fun & games

Since the Harry’s weekend, I have been to three birthday celebrations (Chris, Shinae and Mark - pictures below). That brings the total to eight this term, an average of a party a week, though they were clustered towards the beginning and end of term. That’s partly because birthdays which fall over the holidays tend to be celebrated at the end of the preceding term or the beginning of the following term.

I’ve also been having fun going backwards and forwards between HSBC and the police. Apparently someone cloned my card details and withdrew money from my account. I’m grateful this was picked up quickly by HSBC’s fraud protection squad.

More seriously, I’ve been following the case of Abdul Rahman, the Afghan who was nearly sentenced to death for becoming a Christian from Islam. Whilst it is wonderful that he has been released, one should note carefully that Abdul Rahman was not found innocent; rather, the case was abandoned on a technicality. The Afghan government thus avoided an international relations embarrassment without in any way disavowing the judiciary’s view that apostasy (leaving Islam) is punishable by death. The death penalty for apostasy applies in many Muslim countries, including some allies of the West. In countries where it is not enforced by the state, the authorities will often turn a blind eye to the killing of converts by their families or vigilantes. There is a helpful article on ‘What Islam says on religious freedom’ at the BBC website.

On Sunday Richard came back with me after church for lunch, which he cooked. It’s nice to have people take pity on me, but it perhaps doesn’t reflect too well on my hospitality skills. In the evening I obtained a chicken souvlakia from Gardie’s, being accompanied by Catherine and Helen from Madgalene. Yesterday I went to a book launch at SPCK for Paul Weston’s new book Lesslie Newbigin: Missionary Theologian - A Reader, which was good fun.

(If you want to read Paul Weston's classic account of his first conversation with Newbigin, then take a look at the first paragraph of Paul's article 'Conversations with Newbigin' on page 34 of the Ridley Hall newsletter.)

"Sooner or later we all quote our mothers." (Bern Williams)

P.S. My posting times are inaccurate. I think they're on some American time zone and I haven't yet worked out how to switch back to British time. Any advice would be appreciated.