Reignite

I just got back from Greenbelt. What is Greenbelt? It's like a rock festival plus theologians! Which works for me. It's a place to see a lot of interesting thinkers and activists in mainline, liberal and radical Christianity. Plus different musicans, artists, and peformers of all types. Here's some highlights with my bad photos. Musical highlights: Michael Franti Beth Rowley Speaker highlights: Brian McLaren - good on postmodernism Sara Miles - love her, love her, love her - it's people like her that make me want to be a Christian I also enjoyed Nola Rae (mime artist), Jay Lakhani (on the Bhagavad Gita and Hinduism), John Bell, Peter Rollins and Hymns and Beer: Where it's OK to sing hymns with theology you disagree with, because it is a pub, and you shouldn't always take things too seriously.

Hafidha and I had lunch while I was in Portland. It's been three years since we last met, and I think at about the same time three years ago we both started blogging. Thanks for lunch Hafidha and blessings and prayers to you! By the way, I'm glad I got some sunshine in America, because it was just hailing - in August! Oh dear.

Well, as you might have guessed from the silence here on the blog, I've been busy travelling the States, but now I'm back in Manchester. I had a good time visiting five different US cities, sometimes being a tourist staying in hostels, other times staying and catching up with friends. It was strange being in Boston as it was all very familiar and I always knew where I was, which wasn't true the rest of the time. It's a very different experience riding the subway in a city you know, you find yourself dropping into a commuter-zombie mindset and just zone out. But when you're a tourist you're much more alert and slightly nervous about knowing where you're going. If you're interested in my decision in New York (see previous post) I ended up going to All Souls Church. What clinched the deal was that it was near to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where I went in the afternoon. I did too much to report on here, and I'm sure you wouldn't be interested ...

This week I'm heading out to the States. Next Sunday (6th July) I'll be preaching at First Church Boston if I have any Boston-area readers that want to come and say hi. The weekend after I'll be in New York City, and was wondering where to worship. Any recommendations from anyone about good churches, UU or otherwise?

Wimbledon is on the telly. It's the Glastonbury Festival this weekend. American UU GA is on, the coverage of which I'll be keeping an online eye on. And it's been pissing it down all day.

Pending official ratification from the Executive Committee I have been accepted as a Minister with probationary status on the General Assembly Role. This week was the Valedictory Service here at Unitarian College Manchester, which was a good occasion. The picture above is from the day. I'm the one with the eccentric stole. The more somberly dressed but equally handsome fellow is Csaba Todor who has been here for the year from Transylvania. So right now I'm just working on my dissertation, that I'm trying to get finished before I go on holiday. Then I'll be off to the States for a long holiday. It's been three years since I left Boston, so I'm returning there and visiting some friends, then on to New York, then Portland, Oregon, San Francisco and possibly even a road trip to Montana. It will be the first holiday proper I've had (barring going to retreats, conferences, summer schools etc) for eight years. I'm looking forward to it.

As a member of the Foy Society I got an email directing me to a video of one of the workshops at General Assembly here. I think it's using the same site where the Anniversary Service sermon was up last year. Unfortunately I can't work out if there's a way to browse for similar videos. I have no idea who puts these videos up here, or if there are any more. Does some official Unitarian bod makes these videos and upload them? If so, why isn't it more heavily publicised? Are there lots of videos from our Annual Meetings? How can I find them?? Last year I only knew about the video because I knew the Anniversary preacher (although it was later mentioned in the Inquirer) and this year I've only been directed to it because I'm a member of the Foy Society. I don't know why it all seems so secretive. Today I noticed that the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement has a section on YouTube . Is this something that British Unitarians could do? I'm not an expert on these...