Storyteller’s World

The animal rights campaigners were out in Broad Street today. Meanwhile a degree ceremony was taking place in the Sheldonian Theatre just behind them. The slogans shouted through a megaphone could be clearly heard in the Blackwells cafe, in spite of the chatter. They must have been disruptive of the degree ceremony. Where do the rights to free speech, even for crazies, have to give way to the rights of other people to go about their lawful business without being molested?

Somewhere before this, I’d have thought.

Only one of those vacuum cleaners remains this morning:

You’ve got to feel sorry for the lonely relict of this broken relationship.

Perhaps the other one just got on a bus.

Perhaps its companion is still waiting for it to return.

Seen on the grass verge opposite the church at 8.30 this morning.

Weird.

… to do internet surveys.

That’s what I call a good morning, when you come across two words before breakfast that you want to look up in the dictionary.

threnody noun M17
A song of lamentation, esp. for the dead; a dirge.

This was in the book Alison was reading.

housel noun & verb. obsolete exc. Hist.
A noun. (The administration or receiving of) the Eucharist. OE.
B verb trans. Administer the Eucharist to; in pass. receive the Eucharist. OE.

houseling noun & adjective. (a) noun the action of the verb; (b) adjective (attrib.) used at the celebration of the Eucharist. OE.

This was when we were changing the altar frontal and I said to the curate, “Just move the leg of the houseling table under the altar a bit.”

“What’s a houseling table?” says she, “and why is it called that?” (This is what curates are for: to ask questions the vicar will want to answer with “Because I say so.”)

“That’s just what it’s called: when I came here that’s what Bernard Oliver and Vic Cardy told me it was called.”

It was, and is, called that, because that’s the name that has been passed down in the church for centuries when speaking of it. It’s the small wooden table which, around the time of the Reformation (before? during? after?) was placed in front of the congregation, and they would kneel at it to receive the Eucharist. Before there was an altar rail to kneel at.

I don’t think I’ve ever been so aware of being part of an oral tradition of such long duration.

Here’s a comparison of three of the leading ebook reader apps for iPhone: Comparing ebooks: Classics, Stanza, and Eucalyptus on iPhone

A way through the woods.

Alison spent much of the weekend at a Rewley House course on the Philosophy of Time. She talked more about theology than she has in a month of Sundays, including on her theology course. So maybe the way for Christians to find opportunities to share their faith is to sign up for courses in philosophy.

It was the convinced atheists who most wanted to talk about God. Even one of the other participants challenged one of them: “If you don’t believe in God, why do you want to talk so much about him?”

Does having daughters really make a dad more left wing? as Amelia Hill writes in the Observer. Or is it that being left wing makes you have daughters? (That would work how, exactly?)

As the father of three daughters (as well as a son), I’m proud to claim these good credentials.

Just downloaded the WordPress app for iPhone, so I can post to the blog from the iPhone. Posts won’t be long, because I haven’t mastered the touch keyboard that well. But it’s one of those things that’s so amazing you’ve just got to do it.