It's nearly halfway through October!
Seems like I’m forever catching up
Well some highlights since last posting, or from about that time but I haven’t had a chance to yet.
We had Ruth and Glen Powell come for dinner whilst they were touring the country. They live and work in Sydney, Glen for the Uniting church, encouraging fresh expressions, Ruth for NCLS Research, an organisation that researches church trends in Aus. Glen and I had corresponded through the youthmultimedia group I’m part of, and so it was a good chance for us to meet up properly, to hear about their work, to see if there are ways that we in Bromley might get involved with some of the excellent qualitative as well as quantitative research that Ruth does.
Another wonderful online connection. I searched on facebook for some old friends who we’d lost touch with from our days living and studying in Lancaster. They too had experienced fertility problems, and we were overjoyed to discover they had a daughter about the same age as our son, having had treatment in the same year.
There’s lots of talk about facebook in the blogsphere, especially critical of the redefining of the term “friend”. For its many faults I have to say that it’s proving to be a great pastoral resource, especially as I connect with some of the students around the country who have gone out from this church.
We also had a couple of wonderful unwinding weeks in the south of France, where the weather was hot (if a little windy) and the food and wine was great!
Driving in France, especially on the peage, is such a better experience than driving in the UK. On the toll road the speed limit is raised to 130kmph (about 82mph) in dry weather, dropping to 110 (about 70mph) in the wet. I’m not sure that French drivers are any better than British ones – in fact I saw plenty that would lead to an opposite conclusion – but the lower levels of car ownership, and the sheer size of the country mean the roads are less clogged, and there is the safety to do that I guess.
Well, summer is now over, the autumn is here, and plans and programmes for continuing the development of the church continue to be both clarified and worked out. I’ll blog separately on two key things for us right now – the way membership is changing and our current evening series on Robert McGee’s The Search for Significance.
Well some highlights since last posting, or from about that time but I haven’t had a chance to yet.
We had Ruth and Glen Powell come for dinner whilst they were touring the country. They live and work in Sydney, Glen for the Uniting church, encouraging fresh expressions, Ruth for NCLS Research, an organisation that researches church trends in Aus. Glen and I had corresponded through the youthmultimedia group I’m part of, and so it was a good chance for us to meet up properly, to hear about their work, to see if there are ways that we in Bromley might get involved with some of the excellent qualitative as well as quantitative research that Ruth does.
Another wonderful online connection. I searched on facebook for some old friends who we’d lost touch with from our days living and studying in Lancaster. They too had experienced fertility problems, and we were overjoyed to discover they had a daughter about the same age as our son, having had treatment in the same year.
There’s lots of talk about facebook in the blogsphere, especially critical of the redefining of the term “friend”. For its many faults I have to say that it’s proving to be a great pastoral resource, especially as I connect with some of the students around the country who have gone out from this church.
We also had a couple of wonderful unwinding weeks in the south of France, where the weather was hot (if a little windy) and the food and wine was great!
Driving in France, especially on the peage, is such a better experience than driving in the UK. On the toll road the speed limit is raised to 130kmph (about 82mph) in dry weather, dropping to 110 (about 70mph) in the wet. I’m not sure that French drivers are any better than British ones – in fact I saw plenty that would lead to an opposite conclusion – but the lower levels of car ownership, and the sheer size of the country mean the roads are less clogged, and there is the safety to do that I guess.
Well, summer is now over, the autumn is here, and plans and programmes for continuing the development of the church continue to be both clarified and worked out. I’ll blog separately on two key things for us right now – the way membership is changing and our current evening series on Robert McGee’s The Search for Significance.
Comments