Loneliness

The short article supplementing Sunday evening's doctrine slot on the issue of loneliness can be found here.

Telferscot School Assembly

The Cornhill team took Valentine's Day as their theme for the school assembly at Telferscot.
With a giant card arriving by 'special delivery' Tom Hart explained that God has shown His love for all people be sending His Son to die on a cross so that we could be friends with God.
The kids loved the mixture of role playing, huge visual aids like the verse banner, the gentle humour and the riotous crowd interaction. The teachers often look nervous, perhaps anxious that we'll never get them back under control again! They're not alone in that fear!
This is a great school and we're delighted to be welcomed in to run Christian assemblies.

A faint whiff of Philosophy

As anticipated the pub quiz was a massive success. Crammed into the top floor of the Blithe Spirit were over 120 guests gathered in their teams.

The Quirky Motion team had put together four magnificent rounds of questions. My personal favourite was the 'name the dog breeds picture round'. [I still maintain it was a Staffordshire Bull Terrier]. Ed hosted the evening with characteristic wit and aplomb. And the Cornhill Team worked tirelessly behind the scenes to process the 'cosmo style' world view survey. Round four was the world view and philosophy round. In preparation for the round the contestants needed to listen to a short talk describing and analysing the six major world views. We watched some film clips, read some quotes and the arguments began! I'd always thought that the Matrix was written out of an existentialist world view. But apparently not. In all honesty, it didn't make a whole heap of difference to where we came. We were way off the pace!

These pub quizzes require a lot of hard work from a dedicated team but they remain one of the best things we put on. Our thanks must go to Colin Munro and his able helpers.

Does it matter what we teach our children?

Richard Dawkins in his book, The God Delusion, quotes with approval the following saying from Victor Hugo, 'there is in every village a torch - the teacher: and an extinguisher - the clergyman'. It heads his chapter on childhood, abuse and the escape from religion. The quote highlights the increasing suspicion with Christianity is viewed. But can it really be that simple? Our education evening with Ian and Nina Fry sought to explored that uneasy relationship and shed some light on the contemporary debates.
Ian is currently the Director of Youth and Children's Ministry at Oakhill Theological College having been a secondary school teacher for 13 years and a schools worker for another 13. Nina has been in primary school education for 26 years. They brought a wealth of experience and wisdom to our evening.
Ian kick started our evening with a short talk drawing our attention to the difference between schooling, which ought to be the responsibility of the teachers and education, which ought to be the responsibility of the parent. He suggested that state education is increasingly replacing the role of parents rather than supplementing that role. This is perhaps most evident in the PHSE curriculum. Ian analysed a secular world view which predominates and contrasted that with the Christian world view which is increasingly being marginalised. He challenged us not to put our faith in education as though it was the solution to all our problems. Instead he encouraged us to continue to maintain the value of having faith as part of the education process.
After a coffee break we reconvened for questions. In Parkinson-esque style written questions were submitted to Ian and Nina and supplementary questions came from the floor.
The evening was a great success. It would be fair to say that the numbers of non-Church visitors was not what we'd hoped for. But the format of the evening with extended time for questions meant that those that came had a thought provoking and valuable evening.

Dad's Weekend Away

CCB's inaugural Dad's Weekend Away passed off without incident! Seven of us went away for two nights at the beginning of February to think about our roles as Christians, Husbands and Fathers.
We stayed in a great house in rural Sussex, close to Pulborough. Friday night was spent travelling, arriving and consuming curry. Saturday was spent studying the Bible, listening to talks and reading articles. We also managed a stroll along the beach and took in England's debacle against Wales. And early start on Sunday enabled us to get back for morning church and to spend the day with our families. We're very grateful to our wives and families for letting us go. We hope you spot the difference as we delight to fulfil the various responsibilities the Lord has given us.