confessional

yesterday i worked later than i planned to at the office and therefore when it came time to cycle home it had got dark and i didn't have my lights.
as i set off from St Clements a guy was getting out of his car and just said "lights" as i cycled past. for some reason this kind of thing gives me 'cycle-rage'. of course i was too slow (and cycling too fast) to come back with something witty (like, i could have shouted "...camera, action" or "manners" but didn't think of it in time). so i just looked back and said "what?" to which of course he just shouted "lights" again. i just let it go and cycled off.
i think i'm usually a fairly patient guy. i get a little road-rage occasionally when i'm driving (as my wife will confirm) but nothing too crazy. so why does this sort of thing really wind me up? i guess it could be to do with the fact that there's no chance of a conversation - it's just someone shouting a word at you. anyone care to psychologise?

very funny

this is hilarious! U2 (and friends) as you have never seent them before. thanks to mootblog for the link.

emerging church conversation and discussion day

go here to register.

the gift of our presence

after a night at church where lots of friends weren't there for various reasons I was stirred to read these words from Jason Clark's blog this morning:

"I suggested to our church family that one of the greatest gifts we can give each other in a consumer society is our time, and presence."

"Community, takes time, proximity, interaction, and above all the cost of giving our time to others."

Cutting Edge Retreat

hOME is partly funded by a Diocesan group called 'Cutting Edge Ministries' which has been set up to fund new missional communities in the Diocese of Oxford. i am away for a 24 hour retreat with them and we have some input from people like Stuart Murray-Williams, Mike Moynagh and Pete Ward.
i think when i come on these things i am always looking for a good balance between the conceptual, the spiritual, and the experiential (i.e. connecting with what's actually happening on the ground). i think this retreat (we are just about to start the last session) has had a pretty good balance to it. this morning Pete led a helpful session where we started from our experience of what's happening (which we uncovered by using imaginative journey + the nuts and bolts of how we spent our week last week, what our focus was in the first week we started our 'project' (not a word I like), and also choosing and telling a story from the last two years) and then looking for theological motifs and scriptural texts that illuminate what's actually happening.
as well as that we have had some nice reflective worship, including some body prayer and the use of a Japanese drum last night.

hOME now podcasting

we are now podcasting the talks from hOME. you will find us in the iTunes podcast directory under podcasts/religion & spirituality/christianity and then under the h's. we are about 7 places above HTB, but it's not a league table.
you can also get the audio direct from our web site (and the RSS feed is there too), but as i'm compressing the files they are not playable in Windows Media Player at the moment - some might see that as discrimination in favour of Mac users, but even Windows users can use iTunes these days so it shouldn't be a problem.
the podcasts may seem a little 'old church' at the moment - they are all of me talking, and the talks are a little on the lengthy side. but that's because we are in a new season of the life of the church and are doing some re-envisioning. it won't always be me on the podcast, I promise.

Rant: I hate insurance companies

Last night Pip and I went for what we thought would be a quiet drink in a village pub a few miles from where we live. we parked our car in the car park (as you do) but someone driving a 4x4 reversed into it on their way out of the car park. they didn't stop but instead drove off. we knew nothing of this as we were still inside the pub. Someone who was in the car park at the time came into the pub and asked for the owner of the car. It may not look like much damage but we can't close the door properly and these kinds of bodywork jobs are always pricy.
I called the Police. we were told to go and report it at the Police station. which we did. took till about 12.45am. I didn't do this because i was particularly bothered about them catching the guy (we only had a partial reg number for the car so i knew it was unlikely) but to cover us for when i called the insurance company. I needn't have bothered.
Apparently even though it wasn't our fault, and even though we have a witness, and even though we have reported it to the Police, we are still going to have to pay for the damage one way or another - either directly by paying for the repairs or indirectly by claiming and then losing our no claims bonus. Insurance companies are such a rip off. You pay them hundreds of pounds a year and for what? We have fully comprehensive cover. that is a very misleading phrase. they make sure that whatever happens it's you that's going to be out of pocket, not them. I have no idea why i bother having insurance at all (I know, I know, it's a legal requirement etc etc.) All i know is that this morning we are seriously out of pocket for a car accident that isn't our fault even though we have fully comprehensive cover. that ain't right.