Another Update!

It's Wednesday already!

(that's not the update by the way)

I can't believe how quickly the weeks go, it seems unreal.

Ok, here goes, update from when I last posted (Sat) till now...

Monday:

First full (ish) day at College in Manchester, but not quite!

To explain...

Usually I will get there early (say 8.30/9-ish) to study/write up notes/get books from the library before my Tutorial at 10am for an hour with my Tutor, Richard. This week I hadn't set up tutorials yet, so I was aiming to get there for 1pm, as my lecture starts at 2pm on a Monday, till 5.30 normally. I left the house at 11:00, got the bus to church as I'd forgotten and left my Bible there the previous night, and then got the bus again into Liverpool, to catch the train at Lime Street for 12:13, to get me into Piccadily for 1pm, to get to College before 2!

That was the plan.

The part right up to where I get to Piccadily station for 1pm went ok, unfortunately the part where I arrive in College 30 or 40 minutes early, producing sweet-smelling clouds of sereneness and calmness from my person, didn't! The bus from Piccadily to College (which usually takes 15 mins) has a driver who was of Eastern European origin I think, and did not really speak much English. This meant that the bus journey doubled, maybe tripled in time, as he had to ask everyone who got on at every stop on the way to repeat themselves so he could understand where they were asking to go! Also, usually each stop would involve some fumbling with change, which I think presented him also with a few problems to do with currency, etc. I felt very sorry for him as more and more people got increasingly annoyed at him, especially when he didn't know what the stops on the route were called, so anyone who got on and asked, "does this go to...?" were greeted with a shrug or some mumbling or a shake of the head, or a lifting of the eyebrows that conveyed he didn't know or have a clue!

What also made the situation worse was that the route has to go through the main University district/road in Manchester, and it was Fresher's Week...

Literally thousands of students had set up stalls and placards advertising all sorts of clubs and memberships, with a mixture of people shouting through bullhorns and very loud dance music and rnb being played through stereos and some very strange costume-wearing people!! This all added to make the bus journey even longer than usual as traffic was very very bad!

Thankfully, the bus driver did know the route even though he didn't know the names of the streets, and I got there excactly for the start of the lecture, sweaty and out of breath from rushing in my usual "oh my gosh I'm late" kind of way...

Luckily, the lecturer's printer was playing up, printing notes, so he was about 10 minutes late trying to sort that out, so I think I got away with it in the end! God was obviously smiling down on me!

In the first lecture of this term, we talked about each of our own backgrounds and where we were coming from, as a kind of introduction to thinking theologically. It was good, though I was a bit surprised there were no "notes" as such that we could make, as it was quite informal and relaxed.

I learnt that next week we're making up for that, in that there are lots of resources and suggested reading already posted up on the module website for us. I've printed them off but not read them yet. We're going to be looking at models of power in a church, and thinking through each of our placement congregations, and how it will relate to that. We're also going to be looking at Foucault and how he envisioned power, and his theory of how power is not owned by one person, but moves through an organisation or structure, and what that has to say or can say about the way we pastor/lead in a church setting. As you can tell, I've done a little reading, but not lots yet. I plan to get that done later today, and tommorrow afternoon.

 Getting back to College... We finished at 5:15pm, and then raced to the Chapel to undergo embarrasing ice-breaker games, before dinner/tea. (however you say it!) After tea we met for a service, and to go through introductions to the rest of the Baptist College staff and students, including other years.

Our time of worship finished at 7:30, and then the rest of the evening was free time. I chatted to other students, and went to bed about 10:30-ish, after I rang Meg!

In the morning, I had breakfast and then went to the library to get two books for the module I'm currently doing. I'd ordered them from Amazon, but because of the Postal strikes, etc, I haven't had them yet, so I got them out of the Library with the view of returning them for someone else as soon as "my" copies arrive.

At 11:30, all the Baptist students and staff met again in the Chapel for worship, which went well except for the fact that our row row (the back row of course! :p) got missed out of the Communion service!! After the worship time, all us first year students went immediately to another Lecture room to have "Baptist Time", which this week was introducing us to what we'd be covering over the next few weeks. We ate sandwhiches and discussed our placement churches and started to begin the process of planning what we'd cover this semester as a group.

I left College at 2:30, and eventually got home at 5:15pm!! Then I waited for Meg to come home from work, and we went out to a Newcomers meeting at Margaret's house, a chance for some of the new people at church to question us and get to know us. Unfortunately quite a few people rang to say they couldn't make it, so it was eventually, Alison, Meg, Margaret, myself, and two others.  One of them gave us his impressions of the church as a newcomer, and got me thinking/reflecting on what the mission/aim/point of the church is, something that I will think about and build on more for the next few weeks as I plan some bible studies/intro/discipleship meetings.

That's it so far, I'll update again when I can!! Lot's of reading to do for now...