Le Weekend

Tired tonight after the church youth weekend in the Crosspoint Centre in Dundrum. A great weekend with about twenty young people and leaders sitting under God's word being taught by Trevor Kane from 2 Timothy. The craic was mighty and a great time was had by all. Yesterday was spent in Castlewellan Forest Park with some orienteering and raft-building. I was the photographer!

Not much sleep was had - not the fault of the young people, but because there was a lot of talking, sleep talking and snoring in our room... No names to save any embarrassment! It'll be nice to be in my own bed again and get a good sleep.

The blog has been light on entries recently so hopefully we'll be more regular again in the coming weeks as we approach Easter.

For now, it's sleep time!

Smyth and Jones Weekend

St Elizabeth's seems to be having a Smyth and Jones weekend, with two visiting speakers. This morning, we had our termly Men's Breakfast over in Wolfe's at the Dundonald Omniplex. Ulster Fries all round, apart from the veggies! Sharing with us was Adam Smyth from the BBC, a member of Bloomfield Presbyterian. Speaking from Hebrews 12, Adam challenged us on what holds us back from running the race, and on sharing the gospel and taking the opportunities we are granted.

Tomorrow morning, it's the turn of Adam Jones from IFES (International Fellowship of Evangelical Students), visiting the morning service to preach God's word as well as highlight the work among students. While we're not a student church by any means, we do have some students. We'll also hear from them about some of the student-led evangelism at the University of Ulster at Jordanstown.

And as if all that wasn't enough, we also had a Church Table Quiz last night. Great nights craic over 14 rounds.

We'll get back to regular blogging this week as things have been neglected somewhat this past week. That's all for now!

Weekending

No updates over the weekend, as we had our Church Weekend down in the Glenada Centre in Newcastle. A great weekend, which will long be remembered. Our speaker was Shaun Atkins, Chaplain of The Bedford School, who took us through 1 Samuel 17, looking at David, Goliath and Christ.

Poor exegesis and application in Sunday Schools and sermons normally places the reader as David, facing your giants, and knowing that you'll overcome them through five smooth stones (which, depending on the preacher's ingenuity, will be faith, Bible reading, prayer, church attendance and whatever...). If the Old Testament (indeed the whole of Scripture) is about Jesus - not us - then we shouldn't be cast as David; we're more likely among the Israelite army cowering afraid.

David is a type of Jesus, pointing forward to the work of Christ in taking on the enemy of God's people - our great enemy, death. Jesus has won the great victory, through the unexpected success of the cross. We can then share in the victory of our great king, the Lord's anointed chosen ruler.

The weekend gave us great teaching, and a good re-introduction to 1 Samuel, but there was much more than that. The value of the weekend is the time spent with brothers and sisters in the church family. Time to relax and chat over rivers of tea and coffee and a mountain of buns and cakes. Best of all may have been the talent show on the Saturday evening, with music, quiz, comedy and a special appearance of Mr Stretchy! We'll never look at some people in the same way again!!!

So a deferred day off tomorrow after a busy weekend as I was in full techy mode on recordings and PowerPoint duty. The mp3s from the four main sessions will be available online sometime later this week. And so to bed...

Seniors' Weekend

It's an early start this morning, and an action-packed day. Our parish has designated this weekend Seniors' Weekend, with a team of three people over from England to help us think through ministry and outreach to older people.

Last night the Mothers Union hosted a barn dance, which was great craic, although I got all hot and bothered with the dancing!

Very shortly we have our Mens Breakfast, this time over at Wolfe's beside Dundonald Omniplex, then later we have a session with the Select Vestry to think through ministry to older members of the parish, and finally an Afternoon Tea for those very older people.

Tomorrow Chris Knowles is speaking at the two services, and we have a special session on bereavement at 4.30pm in the halls.

More updates later on... for now, breakfast!

Introductions

Hello, my name is Gary, and I'm a Christian.

Introductions was the theme of the weekend just past for me. On Friday, I headed off to Donegal, to the village of Ardara to be precise, for the service of Introduction of the new Bishop's Curate for the parishes of Ardara, Glenties, Glencolumbcille, Lettermacaward, and Inniskeel. John Deane, a Donegal man himself is heading to that part of the world again in his first full-time incumbency.

To show our support, some of the Theological Students were in attendance, and robed. The robing room was a flurry of activity and chatter before the service, as we were meeting the clergy of Derry and Raphoe and other visiting clergy. As the rare breed of Ordinands, they all wanted to know who we were and where we were from. Lots of introductions - and I even found a man of a similar background to myself - a minister originally from Dromore, born and bred!

Then on Saturday, we moved over to county Cavan, where there were more introductions as I met the Trenier family; and then later on at the WWW youth event in Kilmore Cathedral Hall, which (as far as I know) is out in the sticks somewhere near Cavan town. Linking into my weekend theme of Introductions, the speaker was talking about Identity, and how we see ourselves.

So how do you introduce yourself? What are the things you highlight about yourself? What are the things you promote?

Weekending

I haven't been posting so much over the last few days - it's because Lynsey's home at present, so we're enjoying a weekend at home! Sorting a wee bit of wedding stuff, and visiting some family - just the usual.

This week in college will be busy, with College Fellowship on Tuesday night, hearing where our Curacies will be on Thursday, and doing a presentation on our dissertations on Friday. As well as the normal lectures, chapel services and working on the dissertation and essays...

I'll write a wee bit about the dissertation in the near future - it's shaping up nicely at present.

The past week...

Wow.. how quickly a few days go by, and no postings made because of busy-ness! This will be a very quick update as I'm getting ready to head out to church. Preaching in the Cathedral in about an hour's time and I'm still wearing my 'youth leader informal clothes' which won't cut it for the evening service - although I wonder if anyone would notice my jeans peeking out from beneath my robes! (Sermon will follow in due time!)

For the past couple of days I've been over in Fermanagh at the Down and Dromore, and the Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh Confirmation Weekend. We once again invaded the Share Centre in Lisnaskea, having main worship times, as well as small group sessions, and other activities (archery, canoeing, climbing, karting, and 'extreme t-shirt printing'). It was great to have the opportunity to share our faith with the young people who will make their own promises of faith in the next few weeks and months. But as well as that, it was good seeing friends from other parts of the diocese and country.

Before that, on Thursday night I was in St Saviour's Dollingstown at the 'Third Thursday' service. It included the service of Holy Baptism, using the baptismal tank which is a feature in the new building. Every blessing to Glenn and Andrea after their dunking in the cold water - something they won't forget in a hurry!

Before that, I was in Dublin, working away on essays and stuff... and speaking of Dublin, I'll return there in a few hours time, with another week of essays to do, as well as College Fellowship on Tuesday night with Gordon McDade, and a retreat on Wednesday for Ash Wednesday.