Woodbridge and Sutton Hoo

The half-term holiday provided an opportunity for a long weekend.  On Friday morning we booked a hotel - The Grove House for three nights.  On Friday afternoon, we arrived there after a little over an hour's drive and settled in.  That evening, we ate dinner at The Fox, down some very narrow, dark roads in a village just outside Woodbridge.

Saturday

We visited Sutton Hoo, where in 1939 they discovered an Anglo-Saxon boat burial.  For once, the National Trust has done a great job on the site.  We looked around the ground floor of the house, displaying the story of the dig, a dramatic story of warring archaeologists, if you believe the film "The Dig".  But the real drama was the time pressure cause by the impending war with Germany.  These were politer times, with more reasonable attitudes and a spirit of cooperation.

Sutton Hoo - burial boat outline model

The national trust site has more detail of the burials, found https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/suffolk/sutton-hoo.  We, however, got our information from one of the guides, who was very knowledgeable, and spoke very well. 

Sutton Hoo - House

 

The house is impressive, standing on a promontory on the Deben Estuary.  The guides in here were also friendly and knowledgeable.  The presentations were videos, audios, and lots of printed material.

The burial ground has one mound that is noticeably larger than the others, this is because it has been reconstructed and is being used to estimate the decay rates for the mounds:

In the background there is a viewing tower, which gives an excellent view of the whole burial ground.  Most of the burials have been robbed, it is thought that this happened in the time of Elizabeth I, who was desperately short of money and may have encouraged the search for buried treasure.  The main ship burial was not undisturbed, but the robbers failed to find the treasures because they entered in the wrong place.

There are some lovely walks around the estate, and a short diversion from one takes you along the Deben, with some great views of the river.  

Dinner was at The Bull, in the town.

An excellent day out.

Sunday

We attended St John's, which is a New Wine Church.  It had a great feel and made us both nostalgic for the New Wine days at Christ Church.  We also met a couple who used to live in Billericay and worship at Emmanuel.  It's a small world.  In the afternoon we took a short walk along the Deben, then a late lunch at the Coach and Horses.  I had walked enough, beyond the tolerance of my left knee.  So we returned to the hotel early.

Monday

After a brief visit to Woodbridge, we returned home, arriving about lunch time.

The Road to Maturity

This is my first attempt at putting together a piece for the Christ Church video notices.  The web cam does not work that well when loaded to youtube.  It's fine on my PC.  The next version will be produced with a camera, and I'll see what I can do with that.  Then I'll have to get into editing - that was all one take (take 5 to be exact!).  Because of problems with the webcam I missed the deadline for last week, still here's the slide that goes with the video:

If you're around Billericay and would like to join us, then let me know.  I'll happily take members of other churches as well as my own.

I'm looking forward to this course, I'm hoping that it will help us to build on the results of the weekend away. That weekend God assured of of His love for us.  I'm hoping that's because He wants to move us on.  If that's true, this course could be the vehicle.

Caffiene Christianity pt 2

The remainder of the week was amazing.  The small party from Christ Church enjoyed a barbeque together one evening, sometimes we all went to the same evening worship, other time we didn't.   Then there were the seminars.  There are three a day, if you can handle them.  I didn't manage 3 every day. There was too much to take in even with the ones I did manage.

Here are some high lights.
From "A God shaped hole in politics" discussed how we should be involved in political action and how each or the parties has at least one prayer organization.  While it becomes more difficult to 'do God' (as Tony Blair said he didn't), it begins to become easier to be 'on God's side' and allow you experiences with Him to shape you policies.  The 20th Century is called the Secular Century.

Caroline Cox spoke to us about HART. If you think we should be cutting the aid budget what she said and showed might change your mind.  Britain is not a third world country.  HART's slogan is "We can't do everything, but we mustn't do nothing"

Bishop Zac from Kampala said he didn't think he had a message from God for us.  Thankfully he was wrong and preached one of the best sermons I have heard. He identified 3 things that are wrong with Western Society, I can't remember the first.  The second was 'Health & Safety'.  "People die all the time"  "Why are you afraid of dieing when you know where you're going?"  The third was the 'ME' culture.  At the end there should have been a massive call to repentance - there wasn't, it was the weeks biggest disappointment.  I've been told I should have gone to the front and told them - but I didn't.

"How to make your church sing louder in 108 difficult steps"
The title alone was intriguing, and I would love our church to sing louder.  It was all about finding your 'song'.  Or put more conventionally, it was about understanding what God is saying about himself to the world through you.  When we sing songs that our lives are in tune with the result is louder singing.

The Leadership Crisis
Among the 20-30 year olds the church is seen as failing.  We need Lions - from that age group, or perhaps the 30+ age to bring them back to God.  This seminar also contained one of the saddest thoughts for me - a leader can only communicate effectively with those who are between 10 years younger and 10 years older.

Towards Maturity
Mary Pytches gave a talk on her course and I bought the DVD and the workbook to see if it will work in our Church.

Theology Training
The course (to degree level) is taken over six years and covers theology and a lot of practical teaching about mission.  It looks really good, I could easily dedicate myself to it.  However, there's always a 'but'.  I have other things that I'm called to do.

The Market Place
Holds a bookstall and loads of shops and stands.  The Oscar stand was offering 'employment' (in quotes because employment usually implies salary, but not in this case).  There was even a job I could do - which set me thinking and praying.


There was much more, it was a week of great blessing. This is enough for now.

Caffiene Christianity

First impressions are generally reckoned to be a bad thing, but sometimes they give an insight that is worth thinking about.  My first impression of New Wine is coffee. There are coffee bars everywhere,  even the two huge temporary buildings - tent just doesn't describe it adequately - have coffee bars.  Looking just a little closer, you will notice that they are all selling coffee AND there is a queue.  It's not decaffeinated, I know this because that's what I must drink now and when I ask for it, they make it specially.  It seems the current generation of Christians is addicted to caffeine.
Now, to more important impressions. I have attended Christian Events, festivals, and teaching weeks before Spring Harvest many times between 1980 and 1996, and Greenbelt many times.  Both have the same feeling of safety.  A sure and certain hope that if you lose your wallet, you will find it in lost property with all the cash still inside, I am very pleased to report that New Wine has the same feeling.

After a difficult drive on Saturday, we had a quiet day on Sunday, the first official day. We arrived at the site, after a short walk from the Prestleigh Inn, shortly after 9am. We were amazed at the ease of entry to the site – the tickets were checked and that was it. After investigating the site for a couple of hours, we returned to the pub and watched the German GP. Then went downstairs into the restaurant for our second meal of the day.  The food at the Inn is basic good pub food served piping hot and in generous portions.

Mark Bailey, the leader of the week, welcomed those attending the imaginatively named Venue 1. He also led the worship. I didn't even realize his talk had started, so missed the first few minutes. He spoke on the cleansing of the temple in John2:13-17. The theme for the week is Passion. Here are some of the things he said (or I heard), with some comments from me where they are appropriate. It was a long, but helpful start to the week.  Here are a few comments I recorded and my comments on them.  I have tried NOT to get out of context, but I'm definitely fallible, so if it isn't what you heard ...

"The temple must have looked like a bar-room brawl had just happened after Jesus had finished with it."
Jesus was angry, and no doubt did a LOT of damage.

"There is never a dull moment with Jesus"
True, but it isn't all exciting either, sometimes there is hard work and painful processes to go through, but dull - never.

"God is predictably unpredictable."
We can only predict what we can understand, some things about God are clearly known (He cannot sin, He loves us and has saved us, for example).  Most things are unknown.  This doesn't imply that God is volatile.

"The Holy Spirit is known as The Wild Goose in one language" - as in Wild Goose Chase. This is a difficult concept for me as it implies that God's Spirit fails to achieve his aims, or if not that, keeps the members of the kingdom busy on fruitless work.

"Maturity = sensitivity to the Holy Spirit." While I agree that sensitivity to the Spirit is part of maturity, we must recognize that the spirit communicates with us differently than we do with others. Maturity is certainly not passing on word for word what the spirit says to you (unless that is what he says to you, of course).  Maturity must include appropriate sensitivity to others as well.

"To be like Jesus is to be consumed with zeal."
... and love, compassion, ...

Psalm 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.

"Sin is wasted energy – chasing desires that you cannot attain."
This is a new idea to me and seems helpful, it certainly illustrates an effect of sin. No-one wants to waste their energy. Most of us bemoan our lack of energy at times.

"Following God (Jesus) is not about knowledge but desire"
I've usually heard this expressed as relationship, but of course that must be desired too.

"It is a sin NOT to be angry about the things that God is angry about."
So never being angry is a Sin. What would Julian of Norwich - who says there is no anger in God, say. Personally, I'm more with Mark than Julian.