Just In Case You Were Wondering....

I know, I know, I've been neglecting this blog of late - well, alright, for about the last five months. But I've been busy! The thing is, it's not something I can sum up in a few words; nor is it anything that a few thousand words will explain (and who'd read that anyway?) So what I've done is reproduce a circular email I sent out recently to a few friends (who were as equally in the dark about my recent activities) to let them know that a) I was still alive, and b) what I've been doing.

So, with due apologies for ignoring you in recent months (and with a vague promise to not to so in future), my update for the last half year...

Dear Friends:

As it has been a while since I graced you with an account of my adventures, and since I know how much you all looooooove hearing from me, I thought I'd kick off the festive season with just the right spirit and bring you all up to date with what I've been getting up to (or away with, depending on your point of view!)

Ministry

This has been a very busy and challenging year, what with study, working a couple of nights a week at the local servo, and undertaking my first year of candidacy to the ordained ministry of the UCA. However, I am pleased to say that I have successfully completed Year One (as has my Dearly Beloved) and I am presently on placement over summer to the Black Rock/Beaumaris congregation.

Apart from being a very nice place to be over Summer, Black Rock / Beaumaris has two congregations (St Andrews Black Rock, and St Martin's Beaumaris) which mens two services every Sunday. The minister there is Rev Ian Ferguson, who is very gifted liturgically, and I am learning a lot from him in terms of making a service engage with people and drawing them into a space in which a service "speaks" to them. Ian goes on leave in January, so I'll be Johnny-on-the-spot for this congregation! Exciting but nerve wracking!

My Dearly Beloved and I have also done a fair bit of itinerant preaching and are both on the roster to be preaching regularly at the Hastings/Crib Point/Balnarring congregations - thank heavens for Eastlink! The formation process - that is what the official training program is called - has been very challenging and thought provoking. One of the interesting developments over the course of this year has been that when I first became a candidate, I assumed that I would be aiming for a congregational ministry once I was ordained; however, as a result of the formation process this year, I am now inclining myself more toward chaplaincy, and in particular, industrial chaplaincy. It seems to me (and this is an observation based on the many pastoral conversations I've had with many people over a number of years, including during my period of service in the union movement) that there is a great need for the church to be "present" in society in ways other than just congregations; and given that most of us spend most of our week at work, and given also how soulless and stressful many workplaces can be, a pastoral presence that meets people in their daily context is, it seems to me, a matter of some urgency. Still, the formation process is only one third over, and much thought and reflection and discernment still need to occur before the matter of where exactly I feel I am being called to is sorted out...hopefully, next year I will be able to access a placement in an industrial context that will enable me to reflect further on this notion.

Study

This year has been full on for study - I have effectively broken the back of my study load, meaning I'll be able to go back to two subjects a semester next year - but, boy, was it hard work! My academic results have been extremely pleasing - more than one High Distinction I'm delighted to say - but what has been truly rewarding have been the insights and sense of richness of faith and understanding that have flowed from my studies. In particular, the Old Testament studies I have undertaken this year have given me a completely new insight into the theological underpinnings of many of the prophetic and wisdom books of the OT, as well as the Book of Genesis. It seems to me that the ancients were not the primitives we often condescendingly imagine them to be - typified, for example, by the view that they heard thunder and imagined this to be God's anger - but that they were in fact sophisticated and subtle theological and philosophical thinkers whose portrait of God and faith is much richer and more complex than is revealed by our tendency to read sacred texts in literal terms. Indeed, the portrait of God and faith which the ancients who produced the OT paint is one that is subversive, dark, difficult, risky, ambiguous, and immensely powerful - but most of all, is one that undermines and overthrows the simplistic notions and presuppositions of both fundamentalist religiosity and fundamentalist atheism.

I have found this area of study so enriching that although I have completed the required subjects in this field for my BTheol degree - and next year I'm switching to Philosophy and Ethics - that I'll probably do a few more Biblical Studies subjects as electives.

Novel

I know you're probably all sick of hearing about this, but my novel Hunting the Shadows is now available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble - and for much cheaper than buying it direct from the publisher. So if you're looking for a gift for someone who's difficult to buy for (and loves crime fiction) or you are looking for a great read (even if I do say so myself!) you can purchase yourself a copy safely and securely online.

Benediction

I hope 2008 has been as rewarding and enriching for you as it has been for me - or, at least, that the prospects for 2009 will be as equally exciting or possibility-laden.

May your Christmas and New Year for you and yours be safe, happy, and refreshing and I look forward to maybe even catching up with one or two of you in 2009.

Talk to you soon,

BB

Quote for the Day: News is merely that which someone who doesn't care much for anything wishes to read. (Evelyn Waugh)