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WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING?
CHURCH and POLITICS
I’ve done a a lot of church this month. I baptised one baby and did a couple of pre-baptism visits, using material from my “Five Steps to Faith”. I assisted Bishop Graham in a service where ten adults were baptised by immersion and was chaplain to another bishop at the patronal festival service at St James. I also led communion services at St Philip’s Earls Court, St Mary Abbotts in Kensington, and St James and St Clements, North Kensington. I am taking a funeral at St James in 1st August. Two days before that I went to the funeral of Yvette Campbell, whom I sponsored as a Pastoral Auxiliary while I was at Hackbridge; and I will shortly take the funeral of Ruth Lock whom I knew at St Jude’s Earls Court in 1976! I also went to the AGM of the Kensington Council of Churches and to HTB Queens Gate’s Connect Group and the HTB party for Connect Group leaders.
I have also been doing my LibDem thing, going to the Stop Brexit march on Saturday 20th and to the announcement of Jo Swinton as LibDem leader on 22nd – and posting about it, with the expected angry comments back!
No wonder I did not get much writing done!
WRITING
I continue with my survey of the 21st century, and worked on video games in the V&A – a fantastic resource. I need to get to grips with AI, and I have just started the religion section, New Atheism, mindfulness et al.
I had thought that when I had done this, I would lay aside ‘What Good News?’ while I concentrated on the parish history of Hackbridge and Beddington Corner. However, I think I am on a bit of a roll, and I am minded to carry on to the second half of the book, looking at two major areas. First, those parts of the Christian tradition that have lost all resonance with modern society; the planned chapters are: The End of the End; the History of Hell; and the Myth of Heaven. Second, there are those parts which are our forgotten treasure, which can connect to our culture and could evoke a response, “that makes sense”: the Natural History of Religion, a Multi-faith Model of God; the Real Jesus; and the missing ‘C’ – Contemplation.
I was thinking that the book cover could read:
What Good News?
Being Credible in a Post-Modern World
or Does the Church have a Future?
Chris Day, my publisher, thinks the top line is weak and doesn’t give a clear message. What do you think? Do you have any suggestions? Do email me!
With all that was going on I decided my brain needed a break. So I went off for two nights to a Quaker retreat house near Lingfield, Surrey, nice and quiet. I took the opportunity to proof-read my revised version of “The Book of Job”. No distractions, ideal.
POSTS & TWEETS
The most significant happening though was some social media training I received from Kizzie (Social Fireworks) in the National Gallery tea room on 23rd July. I now have serious plans to start a community group on Facebook for proper discussions on social media. It will be called “spiritual exploring”. Watch this space!
FILMS and JAPAN
Linda and I saw three films this month: ‘Chambermaid’ (Don’t bother), ‘Yesterday’, a charming feel-good movie about a young man who has a traffic accident; when he comes round, he is the only person to remember the Beatles and he becomes a superstar; a fun film from Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle. The outstanding film was ‘Never Look Away’ (“Werk ohne Autor’ in German). It follows the life of a German artist from his childhood in Nazi Germany, through being an adult in communist East Germany, to his move to the West and a whole new mind-set. And he has a truly evil and manipulative father-in-law. Completely engrossing. When we came out, Linda was astonished to learn that we had just watched a film of over 3 hours! A very truthful film.
The Proms have started – my thing rather than Linda’s. I stood for 2.5 hours for Haydn’s “Creation” – marvellous. 211 singers, with the conductor playing a harpsichord as the continuo. The first 10 minutes are marvellous, a depiction of chaos leading to “And there was light!” Do listen to it on youtube. I challenge anyone not to smile!
Japan has been a major theme for us this month. We went to the Hyper Japan exhibition at Olympia, very interesting, and spent an evening talking to Josh from HTB Queens Gate (where I worship) who is a real enthusiast about Japan. We are going there in October – Linda’s Christmas present to me and Peter. We are trying to learn the Japanese alphabet using flash cards, and Linda is doing really well, practising the various ways of saying “good morning”, “ohayou” (informal) and “ohayou gozaimas“ (formal) etc.
WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN?
Here are some dates for your diaries. All the meetings start at 7 pm. If you have any queries, do drop me an email.
Monday 12/8 St Cuthbert’s Talk on Exploring the Psalms
Monday 9/9 St Cuthbert’s Talk on Can we trust the Old Testament as history?
Monday 23/9 Open meeting about the trip to Israel in March 2020
Monday 11/11 ‘The Book of Job’ performed by the Earls Courtiers with organ music for the interludes. Also I will launch the revised edition of my ‘Job’, to include a version which can be used in Bible study groups.
TRIP TO ISRAEL 16th – 27th March 2020
A reminder of what the trip to Israel will consist of:
visit the splendid new Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv;
Spend three nights in Nazareth, exploring Galilee and experiencing life in a 1st century village;
Travel through the West Bank ending with two nights in Bethlehem and a trip to Masada;
have five nights in Jerusalem including a walk from the Mount of Olives to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre plus a day visiting the splendid Israel Museum (archaeology, history, art).