Simon Says ...

Steve is now blogging. His blog is called Frank , which is an excellent name for many reasons (some of which you have to know Steve for!). Steve's a very good man, and his blog should be worth checking out.

Thanks to Rob (who I could have sworn had goven up alcohol for Lent!) for getting tickets to the Bristol Beer Festival . Great fun - beers to sample, good company and an excellent night out. I was particularly fond of a beer from Durham called White Amarillo. We sampled a few of the beers. The three of us who went had very different methods of choosing beers. Rob poured over the programme looking for the beers he knows, and more importantly the ones he didn't. He must read the programme about 25 times by the end. Lots of marks with the pen and scribbling went on. My own selection process was rather less rigorous. A good write up or a North East beer stood a good chance of getting picked. Rob knows far more about beer than me, so I followed his guidance quite a bit. I wanted to mix up the types of beer I drank a bit, so would also choose by the colour of the beer in the glass. Pete's selection process remains a mystery to me. He would disappear off and reappear with a

My keys to the church were all helpfully labelled. But who lives behind this door? And do I want to know what they do there?

Two of the talks that Paul and I gave in the Bluffers' Guide to Christian Doctrine, (available from virtualtheology.net ) have now been put on the re:Jesus website . The whole site is worth a look - I particularly enjoy their Sacred Space stuff. Thanks to Bruce for sorting this out.

There's lots of 'firsts' around at the moment, but my first Sunday at SMR is one of the more significant ones. It began at 8am, when I deaconed (assisted) at the Eucharist. Other than vergers and the other priest, I did know at least one of the congregation, who used to attend at Cotham. Nice to see a familiar face. My real beginning was the 9.30am Eucharist. There were about 200 people there, but it felt good to be leading worship again after a break. I preached my first sermon (on the first two commandments) and sang the first part of the eucharistic prayer. It was fun, and with the help of servers, vergers and others I didn't do too much wrong. There were lots of young people involved and the choir were superb. One complete change of robes later, and by 11.15am I was taking Mattins. The choir sang a beautiful anthem (a negro spiritual) and I led some prayers. No sermon expected, fortunately. After Mattins, we had lunch. Lots of people had stayed and we had a

A bit late, but what the heck! An empty van The first thing on Out with the rubbish Where a computer once stood Looking out Parts of the house exposed An ex-study Movers' tricks All aboard Moving in in a blizzard New home, sweet home

Last night I was licensed as Priest-in-charge of St Mary Redcliffe church in Bristol. It was one of those grand affairs that the CofE does from time to time, and does well. At least I enjoyed it. We processed round the church and I was given different things like a map of the parish, a key to the church, a Bible etc, all symbolic of the mission of the church. The music from the church choir and the worship band from the Sixth Form of the neighbouring school was excellent; the Bishop preached a sermon that gave me lots of support. There were lots of people there: family and friends come specially for the event; friends from my former parishes; lots of folk from the new parish; and even the Lord Lieutenant and Deputy Lord Mayor. Some of this will take some getting used to! I even made the local paper ! And then this morning I got up, and had to work out what I've got to do. It's very strange, all the pomp and ceremony of arrival and then a completely blank sheet of paper.