And some idilic ones from Jerome

Bluebell woods

having a laugh on the ha-ha (one of those jokes which gets better each time)

Is is a squirrel? Is is a monkey? No, its the MOD!

Fun times on the circle of love

And Clare, rightly, smirking at Erin's contemplative gaze into the distance.

Windswept in the woods

Isn't it depressing that a bunch of sheep get to see this every day, and I get a computer screen...

Some brilliant photos from Nessy

Whilst the more diligent members of the pastorate were getting on with the mundane, every day tasks in service of their friends....


....Ernie was.... Meanwhile, Nick and Tom were show some brotherly affection

and Alice searched for divine revelation

The most well-named photo I have received, "Tomfoolery"

And to show that they are match made in heaven; here's Julia.

Ahhh, wasn't it luverly.

Erin! Stop slouching!

Jonny's introductory talk on Hebrews 11

I thought it was very helpful the way that Jonny split the understanding of faith into two parts: the thing hoped for; and the certainty of that thing. The following is my understanding, as my memory serves me, of the main gist of his talk.

Hopes, can be either selfish (natural) or God-given (supernatural). God-given hopes are being able to see another reality - or having God's reality or plan for a certain thing revealed.

Faithful characters in the old testament were seen to be the ones who gave up their natural hopes for God-given ones.

The certainty of these hopes does not come from a mathematical or logical understanding of how these hopes will play out. Rather, the certainty is the realisation of these ideas through actions. Instead of separating off theory and practice (a la the Greeks) certainty of faith is putting theory into practice.

How can we practically do this? As faith is a gift, the first thing is to ask for it, and asking for it really means giving up your own selfish hopes. "Not my will but yours". It is a surrendering of our entire will - not just giving God a limited number of options, but being open to His.

Once this hope, or vision of God's reality is received, (through listening carefully, i.e. open to ideas etc from outside of our reality) something needs to be done as a demonstration of your certainty of that hope. Tell a friend, make a first step. Or as Pitt said to Wilburforce, "Quick, while we are still young enough to not understand that it is impossible."

The ha-ha had the last laugh

It certainly isn't the fun-knee bone.

Pastorate weekend in Malshanger...

...was amazing!

Hopefully loads of fun stuff to come. Watch this space. Not constantly, just every now and then.

Welcome to pasteurised

So, here it is, the all singing, all dancing, entry of the Tamsin-Benj-and-Jonny's pastorate into the 21st century blogosphere. I think the format will be something like this:

After each Tuesday meeting, the speaker will email me a short, concise, summary of their talk, with particular emphasis on its application to daily life (or alternatively, a provocative theological exposition with little or no understandable reference to life on this planet). I shall act as editor supreme, and remove all grammatical errors (or heresy).

As for singing and dancing, apparently you can uplink music and stuff to these things, unfortunately I don't have a clue how to do it. Maybe one day. Dancing will be entirely left to HE in the worship sessions, as our newly appointed worship dance-leader.