revmusings

Went to see 'The Rat Pack' last night - excellent. They sang and performed well, captured something of those thre ewonderful showmen and added a little Christmas spirit. I usually see Maddy Prior at Christmas who is wonderful and some carols are just brought to life by her and the Carnival Band- but sadly not this year.

What did strike me was that the audience spanned all the age groups from teenagers to 'golden oldies' and everyone in between

Maybe that where the church goes wrong - lets stop arguing about music and just set everything to Rat pack tunes and they will all come flooding in!

Today my paper had an atricle on child marriage in Nigeria and the emotional and physical damage it does to girls as young as 12. They are married off to older men who insis on intercourse, generally causing huge dmamge and resulting in a fistual that is often not repaired leaving the woemn totally incontinent. The resulting pregancies add to this. Then, beause they smell they are divorced and outcast from community.

Here this would be a criminal offence and the governments have tried to bring in laws preventing marraige before 16 or 18. But its if failing because the religious leaders object and individual parts of the country are able to amend laws that offend religious laws.

'In the Muslim northern states, though, there has been fierce resistance to the Act, with many people portraying it as antiIslamic. “Child marriage in Islam is permissible. In the Koran there is no specific age of marriage,” said Imam Sani, a liberal cleric in the northern state of Kaduna. He said that this was the root cause of the opposition among the more hardline mullahs, who believe that matters of Islamic “personal” law - marriage, divorce and inheritance - must be governed by the Koran, not the state.

“The Muslim clerics have a problem with this Child Rights Act and they decried it, they castigate it, they reject it and they don’t want it introduced in Nigeria,” Mr Sani said.

He said there would be serious repercussions if the federal Government attempted to impose a minimum age of marriage. “There will be violent conflict from the Muslims, saying that ‘no, we will not accept this, we’d rather die than accept something which is not a law from Allah’.” (Times on-line)

We are rightly horrified at this - that God is effectively said to sanction such acts.

It just set me wondering what we condone or reject in the name of faith that causes others pain or rejection?

I have just got the cheapest car insurance quote - £100 less than my current insurers

Great you cry - yes....

But....

It's from SAGA! ;-(

Went out for our celebration meal last night - good time and fairly good food.

We spent much of the evening looking over the last 30 years and talking about our favourite:

Holidays

Plays/musicals/concerts

bottle of wine

meals out

events

music we had purchased.


We had too many contenders for most of the categories to get one favourite except the bottle of wine:

We had at my father-in-law's 70th birthday party - purchased in France and laid down for 10 years for just that purpose and costing £40 a bottle - even the cork smelt good. There was a close second that lived in the memory - a bottle in a turkish restaurent in Penge called Hitit and was wonderful!

Many of the events were shared with family and friends, especially the plays and meals and even some of the holidays.

What a rich and varied life we have led - great families and friends with whom we have shared life's joys and sadnesses, even in the last two weeks (an aunt diagnosed with cancer yesterday was the news that greeted us when we got back last night) but I believed we have been very blessed over all.

here's to the next.........

Today is my wedding anniversary - my Pearl one (that's 30 years!)

It means I have been married for 60% of my life - how scary is that!
(So now you can work out how old I am!)

Our wedding day seems both a liftime ago and just a few weeks.

A lot has changed since that day:

Positively: 3 children plus a foster daughter, one grandchild and another on the way, several changes of career for us both, degrees, wonderful friends, holidays and many happy experiences.

Sadly: Many of our family and friends who I can see in our wedding photos are no longer here: one scout died within 2 years and since we have lost grandparents, parents, uncles and many friends.

Life has changed beyond recognition - we knew nothing of computers, mobiles, Easy Jet or the world wide web which is now an integral part of our daily lives.

Its had its up and downs over the years but we have survivied - God is good!

I woke up in the early hours of this morning with bad stomach cramps that would not go away so the decision that I was not fit for church was reluctantly made. Especially as my other half had a similar thing the night before and I didn't want to risk passing on a bug to anyone.

A deacon with my husband's help took the morning service and hubbie is doing the evening service. They have taken on my words and service and tried to make it their own - not an easy task, especially when the deacon does not watch the same TV series I do and so some of the illustrations were lost on him!

Thankfully I was fully prepared so they both had lots of material to work from but preaching someone else's sermon must be very strange. I had done fairly full script this week so they at least had that to work from.

Its a strange feeling that someone else is preaching my sermon that I would have changed as I went along (and so did they I hear - thankfully)

I wonder what the congregation made of it all?

I am just glad that God was in control!

Every so often I am invited onto a faith panel of Christian ministers who work in multi-faith areas. Its always a challanging time as you never quite know what questions you will be asked, either by the chair or by the particpants on the course who sometimes come from all over the world.

Today we reflected on the way our churches react to be set in such diiferent and challenging communtites and the response from the Methodist minster got me thinking...

Is it my job to get involved in the community and interact with people of other faiths or is it my to to equip my congregation to do it? Or indseed to do both?

If it is the second how does that work when most live outside a multi-faith area and so have little or no day to day contact with people of other faiths and it seems irrelevant to them?

And when, oh when, will the BU appoint an interfaith advisor in the way it has a Racial Justice post to help all those who find themselves in this kind of area? Other denominations have regional people as well as national - or are we just going to withdraw from such areas? Its in the 5 year startegy to work on this issue so I pray progress will be swift!

Well ok, a week and a bit.

Last week my sister-in-laws's aunt was knocked down and killed

Yesterday our daughter was mugged but had the presence of mind to grab the guy and then was assisted by a passerby who floored and held him till the police arrived..it was the second time in a week this lad had done this. Her friend who was with her called her 'one tough cookie' but this last two years everything that could go wrong has for her and actually she is struggling and now she has an injured shoulder to add to the list. Good job he didn't mug her sister who is a black belt!

My mum returned from a trip away yesterday to fnd her car had been broken into

This week I we are looking at forgiveness as part of our Lord's prayer series. My sister-in-law immediately prayed for the driver who hit her aunt. Our daughter thinks the guy must have been desperate and feels sad for him.

Its all very well talking of forgiveness but when you or people you love are hurt its hard but it must be done if we are not to continue hatred and not to become bitter oursleves. Sometimes its an act of will, of decision, rather than feeling that we later learn to grow into and really live it.

I can forgive because God first forgave me and showed a better way to live.

Father forgive them for they know not what they do.

I had an advert today in my paper for a 'Read the Bible' in a year publication. The new take on this one is that this one is done 'in the order the events happened'

I am intrigued to see how on earth they do that, with the prophets particularly

But how on earth will they date Jonah and Job?

The BBC has just announced that John Sargent has pulled out of Strictly Come Dancing - see here

A brave decison that I applaud though I know it will upset many.

I am sad he has been put in this position and has felt the need for this.

Well Done John!

Let's get back to the dancing....