Like a lot of people in this country right now I'm sitting in front of the TV watching the Royal Wedding coverage. I'm not particularly nationalistic as a rule, seeing myself very much as a citizen of the Kingdom of God; but watching most of the service and the parade back to Buckingham Palace I am filled with a certain British pride. We do pagentary awfully well and it gives one a good feeling to join in the celebrations in some small way.
I didn't get to see the whole service as I was meeting somebody starting training as a Student Presbyter in October to try to answer some of her questions about training at Wesley Study Centre in Durham; but I did catch the Bishop of London's sermon and then the rest of the service. I though the sermon was a good one and his suggestion that God needs to be at the centre of any marriage was very powerful; a nice piece of witness to the millions watching the service all over the world.
Friday 29 April 2011
Tuesday 26 April 2011
Essays
One of the inevitabilities f being a Student Minister is the essay. Thankfully examinations for Student Ministers are a thing of the past but we do have to write essays; long ones and quite a lot of them.
I remember many years ago when I was a politics student at Leeds University reading some grafitti on the wall in the Politics Department. It said that 'essays are merely a way of treating the value of our studies as a commodity.'
I used to feel this way about essays, but I've had a bit of a revelation over the past few days. I suddenly realised that in order to try and write a good essay I'm reading books that I probably wouln't otherwise read and thinking about subjects in ways that perhaps I wouldn't normally. The essay is not merely an end in itself, a means of proving to my tutors that I have, hopefully, learned something; it is a means of expanding my appreciation and understanding of a particular topic or subject.
Part of the training of a Student Minister is formation, it is about forming us into the Presbyters and Deacons God has called us to be. I expected to be changed in all sorts of ways at Wesley Study Centre, but I never expected to have my attitude towards essays completely transformed. Our God is indeed a God of surprises. I wonder what he has in store for me next.
I remember many years ago when I was a politics student at Leeds University reading some grafitti on the wall in the Politics Department. It said that 'essays are merely a way of treating the value of our studies as a commodity.'
I used to feel this way about essays, but I've had a bit of a revelation over the past few days. I suddenly realised that in order to try and write a good essay I'm reading books that I probably wouln't otherwise read and thinking about subjects in ways that perhaps I wouldn't normally. The essay is not merely an end in itself, a means of proving to my tutors that I have, hopefully, learned something; it is a means of expanding my appreciation and understanding of a particular topic or subject.
Part of the training of a Student Minister is formation, it is about forming us into the Presbyters and Deacons God has called us to be. I expected to be changed in all sorts of ways at Wesley Study Centre, but I never expected to have my attitude towards essays completely transformed. Our God is indeed a God of surprises. I wonder what he has in store for me next.
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