Happy Christmas

why don't you elf yourself...like me!

Prize for best Trinity-related Limerick

As promised in the latest issue of Wholly Trinity, there will be a small edible prize awarded for the best Trinity College-related limerick received in the comments to this post.

When I say 'best', I mean the one that the Editors think is best. It could be one that makes us laugh the most, or perhaps the one that boosts our egos the most. Who knows?

Anyway, do get thinking.

The closing date will probably be before the end of term, but I'll update this post when I decide.

Photos

You may well remember that Mark Loudon came into college to take some photos of us at work, play and praise (and walking down stairs). Well, they are all available for you to look at on Mark Loudon's Picassa page. Take a look and see what you think - please let us know via the comments or email.

Please don't take copies without asking Mark first (he'll not say no but he likes to be kept in the loop).

24: The Unaired 1994 Pilot

....when technology was much much more basic



I post this here for Paul. xxx

Sinead O’Connor, Theology

Lucy Wright has written a great review of Sinead O’Connor's album Theology. Lucy raises some interesting questions about how we respond to popular music and the way it expresses gospel values. Well worth a read.

something for the ladies

Next week sees the arrival of the first clerical wear company wanting to take leavers orders ready for ordination in July 2008. Some of ladies are struggling with the latest clerical fashions and are looking for something a bit more contemporary. Maggie Dawn was having a similar crisis this week and suggested a the work of Swedish woman Maria Sjodin AKA the Casual Priest. It is Genius! Watch out J&M new ideas for clerical shirts are on the way...

its all about me

this was sent in by Lee Barnes...who knows a thing or two about these things.

BBC Bristol - Thought for the Day

BBC Bristol's Thought For The Day slot is every weekday morning at 7.40am. A more substantial religious programme is Sunday Starts, every Sunday morning between 6.00 and 10.00am.

BBC Radio Bristol is looking for some new people to contribute to its Thought For The Day slot at the aforementioned time. They need people with something to say from all faiths and none. As it says on the tin, talk needs to be thought provoking (1.5 minutes or 270 words) and contributors need to be confident communicators.

This is a gig for love, not money - as they simply give a £5 allowance towards petrol. However, if you're bright, want to challenge people before they start their working day and love the idea of using radio, then do get in touch. BBC Radio are particularly interested to hear from any women who like the idea.

The vital numbers are: Julia Causton / Robin Markwell 0117-974-1111 or email: julia.causton@bbc.co.uk. Alternatively contact - Tim Pemberton 0117-974-7733 or email: tim.pemberton@bbc.co.uk.

Wholly Trinity on facebook

I have set up a Wholly Trinity facebook group...if you'd like to join you know how to do it.

If you haven't done so already do join us on facebook. It is a great way to keep in touch (though it is a bit weird to be facebooking people in the next office).

There are a load of pictures from the welcome weekend and the weekend away in both the Wholly Trinity group and the Trinity College group.

wholly trinity - new information issue is your pigeon hole!

Just to let you know that if you have been holding your breath for the next issue you can breath now - it's in your pigeon hole. It will also be available on-line shortly. It is a stonking issue...with some great contributions from some lovely people. We at WT HQ would love to get your feedback so please do let us know what you think.

thanks.
Ellen

new trinity bloggers

welcome to two new trinity bloggers:
Jude Smith
Lee Barnes

If there is anyone out there who is blogging and would like to have a link from here then please let me know.

harvest

If you don't know who to give your harvest offering to this year can I suggest Farm Africa. FARM-Africa is an international non-governmental organisation that aims to reduce poverty in eastern and South Africa. They work in partnership with marginal farmers and herders, helping them to manage their natural resources more effectively and build sustainable livelihoods on their land.

Ellen Loudon

church vs football

this is for Stuart Rason et al. Love you, love your footballs!



thanks to the Cartoon Church (click on the image and it magically gets bigger!)

10 things I hate about commandments

warning - this video contains limited swearing. That apart it is a funny movie mash-up.

Are you interested in the internet?

We are interested in starting an Internet forum at Trinity and would like to meet people who are currently using the Internet for study, networking, discussing theology, as an evangelistic tool, for entertainment etc etc. We would like to enhance the current provision as well as develop the community's use of the Internet. It would be great to share ideas.

Please get in touch with either Ellen Loudon or Liz Hassall.

Get Greek Font

The Greek font that is listed in the computer handbook has a new link (the one on the computer file won't work).

To upload it to your computer please follow the How to install the SPIonic Greek font used on Monachos.net instructions.

The Max @ Woodlands Christian Centre

If you have children between the ages of 5-12 then you might be interested in K-Factor which takes place at Woodlands Christian Centre on 22nd Sept between 6pm-8pm. Those of us who's kids have attended can testify to the fact that this is a great evening and that they come back tired and happy. If you want to know more about it (or share lifts) then contact Ellen Loudon or Simon Dunn.

The Max is also happening on 10th Nov, 26 January 08, 22 March 08, there isa big event taking place between 23-25th May 08 and the last Max for the year will be 21st June 08.

If you would like more info about the event itself and would like to speak to one of the Max team then contact Margaret Lilley on 07977478341

aussie independed vs ordinand #5

This is the last in the series - to view in order scroll back to #1...

aussie independent vs ordinand # 4

big bible day

I know it's been done before but you can't have big bible day and not play 'I like Big Bibles'. Classic...

aussie independent vs ordination students #3

aussie independent vs ordinand students #2

This series of videos was found at youtube...but if you want to saturate yourself with Christian videos (though it is slightly more censored than its secular counterpart!) then go to GodTube (if you dare).

aussie independent vs ordinand students #1

facebook

If you are logging into this blog for the first time - then welcome!

You might be interested to know that a large number of Trinity students are using facebook to communicate (and I use this term in the broadest sense) with each other.

There are some Trinity related groups that might be of interest:

• David Wenham (theologian) fans!
• Dr James Steven (MA, BA PHD) Appreciation Society
• Dr. John Bimson Groupie Group
• Church of England
• Trinity Theological College, Bristol

So, until the new term begins, and we get to all meet up in person, facebook is there to keep us virtually in touch.

the parish system

This might help those leavers who don't think they quite understand how the parish system works.

the cartoon is by Dave Walker AKA the cartoon church. To see it bigger click on the image and it will expand befiore your very eyes.

Bono and the Gospel

He preaches the gospel at the NAACP awards...best bit is the last 2 minutes!

more Christian Clowns

this video offers some good general pastoral advice - not just for Christian Clowns.



Classic Quote:
"remember a prop is not just a prop, it's a friend"

good advice:
"if you have a flower as part of your routine then put some perfume on it"

Perhaps we should suggest training of this sort to Bill for B202 'Sickness Healing and Dying'?

Christian clown training

The Christian Clowns are coming. Be afraid, be afraid, be very afraid.



understatement of the week:
"Clowns can be quite intimidating if you see a lot of them in one place"
no kidding!

things God doesn't do...

smoke fags

essays, exams, reading, learning files, meetings, leaving commitments, chapel, etc etc

There is a lot going on. My desk looks like this:

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Anyone else feeling the pressure?

If you take a look at Asbo Jesus you will see loads of interesting cartoons just like this one:


this one is 29

St Paul Takes Psych 101

I do not understand my stimulus control. The wants generated by my orbitofrontal cortex I do not do, but what the limbic system wants. And if I do what my limbic system controls, I agree that previous legalistic attempts to solve this were good though ineffectual. As it is I have been hijacked by my limbic system. My orbitofrontal cortex thinks nothing good lives in me, that is, in my limbic system. For the former advises me to do what it thinks is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good suggested; no, my limbic system wins every time for a dose of dopamine. Now if I do what my neocortex advises I do not want to do, it is as if there were a separate ancient mammalian brain living inside me. But that can’t be right, surely?
So I find this law at work: When my orbitofrontal cortex wants to do good, the dopamine need is right there with me. For in my inner being (which doesn’t show up on the MRI scan) I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in my behaviour, waging war against the reason of my orbitofrontal cortex and making me a prisoner to any old limbic highjacking. How wretched this unresolved cerebral conflict leaves me feeling! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The above was taken from Bruce Stanley's website Embody

songs of praise

I featured this on my blog last week - and it has kept me amused for almost as long. If you have seen it before perhaps you could tell us what they are really singing.
By the way - please don't watch this if you are easily offended.

Latest Update

oooooh I have been lazy recently. Something to do with babies and dissertations...

Well I've just updated the WT site with the last issue of (WT40) and there should be another issue out later this week.

Enjoy!

There's only one way to find out....

FIGHT!

One more for the tree?

Poor Drunken Squirrel Minnesotan couple`s footage of a backyard squirrel that had had its fill of porch fermented pumpkins.

Perhaps too true to be funny....

David Salter put me on to this, a little too close to the bone for some of us perhaps...

God Blogs

A little known fact is that God is a blogger, check this out:

God's Creation Blog

Thanks again to Phil H.

Alternative to the Valedictory

Phil Hughes showed me his alternative to the Valedictory service at the end of the Summer term, brings a whole new meaning to being sent out in the power of the Lord....



Nice One Phil!

WWJD?

So they ask "What Would Jesus Do?" Well I am pretty sure He WOULDN'T manufacture Christian products in a country where Christianity is illegal and Christians are being persecuted and tortured just for refusing to recount their faith. And probably made by people who receive so little in wages they might as well be in slavery.

While in Wesley Owen last week I noticed that the WWJD wrist band bears the legend 'Made in China' Go Figure....

Check this out

Bible stories for Kids are actually going to be aired on the CBBC channel in March.

Check out this link!

Quiet Day - more thoughts

OK, so I feel I need to add something to my post on Quiet days. I wrote that article nearly 18 months ago, and while I still stand by what I wrote, I have also mellowed. I can use quiet to reach out to God and there are time when I find it very useful and helpful. Times when God calls me to quiet in order to communicate with me and times when I just need to use quiet to rest in Him.

I still feel however that the enforced quiet days, the guilt often piled on people when they admit to not having a regular 'quiet time' and the expectation on Christians that quiet MUST form a part of their spirituality is unequivocally WRONG. It is a medieval monastic world-view that is totally unfair to impose on others.

My quiet day is going well today, I feel the need and the desire to spend time with God in quiet, and that is what I'll do. I do hope yours is good too.

With (quiet) Blessings

Kite Flying Spirituality

OK this is not quite what I mean when I say I am into Kite Spirituality, but it is none the less very very cool!

A Quiet day for Hyperactives?

Its quiet day again at Trinity Today, so here - by popular demand - is a rerun of my views on quiet spirituality from last year:

I have a confession - I hate quiet days. Now before you reach for the gravel to stone me, let
me explain.

I am quite a frenetic person (as anyone who has sat near me during a lecture can testify), I
like to be busy, I like to have several things on the go at once and I like noise.

To me it is totally bizarre that fourteen centuries since the idea was first conceived, western
Christianity cannot get beyond a monastic ideology of spending time with God, when, for
many of us it just simply does not work.

Please don’t misunderstand me. I like to spend time with God, to listen for the ‘still small
voice’ and to be in His presence. But I find this virtually impossible to do through quiet days
and long quiet times. Put simply, quiet days just don’t cut the mustard for me.

When I spend time with God I like to be active and spend time with God. I like to go for a
walk, climb a mountain (well alright a small hill), take my collection of kites out for a spin. I
like to shout, to (believe it or not) sing and to talk out loud to God.

As a result of all this I have spent much of my Christian life feeling like a failure when I
haven’t met God in quiet times, or have failed to successfully sit through a quiet day without
almost exploding. It is only in the past two or three years that I have realised it is OK to
meet Him in other ways, and that not to conform to the western ideal of monastic spirituality,
is acceptable.

Now I recognise that for many of you being quiet is exactly the way you need to spend time
with God. So I have a suggestion: instead of ‘Quiet Days’ let’s have ‘God Days’ a time set
aside for us all to spend time with our Lord in a way suitable to the unique personality he
created in each and everyone of us. And for those of us who want to jump, scream shout,
play music and generally meet our Lord through noise, lets sound-proof LR1 and the rest of
you can shut us in there for the duration!

(c)Ali Mepham Nov. 2005

Ministry takes it out of you...

Ellen Loudon put me on to these two blog posts about the managing the workload once ordained. I think its something we should all take a look at:

http://alternativeworship.org/paulsblog/

http://elizaphanian.blogspot.com/2007/01/workload-priorities-vocation.html

Any thoughts anyone?

Stick bun Competition

As promised here are the top 3 winning entries:

3rd Simon Dunn:

to the tune of Jingle Bells

Sticky Bun Sticky Bun
I would like to win
Join the jelly in my belly
Cake is not a sin.

2nd Sarah Jarvis:

I am writing to you as Mother Superior od the Almighty-Sticky-Bun-Order or ASBO for short. We believe that the Sticky Bun is the best. If far out does every other baked product known to man. Here at ASBO we rely on the sticky bun as our daily source of strength, and unfortunately we are experiencing an all-time low in out stock, causing some rather anti-social behaviour from some of our sisters. I plead with you to send as many stick buns as you can spare - without them I really don't know what damage the ASBO nuns will do.

Thank you and may the blessing of the Sticky Bun be upon you.

Yours FAITHfully

M.S. Jarvis ASBO.

AND THE WINNER IS:

Anna Pennington (Aged 10):

I would like a stick bun because it is not very fattening for me. Because I eat veg and fruit. I try to maintain a healthy diet. Another reason is that I was able to explain to my teacher what hermeneutics meant. I am deprived because on the way home from school we used to go the bakery but now it is shut FOREVER!! So I can't have cake any more.

---------------------------------------


A clear an worthy winner I feel!

Been a bit quiet...

OK - so I am guilty of the biggest sin in blogging - not keeping things up to date. Needless to say things have been a bit busy recently, what with an increased family size and a dissertation and a whole load of other excuses. Still now its February and time to start up again. Hopefully there will be a new issue of the mag very soon and maybe even something controversial.

In the meantime here is a picture of Walter Brueggemann:

Pentecost comes very early in Oxford Diocese

This is just the sort of thing we love here at WT. An Oxford vicar finds an early Pentecost comes during the Christmas 'Carols by Candlelight'.



Hee-hee!

Editor

Happy New Year

Well, Happy New Year!

I had hoped to post here a few times over the Hol's but events got the better of me... I f you haven't heard why, read this link

Otherwise just to bless you here is a countdown for you:

Kneewax