple.


First - my marks.
I'm really quite pleased with how i've done, i'm now the proud owner of credits!!! Whilst i don't really know what that means i do know that it means far more than any academic possesion i've had before. Until now the best i've had has been 4 'C' grade GCSE's, (and we all know they give those out in cereal boxes) maths, english language, geography and drama. Going into this year i had two major anxieties and my academic ability (or more specifically, my academic discipline) was one of them, i'm therefore thrilled to have written stuff and have clever people read it, and for them to think it's ok. (My second major anxiety is far too complex to start talking about here.)


Second - books.
There have been three books which i've enjoyed more than others this year and which, no doubt, will prove to have been key points along my way.

1. How (not) to speak of God, by Peter Rollins. Whilst i've taken part in some Pete Rollins bashing on kez's blog, i still think this book is brilliant in the way it addresses questions of orthodoxy, heresy and the depth to which we think we know and understand God.

2. The Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne. This book's point is simple: God is with the poor, God loves the poor, if we love God and want to know God, we need to love the poor and be with the poor, otherwise our faith is nonsense. Read it and be refreshed that someone is blazing a trail out of mediocre, bland Christianity. Read it and be deeply upset that it might require you to follow on.

3. Original Blessing, by Matthew Fox. Of the three books here, this is the only one from any of the reading lists this year. It argues that God is primarily about affirming life and humanity, rather than condeming it. It's title is an obvious play on 'original sin', and while it's not attempting to deny the fall, it does attempt to redress the balance between a Christianity which is sin obsessed and one which is life obsessed.


Incidentally, the picture is of the college grounds, the quad. I'm particularly enjoying the way the pink of the blossom works with the pink of this page!