42

I want to be an elephant for God

Amazing leaps of logic here: adrianwarnock.com: TOAM Session 9 - R.A.W. By P.J. Smyth.

1. Risk
When Joshua was old God told him he was old he was told that there was still much to do.

Elephants are very undomesticated. They take risks. They are raw. Never say you won’t do something because there is a risk attached to it. We are a herd and we need to be skilled at uncertainty.

“Maybe the Lord is with us!” Keep that word maybe in your vocab. God save us from weak effeminate Christianity.

Jim Elliot said lets gamble our lives for Christ. We need to stand firm and act like men as Paul said to the Corinthians.

Men are being castrated in our age in terms of leadership in the home and the church. We don’t just want to prophesy we want live prophetically. Eg marrying and having kids.

PJ challenged the men to as Spurgeon put it to not turn “milksop.” Elephants charge, they don’t always think about the consequences.

We don’t want to build a zoo. We do not want to be domesticated.

Amazing isn't it. So totally convincing as Biblical exegesis (please note heavy use of sarcasm by me).

Just two immediate thoughts.

“Maybe the Lord is with us!” Keep that word maybe in your vocab. God save us from weak effeminate Christianity.

Huh? How? What? I can't see any connection between saying Maybe and being saved from weak effeminate Christianity.

Men are being castrated in our age in terms of leadership in the home and the church. We don’t just want to prophesy we want live prophetically. Eg marrying and having kids.

I am married (21 years in a few days time). We have 3 kids so I must not be castrated and must be living prophetically. Oh wait. I am a feminist, an egalitarian so maybe my kids don't count.

And then from the next section.

Elephants have authority!

Oh good. I must go and listen to one preach the gospel this weekend. Huh?

BNP members banned from joining Methodist Church

Ekklesia have quickly picked up the historic decision by the Methodist Church

that being a member of an organisation which promotes racism is not consistent with being a Methodist.

See BNP members banned from joining Methodist Church

The actual notice of motion got amended from the copy that is online at present, so I can't share it yet. My understanding is that we will be working out the legal details for changing standing orders prior to the next conference. The gist is that we both restrict membership and at the same time you can't be a member of the Methodist Church if you are a member of a racist political party.

However, we also celebrate that the love of God offers hope of redemption for all. All are welcome in our worship where we can all hear the gospel, be transformed by the Holy Spirit and be reconciled with our loving God through the atoning death of Jesus on the cross. Those are my words but I believe they express the final resolution that we have passed.

A comparison

Adrian Warnock is rather pointedly recommending a book:

This book will help in addressing the wrong perception some have of the role of women in our churches

The book has possibly the longest title of any on Amazon and is currently available for pre-order:

Influential Women: From the New Testament to Today - How Women Can Build Up or Undermine Their Local Church: How Women Can Bless - or Ruin - Their Local Church - Wendy Virgo

I will pre-order this book. Of course I don't need convincing that women can achieve all that the very long title implies. I fact I celebrate that God calls all people. It is sad that a book is needed to justify what women can do within a Church that does not fully accept their calling to minister.

At the same time it is worth reading Newfrontiers – Why I'd never want to be an Elder (which I will probably respond to in more detail).

I invite you to compare and contrast this to several items of news from the Methodist Church Today:

• Sarah Malik our Youth President and other representatives of our Youth Conference have spoken extensively at the Methodist Conference today: Young Methodists challenge Church to broaden its horizons.
• We have also heard about and celebrated our National Youth Participation. The report from a very recent addition to our Connexional Team:
• We have celebrated the election of our next President and Vice President. Both are wonderful Spiritual leaders chosen and gifted by God to lead our Church. See The Methodist Church elects new President and Vice President Designate

What a joy it is to be part of a Church that is benefiting from God's calling and equipping people of great diversity to leadership throughout the Church. Thanks be to God!

Methodist Church elects new President and Vice President Designate

Here is the official press release: Methodist Church elects new President and Vice President Designate: The Methodist Church of Great Britain | 8 July 2009.

And some pictures.

An historical moment in Methodism

A wonderful moment for the Methodist Church. The For the first time ever the Methodist Conference has elected both a woman as President Designate (Rev Alison Tomlin) and a woman as Vice President (Deacon Eunice Attwood). While we have had women serve in both roles before we have never before had both at the same time.

[Update]

Many thanks to Anna in the media team for correcting me. This is not actually the first time that we have had women in both President and Vice President. The other time was apparently in 2001. As those who have tried to teach me in the past will testify history is not my best subject.

[/Update]

But far more important than there gender is that conference has elected two outstanding people of God, two people who I am sure have been called by God to lead us Spiritually.

I don't know Deacon Eunice, although I was impressed by her speech earlier in the week.

However, I do know Alison Tomlin, she has been the Chair of District for the Northampton District (well it was Oxford and Leicester District when I started) during my whole ministry and for many years before that.

I have found Alison to be a wonderful District Chair. Her Spirituality lifts the whole district, she inspires through example and through her outstanding pastoral care of all people. This year she led our District Retreat and I found it very helpful.

Don't just take this post as a sales pitch, just search 42 for Tomlin and see what I have written before.

This is wonderful news that demonstrates how God has not finished with us but is bringing new life and hope to the Methodist Church in Great Britain. Whooooo Hoooooo!!!!!!

A evening with the Methodist Sacramental Fellowship

At the Methodist Conference there are always a number of "Fringe Events" during the lunch break and in the evening. Beyond lots of meals to catch up with friends I like to try out a variety of these. I blogged about last nights in 42: Some beautiful women.

Tonight I decided to go to the Sacramental Fellowship's Lecture by Rev Helen Cameron on ‘The Extempore Sacrament'. I am not a member of the Sacramental Fellowship but I went for a number of reasons:

• I believe in itinerancy. That means that as a Methodist Presbyter I am stationed by the Methodist Conference. There is an element of sending rather than choosing. I was taught that a presbyter needs to be able to fit with a congregations styles and preferences for worship. Actually that is too simplistic a statement. Clearly there are expectations of leadership and that a presbyter will encourage and support congregations in deepening discipleship and spirituality and that this might well include working to move worship onwards. But there is certainly an expectation that a presbyter will not simply force their style on a congregation. I recognise that I am a good fit with the congregations where I am now (informal, flexible, low evangelical) but that might not always be the case so it is a good idea to stay in touch with other streams of Methodism.
• "The Extempore Sacrament" interested me as a title. I am needing to do communion without books in a number of places for a variety of reasons:
  • At Old Weston if I say we are not going to use the books for Communion there will usually be a clear loud response of "Oh Good", partly it is their tradition but also with an elderly congregation it is also about comfort reading with failing eyesight.
  • At all age worship at Raunds where there might well be a number of people who struggle to read it excludes people from fully participating if wee use books.
  • One of the chapels I am gaining pastoral charge for does not have the Methodist Worship Book.

My thoughts are:

Hospitality: Sorry but the Sacramental Fellowship did appear a bit of a closed club. Clearly most people knew each other well and there was little attempt to integrate new commers. For example several were obviously going out for a meal together after the lecture but it was not announced and there was no invitation to join them. Poor marks, I do expect more and am not normally disappointed.

The Lecture was very interesting indeed. One of the things that struck me was the very different starting point and some of the assumptions that are very different to my experience. I wonder why the experience and therefore the assumptions should be so different. Also which is more typical of Methodism in general.

My training experience was in a very different establishment to Queens, one with (at least to start with) a much weaker Methodist input. It was also part-time rather than residential. Helen said

"I worship daily as part of the Queen's Foundation, Birmingham in a diverse community where spontaneity and regular fixed forms are both valued and recognised s vital signs in prayer and worship."

That was not the case at SEITE. We had a wide variety of Anglican forms of worship, although none of them very spontaneous and one weekend a year of Methodisty worship which was focused around the Covenant service which is hardly typical Methodist Worship (much as I love the Covenant Service it is quite different to Sunday worship the rest of the year). In our Foundation training at The North Bank Centre (now the Guy Chester Centre) all worship included spontaneous elements and was generally very free and very informal.

Even before that the Methodism I grew up with and the places I serve now are quite clearly different from Helen's expectations:

"I note in 2009 that many pre-ordination students are neither confident nor experienced in extempore prayer and yet on Circuit placement still encounter an expectation in Methodist Churches that, as student deacons and presbyters, they should be competent to do so."

Gulp. This is so different from my experience it is quite hard to recognise. The Methodists I trained with (Beale, Dani & Kim) were all far more experienced local preachers than I yet all of us found it hard to adjust to the lack of extempore prayer and preaching. We expected it but it was not expected of us and so we had to sneak it in :-)

Looking before that. It was expected and normal in the Sunday Night fellowship when I was a teenager, also in Methsoc at University and when working for the United Bible Societies. In house fellowships it was normal to be able to ask pretty much anyone to pray at any point in the meeting.

When I was a Church Steward, with Terry Hudson as the minister, he quite correctly (according to CPD) expected the Stewards to be the Spiritual leadership of the Church and with that was an expectation of being able to pray in public (not just the Stewards either). If I had gone to the Circuit to ask about becoming a local preacher without them knowing that I could pray I think they would have just laughed. In my local preacher training my mentor expected some extempore prayer and reports on services would immediately pick up prayer if it did not include a balance between extempore and fixed.

In the Churches I serve there is also an expectation of prayer. I expect Worship Leaders to be able to pray extempore (although there is a range of preference). I expect the leadership team to pray and the same with house groups, we always have open prayer and pretty much everyone joins in.

In short I don't understand how anyone could get to pre-ordination in the Methodist Church without plenty of expectation and experience in extempore prayer. We are much more likely to find people who have never led worship straight from the Methodist Worship Book (in lots and lots of places it is only used for Holy Communion, Covenant & Baptisms so very rarely by local preachers).

One of the questions was about how to teach extempore prayer for Local Preachers as well as for student ministers. I was surprised that modelling was not mentioned. You learn how to pray from the example of those who are walking alongside you. When you meet to prepare the very first service you are going to share in, surely you start in prayer. When you go to the local preachers meeting surely there is plenty of extempore prayer as you go through the agenda. For more see 42: Moving Methodism: 21 ways to improve Local Preachers Meetings.

So I wonder, is it me that has some strange experience of Methodism? Or is the Sacramental Fellowship quite out of touch with general Methodism. Meanwhile make sure you are comfortable praying before asking me about ordination :-)

Nostalgia the nice way

I am in Wolverhampton for the week at the Methodist Conference. This means an opportunity for nostalgia as I was born here (yes it was a long time ago - no rude comments needed). So tonight I left the bright lights of the City Centre for a fringe event in Wednesbury. Cycling there I half recognised many names without being sure what the connection was.

So after the meeting rather than ride straight back to the caravan (approx 10 miles) I used my Garmin Edge 705 to find places from my past.

First was Farm Road, somewhere here was my first home. Designed by Dad and built by "Bidulf & Thrift" the building firm started by my Mum's Father and his friend Mr Biddulf, Mr Bidulf died and Dad took his place after he had qualified as an Architect and finished his National Service.

On the way I passed Beckminster Methodist Church where my parents met and later were married and where I was Baptised. Near there is Bantock Park where I was apparently taken in my pram.

Next was Stoneacre Close, never realised how near it is to Farm Road. I remember Gran and Grandpa (Dad's parents) living here (and Gran alone for many years) again designed by Dad (not sure if B&T built them) still look good (and quite trendy actually) all these years later.

Then York Avenue where my Aunt and Uncle lived when I was growing up, in a house Dad designed.

Then Wolverhampton Grammer School where Dad went. Finally back to the Cannock Road about 1.5 miles from the M54 which is where I am staying in the caravan.

Total a bit over 20 miles and by far the best way to see everything. A very pleasant way to spend an evening. Roads amazingly quiet.

Some beautiful women

This evening I went to a conference fringe event. Yes I confess it was chosen at least in part for being very close (it was raining and time was short) and for including food (I am so predictable).

It was billed as:

Inter Faith Relations
St Peter's House, 4 Exchange Street, Wolverhampton WV1 1TS
'Inter Faith Relations in the 21st Century: the continuing journey'
Speakers: Dr Deirdre Burke, Gopinder Kaur, Amra Bone and Ramona Kauth

It turns out I should really have been there an hour earlier for the food, but there was plenty left and we started very soon after I arrived. Sadly the turn out was very poor, I don't know why.

The format was simple, the chair introduced all the speakers and then each spoke for about 15 minutes sharing their experiences, views and spirituality.

They were all great and what is more they were all clearly experienced at listening to each other as connections between their experiences kept being drawn out. There was deep respect, humility, kindness, friendship and support between them (occasional prompts like "Why don't you mention x, we have found that really helpful" or just as y was saying I find ...").

When it came to answering questions they were thoughtful and again supported each other.

I would love to find a way for East Northamptonshire to benefit from the years of experience these wonderful women have as we have barely begun to scratch the surface. We are still almost in denial that there are people of other faiths than Christianity in the area. Also with only 1.7% described as Black and Minority Ethnic in the last census there is very little experience which sadly leads to problems with racism and prejudices and intolerance towards other faiths.

So a great evening, just very sad that so few benefited from learning from these four awesome women.

A beautiful man

I want to write about a beautiful man whose loving Christian love touched me again in a powerful way.

Steve Wild is well known to the Methodist Conference, currently Chair of the Cornwall District he had conference cheering his description of Cornish Fresh Expressions of Methodist Heritage - which as usual for Steve included tales of sharing the gospel.

Anyway we passed in the entrance area after lunch and he said "Brother, can we meet at tea time so you can tell me about what is happening, I want to know because I keep praying for you". You may recall that I first met Steve two years ago when he was one of the leaders of the pre-ordination retreat (see 42: A major claim to fame and 42: The very best).

Remember, that I am a nobody at this Methodist Conference with no official status while Steve as a District Chair is hugely busy.

So we met up and then paused while Steve congratulated and thankedsomeone with a very different theological view to his own on something they had done during the closed session (no idea what it was).

Today being official Methodists go to Cafe Nero day we went and found a quiet corner. There Steve quizzed me on what is happening, was generous and loving with both the god and the bad. We had to rush off but paused outside the Civic Hall for prayer.

What a lovely reminder of the Christian support of those who led me through discernment, training, probation, ordination and my current ministry.

Another great reminder of why I continue to be delighted to be a Methodist Minister! Especially as Steve is not alone in his prayer support or encouragement just louder than most :-) I have lost count of the number of busy people this week who have taken time to approach me and offer me encouragement and prayer support.

Important nuances/distinctions

I was able to chat to Richard Vautrey our Vice President over my slight misgivings over some of what he said in his conference address on Saturday. In my post 42: Now that is what I call a good weekend I wrote in a slightly cryptic way.

I will be writing some reflections, particularly on Richard's address (excellent but an urgent need to be more nuanced in a certain area).

The chat was good and has to a large extent confirmed what I hoped (and to some extent expected). The problem is not one of disagreement in substance but more one of presentation.

Richard made excellent points that I agree with totally on the essential contribution of lay people and the need to recognise all that already happens and ensure they are fully and properly represented in leadership (yes a debate on Lay President as a title instead of Vice President is needed and that connects with the need to consider Deacons and presidency plus longer term presidents as spiritual leadership - which is all too much to discuss here).

He also made good points about the need to encourage & support women in senior leadership within the Church. I would go somewhat further and lament the fast that on the platform at conference this year there are 7 people and they are all white men. Do we need to have quotas or something? I do note that of the 7 there are 4 who have been elected (former president & vice president and current president and vice president) but there are 3 who are not elected (secretary or assistant secretary, law and polity rep (at least I think that is Gareth's role) and precentor (person who leads worship, in this case singing).

That leads us to the area of concern. Richard noted with sadness the lack of younger and middle aged men in our congregations and suggested that our worship (indeed the whole of our Church) is perceived as feminine and that we needed to explore how to be more masculine to attract men (that is a poor paraphrase as it was Saturday I heard this, will add proper quote when I can [update see below]).

This concerned me as the argument that the Church is too feminine and needs to be more masculine is frequently used by people trying to bring in Male Headship in a surreptitious way. Male Headship is incompatible with a Methodist understanding  of the gospel (and I thank God for being part of a Church that makes that entirely clear).

So we had a chat and I am sure there will be more to come. But we agreed that our task is to preach Jesus and to seek to model his teaching and lifestyle in the world. We also agreed that the person of Jesus does not in any way fit with an understanding of masculinity that is prevalent today.

I have always said that we should focus on living the gospel, on full discipleship in every sense and not compromise in order to be popular with particular groups of society. If we fail to attract people then it should be because we are modelling Jesus, too often it is because we are not. Let us be like Jesus and let the Holy Spirit worry about whether that is attractive to men. I am confident that living and costly discipleship will bring fruit, compromising that to appeal to masculine men will fail and is not of God.

Update: This is what Richard actually said:

Even after 35 years of women being ordained as Methodist ministers we still have some way to go to remove all the barriers that prevent women from taking a full role in senior leadership within our Church. However that should not stop us from also asking the fundamental reasons why boys and men are staying away from our churches. You don’t need a medical degree to know that men and women are different. Just as we like different types of music it may be that men have a perception that elements of worship or church life are designed with feminine characteristics in mind rather than masculine ones and therefore they may think that the Church is not for them. The Methodist Church of Great Britain | 4 July 2009.

Now that is what I call a good weekend

What a good couple of days!

For lots of reasons this has been a good weekend.

Saturday

For a start Jane joined me at the caravan in Wolverhampton on Saturday morning and together we went to the Civic Hall for the "Opening of the Methodist Conference". It was great to share it together (last time two years ago I sat with the Ordinands) and with old friends going way back to University. Our official role was to cheer on Riachard Vautrey as he took on the office of Vice President of the Methodist Church of Great Britain. Richard and his wife Anne are great friends from the Manchester Methsoc and St Peter's Chaplaincy.

Sitting next to us to join the celebration & support Richard & Anne were Pete and Catherine, also friends from Manchester Methsoc (Pete and I shared a house for 2 years and they were both part of the team of advisers helping me get up courage to ask Jane out). On the other side were Robert and Pat Creamer, both Methodist Presbyters, Robert was the Methodist Chaplain at Manchester for my 2nd and 3rd years. Neil Richardson & Rhiannon were also around (Neil was chaplain in our first year, but as a former President of Conference had official tasks to do).

I was tempted to do some twittering in the 2nd half but was dissuaded by the 121 tweets from the press office and the heat of the netbook in my lap on an incredibly hot afternoon. I will be writing some reflections, particularly on Richard's address (excellent but an urgent need to be more nuanced in a certain area).

After the conference opening (audio is online at The Methodist Church of Great Britain | Methodist Web Radio) the 6 of us went to Costa to cool down before going to an evening "do". Got back to the caravan too late to have energy to go to my cousins 50th (and nephews 18th) in Bridgenorth.

Lovely to retreat to our own caravan with just the two of us (enough said).

Sunday

Quick summary of wonderfulness of today:

• Four hours of worship shared with my wife!
• The Reception into Full Connexion of the Ordinands (plus transfers & re-instatements). This is where they are welcomed into the Connexion by conference (puts you under the discipline of the Conference) and then sent out for ordination. Yes I cried, it brings powerful memories of my own ordination weekend.
• A good Chinese eat all you want buffet lunch with Jane.
• Inderjit Bhogal presiding at the Ordination Service at Coventry Central Hall (we went to that one as Richard was doing the Vice President bit).
• Having communion with my wife (and not taking any part in the service other than as a worshipper)
• Meeting lots and lots of friends
• Now a quiet evening on my own in the caravan, drinking some wine and eating pasta & apple pie (no not together), Jane has gone back home via a concert at the Derngate that oldest son is playing in.

A big thanks to my sister-in-law, Anne, for looking after the boys this weekend so we could spend it together.

Compuserve shuts down

Compuserve shuts down - Boing Boing.

Sad news. I was very active on Compuserve back in the mid 80's through to mid 90's.

The forums such as DACCESS (Data Access, developers of DataFlex) were the best support mechanism of the time and a real community.

We also used it as a way of getting email in the Bible Societies in remote parts of the former Soviet Union eg the Asian Republics. I had over a dozen accounts in my name at one time, used to get emails from people interested in family trees who were amazed that there were so many Dave Warnock's in the world.

There were a lot of 3rd party software applications to help minimise online time. eg they would connect, get a list of new messages and then allow you to tag the ones you were interested in offline before re-connecting to grab the actual messages.

In the early days we were using big chunky 2400 baud modems (240 characters per second). At times you could read as fast as the text came in (no error correction or compression built-in).

It took a long time for access to the internet to match Compuserve and the www seemed very poor for interactive support.

Methodist Conference Ministerial Session

This 2009 Methodist Conference has been my first experience of the Ministerial Session as the Ordinands retreat clashed with it for the Blackpool Conference in 2007 which was my only other time at Conference.

Even this time it was not a complete experience. I missed most of Friday as I chose to take funeral back in Raunds for a lovely member of the Church (I figured that as a Minister attending at my own expense, therefore not able to vote, the funeral was a much more important use of my time). Plus as I am not here as a representative member of conference I had to leave for the two (short) closed sessions (I formally propose that they be renamed "Costa" sessions as that is where several of us gathered).

As with many conferences there is huge value in networking outside the formal sessions, I have seen many friends and made many new ones (feel free to connect with me via facebook). Last night Mindy, Robin (who is an escapologist as well as a minister) and I were in Pizza Hut trapped between  Steve Wild waving maniacally from outside and a table filled with ex Vice Presidents plus David Gamble (President designate) and his wife Liz who taught me during my foundation training.

The Ministerial session ended with a joint Presbyteral and Deaconal communion service which was wonderful. Both David Walton and Stephen Poxon preached (well shared a sermon) (we did have a chat afterwards about Stephen's very un-PC joke and whether we found it distracting or not - not one I am about to share on 42).

There are a number of practical business sessions and a number of traditional parts of the Ministerial Session. Some of which are very moving (well apparently, I did not get back in time for the "Service of Thanksgiving and Remembrance" which honours the presbyters who have died since the last conference).

On the other hand I suspect that the other elements are much harder to sort out so that they are really helpful. A large part of that must be related to our understanding of ordained ministry. With our representative understanding of ordained ministry there is not a great deal that we would want to discuss with presbyters only. Deacons and Lay People are equally important to any discussions on the future of the Church, of doctrine and practice. Spending a lot of time debating issues while gathered as presbyters only would, I suspect, be unhelpful. Other things that would be good to do together (prayer, Bible study for example) would work better in smaller groups in more comfortable settings such as District Retreats.

So for me stick to the worship (which is wonderful), the traditional ceremonies and the business. Then provide lots of opportunities for networking.

'Homosexual demon' conjured up by ignorance

A great post:

I’m just hoping you’ll tell me what a homosexual demon looks like. I’m scared I may unknowingly run into one, so please help me sharpen my demon gaydar. 'Homosexual demon' conjured up by ignorance

Hat tip: of course, I could be wrong...: <b>very, very highly recommended</b>.

Tour de France 2009 Phil and Paul Bingo Game

For the first week this may be hard to play due to the Methodist Conference. But after that great fun!

Tour de France 2009 Phil and Paul Bingo Game - Bike Hugger.

Sell out principles for popularity?

BBC NEWS | Politics | Go easy on equality says minister.

"A rejection of inequality - both absolute, relative and of opportunity - is absolutely core to who we are. But we will be more successful - not just electorally but in challenging unacceptable inequality - if we adopt and own a different, more nuanced view of fairness and equality."

Pre-Methodist Conference 2009

So I have arrived for the 2009 Methodist Conference.

By "arrived" I mean I am now in Wolverhampton, well the edge of Wolverhampton. I have come with our caravan and am on a very nice CL (Certified Location: limited to 5 caravans) under 4 miles from Wolverhampton Civic Hall where the conference takes place.

This is more comfortable and a LOT cheaper than staying in some boring hotel in the centre of Wolverhampton. Instead of a cramped bedroom I have a 6 berth caravan to myself, plus Jane will join me for the weekend at no extra cost. Also at half past midnight I can listen to my iPod, make coffee and blog without disturbing anyone else.

Compared to a hotel I also have space to keep my bike inside and will get some nice gentle exercise riding in and out to wake me up in the morning and unwind in the evening. So far I have only brought my fixie but I might add an alternative later (I can fit several bikes in the caavan's "garage").

I guess the only disadvantages are that I can't keep nipping back to my room for bits and pieces and I can't "network" over breakfast. My solution to the first is via making friends with the communications team so I hope to use the Press Office as a base. As for the idea of networking over breakfast, personally I think I'll be seeing more than enough of Methodists in the rest of the day and evening.

The conference has three main sections:

Ministerial Section:

Thursday afternoon and Friday. For presbyters only (Deacons do their own thing). Not been to one of these before.

Sadly I'll miss Friday morning as I need to go back to Raunds to take funeral for a much loved member of the Church.

Opening and Ordinations:

Saturday and Sunday are special occasions. On Saturday Conference formally opens and the new President and Vice President are installed (is that the right expression) and make their addresses. On Sunday there is worship when all the new ordinands (and a few extras transferring from elsewhere) are received into full connexion (put under the discipline of the Church) and then later in the day there are lots of ordination services.

For us this is a special weekend as an old friend from university, Dr Richard Vautrey, is becoming Vice President. Jane and I have been invited to party with the big wigs which should be a once in a lifetime experience (I don't think we have any other old friends likely to become Vice President).

Conference Business

The main conference business takes place from Monday to Thursday. The printed agenda is 653 A5 pages and I confess that I have not yet read it all. I'll blog what I can as we go through the week.

Fringe

As with many conferences there is an active fringe to the Methodist Conference. I can already see that there are going to be difficult choices as many events overlap. As at my Ordination Conference two years ago I'll make sure to report on where the best cream cakes can be found (for timely information on that probably best to follow me on twitter).

Keeping track

Obviously the best place to keep track of what is happening at conference is right here at "42" :-) But if you want some alternative view points then try the following:

• Methodist Conference website: They update it a lot during the week. All the agenda papers are on here as well as loads of other stuff such as:
  • Conference Diary
  • Fringe Events
  • Live Audio
  • Notices of Motion 
  • Order Papers  
  • Daily Record. 
  • Lots more 
•   Twitter: A first for this year there are three main ways to keep track via twitter.
  • Follow the official Methodist Conference twitter feed @MethConference
  • Follow the unofficial Conference stream. This includes tweets from a number of people, me included. See @insideMethConf. You can see who wrote each tweet as (via @xwz) is added to the end of each tweet. This way you can discover new people to follow.  
• People. Pop in and See Olive at the MET stand in the exhibition, I guess she will be doing some blogging as well.
• Blogs. Not sure yet who else is going to be blogging at conference. I know Mindy is there as one of the Northampton District representatives but don't know if she is planning to blog. If you plan to blog please let me know and I'll add you to the list. 

Ok, finished my coffee so now time for bed. 

Netbook upgrades

Yesterday I upgraded two Netbook computers. The first is my Asus Eee PC 900 which I have had for about a year. The second is an HP 2133 Mini Note (KX872AA) which a good friend donated to us as they found they could not get on with the included Suse Enterprise Linux.

Our plan is to give one to our youngest son who has been told that due to dyslexia he will be able to use a laptop at school for some lessons.

After a spot of googling I was a bit worried about the HP, Ubuntu only offers tier 3 support for it. On the other hand there plenty of options for the Eee PC. In the end I decided to try The Ubuntu Netbook Remix (abbreviated to UNR). Second runner was EasyPeasy Linux, but as that is based on Ubuntu 8.04 rather than 9.04 I decided to try UNR first.

WOW!

An incredibly easy install. It is a while since I have installed a desktop operating system and so much has changed. It was incredibly easy and straightforward. Absolutely fantastic, almost no questions to ask and everything worked out of the box. I installed from a memory stick prepared on a windows XP laptop and it just worked.

On both Netbooks the screen was correctly identified and worked at full resolution from the start.

On both the wireless network adaptor was detedcted and worked immediately, the home wireless was found, I just had to type in the passphrase and I was away (well I did have to add the MAC address to the list of allowed computers on the firewall and WiFi hub, but that is true for any machine running any operating system).

Then I got another nice surprise when I plugged in my USB mobile internet dongle (from 3), it found it, asked if I wanted to connect and then got a connection first time. What is more I pulled it out and then put it back in and it worked again. No settings, no magic just worked.

However, I did find the fancy netbook desktop interface very sow on both machines but switching to the classic Ubuntu interface (which everyone here is used to) solved the speed problem completely.

I have also installed the just released FireFox 3.5 to benefit from the speed increase.

So if you have a netbook I personally recommend Ubuntu Netbook Remix - fantastic!!!

Looks like our son will have the Asus - no hard disk (more robust) and smaller/lighter (especially the power supply).

Meanwhile I am using the MiniNote to write this and it is very nice (like the keyboard and screen especially).

I Survived

Following 42: Survival Part 1 I am pleased to say I have survived the weekend. Now about to enjoy pizza and chips plus a film with youngest son as everyone else is still out.

Nicole Cooke takes an unprecedented tenth national title in Abergavenny

We have some seriously fast women cyclists. Congratulations to Nicole on her 10th National title.

But wow Lizzie Armitstead is fantastic, coming 2nd while still in the under 23 category. Actually she is not just in the U23's but is still only 20! Pretty safe money bet that she will be national champ one day. Sadly for some strange reason they decided she could not have the silver medal in the Elite class as she won gold in the U23 class in the same race. Seems very unfair.

Emma Pooley was right with them, if they had included the big climb that the men do in the womens race things might have been different. As it is she seems to be getting faster and faster and is real competition to Nicole.

Hat tip: Nicole Cooke takes an unprecedented tenth national title in Abergavenny