Some people are not at all transparent, with hidden motives, fears, doubts, and agendas. Treat such people with caution – what you think you see may not be what you actually get!
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Ducks on clear water (Photo by Jess Grzeb*)
What does it mean to be transparent? In different ways, this word can used of material, of people, and of organisations. The photo is almost surreal, it looks as if the ducks are floating in mid-air above the water.
*Many thanks to Jess Grzeb for letting me use her remarkable photo.
Transparent material
The water in this photo (Lake Bled in Slovenia) is about as transparent as water in nature gets. Light is bent as it enters the water from the air, and again as it returns from water to air. Both water and air are transparent, of course, but they have different densities and the speed of light is a little slower through water than through air. The main effect of this bending is that the water looks a good deal shallower than it actually is. You can easily check this for yourself, fill a bucket with water and put a straight stick into it. The stick no longer looks straight.
Air is a gas, water is a liquid, glass is a solid, but all three can be either transparent or cloudy. Smoke turns transparent air cloudy, suspended mud will do the same for water, and glass can be manufactured to be cloudy as well. But of course, you can only see long distances through transparent materials. The universe itself is for the most part incredibly transparent. With telescopes we can see unimaginably far across the universe.
Transparent people
If a person is ‘transparent’ we do not mean, of course, that you can physically see through them. But metaphorically their nature and motives are clear for all to see. They tend to be open-minded, kind, thoughtful and make no attempt to hide their thoughts and opinions. If they think something they tend not to conceal it, and if you disagree it’s probably no big deal for them. They’re often live-and-let-live people.
Transparent people are useful in society. They say what they mean and they mean what they say. They’re reliable and you can trust them. I was once described by a colleague at work as a WYSIWYG person. It’s an old term from the early days of word processing; back in the 1970s computer screens were rather primitive and could only display text in one, very basic, typeface. On modern devices you can compose the text and images as they will appear in the printed document, that’s WYSIWYG and it makes life far, far simpler. Some people are not at all transparent, with hidden motives, fears, doubts, and agendas. Treat such people with caution – what you think you see may not be what you actually get!
Transparent organisations
So we come now to the third category of things that may or may not be transparent. Governments and companies are good examples of organisations that can vary greatly in their transparency. Few or even no governments or companies are fully transparent, both have aspects that require secrecy such as details of military capability or of new products in development. But not all governments are equally secretive, of course; and the same goes for companies.
Some examples will help here. Here’s a topical example: the Russian government is clearly much less transparent than the Ukrainian government. The presence of a dictatorial president in Vladimir Putin and the presence of a corrupt and wealthy oligarchy puts Russia amongst the most obscured of governments in the world. They are not alone in this, but they are one of the most extreme examples. Ukraine on the other hand has an open minded, democratically elected president in Volodymyr Zelenskyy. There is still some corruption in the Ukrainian system (but show me a government with no corruption at all).
The USA is an interesting case, the nation’s constitution is clear and requires openness and a transparent, law-abiding government. But the rules seem to be regularly flouted or ignored by President Trump who apparently has little interest in (or patience with) order, truth, legality or indeed transparency.
Perhaps among the most transparent governments are those like Switzerland, Canada and New Zealand – WYSIWYG nations.
When it comes to companies, we see the same thing; a wide range from open transparency on the one hand to deliberate obscurity on the other, particularly amongst high-tech businesses with commercial secrets to hide or those trying to make fast profits on illegal practices. Much lower transparency than Lake Bled here!
Governments and businesses alike range from law-abiding openness and clarity to some that are murky and perhaps even corrupt. There is a strong inverse relationship between transparency and corruption.
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There is beauty in so many natural things – a waterfall, a flower opening from a bud, the swirling patterns in a shoal of fish or a murmuration of starlings at dusk.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Cirencester’s church tower
On a clear evening during late May or early June, take a look at the western sky after sunset and you’ll see two very bright stars quite close together. They’re not stars at all, in fact. They are the planets Venus and Jupiter. The brightest of the two is Venus, setting slightly earlier than Jupiter until the beginning of June. The photo was taken on 25th May while the two planets were still far apart in the sky. Venus is brighter, the same side of the sun as Earth is. It’s just to the left of Cirencester’s Church tower in the photo. Jupiter is a little fainter, up in the top-left corner. Jupiter is a larger planet than Venus (about ten times the diameter, but it’s also much further away; far, far beyond the sun from our point of view. If you’re struggling to find the planets click the thumbnail image to expand it and you’ll see them both quite easily.
Passing close
The two planets will pass very close indeed in the first week of June. As I mentioned above, it’s merely a line of sight closeness, there’s no chance of a collision. Astronomers call a coming-together in the sky a planetary conjunction. At one time people thought the star of Bethlehem might have been a close conjunction like this, but these events can be predicted accurately far into the future and we now know there are no events from 2000 years ago that would fit the idea.
Nonetheless it’s a beautiful thing to see and you don’t even need a telescope. It’s something you can watch evening by evening with the naked eye or a pair of binoculars (providing the weather cooperates). Serious warning, don’t look until the sun has set. You can damage your eyes by looking at the sun, and seeing it in binoculars is particularly dangerous. Hint: go on watching after the planets move further apart, you’ll get a continuing sense of how active our Solar System can be.
What makes something beautiful?
It’s hard to pin down, isn’t it? There is beauty in so many natural things – a waterfall, a flower opening from a bud, the swirling patterns in a shoal of fish or a murmuration of starlings at dusk. There is beauty in athletics, the perfect pole vault, a new world record, a plunging, almost splashless entry into the water from a high board after a long series of breathtaking manoeuvres on the way down. A special sunset or sunrise. A list of beautiful things could go on for ever!
There’s also beauty in human relationships, children playing together, smiling and laughing; the elderly chatting together about times past. There’s beauty in the flavours of food and drink as well, some combinations are just so special, cheese and fruit, even really simple things like a ripe apple and a chunk of mature Cheddar, or some Brie with ripe grapes and crispy crackers.
Beauty seems, at its heart, to depend on everything good and right. Kindness and gentleness are beautiful things, anger and violence are ugly.
What about me? How can I become more beautiful? Think about it from your own point of view if you are reading this; what can you do or say or think or display that will make other people catch their breath and think, ‘Ah, there’s something beautiful here, something commendable, something I can appreciate and value.
Living and behaving in beautiful ways costs nothing, and greatly benefits those around us. So what is not to like? If everyone on the planet was determined to live better and more kindly today than they did yesterday, what a wonderful world this would become!
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When I say ‘landscape’ I’m thinking here of the way the rising hills and the meandering river valley reveal a town snuggled into a cosy counterpane of woodland as in the photo.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image whenever I can.
Cirencester’s church tower
Seen at a distance from the east, Cirencester’s buildings are almost entirely hidden by trees. Only the tallest structures remain visible, mostly just the tower of the Parish Church. This telephoto shot shows it clearly; I’ve compensated for some summer haze by increasing the contrast a little.
Inside the town
It’s a very different matter when you’re in the town itself. Most of the larger buildings are in and around the Market Place. The church tower is at the western end of the Market Place and really all you can see are buildings. From the Abbey Grounds there are views over the rising land to the east across Tar Barrow Field towards the point where I took this photo (here’s the opposite view from near the tower towards the higher ground where I took today’s image). Northwards, the Cotswold Hills rise ever higher as you approach Gloucester and Cheltenham where the land falls suddenly and steeply about 300 m to the floor of the Severn Valley. In the West the hills increase towards Stroud and Tetbury as they also do to the south on the roads heading for Swindon and Marlborough.
Central Cirencester therefore lies in a hollow, part of the Churn Valley, and because the Churn meanders along its course there appear to be hills in every direction. Without the wandering of this valley, Cirencester would have hills mostly on the east and west. If it wasn’t for the church tower, Cirencester would be invisible from every direction, hidden by woodland and fields with scattered hedgerow trees, until you reach the built environment.
The old centre dates mostly to the 18th and 19th centuries with many wool merchant’s houses built of cut Cotswold stone blocks, often built in Georgian ashlar style and now converted to shops and offices. There are a few, scattered, timber-built properties remaining in some of the older streets in the town, almost entirely within 1½ km of the town centre. There are other wooden buildings now hidden, re-fronted in Georgian times with stone. Further out are Victorian and Edwardian streets, then houses from the 1920s and 30s, followed by post war housing estates from the 40s, 50s and right up to the present day. The town is still expanding.
Landscape affects the feel of a place
It’s important to notice this because the principle applies far more widely than you might, at first, think. When I say ‘landscape’ I’m thinking here of the way the rising hills and the meandering river valley reveal a town snuggled into a cosy counterpane of woodland as in the photo above. The entire feel of the town depends to a great extent on the underlying landscape features and the ten thousand years of water erosion since the end of the last ice-age. Had these events not taken place, Cirencester and its Roman predecessor, Corinium, would have been very different from the places they actually are and were.
Just consider how this applies to other aspects of life. Here’s a short list to consider. It really is a fundamental process.
Education – Shapes a person’s entire life.
Character – This affects how other people will understand you and treat you in life.
Genetics – Will affect everything from skin colour to health issues.
Wealth – Can open doors, create or close opportunities.
Faith – May provide strength to persevere, can bring peace and calm in difficulties.
Vision – Nobody can do what they cannot imagine!
Have a think about your own life. What things have been fundamental in shaping who you are and what you have achieved (or may achieve)? What has been really special so far in life? What is the ‘landscape’ underlying your life and how has it affected you and the way others perceive you?
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We live in a culture deeply uncomfortable with grief. We rush people through heartbreak. We hand out silver linings while wounds are still open. Even in faith spaces, we sometimes move too quickly toward redemption language because suffering itself makes us uneasy. We want resurrection without sitting at the tomb. We want healing without fully acknowledging what was lost.
It’s quite easy in life to bounce from one thing to another without paying much attention to anything. It’s the usual mode of the world we live in. But when we do that, we miss a very great deal. We don’t really get into the deeper aspects, we don’t think things through properly. On the one hand we don’t see the wood for the trees, but on the other hand we don’t have time to even get to know one, single tree in the depth it deserves – the crevices in the bark, the shades of green in the details of the leaves, the patterns of the veins in those same leaves, the gentle sound of the breeze filtering through the canopy. The aroma of moist earth and leaf-mould.
Sandy doesn’t make that mistake, it’s even in the title of her blog – Run with Patience (KJV Heb 12:1). Here’s an extract from a recent article to give you a flavour of her approach, at the end of the extract I’ll place a link so you can read the rest direct on Sandy’s site.
Extract from Sandy’s article – The slow Return of Hope
There are seasons when the soul does not sing easily. Seasons where faith feels less like soaring and more like sitting quietly in the dark, trying to remember what light once felt like.
I think that’s why I keep returning to Book of Lamentations, not because it resolves suffering neatly nor because it offers quick comfort, but because it refuses to lie about pain.
The older I get, the more I realize how rare that is.
We live in a culture deeply uncomfortable with grief. We rush people through heartbreak. We hand out silver linings while wounds are still open. Even in faith spaces, we sometimes move too quickly toward redemption language because suffering itself makes us uneasy. We want resurrection without sitting at the tomb. We want healing without fully acknowledging what was lost.
But Book of Lamentations lingers in the ruins. It lets the smoke rise, the silence ache, and grief breathe.
And strangely, that honesty feels sacred to me.
Because there are losses in life that cannot be reduced to inspirational lessons. Some grief changes the architecture of a person. Some suffering rearranges the nervous system, the body, the assumptions you once held about safety, love, God, or the world itself.
Sometimes you survive something, but you do not emerge untouched.
I think Scripture knows this better than we often allow ourselves to admit.
Read the full article on Run with Patience
Here’s the entire article on Sandy’s site. I suggest you read it to discover the precious truth it contains. Explore the other articles on Sandy’s thoughtful site as well. Perhaps bookmark the blog, or sign up for email notifications whenever new articles appear.
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Read the rest of Jonathan’s article in its original form – System or Ecosystem. And don’t forget to download a copy of the book, read it, and share it with anyone who might benefit.
An online friend (Jonathan Rovetto) mentioned this book and website to me. He posted about it himself and invited me to re-post his article here on JHM. I’m minded to reproduce part of his article to get you interested, and then point you back to his original to read the rest as a way (hopefully) of increasing his readership as well as mine. I’ve done this before, it might be something I’ll do often. We’ll see.
Extract from Jonathan’s article
The System or The Ecosystem is a new book by author Michael H. Peters. It contains great words of wisdom, seasoned with over forty years of practical experience, presented in concise, easy-to-digest segments. I highly recommend this book. It’s free to download or you can request to receive a free hard copy. You can check it out here along with some excellent resource materials.
AS AN ENGINEER and “Expert in Residence” at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, home of the #1 ranked School of Architecture in the world, I can tell you: architecture and design determine outcome.
You cannot build the 500,000-ton, 2,717-foot Burj Khalifa (the Mission-Impossible-Tom-Cruise-climbing, “world’s tallest building” in Dubai, a Harvard Architect product) on a foundation designed for a three-foot doghouse.
You cannot modify a bicycle into an F-16 no matter how many parts you replace.
You cannot optimize a failing system into success if the system itself is wrong for the task.
Would you try to fix Alaska to grow an orange tree? Perhaps optimizing Alaska weather isn’t the right solution. If Orange Tree Habitat Life is the goal, why not try to grow any Lifeform in the place it grows naturally?
It is the same with “Growing a Christian.” Why not use the Ecosystem God Designed for JesusLife in humans, that they might grow as mightily as they possibly can in the shortest amount of time, to harvest the best fruit? And that CANNOT be the System of Sunday attendance, programs, missions and clergy.
Similarly, learning how to dribble an American football is a really dumb thing to try to optimize. Why not just do it right in the first place? Trying to optimize the wrong system versus allowing the Ecosystem to flow.
But that is Precisely what Christianity has tried for centuries:
Optimizing a thing Jesus never designed. Jesus designed a“walk along with Me daily real-life apprenticeship,” and the apostles then of course did the same with those they encountered and shared life with: the priesthood of ALL believers.
Just to demonstrate further why “The Master Teacher” chose to bring an Ecosystem of Life from Heaven, a daily hand-to-hand apprenticeship (the Greek word for “disciple” is well-translated apprentice), rather than a classroom or “study” or speech, is convincingly portrayed in the book On Combat, by Lieutenant Colonel Dave Grossman.
Colonel Grossman tells of the necessity of “high fidelity” training, true life training rather than classroom or theoretical incomplete practice. Everything is different when life is authentic, rather than theatrical or an academic exercise or information dump.
Here’s how it went. A police officer in training practiced disarming an intruder or criminal who was pointing a gun at him. Literally, hundreds and hundreds of times he had friends and family members surprise him with a replica dummy gun pointed at him. The policeman understudy would practice responding instantly, by snatching the gun out of the hand of the bad guy. Again and again. He became very, very proficient at snatching the gun in a smooth, lightning-fast move. He would then hand the “gun” back, and they would soon sneak up on him again-training, training, training.
Then, finally and predictably, came the moment of truth. As the rookie police officer was in a convenience store bodega with a partner, he stepped around an aisle and a criminal pointed a gun, close range, at the officer. They were both shocked at how fast he disarmed the thief. Good on you!
And both the officer and the criminal were also equally shocked when the officer, having magically stripped the gun right out of the gangster’s hand, proceeded to hand the gun back to the criminal. Just as he had practiced 1,000 times with his friends and family members. True story…
Read the rest of Jonathan’s article in its original form – System or Ecosystem. And don’t forget to download a copy of the book, read it, and share it with anyone who might benefit.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
It’s a great place to stay up-to-date on all sorts of important topics. Furthermore, you need a university degree as the bare minimum if you want to write articles for the website. This results in a high standard of writing.
I’ve started reading The Conversation, not every item but whenever I spot something that catches my attention. This happened back on 8th April when I added a news item based on a post from ‘The Conversation’. This time I’d like to write about the website itself, not just an item that I read and liked.
The web as intended
I mentioned this in the news item. Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the World-Wide-Web, made his original intentions very clear in his recent book, ‘This is for Everyone’. The web, especially recently, has significantly tampered with and damaged what he had hoped to create. If you read the book you’ll see what he means and how he intends to fix things and is already working to do so.
The Conversation is a website that already conforms rather well to Berners-Lees’s intentions. For one thing it’s completely free to use, like Wikipedia, the Internet Archive, and my own site which you’re reading now. Everything here is free to read, use, copy, and re-use. Check my copyright page for more details.
‘The Conversation’ presents world news and updates and articles on research and development; so it’s a great place to stay up-to-date on all sorts of important topics. Furthermore, you need a university degree as the bare minimum if you want to write articles for the website. This results in a high standard of writing and articles you should be able to trust. There are different versions for different nations and regions, every Conversation page has a drop down list near the top where you can select the version you want to view.
That’s all I wanted to say about ‘The Conversation’. If you subscribe for notifications and read whatever grabs your attention, you’ll stand a good chance of being better informed than ever before and enjoying the process as well. Happy reading!
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
I took this photo of the Lauriston Hotel in Weston-super-Mare where I stayed for a week with my parents and grandparents when I was about two-years-old.
On 2nd December Donna and I visited Bristol and Clifton Golf Club for the annual Christmas dinner for retired Long Ashton Research Station (LARS) staff. It was wonderful to see so many familiar faces, older of course yet clearly still the people I remembered. Of course, as we age we all change under the influence of new experiences, getting to know so many new friends and aquaintances, yet all the old patterns and habits are still there, faces instantly recognised, voices still sounding the same, facial expressions just as remembered from decades previously.
Sunset over Stratton
There were some glorious skies during December. I captured this view on the evening of 12th, walking around Stratton. In December the sun sets early here in the UK where the latitude is fairly high.
JHM: I wrote about an amazing photo of a volcano in Chile; and considered the effect of fog. World events: EU leaders approved a €90bn ($105bn) loan for Ukraine for the next two years; and Israel became the first country to recognize Somaliland.
I did a canal walk along part of the Stroudwater Canal with my friends Al and Phil. We began by taking a look at Dock Lock, east of Stonehouse, It was under repair as the canal restoration steadily heads towards Saul Junction where the waterway will be reconnected to the national canal nework.
We walked from Dock Lock right into the centre of Stroud, stopping for lunch and coffee next to the Canal at Ebley en route. It was mostly dry with the odd shower.
Albion Street
The second photo shows Albion Street in Stratton where a lovely double-rainbow jostled for attention with telephone cables and local properties.
On 15th Donna dropped me off at the Daneway Inn at Sapperton and I walked east along the short section of the Thames and Severn Canal to the tunnel portal. I then walked the above ground course of the canal tunnel to Sapperton, through Hailey Wood and on to the Coates portal following the canal again as closely as possible to Siddington, and then along the Cirencester Arm to meet Donna in town and walk back to Stratton together. It was a 15 mile walk in all as I diverted several times to see the canal at various points where it’s not possible to follow the towpath.
I had my laptop rebuilt and had it back on 5th, now with a 2 TB SSD and the original HDD for internal backup. I hooked it up to our Wi-Fi and began streaming data back from Dropbox.
Gumstool Brook website
Another task this month was to transfer the Gumstool Brook website fully over to Nick Henderson. This was completed on 21st and it’s a relief to have passed on the responsibility.
Aidan was travelling and exploring in Columbia this month, very adventurous and exciting for him. He seemed to be doing well, making some friends with other young people doing much the same thing, and having a generally awesome time.
JHM: I wrote about a new terraced garden at Blenheim Palace; and installing our heat pump. World events: The Trump administration paused military aid to Ukraine; and Israel launched widespread aerial bombardments and attacks on the Gaza Strip.
I took this photo of the Lauriston Hotel in Weston-super-Mare where I stayed for a week with my parents and grandparents when I was about two-years-old.
I ordered a refurbished Google Pixel 7 phone to replace my old Pixel 3, and I continued scanning photos and documents. Paul and Vanessa visited with the dogs, I took them to see the old amphitheatre but it was too muddy. We bought a second-hand ‘Rollator‘ from Minchinhampton for Isobel so she can sit down at a moment’s notice if she comes over dizzy.
The Roman villa
On 16th we visited the Newt in Somerset where the reconstructed Roman Villa was amazing to visit. It’s complete, based on the ground plan of the remains of an original nearby and built using methods that would have been familiar to Roman builders. It’s complete with mosaic floors, an upstairs section, and wall paintings, furniture etc in the Roman style as well. The Master’s office looks as if he’s just been called away and might return at any moment. Amazing!
We were beginning to see the first signs of relaxation of the strictest rules of COVID-19 isolation here in the UK. After isolation and 20 million vaccine doses, hospital admissions, and total numbers of patients were both beginning to fall. I got a bit of decorating done while some restrictions remained in place; the photo shows a first coat of primer/undercoat on a door frame in the hallway.
SpaceX seemed to be doing well now. Starship SN10 landed rather heavily, caught fire, then later blew up. SN11 was nearly ready to make another attempt within a few weeks, hopefully without the explosion! And I was busy updating the MainEvents files.
In Paul and Vanessa’s garden
We visited Paul and Vanessa in Weston -super-Mare and sat chatting in their garden, we can only do this because we’re in the same COVID ‘bubble’, regulations are due to ease further soon and we’ll be able to start meeting outdoors with friends and family more often and more freely.
World events: Pope Francis met with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani in Najaf, Iraq. The first-ever meeting between a pope and a grand ayatollah; and the number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered worldwide exceeded 500 million.
There was flooding in St Neots as the Great Ouse spilled out over the surrounding low-lying land. This happens quite often, one year in four or five and usually in the winter or spring. It rarely causes damage as most buildings are above the danger area.
We were meeting regularly with Roger and Carolyn’s Small Group on Tuesdays, these were fairly open and flexible meetings, almost always with a shared meal. sometimes at our house, Roger and Carolyn’s, the Bresnen’s, Leanne’s, or at the Open Door Office in Eaton Ford. Meetings at the office were becoming more common, and at someone’s home rather less so, a trend I regretted. I was also meeting regularly with Jim and Kevin, and sometimes Sean would join us as well. At a meeting on 9th I gave some thought to what it means to be sons of the Most High. How come some sons (or daughters) can be leaders. elders or teachers, but others not; how can one son or daughter have some kind of authority over other sons or daughters?
We were helping Peter and Dadka in practical ways, and also our friend Darryn who was living in our flat up at Stone Hill. Dadka got a new job at Lidl’s in Eaton Socon and Peter returned to work driving the concrete mixing lorry following recovery from a leg injury.
Melford Hall
We also visited our friends Ken and Gayna in Yoxford on 26th, we don’t get to see them often these days so this was a special opportunity not to be missed. On 27th we visited Melford Hall, an Elizabethan building, though parts of the building are much older, going back to before 1065.
JHM: I wrote about Ben Scott and the Calais camp; and about Belgium’s pain. World events: Barack Obama visited Cuba, the first time a sitting US president had visited the island since Calvin Coolidge in 1928; and Radovan Karadžić was sentenced to 40 years in prison for genocide and crimes against humanity.
Walking along the bank of the River Great Ouse, I got some great photos of common reed flower heads (Phragmites australis). So delicate and pretty, especially when lit from behind on a bright, sunny day. They might be very effective (with their long stalks) for removing cobwebs from high corners around the house. Some time I might harvest a few to try.
Rivermill
Further upstream I got another nice shot, this time of the River Mill Inn in Eaton Socon.
Debbie and the children
We visited Debbie and family on 12th for her birthday. It’s always good to see them. Beth and Paz also came over so we saw the entire family and I did a short walk with Paz across the local fields.
Towards the end of the month preparations began for a new footbridge across the River Great Ouse between Eaton Socon and the secondary school and Tesco Extra in Eynesbury.
We had the ceilings and walls plastered in the passageway to the back door, the guy who did the work was cheap but did an awful job, even plastering over cables and so on, I was appalled! We decided to let him finish, pay him, and then decide what to do next. And the old wooden footbridge from Riverside Park to Eynesbury was about to be replaced with a new, steel bridge.
I set up a new server in the KSG collection, this one (named Hazel) provided space for virtual machines that we used to investigate Linux, and versions of Windows beyond those we normally use. I was also trying to get my head around the spreadsheets used to manage the Colworth phone bills, though I didn’t know enough about Excel to do the job and didn’t have time to learn it.
On most Fridays I drove down to Cirencester early and came home late to spend some time with Dad. His health, however, was the main issue during this month; on 30th March (or around that date) he was taken ill at the Little Chef at the Burford Road services. He was enjoying a meal there when he stopped eating and looked very unwell. He was in pain, the staff were worried and called an ambulance, and he was taken to Gloucestershire Royal Hospital for tests and treatment.
Donna and I travelled down to see him on 31st and by that time he was terminally ill with a dissected aorta. He died peacefully with the family gathered around the bed on 2nd April. He was the last member of the Jefferies family to live in Cirencester until Donna and I returned there ten years later in 2016.
World events: NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter entered orbit around Mars; and the website Twitter was launched for microblogging and social networking.
Donna’s Mum and Dad came to visit us and helped us with some decorating. The photo shows Donna’s Dad, Tony, putting a roller coat of brilliant white emulsion on the ceiling of the stairwell.
Mir re-enters
Also this month there was a major event in spaceflight, Russia de-orbited their Mir Space Station over the Pacific Ocean. It was the largest spacecraft so far deorbited and re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific on 23rd March 2001.
Open Door
We were involved at Open Door Church in St Neots at this time, going to the Sunday meetings at Ernulf School and weekday cell group meetings one evening each week. I was not happy in the Sunday meetings, feeling unable to contribute fully; the cell group was more relaxed, friendly and personal.
World events: The Taliban government of Afghanistan began destroying the Buddhas of Bamiyan; and Apple Inc. released the Mac OS X operating system for Mac computers.
Donna and I were growing closer and closer in March, in one sense this was wonderful, but we both felt the need to take things quite slowly because it was so soon after Judy’s death and we didn’t want to make things harder than necessary for my family. Debbie and Beth seemed to be coping surprisingly well, but there were my sisters and Mum and Dad to consider as well. We both came to a clear decision about wanting to be married. Debbie was a little anxious that she’d lose touch with Beth and with me, but no fear of that, we have a three-way video chat most Sunday evenings (30 years later!)
My Nigerian friend Elfrida died unexpectedly from a brain haemorrhage leaving Francis and the children without a wife and mother. This was a shock, there was no advance warning as we’d had with the loss of Judy, and no time to plan or adjust or to communicate or prepare. It was so very much a surprise.
I spotted Comet Hyakutake for the first time on 23rd March. It passed Earth at about a tenth of the distance of the Sun so was very bright and easy to spot in the early evening sky.
World events: The Dunblane school massacre took place in Scotland; and the IMF approved a $10.2 billion loan to Russia for economic reform.
Pretty much the entire family descended on Ruth and Martin’s house in Holmer Green on 10th March for a party and a good old chat followed by their daughter, Eleanor’s, Christening.
The video is an unedited view from a VHS copy of my Sony Hi-8 original. It only covers the gathering at their home, you’ll get glimpses and voices of many people who are no longer with us as well as much younger versions of those of us who remain. A real trip down memory lane! (If you’re not a family member you’ll probably find the video utterly boring!)
Debbie and Sarah
On 11th, Debbie and her friend Sarah Fido played clarinet at a concert in Bristol’s Colston Hall (now renamed Bristol Beacon). The orchestra played really well, much, much better than most youth orchestras.
Presents
The 12th was Debbie’s birthday so it was time to open presents. This year they included a collapsible umbrella.
Helicopter Museum
And on 31st we had a day visit from my Mum and Dad who brought Dan Holme with them from Cirencester. We drove over to Weston -super-Mare and visited the Helicopter Museum on the Westland helicopter site there.
World events:Massive demonstrations were held against Slobodan Milošević in Belgrade; and Germany formally regained complete independence after France, the UK, the USA and the USSR relinquished all remaining rights to the country.
Judy made Debbie a cake for her 11th birthday (12th March).
The previous owners of our house had planted a row of conifers along the front of the property and they were becoming too large; I decided to remove them before they got too big to tackle.
Tree removal
It was quite a major task, but I cut them off about a metre above ground level, removed all the side branches, and then used the trunks for leverage after digging round them and cutting through the main roots. They made a lovely bonfire at the bottom of the garden!
World events: The first paper was published describing the atomic force microscope invented the previous year; and on 13th March, Microsoft Corporation held its initial public offering of stock shares.
Debbie was six on 12th March, Judy had made her a cottage cake with hollyhocks and other garden plants growing outside. She had a lot of friends round for her party (the friends had multiplied quickly when she began school in 1980).
Debbie reading to Beth
Later in the month, here’s Debbie (now at school and becoming good at reading) reading a bedtime story to her sister, Beth and three other characters who don’t really seem to be paying much attention to the story.
My Mum and Dad came to visit us on 13th March, the day after Debbie’s first birthday.
At work I was writing up the previous year’s research on flower and fruit development and nutrient transfer in developing plum fruit as well as the problem of gum production in plums which affects fruit quality and marketability. These and other results were published in the Long Ashton Annual Report for 1975, published during 1976.
World events: The Cray-1 was released as the first commercially developed supercomputer; and Harold Wilson resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Judy and I moved into an unfurnished flat at 20 Belmont Road in St Andrews, Bristol, perhaps on 10th. The photo shows the building; our flat contained the two windows at the right hand end of the middle floor.
It was great to have a lot more space than our cramped bed-sit in Clifton, it was great to have our own bath, it was great to have our own loo even though that was on the landing just outside the door to our flat, and it was great to have a proper kitchen instead of the tiny cupboard/kitchen in the bed-sit. We had no furniture (but quickly bought an extendable table and four chairs from a second-hand shop on the nearby Gloucester Road) and we bought our own electric cooker with four rings, a grill and a clock/timer for the oven. We bought a double bed with the £60 my grandmother had given us as a wedding present, telling us ‘You spend a third of your life in bed, so make sure it’s a good one that will support your backs properly and last well’.
We felt we were off to a good start now, our rent was lower than before, we were able to begin buying our own furniture, and had room for our books, records, photos and other possessions. We both had steady jobs and were able to save some money most months to build a deposit for eventually buying a house of our own. And, of course, we still had our car, Pumpkin (so called because Judy’s Dad had once remarked that if I was still at their house after midnight at 18 Hales Close in Cheltenham, my Ford Anglia 100E might turn into a pumpkin).
World events: The Pakistani army occupied East Pakistan; and Joe Frazier defeated Muhammad Ali in a 15-round boxing match at Madison Square Garden.
The Grammar School Founders and Benefactors Memorial Service was held on 3rd March. The whole school and many parents turned up for the occasion at Cirencester Parish Church. The front cover of the order of service is shown at the left (click to enlarge), or you can view the entire document as a PDF.
World events: The British Government announced plans for monetary decimalisation; and NASA’s Gemini 8 docked in space, with an Agena target vehicle. The first time this was achieved.
My entire school year was tested for sensitivity and resistance to tuberculosis. If we were found to be susceptible we were inoculated. This included me, and I ended up with a large hole in my upper arm where I was inoculated, when the family GP saw this he told Mum that if I’d remained uninoculated and had been infected with the virus later in life I would almost certainly have died as a result. The hole filled in eventually, but I still have the scar (along with many others my age, I suspect).
TB is now a real rarity in western nations as almost everyone has received the vaccination or has recovered from an infection.
World events:Kurenivka mudslide: A dam burst in Kiev, USSR, killing 145; and black and white £5 notes ceased to be legal tender in the UK.
I was approaching six-years-old and in the third year at Querns Junior School, the Spring Term ended in late March. Most of our lessons were arithmetic or English, reading and writing more widely and competently now as we grew older. We were also starting to learn some history, geography, art, religion, music and science, not as formal, dedicated lessons but rather as a sort of general knowledge.
World events:Morocco declared independence from France; and Britain’s Fairey Delta 2 broke the World Air Speed Record, raising it to 1,132 mph (1,822 km/h) or Mach 1.73.
I was now nearly 2¾ and, no doubt into everything. No specific memories remain, of course, except for one. I know it was early in my life because I was wearing a blue leather harness with three silver bells on the front. I had to wear this for safety if I was walking along the pavement, ie not riding in the pushchair. I remember being in Purley Road, just around the corner from Victoria Road where Granny and Grandpa lived. We were walking towards Victoria Road and had reached the footpath that runs between the gardens of Victoria Road and Purley Road (the path is still there today in 2026). I got very cross about wearing the harness; I probably had a tantrum. Dad said I could walk without it but if I did I must hold his hand – and that’s what happened.
I suppose it’s quite possible I was told about this when I was older, but it certainly feels like a memory. There are several other events I seem to remember from about the same age.
World events: In the Korean War’s Operation Ripper, United Nations troops recaptured Seoul for the second time; and Remington Rand delivered the first UNIVAC I computer to the United States Census Bureau.
Mike, at 19-years-old was still worried about Lilias’ health and in particular that they might not be able to have a family if surgery became necessary. On 6th March he packed and addressed his kit and boarded the HMS Largo Bay (an anti-aircraft frigate) at 11:00 on 7th. It seems the food and the hammocks were not great, and he was put in charge of deck welfare.
They were due to leave at 10:00 on 8th, but the crew went on strike so everyone had to disembark and return to Santa Cruz. On 11th they were to leave at midnight on the train to Calcutta but this, too, was cancelled. They returned to Largo Bay on 13th and finally left at 09:00 on 14th. This time Mike was appointed ‘Ablution Cleaner’. They passed Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) on 17th, putting the clocks forward 30 minutes every day until 19th.
The 22nd was an interesting day, they went ashore in an amphibious DUKW and saw Rangoon which was ‘much knocked about’. Mike saw his first rickshaw and some Japanese prisoners. The clocks were set an hour earlier here. He attended a Japanese War Crimes Trial on 23rd; and on 24th the ship sailed again but with the addition of Indian troops making it very hard to find enough space for sleeping.
Mike reached Singapore on the afternoon of 27th March. He had one letter from Lilias on 28th and thought that a lot of others had been lost. But 12 more arrived on 29th and a further 5 on 30th.
World events:British troops withdrew from Iran according to an agreement, the Soviets did not; and in Fulton, Missouri, Winston Churchill spoke about the Iron Curtain.
John and Bob joined the Army and Dick joined the Royal Navy. All three served as officers during the Second World War, and all three survived the experience without injury. The photo was taken in 1939 before they left home. Presumably there would have been a similar image from the front, too, unfortunately lost I think.
While they were away Churnside must have seemed a very empty house with just Guv, Nor and Mike (who was still at school aged 15). The older brothers were in their 30s and 40s and would have been home on leave from time to time, but not all at once.
World events: In WWII, Rommel launched his first offensive in Cyrenaica; and in the Battle of Cape Matapan British naval forces defeated an Italian fleet, sinking 5 warships.
This Wolseley car was bought my my grandfather in the 1930s. I believe it came from Steels Garage in Dyer Street and Lewis Lane. In the photo it’s parked outside 35 Victoria Road, next door to 37 (Churnside) where my grandparents lived. I think I travelled in this car when I was a small child and it was later replaced with an Austin Somerset which I also remember.
World events:(March 1936): In violation of treaties, Nazi Germany reoccupied the Rhineland. (March 1931): The British viceroy of India and Mohandas Gandhi signed the Gandhi–Irwin Pact.
Click the agreement to enlarge it. The document was signed on 19th March 1920. The cottage it refers to was empty when I remember it as a teenager, but it was always known as ‘The Carter’s Cottage’ and its last resident might well have been the William Richard Robinson mentioned here. I took a look inside when I was about 16-years-old and doing holiday work on the rose nursery a few hundred metres north of it (where Tesco Extra stands today). It seemed sound and was unlocked, but was very dusty, cobwebby and empty inside.
The rent in 1920 was 3/- per week, that’s 15p per week; with the large garden it might have been rented today for perhaps £1500 per month. Two and a half thousand times as much, that’s inflation for you! When Donna and I moved to Cirencester in 2016 the cottage was still standing and in use, although Watermoor Nursery had been sold and a housing estate built there. The cottage was demolished a few years ago and the land now houses three or four modern homes.
World events(March 1926):Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-fuel rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.(March 1921): The Treaty of Versailles forces Germany to pay war reparations. (March 1916): US President Woodrow Wilson sent 12,000 US troops over the U.S.–Mexico border to pursue Pancho Villa. (March 1911): The first congressional appropriation was made for what would become the United States Air Force(March 1906): Romanian inventor Traian Vuia becomes the first person to achieve an unassisted takeoff in a powered monoplane. (January 1901):Irish nationalist demonstrators were ejected by police from the House of Commons of the United Kingdom in London.
My great-grandfather, Edward Jefferies was born in 1849 in Cirencester. In the baptismal record his father, John Jefferies, was listed as a Nurseryman living at Querns Cottage. Presumably John and Alice lived in the cottage when John worked as a nursery manager for Richard Gregory. After taking over the business, John may have built Minerva Villa on nursery land at the junction of the Avenue and Tower Street and the family moved there from Querns Cottage. Alternatively Minerva villa might have been built by Richard Gregory. Either way, Edward would have lived in Querns Cottage as a young child but would also have remembered Minerva Villa as an older child.
Edward married Mary Elizabeth Hedges in 1875 and they lived at 10 Tower Street (within sight of Minerva Villa), Mary’s wedding dress was in the possession of her daughter-in-law, my grandmother, Nor. She, in turn handed it over to my Mum, Lilias who passed it on to my sister, Rachael. As it was difficult to save the delicate and aging silk, it was finally sold to a Museum.
Edward worked as a Seedsman in the family business, and died aged just 35 (he was buried in Chesterton Cemetery, recorded as having died in Bournemouth). Although we don’t know the cause of death, it was quite likely to have been tuberculosis (consumption) as patients were often encouraged to move to a seaside town where cleaner air, bright sunshine, and rest from work were thought to offer a real chance of recovery.
In 1500 the wool trade was still thriving in Cirencester and the countryside in the area was partly devoted to raising sheep. A slow decline had begun towards the end of the previous century and was continuing, but there was still plenty of profit in the wool trade in 1500 f0r decades to come. The decline was partly due to a growing preference for Spanish Merino wool over the wool from the Cotswold Lion breed.
There were two main sources for wool. Cirencester Abbey controlled a good portion of the land around the area suitable for raising sheep (mainly the higher ground as this was well drained). Sheep don’t do well if their feet are frequently wet. The other source for wool was the privately owned and farmed land. Both sources sent wool to Cirencester for sale following shearing time and in rather large quantities. After sale to wool merchants the wool was baled up for export or for further processing locally (the Abbey may have done this in house). Wherever it went, the wool had to be washed and dried, carded with teasles, spun into woollen thread, dyed and then woven into fine cloth. The Cotswold sheep produced wool of particularly high yield and quality so it was in great demand. Much of the exported wool was processed, woven and sold in Flemish lands (today’s Belgium and the Netherlands).
The Kings of England at this time were also focused on trade and export so encouraged this wool trade as it brought useful income to England and could be taxed to increase royal revenues. The 1500s were mostly times of peace, stability, and industry in England. Cirencester Parish Church began to be rebuilt from 1514, and the earlier rivalry between townsfolk and the Abbots calmed down as there was adequate income for both to prosper.
The South Porch (now the main entrance to the Parish Church) was built by the abbey around this time, mainly as office space for the Abbey’s business connections with the town and its surroundings. If it had been paid for and built by town guilds there would have been carved crests and shields for the various guilds, but there’s nothing of that sort anywhere in the building. A small bridge over the Churn in Gloucester Street was known as Gilden Bridge but appears to have no connection with guilds or the building and use of the South Porch.
The old street
At this time the porch was separated from the Parish Church by a narrow street, the two being connected later by new walls and roofing. The heavy doors on the east and west sides of the porch show where this old street passed through, and it can be traced some distance on the east even today.
Continuing east
Some of the names of the old town streets are still known; in the following list I’ll provide the old name first in Tudor spelling, and then the current name in brackets:
Abbot Strete – (Coxwell Street)
Batel Strete – (Thomas Street)*
Castell Strete – (Castle Street)
Cheping Strete – (The Market Place)
Cricklade Strete -(Cricklade Street)
Dole-halle Strete – (Dollar Street)
Dyar Strete – (Dyer Street)
Foss, the – (Lewis Lane)
Goseditch Street – (Gosditch Street)
Inch-thrope – (Cecily Hill)
New Strete – (Querns Lane)
Shoter Strete – (Sheep Street)
St Laurens Strete – (Gloucester Street)
*Batel Strete may refer to the 7th century Battle of Cirencester between Cwichelm and Penda. The name far precedes the English Civil War battle in Cirencester between Cavaliers and Roundheads.
The source for these street names (and some additional names and details not included here) is ‘A History of Cirencester’ by Welbore St. Clare Baddeley, page 213, published in 1924.
World events(Mar 1731): The Treaty of Vienna was signed between the Holy Roman Empire, Great Britain, the Dutch Republic and Spain. (Apr 1701):Mecklenburg-Strelitz was created as a north German duchy. (Mar 1631): The siege of the Protestant German city of Magdeburg by the Catholic League began and lasted for more than two months before the city fell and the inhabitants were massacred. (Mar 1601): The treason trial for five secondary participants in Essex’s Rebellion was held in London. All five were found guilty. (Mar 1531): King Henry VIII gives royal assent to the Poisoning Act 1530 which provided for the boiling to death of people convicted of poisioning others. (Mar 1501):Portuguese navigator João da Nova discovered Ascension Island.
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The new library in Dyer Street had a meeting room with seating for 200 people, but it quickly became clear that a larger meeting place was needed. And this is one of the reasons that Bingham decided to fund the Bingham Hall.
What’s in an image? Sometimes quite a lot, more than meets the eye. I’m posting an image every week or so.
Bingham Library
Cirencester’s Bingham Library building is now the Town Council Offices and the Tourist Information Centre. When I was a pupil at Cirencester Grammar School in Victoria Road, this grand old building was still the town’s main library. I remember walking to it from the family home at 37 Victoria Road, often to return books and take out different ones on science fiction, astronomy, or whatever interested me at the time; sometimes to visit the reference library to read articles from Encyclopaedia Britannica and make notes for Geography essays on coffee, rice or tea production in exotic places.
Daniel George Bingham
Blue plaque (click to enlarge)
The Bingham Hall in King Street as well as the Bingham Library in Dyer Street were built as town amenities and improvements by Daniel George Bingham. For more details of his life and career, click the blue plaque on the right.
Bingham worked in railway management, first at Cirencester, later at Paddington in London, and finally in Utrecht in the Netherlands where he became wealthy. He visited Cirencester briefly but quite regularly and spent part of his wealth providing the library in 1905 and the Hall in 1908. He and his wife Jane had friends and family in Utrecht so they were always keen to remain living there, though clearly Bingham retained a fondness for his town of birth – Cirencester.
From the beginning, the new library in Dyer Street had a meeting room with seating for 200 people, but it quickly became clear that a larger meeting place was needed. And this is one of the reasons that Bingham decided to fund the Bingham Hall to provide expanded facilities for meetings, dinners, theatre, music, and even a rifle range. I remember being in the Army Cadets in the sixth form at the Grammar School and taking part in target practice with .22 calibre rifles in the Bingham Hall rifle range. Morning assemblies were held in the main hall at the Bingham Hall, also school theatrical productions and musical performances.
What about us?
Few of us will ever have enough money to contribute something major like Bingham did. But most of us can afford to buy a little extra food and put it into the Food Bank receptacle as we leave the supermarket. Or we can join a local organisation helping others in some way, or keeping the local environment tidy. We all have the capability to improve our fellow citizens’ well-being in some way, it may cost no more than a little thought and a simple action.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
In first-century Jewish society, a woman approaching a rabbi — in public, uninvited, without the mediation of a husband or male relative — was itself an act that would raise eyebrows and clench jaws.
Sometimes I read something so good that I want to share it with my readers. This happened recently with one of Christoper Dryden’s posts. When I asked if I might republish it here, he very generously agreed. But I’m having second thoughts. Not about sharing it, but about sharing it in full. I think it will be better to share enough that my readers will want to go and read the rest on CD’s blog.
Context: What social barriers does the bleeding woman overcome to reach Jesus, and why is this significant?
This scripture does not indicate the social barrier, but we can infer the following: she has a disease, which doesn’t make her socially acceptable for starters. The nature of the disease, apparently, would make her unclean, so she shouldn’t be seen in public. Touching the garment of Jesus would be considered scandalous and outrageous cos the belief was that those touched by the unclean would be unclean themselves. She’s a social outcast, and she should know her place and deal with the fact that she’s worse off for looking to get her problem sorted, only for it not to work out. She’s a woman, that also ain’t becoming of someone who wishes to approach this guy. Seen in that light, the amount she’s overcome to reach out speaks volumes about the level of faith she has that one touch could make all the difference. It explains Jesus’ own commentary on the situation, namely that her faith has made her whole. And as I reflect on that, there’s the nudge to consider what level of faith can be exercised to trust Jesus. And also, there’s a challenge of how we can demonstrate and declare, for the benefit of other social outcasts, that their issues can be solved by reaching out to touch Jesus, who is near them?
In first-century Jewish society, a woman approaching a rabbi — in public, uninvited, without the mediation of a husband or male relative — was itself an act that would raise eyebrows and clench jaws. Layer on top of that the twelve years of haemorrhaging, which under the Levitical code rendered her perpetually ritually unclean (Leviticus 15:25-27), and you start to appreciate what she was carrying before she ever took a single step toward Jesus. It wasn’t just a physical condition. It was a sentence. Twelve years of isolation. Twelve years of being untouchable. Twelve years of being told, in effect, that she didn’t qualify.
She had also spent everything she had on physicians who left her worse off, not better. So not only is she socially marginalised, she is financially spent and medically hopeless. She has nothing left to lose. And that, right there, might be the very thing that unlocks her faith. When you’ve exhausted every other option, the audacity to reach for Jesus becomes a lot less surprising.
Seen in that light, the amount she’s overcome to reach out speaks volumes about the faith she has that a single touch could make all the difference. It explains Jesus’ own commentary on the situation: her faith has made her whole. And as I reflect on that, there’s a nudge to consider what level of faith is required to trust Jesus. And also, there’s a challenge of how we can demonstrate and declare, for the benefit of other social outcasts, that their issues can be solved by reaching out to touch Jesus, who is near them?
Someone might feel like they don’t qualify. They feel like they’ve been told — by circumstance, by history, by the voice in their own head — that the door to Jesus isn’t for them. This woman’s story is a loud and clear rebuttal of that lie. She reached, He responded, and the power that went out of Him was not accidental. He knew. He always knows. And He is never contaminated by what comes to Him, broken and desperate. He is only ever transformative.
Content: How does Jesus treat both the synagogue leader and the unclean woman with equal dignity?
What a fascinating word – dignity. Let’s get ourselves a running definition or walking, if we prefer the strolling approach. Dignity is about worth, value and honour. To treat people with dignity is to confer on them a sense that they are of worth and value and should be duly honoured…
Reading more
My hope is that you’ll want to read the whole thing. Don’t miss the opportunity, you will not regret it! And if you like Dryden’s writing as much as I do, you’ll bookmark his site and keep coming back for more.
If you enjoyed this or found it useful, please like, comment, and share below. (If you don’t see those links, click the article’s title above the main photo and they will appear.) Send a link to friends who might enjoy the article or benefit from it – Thanks! My material is free to reuse (see conditions), but a coffee is always welcome and encourages me to write more often!
We all have gifts and we do far better when we share them, recognising them in one another and encouraging one another by saying what we see. This will never happen if we keep thinking only in terms of individual people and individual gifts. We, together, are the body of Christ.
Communicating (Wikimedia) -Click images to enlarge
The final APEST gift we need to consider is the gift of teacher. Just like the other gifts, the teaching gift is there for the building of the church and does not act in a controlling way but is a life-bringing and helping function in the life of the church and the individual parts of it.
Where a teaching gift is active there will be a clarifying service at work. Confusion and misunderstandings will be swept aside. Decades, even centuries and millenia of mistakes and misunderstandings will be exposed and brought out for fresh examination. Teachers cannot sit still or take a back seat where they detect error of any kind.
I just don’t get it!
And it’s not just a matter of explaining things more clearly or studying the meaning of Hebrew or Greek terms. It’s much more helping people through those ‘I just don’t get it’ moments until they suddenly cry out, ‘Oh, now I see!’ The teaching gift sparks revelation.
Jesus taught his disciples, but he also taught the crowds. Sometimes his teaching went way beyond words and ideas, often he’d share a parable like the Good Samaritan that reached directly into minds where words alone failed to penetrate. This kind of teaching gift cuts through misconceptions and breaks into parts of our being that seem to be based somewhere other than the grey matter in our brains. Often, we express this as heart even though that’s biologically incorrect. But our languages are full of heart-based expressions – heartfelt, avoir le cœur sur la main, heart-stopping moment, sich ein herz fassen, wearing your heart on your sleeve, good hearted. There are facts and there is understanding; they’re two different things, we tend to think of facts being in our heads and understanding being in our hearts.
And when the wealthy, or the Pharisees, or the Temple priests needed a bit more than a word to pitch them over the edge from not comprehending to fully understanding, Jesus would show them what the Father’s heart was like – ‘Don’t stand on street corners praying where everyone can see you, go quietly into your own room where only the Father sees you and pray there.’ And sometimes there’d be a spark of comprehension. It might only be one person amongst a group of proud scoffers, but it’s so worth it when even one person sees the light and understands a previously hidden truth for the first time.
As always, community really matters
It’s still like that in the church today. There are many who don’t see the truth but now and then a light comes on for someone – Ding! Anyone with a teaching gift loves it when that happens. Understanding is like a staircase, each step makes the next one possible when the right time comes. The teaching gift enables the teacher to recognise that right moment and drop in the necessary grain of truth so that it makes a deep and long-lasting difference.
Look again at the photo at the top of this article, these are not strangers interacting, they are good friends, they know one another at a deeper level, they care about one another, they are engaged in conversation, they are happy and comfortable together. They might possibly live in community. I bet they eat together at least once or twice a week. And I bet Jesus and his followers interacted in just the same ways. We need community like this! We were designed for it. The five gifts of service (and many other gifts) appear when we are a fully alive community.
Building the body of Christ
Jesus told his followers, ‘I will build my church’. He doesn’t want you and me to build it, but he does pour out gifts upon us so that we, together, can contribute something essential and useful. There’s an abundance of brotherly/sisterly love amongst us when we all pool our different gifts. And that in itself is a secret that has been lost during church history. We need to fully grasp that secret – we all have gifts and we do far better when we share them, recognising them in one another and encouraging one another by saying what we see. This will never happen if we keep thinking only in terms of individual people and individual gifts. We, together, are the body of Christ.
Don’t think in terms of a tyre here and a seat there. A gear lever and a rear view mirror. Understand that thinking about a car is very different from merely thinking about the different parts of a car. You can travel quickly over long distances if you have a car, but if you have only a tyre and a seat you’ll go nowhere. Building a car means recognising the pieces and putting them together in right relationship. Building community and church needs exactly the same skills and understanding.
A big mistake
There is one big mistake frequently made in mainstream churches today, OK, there are many mistakes made, but I want to highlight this one in particular because it’s very widespread and very harmful. It’s also an easy and natural mistake to make.
Many well-intentioned teachers don’t teach Jesus, instead they teach the Bible. Jesus is very much present throughout the Old and New Testaments. But teaching people to memorise verses will do little to help them grow in character or grace. Instead we need to bring Jesus himself into one another’s hearts and minds and be changed by his presence. We need to grow in love and in joyfulness, we need to be rooted in his peace, reflect his patience and great kindness and goodness, become faithful as he is faithful and develop the kind of self-control that never criticises and never directs anger or disappointment at the brothers and sisters.
We simply cannot be built on the foundation of Christ unless we come to know him well, so we’re not looking for technical knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, or deep Bible studies. Instead we need to know Jesus as our dependable, older brother, to recognise that he is always present and how to help one another find him again when we lose sight of him. We need to learn that the fruit of the Spirit is more fundamental than the gifts of the same Spirit, but that we need both to function as Jesus fully intends his church to do. ‘I will build my church’.
That’s it for this part of the series. Next time we’ll consider Jesus, the source of these gifts of service. Can we see all five APEST gifts at work in him? What can we learn from him in this regard?
See also:
I wanted to provide links or articles about the topic, just as I do in most of my posts, I looked at a load of stuff but nothing seemed to jump out for me, I didn’t hear Jesus whispering, ‘Yes, put that item in’. In the end I felt there were two videos I should include. Neither of them is specifically about the gift of teaching (though they both mention this gift in passing. Both of them are about the five APEST gifts as a whole. They are both interviews. Alan Hirsch and Neil Cole have both pretty much dedicated themselves to studying , teaching, and writing about APEST. My feeling is that I should link to these two interviews, so here they are.
I’ve met and spoken briefly with both Alan and Neil, and and I’ve heard them both speak in meetings several times. And I trust them to reveal something useful to you, so have a listen.
APEST, Interview with Alan Hirsch – YouTube (Follow Baptist Church)
APEST, Interview with Neil Cole – YouTube (Cynthia Anderson)
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Journeys of Heart and Mind 
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