Welcome to Sean's Blog

almost forgot

Gaby and I now know where we will be moving come June. We will be going to live in Cricklewood in north west London to work for a church: St Gabriel's. Gaby is going to be a part-time youth worker and I will be the curate. We are very excited about going there and really looking forward to getting stuck into the community and hopefully joining in with whatever God is up to.

I probably should also say some nice things about how much we're looking forward to working for the vicar and what a great bishop they have, because they both know about this blog... ;-)

Update from the last week

Has been a busy old couple of weeks, made so largely by the addition of one of the job things to my life. I have joined the world of useful employment once again in the form a cheery barman and clumsy waiter at that classic student haunt, the Radcliffe Arms in Jericho, Oxford (not to be confused with the Radcliffe Arms which can be found in Jericho in the Holy Land).

As well as that, I have been shopping for a wedding suit (thank you Jacksons of Reading... who'd have thought that all those traumatic memories of buying school uniform would have come screaming back to me when I embarked on a very different rite of passage) and generally tried to familiarise myself with more of Luther's political thought. Which is nice.

In other news, a friend of mine has set up a blog. His name quite clearly Dan, but for some unfathomable reason he seems to insist on branding his internet persona "Rupert". Images of a sartorially challenged bear come to mind. But the blog seems promising, so do visit it. Like all Blogger/Blogspot sites, it sometimes doesn't load immediately so have a couple of goes if you need to.

end of term evening

The fact that it's the end of the summer term has snuck up on me. Lots of goodbyes to say.

This morning I went to the Catholic Chaplaincy to watch my friends Ryan and Anna being ostensibly received into the One True Church (obviously I assumed they were in it already). It was a real joy to be able to share it with them and pray for them and fascinating to see how alive and kicking the Catholic view is that they really are the only true church. I guess I had always assumed it was a stereotype!

Then an arduous evening (!) spent preparing for the stark realities of urban ministry... by dining at high table in an Oxford college and drinking Carlsberg in the oxford union. Such a very 'oxford' evening is very unusual for me... It's lovely in its way but I think I'm grateful to God that's not my long-term calling! It all felt slightly unreal and make-believe.

It began in Keble college chapel with holy communion, at which my friend Deonna was preaching and presiding. She's heading back to the US in the next week to pursue a PhD at Notre Dame in Moral Theology. It was a great but poignant service: Deonna preached on the sending out of the 12 disciples to preach, etc, and challenging the leavers to use their learning for the public good rather than narrow self-interest. (There was lots more but that was the thing that I took away the most I think.) Deonna then took a friend from our course and I to dine with her. We all had a fun time chatting about our work and meeting Oxford worthies. I think our Ethics group is an unusually close-knit community so it was all very bittersweet since it's one of the last times we'll see Deonna. Hopefully she'll come back frequently to lecture and so on though!

Then I wended my way to the union (my suggestion since Carlsberg is still a pound a pint - same as it was when I first came to oxford six years ago!) to meet my friends Olly and Ruth. They are such a fun pair whom I really admire since they're both living their dreams - Olly is trying to make his way in the advertising world (he is hilarious and creative) and Ruth in the orchestral world (she plays the flute). It's very hard work for them both and an amazing example of perseverance - although it makes you realise how dreams aren't all they're cracked up to be though! Anyway, we set the world to rights (schools, work, marriage, relationships, families etc etc) and caught up.

Thank you Jesus for giving me so many fantastic friends!