This is my week - Monday

The day dawned some time after me. Along with a group of about 8 others I've taken up running. Apparently we're aiming to do a 10K run at Easter, which means being at college at 6.30am 3 mornings a week, so that's a 5.40am alarm call, get dressed, get on the bike, cycle 2.5miles to Ridley, and then do the running bit for about 25 minutes. It's actually more speed walking than running now, but I'm sure we'll up the walk:run ratio soon. A swift shower and breakfast at college follows, and all too soon it's time for the working day to begin

On a Monday our Morning Prayer is based in our staircase group, and is 30 minutes of prayer and worship, followed by "Fellowship Hour". Today Jane and Ian shared their testimonies (with some surprising similarities - don't they know about the recent plagarism in Cambridge story?), following which our leader Fred asked us all to submit searching questions which would be asked of each other. Most understood the request and submitted questions such as "what was your most memorable holiday?" or "who do you want to win the American election?". Unfortunately the aforementioned Ian thought it was Question of Sport and submitted classics such as "who scored the winning goal in the 1978 FA Cup Final?". Unfortunately no Lewis Hamilton questions were permitted.

By 10am we were a mile down the road at our Greek class, being amused by our unconventional care worker/performance artist/linguistics teacher Mark, and being led through indefinite articles, prepositions and vocabulary.

In a slight break with tradition our regular double lecture on 'Reading the New Testament' was replaced with an essay workshop. This was the bit many of us haven't been looking forward to - I haven't written an essay since 1985 in my English Literature exam - a grown-up academic essay is quite another beast from anything we did for GCEs. Anyway, just so you know, I've got the next 7 weeks to write 3000 words on 'The Christology of one of the canonical gospels'. After being reassured that as long as we do four basics it's pretty difficult to fail (hand it in, answer the question, don't copy, include a bibliography) I emerged a little less worried about the task.

Back to Ridley at 1pm for a lunch of spaghetti bolognese (some of which I have brought home on my shirt) and a banoffee pie that doesn't go too well with the running regime.

Breath in, breath out. Count to 10, and then onto the next thing, one of an occasional series of book sales - I picked up a few bargains, before moving onto the Lecture Hall at 2pm for double Church History.

I have to confess at this point that although I find Church History quite interesting, and I wanted to learn about the development of Monasticism, Asceticism and the Council of Chalcedon, my eyelids had other intentions at this point. My notes are, ahem, sketchy, at certain points in the lecture.

That takes us up to 4pm, and the end of formalities. After dithering in my study for a while, I find myself being fairly ineffective after such a busy day, so I go home, cycling through the drizzle. A few minutes for a cup of tea and a jam sandwich, and it's time to take Isaac to Cubs.

Later this evening I am honoured to be invited to a meal out with the spouses group - it's one of those rare occasions when the ordinands are welcome on a Monday evening, so there's a small group meeting at an Italian restaurant, proffering Cambridge University cards to attempt to get a mild discount.

After that I intend to collapse into bed, and look forward to Tuesday, a slightly less intense day.

This is my week - Sunday

I've decided that my weekly routine is now well enough established that I can share it with you without sounding too out-of-breath. So for this week I'm going to try to write something every day so you can get a flavour of what I get up to. Probably an over ambitious plan, as I'm going away on Friday, but let's give it a go anyway!

Sunday has already become a working day for me. Church is not really optional in this game! I am attached to St George's Chesterton, along with 3 other ordinands. During term-time I am expected to attend each Sunday, and to take part in one mid-week activity. As yet, the mid-week bit is not agreed, but the Sunday bit is!

Today I arrived a few minutes early for the 10am Parish Communion service and along with Hannah - another ordinand - was pressed into service immediately as an acolyte. I'm starting to expect to be surprised - this is a small church, and there are plenty of opportunities to play substitute in some role or other. I've already been trained asan acolyte - I get to carry a candle solemnly and processionally and preferably in-sync with my partner. Hannah on the other hand was coming into the role completely fresh, so was having to follow my moves - with my extensive 'follow-me-I've-done-this-once-before' experience. Along with the crucifer (that's a carved cross on a long pole) we lead the choir and clergy down the aisle and up to the communion table. A bit later we accompany the Gospel down the aisle from where it is read, and we also are involved in the process for getting the bread and wine onto and off of the table. Along the way there are turns, bows and pauses - it's a bit like the Red Arrows but at a much slower pace. There were a few confused glances across the width of the church between us two, but I think we did alright.

The position carries some privileges - We get a ringside seat to observe the process of preparing and distributing communion. We also get to wear a cassock (black robe that covers everything) and a surplice (white angel wing type thing covering the shoulders). It also means that people quite quickly identify us as theological students, which leads to some interesting conversations over coffee.

Afterwards, we learnt how to properly cleanse the communion cup and plate - much easier to remember than the earlier choreography.

I return home to find it empty - the family are worshipping at a different church, much closer in style to St Mary's Ferndown, so there's a few minutes to practice my Greek verbs.

A lazy family afternoon ensues - before I have to make a crucial decision - go to 6.30 Choral Evensong (which is optional, but I've never been to one before, and there will be others) or watch Lewis Hamilton's attempt on the Formula 1 title? Mmmm, hard one!

Unsuitable content

I'm still undecided on Windows Vista - it's a bit painful getting to know how to do those things that were intuitive in XP land.

One of the features that causes gnashing of teeth in our household is 'Family Safety' - a system that allows us to limit the websites that can be accessed from our computer. If the software decides that a website may be unsuitable it asks you if you are sure about it before allowing you to see it.

So today I tried to visit a website selling clerical shirts - I don't need any yet, but I thought it would be useful to know how much I'm going to have to spend on shirts next year.

However, Vista's opinion of a site that sells clergy shirts is that it "might contain content that your family may not approve of". I suppose the closest it might get to unsuitable content is a picture of a lady vicar with an unbuttoned collar....

"Take a short holiday Baldrick"

There's a famous scene from Blackadder where Baldrick has been rewarded for his efforts with a break from his toil:

Blackadder: "As a reward, Baldrick, take a short holiday... Did you enjoy it? Right; on your way."
That was a bit like my half term - which started at 8.15 and ended at 9.45 this morning. Cambridge terms are so short that there isn't really a chance for a breather in the middle. And there was me thinking that I'd get a 'reading week'. Not a chance. Should have gone to Bristol apparently.....

Oh well, Christmas soon - with visits to Ferndown, Boston and elsewhere. Roll on Easter. No, there's a mission trip to fit in there. Summer maybe? If I can squeeze anything in alongside a 4 week placement and other career enhancing opportunities.

The downside with this 2 year course is that the holidays aren't really holidays so much as space to fit in the non-timetabled requirements of my course.

I'm just going to check the Gospels to see if there's any evidence of Jesus having a mini-break. I think I know what the answer is going to be.

"I have called you by name, you are mine"

Mark Autherson, a second year ordinand here at Ridley, died yesterday as a result of complications following remission from leukaemia and a successful bone marrow transplant.

Although Mark had not actually spent much time studying due to the impact of his illness, he was well loved by those who knew him. He sounds like quite a character. Someone told me that he made me look sensible.

Each weekday the college gathers for about 30 minutes at 8.15am for Morning Prayer and it was my turn to lead yesterday's service. Shortly before I was due to start I learnt the sad news of Mark's death. The Principal announced the news to everybody, and as I sat at the front of the chapel facing forwards I could see a community looking back at me, waiting for me to lead them in prayer.

Little did I know that when I planned the service and chose an infrequently used prayer the words would be so appropriate on the day that it was used:
"Fear Not, for I have redeemed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you
When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned"(from Isaiah 43)

I feel so privileged to have had the role I had in that service.


It is very quiet at Ridley. It's normally quite quiet, but it's now like when the office air conditioning goes off and you realise how quiet the real quiet that hides underneath the aircon is.

Please pray for the students, the staff, the spouses and families as we grapple with what has just happened, but especially please pray for Mark's wife Sally and their three young children.

Ridley is wounded and limping a little, but Mark is with Jesus now.

4 loaves and no fishes

It's only just struck me what I did earlier.

I was sent out on a mercy mission a few minutes before dinner tonight, to find some crusty bread to go with our meal. I dashed to Sainsburys (other supermarkets are available) and quickly found a student special, 4 small crusty loaves at 18p each. Bargain!

As I approached the checkout I found myself contemplating the adjacent customer. My eyes rose from looking at his conveyor belt full of food, and met his. And he was the Vice Principal of Ridley Hall. I just held up my four loaves and said "this is my weekly shopping".

It was only a couple of hours later, back at home, that I realised that a famous Galilean did this trick a couple of thousand years ago....

Techie is back, techie is good!

Those reading this blog from St Mary's Ferndown will know that I only seemed to be happy with wires in my hands, a situation which has been alien to me for the past two or three months, as I had a short period of role-refugeeism.

I'm happy to report that the position has now been restored to normality - I'm now part of the highly trained Ridley Hall audio-visual team, and the training was put to the test twice on Thursday.

Morning Prayer was being led by my study-buddy Phil, and included some projected words and images. I Can Do Visual. Easy. Except when it's the first time you've tried to project from your new laptop and it's Windows Vista and you're not entirely familiar with the projector. So we had a full chapel and 30 seconds to go before the system was up and running with no chance for a dry run. Lots of arrow prayers during that service. "Please God, let it be this key that I press to get the next slide and please let there be some words on the next slide. I'll do anything for you, just let it be the right slide next, please, please, please". And it worked.

College Communion was a different challenge - this being the weekly service where the whole college community comes together. I Didn't Really Do Audio Until Yesterday When I Had A Crash Course! The rota'd guy was unavoidably detained elsewhere, so between me and another novice we had to balance the sound mix for the music group, and not deafen or otherwise distract 100-odd people from the solemnity of the service. Now I know what most of the buttons on a sound desk do, in isolation, but there's always been somebody else to do the difficult bit of mixing it all together to make it all sound crisp. Not on this occasion. It took me forever to work out that I hadn't switched the amplifier on! Things went uphill from there, until we had a major power failure 5 minutes before the service started. We were a picture of controlled but radiant panic for a few minutes, but the problem was solved, and everything went to plan. It even sounded good! And it was also, for me, the best service I've experienced yet at Ridley - excellent music, good teaching, an outstanding testimony, and only one cricket joke that fell flat.

Audio-Visual is all about seeing and hearing. I like the visual stuff, because I can usually see why something isn't working. That's why I do computers and lighting, and haven't really done sound before this week - when you can't hear sound coming through it's a lot harder to find where it's gone. In John 20, where Thomas' refuses to believe that Jesus was indeed risen from the dead he is finally convinced only when he can touch Jesus for real. Jesus response is "Do you believe because you see me? How happy are those who believe without seeing me".

So what is your response when you are faced with a God you can neither see nor hear?