Ordinands and agendas

The job was ok today, the school was realy nice and all the staff there were helpful and pleasent. The job itself is easy and not really a great deal to do, but I'm getting paid at least. Most of the teachers seem to be around my age, so that makes it easy for conversing.

Got home and could barely open the door as a parcel was getting in the way. Got quite excited as I'd recently purchased a dvd on ebay. Unfortunately it turned out to be a copy of the Methodist Conference agenda. A huge book, that will take some ploughing through. Apparently they want to make a move towards making bishops in the methodist church of great britain. Who knows why? I'll have to read the report then post my comments. My initial thoughts are that it goes against the wonderful doctrine of methodism that we recognise one great high priest in Christ and that all are equal below him. We even have female chairs of district (our bishop-like equivalent)

This evening I attended a testimony service for all the ordinands from the distict. i went along with Peter and Brian from church whom I gave a lift to. It really was a moving service, hearing the testimonies of their calling to ministry was really powerful. You could see the work of God in their lives and I was actually getting quite excited about their move into ordained ministry and all the myriad gifts that they had to offer. I mainly went to support Sue, a probationer minister from my circuit, but the other stories were equally uplifting. A real sense of the Spirit in the place. It was also a good time to catch up with faces from around the area that I knew over coffee. Including Joy, whom i went to India with, and also Ian White, who asked if I fancied going on mission with his group to Jordan. I do actually, but with the unrest of being out of work i think I'll probably give it a miss this year and apply next year, when hopefully things are more stable on the job front. However, I'll give it some thought and prayer. There's also £750 to raise too.

Got home and watched the the monastery which is one of the best things on tv at the moment. Again the wisdom of the monks really shone through as they helped the guys adapt to monastery life and the problems and fears that arose during that time. It's great to see that time spent in ritualistic and patterned devotion, with silence and listening to God, really is making an impact to these guys lives. Check out the monastery web site at worth abbey.