Friday, July 18, 2008

Breathe In, Breathe Out

The blog has been rather silent lately - apologies. It has been rather a busy time. I am now looking at a rather calmer few weeks, including some leave to go to Stratford and see David Tennant in Hamlet then go to M's cousin's wedding and then a few days back down in the wilds of Buckinghamshire with my dad.

So what's all the busyness been? Well I was guest speaking at Yellow Braces (arguably the best weekend of the summer in Oxford Diocese!) and then I was running the youth stream at the Worcester Diocesan Assmebly which was AWESOME but utterly exhausting as there wasn't a spare second in the day! From Friday 2.3opm til Sunday 8pm when I pulled into the driveway at home, it really didn't feel like we stopped except when we slept. The Assembly was fabulous as I got the chance to meet a fantastic group of young people and get to know some of the youth council a lot better.

I also got to meet lots of people from the diocese which was great as I tied up lots of connections between people and churches. Unfortunately, the youth stream kept us away fromt he main business of the assembly but I've got the DVD coming soon so I can catch up on all that was said by Canon Susan Hope, Father Ken Leach and Bishop Gerry Wolfe. The teenagers did join the main group to hear Archbishop John Sentamu as he came in for a flying visit and talk on his way down to the Lambeth conference.

One of the things that, a little ironically, made the conference hectic, was setting up for Breathe, the exploration of spirituality for 16-19 year olds which Dare2Engage have produced and which the diocese has bought. It is a marvellously relaxing and centring experience for those who participate. It does, however take a little while to set up and we had to chose between missing one of the Eucharists or missing lunch to set it up. I'll let you guess which we chose.

Breathe is an absolutley wonderful resource which I will be using around the diocese in so many different contexts. I can't wait.

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