Tuesday, 26 October 2010

Circuit Weekend 2010

We had a very happy time at Sidholme Hotel over the weekend 22-24 October. We had good fellowship and discussions and met a group from North Somerset on a similar weekend. We also met a couple from the Dorset village where both my parents lived about 100 years ago.
I wrote a poem to encapsulate some of it:


At Sidmouth on the Devon coast,

With Alan Rothwell as our host,

We met to live distinctively

With guidance from a DVD;

It raised some matters of concern,

What is God like? And where to turn

In war and peace, and life and health,

Environmental matters, wealth.

And so the DVD began

Led by a clever ethics man,

In English of the estuary,

The glottal stop his specialty.

And ‘volunteers’, Gill, Liz and Pru

Led us in prayers to help us through,

For when we start to tire and flag,

And arms of prayer begin to sag,

It’s then that fellowship kicks in

Lets mutual support begin.

So session two, fighting and war,

A topic now much to the fore;

That took us off to Liverpool,

The Commodore up there was cool,

His ship, the Albion, deploys

Some choppers and our soldier boys.

A Christian man, the Commodore,

Who fights, he says, a needed war,

Accepts the forces discipline

To help the weak and combat sin.

And we discussed, as Christians must,

The issues raised, can war be just?

Do Jesus and OT make sense?

And can we make a difference?

Then after all that talk of strife

Mildmay helped us think of life.

The DVD took us to see

How Mildmay deals with HIV,

Compassion for the suffering,

The human dignity they bring

By valuing the stigmatised

Who otherwise are ostracised.

And Alan said that we should fancy

A book on grace by Philip Yancey.

Then freedom; off to Sidmouth town

To see its features of renown.

Pete said, ‘at Fields, let’s take a peep’,

No grass was there, no cows, no sheep!

Instead, and that was quite enough,

Shoes, skirts and jackets, all that stuff!

Also, to lubricate our brains

The intermittent autumn rains.

Back next for tea and session four,

But first the Oxford football score,

Then Bob, his name is quite a clue,

For he is worth a bob or two,

In fact a multi millionaire

Who gives away an ample share,

And that provoked a lot of thought;

Should foreign aid be brought to nought?

Another feast was followed by

The social evening, DIY,

With poems, stories, jokes and song,

And sketches and all helped along

By Alan who compรจred the show.

Indeed, he made the programme flow;

His questions helped us to discuss

Great issues, what they mean to us.

Then Sunday morning finally

We thought environmentally;

This world, a gift to us from God,

Not to be trampled on roughshod.

And living life responsibly

Improves the future certainly;

To make our mark is our desire

Modelled on one we all admire

And so we closed with bread and wine

The signs of Jesus, man, divine;

With him this world we’ll infiltrate

More Christlike actions we’ll create.

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