Heading off wildly in many directions

I think I am going to have to write a highlights, but despite things being busy, (when aren’t they) I am not sure how many highlights I actually have.

Right on Friday 10th I went as I normally do to the Broomhall Breakfast. It seemed very light staffed, Mary was cooking, Jean was behind the hatch and Sarah was taking orders. Fortunately at that stage it also was fairly few clients. So I had my breakfast and then realised that Sarah might like hers so offered to take over orders. When I did that, Mary decided that, as it was quiet, she might as well have her breakfast, only for over ten people to walk through the door. This resulted in Jean cooking a couple of eggs just so the backlog did not get too bad. I have since volunteered to be around on a Friday until September time, so I now have to be up and ready to go by 7:30 a.m. in the morning on a Friday.

That evening I went out for a meal with James and Jean Dickson. Rather than cooking this time they decided to take me to the Bistrot Pierre on Ecclesall Road. The reason for doing so is that it does a gluten free menu and as their grandson is both a celiac and milk intolerant, they wanted to try it out before they took him. Their grandchildren are moving to Sheffield in a few weeks time. It was airy with glass all the way around, a good number of dinners and the food was good. They do a set of light main courses which were about the right amount for us to eat and they also do 500ml (2/3 of the normal bottle size) of wine which is very nice if only two are drinking , James was driving so didn’t. We came back to my place to have coffee and I found the bag of decaffeinated beans I had bought so we were fine.

That weekend I was writing, well I was analysing hymns. It is interesting, I think if I am right the hypothesis that the reason hymns are sung often is because they are “our hymns” does not seem to hold. Congregation’s do not sing hymns for the same reason football supporters chant at crowds, at least they don’t during normal worship. I suspect the hymns were being used for two different purposes in the two congregations. However what I am not yet clear on is what the hymnody of the tradition looks like. Do I go through Rejoice and Sing and pick out those with a definite “Reformed” background? Do I analyse “When I survey”, “We limit not the truth of God” “The Lord’s my Shepherd” and “Ye gates lift up ye heads” and use them as examples? If so what in the Churches of Christ one? Do I not bother but look to themes that come out of the tradition generally.

Tuesday saw me giving an NVivo course. This was full subscribed and well attended. I however am getting fed up with it being a talking head during it. I give a lot of information out but I am pretty sure most of it washes over people. They seemed appreciative but still I wonder. I was able to show someone at the end a quick way to get on with her coding but so hard to deal with a widely disparate group.

Thursday my new computer was set up and working in work. I actually found that having a faster machine makes a huge difference, it works at the problems I set it about the sort of speed my brain works at the commentary. So I don’t go off and think about something else while the computer is working and then have to pick up the pieces again. This means I work through things more efficiently. I got two large data sets ready for analysis by someone else during the week.

Friday I did the breakfast then did an interview for my PhD. It went well and I think I have only another three to do. This should be interesting as things are definitely now getting to the writing up stage.

I took twenty-four hours largely out from doing stuff from Saturday afternoon when I sent off my supervision papers and this afternoon when I went to evening service at Herringthorpe. A friend from my writers group had leant me “Into Great Silence” (that review is in depth good and worth reading to the end) It says there it last 2.5 hours in fact it is slightly longer than that. It is slow, slow enough for me to watch it and even in my own home I was drawn into it. It is beautifully shot and the repetition becomes slightly mesmerising. I thought that at the start the monks would blend into each other but they don’t. No two of them sit at prayer the same, their hands and heads are held differently. However when you see the older ones there is a real sense of laughter just trapped behind the eyes while the younger ones look more stern. It was three hours well spent and if I have the chance to watch it in a cinema I will take it.

When even quiet times are busy

Monday my writers group met despite it being bank holiday, actually I spent most of the day doing practical administrative work for my PhD, getting copies of the recordings made while based at Chesterfield ready to send to the interviewees. This includes finding out what I had done previously, summarising content and making sure I have CDs, preparing covering letters and so on. It is also amazing how many mistakes you can make doing it. In the evening however I walked out through the Collegiate Campus of Sheffield Hallam University and on through Endcliffe Park to the home of Jenny one of my writers group. The walk out was good after the day doing admin and a small group of us meeting around Jenny’s dining room table was also nice.

Tuesday was back to work and I needed to finish off work I had intended to do on Thursday but the computer had been playing up. I sincerely hope the new computer comes soon. Tuesday evening I shopped as I did not need to go to bible study. Wednesday was also quiet with just seeing a single student but I had work that needed to be done. Thursday I joked with Margo after her first appointment of the day that I would get the piece of work I had been doing the previous day finished if there were no emergencies. My computer heard me because the keyboard promptly stopped working. I am pretty sure it was completely knackered as at one time the computer thought it was a mouse rather than a keyboard. So despite the fact that I have a new computer coming I had to get hold of another keyboard. They gave me what I suspect was old stock from the workshop which worked fine with my computer.

On Thursday evening my supervisor emailed me about making a study day at the start of July. There are three people associated with him who are all finishing ethnographic placements over the summer so the study day is to discuss finishing placements. Actually I would like some advice on balancing PhD with home church demands. It is very clear St Andrews is counting the weeks until I get back, but it is also clear that I need space to work on my PhD as I will only have a year to get it into a full draft.

Friday was my day off and I just carried on with doing the admin by early evening I had got them mostly finished. I still need to do this for all but one of the Herringthorpe ones. Anyway by afternoon they were ready and I went out to get them posted. So that is one admin job out of the way. There is plenty more to go before I can get writing. However chance to do some reading. So I took the plunge and started Jonathan Edwards “The Religious Affections”. Two things I have been reminded of in reading it. Firstly that by affections Jonathan Edwards does not mean affectations nor emotional responses. He means something much closer to purposeful intentions. That is not to say the emotions don’t have anything to do with it. For example if your intention is to visit your Grandmother, there is one thing that that is certain and that is it is not unaffected by emotions. Your emotions may be indeed very strong. In other words the will is affected by emotions. What makes these different from just assent is that it intentions that are strong enough to be followed through on. The second point is Jonathan Edwards is steering a middle course. He is not saying reason bad, emotions good; nor is he saying reason good, emotion bad. Rather he is saying that at the heart of religion is a synthesis of the two which leads to the development of the fruit of the spirit.

Saturday I went shopping, most of it was routine but I had seen a nice set of clothes in Marks last week and I decided that I would treat myself to this. I have really not had going out clothes for a while and there are a few things coming up where I could do with something smart but not too showy. Other than that I spent quite a bit of time curled up in the back room in a space I had cleared on the sofa trying to read some more Jonathan Edwards. Actually started enjoying it once I had actually got onto his own writing rather than the academic preamble. I am reading the Yale version.

Today was a normal Sunday. Herringthorpe seems to me at times to be a hyperactive child. To my knowledge today there was there was morning worship, pastoral visitors meeting 12:00 noon, pre-baptismal lunch-discussion, music group meeting and evening service. I suspect some people were here for three or more of those and NOT JUST THE MINISTER. That must be an exhausting pace to keep. Oh well I have got another interview set up.