College begins next week and I am already looking forward to causing trouble ermmm I mean learning about the great Anglican tradition. I’m obviously hoping for a bit of a makeover (pictured).

Phillipa and I are missing you mooters terribly so if anyone fancies coming up to Cambridge at any point or is passing through let us know we would love to meet up

Canon Michael Hart left out some feedback forms so we could get an idea about how people felt the service went – from the quick glance I gave them it seemed very positive. Although one person commented that the language in the liturgy was very ‘street’ – but they were glad that young people were being drawn into the church because of it.

We then went off for a quick bevvy which was also good. Found myself chatting to a gentleman who was confirmed at St Matthew’s before it was burnt down – wow!

We have a group of about 4-5 people who will continue this little venture – I think Southwark is the perfect spot for something like this. So hopefully a nice little community can emerge here in the next 6-10 months.

Next service will take the theme of ‘light’ and will be on Tuesday 8th May also in the Harvard Chapel at Southwark Cathedral.

I was quite amazed. Parliament does get a really bad press – MP’s apparently know very little; are not interested in due process and generally toe the line. Well all this may well be true sometimes but it wasn’t in evidence today (I know it’s probably because of the nature of what was being discussed).

At college I toyed with the idea of doing an MA in the Politics of Globalisation (I even got a place on the course but then met my wife to be). The idea was to do this over a year and then get a job as a civil servant and work my way up the political ladder. However, I quickly decided that I had lost confidence in our political systems and decided against this path. (I now see the irony in all this in my going forward for ordination in the Church of England.)

Today I think some of my faith has been restored – it wasn’t all about towing the political line – rather it was people passionately arguing on behalf of (sometimes using the language of) their constituents. Good stuff!

So for anyone who has no faith in politics – turn on the live Parliament channel (on a BBC channel on Freeview) you might occasionally find your faith increasing.

For this term we have been exploring the Eucharist and the city. We still have two services left this term which will also explore different areas of city life. Its great to be able to celebrate the eucharist together in a way that blends the traditional and the contemporary. So thank the Lord for Ian’s magic hands!

‘It might amaze you to know that most ’100%’ cotton t-shirts are only 73% cotton with the rest made up of chemicals (and their residue e.g. pesticides and formaldehyde). It takes approximately 17 teaspoons of pesticides alone to grow enough cotton to make one T-shirt.

Most of the chemicals used to grow and manufacture a normal cotton T-shirt are on the World Health Organisation’s ‘moderately hazardous’ list and two are known to be on their ‘highly hazardous’ list, due to them being carcinogenic, but they are still used!’

Its great to see that the ethical entrepreneurial spirit is still alive and well, one day I hope moot will have a great range of eco-friendly hoodies and t’s – maybe we should partner up?! In the meantime I think I might fancy one of their t’s for christmas…

Looking around where we live in Waterloo, and having lived in various SE London locations I can see exactly what he is talking about. Areas of London feel like ghettos, where due to a lack of foresight by the government when an influx of immigrants occurred after the 2nd world war. Whole areas are dominated by a few ethnic groups resulting in massive social tensions and resulting in communities that are severely isolated from each other. It is difficult to see how this can change in the short term.

This fragmentation in society, most pronounced in the cities, and perhaps most of all in London, is something that is on the very doorstep of moot. Where within 100 yards you have the riches and white upper class MP’s and people of power and influence right next to council estates full of ethnic minorities, which have massive unemployment and social issues. Yards apart, yet worlds apart.

One of the many challenges facing the emerging church is that it confronts this problem and becomes something truly ‘other’ within society. An image of community where all are welcome, and all are invited regardless of creed, colour, ideology, age or race. Where the ideology of the self is confronted by the reality of the other, the outsider, the have not’s, the fringe, the uncool, the technofobes, the eldery, the young forcing a reconfiguration of the self, the self deconstructed and reconstructed on transcendent principles.

The eucharist is a central act in the self’s reconstruction. It is a surrender of self to the way of Christ; a desire to follow Christ into the same table-fellowshipping that got him in so much trouble. Where prostitutes sat with the rich ruling classes, invading their private space with their perfumes, love language and femininity. Forcing boundaries to be torn up, old binaries collapsing into a new humanity, a resurrected humanity. Formed on the basis of loving God and loving your neighbour as yourself.

At the moment the emerging church is accused by some quarters of being a white, middle-class, and male. A response to boredom with the traditional church; a place full of ipods, vj’s and a penchant for all things mac. Although this is an unfair caricature it does contain elements of truth. My hope and dream for moot is that it would truly be a community of a resurrected humanity, perhaps not a perfect representation of the breadth, width and depth of humanity but at least a glimpse of it.

We are hoping to spend a few days living with some of the street kids – literally hanging out with them from dusk till dawn to see how they live and to try and gain some insight into the complex social issues that brought them to live on the streets.

I am also really looking forward to the food which from the guide books sounds fantastic and immensly varied.

Am sad to be missing moots first service of the term tonight. I was supposed to be leading it until I realised that my flight was tonight rather than tomorrow night – doh!

I will hopefully post some more stuff as and when I can (though probably no pics as I doubt the Internet Café with have bluetooth capability).