Christmas Round Robin 2010

December 2010

This is just a quick note to stick in with the Christmas cards to let people know how life is going. The year has been busy, I have to keep reminding myself that I am trying to do 80% of a full time job and 50% of a full time degree and somehow those have to fit together. I basically get around to planning the University’s Advent Wreath after my December Supervision and Christmas happens after the carol service.

Health wise I am actually lots better this year. In January I had a resurgence of migraines so sat down and asked what I had changed. In the end all I could think of is that I might have with changing supplements slightly dropped my magnesium intake, so I went out and got some and the change started almost immediately. Since then other little things seem to have helped, changing to a quieter office (I had the choice of a noisier one or a quieter one and I had realised that if things got noisier I was in trouble), stopped eating prawns and some minor messing with other supplements. The net result is not only fewer migraines but I have substantially reduced the medication for depression.

Holidays are often taken up with doing PhD work but I spent almost a fortnight with my God-family in the Rhins of Galloway. As I go up there regularly and what we do is between family excursions is go for walks and explore religious sites often at the same time but interspersed with drinking lots of coffee and ginger-beer while eating chocolate. There is a lot of Christian sites covering the whole of Scottish Church history, from Pre-Celtic to the Covenanters. However although the big ones such as Whithorn are known many of the smaller sites are largely unknown. We decided to create a website that gives people information on both the sites and on the walks in the surrounding area.

I also attended a conference of the Society for Liturgical Studies. One of the problems with my PhD is there isn’t a developed academic community to talk to, so I end going to conferences that overlap with my discipline.  A surprising amount of identity work is done around worship and sacraments in both my congregations. So I find myself regularly writing about liturgical events or discussing liturgical controversies. The Society was interesting to say the least, an organisation who expressed the desire for more Free Church liturgists to join, who defined liturgy in such a way that most Free Church liturgist would not be interested. They also kept referring to people from the Reformed tradition.

Otherwise I am as busy as usual, if anything work at the University is busier than it has been for a while. I am not sure if this is part of the University refocusing on research due to the economic climate or me being in better health so more pro-active.

Hope that you have a good festive season and that during next year the blessings outweigh the sorrows. With Love and best wishes, God Bless Jean