I’m reminded again of how reliant many of us have become on modern technology. My ever-present laptop, the only computer we have at home, has been ’sick’ for the last couple of weeks. And now, after ailing for a while, it has eventually ‘died’.
I am going to struggle, then, until I manage to get a replacement. I smile to myself when I think that on Sunday I might be preaching from a handwritten sermon manuscript – which will be the first time I’ve done that for twenty years. One of my Twitter friends suggested it was time to get out the quill and parchment. It’s a good job that Sunday morning is a Communion service and the sermon is therefore normally a little shorter.
No doubt I will get frustrated over the next few days. But I hope, too, that the Holy Spirit will use this time to develop his gift of patience in me.
(Now where did I put that bottle of ink?)
Categories: Uncategorized
My fascination with Foxton locks continues, I’m afraid. These are some pictures of the locks from unusual perspectives
This, you will be pleased to know, is positively the last post on Foxton Locks. You can see more pictures of our canal holiday in this set on Flickr.
Categories: Canals
Tagged: Canals, Foxton locks, narrowboat
It seems that the game that football clubs engage in with regular monotony, which I can only liken to musical chairs, continues apace this summer – when the music stops grab the manager nearest to you!
The latest round of managerial changes has been announced recently – with Roberto Martinez moving from Swansea to Wigan, to replace Steve Bruce who went to fill the vacancy at Sunderland; and Tony Mowbray moving from West Brom to Celtic, following the resignation of Gordon Strachan.
Each of these managers will have signed a contract for several years, but I wonder how many of them will still be in post when their contract is due to end.
So start the music again, for there are still posts which need to be filled!
Categories: Sport and leisure
Tagged: football, football managers, musical chairs
The story of the hiker and the lure of Foxton Locks
This picture tells a story. We arrived at the Foxton flight of locks on Monday afternoon. We encountered a group of hikers, about fifty of them, who were on a hiking holiday. They had booked a canal trip on a boat from the bottom of the flight of locks for midday. Midday comes and goes, and at 12.30pm they were still waiting for one passenger, the gentleman in this photograph. In the end they decided to leave without him. We heard the story from the person who had organised the trip, whilst we were waiting to descend the locks on our narrowboat.
As we climb the flight on foot, back to our boat at the top, we encounter this gentleman, and enquire of him whether he was the one the hikers were waiting for: and, sure enough, he is! He hadn’t forgotten about the trip on the boat, but he had decided that the lure of the locks was too great, and he was having such fun helping locking the boats up and down the flight that he decided that they could go without him. No, though, he hadn’t bothered to tell them, I think he just assumed that they would realise that.
But the locks are great fun, and on a sunny weekend they are a magnet for all and sundry. It’s great to see the activity, and to share in it if you can. Who can resist the lure of the locks? I bet you can’t.
(And do you see the dog on the boat? It looks as though it’s about to whack its head on the bridge).
Categories: Canals · Photos
Tagged: Foxton locks, hiker, narrowboat
Beginning the long climb up the Foxton flight
Categories: Uncategorized
The canals that we are travelling along, built many years ago without the benefit of modern machinery, amaze me with some incredible feats of engineering. On our journey this week we have passed through two tunnels of over a mile long, each built over 200 years ago – yet each of them so straight that as you enter them you can see ‘the light at the end of the tunnel’. Imagine the engineering work that went into building them, and the hard graft of digging out tons of earth by hand. Earlier in the week we passed through the Foxton flight of locks, another example of great engineering at work. The locks still work in the same way as they did all those years ago, with the system of gates and paddles perfectly designed to enable the boats to travel uphill in the most efficient way possible. We’re beginning our return journey to the boatyard today, and will be passing back up those locks and through those tunnels, and I look forward to encountering them again. One thing I am glad about, though, is that the boats today have engines. Boats in the bygone era were horse-drawn with horses walking along the tow-path pulling the boats behind them. But in the tunnels there weren’t any tow-paths, and so the boats had to be ‘legged’ through the tunnel, with the boatmen laying on their backs and moving the boat by pushing it along by using their feet on the roof of the tunnel. Now that must have been hard work!
Categories: Uncategorized
We’ve just begun a week’s holiday on the Grand Union Canal, leaving from Napton and heading toward Market Harborough. There are six of us on the boat, and we make a great team. David, the Admiral, is a retired anaesthetist who looks after our medical needs and deals with practical problems. Ian is a retired chef and does most of the catering. And my particular role, as well as being the photographer for the expedition, is to make the early morning cups of tea and coffee as I’m the early riser. Normally we have fine weather for our canal trips, but this week promises to be wet and cold. We got soaked this morning, although the rain has gone now and the sun is trying to break through. I’ll try to keep you posted as to our progress during the week, thanks to the marvels of emailing from my mobile phone. But, come rain or shine, we are sure to have a great time.
Categories: Uncategorized
This morning we made popcorn in church. Why? Because the making of popcorn is actually a very good analogy for the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost.
I set the popcorn maker going as someone read a few verses from Acts 1 about Jesus promising the Holy Spirit to his followers and telling them to wait in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit had been given. And then, when we got to Acts 2, where we read of the coming of the Holy Spirit, the popcorn started bursting and shooting out of the popcorn maker – it was quite a spectacular display, filling not only the bowl I had placed there, but also shooting across the church. It couldn’t be contained. The hot air had transformed the kernels of corn. You couldn’t see it, but you knew it was there, and you saw the power it had to bring about transformation.
As the Holy Spirit comes and falls on those early followers of Jesus they, too, are transformed. The coming of the Holy Spirit is described as a strong wind blowing and tongues of fire touching them, and as well as being transformed they are released out into the world to engage in Christ’s mission to the world.
I am indebted to an internet friend of mine, Father Simon Rundell, for this analogy. It took me a while to locate a popcorn maker that I could use, but I’m so glad that I managed to find one, for it brought home to the congregation something of the working of the Holy Spirit, and also the challenge to be those who, filled with the Spirit, engage in mission in the world.
Thank you, Fr Simon, for your inspired idea!
Categories: mission · preaching
Tagged: Holy Spirit, Pentecost Sunday, popcorn
One of my contacts on Twitter posted a review of the book about William Carey and the founding of the First Baptist Missionary Society by John Appleby, entitled ‘I can plod’. Towards the end of the review the reviewer writes this:
Throughout the book you get the picture of a great man, a great ambassador for Christ who remains humble and servant-hearted. It was typical of him that in a letter to his nephew concerning the writing of his biography, should anyone think it worthwhile so to do, he said of himself “if he gives me the credit of being a plodder, he will describe me justly.”
That’s where the title comes from; for William Carey, one of the giants of our Baptist family, calls himself a plodder. Here was the man who grew up in humble beginnings, faced opposition even from his ministerial colleagues, and overcame huge obstacles. I haven’t read the book, but I will be ordering a copy which I hope will encourage me in my own ministry.
Categories: history
Tagged: biography, plodder, William Carey
In an effort to lose weight I’ve given up buying snacks, but recent news might encourage me to start buying them again. Apparently there’s quite a market on e-bay for snacks that are shaped like religious figures or icons and, in the past, they’ve sold for a lot of money.
Here’s the story of one person who went on the hunt, and found four in one packet. So get in quick before the market reaches saturation point.
Categories: Humour · Internet
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