St Stephen's House

Finished being Apologetic for a while and on the train home. (Currently 3 minutes late - a big improvement on 1 hour and 3 minutes on the way down. )
Been staying at St Stephen's House - a theological college for the CofE and part of Oxford University. Hadn't really thought about it but remembered when I arrived that it's seriously catholic. They talk about Popes a lot. Morning and Evening Prayer were "quaint". I counted 9 different pages to find per service to do all the psalms, collects etc. in what was actually standard Common Worship. I just read the feed off the website which puts all the text in the right place every day for you. (See here)

I reckon I spent 20-25% of morning prayer simply looking things up before I could actually start reading the bit I was supposed to be.

I get confused nowadays by having to find a board in a church which has a list of numbers. Then every time You sing you have to look up the hymn with that number in one of the books that came with the other books and papers. How quaint.

Psalms 71:1

Forsake Me Not When My Strength Is Spent


In you, O Lord, do I take refuge;
let me never be put to shame!





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Location:Acocks Green

Apologetics

After a very pleasant day yesterday hanging around Oxford and sipping cappuccinos, it was down to hard work today. Morning Prayer at 7:30 followed by 4 long lectures/seminars on apologetics over the course of the day. We got off to a good start with Dr. Andrew Moore asking us to differentiate between "rational apologetics" and "witness apologetics" - the latter becoming increasingly important in post-Christendom.
Later we had John Cottingham talking about where meaning comes from. Got to talk to him in the common room, which was very interesting. He's a bit of an expert on Descartes so I asked him some questions about duality and the persistence of human identity, like you do. He agreed with me, or maybe I agreed with him. And apparently Descartes wasn't into Cartesian dualism as much as we think (like Calvin and Calvinism). (But not Hobbes.)
The last lecture was by college principal Father Robin (I am Fr Michael here, according to my welcome envelope). In keeping with the college ethos, asked about a contemporary Christian aesthetic, he thought it would be better if we all went "back to the source" - the Latin Mass. I do not. In fact, I think God likes diversity.

Now here's a bit of a psalm we had at morning prayer. Be thankful you don't have to sing it antiphonally, to an obscure chant, like they do here.


Psalm 103
Praise the LORD, O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD, O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits—
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

Location:St Stephen's house, Oxford

Oxford

Oxford is a bit fabulous. C.S. Lewis once told someone that heaven is probably a bit more like Oxford than his friend was imagining.

I'm here for a couple of days studying apologetics. So at last I can say I studied at Oxford (while omitting to say for how long.) The other theological college here was one I was going to look at for ordination training before God took us elsewhere.

Just been at the Sheldonian which I think is the place that Richard Dawkins is scared of debating Bill Craig. Excellent views.

Not sure about the relevance of apologetics. Christina Baxter didn't like them much, so missed out at St John's. I think it was the experience trumps an argument argument.

I suppose it's a balance between having a reason for the hope that we have but coming to Jesus like a child.


Proverbs 3:5 New Living Translation (©2007)
Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding




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Location:Rose Ln,Oxford,United Kingdom

Foundry

Went to a church called The Foundry this morning in Widnes.  Very friendly, and great start with good coffee and a danish in a big, airy room.  Had a quick look at the tech before the service - an iMac just like mine running the presentation software and a PC doing audio recording (which Tim reckoned would be distorting badly.)  A projector either side of a big worship space, with a big blank wall inbetween.  Which I actually found a bit disappointing.  First, there was no need for the screens at all since the wall behind was white.  And second, there was too much blankness, no colour, and nothing to look at!  Made me feel like visiting a Catholic church next time (watch out Pat!)  I was longing for some kind of pictures or colour or anything really.  Enjoyed singing To God be the Glory (Phatfish tune) but didn't know any other songs.  
There was an odd communion section with individual bits of bread and little cups of Ribena, which wasn't really explained.  
I liked the message from pastor Gary from Australia.  I was still listening after 45 minutes, but thought he could have made it shorter and more focussed.  Maybe that's because I'm used to something more concise.  But he made some good points out of Acts 3.  Mostly about stopping.  Peter & John stopped to talk to the 'man lame from birth'.  (Doesn't actually say they stopped - I was imagining how it would work if no-one actually stopped, but that was just being awkward).  Anyway, safely assuming they did stop, the message was about how God works when we are willing to be inconvenienced.


Couldn't find a verse in Acts 3 or anything specifically on inconvenience but I'm sure there is one.  Suggestions please!


BTW, I've fiddled with the comments settings now, so you should be able to leave a comment now even if you couldn't before.


Also, the grand prix was boring today and back to making F1 look a bit pointless.  Perhaps it is. 




Philippians 2:16
Hold firmly to the word of life; then, on the day of Christ’s return, I will be proud that I did not run the race in vain and that my work was not useless.

Justice

Read a post from an ex-colleague of mine who moved to the colonies.  Someone had put together an article titled "This is the problem with the American justice system".  There are actually two contrasted articles about convicted criminals.
One was a homeless man who'd robbed a bank.  He'd been given 3 bags of money but only took the $100 he needed (to stay at a detox center).  The next day he handed himself into the police because he knew he'd done wrong.
The other man was a CEO of a mortgage company who'd been caught in a massive fraud to the tune of $3 billion.

The homeless man got 15 years in jail, the fraudster got 3.  I don't know any more background than that, so it's difficult to judge, but it does seem a bit wrong.

Today's newspapers in the UK are carrying the story of the trial of Levi Bellfield for the murder of Milly Dowler.  A senior policeman said the trial showed a 'disgraceful lack of humanity' in the justice system, as the Dowler family felt they were the ones being put on trial, and now even regret the prosecution.  The trouble was that Bellfield didn't have any real defence, and so his lawyers had to resort to dirty tricks against the Dowler family to make any kind of case for him at all.
I have a weakness in that I always see good in people.  But it's hard to see it in Bellfield, a serial killer.

The other victim here was the criminal justice system itself.  The leader in The Times said, "It is impossible to see this outcome and consider it to be justice.  For true justice cannot be so hollow and the approach to it so devoid of feeling."

How does feeling fit into the logic that drives the criminal courts?  (I don't know, but I will be disagreeing with the Tom Wright book I'm reading in a later blog.)

When I was at university studying chemistry I went to an optional lecture by a forensic scientist.  He had the details of how someone had been convicted of raping and murdering a girl (who happened to be a Sunday School teacher.)  I couldn't concentrate on the details of the science because of the horror I felt at this crime that had been committed.  And I was wondering, why does God let these things happen?
I'd have made a useless forensic scientist.

There doesn't seem much justice in this world.  It's unfair.  God is unfair.
But that's OK because God is unfair in a good way.  I was reminded yesterday that for a Christian, it's all about grace.
We don't want God's justice.  None of us would survive.  What we need is God's grace.  And that's what he gives us.
What happened to Jesus was unfair.  But it's a source of God's grace.  I don't fully understand the theology of the atonement.  I don't intend to.  But I know that I rely on God's grace and not his justice.


Ephesians 2:8 (NLT) "God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can't take credit for this; it is a gift from God."

True Colours

The cathedral had a very interesting multimedia setup for an awards thingy, so I took some photos for reference.  (I will photoshop these when I get round to paying for another software licence.)
Then, after failing to see Senna I decided to cheer up with a visit to the 'Eye for Colour' exhibition at the museum.
Gratuitous colour all over the place - great!  One of the first things that caught my eye was badly coloured food.  What is the right colour for food after all?  Generally, not blue.  Especially for sausages.

But then I thought that if I saw a blue sausage, it would probably be made of something other than mechanically recovered pig flesh wrapped in sheep intestine.  So blue sausages are fine by me.

There were plenty of fun, colour-related activities for children.  I particularly enjoyed the paint guns that fired onto a spinning circular target.  Impressively virtual.

Just about the only thing in the exhibition that was aimed above primary school level was a section that asks you to choose your favourite colour.  I've always been a purple person.  But I like bright colours too, anything florescent or yellow.  The exhibit then tries to attach personality traits to your favourite colours, in a way that works well if you believe in horoscopes, like these for example:

Violet
Positive and sensitive.  Violets do not want to be the boss in their relationships.  They want to be viewed as fascinating and charming by others.  So they try to control people.  Violets sometimes think their wishes, dreams and desires are real.

Yellow
Like change and hope for greater happiness, but always in the future.  They sometimes like change for change's sake.  Yellows want to be liked by others and be important.  They never stop trying to make this happen.

Hmmm... that does sum me up pretty well, except for the control in violet and the important in yellow.  All generally positive though.  I didn't read them all, but I suspect that blue doesn't say 'you are deeply melancholic and fear change, relationships, and imagination.'

Similarly, I can't see how today's verse is particularly uplifting.  Unless you only sell purple cloth.  Which is very niche indeed.  Maybe it's showing us that women were important in the early church or something.

Acts 16:14 "One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message."

Diocese

In Liverpool today for a chat with "the diocese". Won't go into it here but here's the positive I can take. It's quite possible for two Christians to have a serious discussion about something important, to fundamentally disagree, and yet after an hour still be completely ok with one another. And know that what, who, we have in common is still far greater.

in the cafe at the cathedral I picked up a link to the Glasgow Skeptics conference. As one does. And was able to watch it on YouTube (free wifi here!). It was a creationist being insulted by an evolutionist speaker. Logically I agreed with the latter, but there was no need to call his questioner an idiot and worse.

One day soon I will work out what I actually believe about the way God works in the world. Possibly.

Was off to see "Senna" at FACT this afternoon (a hero from my youth). But it turns out that "silver screen" means pensioners only. D'oh!
Nice to feel young sometimes.





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Location:Nelson St,Liverpool,United Kingdom

Dawn chorus

The nights are drawing in now. I think that's the phrase for the day after midsummer. I can report that it was getting light at about 3:30 this morning, and the birds were singing. (Caffeine and concerns had kept me awake.) The motorways were quite busy too. Though at least the trains had stopped. I tried to record the dawn chorus once for a video. It was spoiled somewhat by the background noise.

Bees hum because they don't know the words, but why do birds sing? The reductive view is that it's all about mating and territory. But there's more to say than that. I always wondered about these verses from Luke 19:

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Praise from inanimate objects may be hyperbole - i don't know. Worship is a strange thing. One of the books I'm reading says that we will worship either the Creator or a creation:
"Why does God insist that we worship him? For the same reason that parents tell their young children to stay away from fire or speeding cars. God doesn’t want humans to detach themselves from ultimate reality, which only ends up harming us."

He then quotes C.S. Lewis ( who is usually right):
"The world rings with praise—lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their game. . . . I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is appointed consummation."

Some odd examples maybe (mating and territory again!) but I think I see what he means.

Do birds know who made them? Perhaps it's enough that we do.

Location:Shed

Piracy in review

Thought I'd do a film review today for a change.  Lynn took me to see a Pirates of the Caribbean yesterday.  I wasn't particularly looking forward to it - they've been milking the success of the first one for too long now.  I've lost track of all the pirates and their ships - don't think it really mattered anyway.  Personally I preferred the ride at Disney.

Anyway, trying to avoid too many spoilers here, this film is about some pirates.  It's not set off the coast of modern-day Somalia, and there isn't really any piracy in it as I remember.  What's it's about is some Disney pirates going in search of a fountain of eternal youth.  Which involves drinking the water of life.  From chalices inscribed with 'water of life', and mixed with a mermaid's tear (representing suffering or maybe joy?)  Quite rightly, the properly Christian Spanish don't like this pagan ritual.  Though any good Catholic would be reminded of the perpetual sacrifice of the Mass.

The worst scene in the film comes near the beginning when, after much comedy violence, a British soldier is shot down in cold blood.  Didn't like that at all.

The film redeemed itself for me though because the best character in the film is some kind of missionary cleric.  He says that the pirates are looking in the wrong place for the real water of life.
It comes as a surprise when there's a character in a film who's clearly a Christian, and who is clearly the good guy (just about the only one.)   He prays and preaches and suffers for it.  He puts his own life on the line; which results in his Bible being used to hold open a box to keep a mermaid-girl breathing and alive.  There could be a metaphor there.  The words of the Bible are literally life-giving for her.
Later, the cleric again shows compassion - he picks up the girl who's fallen over (due to her being unused to walking on legs - she is a mermaid after all).  He's the only one who sees her true value as a person (one of God's creatures) when everyone else just wants to use her for their own purposes.  He tries to see good and the chance of redemption in even the most evil pirates.  (He has to ask the mermaid for forgiveness and healing later on, which she is pleased to give, and there may be a happy-ish ending.)

The ending for one of the pirates could have been better done.  There was a redemption theme going on, and there was a neat, moral way; and a half-joke for Johnny Depp way.  Johnny Depp won.

Lynn didn't think the film was funny enough, and almost fell asleep.  Although she really likes Johnny Depp.  He's the same age as me and we both have a beard sometimes, but I don't have a pirate's hat or eye shadow.  I'm just not sure about the funny walk ...

Revelation 7:17 NLT 
"For the Lamb on the throne  will be their Shepherd.
   He will lead them to springs of life-giving water.
      And God will wipe every tear from their eyes.”

Running, Ducks, Reincarnation, Resurrection...

Today it is sunny. Very warm, cloudless Mr. blue sky.
Not good. I have to go for a run some mornings, in order to keep
working properly. I prefer running (really jogging) when it's
raining because it keeps me cool. So I was relieved to still finish my
5.3k in just under half-an-hour today - a time anyone my age should be
disappointed at, and anyone younger than me should laugh at.
The last time i ran in the rain there was water off a duck's back.
And plenty of ducklings of various sizes. Some stayed calm, others
scattered. Some of the comically waddling escapees ran into the
water; others ran along the path in front of me. Some ducklings have
very poor spatial awareness. I think they were females. Judging by
their colouring and nothing else, of course. Ducks have small brains.
But I think avian intelligence is vastly under-rated. Crows are
frighteningly clever - as smart as any other animal IMHO. Bird brains
have to be small and compact in order for them to be light enough to
fly. I reckon they're just more efficient than mammalian brains. But
there's no substitute for cubic capacity (as American muscle-car
enthusiasts say) and humans are unique in our brainpower.

There's an aquarium kind of thing at Lakeside where you can see ducks.
There's a multi-level water tank so you can see them diving under the
water - where they are surprisingly elegant in their movement. If I
were to come back as an animal, in a Hindu kind of way, I'd want to be
a duck. They can walk on land, swim on water, dive under the water,
and even fly. That's brilliant!
But of course downward reincarnation doesn't really make sense. The
information pattern or whatever it is that makes you you has a
minimum hardware requirement. And that seems to be a human being.
There just isn't the capacity in any other creature to accommodate a
human 'soul'. (I use that word in a corporeal, non-platonic,
non-cartesian sense.) The only place left for us to go is up. That
is, to some kind of body that is somehow greater than a human body.
We have only an inkling of what that might be like, as recorded in the
post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

John 20:19 "That evening (the first day of the
week), the doors being locked where the disciples were because they
feared the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them,
'Peace be with you.'"

...(continued)...technological resurrection, neurophysiology

(You need to read the post after (above?) this one first. If you really want to)
Today's blog was mostly written some days ago, and
is already long enough. So you can stop reading now. But as I'm
trying to write about technology too, I'll carry on if there's anyone
still reading. Science fiction writers have told tales of how a human
soul could in the future be downloaded (uploaded) into some kind of
computer, possibly with a robotic body. Currently we are nowhere near
that level of expertise. But our own technological ingenuity has a
habit of surprising us. Is it possible that one day we will achieve
technological resurrection? It's quite a disturbing question for some
Christians. As though science will actually supplant faith at some
point. However, it is also possible that it's impossible! We humans
could well be a limiting case of complexity in this universe. That
is, we are the most complex objects we know of. And when we start to
wonder if the human brain could get any more complex there are
problems. It's possible to increase the amount of grey matter (an
elephant's brain is larger). But there is underlying white matter -
which is basically the additional wiring that connects all the grey
matter up. This is essential to the way a human brain works. And to
increase the grey matter, you need more and more white matter, but
exponentially so. The biological brain we have may not actually have
much capacity to get bigger and better.
That doesn't mean there isn't a different technology that could effect
the same level of complexity. We don't know. But I'm guessing not.
We are so far away from understanding how a human brain actually works
that we're unlikely to be able to produce a technological equivalent
anytime soon. Brains are all down to quantum effects in dendritic
spines or something. Quantum computing technology has only just made
it outside the laboratory this year, so don't set a date. Anyway,
that's enough amateur neurophysiology for one day. I should put links
and references in, but it's easier to write this stuff off the top of
my head. That's where my brain is. Sometimes.

Trinity Sunday?

Today is Trinity Sunday and also Fathers' day - which seems a bit of a contradiction. God is three and one in some way that no-one understands, so people have tried to do analogies or metaphors like the three-faced man which I saw in the bookshop at Cartmel (photo above, hopefully). The book I'm reading at the moment suggests a parallel is Cerberus the mythological 3-headed dog. As featured in a game I once made, and Harry Potter too.

When I was at theological college, we students decided Trinity Sunday was a good day to give someone else a chance to preach.
I tend to the modalist rather than the tritheist end of the spectrum of Trinitarian heresy. So with a Trinity - Fathers' day combo today, I decided it was best to avoid church.

Instead I went to church. Without Walls. A few friends of mine turn up on a field where there's a weekly car boot sale, bringing a gazebo, some seats, Christian literature, and plenty of tea, sympathy and time for anyone passing by who cares to call in. Interesting characters abound. Sometimes it's 6 hours waiting around for a 6 minute conversation. But it's worth it. Especially for that person who has no one else to talk to.







Galatians 4:6-7 "Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, 'Abba, Father.' So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir."

Location:Shed

Overarcing

Raced back from Fellfield to enjoy strawberries and music on a pleasant summer's afternoon. On a thankfully incident-free journey, Lynn challenged me to put a verse of scripture in my blogs. Reading Christianity magazine, there was an article on how not to be embarrassed by Noah's Ark. Some Christians believe that there was a worldwide flood, and that there were all the animal kinds of the earth on the ark (including dinosaurs according to someone I know).
I've always thought it more likely that there probably was some kind of flood (it crops up in other ancient literature, not just the Bible). But that it was more localised. According to the article i read, there is some pretty good evidence for this, and it turns out that the Hebrew text uses words that are quite ambiguous over scales - e.g. The word for "mountain" can also mean "hill". It doesn't necessarily imply a worldwide flood at all.

I had a brief daydream about ship construction - a bad habit, I know. Decided the best way to build a football-stadium-sized boat is to excavate a big boat-shaped hole in the ground first, and line it with pitch, then cover It with wood. Without a JCB or ten, that would take a while. But since it didn't rain at all, should have been possible.

My favourite bit of the story though is the rainbow. (It fits almost ironically between allowing Noah to eat meat and him getting drunk, which are otherwise completely unconnected, of course!)

Genesis 9:16 (NIV): "Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

In this verse it sounds a bit like God happens to notice the rainbow, like it's a natural phenomenon, but he's just said that he put it there. (Because he had and yet it's a natural phenomenon too - causality isn't as one-dimensional as some would like to see it.)

Anyway, what are the true colours of the rainbow?





Isaac Newton saw 5 then added two more because God likes 7s. Indigo? He might as well have had Teal! It's a continuous spectrum of course, and people all see it a bit differently. But I like the idea that God likes colours enough to use them as a sign of promise.

Location:Shed

Kindling

Fellfield has a real fire. We brought some kindling, as it usually helps to get the fire going. (I know it's June, but Lynn is always cold.)
I have no idea why Amazon decided to call their electronic book reader the 'Kindle'. Nothing to do with burning books I hope. But it does effectively destroy paper books by making them redundant.
Last month, Amazon announced that sales of books in electronic versions exceeded sales of books in paper format. Here's some reasons why.
I read mostly textbooks. With a Kindle (and simultaneously with an iPad and smartphone) I can highlight and annotate text, and then cut and paste if from a website into a book review, or notes about the book I've been reading. This saves me literally hours of typing. Given the option I would read everything electronically. Paper is a waste of resources and a waste of time. For the moment, I still have to use paper books sometimes - but it's really annoying. I hate paper.

The only thing I can think of in favour of paper books is that they help to keep Christian bookshops open. (Assuming you don't buy them online of course). Sadly, I don't think it's sustainable.

I've just finished reading 'High-Tech Worship?: Using Presentational Technologies Wisely' by Quentin J. Schultze (Kindle edition). It's a book I would recommend to anyone interested in the subject - it strikes the right balance between Worship and High-Tech for one thing. And the analysis is indeed wise. One interesting anecdote is from a congregation in Seattle, half of whom work for MicroSoft. The leaders have decided to go lo-tech because that will have more impact there.
Put this book together with a couple of extant Grove booklets, and I think the ground is covered adequately. No need for me to write a book on that, then.

In other news, I noticed that the first letter in Today's Times (iPad edition) was from a group of prominent people concerned about the BBC's promoting the pro-assisted suicide agenda. (See my recent blog).

There's another story about the latest attempts to create a way of paying for things using mobile phones. Realistically, it concludes that the tech won't be available in the iPhone until late next year (by which time I may have paid for mine.) In the Lake District you currently need paper to buy things. Those shiny round metal things are only used for pay-and-display car parks - if you want a couple of coffees, the paper has to come out.
I hate paper.

Location:Fellfield

Brantwood

Took a stroll over to Brantwood today, on the shore of Coniston. (Must try to walk more slowly and actually notice the scenery.) It was closer than I thought - only about 4 miles, so I was there well before lunch time. Undeterred I availed myself of the excellent "Jumping Jenny" restaurant and sat outside, overlooking the lake. Had great food, coffee with a free refill, and a Kindle to read. Brightly coloured little birds appeared occasionally to beg for crumbs. Decided it was possibly the most pleasant lunch I've ever had alone. (Remembered to give thanks though.)

Brantwood was for many years the home of John Ruskin. There was a video presentation of his life and ideas, which was a bit hagiographic I thought. Apparently he invented the minimum wage, state education and healthcare, environmentalism, and Christian Socialism. And studied geology, meteorology, architecture, ornithology and pretty much everything else. His day job of course was just drawing, painting, writing and championing artists like Turner and the PreRaphs, even when they were unpopular. He thought art should get back to representing nature as it really is rather than relying on inherited painterly techniques. He hated the way Victorian England was being covered by the dark smog of unrestrained industrialisation, and the capitalism that drove it. Don't think he liked technology very much.
Not sure he'd appreciate me sitting in his "Painters' Glade" reading "High-Tech Worship" on a Kindle. (More on that tomorrow.)

I find Ruskin a fascinating chap, and would like to read some more of his work. Perhaps his Stones of Venice or Modern Painters - for some reason there's Volume III of a 1901 edition here at Fellfield.

Today's Trivia: BBC3 did a series on the PreRaphs recently, and the chap who played Ruskin then turned up playing the title character in Rev on BBC2.

Location:Brantwood

Weather report

Today was gloomy.

Discovered my "walking boots" are not waterproof. Not even slightly.



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Location:Fellfield

St Michael and puny angels

'Here St Michael is battling his way through the abstract
jaws of the Dragon (beautiful "Lucifer, son of the morning" made hideous by hate and pride) and show that what is seen of evil is not the worst. St Michael is battling his way through the unseen thoughts, feelings, vibes and powers.'
- Josefina de Vasconcellos FRBS, AWG, IPI, Hon Dlitt, MBE



There is a sculpture of Saint Michael is at Cartmel Priory. St Michael, the protector of Israel and patron saint of sensible clothing retailers (possibly) is often represented as a powerful, muscular figure. In the tradition of Greek/Roman heroes/gods. His job is generally fighting against the devil, so he needs to be up to the task physically. Which is where this sculpture is different. When asked why her sculpture was not like, for example, Epstein's muscular St Michael of Coventry Cathedral, Josefina replied that "you cannot overcome evil with physical strength".

I can relate to this St Michael. Perhaps it's because I don't have muscles. Well I do, but they provide basic locomotory function and not much more. I can open screw-tops and stack 4 chairs at once, so I don't really need any more than my 'knots on cotton' (as my grandmother described the family biceps.)
Spiritual muscles are more important. We all need to work on them. Use them or lose them. Just started to read Tom Wright's 'Virtue Reborn'. I think that's what he's working towards saying. i.e. We need to be morally fit for purpose by working on our spiritual strength, daily.

I hope he is saying that, and yet if he is, I could save myself 200 pages of reading. Hopefully he goes into detail. (I may edit this later if I'm wrong!)

Not sure if it's a good idea to post something then come back later and change/delete it. People do that all the time, especially in repentance of something that could be hurtful. Life should have an undo button too, but it doesn't work like that. I suppose that's why we need to be people of virtue, all the time, as Tom probably says.

Location:Cartmel Priory

What's on TV?

Fellfield is a house in the diocese of Carlisle which was bequeathed to the diocese of Liverpool. It's a great place to retreat away from it all. It's surrounded by fields. There's no phone line, and it has only a passing acquaintance with the Orange network. Until very recently there was no radio or TV either. But this year there is a new DAB radio. Never seen the point of these myself - new technology that's worse than the old. You can't get the Daily Service on it for one thing.

There is also a TV here now. Not sure that's a good thing. But I would have been annoyed to have missed that epic Grand Prix on Sunday.

Last night was depressing. I watched two programmes. First there was Emmerdale, which was mostly about the aftermath of an 'assisted suicide'; then there was Terry Pratchett doing a documentary to promote the idea that it's OK to kill yourself.

The Emmerdale vicar, Ashley, has been in post far longer than I have. Yet because he's a soap vicar, he often does stupid things that are the result of his scriptwriters' ignorance of vicars, the CofE, and/or Christianity in general. Last night he refused to take a funeral service for a chap that had been assisted in his suicide. Because it was wrong. Not sure if he meant the assister's wrong or the dead man's wrong. Neither of these are reasons for not doing a funeral. I've taken a number of services myself for people who have ended their own life. I wish they hadn't, and I pray they weren't helped on their way. But if there's a time when a bereaved family need to know the love of God and the hope that is always present in Christ, then that is it.

It looks like the BBC are on a mission at the moment that won't stop until we have a branch of Dignitas in the UK. The BBC do publicity like no-one else. They get to advertise their own programmes on their own programmes, and between their own programmes. (No-one noticed that their ban on advertising doesn't apply to them.) So the 'right' to decide when to die will be debated over and over. It's a big topic that I'll have to return to. But I've always felt there was something wrong in even knowing when someone will die. If you can narrow it down to the hour, it somehow takes away from the whole of life. Don't know why I think that, but I do. I've been with many people in their last few days, but it does seem that the medical staff can never narrow it down more accurately.
It's wrong for an individual or for a government to decide that a person will die at a certain time, on a certain day. There's something wrong with capital punishment too, but that's another issue.

Location:Fellfield

Colourful language

Went to church this morning in Hawkshead; saw John the vicar and Kathleen the warden who both recognised me. Maybe because I'm a famous Christian now, maybe because I've been there a few times before. John talked about colour, in his sermon. Pentecost is coloured red because of the fiery tongues in Acts 2. But Whitsun comes from the word for white. Decided I don't like red. I once bought a Ferrari Testarossa in yellow. To scan in for a game (1/24th scale I think.)

Anyway, I've just finished reading 'Art, Modernity and Faith' by George Pattison. He talks about art and theology. And colour. There's a chapter on John Ruskin, the victorian philanthropist and patron of the arts. We've just been out to Coniston, and saw his grave in the churchyard. Later this week I'll have a walk to Brantwood to see his house. Interesting chap, Ruskin. He thought that colour is the spiritual power of art. He said curves are better than straight lines because they suggest infinity, and so divinity. And a gradient of colour is better that a flat area in exactly the same way. And light backgrounds are better than dark ones. All things I will think about the next time I do a PowerPoint.

Ruskin championed the preRaphs and Turner too, whom he thought understood how to scale contrast on his canvas better than anyone. Contrast ratios are something we think about for projectors and LCDs normally - I don't suppose anyone took much notice in Turner's day. Except Ruskin.


"Ineluctable, fissiparous, iconomachy, nullity, chiaroscuro, aesthesis, theoria,
conventual, kairoi, theonomy, stelae, iconodule, excrescence, biophilia."


Yes, 'Art, Modernity and Faith' had more words in it that I don't understand than pretty much any book I've ever read. A few of these were explained, and my iPad could tell me about half of them.
Just for fun, see how many of those you recognise before scrolling down to the 'answers' below. My score was 0.












ineluctable: irresistible, unavoidable.

fissiparous: inclined to undergo division into different groups. Like art, or Protestantism.

iconomachy: I think this means smashing up icons. Or statues, or symbols - like triangles for instance.

nullity: a thing of no importance or worth. Like iconomachy.

chiaroscuro: the treatment of light and shade in painting. On Photoshop it's called 'gradient'.

conventual: relating to a convent (should've guessed that one).

kairoi: plural of a greek word for a moment of time (kairos).

theonomy: 'Divine law'. Probably.

stelae: upright stone slabs, sometimes a gravestones. I suppose they point to the stars.

iconodule: supporter of the cause of icons.

excrescence: an outgrowth, often cause by disease; a superfluous or unattractive addition.

biophilia: a biologically innate associative urge bonding all living creatures.

aesthesis and theoria are terms used by Ruskin (when he's looking at art). He doesn't like the term aesthetic as it has connotations of purely sensory experience. Instead he uses aesthesis - the 'mere animal consciousness of the pleasantness' and theoria - 'the exulting, reverent and grateful perception of it.


It pays to enrich your word-power. Or so the Readers' Digest said. What do they know?

Location:Fellfield

Fame

Off to the diocesan house later, but first - it has come to my attention that I am a famous Christian. I found it amusing and amazing to see myself in a list of famous Christians by some baptist guy (here's the link). You have to scroll down past C.S. Lewis, Martin Luther King, Billy Graham etc. - people like that. It's a bit weird to even be on the same list. I blame Wikipedia and whoever was the kind person that put me on there (I only just qualified apparently).
This accolade is due to my pre-vicaring career in computer games.

Nice to see one of my contemporaries and superiors of the 8-bit era is now involved in a project to encourage children to try programming rather than just playing. He's also trying to produce a tiny computer for about £15 - not sure how these projects relate, but I wish him well.

Location:Shed

Rob

Listening to the Daily Service on R4 this morning as the robin flew around.  He reappeared right on cue as Stuart Townend started to sing Holy Spirit, Living Breath Of God.
Keep trying to take his photo but he's proving a bit elusive.  (The robin, not Mr. Townend). He just pops up and watches me through the shed window for a bit then flies off if I reach for a camera.
I was reminded of an Iona song - I'll reproduce the lyrics here even though it's probably illegal:

Catch the Bird of Heaven
Lock Him in a cage of gold
Look again tomorrow
And He will be gone

Lock Him in religion
Gold and frankincense and myrrh
Carry to His prison
But He will be gone

All the things that man has made
Cannot hold Him anymore
Still the bird is flying as before

Temple made of marble
Beak and feather made of gold
Bell and book and candle
Cannot hold Him anymore
Still the bird is flying
As before

I had forgotten that the song is called 'Bird of Heaven'.
(from 'Beyond these Shores' - available on iTunes and at your local Christian bookshop.  Probably.)
Just when you think you've got a handle on God, he's gone on a bit further so you have to catch up again.

Vicarblog

Just seen this on twitter:
Kevin the blogging vicar explains what a vicar actually does.

Some technological stuff

Spent much of yesterday at the cathedral in inter-vicar talks.  Mostly complaining about the Diocese.  It's what we do.

Going to write a lot about some new technology today.  Feel free to come back tomorrow.  Or maybe later.

Look away now - or you're in danger of becoming a geek.

OK, don't say I didn't warn you.  This is just unrelenting tech-talk today.


Right, I've just got my Psion 5 out.  It's a pocket-sized gadget that has a touch screen, flash storage, built-in apps called things like Word, Sheet, Agenda, Calc, Web, Email.  It has an innovative way of dealing with documents - you don't actually have to 'save' them - they're automatically saved, and when you switch off, switch on, get some email then go back into, say, Word, your document is waiting for you just as you left it.  Nice.  I'll get back to why that's important later.
The Psion 5 was produced by a British company.  In 1997.  It's 14 years old.

Back to today, and Nintendo have just announced the Wii U.  Now I love the Wii.  And the Wii Fit.  It's what got me doing real running (must remember to go out later).  It's taken gaming from a boys' bedroom thing to a family event.  We've had some great times at the vicarage with people of all ages having fun playing ski jump and carnival etc.
But Nintendo's latest thing is not the innovation that the Wii was.  It looks like an iPad with some game controls on the outside.  The real problem is that it does no more than you can already do with an iPad and an Apple TV.  Or will be able to do when people realize this and Apple allow developers to use AirPlay that way.

Now Apple are a very interesting company.  They inspire a devoted following of tech geeks who do things like follow their conferences online, watching for the latest announcement of some new technology.  The most evangelical vicar I can remember meeting was doing his best to persuade us why we all needed Macs rather than PCs.  I will write more, possible much more, on the cult of Apple at some point in the future.
The future is what I find most attractive about Apple.  They have this knack of delivering the technological future, as geeks like me expect it to be.  The iPhone is a case in point.  It was an entirely predictable device, but Apple were the first to actually make it.  With a touchscreen, flash storage, built-in (or very cheap) apps for calendar, web, email etc.  (See Psion 5, above.)

Apple did a conference thing on Monday.  They did some announcements about the future.

The biggest announcement concerns iCloud.  'The Cloud' is the idea that all your computer stuff is stored and maybe processed 'out there' somewhere on the internet.  It doesn't matter where.  Your computer (and iPhone, iPad, etc.) are just devices to access The Cloud when you need to interact with your data.  That's the theory anyway, and Apple are going for that in a big way because they think that's the future.
The practical details are a bit fuzzy at the moment.  They're very kindly offering people 4G of free storage.  (Which won't be enough even for my 18G documents folder.)  I don't know why I'd want to download music before I can play it.  I don't know if they're going to allow a hierarchical filing system, or if I need to start renaming all my 61000 documents.  Because they're appealing to people with less documents, who always save them in the 'My Documents' folder.  This is the problem with the bleeding edge of technology.  It's still very exciting for geeks though.

Also, there's an upgrade for those of us who use Macs, which looks pretty good.  It does a lot more with their trackpad.  The trackpad has replaced the mouse for anyone that's used it.  I have.  If you still use a mouse with your computer, I may come round to your house and point and laugh.  Or maybe just kindly advise you that you need an upgrade.  The new OS is called Lion.  OSX- Aslan - I'll think about that later.

It has an innovative way of dealing with documents - you don't actually have to 'save' them - they're automatically saved, and when you switch off, switch on, get some email then go back into, say, Word, your document is waiting for you just as you left it.  Nice.

Did you spot that I copied and pasted that paragraph from above? If so, take 1 million geek points.
Conclusion - I don't know really.  Maybe the way to make money out of innovation is to see what has already happened, and repeat it a few years later when everyone else has worked out what happened in the first place.

Spirit birds

Breakfasted in the tranquility of the shed and listened to yesterday's Pray-as-you-go podcast. All about the Holy Spirit and Samaritans. A Robin appeared outside at this point. Decided the Robin would be a good bird to symbolise the Holy Spirit in this country. That fiery red breast is liturgically appropriate. And Robins stay with us all year round and don't fly off somewhere when the conditions take a turn for the worse.
There was a rumour that the ancient Celts chose the Wild Goose as a symbol of the Holy Spirit (but that was probably only invented in the 20th century). If the Holy Spirit was a bird, it wouldn't be a tame one. Robins do a lot of fighting apparently. More than doves or geese I think - perhaps that's why no-one thought of a Robin.
I'd already had a bit of a run this morning - managed to avoid a ferocious Old English Sheepdog and the vicious-looking dog with the man on the tricycle. Remembered the fighting doves. Shouldn't they have been hovering over the water or something?

Heard a noise on the shed roof so i went outside and a pigeon flew off. At least I think it was a pigeon. What's the difference between a pigeon and a dove anyway?



Looks like it might rain today. Good shed weather.

Location:Shed

Recapicturation

Went to 'Breakfast with the Bible' again at the cathedral today. Wasn't sure if I was meant to, but got a nice green wave on the way there. Purely 'coincidentally', Canon Gomes began by saying he'd been in the Walker gallery yesterday and looked at the picture of Jesus with the children (the very one I mentioned yesterday). His point was about the Roman Soldier who's in the background - which had also struck me as odd. He's not mentioned in the Bible at that point, but must have been put there as a constant reminder of the oppression of the people and maybe as a portent of things to come for Jesus.

Also at the Walker, the current exhibition was some black and white photos of Liverpool life from the 1970s. I hate black and white photos. There's just no need. We have colour. We did in the '70s. (There was a brief time when you'd get superior resolution on monochrome, but still.) A black and white photo of a stolen car in Liverpool may be 'art', but it's in no way inspiring.

I really, really, like colour. It's a wonderful gift. The world is in colour: we have no need to make it artificially drab by straining the rainbows out of it.

One room I'm not keen on at the Walker is the statues room. (It's probably not called that.) There are lots of stone people, again in black or white. Except one, which is called 'The Tinted Venus', by John Gibson. He too got fed up with the whole monochrome thing and decided to colour in his statue. A bit. It's actually very subtly tinted - hardly coloured. People didn't like it, of course.

There are plenty of fully coloured statues in churches. The Greeks and other ancient cultures made them too. Have to be honest - I don't really like them either. Human statues are just a bit creepy. I think I'll claim Exodus 20:4 in support.

Meanwhile, must get to see this.

Oh, and I've started reading a book about art. Seems quite interesting so far. Got through the history of iconoclasm bit. It uses words I don't know, so it seems quite clever to me.

Cultural Quarter

Found a place called the cultural quarter. (Apparently 3/4 of Liverpool is uncultured.) Went round St George's Hall for the first time. Quite impressive really. Though it's stolen half it's aesthetic from Ancient Greece And the rest is a secular imitation of a cathedral - complete with stained glass windows and a mighty organ. Still impressive though.
Didn't know there was a courthouse here too. There were holding cells with pretend prisoners There was even a whipping post or something that made me feel a bit ill.



Across the road is the Walker, a proper art gallery. Big picture of Jesus with 'Suffer the little children to come unto me.'. And a nativity, again with a haloed Jesus. I wonder if Mary was surprised at how ordinary he was - in appearance anyway.
Another picture had an angel with stubble on his chin. Thought that was good.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Commutation Row,Liverpool,United Kingdom

Shopping

Spending this morning in Liverpool while Lynn does something more useful by the cathedral.
There are lots of shops in Liverpool. Some nice ones. The trouble is, I don't actually want to go into any of them. I already have everything money can buy. Which gets to me sometimes.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. And I just walked past the Apple store without even looking in.

Location:Liverpool,United Kingdom

Simply Christian

Sitting in the peace and quiet of the shed yesterday I was disturbed by some children running about and talking and singing but just when I was about to be grumpy I realised they were chanting the Lord's Prayer. How lovely.

Too hot for the shed at times today. Finally finished a book. That's 2 in 3 weeks. Not good. I once read 6 in 6 days to justify going on a reading week. To myself I suppose. (Proper books with footnotes - not novels or anything, obviously.)

So I've read 'Simply Christian' by Tom ("that's my friendly name for my easy books") Wright. Who was bishop of Durham. A position soon to be occupied by our own Dean of Liverpool.
'Simply' echoes C.S. Lewis' "'Mere Christianity" for me - I expect that was intentional. NTW's writing style is reminiscent of CSL in that he uses lots of metaphors and analogies. Not quite as well, in my opinion, but at least he tries. e.g. ‘enough barristers to run a battleship’. Barristers don’t run battleships do they? Neither do baristas for that matter. It would all go horribly wrong if you ordered a decaf.

NTW does have lots of wisdom, plenty of snippets for sermons. Must do one on Waters. In Genesis 1 they are divided and conquered. NTW notes how Moses in his basket is rescued from the waters - prefiguring how he will later rescue Israel from Egypt through the sea.
I did a bit of a talk on Jonah at the Baptists' last year.
There was a fine illustration of that bit of Ezekiel that I once saw using the Another Place Gormley men at Crosby beach.
There's also Noah of course. Plenty of bad chaos water just in the Old Testament.

Speaking of Noah being Left Behind while the bad people are swept away, NTW is very clear on some things. Like life after life after death, and:

‘The great drama will end, not with ‘saved souls’ being snatched up into heaven, away from the wicked earth and the mortal bodies which have dragged them down into sin, but with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth, so that ‘the dwelling of God is with humans’

Location:Shed

No Comment

It's come to my attention that you can get a free cappuccino in the little cafe in Ikea while waiting for your significant other to spend her birthday vouchers next door.

It's also come to my attention that very few people leave comments here.
It's easiest if you have a gmail account. They're free, which is why I have about 5. Help google take over the world and get one. Then you can use it to leave a comment by clicking comments below. I will check you're not a 13-year old from Oregon who's just learnt some rude words, and your comment will appear a few hours later.

Location:Ikea, Warrington

Today in Tech

Read a newspaper today. How do people have time to do that every day?
Thought I'd comment on the tech stories so you might want to stop reading now if that's not very interesting. There may be some theology later.

Mobile phones are now as dangerous as coffee or pickled vegetables. This particularly applies when driving.
The Germans are abandoning nuclear power. (Apparently it's for political reasons - Angela's only friends are the green party) This is bad in the short term as no-one can get enough renewable energy yet, so it's down to fossil fuels for a while. Possibly shale gas if they can stop making earthquakes in Blackpool. Sadly, an increasing amount of CO2 in the sea is making clown fish deaf. Poor Nemo.

See - if they bothered to condense news like that it wouldn't take so long to read. Would still sound mad though.


I want an electric car. One that you can plug in at night. But also has a fossil engine for long journeys. And for now the electric should come from nuclear fusion. Except nobody's bothered to invent it. Why did it take just 11 years to go from nuclear fission bomb to nuclear fission power, whereas we've been waiting 57 years since the H-bomb for fusion? Somebody needs to try harder! I know gravitational confinement is unlikely, and inertial and magnetic are still being tried, but really, come on scientists! At this rate we will have decent solar cells first.

Now theology. Listened to an Unbelievable? podcast on Christian physicalism. Whether the soul is an immaterial aspect of a human being or whether it's merely the information pattern of physical components that dies with the body but can be resurrected later. I've thought the latter for many years, but that's apparently not a popular point of view, and the Catholic theologian didn't buy it.

It's a bit late for that kind of thing now. Thankfully I have a shed with some music, a glass of Shiraz and still 76% battery on my iPad.

Location:Shed