Ruminations about hermeneutics, theology, theory, politics, ecclesiastical life… and exercise.
Walked-ran my morning miles, then home for a hot breakfast, then a shower, Morning Prayer, midweek Holy Communion at St Helen’s, and Staff Meeting which Linda and I decided to hold at the air-conditioned Costa in the town centre.
Tonight will offer a double-header of a Marriage preparation class and a Wedding Consultation, then I will come home and melt.
Continue reading “Yet Another Wednesday”
Maybe I should just give up and put the date in the ‘Title’ box for WordPress. Thinking of titles is, as Dave so wisely points out, a pain in the neck.
I took a relaxed morning run; I didn’t want to push on another day in a row. As a result, my time was slow, but within range for a decent morning exercise. Coffee and fruit, clear email (round one), shower, Morning Prayer, then public office hours at R&R. In a while I will go ’round for a home communion, then back to ours for clearing email (round three; I’ve just undertaken round two) and advance work on Wednesday’s homily.
That reminds me — here below is yesterday’s homily from St Michael’s and St Nic’s…
Continue reading “First Monday in July”
My morning run came in at twenty seconds better than yesterday, nearly a minute better than when I resumed running after the heat wave. Coffee, hot breakfast, sermon improvements, shower, Morning Prayer, further homily-editing, midweek communion, coffee with the surprisingly large congregation (usual for Wednesday has been about twelve for a while, but my last Wednesday we had 19 and today 23). Home for lunch and rest, then Marriage Prep class. Luckily for me, I think my only obligation tomorrow after Morning Prayer in the midweek Eucharist at St Michael’s….
Continue reading “Half Time”
(Not yet, just anticipating.) So for the second time in ten days — thank you, weather — I made my morning run; it came in at a predictably sluggish pace, but at least I ran without getting heat stroke or dehydrating. Coffee and fruit, shower, coffee and toast, edit sermon and ‘symbolism’ talk, then leave for church and hope for the best.
Later: Sermon went satisfactorily, symbolism talk seemed to please the masses, so I’m two-thirds of the way there. Wholeness and Healing in a couple of hours.
Continue reading “Stunned Day”
Friday afternoon we had a splendid time visiting with Edith. When Edith’s mum and dad came home, Margaret and I partook of a celebratory round at the point of Nag’s Head — it being our anniversary and all — and enjoyed the sky and sun and breeze and a glass of wine and a pint of Abingdon Bridge. When our glasses were empty, we strolled to Ask for our anniversary dinner. Then home, looking forward to a day in London, and thus to sleep.
Saturday morning I took my run, not as good as the past days, but just all right. After coffee and a hot breakfast, sundry preparations, and Margaret reassuring the dogs several times over, we set out for London for further anniversary treats. We arrived a shade later than our plan; ‘signalling problems’ as one might have guessed. Luckily, we didn’t have to take a rail replacement bus. We walked directly to the Tate Britain and coasted into the Whistler exhibit.
We had seen the Whistler collection at the University of Glasgow’s Hunterian Gallery, but this was a different endeavour in scope and in the pædagogical scheme. I have not become a signed-up Whistler advocate, but my general appreciation for him has been deepened.
Thence we walked along the Thames bank to the Millbank, and enjoyed pizza at Pizza Express (no former members of the Royal Family there).
While we were enjoying our elegant anniversary lunch, we got word from Indianapolis that Thomas and Lydia wanted to chat with us, so we finished lunch and stepped across the street to the Thames Embankment and had a pleasant outdoor FaceTime chat with our Indiana (for two more days) family.
We walked from there back to the Tate Britain, but the line for bag checks was so long that we reckoned that we wouldn’t have time to look around much. Margaret wanted a break, so we sat in the park at Millbank Gardens. After a rest, we made our way back to Paddington, and home to Abingdon, and settled down for a sweet night’s rest.
This morning I took a very leisurely run, coffee and fruit, and showered and headed off to St Michael’s for the 9:30 Mass (sermon below). Home, sweet home for the rest of the day.
Continue reading “Weekend”
The Revd William Hamilton-Box mentioned a sermon of mine on LinkedIn, and I turned to my trusty blog to check on it. As it turns out, I had not posted it here, a circumstance I hereby rectify.
A month or two ago I preached with reference to Foreigner; a couple of weeks ago I preached about fan fiction; this morning I preached about Mike Skinner and The Streets (to a congregation in which I was the youngest person perhaps by a decade or more, and the most popular-music person by an order of magnitude. What accounts for this? It could be that I am more comfortable here, having a good idea of how various ideas will come across to congregations to whom I’ve preached for two and half years. It could be that, coming up on retirement, I am comfortable dealing with the fallout if someone complains to the rector. Or it could be that after forty-three years of preaching, I have emptied my ice hockey storehouse of pucks to give. Whatever…
Continue reading “Audience Knowledge, Retirement, or Just Not Giving…”
Yesterday’s morning miles, I walked/jogged cautiously, looking ahead to Monday; coffee, hot breakfast, a second cup, and the morning spent composing the homily for today’s 8:00 at St Nic’s. The other only thing I specifically accomplished was a thorough grocery trip to Waitrose in the afternoon.
This morning I took a slow and steady run, followed by coffee and fruit, a shower, the Communion service at St Nic’s, then home to bid Margaret farewell as she hurried to Oxford for the 10:30 at Mary Mags. I’ll post it below. We’ll go have a round with Kate before dinner, then home for dinner. Continue reading “Turn Of The Week”
Having missed yesterday’s run, I determined to run this morning even though I had the 8:00 service at St Helen’s, leaving only a narrow window for running, drinking coffee, editing homily, showering, dressing, and hurrying to church in time to assure the congregation I would in fact be there.
The run went beautifully — an excellent pace for me. I managed to make coffee promptly when I got home, despite my being winded for a while. I chopped part of the homily to make it short for the 8:00, ironed out some wrinkles in the full version (below) , showered and shaved (testing a new fragrance), dressed and made it to the church on time. Between the 8:00 and the 10:30, I had a coffee and pastry at Throwing Buns, back for the 10:30 at St Helen’s, and home after that, weary and relieved that all had gone moderately well. Continue reading “Sunday’s Run Day, Charlie Brown”
I skipped my morning run today because I slept later than I might have, because I had another night of interrupted sleep. Then, too, I needed to finish up my homily for this morning (below the fold), and to talk with Margaret about travel plans. Coffee, fruit, then off to church for Morning Prayer and midweek Communion; then home for lunch, then back to church for the quarterly Preachers Group meeting, then back to… well, you get the picture. My brain is shooting those little sparks you see in films and television when a device is running too hard.
Continue reading “Yes, Full”
Didn’t run this morning — too little rest over th past four days, with two and a half coming up, feeling proper knackered — so, coffee and fruit, Morning Prayer, to Waitrose with the Dr Missus to help stock the kitchen for her weekend baking project, checked messages (now that the office phone is working again), then home for coffee and toast and sermon prep for tomorrow night (no sermon for Good Friday; the Passion does that job).
Last night’s sermon goes beneath the fold…
Continue reading “Two And A Half To Go”
So, this morning I set out for my first earnest run since my foot problem of two or three weeks ago. I had no sense of pace, and my body seemed balky and my breathing ragged, but I p[ressed on and got home, and when I checked my time it turns out that it was my best pace in about a year. /Shaking my head.
Coffee, fruit, print sermon, shower, a bit more coffee (from some ancient ground coffee lying about from heaven knows when), and in a few minutes, off to St Michael and All Angels, then St Nicolas’s, then to the Parish Centre to attend the Faith Forum. No evening service (the Rector has the \healing & Whioleness service tonight).
Will publish the homily below when I get home.
Continue reading “Surprise Run”
When I’m not running, I don’t have an immediate topic for leaving a simple blog entry; it’s harder to come up with a topic, or to remember to blog at all.
I had a sort of double-header today, a sermon for the 10:30 service (included below) and then the last in a series of ‘Spiritual Snacks’ on the liturgy of the eucharist. I got home after both and my brain shifted into neutral — and I spent the rest of the day just letting time wash over me. OK, I gave the sermon text a once-over, and posted it here.
Continue reading “Sunday Settling Down”
Here’s a link to the University Sermon for Lady Day, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of the Founding of Oriel College, offered by the Very Reverend Christopher Jamison OSB, Abbot President of the English Benedictine Congregation, at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin, Oxford —
Nuestra Señora Desatadora…
‘May she continue to watch over the college founded in her honour;
May she continue to make it a place of good conversations;
May she become, in some sense, for the college “Our Lady of Good Conversations”.
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.’
[Margaret’s sermon, previous in the series, has now been posted.]
I had another short night last night, so after the 8:00 I’ll hope to take a supplementary nap. I’d been awake a good while before running time this morning; the weather report solemnly assured me that some precipitation would be falling, but I saw only an isolated snowflake or two. The 2° temperature accompanied by a gusty breeze chilled me, but not as harshly as I initially feared. My pace didn’t equal yesterday’s, but that still came in more than a minute faster than last Sunday.
Run, coffee and fruit, Morning Prayer, shower, early Mass, then home to rest — to sleep, perchance to dream. I’d benefit from a recharge.
[Early Mass went fine. Homily below. I’ve gotten an hour of nap already, and am aiming for more this afternoon.]
Continue reading “Early Start Early Nap”
I can’t really explain why I thought it was. The Diocese sent ’round an email reminding us about safeguarding and the importance of DBS checks, but there was nothing in there about Safeguarding Sunday.
On the other hand, it doesn’t matter that much; the mistaken presupposition that it was Safeguarding Sunday provided a jumping-off point, not by any means the essence of the sermon (which I include below). The readings were about the environment, so that at least underwrite my approach.
We had a splendid Baptism this afternoon at St Michael’s: sturdy baby boy, beautiful mum, forthright participation by the congregation. Lovely service, lovely lad, another lamb in the flock.
I did run this morning, slowly, with some protests (mostly from my calves) — but the weather permitted, I was at home, and I’m eager to burn away some of the avoirdupois that accumulates when I am on holiday. My pace was in line with my post-injury times, though that’s still far off my better paces when I’m in shape and ready to go.
Coffee and hot breakfast, shower, Morning Prayer, midweek Mass, Chapter Meeting, then home for the afternoon. My homily this morning permits me to enthuse about the stories concerning the eben shetiyah, the Foundation Stone of the Temple, and to make a case for pious imagination as an inextricable complement to any historically demonstrable facts about the history of Israel or the career of Jesus of Nazareth (‘…but I say to you…’). Will post here after the service.
I had a difficult night’s sleep last night, so when early morning came I was wide awake and ready to run. In the darkness, though, and with an old pair of glasses on, I evidently misread he ‘Functional Strength Training’ icon for the ‘Outdoor Run’ icon, so I didn’t get a useable time (just 20 1-minute workout reports). I don’t know, then, just how my pace was; but as always, the point is that I did it.
Fruit and coffee, shower, another cup and some toast, then off to St Michael and All Angels for the commemoration of the Dedication of the Church (enclosed below). Home for a bite of lunch, then to St Helen’s for the Faith Forum (on the language of liturgy). I came home after and sat for a few minutes of a video call with Thomas and Lydia, then ran out of wakefulness and took a deep nap.
I walked/ran another two miles thiw morning, with slightly more running than walking. Oddly, the ankle felt fine (on the whole), but my right knee sent me an occasional jolt. Still, considering the twist-and-fall and how I felt Wednesday evening, and the discolouration in my left foot, the discomfort amounts to nowt today.
Coffee and fruit, shower, coffee and toast, finished up the sermon, then off to celebrate and preach at St Nic’s. (I’ll post the homily below.) After morning worship at St Nic’s, i’ll head home for lunch and a break before I head back to St Helen’s for the annual Epiphany Service of Music and Readings followed by the Epiphany Tea. Then, wearily, home.
Continue reading “Two More and More”
My sermon this morning at the early service at St Nicolas’s* went all right; it’s short and doesn’t need any extensive editing to post, so I’ll include it below the fold. The congregation was only down by one or two worshippers, despite the very cold temperatures and icy pavements, which I thought very much to their credit — Well done, sisters and brothers!
* The 8:00 congregation actually moves back and forth between St Nic’s and St Helen’s, so it’s most precise to refer to them as such (or as ‘the eight-o’clockers’), since wherever we gather, it’s the same congregation. But here I just added the ‘at St Nicolas’s’ part because… I’m not sure why. But that’s who it was and where it was.
Continue reading “Before I Forget”