Ok, so here goes. I have roughly half an hour before the evening service in chapel, in which to tell you all that I have been up to since last Monday, which was my last fuller posting.
Last Tuesday we had the pleasure of not having Greek in the afternoon as the tutor was in London, so I made the most of it and spent the afternoon wandering round the main shopping parts of the city centre, just looking in the shops and spending very little money!
then on Wednesday at the Communion service I was cantoring the Psalm - the way we did it was me plainsong chanting it, with the congregation singing a four-part antiphon after every second verse... Thankfully it seemed to go ok. Then after the reception and dinner, there was a seminar by Colin Corebridge, of CMSI, who was speaking on the church's mission to the post-modern world... Spike, as he is more commonly known was also the preacher at Communion - the best we've had so far this year.
Thursday was the day of just one class, which worked out well, as it gave me time to work on the sermon for Sunday in Magheralin (which will follow in due time, when I get it onto my flash drive for copying to here).
Thursday morning also made for an interesting time in chapel. The last time I read was a few weeks back, and it was Nehemiah 8. Now, within that wonderful chapter, there are two long lists of people's names which are virtually unpronounceable... and I struggled through them. On Thursday, the appointed reading was Nehemiah 9, and guess what... not only was it very long (and took me ages), there were two more wonderful lists of unpronounceables!!! Afterwards, the staff of the college were saying they think that the compiler of the rotas, none other than my good friend Adrian, actually has it in for me, cos my readings are always harder than anyone else's! So thank you very much Adrian!!!
We also had a 'new' version of the Lord's Prayer, where due to an unfortunate typo, the service sheet led us to pray 'Lead us into temptation'...
Then at the weekend, I was in Rostrevor, at the Kilbroney Centre, for the Reload Weekend. Reload is an event organised by the diocesan Youth Council, and has been going for about 6 years now? I've been at most of them (I think I missed the first one ever), and always enjoy them. This year we had a speaker who had travelled from Ipswich for it, none other than Magheralin's Martin Montgomery, who looked at the book of Esther, to see how it applies to our lives today.
[As an aside, did you know that in Ipswich, those young men who are called 'spides' or 'steeks' in Northern Ireland, are called 'Gary-boys'!!!]
On Saturday afternoon we had a very funny game of 'Hunt the Leader', except we were dressed as fantasy fiction characters, such as Aslan, Gandalf, Hagrid, Harry Potter, and myself as an Orc! The groups also filmed their own version of certain music videos - the best of which was the version of Coldplay's video for 'The Scientist', in which everything happens backwards.
Yesterday morning I was preaching at the family service in Dollingstown, and the BB&GFS Enrollment in Magheralin churches, and it seemed to go well. The churches are both friendly places, although I think Dollingstown was marginally better, simply because it was less formal, as they currently meet in a mobile building in the grounds of the Orange Hall, until their new building is opened on 10th December. My impression might have been boosted by the fact that I knew more of the people in Dollingstown as well.
I really enjoyed being in the parish, and working with Gareth again, seeing he had been our Curate in Dromore from 1998 - 2002. He definitely hasn't changed, and is as funny (or strange) as ever he was! But Gareth, I know you will be reading this, that is a good thing!
And that's really about all I have to talk about, apart from the bad sore throat I have had since last night... which made me sleep even less than normal! I'm now on various types of sweets and medication and a never-ending stream of tissues...
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