I once again apologise for not blogging in time and a half. However, I now have a Plan (that’s right, with a capital P). Would you like to know what this Plan entails? I thought you would. :) After visiting Tracy’s blog (a very insightful glimpse of life as a student doing Pais in Germany, if you’re interested) she inspired me to have a set time each week to put aside and devote to blogging. It’s something that I like doing and so I should make time for it, right?
Anyway, like Tracy, I’ve decided that a Sunday afternoon is as good a time as any to make my blogging time. I don’t really have time in the week, even though I’m a student (I know, I honestly do have lectures... it’s not that I’m off gallivanting to London every week to protest, although more on that in a later post) and a Saturday is a day to relax, and do (even more) Uni work. I’m not saying that all posts will appear on a Sunday – it might be that I have extra stuff to talk about! It also helps that with quite a lot going on in Methodism and national Student life, which means that I feel like I have more to actually blog about. Plus it’s getting close to Christmas! :)
So, on with the Blogging. You may remember in my last post that I decided that I was going to try to do more than just Chem Eng and connexional (national) Methodism this year. It’s kind of worked... I’ve been to the gym and Chem Eng Netball a couple of times, which is good, but that’s about it really. I’ve been to a Carol Service that the CU organised too, and I might see about going to a couple more of their things in the New Year. I’ve been managing to get across to my Grandma’s about once a month, which is good. It seems to be the 2nd or 3rd weekend in the month, so that’s nice for me and for her.
Recently connexional Methodism is the one that’s been keeping me amused. A couple of weeks ago the Methodist Youth Assembly (MYA) took place in Swindon. This, for those who don’t know/haven’t been, is the second such event of its kind. This year the theme was “Think, Talk, Be like Disciples”. MYA is an adaptation of the previous Methodist Youth Conference (MYC) but is much more interactive in that instead of discussions about every resolution, there are workshops (“Think”) about several topics instead. These are lead by facilitators, which, this year, was one young facilitator and an expert. Some of us (i.e. me) were lucky enough to have a consultant as well – mine was in the form of Mark Wakelin, a Connexional Red (which translates to him being a member of the Connexional Leaders’ Forum). I was talking about “Why Methodism” which was, essentially, looking at the origins, structure, stereotypes, catechisms and future of the Church. We looked at a video of Bob (if you want to take a look) and if maybe this would be a good way of making CPD and the catechisms more accessible. If you think this is a good idea, let us know! (By us, I obviously mean the Methodist Church... find out more on the Generous website) There were other workshops too, with topics covering a wide range of subjects from the future to sports to worship. There were also workshops (“Talk”) to see what the youth in the Methodist Church thought about a few issues that the Methodist Conference (the big decision making body of the Church) thought should be discussed. These included Abortion, the Future of the Presidency, the Lord’s Supper and Education. All in all I think (and hope) that the young people who came (from as far as Scotland and the Channel Islands) really enjoyed the weekend, and I hope that they got a lot out of it.
Apart from the Methodist Church seemingly ignoring the rather large chunk of Great Britain (as in the parts that aren’t England) I think the weekend went well, especially as substantial budget cuts had to be accounted for.
Sunday morning I was my usual tearful self – the services at these events really touch me. I really struggle with the overwhelming sense of unworthiness that always surrounds me, especially at events such as these. This could be a topic for a later post, another day...
... another pointless story :)
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