one year on...

As of yesterday, I've been blogging for a year.  My very first blog entry was on ministry training conference at Gartmore.  And the more things change, the more they seem to stay the same.  I got back from conference on Friday afternoon.
And, echoing some of the thoughts from last time around, conference was good.
Only one less-than-good session involving what was perhaps not the most helpful presentation on a model for ministry.
Again, a good mix of space, sessions and silliness.

Quotes from this conference include:

On ministry with children:
'Jesus didn't usually talk rubbish'
'You can't offer boys "Jesus in your underwear" type songs' - reflecting on the use of 'action' songs, as opposed to 'fluffy girly songs'

On the Guild:
'Anyone who underestimates the Guild does so at their peril' 
'Don't mess with the Guild'
 
At a session on Social Responsibility:
'I'm right all the time' '
People you don't know will think you're weird and people you do know, know you're weird'
'Relational is transformational'
'glocal' - apparently an amalgam of global and local

Chaplain, prefacing a reflection during worship:
'I'd like to read a quote from Karl Barth's Church Dogmatics I found in this very handy book - Church Dogmatics for Dummies - which I would highly recommend.  Anyway, back to Karly baby...'

Conversations - tea breaks and meals:
'So... [long thoughtful pause] ...121 owns our bodies'  - ministry candidate getting to grips with the realities of training
'That's twice you've made somebody cry this week'
'For camels they use bricks, but in Siberia they use their teeth' - I am still not entirely sure how we managed to get into such a detailed discussion on castration over dinner...

At this point, also last year, according to that first blog entry, I was pondering what my Masters dissertation might end up like and thinking it might be a busy time ahead.  And... it was indeed.  With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps that last gasp two month's prior to deadline was not the best time to have done locum.  But all in the end was done and here I am, still at New College, now doing the PhD.
And so the cycle continues... and it's all good, all very good.