We arrived at around 12 and joined the queue of people waiting to get in…after driving between holding bays, waiting an hour then moving again we finally pitched up around 3…sorted ourselves out and headed to the festival village.

I have to say I went to Greenbelt not knowing what to expect…my more liberal friends love it and my more conservative friends would offer advise to steer clear and so I headed to Greenbelt with curiosity, an open-mind and with the idea that I’d be able to make a more informed judgment on the festival.

Ethos

For starters Greenbelt has this massive social justice ethos going on…pretty much every trailer had Fairtrade hot drinks and you couldn’t turn a corner or enter a marquee without someone trying to sell you some Divine chocolate or a ethically traded/fairtrade t-shirt…there was even a t-shirt with the Tesco logo but with ‘Tesco’ replaced by ‘Fiasco’…awesome (I didn’t buy one!).

Add into the mix numerous stalls and seminars on human rights and justice plus a sign around every corner reminding you that if Greenbelt was Gaza there would be x amount of you…insert starving or something to that effect here.

I have to say that I really related to this ethos and loved the Fairtrade, ethical aspect…especially when the Fairtrade chocolate was cheaper than in the shops!

Music

The main thing that attracted me to Greenbelt was ‘The King Blues’ and ‘Luke Leighfield’ who would play gigs during the weekend…however throughout the weekend I caught some other bands too including an acoustic and mainstage set from Jars of Clay.

For me it was this mix of contemporary Christian music and more secular music that really made Greenbelt great…as a musician and huge fan of music I don’t want to watch 70 bands play ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ slightly differently, I want decent music and the balance of Jars of Clay’s ‘worship’ music and ‘The King Blues’ acoustic meets ska meets punk filled with the cry for social justice which lies at the heard of Christianity gave Greenbelt the right mix of music.

Other Seminars

Truth be told I didn’t make it to many seminars and spent a fair amount of time catching up with old friends who happened to be there (another aspect of Greenbelt that I loved!). I did, however manage to catch Mark Yaconelli’s 1st talk which was engaging, interesting and challenging, I attended a seminar for musicians called ‘DIY or DIE’ which gave some interesting pointers on how to promote your own music and some insights into the professional industry and I also found myself in a talk about how homosexuals were being persecuted in Africa and how (from what I was told) it was mostly Rowan Williams fault!

This mix of seminars perhaps sums up the range of Greenbelt…there was also lots of seminars on other subjects such as loving your enemies, confidence for women, Fairtrade and seminars aimed at lesbian, gay or bisexual Christians.

Whilst the broad range of topics being discussed would make some Christians say ‘noooo can’t have that at a Christian festival‘ I found that (regardless of the rights and wrongs…which I’m not going in to) Greenbelt was taking you beyond being spoon-fed. If you go to Spring Harvest you know what you’re going to get….you need not question what’s being talked about because it’s all very ‘nice middle-class church’ whereas Greenbelt challenges you….I wouldn’t say I’ve come back with different views but it’s certainly made me think.

So…is Greenbelt Christian?

The best way to finish this blog post seemed to be by asking an ambiguous questions (with a hint of the rhetorical) and not actually answering it! However…

The actions of Jesus show Him meeting those society didn’t like…the dishonest…the prostitutes…the mentally unstable…or as Scum of the Earth church put it ‘the left out and right brained’ and for me Greenbelt did just that. The Sunday service by the main stage was a pretty conservative church service…nothing controversial at all however it was attended by thousands of people who the general church would exclude…those who (for whatever reason) just don’t fit into mainstream church.

Regardless of your opinion of Greenbelt the organisers have managed to create a Christian festival that people are actually comfortable inviting their non-Christian friends too….I could see anyone I know who isn’t Christian having an awesome time at Greenbelt and discovering a bit of what God is about…maybe it’s just the addition of a beer tent or maybe it’s the diversity of Greenbelt but anyone is genuinely welcome at the festival.

Contrast this to Spring Harvest and I think I know what comes out on top…yes perhaps there are some things at Greenbelt which aren’t “Christian” but the festival is honest with people, open and accessible.

So would I go back next year? Yes….I think Greenbelt is what you make it…if you want to rant about the liberalness of Greenbelt then you can choose to attend the seminars that will make you explode…if you want a nice, safe Greenbelt then you can attend the seminars that match that…if you want to watch some good music and drink some beer then you can even do that…it’s what you make it!

Who wants to come with us next year?

Perhaps one of the most unique things about Greenbelt is that it doesn’t have an exclusively Christian line-up…for example one of the headlining bands are The King Blues…this wider variety of music is something I’m really looking forward to…there’s only so many Matt Redman clones you can bare to watch!

Also in the musical line-up who I’m anticipating seeing is Luke Leighfield…a Ben Folds style musician from Southampton (Luke’s album ‘Have you got heart’ is free here and well worth downloading) and some worship being led by Andy Flannagan which should be a refreshing change.

The speakers include Mark Yaconelli and there’s also some interesting panels on the line-up including ‘Musician: how to do it yourself’ and ‘Is Meat murdering the planet’.

Alongside all this there seems to be plenty of other stuff going on…including a beer tent (the place I believe Jesus himself would be hanging out!). I’m really looking forward to the experience and being challenged but also having some time out to enjoy good music.

I’ll do a full blog round-up on Greenbelt after I’ve showered and reflected on the festival!

However throughout the process of planning a wedding and all the learning we’ve done throughout I’ve wanted to finish it all off by writing a blog about my perspective of planning a wedding and maybe even throw in some helpful advice for those who may end up planning one in time to come.

The Beginning…

So we got engaged last July in Italy and knew that we wanted to get married this year…in fact we’d pretty much picked a date before we were even engaged! During our second week in Italy (the week after our engagement) our friends Tim and Wendy came out to stay in a nearby villa with their daughters and naturally having seen the engagement on Twitter they offered congratulations and advice.

There have been two pieces of advice that helped us immensely throughout the wedding planning and the first came from Tim in Italy. Being a minister Tim has helped many couples as they’ve prepared for their wedding and his advice to us was simply ‘be selfish’, informing us that there’s so many people who have preconceptions about how a wedding ‘should’ be that it’s easy to get bogged down trying to please everyone and that you need to remember that it’s your wedding not anyone elses.

This advice was enforced by a few other married friends of ours too and certainly proved absolutely invaluable…it meant we had to do some difficult things and make some difficult choices but looking back whilst we’d change the attitude of some towards us during our wedding planning I wouldn’t change any of the decisions we made in planning our wedding.

Generation Gap

It’s amazing how weddings differ and I guess what was fairly unusual (historically) about our wedding was that Jo and myself did all of the planning ourselves, between us we designed table decorations, picked colours, designed invites and did pretty much everything in between. For me this joint effort really reminded us of our similarities…there weren’t arguments about ideas it all just came together organically. There was so much unity between us in our planning Jo said it seemed odd buying a dress without me!

As we flicked through the photos last week and reminisced on the day Jo glanced at the image of the room and remarked ‘that’s what success looks like’.

Involving Friends!

One of the nicest things about our wedding was the amount of our friends that were involved. As part of the service we invited a selection of friends from all the parts of our lives to pray for us which was a really special moment, we had friends leading worship in a band, Stuart being our master of ceremonies and leading some games (the best reception idea ever, I might add!), and Steve driving is very nice Audi as a wedding car.

On the other side we also seemed to have a collection of people involved who were also Christian, our flowers were done by the churches’ flower guild, the cake baked by a lady at my parents church and our photographer went to a friend of Jo’s church but was also a professional photographer (http://www.bexphotography.co.uk…highly recommended…fantastic photos and top bloke).

On top of this Tony who led the service has known me since I was 11 and known Jo a few years too as we’ve gone to midnight mass and led their youth work on the church weekend away on one occasion.

All of this really made the day mean so much more…if you can get mates involved it’s fantastic…don’t get caught up with professionals get caught up with what means something to you!

Wedding Preparation

The most difficult thing to find time for when planning a wedding over distance was time for wedding preparation…we found a couple of opportunities. One in the form of a fantastic afternoon with St Andrews’ Church and the second on a lovely evening with Phil and Christine (the minister and his wife of Jo’s Sheffield church).

We’d also set out to read ‘The Marriage Book’…which we failed miserably!

My Final Advice…

Whilst I could ramble on forever about our wedding and preparation, our struggles and celebrations there’s just a couple of things I’d like to finish with…firstly my top 4 pieces of advice for planning a wedding:

1. Be Selfish - You’d be amazed at who has what ideas about weddings but you need to be able to tell people to butt-out, ask yourself what the two of you want as a couple and stick to that. For us this involved making some difficult decisions and discovering sides of people that neither of us liked but we know in doing that we were able to have the wedding we wanted and not be looking back now with regrets (thank you to all our friends who listened to us and prayed for us in our difficult situations)

2. Personalise! - Forget tradition…as an addition to advice 1 it’s your day so plan what you want…I hope that people walked away from our wedding saying ‘that was very Jo and Mark’ so make that you’re aim…and plan together (as a couple), you probably won’t regret it.

3. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask - Money is a massive issue with weddings and we saved some by having people we knew get involved whether it was cars or cakes and actually in having people we knew do things it made the day mean a lot more. There’s nothing like having a good friend drive you from the church in his car…if nothing else you don’t have to start the awkward conversation with ‘Been busy?’.

4. Make Time For Yourselves - Jo and myself spent a year pretty much just talking weddings and probably neglected us too much…try and make time for things other than weddings. I once heard someone say that for every 1 hour of planning you should have an hour for yourself…it’s far more difficult than it sounds!

Finally to finish this massive blog post I want to publicly thank my parents who were fantastic throughout the whole wedding process…they visited the venue, painted twigs, created a ‘wedding room’ in their house and were genuinely fantastic.

In the article (which I suspect puts the chap slightly out of context…however I couldn’t find his e-mail address online to ask him myself) Rev Michael Land who’s 67 suggests that ministers need to swear in their sermons in order to connect more with people..here’s an extract;

The vicar, who preached for 28 years in London’s East End said: “I’d have no problem using the F-word in a sermon if it meant I was connecting with people. The number attending services is falling and the church needs to modernise so it doesn’t fall behind completely.

“If that means swearing I say, ‘Why bloody not?’ People place Jesus on a pedestal. They’d probably be shocked by his language. He was poor and lacked any real education.”

Married dad-of-three Mr Land also told how he used the F-word on a motorist who cut him up. He said: “I wound my window down and said, ‘Why don’t you learn to f***ing drive’. He just walked away.”

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3075925/Vicar-preaches-Lords-swear.html#ixzz0vNzQkany

In 4 days time (Saturday) Jo and me get married! It barely seems like yesterday that we got engaged in Italy and after much planning the ‘Jo/Mark’ wedding plans are nearly done…I made a last phone call today to the reception venue, sent a few final e-mails, checked out cake progress and spoke to our DJ and other than writing a grooms speech (in which I’m told I can’t make incest jokes…although I thought pointing out having 2 sets of parents at a Norfolk wedding being novel would be amusing) we’re ready!

Jo’s been doing a few last minute bits and pieces of prep too and the last major things now are just to meet with Steve (who’s kindly driving us) and have a rehearsal on Thursday night, then doing a few bits Friday and eventually having a few beers with Joel and some others Friday evening.

Whilst I’m sure wedding photos will surface on this blog Jo and myself are also planning to write a ‘wedding blog of 2 accounts’ in the next few weeks where we shall try to be as open and honest about our experience of planning a wedding…hopefully adding some tips, frustrations and an insight into how we planned our wedding.

I’ve also been thinking about doing a blog on spiritual warfare and how it linked into our wedding prep which may surface sometime next week if I have time to write it before the wedding…it may sound like an odd combination but it feels like it makes sense!

Anyway there’s a brief wedding/life update…if you’re coming on Saturday please don’t bring confetti…we have bubble…and pray for us (and good weather).

Often we find that church is about a ‘Sunday (Spiritual?) Fix’…thousands of people turn up to church on Sundays because it’s what they’ve always done, because they believe it sorts things out for the week and secures their place in heaven or maybe even because it’s what their family have done for generations however this easily creates a separation between real life and church.

The difference between ‘church’ and ‘real life’ can be just as big for even the most committed Christians because often (sadly) church is very separated. The world provides a fix for our physical or emotional needs and the church deals with the spiritual.

The problem with this is it’s completely different from what Jesus did…the Message paraphrase of John 1:14 puts it like this;

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.

The word incarnation was thrown around a lot during my time at Oasis and the approach Jesus took was very incarnational. He didn’t set up camp and sort out people’s spiritual needs but dealt with their emotional and physical needs too. Jesus wasn’t a one-trick pony nor a one hit wonder but a bloke who journeyed with people.

Journeying as a ministry is something I’ve always been aware of in my youth work…I’ve always been aware that it’s not just the spiritual aspect of the young people that matter but the physical and emotional aspects too and to do this effectively in youth ministry we need to journey with young people.

The same applies to anyone who’s a Christian and their relationship with others (both Christian and non-Christian), we need to journey with people…we need to cry with them, laugh with them, celebrate with them, mourn with them and truly focus on the whole person not just the spiritual. We were created to be relational beings, Jesus was relational…we need to be relational.

In the last week I’ve found myself on a journey within the community and school that I never expected to be on and it’s really got me thinking about the purpose of our journey’s with others and I encourage you to do the same. Let’s not have a quick fix church but a journeying church.

For Lucy’s 21st a group of us headed up to the Hull branch of ‘Napoleons’ to celebrate! The only experiences I’ve ever had of gambling come from 2 very different perspectives.

The first perspective is that of the tacky gamble…I grew up being taken to holiday camps (which I might add I enjoyed) and spent my teenage years near Great Yarmouth and all these places are filled with amusement arcades tempting you in to throw 2p’s down a chute or to pay 20p to attempt to win a child-manufactured teddy bear from a rigged machine (yes the cranes are fixed!).

The second perspective is right at the other end of the scale and come from watching television shows like Hustle when they attempt to con a huge casino where people have more money than sense…dressed in their suits and using their casino jargon the Hustle team would attempt to con casino owners without being caught by the security.

Thankfully Napoleons is far more like the Hustle casino than the Great Yarmouth arcades but it’s a very different world to that I’m used to. My parents have never really had money to throw around and being a Christian I’ve grown up with fairly sensible teaching of money yet a fair amount of those in the casino had evidently not had this upbringing.

There’s something very surreal about watching someone throw £50 (of tokens) on a 1 in 50 chance number on a roulette table and not be remotely phased that they’ve just lost £50….there’s equally something surreal about watching someone win £150 and throw it straight back on.

The nice thing about the whole experience was that we didn’t spend the whole evening losing money but we had a very nice 3 course meal first and a few drinks (good old diet Pepsi!) before exploring the Casino area with the £5 of chips we got with our meal.

I guess the important thing before doing any form of gambling is to limit yourself and think sensibly about things beforehand…whilst many Christians would argue that gambling is wrong I believe the bible merely teaches that the love of money is wrong…so gambling is fine as long as you’re sensible and it doesn’t come before God (or your family…bets vs meals is silly!).

Armed with my £5 of chips I headed to roulette and fairly quickly got the hang of it and equally as quickly lost my ‘free’ chips so I took some time out before spending another £5 and that was it. The roulette was fun but it was far more luck than judgment (as are many of the games in a casino).

So all in all I really enjoyed my Casino trip…I won’t be becoming a regular but it was a great night…certainly more sociable than a night club.

and how did I do with my 2nd £5?

Somehow I managed to win several times and cashed in £25 and walked away with a profit! Good times!

There’s a lesson to be learned, one that I will take home,
When I return to my normal reality zone,
Punk rock has the power to change the world,
It lies in every single punk rock boy and girl,
So don’t let anyone tell you you’re not worth the earth,
These streets are your streets, this turf is your turf,
Don’t let anyone tell you that you’ve got to give in,
Cos you can make a difference, you can change everything,
Just let your dreams be your pilot, your imagination your fuel,
Tear up the book and write your own damn rules,
Use all that heart, hope and soul that you’ve got,
And the love and the rage that you feel in your gut,
And realise that the other world that you’re always looking for,
Lies right here in front of us, just outside this door,
And it’s up to you to go out there and paint the canvas,
After all, you were put on the earth to do this,
So shine your light so bright that all can see,
Take pride in being whoever the hell you want to be,
Throw your fist in the air in solidarity,
And shout “Viva la punk, just one life, anarchy”

Even as a Christian I find that these lyrics absolutely burst with passion and in many senses they could be lyrics that remind us that we have the power to change the world!

In the years following that I’ve managed to add all their albums except Cheeses (of Nazareth) and Upbeats and Beatdowns to my collection and have grown to adore their mix of ska-punk comprised with both fun and profound lyrics.

Earlier this year the ex-lead singer of the band Reese Roper finally announced that the long-awaited Five Iron Frenzy DVD would be released on the 13th April and that pre-orders would get it shipped a month early…I pre-ordered early March and anticipated the arrival of my DVD from the States.

A few weeks back the DVD arrived and I’ve almost finished watching it minus a few extras and wow…what a DVD!

The DVD is in fact 2 DVD’s….the first being the 3 hour documentary ‘The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy’ and the second labeled ‘This is a coaster’ is actually a disc of extras including the video of the live album ‘The end is here’ (the band’s last gig)..I’ll come back to the extras in a minute!

The Rise & Fall of Five Iron Frenzy

The 3 hour documentary covers the 9 years of the band and is mixed with interviews, live clips and goofy home movies the band put together and gives you a real insight to the passions, struggles and lives of the band members, their journey with God during the 9 years of Five Iron Frenzy and how the band really took off yet struggled with being in the middle of the Christian and secular genre.

The documentary is well put together and is very much a visual timeline…Reese Roper who did much of the editing hasn’t made the journey look like a nice a fluffy ride with God but has documented the struggles too which makes it a really genuine piece of documentary.

The Extras

Whilst the documentary is amazing the extras are something else completely.

Packed onto the 2nd disc are 5 music videos, 3 lives concerts, a few random clips and a whole host of short movies!

I’m not going to to review all of the extras but just the Filmore Gig Video.

Filmore was the last show the band ever played and so to have it on DVD is something very special. The video includes all the stuff that was cut from the live CD and there’s real emotion in the gig from the whole band. The real highlight was the 5 minute introduction Reese gives to Every New Day which was so powerful to watch.

and summing up…

To sum up the Five Iron Frenzy DVD is amazing and was well worth the $20 I spent on it however it is for the hardcore fans…if you just think ‘they’re alright’ then it’s probably not for you…borrow someone’s and watch the live Filmore gig!

I finish this post with the live video for ‘Every new day’

I’ve got a few days off work now and I shall also be taking a few days off blogging but I shall return either at the end of the week or next week without starting a post with ‘day xx in the blogging house’.

In the mean time I want to finish with this scene from the passion of the Christ which I think sums up Easter Sunday perfectly

Why the boring life update above?

Well…today is just a normal day! The shops are open the usual hours, the gym is open as usual, I’m doing my usual day off mix of Facebook, blogging, gym, and heading out to nice little places like Beverley and probably chilling in front of the TV but yesterday was Good Friday and tomorrow is Easter Sunday…two of the biggest events in the Christian calendar yet sandwiched between those two days lies Easter Saturday…a day that is just a normal day.

In his book ‘God on Mute’ Pete Greig briefly explores the idea of Easter Saturday and since reading the book a couple of years ago Easter Saturday has really intrigued me.

Let’s imagine the disciples…they’ve spent the last 3 years following this revolutionary rabbi (Jesus) who’s managed to turn faith as they know it upside down, He’s challenged the pharisees (leaders at the time) on pretty much everything they try and teach the people. A week ago the disciples witnessed Jesus riding in on a donkey with people praising God for Him.

Then 4 days later they share the passover meal together, Jesus calls them friends, Jesus washes their feet…they go out to pray…Jesus is looking troubled…Judas is no-where to be seen…suddenly less than a week after being praised by the people He is arrested…beaten within an inch of His life….chosen to be crucified over a murderer by His own people…nailed onto a cross and left to die.

The disciples had heard Jesus talk about dying but they never quite got it

They probably didn’t even catch on that He’d be alive again in a couple of days

So I wonder what the disciples did on Easter Saturday?

We don’t know but they’d just had the floor taken from under their feet, the man they’d followed, loved and learned from the last 3 years was dead…they were probably wanted men themselves just for following Jesus.

Perhaps they spent time together praying…maybe they shared communion….maybe they just didn’t know what to do

So as you spend a normal Saturday think about Easter Saturday and ponder!

The phrase ‘righteous anger‘ seems to be a suitably ambiguous phrase used to say ‘ummm…yes Jesus got angry…let’s move on‘. However it’s quite interesting to make the distinction between anger and righteous anger. From my understanding there is ‘righteous anger’ and ‘uncontrolled anger’.

Uncontrolled anger is the image of anger we probably imagine the most and probably the most common type of anger…uncontrolled anger is the anger where you lash out, where someone is attacked, where you say things you don’t mean…the sort of anger that you feel embarrassed about after (and possibly become so ashamed about you don’t even apologise for).

Righteous anger on the other hand is a whole different kettle of fish. The most common example that we use is that of Matthew 21 where Jesus enters the temple and turns the tables of the people selling things. This example is all well and good but neither Matthew, Mark or Luke where it appears mention that Jesus was angry.

The second example however does! In Mark 3 we read:

Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored. Then the Pharisees went out and began to plot with the Herodians how they might kill Jesus.

it’s obvious from his actions here that the anger of Jesus was that of controlled anger…He was angry about their hardened hearts and angry that they just didn’t get it.

The real point of this blog post though was to pose the question do we get angry enough?

I don’t mean angry in the shouting, hitting people sense but in the sense of do we get angry about the things we  should? Are we angry enough about injustice? Are angry about those who’s hearts are hardened?

Even typing those two questions above I feel a little uncomfortable because anger is such a misunderstood emotion. The Oxford dictionary describes it as ‘a strong feelings of annoyance, displeasure or hostility’ and so I wonder if the anger Jesus talks about is closer to being a passionate dissatisfaction? Surely the emotions of passion and anger are similar? I know when I’m passionate about something I talk enthusiastically and also if I’m angry about something I equally talk enthusiastically.

So is ‘passionate dissatisfaction‘ a better description for righteous anger? It’s possibly a better description of the way we feel when things aren’t the way God wants them.

This blog is very much a series of thoughts, reflections and ponderings so please feel free to challenge it, comment, disagree or whatever you desire!

Alongside this the campaign organiser has set up a website called ‘Invade the Airwaves’ just in case you’re confused about what the campaign is about…it also has a ‘in the press’ section detailing 2 local BBC stations who’ve featured the campaign and a host of Christian sites talking about it…not quite the media storm that the Christmas Rage Against the Machine project got.

On the website they even have an ‘FAQ’ for those people confused by the entire concept (I’m sure it’s simple!) and as part of this there is the following statement:

Two things really. Firstly, the evident power of social media (namely Facebook) to bring about such a powerful campaign with outstanding results that Rage Against The Machine delivered at Christmas 2009. Secondly, a huge personal dissatisfaction that such an angry song featuring the ‘F’ word at the end several times, was the talk of the nation at a time when the focal point of the Christmas period should be peace

Now whilst the author is right that Christmas should be about peace he has clearly not realised what the RATM song was about.  Killing in the name was written about the racist policemen in the area where the band were based, it isn’t an anthem for violence but one for justice, it’s an anti-war song and anti-hypocrisy and whilst screaming ‘F*** you I won’t do what you tell me’ wouldn’t be my personal approach I find that the message in the song represents a lot of the things Jesus stood for.

I’ve been invited to the campaign to get Delirious? to number 1 twice and both times I’ve clicked ‘Reject’ (I am attending a Nestle free Easter though!) and the reason for this is simply it’s not a good idea…Christian music is generally so awful it’s better off kept off the airwaves….alongside this I don’t believe for 5 seconds Jesus would remotely care about it, He never aimed for popularity…in fact he managed to hack off his own people so much they wanted him crucified.

So Delirious? for Easter number 1? I hope not…let’s have the new Scouting for Girls song instead!

Whilst I understand that this happened to fulfill the prophesies it’s a very weird passage when put in the context of Jesus’ ministry coming to the end and even stranger to think that by the end of the week He would be crucified and His body placed in a tomb.

The reason this seems so odd is that Palm Sunday in a nutshell looks like a celebration, there’s praising and cheering and a general celebration feel about it yet Jesus must have known His time was coming to an end and so when we also have that knowledge it doesn’t feel like much to celebrate…it must be like celebrating someone’s birthday knowing they have a terminal illness…yes it’s a celebration but you have something looming over you.

Palm Sunday does however feel like a bit of a stopping point…a bit of a landmark representing the end of Jesus ministry as God incarnate and the beginning of the end….perhaps in the words of Five Iron Frenzy we should say ‘the end is near’ in reference to Palm Sunday.

The day was split into 3 parts with 3 lecturers (well….4 really!). The first part took a look at gender from a scientific point of view including the social sciences and biology. The 2nd looked at the theological side of things and the third looked at how we work with young people and different genders.

The part of the day I found the most interesting was the theological lecture. It was lead by Elaine Storkey of Tearfund and was very interesting. I always find that theology is fascinating yet I don’t have the patience or desire to look at it massively in depth on a regular basis so a one off theology lecture was perfect.

The primarily focus was looking at the gender roles we see in the bible and especially on what the bible says about women. With women in ministry being a big issue for some Christians (I believe we call them sexists!!!) it was very interesting to look at the key verses from Paul that they use as their argument against women in ministry. For example the passage where Paul tells women that they can’t speak in church put in context is there because the women in this church were disturbing their husbands worshiping with pointless gossip and comments such as ‘Did you put the cat out?’ (in 21st century terms!).

Alongside this looking at the attitude of Jesus towards women re-affirmed to me that a lot of this women in ministry stuff is nonsense but more importantly it reminded me how important it is to look at things in context. It’s so easy to take the bible out of proportion and get the wrong end of the Jesus-stick!

All in all a very good day and I’m looking forward to another one cropping up next year!