Categories: durham
Date: 14 May 2010 06:32:32
Durham is quite quiet at the moment, we are heading into "exam time", the orals are happening already. There have been final assignments to be submitted and the stress level in the town is increasing. The picture will be the same across the country. So it is interesting that Maggie Dawn, a chaplain for a Cambridge college has raised the question whether in our current nation the concept of Rogation should be resurrected for a student rather than a farming nation in this post.
Now, my grandparents lived and now my father lives in a rural community where amongst all the commuters and city types there are still proper farmers whose lives depend upon agriculture. A few years ago I remember him telling me he had been and walked round the village "beating the bounds". Now, that's an interesting one because it was the original "prayer walk"....the idea is not a modern one! They walked round the perimiters of the parish asking for safety and protection.
Currently being laid up with a probable kidney infection I'm not about to start walking the perimiter of Durham, (or even of the area surrounding The Bailey and The Hill). However, I will be praying for protection over our students. The pressure for them not only to achieve but to achieve well is huge in normal times, in a resession it's even bigger. Equally all the questions of what next? and will I find a job? are more pressing and stressful for finalists in the current economic situation.
They need us to not only pray for protection for them, but also to be there to listen to them when they are ready to take a break from the books, to reassure them and to get across that we love them just for who they are not for the class of degree they end up getting. If you know people taking exams at the moment one simple thing you might do is just send a text or a FB message saying thinking of you. You could get their exam/ hand in dates and commit to pray for them on that day. Sending chocolate or similar might be another useful exercise. Basically use your imagination and work out how to hug them, even if you're at a distance.
Same applies to GCSE and A Level students. In our house the first exam is next week and Third Party is being kept going by a typo on one of the revision sheets her RE teacher passed on. Apparently Allah Jones presents Songs of Praise, it makes her giggle and aware she might know just a little more than the revision sheet.