Places to go and take photos in 2010

Madrid ... booked Jan 8th-11th

 

Appleby Frodingham Steam Railway  booked Jan 23rd

 

Didcot Railway Centre maybe in May

 

Jodrell Bank

 

Derwentwater

 

Castelrigg Stone Circle

 

Bamburgh  and the rest of the northumberland coast

 

Forth Bridge planned for Easter

 

Skye... Elgol Beach  Old man of Storr

 

Runcorn Bridge

 

Ennerdale Water

 

Singing Ringing Tree

 

East Lancashire Railway

 

Mow Cop

 

Any other suggestions welcome..preferably within easy public transport distance of Preston.

 

 

Bin store in Avenham Park: question for next Central Area Forum

Pawz the Dog can smell "food" at 300 metres and has a habit of disappearing on walks through Avenham Park.. This explains the following email to the Council

Could you please arrange to deal with this question through the agenda of the next Central Area Forum.

Back in September I raised with the Environmental Health Department (with email copies to local councillors) the issue of the disgusting state and vermin risk of the bin store in Avenham park which serves the cafe in the Pavilion. Black bin bags full of food waste are often strewn anywhere about the area as the bins and or clearance regimes are obviously not adequate for the amount of waste produced. I have also raised the issue several times with park staff and with cafe staff. I have also now emailed three times oficers in environmental health. Apart from one email acknowledgement and promise to investigate from them, it is apparent no action has been takenand the problem remains as bad as ever. My question is this. Why has the council, now they are well aware of the problem not managed, to resolve it? Why can they not do the obvious thing which is to install an additional large bin, and / or increase the frequency of collections sending an invoice to the cafe as it is their business that generates this excessive waste?

If I get a reply I will post it on the blog

Nativity

Of the Father’s love begotten, ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega, He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see, evermore and evermore!

At His Word the worlds were framèd; He commanded; it was done:
Heaven and earth and depths of ocean in their threefold order one;
All that grows beneath the shining
Of the moon and burning sun, evermore and evermore!

He is found in human fashion, death and sorrow here to know,
That the race of Adam’s children doomed by law to endless woe,
May not henceforth die and perish
In the dreadful gulf below, evermore and evermore!





O that birth forever blessèd, when the virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving, bare the Savior of our race;
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred face, evermore and evermore!

This is He Whom seers in old time chanted of with one accord;
Whom the voices of the prophets promised in their faithful word;
Now He shines, the long expected,
Let creation praise its Lord, evermore and evermore!

O ye heights of heaven adore Him; angel hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him, and extol our God and King!
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert sing, evermore and evermore!

Happy Christmas and Annual News letter

Yes straight from the allotment

It's the Smith's Christmas Round Robin

Happy Christmas

Dear Friends,

We are thankful 2009 has been a pretty good year for us overall, despite a world around us where there is so much strife, poverty and anxiety. To say nothing of West Ham results!

Greg continues to work at The Salvation Army running the community centre, the computer suite and the drop in facilities for the homeless. There is a new officer in charge and always a shortage of funds but some good work goes on. Since June he has also been doing some part time research work with the William Temple Foundation. Google it (and anything else we mention) if you want to know more.

Jane continues to work in group programmes with high risk offenders, in what is now the Lancashire Probation Trust. She's also doing a theology course! Eternal student! Recently she made a starring appearance on the One Show, since then the phone has not stopped ringing!

Marcus has left home and is thriving doing a gap year in Enfield with Oasis, living in a house with three other 18 year old volunteers and working in the local academy school, youth clubs and a new church plant. He did well at A levels and has a place for next year at Kings College London. A hair dye mishap has led to him turning ginger instead of the desired blonde (although he will deny this I you ask him).

Martha finally left the ‘despised’ Archbishop Temple with decent results, enjoyed a packed summer and is now at Cardinal Newman College, doing A levels in Textiles, Drama, Photography and English. She’s now attending Fulwood Free Methodist on Sunday’s, leading a very busy social life and desperately looking for any part time work (although she’s trying to forget that she lasted three weeks at a call centre – and was shockingly good at it!)

Pawz the dog is ever present, still demanding, hungry as ever, but we love him (some more than others, sometimes more than others!) We’re now also a one cat household as we said goodbye to our beloved Jessica AKA Fatty earlier this year, Oscar continues to believe that he owns the house and we are his simply his servants.

For holidays we did our usual trip to relatives in Scotland and, various individual trips and a long weekend at Greenbelt. If you want to see where we've been look at Greg's photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/gregmaistersmith

It's 20 years next month since Greg & Jane got married and to celebrate we are planning a long weekend in Madrid (together!).

At Church we've lost a vicar and gained a half time children and family worker. We are still finding the Church of England a bit uncomfortable but there is life, and good people and work to be done there.

Our door is usually open, yet we've had no burglars yet. So if you are in Preston come and see us. And you can also contact us by phone, email, Facebook or post.

Here's wishing you a very Happy Christmas and wonderful New Year

Greg Jane, Marcus & Martha Smith

Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him.

What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.

Miller Park Art: Rourke's Drift Remembered or Colonial Wars Glorified

Many Prestonians and visitors will have noticed the art installation in a flower bed on the terrace of Miller Park which depicts British redcoats in white pith helmets firing into the Zulu attackers at the battle of Rourkes Drift in 1879. The explanation given is a local connection with the army chaplain who served with the regiment during the campaign.

Personally I find the installation rather disturbing and inappropriate and my immediate desire is to paint a slogan saying "troops out" across the soldiers helmets. While I would not belittle the courage of the troops who were found worthy to receive 11 VCs or of military chaplains such as the one in question we do need to look at the context and the current relevance of the Zulu war.

While the artwork shows a Christian Bible decorated with a cross resting on an ammunition box I am reminded of the comment by Desmond Tutu that when white missionaries arrived in Africa "we had the land and they had the Bible, before long we had the Bible and they had the land." In the present decade where the UK has been and remains involved as a junior partner of the USA in two neo-colonial wars of doubtful legitimacy or necessity, evoking the spirit of Rourkes Drift is hardly wise, and could even be interpreted as buyoing into the fascist nationalist ideology of the BNP.

One can argue perhaps that the Bible is a greater treasure in the light of eternity, but only if it is opened and read. There one will find the message of Jesus Christ, the prince of peace, which commands us among other things to love our enemies and warns that those who take up the sword will perish by the sword. Therfore as a Christian pacifist, I for one want to disassociate myself from the implication of the art work that the Zulu war, and any other war undertaken by the British state was in any sense a Christian enterprise. If we ask the question "what would Jesus do (or have done)?", surely the answer must be that he would never advocate or take part in oppressing other people by military force.

William Temple online survey

Hope you are all well..

 

I can't stop researching and I am currently (Summer 2009)  working part time at The William Temple Foundation
on a research project where we are doing a survey on Religious and Spiritual Capital

 

 

I hope you may be interested in participating in this survey yourself or may be able to help us in forwarding and circulating this email widely in the religious sector.

Do you have a religion or faith?
Please can you help us do some important research?

We would like people living in the UK, aged 18 or over and who have a religious faith or spirituality and/or are active members of religious or spiritual groups, such as a church, mosque, temple, meditation group, study circle or prayer network to take part in this survey. We are especially keen to secure good representation from people of Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist backgrounds.

 

As part of our Leverhulme funded research project we are inviting people from a wide range of faith communities in the UK to complete our survey. To do this survey online please click here  or paste this link in your browser

 

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=M64pyIA3VqF46UBcMLbM4g_3d_3d

There are around 100 questions and the survey should take about 20 minutes to complete.

This survey is looking at how and why religious and spiritual groups make a contribution to their communities. Please try and answer all the questions and give your personal honest opinions

Everything you tell us is completely confidential and anonymous.

Thank you for your help


Dr Chris Baker and Greg Smith
William Temple Foundation,
Luther King House,
Brighton Grove,
Manchester, M14 5JP.
Telephone: 0161-249-2502

Alternative Contact
Greg Smith gregwtf@maister-smith.fsnet.co.uk

website www.wtf.org.uk

For all business concerning St Stephens I intend to use this address
church@maister-smith.fsnet.co.uk Please respond to this address and add / update all your email address

It's official - walking and cycling are good for you

 

SEE THIS LINK

http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=9424989