Five Down, None To Go!

The last exam has been completed, the pen has been set down, and I'm free!!! Well, for a few weeks anyway. Tonight we had the closing Communion service of the year, and then we were over at the Principal's house for dinner.

This year is especially tinged with sadness as it's the last one for the Principal, Adrian Empey. We presented him and June with several tokens of our affection, and wish them well for their retirement. Really, he just couldn't bear being in college without me, so he had to retire when I was leaving!

Surprisingly, I managed to fit all the stuff from my room into the car, so tomorrow's first task will be to unload the car and fit all the stuff somewhere. Then I have a free fortnight before my pre-ordination retreat, and my ordination. I'm hoping for lots of relaxation and reading, oh, and probably some photography as well!

Four Down, One To Go!

I'm now into what may be my last night's sleep in Dublin, depending on how my packing goes tonight. Today's exam was Old Testament - two questions on Prophecy, and two questions on the theology of the Old Testament. All done and dusted. Fair enough paper, and could answer the requisite number of questions.

Now just New Testament left, which is tomorrow afternoon. At 5pm you may just be able to hear the shout of 'FREEDOM' ringing out from the Sports Hall in Trinity! Then it's back to college for the last Communion service of the year, and then the farewell bash at the Principal's house.

My task now is to work out how to fit all the stuff into my car - it's a bit like a jigsaw puzzle with possibly too many pieces... the book case is in now, so the rest needs to be fitted in around it. Here goes...

Three Down, Two To Go

I'm now more than halfway through the exams! Ethics was this morning, and it has now been completed! This was the shortest exam, with just two hours to answer three questions. A bit tighter than the others, but I managed to write about the three case studies on the paper, looking at matters of birth, life and death. The next one is on Wednesday, and then the final paper on Thursday!

Two Down, Three To Go!

Second exam done this morning - Anglicanism, so I've just three exams to go now and I'll be finished! This morning's paper was in three sections - A was on Anglican formularies and theologians; B was on the Lambeth Conference and global Anglicanism; C was on the Church of Ireland's ecumenical activity. Two questions from A, and one each from the others.

Well, I wrote four answers, so we'll see how we go. My next one is Friday, but in the meantime, be praying for Lyns who has her final oral in the morning.

One down, Four to go...

First exam was this morning. Ecclesiology and Cosmology. Four questions answered. Some had been well prepared, others were less well prepared, but with a fair idea of where I was going on them. With not being used to writing for three hours straight, my hand is a tad sore now, but I'm sure it'll be fine.

Day off tomorrow, then Anglicanism on Wednesday morning. This evening I think I shall relax and unwind after a hard day, then do a bit of last minute recap tomorrow.

Interviews, Check! Essays, Check!

College life at the minute seems like one big checklist of things to be completed, all by last Tuesday, if you please. Last night, I had my final interview of the Curacy List, and it seemed to go quite well. We'll see next Thursday when the preferences are brought together and the promises of offers are made.

Tonight I managed to get the final essay of the first semester finished off. Yes, I know that we're already into the second semester, but our Anglicanism essay had a nice deadline of this Friday coming. So that's the first batch of essays done.

Looking ahead, the next items on the checklist are finding out what parishes we'll be working in (Thursday week), five more essays (so far three for March and two for after the Easter holidays in April), and the Major Integrated Project - more commonly known around here as the dissertation. It's due in for the 31st March, all nicely bound and presented, but the week before a certain crowd of ordinands will be touring Pisa and Florence, so we'll need to have them finished before we jet off.

And that will be all the work needed for college, except for the 'dreaded E word' - exams. But we'll not worry about them just yet. Sure they're ages away!

Back to Porridge

I'm back in Dublin once again, and the regular routine begins tomorrow, with a 9 o'clock lecture in Trinity. Ouch! I've said this before, but where did those four weeks of holidays go?

Was up early this morning taking Lynsey back to Aldergrove for her flight to Edinburgh, then visited a church on the curacy list. This afternoon I took mum and dad to a funeral at mum's home church - while they were at it I went for a wee drive and then sat reading - finished off Alistair McGrath's response to Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion, which is appropriately titled The Dawkins Delusion.

The journey down to Dublin was rough enough - and not just because of the company (only joking Robert!). There was heavy rain the whole way from Banbridge to south of the Boyne, but it isn't too bad here.

So where do we go from here? Tomorrow starts the Hillary Term (or is it Hilary Term?), which runs until the first week of March and our next holidays. All in all, there are just thirteen weeks of term time left in college (with three weeks of holiday in the middle), three weeks revision, and two weeks exams, and I will be finished. Scary when you put it like that!

Most of the formal interviews on the Curacy List are next week, and then D-Day is the 31st January. So, as ever, we need your prayers! Continue to pray for us students and the rectors as we seek to discern God's call for where we should be labouring in the next three years. And pray that we will keep at the studies, with a 10,000 word dissertation due for the end of March and about 5 or 6 essays also to be written. I can see that it would be so easy to get distracted by curacies and weddings and jobs and houses and wiis and you name it!

Anyways, time for another bowl of that porridge!

Week One Done

It's now one week since Lyns went off to Romania, bringing hotness for her, and loneliness for me! Hotness, because the temperature is about 45 some days, and goes down to mid 30's in the night times. Yet God is good, and Lyns is coping so far with the heat. I'm not looking forward to the warmth though - if you remember my experiences of France last year, the heat was not pleasant for me!

The other big bit of good news at present was that she passed her exams! So the Finals have been conquered! Hurray! We found out yesterday. In what seems like a bit of cruelty, the university hospital put up a 'pass list' on the noticeboard in the hospital, so if you don't pass, your name isn't on the board. But it's more cruel, because the students are all away on their medical electives in far-flung corners of the world. Mrs Kee checked the board for Lyns, and saw her name!

So with the first week finished for Lyns, it means that in three weeks time I will be arriving in Romania too - my first overseas mission trip. God is good, all the time!

Results

Just heard that I got a P1 for this year. In Trinity, that's between 60 and 69. I'm well relieved.

Freedom!

As we read Scripture, we constantly encounter freedom, or versions of it. In the Garden of Eden, the serpent tempted Adam and Eve with the power to be like God - to have freedom to choose. Yet rather than liberty, they found they were held in bondage by sin, and separated from God. Later we find the people of Israel struggling as slaves in Egypt. The message of God through Moses was freedom. The Passover brought Israel out of the land, and on the road to the Promised Land. They were free!

I’m sensing something of their excitement at being free tonight. The exams have finished, at least for another year. The hard work has been done, the summer lies open before me for relaxation. It’s nice knowing you don’t have to go over those notes again, trying to cram information into your head. Now I can look forward to Summer Madness and my Romania mission trip.

Have you known that sense of liberation that Jesus offers in the gospel? We don’t have to be in bondage to our sins any more - Jesus has borne the burden of them. He offers us freedom and release. The choice is yours.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. - Luke 4:18-19

---------- originally posted at Dromore Cathedral's website----------

Six down, none to go!

It is with great joy that I can report that my exams are finished! The last one was this morning - Church History, and it seemed to go all right. Church History in second year is a composite course, made up of several different sections. Section A is the Church of Ireland from 1660 to 1800; Section B (in teaching chronology) is the Church of Ireland from 1800 to 1870; and Section C is the Roman Catholic experience in the 19th century.

With the three hour paper, there are four questions to be done. We had to answer one question from each section, then an extra one from the section of our choice. Surprisingly, my extra question was from the Catholic section, which I hadn't greatly revised, but could remember a good bit about. (One of the questions I had planned to do in another section didn't come up as I had hoped).

So that's it. Second year done and dusted - just the exam results to get now. But I'm not homeward bound just yet. There are still some things to attend to tomorrow. First off is my viva voce. Roughly forty minutes talking about my pastoral experiences this year, and combining the whole course together. Then later in the day we have the closing Eucharist of the year, then dinner at the Principal's. There'll be lots of other stuff to do as well - packing up what I'm taking home, and moving up what I'm leaving in college. Room 38 and the final year, here I come!

Five down, one to go!

After the break provided by the weekend, it was back into the exams this morning. Today's excitement was Old Testament - perhaps the paper I feared the most. To my relief, the topics revised came up in ways that could be answered, although this time I completely answered three questions before doing the essay plan and answer for the last one, as my mind did a bit of a blank at the start. The patriarchal traditions came to me in enough time to answer the question. We're now in the position of being almost finished - just one exam left, tomorrow morning, and then a viva voce (oral) on Thursday morning. To quote Carmen, Happylujah!

Four down, two to go!

We're making good progress now, with this first week of exams completed. Two thirds of the way through now. Today's exam was Christology and Hermeneutics, and I was able to write on the themes I had revised. Now I'm home again for the weekend, so a serious bit of relaxation is needed after all these early starts!

The exam schedule means that I've been getting up at 7am and leaving college by 7.45 to get into the city centre on the Luas. We then get breakfast in the city (normally Bewley's on Grafton Street) before being at the exam halls by 9am. By choice I would only be rising at about 9am! Then thinking solidly for three hours, and writing for most of that time is tough on my wee wrist! So a chilled out weekend is planned in Dromore before returning to Dublin for the next exam on Tuesday morning.

Halfway through!

It is with joy that I can say that I'm now halfway through this period of exams. Today's effort was Ethics, in the Regent House at Trinity - the very front building at the main gates. See the big huge window over the main door? That's where our exam was. With all the tourists walking underneath us, and all the buses and traffic going past. Here:

The exam was fine. The first part was two case studies (out of a choice of four), where we had to identify the ethical issues involved, and then advise the people concerned. One that I did was where the health care providers wanted to place a 'Do Not Resuscitate' order on an 82 year old man because of failed health, lots of things wrong with him, and he was unable to communicate. His family wanted to keep him alive, believing that God could heal him. Discuss.

The second that I looked at was a Hindu termination case - seeking to apply Hindu bioethics to the situation concerned. Interesting stuff!

Given this grounding in medical ethics (on a ministry course?), I'll be able to discuss the big thorny ethical issues with Lynsey... won't that be romantic?!

The second section of the exam were more straightforward essays - I chose to do the ones looking at changes in society and how they affect ethical beliefs; and on the differences between Christian and secular ethics.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

As a bit of a wind down, I ended up going to Dundrum cinema straight after lunch to see 'Pirates of the Caribbean' 3. While the others weren't fussed, I thought it was an ok film. Similar funny moments to the previous films, but lots of complications. Using the rules of a trilogy from Scream 3, it appears that this is indeed a trilogy film. But having said that, they may have opened the way up for a fourth film in the series... who's to say.

Now it's back to the study for the next exam, now just 13 and a half hours away. Christology and Hermeneutics. Two questions from each. Then it will be home for the weekend and some relaxation!

Two down, four to go!

The second exam has been finished! Today's exam was New Testament, we had to answer four questions. I think I had two strong questions that were well done, and two questions that I could answer. But we'll see how the results go!

Tomorrow then, I have a bit of a break as we have no exam, but then Thursday and Friday mornings are go. So I might take a journey away to Bray or Dun Laoghire or somewhere nice for a walk. Hope the weather is good!

One down, five to go!

The first exam has been done, and I have lived to tell the tale. This morning it was an early start (after not a great night's sleep - music, and pillow wrestling and regular wakings up) and down into Dublin for the Soteriology exam. This was our two hour exam, with three questions to be answered. I think two were quite good, and the other was fine.

I'm not used to such sustained writing - afterwards my head hurt a bit and my hand was sore, so I took an easy afternoon. Had a lie down for a while, did some reading, then went for a walk.

Our New Testament exam is tomorrow afternoon, so I'll hopefully get a bit of a lie in. Four questions in three hours. Bring it on!

All work and no play...

Would drive me insane! I know that the impression from my blogging is that I'm doing no revision at all, but that is far from the case. Today I managed to get my Hermeneutics revision done - so just some Old Testament and then Ethics to finish off now.

To prevent us from going mad, Robert and myself went off to Dundrum this afternoon to the cinema. It's so handy to have the centre and cinema very close. Means we have a place of escape! With the jokes and criticisms from the other students, we went to see Mr Bean's Holiday. Yes, it was at 4.20pm in the afternoon. Yes, we were the only non-child-accompanied adults, but we didn't care!

The film is quite funny, although I think the funniest bits had already been shown in the trailers. The best bit of the Bean film was that we didn't have to think at all, or keep up with a complicated plot. We just had to laugh! When your head is full to bursting of stuff being stored up for exams, it's good to just relax and not think for a while.

Tomorrow will be another day of revision. But tonight will be a time of relaxation!

Exam nearness

This time next week, the first exam will have been done. I'll be into the swing of writing non-stop for two or three hours. The first one will be forgotten almost immediately as the next one comes the following day. Then the rest will come speeding through.

But for now, I revise and relax. Managed to get five topics covered today, which was good. Then this afternoon walked over to Nutgrove Shopping Centre as the ink on my printer was low. Nice sunny day. A day for ice cream as we walked back. And the rain came on as we were in the centre. Amazingly it stopped as we started walking back; and started raining again when we got back. So a dry walk back - except for when Robert hit a tree and the leaves yielded the water lying on them!

Soon it will be time for a hot chocolate - our way of relaxing and socialising in college. The problems of the church and world are resolved over our cup of hot chocolate. And good times are had.

Exam 2

So there we are... Old Testament Essay has been done and dusted. Once again, one of the topics I ended up doing, I hadn't quite revised properly, but I was able to answer for questions in the exam! And that's all that counts, really. I'll not include the questions this time, as they were more on methods of criticism, rather than the Old Testament.

So I'm home again, and able to relax a wee bit in the good weather for a bit of an extended weekend... although, of course, Monday afternoon's liturgy exam looms on the horizon. But before then, we have the excitement of Jordan's 21st celerations in Belfast on Saturday night, and then I'm leading the services in Dollingstown, Magheralin and Dromore on Sunday...

Systematics Exam!

And so the first exam is over and done. Now, most of you who read my blog will know my strong dislike of all things 'morning.' Yet the first exam (and two others), are at 9.30am, in Trinity College, slap bang in the centre of Dublin. So to be in for the early start, it was an even earlier start at CITC. To allow for random Luas stoppages, or traffic, or whatever, we decided we would leave at 7.30am - so that, if things went well we would be in Dublin for about 8am, and have some time to get breakfast and have a read over stuff, and get to the hall in good time.

And so it was that my alarm went off at 6.45am. As with any normal night, I had wakened a few times through the night, but managed to drag myself out of bed and met the others at the Student Door to head off. There wasn't actually much traffic about, and we managed to get to St Stephen's Green on the Luas for just about 8am.

The exam itself wasn't too bad, and out of the twelve questions on the paper, I found four that I could do. The ones I chose were: What are the problems with experience as the primary source for Christianity? Why did local theologies develop and what difference have they made to the practice of theology? Can the doctrine of the Trinity be found in the New Testament? Why is the resurrection of Jesus important for the Christian hope? - Answers on the back of a postcard, or in a comment box!

In order to forget about it a bit, and relax, I headed off in the car to Dun Laoghire. Most people only know it as the place to go to get on the boat for Wales, but it's actually a nice wee village as well, with a good pier and coastal walk to enjoy. It's one of my 'secret' getaway places, when I can escape from college for an hour or two. And it wasn't raining too hard, but as I type now it is raining soooooo hard!!!! Glad I'm inside again!

So the next exam is Old Testament, on Thursday morning, again at 9.30am. No doubt I'll talk about it in due time...