well hello from oxford... :) firstly I should say I'm really enjoying being here and have had a great week meeting some amazing people and beginning to get my head around what I'm doing here!

For the last two days, after all the practical stuff has been dealt with, we've been having an intro week to help us this about the future beyond Wycliffe for ourselves and for the church at large ... and it has been great.

The staff here are so wise and really humble; they've obviously reflected deeply on what we need to be prepared for, especially the stuff that might not even occur to us -
#how our future beyond Wycliffe needs to be thought about now because what we're aiming for needs to affect how and what we study,
#how our character issues need to be engaged with, to make sure we develop heart and imagination as well as head as we study here
#and most of all how we need to think of ourselves as missionaries and not as chaplains to Christendom!
So encouraging to see how all that I've been taking on board at St Thom's is not isolated thinking - I guess I've become more St Thom's-centric than I realised!!

Went to 3 churches this afternoon - huge crumbling Anglo-catholic pile with some life but no teenagers or twenties/thirties; odd Ecumenical (5 denominations one congregation!) racially mixed inner city church; and Comfortable evangelical slightly charismatic anglican - all in their own way sobering wake up calls to where the church is at ... at the moment i could not imagine myself in any of them!! too little room for maneouvre... and as hard as i try i'm not a gung ho visionary who could bounce in shake it up and still be sane!

sorry for huge post only just got properly set up with broadband uni connection yesterday... Lord help me if i ever end up without quick internet connection!!

Laters;)