Teaser Tuesday - 28th May

Teaser tuesdays now hosted here.

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

The procession was suitably stately. This was in a part of town where funeral cortèges were not uncommon - a hazard of playing host to a crematorium, you might say - and were always treated with ceremony and respect.

from Touching Cloth - Rev Fergus Butler-Gallie - tales of a young priest. His anecdotes though funny tend to be long winded, but worth the wait, and then the occasional emotional punch!

Men and Volunteering

I was at a (church) Readers lunch today at which I was the only male and during our discussion we talked about ratios of men and women as leaders/volunteers in church events. Last night I attended a service rota planning event where (apart from the vicar) I was again the only male. I've just checked our list of volunteers to do Bible readings and that's around 75% female, our church is fairly well gender balanced (a slight bias towards women).

I also thought back to last weekend when - as a followup event to Macc Pride at which I was a steward (again a volunteer role) - there was a pub afternoon for feedback and news. When I arrived there were around 15 women and me(!) a few more women arrived before there was just one other male! I've also inspected the rota for St Michael's which opened its doors that day to welcome folk who wanted a break from the noisyness of the event (and some children's activities). Yes you guessed, again all female!

So more (on this limited set of data points) than just a church problem? I go to some geeky voluntary events which tend to be fairly male - but that's on a pretty male concentrated population to draw on? Is it that men are too busy wanting to be the main wage earner even when they're retired?

Saying farewell

(catching up!)

Some time ago now we said farewell to Dave Mock the vicar of All Saints and St Barnabas, he's since been inducted as vicar of Christ Church Barnton. This picture is when Chris - one of the church wardens - spoke about the reference she gave him! We now look back to nearly 10 years of his ministry and care of us and look forward to whatever God is leading us to.

Teaser Tuesday - July 28

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

He knew he had not thought sufficiently of this, that he had been carried away by enthusiasm, and had hitherto not brought home to himself the full reality of his position.
He thought most about his daughter, naturally.

From Anthony Trollope's The Warden - our BATS book of the month - a classic read category - which I've quite enjoyed his dissection of the foibles of the Victorian Church. (getting to this post in the end!)