Trinity Week 2

Dear me! Time seems to be going very quickly, now that we're into the swing of classes and the rigours of our timetable. It seems that we don't have very much time free at all (except for the glories of Wednesday and Thursday - but even then, with the research for classes and all that, we end up very busy).

So the highlight of my week are definitely the weekends. Friday past, our lecturer let us end early, so before I was expecting to, I was able to head round the M50 and up the M1 back to Ulster! And it was first stop Belfast (yes, I know it is was away on past Dromore the other way, but it was important). There I was able to get into the various Christian bookshops and secondhand bookshops, to see about getting some of my books for the course, or just anything else that interested me.

Friday night was a bit of visiting - as Lesley has now moved into her own house in Kinallen, so I called in to see how she is getting on.

Then on Saturday it was a run over towards Bangor and a wander about while mum looked round the shops. Then I was in Cookstown in the evening to meet up with some friends who were very pleased, namely Stewart and Bryan, as they have been recommended by the Presbytery of Tyrone in the next stage of applications for ordinaed ministry. (PS - I hope this is ok me writing this, you two, and if not, tell me and I will remove it)

Sunday was a hectic day, being the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival in the Cathedral. And it was also 'Ordinands Sunday' as the two ordinands from the parish were preaching. Alan Barr did the morning service, and then I preached at the evening service. As usual, the text of the sermon will soon be available - it turned out to be a similar sermon to that of Dromara the week before, so I will publish a sort of hybrid version of the two.

The choir did two anthems, both by John Rutter, namely 'For the Beauty of the Earth' and 'A Gaelic Blessing', both of which seemed to turn out ok, although as I was singing, I can't really comment. Although from my vantage point of the Chancel during the evening service, they sounded good.

Then it was back to Dublin again, this time with the company of Alan, so we analysed the sermons and then discussed much more interesting things! So far this week in Dublin we have had lots of classes, and have now started on New Testament studies as well. We're looking at the Gospel of Mark.

One thing I'm quite pleased with is that so far I am managing to get on ok with both Hebrew and Greek. Although we're going to have to put a lot of time into it to try and remember all the vocab and grammar and stuff.

Anyways... that's my update for now. Will update again soon.

Oh - last night we had the House Meeting, when all the residents and staff come together to try and settle issues, or to make decisions for the community. One of the results of that meeting is that I am now the Respresentative for Proclamation Trust in the College. Proc Trust is the organisation that Stanley, and David and me went to in London during the summer. Hopefully I will be able to promote their work, and equip some of our students to preach the powerful Gospel of Christ more effectively.