Conversations

There's nothing like talking to clarify one's thoughts. This is why I talk to myself so much. I don't think very well inside my head, so I say it out loud, even if there is no one else around. Nice as this is, it is considered odd, and I sometimes find that having another person to talk to even more useful, especially since they might think of things that I lack the broadmindedness to come up with. So when I went back to NSW for a few weeks I had some great conversions about MTS with... Well pretty much anybody who would listen. These included: my parents, various friends, current AFES staffworkers at Newcastle uni, and a current MTS trainee. Unfortuanately I am amazingly lazy, especially when it comes to blogging, with the result of forgetting a lot of important things before I ge the motivation to write them down. Here is the summary of my chats with folks, such as I remember them. Parents: they think I should do it, that it would be good for me, but I should be prepared for how hard it will be. AFES workers in Newcastle: would be happy to have me and I should decide by June for financial reasons. I was mildly hoping that they would say something like "it's good that you're keen, but we're not sure this is really for you." It would have been a blow to my pride, but also a lovely excuse to have an easy life. Oddly enoughg, the time limit is a good thing It will (hopefully) prevent some of the more extreme procrastination to which I am prone. Friends: mostly "that's pretty exciting" and listening to me talk about it. MTS trainee LG: probably the most helpful conversation. This was a mostly one-sided conversation where I listened to h talk about her experiences, the good bits, the bad bits, joys and struggles. She is a good talker, and said lots of things, some of which I knew or had thought of, some of which were new and interesting. - Work doesn't just happen when you're working, it can happen any and all the time, and parties can end up being difficult rather than relaxing. - The relationship with the trainer is an odd one. It's not really boss, or friend, or teacher, but a strange mixture of all those things with perhaps a few other things thrown in. - Students are hard to get to sign up and commit to things. This I knew. Everybody knows that. - It gets hard, but there are plentiful holidays. I'm sure there was more (LG talked for ages!) but that's all I can remember right now.

Ash Wednesday Part 2

The last post on this topic was extremely long, so I decided to cut it in two. Hopefully this one will be shorter, although I can't promise anything.

Last time I talked about the church service itself, but now I'd like to consider the content. The catholic church teaches all sorts of things that, as a protestant, I don't believe. Things like Mary being perfect, the pope having the same authority as the bible, their understanding of the Holy Communion. I have problems with all of these, but I didn't encounter that many things I didn't agree with. Bear in mind that I was sitting a fair way back, and couldn't see or hear everything, but as far as I could tell most of the content was pretty similar to the book of common prayer used by a lot of Anglican churches. I participated with most things, although at least once I chose not to say amen because I didn't agree with part of what they said. I think they only mentioned Mary once, and the pope never.

There were two readings, one was Psalm 51, I don't remember what the other one was, but it was a sizeable chunk, probably predetermined and used every year in the Ash Wednesday service. The message was brief and a bit airy-fairy as far as I could tell, but I don't remember anything particularly unbiblical (or, frankly, at all). I've heard worse in Protestant churches.

Although I was told I couldn't take Holy Communion, I think that if I had seriously thought about it (which I didn't at the time, although maybe I would have if I had had the opportunity to decide) I would have chosen not to participate. I think that sharing in communion in any church implies a certain alignment of view, and there is far much that I object to in the teachings of the catholic church, even if it didn't come up in the actual service I went to.

I look forward to having more discussions about Catholocism with my friend. I plan to give her a copy of Nothing in My Hand I Bring, which I found very helpful. It will be interesting to hear her reactions to it.