Month: September 2024

Kate has endorsed ‘The Longest Day in Chang’An’, which I should be able to watch with English subtitles on Viki. I’m not counting on Margaret being interested, but I’ll definitely put it on my to-watch list.

The Met Office suggested that there’d be a brief window of no rain, or just drizzle, so I ran my short route — closer to a mile and a half than two miles — in what turned out to be consistent light rain. Curiously, the temperature is warmer outdoors than indoors (we haven’t turned our heat on yet, out of Yankee stubbornness). When I opened the front door on return, it felt as if I’d stepped into a refrigeration unit.

Coffee, fruit, shortly to shower and head to Morning Prayer.

Margaret arrived yesterday, safe and exhausted. She napped in the late morning and afternoon, and retired early last night (about ten hours ago and going strong). The dogs were ecstatic, and have been inseparable from her. They yap at her, which they typically do not with me (I’m the grouchy mean one), but it’s out of the canine version of love.

Woke up after a good deep sleep, ran my two miles at a good pace (with some starting and stopping as I responded to texts from Margaret, reporting on her overnight flight home), made a welcome cup of coffee and enjoyed a fruit breakfast. As I started out in the chilly air, the skies were radiant with a startlingly vivid red sunrise.

I’ll shortly toast crumpets and make another cup of coffee, then off to St Michael and All Angels for our patronal this morning. I’m hoping that Margaret will get home before I leave, so that I can welcome her with gentle hugs before she collapses into sleep on the daybed with the ladies — who will positively freak out to see her again after two long weeks.

All right, it’s evening already, but this is still just the second day after my last post, so… progress.

Ran this morning in the cold, and wasn’t it just? Both of the last two days I’ve settled for very modest paces, not really limber enough to push for a stunning personal best. I had a church-related meeting yesterday morning, then took things easy in the afternoon — I actually spent time reading a novel, The Framed Women of Ardemore House, a clever, small (which I usually mean in a very positive way), engaging mystery novel. Of course, there’s a murder; it has to be murder these days, not just theft or some other malfeasance. But at least there isn’t a crazed serial killer who provides an excuse for the author to expatiate on their pet theories about mental health and homicide. The protagonist is, like her author, autistic; I found this part satisfying, not overplayed nor tailored to sweeping generalisations about autism. I saw somewhere that it was promoted as the first in a series; everything has to be a series now, but I suppose that if one has put in the work to imagine a microworld and the personæ that populate it, you might as well set it to work for more than one novel.

Margaret arrives home tomorrow morning. I’ll be at St Michael’s patronal festival, but I’ll leave early to catch up with my sweetheart. I’m scheduled to open and close a ‘Devotional Concert’ tomorrow night; the nature of the event isn’t clear to me, but it’s important that the parish clergy remind the audience that we’re there, and perhaps even worth talking to or visiting. But did I mention that Margaret will be home?

And, Go Orioles!

I seem to have fallen into the habit of posting only every third day, at which I am dissatisfied; I will have to try harder to post daily. At least I haven’t omitted anything urgently vital.

I have run for the past three mornings, in drizzle, light rain, and very light rain respectively. My pace hasn’t been anything to boast about. That can be attributed in part to wanting to avoid slipping, and in part to that heavy-leg feeling, and partly to sheer indolence. On the other hand, my paces weren’t as bad as all that, and at least I kept going despite my disinclination.

I’ve kept busy with pastoralia and some academic writing. I got to the end of the first draft of my interdisciplinarity essay, and will send that off tomorrow, I expect. It wants editing to accommodate the stipulated style sheet, and there are three or four references that I want to work in (OK, I just thought of another, so five), but the core of the argument is laid out there. It’s a huge relief, and I’m hoping to nail the second overdue essay by year’s end, so that I can lean into the hermeneutics book.

Well, those three days went by in a whirl of sacraments and sermons and celebrations (and sleepiness). Friday’s wedding went very well, I think, and afterward I walked home and collapsed on the sofa out of overwhelming weariness. Saturday I devoted to reading Wrede and working on Sunday’s homily. Both days had good runs in the morning, and I got some rest on each. Yesterday’s morning service at St Nicolas’s was lovely; then I rushed home to feed the dogs and give them a chance to go outdoors in the back garden, then walked out to the Hilton Garden Inn for the retirement Parish Lunch in honour of Fr Charles, who was honoured indeed in speech and gift. Then home and back to church for the Healing and Wholeness service, and back home at last to dine and turn my brain off.

No run this morning due to heavy rain, but coffee and fruit and Morning Prayer and now to town for public office hours.

Both of the last two mornings have made the occasion for good runs. Yesterday my legs started out with that heavy, loggy feeling, but gradually relaxed and brought me home at a decent pace. This morning I limbered up more quickly, and wound up running the whole two miles at a very good pace. This means, of course, that tomorrow I’ll stagger along, perhaps tweaking my wobbly knees, breathing with desperate gasps; but the good days are good news, and I’m happy to bear with the bad days as preparation for the good.

Still busy — yesterday I had a catch-up meeting in Oxford and learned more about my Oriel teaching for the year. As I was leaving, I dawdled to chat with a falconer in First Quad, brought in to Send A Message to the pigeons and crows that beset our lovely buildings with nests, droppings, and other minor (but cumulative) avian vandalism.

Wedding rehearsal, then home to work on wedding homily, then walk the ladies, then collapse in a heap ahead of today’s busyness. Morning Prayer, wedding, and then at last some clear space… to work on Sunday’s homily.

Slept deeply last night, had a cool (unseasonably warm) run, but was interrupted at the end when Margaret texted from Maine that she had bent the wires of her glasses and was worried about getting them fixed during her already-tight timetable. Run concluded at a strong overall pace (excluding time for texting back); enjoying my coffee, about to cook a hot breakfast, Morning Prayer, I’ll come home to work on homilies and (heaven permitting) my summer essay, staff meeting, then prep for tonight’s Circle of Love session, then home to collapse in a heap. Good thing this is only a part-time job.

Chilly run, but after a slow start I limbered up somewhere north of Ock Street, and after that ran a decent pace. At first my legs felt like fallen logs, but they really did ease into moderate springiness. Coffee, Morning Prayer, second cup of coffee, work on parish needs, email and phone, lunch, and waiting for the groomer so that the ladies can look their best when Margaret returns from the trip to the USA that she’s just left for, to close out the sale of her mum’s house (actually, it’s Margaret’s house for the next three days) and then to Do Something about a closet’s worth of stored goods in Durham NC.
Meanwhile, the ladies and I will try to stay out of trouble.

I’ve clearly been neglecting the blog over the last week or so — not even posting comments about my morning run, which is a pretty low bar for blogging. I’ve been kept very busy for the last fortnight, picking up ends that might go loose when the Rector retires along with a wodge of preaching and various other pastoral miscellanea. Hey ho, many of colleagues (many of whom are former students) will know all this already.

The last three runs have been cold (then just chilly, then cool) and good. This morning’s was especially surprisingly good, since I didn’t sleep well after an exhausting day yesterday. But it’s all been fine.

I should explain: yesterday I woke up early to run before showering, dressing, and printing the homily for the 8:00 service at St Nic’s, then paused for a cup of coffee (oh, all right, ‘and a pain au raisin’), to St Helen’s in time to prepare and rehearse for the 10:30 Patronal service, then coffee hour and home to finish the text for my Schism Sermon at Abingdon Baptist Church. By the time I got home, I was knackered.

I ran into this Billy Preston/Stevie Wonder collaboration on a cover of Edwin Starr’s first hit single, and I want to share it before I forget to (I’ve already forgotten three or four times):

Words are not enough….Brilliant.

I’m still looking for attribution and credits for the following uptempo gospel hymn performed in the 80s (almost certainly, but no later than the end of the 90s), broadcast on the ‘Gospel Express’ radio programme in New Haven.
 
   I’ve decided I’m gonna live holy
   I’ve decided I’m gonna live right
   I’ve counted the cost, made up my mind
   I’m gonna live for Christ
 
   Now living holy in this world means suffering
   But that’s all, that’s all right
   ’Cause I’d rather suffer
   I’d rather suffer the pains and afflictions
   Than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season
   I’d rather suffer the pains and afflictions of the righteous
   

Three days, three mornings, three runs; the morning was eerily overcast Tuesday morning, clear and bright Wednesday and this morning, and good running steadiness and pace all three days. The days have been busy with parish and birthday business; as the Rector nears his retirement date, more of his responsibilities slide over to me, and as I haven’t taken them over before, it takes time for me to parse, plan, and execute them.

Margaret and I had a beautiful [my] birthday together, with a sombre interlude for the funeral of a beloved parishioner. I’ve been making steady, slow progress on my essay, have neglected Wrede, and have to work on my Schism Sermon for Abingdon Baptist Church on Sunday.

On 1st August 1714 an act of parliament, The Schism Act, was voted through which would have made it illegal for anyone to educate young people, without the consent of a Church of England bishop, and without conforming to Church of England ways. The intention was to stop non conformist churches, like the Baptists, running schools. They were becoming a force in educating the poor. On the eve of getting Royal Assent, Queen Anne died and the Schism Act was never enforced.

In 1716 Benjamin Tompkins left money in his will for a sermon to be preached near the start of August. He stipulated that the Baptist Minister be paid 20 shillings for the sermon. That sum is still paid (20s is equivalent to £1). The sermon is intended to celebrate religious freedom.

Plus a homily for the 8:00 service at St Nic’s, some rota planning templates, and other possible errands to keep me off the streets.

Last note: my translation of Jean-François Lyotard’s ‘On the Strength of the Weak’ has drawn some attention as ‘a graduate student studying the hermeneutics of Gundam Beauty’ has linked to it from a Threads thread. My Chinese isn’t great (assuming you think ‘total ignorance’ isn’t great), but I’m glad to see Lyotard in public view. In my big hypothetical hermeneutics monograph, Lyotard will pop up at various points, including in my section about the (important!) hermeneutics of dream interpretation.

The temperature wasn’t especially cool this morning, but it was humid and breezy, so that I did well to wear my hoodie on my morning run. My legs limbered up moderately soon, and it was a good run on the whole. Then coffee, shower, Morning Prayer, breakfast with Margaret in town (during which I puzzled over Wrede), home for lunch and dog care, soon back to church for a meeting, then home for the day, ideally to hammer down some loose boards on the essay I owe….

Didn’t run this morning cos (a) it was raining on and off and (b) I didn’t sleep well. Coffee, sermon-polishing, showered and dressed, early for 10:30 Mass at St Helen’s, then home for a relaxed afternoon with maybe some glimpses at Wrede.

I had a difficult time shifting out of low gear this morning after having taken yesterday morning off. I didn’t get loose till I was nearly home. Nonetheless, I felt moderately limber after about the last half mile, and I ran a moderate, steady pace. Coffee, hot breakfast, and alternate work on Wrede and on my homily. As it turns out, I have a related sermon in the files that I could have repurposed, but in the end I decided to stick with the start I made this year.

Margaret arrives home from the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics this afternoon, and I will turn right away to the parish centre for a meeting on baptismal/confirmation instruction. Once home I will take an easy evening.

I had a wee lie-in this morning, partly because I did actually sleep till after 6:30, and partly because it was rainy when I got up — not actively raining, but threatening to rain at any minute (and it did indeed rain a bit later in the morning). So I had my cup of coffee, pondered Wrede’s ‘Die Biblische Kritik innerhalb des Theologischen Studium’ (of course I did, because I have to compose a sermon for Sunday and finish an essay for publication as soon as humanly possible), showered, and put out the bins before Morning Prayer. After that I walked to the town square for a cup of coffee and to protect some unwary patron of Java from eating one of their cinnamon rolls. Then off to home with stops for a nine-volt battery, groceries, and a stop at the church office to check phone messages. I tell you, the excitement never stops around here.

I’ve had three good runs in a row — strong and steady, but I feel knackered when I get back. Hearty breakfast, Morning Prayer, lots of church work. Keeping busy, trying to remember to blog every day. Or every third day, anyway.

Back in Glasgow, I had a wonderful conversation with Simon Dürr, one of whose projects is to translate William Wrede’s essays from Vorträge und Studien; that includes ‘Die biblische Kritik innerhalb des theologischen Studiums’, an essay I used in my thesis. I’ve gone back to the translation I made for myself to see how it compares to Simon’s translation. Wrede was a brilliant reader of the New Testament, but he was a resolutely modern reader.

Is it already in September? I remember thinking September was weeks away. Could I have been that wrong?

I had a very good run this morning after having not run yesterday; I had the 8:00 service, and didn’t have enough time (I estimated) to run, cool down, shower, get to St Nic’s, etc. before the service. As things went, the service was fine, and I joined Margaret, David, and Marlies for the 10:30 at St Helen’s. We then decamped to the town square for a leisurely and tasty brunch, then home for David and Marlies to pack and head in to Oxford. So when morning came today, I was well-rested; I limbered up quickly in the 18°, 100% humidity air, and ran to a comfortable, somewhat ambitious pace. Coffee, fruit, shower, Morning Prayer (in church again, yay!), and I’m about to tackle some correspondence after writing a squib for this week’s newsletter. Then I’ll begin work on a homily for Wednesday Mass, and presumably some further tasks and errands to keep me from loitering on a street corner and causing a public disturbance. Yesterday’s homily below… Continue reading “Pardon Me, Friend”