headwayyouth- phil smith's blog

Questionnaire

As a youthworker in a local church, with plenty of friends in similar positions, it's obvious that the church isn't the best employer. Suspecting there might be some people out there who share this view, and maybe some people who feel the opposite, this post from YouthBlog should be of interest. Basically, John Baxter Brown is doing some research into the employment practice of youthworkers by local churches. I heard him present his proposal at the IASYM conference last January and look forward to hearing the results!

Feeling guilty...

I'm feeling kind of guilty about not posting properly in the past four day and not posting at all in the past two day... sorry!

It was methodist conference last week. One of the many things on the agenda was the whole sexuality debate... again. I read the report that was being presented a while back and as an evangelical i was fairly happy with it's comments and conclussions. So i couldn't believe it when a headline one the front page of friday's Guardian read "Methodist Leaders Vote to Bless Gay Couples". Not necessarily saying it would be a bad thing, it's just not what the report says... anyway it turns out that is not what the conference decided (cf. this press release), the Guardian were just getting a bit carried away. The article is an interesting read though. As is often the case, the pro-gay lobby is treated very graciously and the orthodox position is treated negatively,  "Only one speaker warned that the church was moving away from its Biblical basis. "

Thursday night I have youth group, which i don't normally talk about but we did it at one of the lad's houses and he has birds, loads of them... hence the st. francis-esq photo!

Despite feeling extremely-rough the demo on Saturday was good, though i was v. frustrated by the lack of publicity 250,000 got due to Mr. Geldof and co. I don't quite understand the logic of doing it on the same day but as long as it all works i guess it doesn't matter. Incase you did miss what happened in Edinburgh there has been a Make Poverty History blog set up here which has loads of stuff about the day itself... I'm also hoping to post loads more photos later this week, I just need to sift out the ones where it looks like i'm going to vommit!

For more good musings on Make Poverty History and Live8, check out Barky

Off home to watch the end of live8. I'll post more about the demo when back in darlington on monday

Gridlock so there is little marching going on but plenty of fine speakers...cath galloway from iona and Cormac Murphy O'Connor of particular note

I blog sat in the meadows as thousands are gathering for the climax of the make poverty history campaign. What is especially encouraging is the christian presence here tearfund, christian aid, cafod, they're everywhere- really encouraging! I'll try and send some more photos later