Christmas in California. This year the festive season is looking a little different in my house! We find ourselves living in Orange County in California. We wake up to sunshine most mornings and there are palm trees everywhere! The sun rises at 6.26, giving an extra three hours more daylight than where I was brought […]
The Christmas Train…Post 6- Christmas in California Read More »
I first heard about reading groups from Helen Cooke some years ago at an Activate conference. Moving to Dorset and trying to meet new friends gave me the opportunity to join a local group. I loved it!! I am now a member of two local groups and I set up a third at my son’s school as a way of getting to know other mums better. All the groups meet once every six weeks or so, meaning that I usually have three books on the go at any one time. Living a full life with three kids, a part time job and helping with Activate means that I rarely get ‘free time’ to read but somehow having the groups gives me permission to enjoy reading and most months it is not a problem finishing the books. I always enjoy the get togethers, meeting a wide range of women from different walks of life and a variety of view points. Some of them share my faith and go to the same church, most don’t and the conversations and issues we share are never dull and often heated.
I know there are others out there who are involved in reading groups. I would love to hear your stories of books that you would recommend, that initiated great discussions and ones to avoid.
My favourite so far from the last four years is ‘We Need To Talk About Kevin’ by Lionel Shriver. This was a gripping but harrowing read, raising all kinds of issues about parenting, teenage angst, violence, forgiveness and murder. We didn’t all like the book but we were still discussing it two hours into the night. I look forward to hearing your favourites…
Further confessions of a Reading Group addict… Read More »
At Activate we encouraged you to pray and vote and on May 6th the country voted, leaving the result open and ‘hung’. The following two weeks were the most exciting political time that I can remember, with the media following the twists and turns in such detail that even my children became enthralled and were texting me from school to ask the latest!
Now we have something new- a Conservative Liberal Democrat Coalition and a fresh faced cabinet of largely untried politicians. Their task is enormous and, whoever you voted for, the need now is to pray for wisdom for all those in charge.
I was intrigued to read in the Times (Saturday 22nd May, Weekend, Page 2, by Mimmi Spencer) that We’ve all gone a bit Lib-Con!
It is not that we necessarily voted for them, just that the new leaders seem to reflect ‘us’ in a new way.
‘You may not even like them very much but it’s possible that, like me, you’ll recognise an unanticipated personal affinity with David Cameron and Nick Clegg and their way of going about things. It’s remarkable to me that here are two men grappling with the nation’s monumental issues, and they’re using my cultural and social signposts, my context, with which to do it…I bet they watched Champion the Wonder Horse and Roobarb and Custard in the holidays and remember the long hot summer of ’76 when the tarmac melted’.
Perhaps it is because Cameron and Clegg don’t come across as political zealots. Their ‘pick’n’mix belief system seems to suit the purpose and be easier for us to identify with.
I discovered that, according to the Times, I am a Cleggeron too.
Lib-Cons crave the good life: champion sustainability, more time with their family, bracing walks in the countryside and talk about giving things up (air travel, carbs) not possessing them. They don’t want to appear as materialistic but want somewhere to grow their own veg. There are trampolines in the garden, ecover washing up-liquid by the sink and aspirations to holiday in a yurt.
Things Cleggerons love –
Organic fairtrade food
Porridge
Bottlegreen elderflower cordial
Eating in
VW Camper vans
Amazon (not ebay)
Ikea(but not actually going there)
Farrow and Ball Paint
Summer Festivals
Cycling
Wii Resort
Charity Fun Runs
‘One Day’ by David Nicholls
Ashes to Ashes
Gap black jeans
As I read this I squirmed, am I really so predictably a Cleggeron? Or is this just a clever description of being British and middle-class and a 30/40 something?
Perhaps we identify with them because it is the first time leading politicians have been in our age range. I know there is the old joke about policemen and doctors looking young but it is a shock to wake up and find that you are older than the chancellor of the exchequer!
One last defining characteristic of a Cleggeron is that they ‘don’t do God- or only for weddings and to shoehorn their kids into the best local state schools’. So, ultimately I am not a Cleggeranything. I do do God, but if reading about modern ideology and lifestyle helps me to understand those around me so that I can reach out whilst speaking their language then I will keep reading.
Are you a Cleggeron? Read More »
Women vicars from Manchester are backing a campaign that aims to provide good quality, correctly fitting bras for homeless women.
North-West leading charity for the homeless and marginalised, the Mustard Tree, has paired up with a Manchester lingerie boutique Lucile to launch Bosom Buddies 2010; a campaign that aims to provide good quality, correctly fitting bras for women who would otherwise have to go without.
A recent survey revealed that on average British women own 13 bras but only regularly wear eight of them (One Poll, March 2010). That means a lot of bras are going begging. In fact, that makes about 124 million in total, so a campaign has been launched to get the ‘hands on’ some of those bras to support homeless women across Manchester and the North West of England.
Supported by the Diocese of Manchester, the campaign has started to encourage ladies to have a rummage through their drawers and the appeal is to bring in, or post, any bras they can spare to the Mustard Tree Charity (110 Oldham Road, Manchester M4 6AG) or to Lucile Lingerie Boutique (Police Street, Manchester M2 7LQ).
Revd Jan Harney, long time friend to Activate, is delighted to back up and support the campaign. She said: “Women come in all shapes and sizes, beautifully crafted by a God who loves each one of us and has called us to love and care for each other in practical as well as emotional and spiritual ways. Giving away surplus money and clothing to others in need is our response to humanity using Jesus’ example, yet for some reason, many of us hold onto our bras. Perhaps we’re too shy to hand them in? Or just waiting for the day we can fit into them again? But someone else living an itinerant lifestyle is in need of the particular dignity that well-fitting underwear brings. It’s another of life’s little mysteries. We can’t explain it really, but we know the difference it makes to our confidence”.
Revd Jan Harney continues: “So come on girls, please, we urge you. Whether your spare bras are ‘itsy-bitsy-teeny-weeny’ or more of the ‘over-shoulder-boulder-holder’ style, a sister out there will be blessed by them”.
Perhaps you could take half an hour to declutter your underwear drawer and pop the spares into the post. Or you could galvanise your female friends and have a ‘Bosom Buddies’ get together where you provide wine and nibbles and your friends arrive for the evening with their spare bras ready to pop into a group gift-box to post the following morning.
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