Month: April 2019

Part of the (still operating) docks at Sharpness has been turned into a picnic area.

An old mooring post has been put into service as decoration, seemingly growing like a steel mushroom in the green. Likewise, the old railway buffers have been left as a reminder of history. An old Chapel nearby is now a fibreglass factory. At Berkeley Janet spotted is a small deposit of railway vehicles, including a fireless power station steam loco.

What will become of old church communities now? More than museum pieces, I hope, but pointers to a future in Christ’s love, something even Christians often find it hard to manage.

Janet’s done her longest day’s walk so far, over twelve miles, to get some time in hand to visit the Wildfowl and Wetlands place at Slimbridge tomorrow.

Twockers are in evidence on this walk just as much as they were 16 years ago…

… But so too are many more wind Turbines and even a solar power array.

Same and different… Next Sunday lectionary.

Paul was converted to faith in Jesus Christ. He was utterly different afterwards – or was he? He retained the same fanaticism, the same useful Roman connections, the same literacy and knowledge that he had before, and would now make him useful to the embryonic Church.

Meanwhile, Janet is now onto the Severn Way, the first family member actually to find the beginning from its weird zigzag across the overgrown railway tracks. I think this means that at last she is no longer on the southwest peninsula..

Most of today’s walk for Janet was in heavy rain. So she ploughed on across the levels, with not many features to look at. A wonderful environment to be in though. So Janet walked almost continuously, finishing much sooner than usual and getting out of the rain and into the Sexey’s Arms in Blackford.

After my nine miles of chasing around yesterday, it was agreed that today most of my supporting work would be inside the car out of the rain!

Sundays readings…

Peter and the apostles say to the High Priest, under hostile questioning, “”We must obey God rather than any human authority… ” these are scary words for those in government. However, for the Christian, to obey God is to follow Jesus, who taught love, justice and forgiveness. …Thomas says (eventually) to the risen Jesus, “My Lord and my God.”

Yesterday was also Easter day BTW. Jesus is alive: the world is the same, but never the same again.

The news from Sri Lanka is bad. It hurts that fellow Christians have been the target. And in my solidarity with my sisters and brothers, I pray for those who suffer. But I pray for all people too. I believe we are called to care about all humanity.

Janet his a big climb tomorrow, into the Quantocks: I hope it goes well.

I saw a tractor clanking a heavy metal device across a ploughed field, breaking up the lumps. “Only a man harrowing clods in a slow, silent walk, and an old horse that stumbles and nods, half asleep as they stalk.” Funny, in victorian times, humble people could have horses. Now horses belong to the wealthy.

Anyway, I was once told that between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus harrowed hell. It seems to me that we make stories of the unknowable to fill the awkward emptiness of Easter Saturday. Why can’t we just let it be what it is, awkward and empty? My best friend has just been killed, after all.

A day of pain and emptiness, yet, for us, oddly normal. Just after three, I remembered the group that would be gathered on Castle Hill in Huddersfield, and wondered if it was as hot for them as it was for us, on the edge of Exmoor. Some of them, too, would have been walking.

Janet has walked strongly again, buoyed these last two days by the friendship of her supporters. Thank you very much to all of you.

The hedgerows and verges all seem to me to be pretty similar from day to day – – yet Janet constantly finds new joy in what she sees.

Besides her walking and her blog, and all sorts of other things, Janet is compiling a scrapbook of each day’s adventures.

Today there have been a numbers of spells in the shade and by the rivers… very welcome in the warm weather.

My mother used to say that today ought to be called ‘Bad Friday’, and I’m inclined to agree with her – for all that it tells of the love of God – it conveys more of a bleak view of human nature. Is it all part of a preexisting master plan, or is it because God, in love, can rescue meaning from the worst of times? I’m for the second – and maybe someone who kmows Greek would say I’m playing fast and loose with the text, but that’s also how I see “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28) God and time have a funny relationship, and knowing isn’t the same as intending.

With the walk continuing, I almost forgot that today is the day to remember Jesus’ last meal with his friends.

Today, dear God, the pain of parting…

There’s always three dots, though. The story is not over, it continues today.

Today was very windy, and hard going for Janet. It is holy week now, there have been signs of the cross to recall.

Suffering is all the more acute for the people of France now. I, we, pray for them.

Janet continues to power on along the back lanes of the south west, observing as she goes, noticing small things and large. Today is her first full day in Devon. Some roads are better than others – it’s a combination of refuge space, sight lines, amount and speed of traffic etc.. A bit of railway path tomorrow — welcome relief.

It’s palm Sunday, but I’ve found it easy to get disconnected from the pattern of the year. If it weren’t for the conversations Janet and I have, I think I could easily have lost track. Several cross shapes along the way act as a reminder of what is coming.