Take Risks

I'll start off with an advance apology. After all it is the Church of England - we usually apologise for having any sort of view on anything at all, so the word 'sorry' is definitely in the vocabulary.


I'm sorry if articles don't appear as often as they have been for the next few weeks - with assignment dates looming my attention is elsewhere, but I am thinking of you dear reader. Consequently the articles that you do get may have more of a "Dear Diary, this is what I've been doing flavour" than usual.

So, anyway, term started on the 20th April, and it was almost straight down to business. This Easter term is very short - exams for those who have them (essays for those who don't) are in the last week of May, and there's 4 weeks of teaching to be given and received in some modules. There's no messing about with short courses - once we'd had a full college 'Hall Meeting' and the staff had had a training day it was back into the timetable.

I've still got lectures in Greek, Old Testament and 'Life & Service', and as I mentioned last time 5 pieces of work to hand in. It tends to keep the mind focussed. Add into that the half-hour for a college photograph (all in suits and dresses - very nice), and the odd game of croquet as a de-stressing activity AND the lovely hot weather forcing us out onto the benches to sunbathe and the week soon passes. Already one week of the four gone.

Friday's Life & Service saw us being sent out onto the streets of Cambridge to talk to real people about their views on/relationship with The Church. That was really interesting, and encouraging. It's so easy to sit in your study and think you know what people think without actually asking them. The picture at the top is of us in our highly stressed de-briefing afterwards.

Saturday saw '160 Glorious Years' - a celebration of four 40th birthdays as Charlie, Jane, Mark and I shared a party in the Ridley Lecture Hall. Families, friends and a lot of the students joined us - I've never seen so many people in the seminar room that we were using for the food!

It would have been nice to have Sunday as a day of rest after the party, but being trainee vicars we all had things to do on Sunday morning. I had managed to agree to jointly lead the 10am service at St George's*, along with the other 3 ordinands. So a bright and early start as we celebrated St George's day a few days late, making a dragon and slaying it with a lightsaber before talking about the myths and realities of both George and Jesus, with only a minor controversy between High and Low Church ordinands as I nearly said a prayer that 'must' be said by a priest if a priest is present. The 'highs' couldn't contemplate a priest not doing that bit, the 'lows' didn't even know there was such a requirement!!

After rushing home for a barbecue lunch with Mum and Dad, it was time to go back to Ridley to restore the rooms to a state fit for theological study. I'm sure Our Lord Jesus Christ must have been familiar with the smell of stale wine, and what was good for him is good for Ridley students.

In gaps between lectures I managed to finish one essay, which Tasha now needs to proof-read, and attend a seminar and start the reading for the Theological Reflection which I must do on Romsey Mill.

On Wednesday night I went to a talk by Canon Andrew White, the so called 'Vicar of Baghdad'. Truly inspiring, if totally bonkers. He's a former Ridley student, who had no idea when he was at Ridley that he'd be doing the challenging and dangerous work that he's doing now. I asked him what advice he had for ordinands who were trying to discern their long-term calling: his answer was 'Take Risks'.

So that leads me to Thursday, where at a Common Room meeting I've been appointed to the risky task of 'Student Hosts Deacon' for the next 12 months, and I think I've persuaded a number of students to do a social action project. More on those another time, as well as something about St George's.