Categories: uncategorized
Date: 26 September 2004 20:21:57
And would you believe it, none of it spent in church. The nearest I got to that was my customary listen-in to the local radio Sunday programme. This had a makeover about a year ago, when the wavebands split and Oxford, with its longstanding and well-loved presenter got separate programming.Those of us who don't live quite so near the dreaming spires were left with the new setup. Mustadmit, it took me a while to get used to it: the presenter opted for a less predictable format than we'd been used to. But it seems to have paid off. Over the last months there have been some challenging discussions with varied choice of guests. She's not afraid to step 'outside the box,' to go outside of orthodox Christian thinking, or even (horrors! ;)) to bring in interfaith dialogue. Definitely not what Mr M calls 'cat stuck up a tree' broadcasting, even if the programme does start to morph into a gardening phone-in during the last half hour.
I find that it's the occasional off the cuff statements that give me food for thought as much as the more scheduled items. This morning, for instance - when the presenter said words to the effect that she felt that some folk tend towards a fairly dogmatic type of faith in their youth, but that this often becomes more relaxed, more blurred as they get older (presumably older in the faith as much as chronologically) This last interests me in as much as I only became a Christian in my thirties, and have therefore experienced several faith 'stages' compressed into a short period of time.
Anyway, today's change of scene was pure laziness, really. The normal morning service having been replaced by a musical, with a second performance in the early evening - I moved from 'I won't go in in the morning, to 'I'll go to the second performance and then on to the evening service,' ' No time for the performance;I'll just go the evening service,' and finally, 'Oops, too late to go to the service!' My official excuse being that we're tired after yesterday's hard work preparing for Mr M's Mum's move to her new flat next week. The unofficial reason was due to me flopping down in front of the TV with Mr M to watch Pleasantville. Yes, I know I shouldn't find it funny....but come on, I'm only human!