Leaving Cebu

This will be my final post from Cebu, but God willing not the last one ever, I’m hoping to keep the Blog going back in Jolly England. The suitcases are packed, the kids are saying their last goodbyes, the car has been sold, and in a few hours friends from church will come and take us to the airport for our flight back to the UK. 3 years have gone so fast, and yet at times so slowly. I’ve been trying to write a reflective post for over the last week or so, but the words wouldn’t come, I guess you need some time and space to do that kind of thing properly. At the moment all I can think to say is that we are glad we came; God definately called us here, and now it is time for us to move on, but we will never forget this place. We plan to come back when we can, and are gratefully to all who have shared their lives with us here.

The plan is back to the UK overnight, a few days with family, and then a holiday and then a move upto our new home in Nottingham where I will be Priest in Charge – St Giles West Bridgford. Looking forward to it.

Don’t expect any more blogging for a while!

Aliens

Quite a few years ago I remember stumbling across a radio programme in the UK about UFO’s and Aliens. Unlike most of these kind of programmes it didn’t go for the jokey ‘close encounters folks are all weirdo’s approach’ rather it was all rather serious, and to be honest quite chilling. The main interviewee as I recall was Nick Pope an insider who looked into UFO sightings for the MOD. Serious, and sober, he didn’t reveal any secrets, but he said enough to freak me out. The long and the short of it was that there is enough evidence for UFO’s (in the sense of aliens flying around), and that government policy would need to change in the future from a ‘theres no evidence for this kind of stuff’ line to a ‘there is evidence for this kind of stuff’ line. Preparing the way for a full disclosure to the public along the lines of ‘not only is there evidence for alien life but we know for sure we are not alone’.

Nick predicted that in coming years there would be a slow but steady drip drip in the media of credible alien/ufo sightings, coupled with a gradual opening up of Government archives to reveal what those ‘in the know’, already know:

They are here, and they haven’t come for some shopping.

Thus I can’t help but get a slight chill when I read on the same day that ‘The Vatican says aliens could exist’. And also that the MOD is declassifying some of it’s X-Files.

As a final aside, check out the Rendlesham Forest Incident – spooky.

Featured on the CMS Site

I’ve been a bit quiet on the Blogfront recently.

The reason? This is the week that we move back to the UK (we fly on Friday), and so it has been all hands to the deck, packing boxes and saying goodbyes.

So far, it has all gone really well. I aim to do one more post before we go reflecting on our last couple of weeks here. In the meantime, there is a short feature about us on the CMS website.

Quote from the aftermath of the Burmese Cyclone

“Where are all those uniformed people who are always ready to beat up civilians?”

Trishaw driver in Rangon, Burma, criticizing the government for not deploying personnel to clean up after a cyclone hit the country on May 4, killing more than 20,000 people.

Time

Interview with Peter Jensen – Dean of Sydney

Interesting interview available for download here.The interviewee is Philip Dean of Sydney and the brother of the Archbishop of Sydney. Both Jensons are significant figures in the ‘Global South’ coalition of Conservative Anglicans drawn from the southern hemisphere, and this interview gives an insight into the thinking of one of them at this time.

Refreshingly candid (no Anglican fudge and obfuscation here), Philip talks about Sydney cathedral prior to his arrival – ‘a basket case’, Ecclesiastical politics – ‘nasty’, plus Evangelicalism and Anglicanism – ‘we thought about leaving’.

9 Marks the site hosting the interview has been added to the blogroll. It offers a Reformed perspective on church life, and is worth browsing, their e-journal is worth subscribing to for the book reviews alone. I seldom agree with everything, but it is always thought provoking and well written, with a keen awareness of the issues of the day.

John Calvin on the Ascended Christ

Preparing for preaching on the Ascension this Sunday I dug out my ‘Calvin’s Institutes’ which I shipped all the way from England and am about to ship all the way back, and which I have opened about three times in the last three years. Non-the-less, it’s good stuff:

Christ in whom the Father wills to be exalted and through whose hand he wills to reign, was received at God’s right hand. This is as if it were said that Christ was invested with Lordship over heaven and earth, and solemnly entered into possession of the government entrusted to him -and that he not only entered into possession once and for all, but continues in it, until he shall come down on judgement day… both heavenly and earthly creatures may look with admiration upon his majesty, be ruled by his hand, obey his nod, and submit to his power.

Institutes of the Christian Religion Book II Ch XVI 15