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I’m back from Wales! – and I’ve uploaded my photos from the week (well, the good ones anyway. There weren’t many).

Take a look at my photostream to look at them…

Just a quick note to let you know that we are off to New Word Alive today. It doesn’t start until tomorrow but we’re going up a day early. You may be wondering why.

Well, I’ll tell you. Some of the youth club are coming (our youth leader is driving the minibus up tomorrow), and we’re going to be eating together. (Well, sort of). Anyway, Phil and I are going to go up a day early so that we can get food for the week from a supermarket tomorrow, so that we don’t have to worry about that so much during the week. That’s pretty much all there is to it 🙂

So, that’s pretty much why I’m not going to be around much over the next week or so. We will be in deepest, darkest Wales. But hey, it’s all good fun… hopefully!

Day 227: Fence

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a photograph that features a grid of some sort today."

Well a fence is basically a grid, even if it’s not as obvious as some others 🙂

I think it’s probably about time for one of those updates where I explain pretty much exactly what’s been happening over the past few weeks, months and years. Well, weeks and months anyway. I should warn you at the start this may be a long one, and may involve something known as “emotions” and “feelings” which I don’t really blog about much 😉 (Don’t worry, it’s not that bad…)

As I have already mentioned a few times, I’ve been talking with the Chelmsford Diocese about training for ordination in the Church of England. Two weeks ago I went on a Bishop’s Advisory Panel (BAP), which was basically the culmination of that process. I won’t go into details about what actually happened on the panel, but essentially I was interviewed by each of the three advisers, as well as having to prepare and deliver a group presentation / discussion and write a letter given a pastoral situation.

Anyway, as mentioned the other day, the results of that were positive: they have decided to recommend me for training! I will be going to theological college next year. The college I have applied to is Oak Hill, who are a good evangelical college in the CofE. I went there today for an interview, and unfortunately I won’t know the results of that until after we’ve come back from New Word Alive next week. But in general I think the major hurdle is over (i.e. getting through the selection process) – I think the college application is much simpler!

So. It’s going to be all change come next year. I must admit that the full reality of it hasn’t hit me yet. When I go back to work tomorrow, and then back after Word Alive, it will just feel… normal. I feel like we have a life here – we have jobs, we’re involved with church, we have friends, we have a nice house… and it kind of feels like, not that we’re throwing that all away, but that we’re somehow giving up security in order to do something which really doesn’t have much security attached to it. Especially at the current time – who knows what’s going to happen to the CofE?

I must admit that the whole experience, looking back on it, has actually been moderately stressful. At some points more than others. Everyone reacts differently under stress, and I think in my particular case it’s involved me not being myself a lot – poor old Phil has to bear the brunt of this! But if you’re a friend and have noticed me being… well, strange – I’m sorry. Stress is probably the reason and I hope things will return to “normal” soon. I say “normal”, obviously with me things are never normal. You could say, in fact, they were not normal… but let’s not go there.

All that said… I was thinking last night (and I posted as much on Twitter) that I feel ready for change. I’ve been in Colchester now for 10 years (not continuously, but I first started at the Uni in October 2001). I think that’s the longest time I’ve ever lived anywhere. I’m not getting bored of it here (in fact I really like living here), but… I just sense that things are ripe for change. I don’t like change, but as someone commented to me the other day: staying the same can be boring 😉 (Note: that may seem like a contradiction in terms. I’m not bored with it here, but at the same time change can bring excitement. Yeah, that’s a better way of putting it!)

Right. That was the touchy-feely bit. (Not so bad, was it?) If we do get a place at Oak Hill, we will be moving to London by the beginning of September (term starts on September 5th I think). But all of that is still up in the air at the moment – I just wanted to update with the possibility.

I think that’s pretty much everything. I just wanted to update to bring everyone up to speed with what’s been going on. And explain my occasionally cryptic tweets and so on. So now you know! 🙂

Day 226: Buds

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Not sure what kind of tree this is but I think it’s beautiful!

Day 225: Chelmer Reflections

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a photograph of something shiny today."

I had difficulty with this assignment, mainly because of pinning down what would class as ‘shiny’. It was a beautiful day so I strolled down to the river, and I think the water here probably counts as ‘shiny’ – it’s quite a lot of the properties of shiny objects in this light 🙂

Day 224: Piano Keys

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Focus on an edge today and make a photograph."

Well I apologise for doing *another* shot of piano keys, but this is the edge of a piano 🙂

Another week, another weekend. That’s how this time business works.

Well, enough philosophising. I’ve already updated you with the results of the BAP, so no need to go into that too much! On Friday night we led at 21. AJ was away this week, so we had to lead ourselves. Fortunately we had some help from a couple of people who were making mother’s day posies and cards, so we didn’t actually have to do much in the end! I think everyone enjoyed it and had a good time.

On Saturday Phil went off to Higham to do a Moore Course exam. I decided not to do the exam this year – the first time she’s done a Moore Course exam but I haven’t! I just didn’t have the time to revise, at all. And revising really is what makes it useful. It was definitely a blessing not to have to do the exam though – it’s been quite a stressful few days and I think it would have been worse if I’d had to do the exam as well. As it turned out, it wasn’t the kind of exam where you could just wing it anyway – it needed proper revision.

So, while Phil was doing the exam I did a bit of food shopping and sorting out, then joined the others at the Sun Inn, Dedham, for lunch. I had a very nice risotto and generally we had a good old chat for a while!

After that it was time to mow the lawn (second time this year!) and then Anne-Marie came round for the evening. We had pizza, watched some of the IT Crowd and People Like Us, and just chatted for the evening.

Then on Sunday we went to church in the morning, twice, then came back for lunch, then headed out to Sunday@6. Afterwards we came back home and watched “Burke & Hare”, which was very funny: I did laugh out loud in a few places, but in general it was quite a light-hearted take on what is essentially people murdering other people for money. And the cast was amazing!

So there you have it, that was our weekend. Tonight I’m heading out to see the DDO, and I think we’re going to go through the report they sent back of the BAP. That should be interesting, to see what the wrote about me! Apparently it’s a good report so I’m not too scared. I will report back when I know.

That’s pretty much all for now.

Day 223: Violet Hill

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Make a photograph from an unusual point of view."

I decided to try a *low* point of view today. This is a picture of some violets in a small bit of woodland. I’ve done a little bit of post-processing just to try and make the colours more interesting.

Incidentally, the title is a reference to the song ‘Violet Hill’ by Coldplay, great song, although the photo has nothing to do with it! It’s just been on my mind recently for some reason 🙂

Day 222: Church Symmetry

Originally uploaded by phillsacre

Via Flickr:
Daily Shoot assignment: "Illustrate symmetry in a photograph today."

I like the symmetry of the altar and windows here, taken at church this morning. It isn’t a classically attractive church, but it does have a certain charm I think 🙂