Here is a quote I've been meaning to share for a while. I found it while I was researching my essay over Easter and saved it for a day with not much else to blog about. It has certainly given me a lot to think about. If you want to read more of her short pieces on religion, literature, life etc. they are very rewarding. Unpopular Opinions is the main collection, but there are sure to be others.
Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man -- there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronised; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them either as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no axe to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unself-conscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature.
But we might easily deduce it from His contemporaries, and from His prophets before Him, and from His Church to this day.
From The Human-Not-Quite-Human, p121 in the 1946 edition of Unpopular Opinions.
I had a very productive couple of days reading about authority in the Anglican church. It has left me wondering that things have kept together as long as they have and marvelling that God must be working in there because there is no other way that it would still be chugging along.
Important things to note:
- Anglicans outside the C of E have addressed many problems that we, in our relations with the state, are still wondering about.
- There have been some very amusingly named bishops .
- Most of the problems seem to stem from confusion (often wilful) over terminology and what it means. Definitely a case of being divided by a common language.
- The Churches of North and South India respectively are an example to us all
- It seems not to be necessary to know how to use commas in order to publish books on Anglican authority.
- Double standards seem to be mandatory when working ecumenically
As predicted, I've spent most of the last few weeks, when not in college, watching the snooker. Can't quite believe that Stephen Hendrey managed to get to the semis. He had a really inspired few days earlier in the week and was playing like I vaguely remember from years ago. Anyway, I have admitted through gritted teeth that Ronnie deserved to win the semi. Mr F is now feeling very smug that his player is still in and mine is not. I am going to try and be disciplined and write essays today and not watch the snooker. This is definitely not due to me sulking at all.
In baby news: ante-natal classes have started and not been as awful as I had been led to believe they might be. I am a little scared of the physiotherapist, but I understand that is normal.
In college news: I am off to read about bishops.
In cat news: Would the neighbour who keeps putting scotch pancakes out, presumably for the birds, please find some way to cat-proof them. Esme keeps bringing them home. I admit that this is preferable to bringing dead birds home, but it is still quite messy.
Yesterday someone, intending I think to be complimentary, compared me to Wayne Rooney. I am still not convinced. I think it best to leave you in the dark as to the context of this remark but, rest assured, I have not taken to playing football.
Has anyone else been watching Chinese School on BBC 4? I've really been enjoying it, even switching over from the snooker yesterday evening to watch last week's episode before it disappeared from 'watch again'.
First a baby shower thrown by my lovely friends from college. Then a lovely relaxing birthday at home with Mr F and my sister. I haven't eaten so much in months and there are many exciting items waiting to be read/played with as appropriate.
To top off the day I went to sing choral evensong at Church. Our rogue tenor managed to snore through both the intercessions and sermon, waking up briefly to sing a hymn in between. The stand-in accompanist was extremely deaf so I'm not sure quite how we managed to make it through everything without falling apart. The preacher started by stating that music found in choral evensong would probably be found in heaven and speculating that punk-rock would probably not be there. I disagreed, although not out loud. Murmurs from behind me expressed the wish that if there were to be that sort of music they hoped that adequate sound-proofing would be provided.
I found the Spanish formula 1 rather dull today, although I am very glad that Kovaleinen seems ok. What is the point of a racetrack where the outcome of the race is decided 24 hours in advance by who gets pole?
There are several more tangents buzzing around my head but I think I will leave this here for now.
The new series of Heroes started last night. I have heard mixed reviews of series 2, but it is still new Sci-fi. I quite enjoyed the first episode. The character-centred style appeals to me and the mix of new and old characters was good. I do have some concerns about some of the things I have seen on the trailers, but I will have to be content to wait and see.
Did anyone else see Martin Sheen on Graham Norton after Heroes? Absolutely inspired!
I must get back to work. There is a small person kicking me as if to remind me that it won't be long before it is here and hadn't I better make sure I get this essay finished.
The last two weeks before the May Bank Holiday are my favourite time of year. Leaves appear on the trees, it becomes almost warm enough to sit outside and the top players in my favourite spectator sport spend two solid weeks entertaining me. Yes, it is the Snooker World Championships. An added bonus this year is that I have the new armchair to sit in. If you wonder where I have gone over the next fortnight, then you will find me in the living room, sitting in my chair and trying to keep the cats and the knitting apart while cheering for Stephen Hendry. Some say he is boring to watch, but I am nothing if not faithful: I have been a fan of his since I was 9 and used to watch with my Dad on a black and white tv set.
Today was the first day back at college after a very welcome few weeks off. I found myself flagging by mid-morning so I came home and slept for most of the afternoon, accompanied by Gaudy Night, the next to last in the Lord Peter Wimsey books*. The cats made a concerted effort to prevent me from moving by falling asleep on my legs. It worked.
Now I am full of lasagne (the simple baked lasagne from Jamie's Dinners - I recommend it) and starting to think about doing some essay reading. Funny how much more alert I am in the evenings than the afternoon. If only there was a job which mainly involved working mornings and evenings. Oh wait, maybe there is!
Mr F sent me a link to an Empire quiz on sci-fi geekdom. Thought some of you might enjoy it.
* I don't count the ones co-written or written by Jill Paton-Walsh.
Living in rented accommodation means that every so often, the property manager sends someone round to fix stuff that the owners (or sometimes we) want fixing. Last time this ended up being a long, drawn out affair with lots of things being painted that didn't particularly need doing. The most distressing outcome was that a hook holding up one end of the net curtains in our bedroom snapped off. Without the nets, anyone passing in the street can see EVERYTHING that is going on in our room so we have been existing with the main curtains drawn most of the time.
Today I found a replacement hook in my pigeonhole at college. Hurrah! I screwed it into the frame, (I even measured it first) picked up the curtain to hang it up again and *PING*, the other hook broke. I shall have to request another hook.
Now why did I think this was worth blogging? No idea. Sorry for boring you.
In other news, the kitchen floor is much less slippery now. I think it just needed time to recover itself.
Somehow (I am uncertain of the details, but it involved Mr F and some furniture polish), part of our kitchen floor has become somewhat of a skid-track. It is so slippery that it is ice-rink like. Of course, it is the part of the floor in front of the sink so washing up has become somewhat hazardous.
Can anyone help with ideas of how to make it non-slippery again? The surface is lino I think, if that helps.
... that you can refill Ecover bottles at certain shops? Ring the number on the bottle, tell them your postcode and they will tell you where your nearest stockist is. Marvellous. You get a lovely warm feeling of having done something useful for the environment. Plus you probably get to go to an interesting shop and buy lots of things you don't really need.
I'm off to read a book called Unashamed Anglicanism. Then I shall watch The Apprentice, or rather listen to it while I carry on knitting a cardigan for the imminent small person. (I'm knitting for a 6 month old in case it takes me a while, but it is going much faster than expected).
Today has been a work day. In my now standard essay strategy, I started by writing the title and doing the bibliography. 200 words without even thinking about it. Consciously, I know that these 200 words do not count in the final reckoning, but somehow it makes it easier along the way.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the Church of England is a crazy haphazard structure with no real logical thought behind how it works. The rest of the Anglican communion appears to be much better organised.
Things of note achieved today include: having breakfast in the garden before 9am, doing some reading, not spending the whole day sitting in the new armchair.
Our new armchair arrived this morning. I've been complaining for months about the uncomfortable chairs in our living room and so we finally got round to looking at chairs and sofas etc. The sofa we wanted won't fit through the door into the living room so that will have to wait until we move next year. The armchair would fit so we've got it now. Hurrah! Don't know why I'm sitting up here at my desk
(Aaaaagh rain. Must get washing in.)
when there is a lovely comfortable new chair downstairs to sit in.
On another subject, I had an interesting conversation with my Mother-in-Law yesterday after our niece's baptism. She was complaining about all the newfangled bits that have been added to the baptismal service since Mr F and his sister were baptised. Being naturally suspicious of all high church practices, the two anointings with oil were the aspects she disapproved of most. I really did think twice about getting into the subject, but couldn't quite stop myself pointing out that they had been a part of the service since at least the 3rd century, so you can't really complain that they are newfangled. Thankfully, she took it quite well. Note to self: wear learning lightly, particularly around in-laws.
On with the day I think. The repartitioning seems to have worked well, plus I now have a DVD with a full backup of my data. Time to break the laptop by upgrading.
JtL asked: What does this mean for your deaconing? (I have it in my head you're due to be deaked* this year) * of course it is a word. "Deaconed" would be silly.
Loving the terminology. I will make sure that deaked becomes the term of choice. I wonder if it is onomatopoeic, perhaps the sound that the bishop's hands make as he pats you on the head.
I'm not due to be deaked until next year. The C of E has wisely decided that I (and anyone else who is under 30 when starting college) need three years of training, rather than the usual two.
Thank you to all who have left congratulatory comments. I do love the friendliness of the wibloggers.
Today's main job is to back up the data on my laptop and then repartition it to allow for an upgrade to the next version of Ubuntu. Must get my brain in gear.
The beginning of June will see a new addition to the Farli household. No, not more kittens, but a baby. For various reasons I've not mentioned this before on the blog, but since life now consists of little that is non-baby-related, I guess it is time to share.
Well, that is that job out of the way: tell internet about baby. I can get back to the rest of the things on the list. Only 2 more essays to do, both due to be handed in the same week as the baby arrives (if it* arrives on schedule which is unlikely given its parentage). Maybe this will be the catalyst I need to meet my target of getting an essay done with more than 24 hours to spare.
* English is severely lacking in non-gender-specific pronouns.
A while back, I promised to upload some pictures of Bruges. Last week I finally managed to get them off my phone and onto my computer so here they are.
It was a very cold day when we went on our canal trip. Pretty buildings though.
Trees getting their annual haircut. My tree-surgeon friend tells me that this is not pollarding, but a special Belgian method of making trees into a regimented line.
A random statue. Impossible to return from holiday without a picture of a random statue.
Would anyone like to speculate as to the logic behind the name of this shop?
We stopped off in Brussels while changing trains. This is one of those slightly disappointing tourist attractions. A lot smaller and less impressive than I expected.
It always amuses me that Seph can't decide whether to lie on her left or her right. An impressive compromise.
It is nice to be back home again. The cats seemed very pleased to see us. Having a house-sitter obviously suited them better than having someone coming in just to feed them.
There are a few April fools around that are worth looking at.
I caught the BBC's flying penguins this morning on News 24.
Google announced their latest project Virgle today. Funny that there is no mention of it on Virgin's site.
Don't yet know what the Guardian's April fool was - they usually manage quite a good one. No doubt Wikipedia will have a round up of the good ones in a day or two.
Cabbages and Kings 
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