No run this morning — we’ve had on-and-off rain all night, so I opted not to risk it. Morning Prayer, public office hours at R&R, coffee, a croissant, and parish [digital] paperwork. | Continue reading
Very good run this morning, not nearly a ‘best’ but a ‘very-goodst’. Coffee, fruit, shower, Remembrance Sunday service, home, finish tonight’s homily, work on The Essay, go to church, home for dinner. | Continue reading
I had a bit of a lie-in this morning, took a stroll instead of running, hot breakfast, reading (finished Mark Goodacre’s John: The Fourth Synoptic Gospel about which more another time), cleaned up, did some grocery shopping, worked on both The Essay and tomorrow evening’s homily. | Continue reading
This morning’s run went agreeably enough, and would have been an autumn best apart from the two excellent days earlier this week. As a result, my five-day rolling average has dropped precipitously, making today’s run just a bit above average (which average itself is almost a half … | Continue reading
New summer-autumn personal best time this morning, shaving a few seconds off Tuesday’s time. Coffee, fruit, I’ll clean up and dress and go to Morning Prayer — then a day of work mostly at home, as the ladies are going in for grooming later. So: homily, maybe some work on The Essa … | Continue reading
Yesterday, as I said, was Margaret’s birthday — and she got an impressive present from American voters. Thank you all very much. We had dinner at Dorindos last night, and it was so good — we must go more often. I ate a giant burrito (after a delicious tortilla chips and guacamole … | Continue reading
This morning marks my sweetheart’s birthday, on which we might (one imagines) devise some indulgence to celebrate; but this year she has had the opportunity to devote more time to her teaching, and today her Moral Theology class meets, so we will wait till the evening to meet at … | Continue reading
My morning miles went by in a very good average time this morning, though I must admit that external circumstances ‘incented’ [ugh] or ‘incentivised’ [only marginally better] me to keep the pace moving along: as I neared the end of my first mile, it began to rain, leaving me almo … | Continue reading
There’s getting to be quite a volume of my columns at Working Preacher (if you get enough, do you get an honorary degree from Luther Seminary?), and I thought it might be… something, to compile all the links in one place. I think I hadn’t noticed till just now that I’d done 1 Tim … | Continue reading
I know, it was yesterday, but the parish observes All Saints on this Sunday, and the rector wasn’t well this morning, so after my run and morning shower, coffee, and fruit, I hastened in to St Nic’s for the 8:00 morning Communion for All Saints Day. I grabbed a sermon I’d preache … | Continue reading
Midnight has come and the great Christ Church bell And many a lesser bell sound through the room; And it is All Souls’ Night…. … Because I have a marvellous thing to say, A certain marvellous thing None but the living mock, Though not for sober ear; It may be all that hear Should … | Continue reading
The big event today will be the licensing ceremony for Lay Ministers (not Large Language Models) at Christ Church, where St Helen’s will gather to support Linda Hobbs, once churchwarden and now to be licensed to serve on our ministry team. Tomorrow’s homily is mostly finished, Mo … | Continue reading
I was wrong about a lot of how yesterday would go, so I’m trying again today. I began with a walking run, as it were, to get my activity and mileage in without timing. Coffee and fruit, correspondence with one of my wonderful Orielenses who had questions about Daniel Boyarin, cle … | Continue reading
Two miles, an average time (on the slow side for average, but in bounds), coffee, fruit, kiss Margaret goodbye (she has a long day teaching at St Stephen’s House and attending Oxford’s Ethics seminar), clean up and dress, Morning Prayer, then I’m staffing the home front as the la … | Continue reading
You might say, ‘But AKMA, you had a lie-in so you didn’t even begin your day with your two-0mile run! What do you mean, “busy day”?’ And I take your point, it would have been even busier if I’d run. But I had Morning Prayer at 9, Communion at 10:30, and Staff Meeting at 11:30;… | Continue reading
Another average morning run, cup of coffee, fruit, showered, dressed, Morning Prayer, coffee and toast, email, leave for bus to the semi-rural pub where the Bishop will lunch with the deanery clergy; then home to work on tomorrow’s homily. | Continue reading
Got up, ran a very average two miles, coffee and fruit, showered, dressed, then public office hours at R&R with Margaret. I’ve been head down on the Last Essay, making incremental progress, with brief asides for things such as the homily for Wednesday’s Communion service and find … | Continue reading
I have two oddly-timed services today, the 10:30 Sung Eucharist and then the 5:30 Wholeness and Healing service; the ‘oddly’ comes in because we have a Faith Forum after the 10:30 with light lunch and a talk (Sr Lizzie Ruth from the Community of St Mary the Virgin at Wantage, on … | Continue reading
In my work on the Book of Common Prayer, I ran into a quotation that appears in many books and essays on the history of the BCP, but which is rarely cited as an absolute (as it were) source. Since it’s a matter of public record from the 17th century, I trust that it’s in… | Continue reading
I’ve gotten to the part of my essay where I discuss the two magnetic poles of early Anglican biblical interpretation: the King James Bible and the Book of Common Prayer. I’m trying to keep the essay under control, so I won’t have space to go into great detail and cover everything … | Continue reading
Just a bookmark to remind me where to find the Historical Problem Space Framework for Game Analysis and Design, a way of thinking through game design with respect to history-like digital games. | Continue reading
A neighbour apparently observed me at the end of my morning run, then later greeted me on my way to church saying, ‘This morning you were running like Usain Bolt!’ Aye, maybe, if he had taken up smoking heavily and was recovering from muscle strains in both legs. It was one of my … | Continue reading
At long last, we have a Team Rector, one who (conveniently) already knows her way around the parish. Although the rectory isn’t quite ready, so that she won’t be moving in just yet, she’s been instituted, inducted, and installed into the real, actual and corporeal possession of t … | Continue reading
This evening, the Parish of Abingdon-on-Thames will install its first new rector in about twenty years, the Revd Dr Jennifer Brown. I’ll be there in the background, probably not doing anything important, but supporting the goings-on as Mother Jen’s associate, and still the only o … | Continue reading
Grey, rainy day here at Differential Hermeneutics Central. I didn’t run in the chilly rain, so I began my day with a mug of coffee and fruit, then trundled in to Morning Prayer, then home for a second cup and some toast, and to see Margaret off to her travel to Nottingham to lead … | Continue reading
Today was a three-service-special: Sun g Mass at St Michael’s, Baptism in the afternoon at St Helen’s, and back to St Helen’s for Evensong. So I prepared for the day with a slow but reasonable two-mile run, coffee, fruit, shower, and off we go, first to St Mike’s. All went well, … | Continue reading
Today feels good. I had a wee lie-in (went to bed late from watching the most recent series of The Bear and then trying to fix the display numbers on Margaret’s iPhone) (we both strongly dislike Liquid Glass), so I got plenty of sleep but a late start. On my run, my legs felt tig … | Continue reading
My morning run — it’s been a while since I could say that! — came in at a slower-than-average time, though as a progression from two walks sandwiched around a no-go day, it’s easily understood and welcome as a step toward my regular exercise regimen. Put out the bins, have a cup … | Continue reading
Woke up this morning after a long night’s sleep (for me) and took the sensible step of walking my two miles (with intermittent jogs) before I returned home in time to bid Margaret farewell as she hurried to an early bus to get to her teaching at St Stephen’s House. Coffee, fruit, … | Continue reading
Spent most of the day lying down, sometimes dozing, feeling weak, hot spells, a couple spells of rigors, chills. | Continue reading
I slept poorly last night, as the swelling in my shoulders from my multi-vax day kicked in nastily, and — embarrassingly — I forgot that I had the cotton balls taped to my arms, so that not only was I lying on one or the other sore shoulder, but the cotton balls were intensifying … | Continue reading
Looking forward to a somewhat less intense week, I began with a run very close to my recent average. Coffee, fruit, shower, Morning Prayer, and public office hours at R&R, and in a few minutes I’ll go to get a jab at the GP’s surgery. Maybe I’ll finish my MDR today? I should work … | Continue reading
Yesterday I went to London for the twice-annual Fountain Pen Show there. If you’re at all afflicted by love for pens, or ink, and even a selection of paper, washi tape, notebooks, notebook covers, stationery in general, it’s an intoxicating experience. That’s just as well, becaus … | Continue reading
Back from the Pen Show yesterday, I got most of the way through this morning’s sermon for both St Michael’s and St Nic’s, but I have to bear down and work out the ending. This morning’s run was a full minute slower than my recent average, but that’s fine; I ran the two miles, it… | Continue reading
Good run this morning, with somewhat better breathing (not vigilantly deep, but a positive alternation between deep and shallow — progress toward more and deeper) and a good time. Coffee, fruit, cleaned up, restored the silver sacred vessels to St Helen’s (that were borrowed at S … | Continue reading
This morning’s run felt much better than yesterday’s, with better breathing and no particular stiffness or wobbliness in legs, and a decent pace. When I looked at the time, then, I was surprised to learn that the time had been at the slow end of average (obviously ‘average’ will … | Continue reading
I went to town for groceries after Morning Prayer, and on my way home — as I was literally only a few metres from the church — I got a phone call noting that there was no priest there for the 10:30 Communion service, and was there any chance I could get there? I had… | Continue reading
I had begun to think that this morning’s run would be nothing special, maybe on the slow end of average (my legs and my breathing both felt ragged) when I met a parishioner on Spring Road, wondering where to catch the bus he needed to get to work; one of the knock-on effects of h … | Continue reading
Much time yesterday filling in the forms for my Ministry Development Review, a step in the diocesan system for keeping an eye on clergy wellness and effectiveness. My quibbling mind and my forms-phobia combine to make me resist this sort of exercise with every neuron and every (w … | Continue reading
For this morning’s run, I once again concentrated on my breathing. That went pretty well; I was surprised that I could avoid the ragged panting that correlated with upper-chest breathing through most of the run (though toward the end I was alternating deep- and shallow-breathing) … | Continue reading
I set out on this morning’s run with a deliberate plan to focus on breathing from my diaphragm, as opposed to the ordinary gasping, panting, upper chest breathing. I don’t know about the long range, of course, nor do I know much about physiology, but it definitely felt as though … | Continue reading
Beautiful weather for my Saturday morning run, though the gusty high winds challenged me after my two-day layoff. I remembered, for the first time in ages, that I should be breathing more deeply, not just chest (or throat!) breathing; but my time came in right about average for t … | Continue reading
May God guard and protect, comfort and assure our sisters and brothers in Manchester’s Jewish community; may he purge our church of every trace of hatred, arrogance, presumption, and intolerance; may he cure that madness into which we rush when drunk with bigotry or desperation; … | Continue reading
My most frequent listens in September according to last.fm — It was a light month cos (a) we were on holiday for two glorious weeks and (b) my laptop failed while we were away and I couldn’t get it sorted till last Thursday. Thus, only about 10 days are represented by: 1 Nick Cav … | Continue reading
No run this morning, because it has been raining, and after Saturday’s experience I refuse to trust a lull in precipitation to betoken a safe interval for two miles. Coffee, fruit, Morning Prayer, check for phone messages at the parish office, errand for Margaret, public office h … | Continue reading
We stayed up late last night to watch all four of the remaining episodes of Disclaimer*, so I rose late-ish and — with a view to letting my leg muscles have some respite — I had a walk-run-walk morning miles. I would job a few steps, maybe run a few, but slow to a walk… | Continue reading
Back at the beginning of blogging, we used to talk about topics such as poststructuralist philosophy and Derrida and meaning and such stuff as that. This afternoon I caught a link the great Lucy Bellwood made to inmagasroom’s Tumblr, which itself linked to the original interview … | Continue reading
Morning run on which my thighs felt as though they’d been strapped tight, unwilling to stretch out, but in the end the time was good. Coffee and fruit (skipping hot breakfast since I’ll have a more sumptuous lunch with Fr Paul and Mother Jen as a farewell staff occasion). Will pi … | Continue reading