update

As anticipated, posting has decreased in frequency over the holiday period, since I've been busy with other things. (By contrast, Mark Zealey has admirably increased his blogging in China). Hence news will have to be telescoped somewhat. I still haven't worked out how to post pictures or sidebar links. Once I have, the blog will be livened up a bit.

After coming back from York and spending a few days at home, I went down to my sister Lizzy's graduation from Brunel University. The ceremony was held at Wembley Conference Centre, which was brightened up a bit by a jazz band. The ceremony was long, but broken up by the conferral of honorary degrees on exemplary individuals who gave speeches to inspire and encourage the graduands. Lizzy's favourite picture of the day was of herself wearing her academic hood over her head. When we left the conference centre we saw big clouds of black smoke rising. This turned out to be a factory on fire behind the construction site of the new Wembley stadium. There was a whole fleet of fire engines weaving round traffic and pumping vast amounts of water up the road in rubber pipes. The next day we went to the evening of my cousin's wedding day at York House in Twickenham.

I am currently hanging around Cambridge helping to run two coffee bars for international visitors (Harry's and Andy's). As usual with international student work, this is great fun and a wonderful learning experience, though quantities of sleep are not enormous.

I had a minor alarm on Wednesday when I had a letter from the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council), the people I hope will give me money to come back to Cambridge for an MPhil course after the summer, saying that they hadn't received the form from the university telling them my degree results, and that if they didn't receive the form from the university by Friday my application would be ineligible. After running round Cambridge on Wednesday afternoon, with no-one seeming to know who I should talk to, it turned out on Thursday to have been sorted out. It appears that the problem was not that the university had failed to send the form but that it was lost at the other end. I was informed by the lady at the English faculty that forms routinely go missing at the AHRC but that this year they had oddly managed to misplace half the batch and not the other half. Hence she always keeps copies of what she sends to them so faxed them another copy.

Yesterday I attended my third graduation of the summer, this time an MPhil graduation for a Chinese girl named Maggie. The ceremony, in the Senate House, was very similar to my own. I first met Maggie in my second year at Cambridge, when I read Latin grace for formal dining every Monday for a term. The main perk of this job is that you get a free three course meal. On Mondays there are often not many people there, and more than once it was just Maggie and one friend, so I got to know her quite well. She is currently working at Tianjin Normal University, and also flies round the world promoting Chinese culture on behalf of the Chinese education ministry. After the graduation, I accompanied Maggie and her two friends walking along the river to the orchard at Grantchester.

In the evening I got a cold burger and bacon at the barbecue for the Andy's and Harry's teams. (I suppose the coldness of the food was a consquence of arriving five hours late for the barbecue. I had already had a chicken souvlakia kebab from Gardie's, Cambridge's premier greasy Greek takeaway). We were at a house with an indoor swimming pool, and in the evening we watched the first Back to the Future (IMDB entry; official site). Whilst some of the paradoxes of time travel in the film perhaps seem a bit corny, it does provoke thought about the relationship between events and whether the tiny contingencies on which lives turn are entirely random or guided in some way.

I hope to return to posting my reflections on life sometime soon. It's strange how one comes to feel a responsibility to an invisible (and potentially non-existent) audience. It encourages me if you talk back to me by leaving comments.

York & London

Last Saturday I got back from a week in York taking part in the York Student Outreach, though, as one of the organisers pointed out, this year's team could more aptly be termed the York postgraduate outreach. This was a great chance to catch up with some old friends and make some new ones. There were about 24 of us on the team, 13 of us staying together in one house, which is good fun but tends to lead to lack of sleep. Breakfast together was great. Once I work out how to post photos, I might give you some close up shots of bacon, tomato and porridge.

What we were there to do was to conduct a variety of activities to communicate the Christian faith, in conjunction with St Michael le Belfrey church. In the afternoons we did various things, including doing questionnaires in York Minster and on the street, and hosting an open microphone session, where anyone was welcome to come and ask questions. Since few people seemed inclined to do so, we ended up talking to each other over the microphones and letting the crowds listen in on our conversations. This worked especially well when Rolando, our Peruvian team member, was able to chat to Mark, who had visited Peru, in Spanish. There was a collection of Spanish girls listening in excitedly and Mark was able to interpret for non-Spanish speakers.

In the evenings we ran a live music café, described by our flyers as "a café with music that's live". We held this in the church, creating atmosphere with tables, lights and music. We tried to get to know our guests, including a fascinating mixture of international visitors, local young people and people who were to some extent socially marginalised for one reason or another. Just to give a sample of our conversations, one student from Poland informed us that the five possible destinations in the afterlife were heaven, hell, purgatory, astroplanet and reincarnation. To which Charlie valiantly replied, "I'm not sure about astroplanet but I don't think it's in the Bible".

On Thursday morning, we heard the news of the bombings in London. One of my friends who was on the outreach team works for St George the Martyr church in Holborn, the nearest church to the bus bombing in Tavistock Square, and there were other members of the team who lived or worked nearby. Throughout the day, team members were phoning or texting contacts in London, but after an hour or so of watching the news and praying together in the morning, we got on with the day. I thought it might be helpful to post here a brief thought slot I did in the café on Tuesday (before the bombings):

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A few years ago the band The Verve had a number one single with the song Bittersweet Symphony. I think that one reason this song struck a chord with so many people was because it reflects the pain and confusion many of us feel in our lives. The lines which stand out for me say:
"Well, I never pray, but tonight I'm on my knees.
I need to hear some sounds that recognise the pain in me."
What this song is saying is that we feel a need for something or someone greater than ourselves to understand the pain in our lives.

This café is run by a group of student volunteers. We are all Christians and we believe that God understands human pain, because he came into this world as a man called Jesus. The Bible says about Jesus, "Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted" (Hebrews 2:18). Jesus suffered like we do - he got tired, he got hungry and thirsty, he had to struggle against temptations to do wrong, and he felt grief at the death of his friends. But Jesus' greatest suffering was when he was put to death on the cross.

If you have seen the film The Passion of the Christ, you will have seen something of the immense physical suffering Jesus went through. Jesus took our human suffering upon himself. Hundreds of years before Jesus was born, a man called Isaiah predicted how Jesus would die. He wrote, "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted" (Isaiah 53:4). Jesus understands our suffering because he suffered our pain, but there is something unique about Jesus' suffering. The key to understanding this is that Jesus didn't just suffer with us; Jesus suffered for us, achieving something for us that we could never accomplish.

The ultimate cause of the suffering and pain of our lives is that the whole world has been damaged by our rebellion against God. When Jesus died on the cross he suffered the punishment we deserve for our rebellion, so that if we trust in him we are not punished but are forgiven and made clean.

And the great news is that Jesus didn't stay dead. He came back to life three days later and is still alive today. Because of this, Jesus can give a new kind of life to anyone who comes to him, and one day God will create a whole new world where there is no more death or crying or pain.

To finish where we started, the Verve sing:
"Well, I never pray, but tonight I'm on my knees.
I need to hear some sounds that recognise the pain in me."
The Bible says that someone does recognise our pain. Actually, Jesus doesn't just recognise our pain but has experienced our pain, taken it on himself and defeated it for ever. Because Jesus understands, it's worth praying to him for help. Thank you for listening.

Graduation

Auctoritate mihi commissa admitto te ad gradum Baccalaurei in Artibus, in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti
("By the authority committed to me I admit you to the degree of Bachelor of Arts, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit")

With these words the Master of my college conferred my degree on me at around 12 o'clock yesterday. Afterwards there was a letter waiting for me in my pigeonhole, addressed to "Mr D. Parry, B.A". It was a wonderful day, full of Cambridge ceremonial, fabulous food and poignant goodbyes. The end of an era and the beginning of the next. I don't have much time to write now so reflections may have to wait. I'll be away in York for the next week, so don't expect to post here until at least next weekend. Enjoy the summer!