Sunday Shenanigans

Are we through another week already?

As we lunge inexorably towards Christmas I am going to have to give it a little thought soon. Beyond some initial shopping, we haven't done much planning yet. I need to organise my diary and figure out how many activities we'll be participating in given the possibilities and make sure we have a good balance of visits/hospitality, secular/christian, busy/reflective, solo/family, service/fun in the things we do. Oh dear, better get on with that today. However, yesterday...

Morning Church
This was a Youth Service in which Grace and Jack had roles. Jack was playing 'the lame man lowered through the roof' in a little drama. Grace was singing in the worship team...her dream job, btw. We got there early so I could set up the creche and Jamie could help sort out some sound equipment difficulties.

There were so many clingy babies in creche that I had to commandeer Jamie to assist as it is always undermanned. Jamie guarded a newborn, I carried and jiggled a very sad, clingy 8 month old and the other volunteer took care of a toddler with Downs Syndrome. And we ALL tried to watch the others who toddled, played, dribbled, crunched, crashed and fell around the room.

There is one toddler there who is a one-woman demolition team. She is never...Ever still. She happily mugs other toddlers for their toys, smilingly throws plastic maracas at babies' heads, throws every toy out of every box after examining it for precisely 3 1/2 seconds and laughs at us when we cry, 'Gentle!'

After working in the creche one Sunday morning Grace's comment (unfortunately, in front of her mother) about this toddler was, 'She is a real piece of work, isn't she?' Poor Grace, everyone laughed at her when she said that (apart from the mother). She has such trouble with idiomatic and figurative language. What she was trying to say was that she was *hard work*. Indeed she is!{g}

Leftovers, sorry...Encore Presentation of our Shabbat dishes for lunch and some discussion between Jamie and I about possible music for the Carol Service and Christmas Day. My votes are for Let All Mortal Flesh and the Zither Carol to be included. Jamie managed to sneak in a nap somehow (!) and then it was off to:

Evening Church
in Oxford. We hadn't realised but it was a special event that evening, a Confirmation and Baptism service with the bishop (It's Da Bishop! Sorry, I grew up with Monty Python or was it the Goodies?) Oxford doesn't have a bishop at the moment as the diocese is waiting for the decision of a certain Anthony Blair on the matter. He was presented with the traditional 2 names from which to choose months ago and apparently he cannot make up his mind, so a neighbouring bishop presided.

There were about 10 people being baptised by full immersion - vicar in fishing chest waders, curate getting completely wet, that's a curate's role apparently.{g} And about 30 getting confirmed. Some were the same people. I don't really understand why an adult would want to be confirmed by a bishop after just having been baptised, in public, by immersion. The point of confirmation surely, is to re-affirm, as an adult, vows made on your behalf when you were an infant. But I suppose they had their reasons.

My own views on baptism, confirmation (and communion) are all up in the air at the moment. I've been participating on a theology forum lately and have seen how almost every position possible on these subjects can be supported by scripture. So, I've come to the point that I know what I definitely DON'T believe, but am not positively definite about what I do believe. However, I have extraordinary peace about the *not* knowing. I've studied like a good Berean and am left with the fact of not being certain, at least for the moment. I am content to simply trust and believe in Jesus as my saviour.

There was communion today and I did not participate because I am in the middle of thinking this through as well. Proof-texting being possible from all sides on this issue too, I'm actually beginning to come round to the argument that communion should be a once a year thing at Passover. ("When you do *this*...") A bigger deal than most protestants make it, though still firmly symbolic. I'm so tired of the arguments though now. I've been immersed in them for a year or so, and am now in a period of post-argument reflection. I have no idea where God will lead me after this, but I am content in my current state of uncertainty. For me (ex-control freak), this is important progress!

Fortunately, I had plenty of time to think about such things during the sermon, as it was quite possibly The Most Boring Sermon In The History Of The Universe.(tm) I think bishops must go to some sort of re-education camp to unlearn common human intonation and learn Bishop-Tone. Every word was spoken as though through some sort of satellite delay, and in a peculiar sing-songy tone of voice. Jamie told me later that it was actually quite a good sermon and that he'd made some interesting points, but unfortunately the delay between words was so long that my mind had too much time to wander off, like an errant toddler, and play by itself. I also had a good read of the wall display about Mission and all the foreign missionaries this church supports. There are loads of them!!! We sang some good songs though.

Maybe Jamie made it through the sermon because of that nap! {g}

Note to self- Next encounter with a bishop should be preceded by a nap.