Review: Bruges

So I went to Bruges, Belgium recently, a surprise for my one year anniversary with the beautiful Jane (a surprise for Jane, not me, I booked it). The cobbled streets, canals, and gothic market squares make this a delightful, but petit, classical European city. It seems as though nothing has been built in the main town for a 100 years or so. The photo on the right is from the top of the belfry tower which we climbed on day two. A very tight spiral staircase that was scarier coming down than going up.
The photo on the left shows the canals at their most beautiful - at dusk. The city is easiest to walk around as cars are restricted (which makes a nice change), and it's small. There is lots of atmosphere and antiquity to absorb strolling the narrow streets.
The beer and chocolate were abundant as you'd expect, and a trip to Belgium isn't complete without a little sampling! The beer that was recommended to me was a beer made by Trappist Monks called Westmalle Tripel - delicious! There are plenty of churches around. This one overarched bronze sculptures of the four horsemen of the apocolypse: death, war, famine, and conquest. This was an opportunity for some arty-experimentation with the camera.
One of the results is on the left! Intriguingly, i've noticed on my photos since I came back that on one plinth it says 'I', and the next one it says 'Love'. I don't have any photos of the other two plinths - Any guesses as to who/what is the object of this love? Anyone going to Bruges who can end this suspense?

tB.

Pedestrian Power!

Right I have an idea, bear with me on this one I want your comments.
What if the law was changed so that pedestrians could reclaim the streets? What if any accident involving an automobile and a pedestrian resulted in a prison sentence for the driver, would that encourage people to slow down and get out of their cars, use public transport a bit more, and have a positive impact on the environment? Why not make it every pedestrians right to walk down the middle of the road, if they so wished, and hold up the traffic behind them - that would change things a bit. You could have an order of 'right' on the road:
1st - pedestrians and cyclists
2nd - buses and trams
3rd - electric vehicles
4th - motor cycles and scooters
5th - hybrid vehicles and small cars
6th - normal cars and taxis
7th - 4x4's and trucks.
You could make it law that you have to give way to anyone above you on the 'rights' list. So instead of having to stop at a zebra crossing, you have to stop anywhere a pedestrian wants to cross, and its illegal to not let a bus out.
I know its a bit contradictory of me to be writing this as a car driver, but my habits need to change as much as anyones. So what do you think, is this workable - leave you're comments below? Anyone want to set up a pedestrian power pressure group with me?!?!?!?!

tB.

peace and war

Just finished an introductory course in Peace Studies. It was a 12 week online Certificate in Peace and Reconciliation Studies, at Coventry University. For my final assignment I had to write about a non-western form of conflict resolution. I wrote about the Semai tribe of Malaysia - they live up in the remote mountain valleys, and are famed for having little or no recorded violence - ever!
When two people in the village have a dispute, they sit down for a becharaa'. Basically the two people and their kin (family and close friends) sit down for a debate at about dusk, and basically talk the issue out until no one has anything left to say, literally. These things often take 3 or 4 days non-stop, and when its over no one is ever allowed to mention the dispute again because they've had their chance to say their piece - how cool is that?!

tB. Xx

History Matters...?

It seems that history doesn't matter that much, as i realised that the post i made below to the 'blogging britain' campaign probably won't ever get published because of the political comments. They say in their terms and conditions that:

the material [must not be] capable of being considered as inappropriate for the Site, is not racist, sexist or political in nature nor otherwise offensive nor misleading in any way.

Obviosly i agrre with the sexist/racist bit, but why include political?

t.

p.s. also see matt cryers blog on the campaign

One Day in History

As part of the history matters campaign by the national trust, I am taking part in blogging one day in the life of Britain. Tuesday the 17th October 2006 is the chosen day, here's what i did:

"Slept through alarm number 1 today, a Sufjan Stevens song played on my mobile phone. Fortunately alarm number 2, an M Ward song on my iPod did the trick and got me up in time (7am) for my usual breakfast of homemade muesli with soya milk and chopped fruit on top, accompanied by the obligatory fruit juice.
The drive to work, from Cotteridge to Highgate in Birmingham, took 25mins taking every shortcut I know. That Fiat Punto serves me well, although I wish we could wean ourselves off petrol and switch to electric vehicles that can travel more than 40 miles without a recharge! Had to fill the tank today, 85.9 pence per litre at the BP garage.
I wasn't in the office long today as I had to travel to Aston to brief a health visiting team on the new Vitamin D policy, aimed at curbing the recent rise of Rickets in the 'Heart of Birmingham' NHS Primary Care Trust area. Nice ladies, they work with Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Birmingham. Also had a meeting with City Council workers today, who were as cooperative as ever. So much red tape in both our organisations! Enjoying my job at the moment (as a community nutritionist in the NHS), just wish the Government would start putting more money into public health to make jobs like mine more secure. It makes sense - spend yer money on helping people stop getting ill in the first place rather than spending double on treating the illness when they end up in hospital.
A thought occurred to me on the drive home whilst listening to Sara Cox on BBC Radio One - does Jack Straw refuse to talk to people on the phone because he can't see their face? If not what's the difference between that and a Muslim woman choosing to wear a veil in his constituency office?
I'm missing Jane lots today. She's in Sierra Leone visiting Oxfam projects in order to report back to her colleagues at Oxfam HQ. At least I’m over half way through now, she's back next Tuesday. She'll text later - I expect it’s costing about a £1 a time, but it’s virtually our only way of communicating while she's away. Strange seeing as I normally chat to her every night on the phone.
Homemade vegetable curry and chapatti tonight for dinner. I had to use up the veg from my weekly organic food delivery from the farmer, and you can't beat a good curry. Watched the news twice on the TV. Channel 4 was better than BBC today. Their reporter had Tony Blair squirming over Iraq, a very enjoyably watch. The troops have got to come home soon - are we westerners really that ignorant that we don't think the Iraqi people can take care of their own affairs? Anyway, I'm sure the Americans will pull out as soon as they've completed the dozens of military bases they're building and their conglomerates have completed their 'rebuilding Iraq' contracts.
Radiators have just come on - think I’ll turn them off tonight, its not too cold for an October evening.
Tonight I’ll probably watch the footy on the TV, and catch up with a couple of friends on the phone, before hitting the sack hopefully before 11."

Boring isn't it, but i suppose it might give some historian in 2206 something to do on a Tuesday afternoon!

T.

Greenpeace v Apple

Greenpeace today launched a spoof website to raise awareness of Apple's un-environmentally friendly ways. Check it out. Although I love Macs because they lead the pack in terms of design, use-ability, and downright coolness of home computers, I wish they would also be so forward-thinking where the environment is concerned.

What's your theology?

Found a link to a cool site where you can do a quiz to test where your theology is at. Thanks to Jon Matthews for the link. The quiz is here.

Below are my results:

Emergent/Postmodern 86% Neo orthodox 61% Classical Liberal 61% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 54% Modern Liberal 43% Roman Catholic 39% Charismatic/Pentecostal 14% Reformed Evangelical 7% Fundamentalist 4% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Death of Peace...?

I spotted this grafitti on the wall in Ljubljana, Slovenia. I think its quite a profound picture - interpretations of its meaning welcome on the comments board...

pic by the beautiful Jane.

t.

It takes a village to raise a child...

I was visiting a Childrens Centre in Birmingham today as part of my job, and i noticed they had the profound African proverb above as a slogan after their name.

It got me thinking about the role of local community in the way we bring up Children in this country. It seems families, however functional or dysfunctional have become like islands, where family business is private, and other members of the community have no right or role in bringing up their children for them. Evidence of this can be seen in the recent news story where parents protested that the school had changed to a new healthier menu, and so passed portions of chips through the school gates to their children!

It also makes me wonder how faith communities can have a role to play in showing an alternative way of both bringing up children and treating them. Comments are welcome...

Adem: Love and Other Planets

I have been following Adem since the release of his first album, homesongs, in 2004. I believe he used to make music with Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) as part of Fridge. His latest album, Love and Other Planets, became a concept album after Adem wrote the title track and then realised he could write a whole album about outer space!
The album gently ables along with sweet melodies and intricate arrangements of often unidentifiable instruments. Standout track is definitely the first single from the album - Launch Yourself - which tells the tale of being abandoned on an asteroid by a travelling companion whilst outside fixing a problem with the rocket. The video is available on www.adem.tv, and is worth a watch. You and Moon is another stunning song, with an awakening rhythm created by drum-stick-clicks, hand-claps, and double bass.
His band are also a joy to watch live, they are clearly so happy to be up on stage playing together, and they are all so talented, often rotating instruments between songs.

Slovenia

Hey, its been a while.

I went to Slovenia with Jane recently. Its a really cool place to go for a holiday, really relaxing and cool to get out and enjoy the beautiful countryside. Not gonna do a full review but there are a few photos with comments below.


This is a typical view from the three bridges, right in the centre of the capital Ljubljana. The bridges cross the Ljubljanica river, and form the divide between the old and new town. The old town contains a large castle on top of a very big hill, but its worth the trek to see the beatiful views down onto the city, and further afield to the julian alps.


This is the view of the 'cell' we stayed in at celica youth hostel in Ljubjana. It's an amazing old converted military prison, where each 'cell' has been converted uniquely by a different artist. The hostel is set in the old military barracks which since independence (1992), has been squatted in by artists and turned into metelkova cultural centre.


This is the view of the Church of the Assumption in the middle of Lake Bled, where we stayed for 5 days. the water was about 23 degrees so we swam at least twice everyday. We also had bicycles to explore the nearby countryside, including some great rivers where white water rafting is the main attraction. We went for a day and had a cool time, but the water wasn't that high due to the season. It's best to go in Febuary/March when the snow on the mountains is also melting into the rivers. It gets very cold though!


This is another lake near to Bled, called lake Bohinj. The setting is more beautiful because its deeper into the alps, and it is much bigger, but not as much to do there apart from kayaking and skinny dipping!


This is the view from the organic farm that we stayed on near bled. It was a dairy farm (we helped bring the cows in for milking one day) run by a lovely family who spoke about 10 languages between them! We had beautiful organic homecooked breakfast every morning, and an equally good 3 course evening meal for just 5 euros!

I'd definitely recommend Slovenia as its not yet been totally overrun by tourists. We booked with a great independent travel company called vamos travel who specialise in holidays to Eastern Europe.

Macbook

Just bought a new toy (see opposite). Its the new apple Macbook. Apple have now managed to squeeze an intel chip into their whole product line, and they do a hell of a lot more than they do in PC's! It does lots of amazing things, but perhaps the most fun is the new program - photobooth. This program takes a photo of you with the new built-in iSight camera in the top of the screen (of course you can use it as a regular webcam too, for video chats etc), and lets you apply lots of cool effects to make you laugh, one example of which is shown below. They even thought of how to get a flash into the camera - the screen counts to three and turns white at the point of the picture to give your beautiful face some illumination. Absolute genius, only apple could think of that!
More funny photos on request!

T.

Community building?

My new community herb garden in my front garden in Cotteridge. If you live in the area, help yourself!

Spring is here!

Blemheim Park, April 7th 2006.

Theories of Atonement

In a response to a lively debate going on at the bench press, i thought i better put a post on here about theories of the atonement.

There are three main theories of the atonement: Christus Victor, Satisfaction (penal substitution), and Moral Influence.

Very briefly i will try to explain these three theories.

Christus Victor is the 'classic' view - it goes back at least to the time of Iranaeus (c. 120-200). It argues that in the atonement God intervenes on behalf of his people and defeats the enemy that enslaves humanity. In this theory, the atonement saves us from bondage to sin/satan/evil, and we are saved by the ransom paid by God in allowing Jesus to win a victory over the Powers. The major effect of the atonement is on Evil/the Powers/Satan. Christus Victor fell out of favour around 1100AD when the other two competing theories became predominant, but is finding favour again in the 20th Century thanks to Gustav Aulen and others.

The Satisfaction theory has been the predominant view of the church since Anselm (1033-1109). Sometimes called "objective" view as God himself is seen as the object of Christs atoning work. It is God who is reconciled to humanity through Christ's death. It is argued that Satan does not have any "rights" over humanity (contrary to CV), but that the primary need for redemption comes from the wrong done to God by humanity. Humanity chooses sin over faithfulness. Therefore the jusice of God requires satisfaction, which must be payed by humanity as it is humanity who has sinned. However this is impossible because of the gravity of sin, so God himself has to make reparation. Humanity should but only God can. The solution being Christ the God-man pays the penalty on behalf of humanity. In this view, humanity is saved from guilt/penalty and judgement becuase Jesus's death enables reconciliation between God and Humanity. The major effect of the atonement is on God, without it He is alienated from the people He created.

The moral influence theory came about at a similar time and was the work of Abelard (1079-1142), who reacted against both the satisfaction and the CV views. Abelard depicted Jesus as a teacher and an example - the atonement is the ultimate manifestation of God's love. Inspired by this example, humanity turns to God, forsaking Sin, and follows Christ. In this view we are saved from being distant from God, and we are saved by being touchedd and changed by God's immense love. The major effect of the atonement is on humanity.

I know that's all a bit deep, but its good to outline the main competing theories.

I am most persauded by the CV model presently, although i don't think its perfect by any means. I like it because it brings all three parties into the equation - God, humanity, and the powers. The Powers require the death of Jesus to supposedly win ultimate victory over God, but actually God wins the victory in the end, the people and the Powers carry out the atonement in partnership, and the people of God can now live in the new kingdom because of that victory. In Satisfaction the atonement is required because of Gods law, it is carried out by God in sending his Son to earth to die, and it's effect is on God, in reconciling Him to His people. The other parties are bit-parts.
Also it doesn't require me to come to terms with a violent God as does Satisfaction - in Satisfaction the only way God can bring about salvation (peace?) is by the violent death of his Son. Whereas in CV, the violent death is required by Satan because of the dominion he has over the world, God complies, but in that hoodwinks the devil into thinking he has won the victory, when in fact God is winning the victory.

Any thoughts on all that? if you got this far...