:: 

I’m sitting in the midst of the quiet charm of St Swithun’s Churchyard surrounded by the sound of traffic hurtling outside beyond the trees sighing with the pressure of the cold wind from Scotland. Battle has already commenced as I had only sat down for a rest on the road from Winchester to Kings Worthy where my daughter Gillian lives. 30 seconds later I thought I could start my journal now and not waste time- or keep my brain active or whatever. It is very difficult to truly switch off and just do something I rarely do, if I ever take time to do:- just sit. Earlier in St Lawrence Church in Winchester, just off the High Street I sat though, but before long I was praying for those back home whose lives have just been turned upside down. The lesson for today that I think I am beginning to hear is that I need to be patient with my need to be busy and the need to be always “fixing things”. Especially when there are just some things I cannot fix.

Right now the sun is shining, the Church shelters me from the wind and apart from the rooks in the trees above and the incessant traffic it is an idyllic English country churchyard, quiet and peaceful, reflecting the battle between modernity hurtling outside on four wheels and the tranquillity seeping away within the churchyard. Reflecting too the battle within my own soul, between activity and rest and the impossibility of trying to co-exist. These days of sabbatical are going to through up real struggles between “doing and being”. I think I need to read some Henri Nouwen……

:: 13th October 2003

There’s a great deal of talk about anti-social behaviour being broadcast today. Even as I write my journal there is an item on the news about it on the TV. However 10 minutes before I sat down to write this I was first hand witness to the reality of it. A guest in my hotel was complaining to the proprietor with regard to being overcharged for his stay in the hotel. I couldn’t see this event but I certainly heard it! The proprietor was at the receiving end of a tirade of foul, racist language, rising to a crescendo of rage. I was just about to dial 999 on my mobile as I feared there was going to be physical violence when somehow the owner managed to calm things down. When the owner looked round the corner and saw me standing there, he was as white as a sheet and visibly shocked. What makes someone behave like that? Was his anger genuine, or was he putting on an act to get out of paying his bill? Or was he rightly annoyed at being overcharged but had lost all sense of proportion? Was there something else troubling him and the poor owner of the hotel was the one to be at the receiving end? It was rather ironic to hear this because only this morning I was in a solicitors office where the receptionist was on the phone shouting at the other person on the line to “Shut up and listen!” I didn’t know where to look. Twice in the one day witness to the pent up anger and frustration of individuals. Does this qualify as ‘anti-social’ behaviour? It certainly disturbed me and all around me being witness to it.

Must look more into ‘anger’, its cause and effect as it left me embarrassed, anxious and even afraid and I wasn’t at the receiving end of it!

:: 14 October 2003

Another interesting and varied day. This morning realised that those from a recent immigrant background run the hotel. The proprietor is Greek and in fact the building may have started out as the Greek or Cypriot consulate in Birmingham as there is an old sign on one of the outside walls. His staff is all West Indian. Similarly my visit to Small Heath today reflects less cosmopolitan Birmingham and more ethnic Birmingham. Coventry Road has more shops of all kinds run by people from the sub continent of India. There were more Islamic Centres, Mosques, Islamic libraries than in Woodlands Road and Albert Drive combined. The few pubs that remained on that road were either up for sale or were in a bad state! It was a fascinating experience! It reminded me of my first visit to Atlanta when I walked into an all black department store and experienced for the first time what it feels like to be in the minority. You become very self conscious and vulnerable. It was a good reminder for me who lives in a predominantly majority situation!

I have been astonished and relieved at being able to get around the city so well (so far today on time for my appointments!). On arrival after picking up the hired car getting to my hotel was a nightmare. Two and a half hours to travel 11 miles, mainly because in the rush hour I couldn’t find my way easily and especially as it got dark. Yesterday and today has been wonderfully straightforward. God has been answering more than my prayers!

I visited the Barber Institute of Fine Art at Birmingham University this morning. Not a huge collection but works by Rodin, Degas, Monet, Poussin, Turner and Gainsborough made it especially memorable. There was also a fine collection of small artefacts: gold tableware, ivory carvings, coins of all ages. The skill was breathtaking. As someone who can’t hammer a nail into a wall straight I particularly appreciate the skill of the artist.

:: Thursday 16th October

Dropped into Solihull on the way back to the airport. What a nice place, very definitely white middle class suburbia. Beautiful day! Did I say that I saw a grey wagtail in the hotel car park yesterday, a mile from the city centre of Birmingham!? Or was it a yellow wagtail, which is even rarer? The experts will plump for a grey, but I was in such a good mood I am convinced it was a yellow wagtail….

My briefcase was searched as I checked into the departure lounge on my return flight from Birmingham. I wondered why the security man was standing waiting for me before he started searching my bag. He waited till I opened it too. It was only later that it dawned on me. He could be accused of placing an item in my bag when I wasn't present. He then carefully flicked thru all my papers, all my 'rubbish'-broken pens, old toothbrush cases I forgot were there. I was even alarmed to what might be in it' fortunately it was only a toothbrush! I don’t know about you but I feel incredibly guilty when such a search takes place. I almost confess to being a terrorist and be done with it. What does that say about my insecurity?

:: Friday 31st October

In between the administration which never ceases whether you are on sabbatical or not I have been reflecting a great deal on the demise of Ian Duncan Smith, the Tory Party leader. I thought it was ironic that some of the comments on him in his term as Tory leader were "he was a decent man", "a man of integrity", "a man who could be trusted". I felt this to be a double indictment on our society when on the same pages in the newspaper Sam Galbraith was being quizzed about what he knew about the choice of Holyrood as the new parliament building in Edinburgh. He mischievously avoided the issues and answered (in my view) somewhat misleadingly. When a Government spends ten times more on a plan than first agreed it surely is answerable and yet Galbraith now retired from active politics treated the enquiry with disdain. In case you think my sympathies lie with Conservatism as against Labourism, they do not. I feel grieved and mourn the cynicism that engulfs politics today. Of course some would argue that it has never been any different. Maybe.I admit too that there is more to leadership than decency, honesty and integrity. What irks is that these qualities appear far too low in the political scheme of things. It shows how great the gulf is between Christianity and present day culture.

:: Monday 10th November

Orlando, Florida, It would take me as long to tell the story as it did to experience the journey of my trip to Orlando.

Suffice to say getting the red eye in Glasgow on Thursday last week, four plane journeys, an overnight hotel stop in Boston I finally arrived in Orlando Friday 12 noon local time. For me it was a slight inconvenience for 60% of the other passengers it ruined weekend breaks and lost business etc. Americans don’t get much time off work and to lose even one day of vacation time is a real loss.

I have adjusted to time difference, and jet lag quickly I have adjusted to temperature change quickly in that I felt cold yesterday at 75degrees Fahrenheit. Mind you it reminded me of a Scottish BBQ. Eating our hamburgers under the porch because it was wet and windy!

I have been catching up with some of Marlyn’s family as this occasion of my coming has been a rendezvous point over the weekend. Today I am going to the Space Center at Cape Canaveral with Marlyn’s cousins’ husband and her ‘great cousin’ who is on leave from the military. I have been given the run of this spacious home, they have been so generous and kind and I have begun to unwind. Last month had been busier than I had planned so I am now catching up with my planned reading. For those of you who are contemplating sampling our Reading Group you should try Philip Yanceys’ Rumours of Another World I am just getting into it and enjoying it very much.

Well best get ready for the trip to the East coast. Just like your weather no doubt its raining but at least its warm rain!

:: Wednesday 12th November

My time in Florida is almost at an end. It has been a busy five days so far. Yesterday I spent a few hours cycling in the Wekiwa National Park. I was really on the hunt for alligators but despite staring for ages into Sand Pit Lake didn’t see anything but a few fish splashing and watching the ripples created by the natural springs which flows at 72 degrees Fahrenheit all year round.

I am sure I saw an alligator at Kennedy Space centre though. The Centre is in the middle of a huge national park too and as I was looking into the many pools around the centre I could see what looked like knuckle dusters bobbing up and down every so often in the water. The Space Centre was remarkable in that on the one hand the shuttle and its fuel systems didn’t look that big at least when driving by them, but when you stood beside them or inside the life-size mock-up you realize how massive a thing it is to get into outer space!

Despite the wonder of man’s achievements the activity that kept distracting me is that of the natural wildlife. The Buzzards that fly overhead are as common as pigeons in Glasgow, even in uptown Orlando where I am staying to see them circling in pairs over the house is amazing.

Yesterday when I was cycling down a hill I just caught out of the corner of my eye what I thought was a tortoise. Sure enough when I stopped got off my bike and reached for my camera it spotted me. So much for the myth that tortoises are slow creatures! Before I knew it it was scuttling back from the path and by the time I caught up with it, it had ran down a hole headfirst just leaving its back side sticking out!

Such wonders are commonplace to the people living in this part of the world but to me it’s a reminder that I’m in a different place altogether. When I hear the locals talk about the watersnakes, alligators that snatch babies from the water’s edge and 12 year olds foolish enough to swim where they are told not to…. And then there is the Recluse spider after whose bite your flesh literally dies in situ maybe cold dark Britain is not so unwelcome after all…….

:: Good 'ole Alabam

Monday 17 Nov.

Now immersed in Alabama culture. It has been good to meet up with my old mate Ken and to see him in his new situation at Samford University. When I get home I will be able to add some more photographs to the blog. Its a very impressive and picturesque campus here and I have already attended a whole day conference on " A Narrative Perspective for Pastoral Leadership". The aim of the the project that delivered the conference is "To help pastors discover, tell, reflect on, and rewrite their stories of congregational leadership".
The jist of the morning session was to help pastors review the tensions and struggles in leadership so that they don't always focus down on the negative but to look for the positive in it all! The afternoon session was delivered by Calvine Miller (I am sure I met before 21 years ago when I first visited the South) His story telling was on a par with the best of standup comedy and coming from someone who was in the 'senior' age bracket was insightful and highly entertaining. What a sense of hunmour. Thoroughly enjoyed it and I am now away to find some recommended books to read. O before I go.... Went with Ken for Saturday morning breakfast at a Bagel Coffee House (excellent!) and I spotted three guys sitting at the breakfast bar. Before they had their bagels and coffee they bowed their heads and were obviously giving thanks. Well I said to myself, 'Jack you are definitely in the Baptist Bible Belt now... When they finished praying they lifted their heads and crossed themselves! That'll teach me to assume too much! Later that day at Tuscaloosa (what a wonderful word!) we were en route to a historic Indian site and stopped for lunch. There was a big football game on where 'The Crimson Tide' supporters (Alabama American Footbal Team were gathering 6 hours before the match) and we went into a diner and once again two guys bowed their heads and held hands before they ate.... No comment!

:: Civil Rights

Yesterday, after church we shared a Southern eating out experience at the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain (along with half of Alabama!)It was excellent food I have to say. I will defintely need to avoid the scales when I get home.
Our plan was to visit the Civil Rights Institute in downtime Birmingham. No visit to this part of the world should bypass this experience. Across the road from the African American Baptist Church where the four little girls lost their lives in the sixties when a bomb was thrown into the church during a service is the memorial to the struggles of African Americans for civil rights. I never can listen to Martin Luther King's Capitol Hill speech "I have a Dream" without being moved by it. Try watching it in the heart of the place where the issues had come to a head with African Americans all around you... it was difficult not to keep from blubbering. However what struck me was the African Americans present didn't wait till the end of the speech , (remember 'free at last, free at last...') I pondered that for a while. As I stood there holding back the tears they walked away. Could they not cope with it either? Had they seen it so many times before that they were no longer touched by it? Did they feel that the situation although improved hasn't changed at its core? They were gone before I could ask......

:: Tornadoes in Birmingham!

I was going to write about something else but this is more exciting! Woke up to a weather warning saying that the recently hot and humid weather is battling with a cold front sweeping in from the west, thus thunderstorms are forecast for Alabama between 10 and 12. I reckon I am pretty safe here in the bowels of the library at Samford University. When the warning sirens go then we know not to go outside! However I think Glasgow is as likely to get hit with a tornado as we are here...however.... I heard the church where I worshipped on Sunday was struck by a Tornado and it caused a million dollars worth of damage. The pastor was outside in his car in the parking lot when it hit and he felt his car lift nine inches from the ground. He is now pastor emeritus so he obviously survived but the reality is if you happen to be in the path of one of these there is no guarantee you will!! I suppose this is the downside to living in a warm and humid climate when there is a signifcant change in the weather.

Do you know what the latest fad is amongst college students living on campus. According to an article in the Washington Post it is 'cool' to own Petaurus breviceps. This is a small Australian marsupial commonly known as a 'sugar glider'. They get their name from having a 'penchant for sweets and their ability, in the wild, to soar more than a hundred feet. They can live to be 15' The little creature which looks much like a mouse with big eyes fits well into student life. It sleeps through classes during the day, stays up late when it can be very active during the night and thrives on protein rich diets. They usually become frenetically active about 10pm bark when startled and may let loose a noise like an electric pencil sharpener. They also smell like rotten bacon. The surprising thing is these little creatures which seem so desirable as pets cost between $150-250. The other thing is that in some states like California they are classed as wild animals and possessing one could fetch you a $500 fine. Just the sort of challenge any college student would love to live up to!

:: Tornado Update

Now confined to the bowels of the library as we are now under a 'tornado warning'. This means you are not allowed outside and you have to seek shelter in the basement. When the sirens go then there is potential strike by tornado. The students here are pretty much taking it all in their stride. It is torrential rain outside just now......

:: Twister Turned Away!

Well as you may have surmised the event was a non-event. Not so in Tuscaloosa however. The area we passed through on Saturday when we caught the buzz and excitement of the football(American) match was hit by a tornado and caused significant damage. All that happened to me was I got soaked in the deluge crossing the quadrangle. Thunderstorms are forecast for the north of Alabama but they are not predicted to be as severe as the one that's occurring in London right now even as I write: President Bush addresses a select group of people but really is speaking to the world.

I am attending the Home Fellowship Meeting tonight in Vestavia Hills Baptist Church. It must be 21 years and 2 months since I last attended such an American Baptist tradition when I was a guest of Headland Heights Baptist Church in Atlanta. Basically everyone goes straight to the church from school or work, has dinner together then they go do all the other things associated with Church life like Bible Study, Choir practice, committee meetings and deacons meetings etc. Its all over by 7pm! (Starts at 4.30pm). It has some merits I think!

:: The Next President

This little piece will become self-explanatory once the photos appear alongside it (see the gallery here). I thought that since Dubya is vacationing in London I would step in to take his place. After all someone needs to govern this great nation while he's away. I thought I would introduce a relaxed style and do away with collars and ties and suits. That was something that struck me quite forcibly at church on Sunday. The women were dressed to the nines and the men were in suits. It took me back 30 years. Anyway to get back to governing the country.... The photos were taken at a new venture just 25 miles down the road from Birmingham. Its called the Amercian Village. There isn't much in it as far as buildings are concerned but the characters we met! Abigail Smith Adams the wife of John Adams second president of the United States greeted us and entertained us to her inquistive mind and direct thoughts on the split from Britain. Later on we met her husband and Benjamin Franklin who gave us a blow by blow account of the life and times of the Colonies. Out in the grounds we met a footsoldier of Washington's army who showed us how to load a musket. (He fired it a few times but I didn't get the chance to fire it myself, Heavy rifle though!) We ended up in the courthouse in Virginia where a Philadelphia lawyer (boy could he talk)filled in what was missing in the Independence story. These characters knew their stuff and performed well just to Ken Gwen and me! The acting didn't end there for in the evening we attended a prsentation by the Samford University students. "Much Ado About Nothing" Set in Jamaica just to be different. The two African American female 'Constables' dressed in Caribbean style stole the show. They were hilariously over the top. I could almost understand the West Indian accent better than the Alabamian one! It was a very professional performance. The students did a great job! So it was a very cultured day yesterday. Tomorrow we move on to Atlanta for the American Academy of Religion conference and join the 8,000 other delegates there. Some even from Glasgow University!

:: Blog Addendum

Friday 21 Nov. As this my be the last time I get access to a computer before I get home I thought I would give you a little insight into what else I have been doing this week in case you thought I was just galavanting about the countryside. I have been reading a book called "A Simpler Way" by Margaret Wheatley and Myron Kellner-Rogers. There are some insights here that I am struggling with but some have been very intriguing. No doubt you will hear more after I come back in January! Here is a little taster:




Gravity is.. ubiquitous attraction. Attraction has created the universe we know.

Each structure is evidence of life’s innate desire to seek new forms of expression. Each is evidence of the innate capacity to organize.

Without constant interior change a system sinks into the death grip of equilibrium.

Life requires that we change. It cannot explore new possibilities otherwise.

If order is for free, we don’t have to be the organisers.

It is not the design of a specific structure that requires our attention but rather the conditions that will support the emergence of necessary structures.

Who else needs to be in the room?

Stability is found in freedom- not in conformity and compliance.

There is no ‘out there’ for anyone to occupy. We are utterly intertwined.

We make the world lonelier and less interesting by yearning for heroes.

We are unable to change if we cannot find ourselves in a new version of the world

Every act of organising occurs around an identity. Every change occurs only if we identify with it

We encourage others to change only if we honour who they are now

We ourselves engage in change only as we discover that we might be more of who we are by becoming something different

Rigidly certain organisations die early. They’ve collapsed from the weight if the structures they’ve erected to hold themselves up. We fear surprise and retreat to caution

Playful and creative enterprises are messy and redundant.

:: Braindead in Atlanta!

My brain is mince. I have managed to hear 14 papers of 30 minutes each over the space of two and a half days on esoteric topics like: "Lest the 'Pure Virgin' be Deceived and led astray: a Re-examinaions of the Nuptial Imagery and its Wirkungsgeschichte in 2 Cor 11:2-3" or "Shape- Shifting, 'Sexuality' and the politics of Interpreting Romans 1". I have to be honest and say some of it went 'whoosh' whilst other were rivetting for example "Don't bring that Seminary stuff back here: Resistance to the Academic Interpretation of Paul in the African American Church" delivered by an erudite and enthusiastic African American Scholar. Boy was she cruising!

Sadly this year is the last when the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature hold a joint conference as it has meant a huge cross fertilisation of scholarship meeting in one place with well over 300 different meetings averaging 3/4 papers each. I have never seen so many religious scolars togethr in one place. Of course they never all came together at one time (over 8,000) That would even have been too much for the Hilton, Hyatt and Marriott Hotels to cope with. Even so there were some meetings where I had to stand crushed at the back for 2 and a half hours because too many wanted to hear the more popular papers..

One last memory. Ken and I (Ken Roxburgh, now Professor of Religion at Samford University) attended a reception in the evening [we attended a few each night!] but the Religion and Science one threw a 'doo' at which there was at either end of a groaning table full of food two 'fountains' of flowing liquid chocolate one brown one white [O Peter I thought of you!] Even I who can take chocolate or leave it had to admit that the fresh pineapple dipped in white liquid chocolate was out of this world.

Enough! I move one tomorow to the colder North and Thanksgiving!

:: New York New York is a wonderful town....

Dec 1st Glad to see that I personally contributed to the 5% rise in sales on Black Friday, traditionally called such as its the day Americans start Christmas shopping in earnest. Yes I was in Bloomingdales doing my bit for Uncle Sam. I really only went in for a Bloomingdale bag as a favour for someone else and ended up spending $87, thus New York was pleased to see me.

:: Final reflection as I say 'Farewell' to the States

Dec 1st As I awaited my plane at JFK I was challenged by the sight of an elderly Orthodox Jew leaning on his bag swaying in the pose of prayer. I was challenged by his faithfulness in the midst of the noise and bustle of all the activity around him and ashamed of my lack of discipline as in my anxious rush to make my flight on time I had not spent even 5 miutes in prayer today. It is too easy for Christians to say to Jewish people, you only have 'half' of the truth, when they make more of the half they have than we do of the 'whole' truth in Jesus.

:: Strange Advent

As the Christmas season thunders on in all its frenetic activity it feels surreal to be detached from it all. A certain lady would argue with considerable justification "well what's different from any other year?". In twenty seven years of ministry however this is the first year I am not involved in the process of 'giving' through leading a congregation into advent, but have been on the 'receiving' end in the various places I have visited. I haven't found it as easy to get to the heart of 'the reason for the season'when I haven't been preparing for it at a leadership level if I am honest. Then I have to ask myself, do we make too much of Advent?
Last week (Thurs-Sunday) I spent time on my own away from the phone, email and the Internet and read Henri Nouwen's acclaimed book The Return of the Prodigal Son. I found this as meaningful as any Advent season when the purpose of Jesus coming was explored at depth and in a very personal way by Nouwen. I hope to share some of the insights with AP very soon!!

:: Christmas Away from Home

This was the first Christmas I have been away from my own home over Christmas Day and it did feel strange. I think too the first Christmas I haven't been in my own church which was stranger still. The highlight from a spiritual point of view was to attend the Christmas Eve Watchnight service in Winchester Cathedral with Marlyn, Beverley Gillian and Simon, and at least 1500 others, possibly 2000! We got there three quarters of an hour before it started and there weren't many seats unoccupied. People kept filing in even as the service was starting. It was quite different from our informal approaches to Christmas of course and yet there was a genuine welcome as we entered. The sermon by the Canon of the Cathedral was simple but thoroughly Christ centred. The singing of the choir lifted the hairs on the back of your neck. The incense bearer was a bit enthusiastic though. He probably felt he had a large cathedral to fill with the aromatic scent!
What I did notice about the congregation was it was all age (including babes in arms at midnight!) It was all nations. It was also free from the typical carousing drunks out for a laugh. I sensed a serious intent by many who were there. There for the right reasons. A most memorable experience. The rest of Christmas Day and the next was Absolute Balderdash. (The board game!) Yesterday flew in from Southampton in time to get into the sales before we were crushed in the rush! Thus ends Christmas. New Year next!