Film recommendation: Heaven

I often attend conferences exploring the links between movies and Christian theology. On one of these conferences recently, someone showed an excerpt from this film and recommended it.

I must say that it is a stunning film - with many surprising twists and turns. The acting is very good and if you don't mind sub-titles, then this really is a good watch. This film explores themes of revenge, justice, guilt, compassion and perhaps offers a different definition of heaven. I'll leave you to judge that for yourself.

It is the first in a trilogy (including Hell and Purgatory) penned and conceptualised by Krystof Kieslowski - he also has the notable Trois Couleurs trilogy and the Dekalog series to his name.

Would highly rate this - I'll give it 7.5/10.

Those Saints keep marching: Saints 3 Exeter City 1

Sometimes it isn't glamourous grinding out results. Exeter showed little enterprise - they were outperformed by nearly 2000 of thier travelling fans who did a great job supporting their team. However it was a sell-out game for us and they stood little chance againt 29,000 Saints supporters!

Saints scored after 15 minutes and then again about 15 minutes later. I was preparing for 6-0! But then the whole thing ground to halt. An Exeter player was sent off for something I didn't see - why can't people wait until half-time to get their drinks? This seemed to spur Exeter on and eventaully they fashioned a goal.

The rest of the game was a bit edgy until a late third goal from Papa Waigo. This win pushed us up to 12th - top half of the table. It must be a realistic goal to seek a play-off place. Who knows, maybe next season we will be playing Pompey in the Championship!

COYR

May peace be yours this Christmas

 

Where ever you are this chrismastide, may you know peace in your heart and in your life.

Deep and crisp and even

We have been enjoying a period of unusually cold and snowy weather - or should I say enduring? It's all very pretty and a walk this morning produced some pleasing seasonal images - I might even may my own Christmas cards next year!

It may be nice to look at, but the British are ill-equipped to cope with it all. The roads grind to a halt and grid lock ensures - either through accidents blocking the way or by gridlock and abandoned cars.

Wherever you are this Christmas - enjoy yourself!

Seasonal Tradition

This afternoon I am leading a service of Nine Lessons and Carols at Holy Trinity Wonston - my parish church. (I am greatful to Skink 74 for posting this nice view of the church on Flickr.) This service retells the Nativity of Christ through nine readings from the Bible and a series of relevant Christmas Carols. I hope the heating has been on for a couple of days!

With snow on the ground and the air crisp and dry, it seems very appropriate to be celebrating Christmas in this way - even though it is nothing like the reality of what we are actually celebrating.

My in-laws have flown in a day early to make sure they can make this service. Just as well ther's no sermon!

Leeds Utd 1 Saints 0

Taking on the run away leaders of the division away from home was always going to be a hard task. By all accounts, Saints deserved a share of the spoils but were undone by a wonder goal carefully bent into the top corner near the end of the game.

No shame in the result - and more importantly the performance. Exeter could be in for a hiding on Boxing day!

well done the team - and well done the faithful who travelled to Leeds to watch amid the freezing snowy conditions.

COYR

More photos on Flickr

I had great fun looking through my archived photos on disc and uploading some of them to Flickr. Here is one from Tangier in Morocco - he really is snake charming - I have more photos that include the Cobra that is dancing to his music. Check this image out, and others here.

The power of these photos to evoke memories is very strong. The colours, the sounds and the smells - not to mention the warm African sunshine. I have also uploaded a picture of Mallaig harbour taken on a summer holiday in a dfferent year in my native Scotland.This was about the only sunny day in a three week holiday in August! This one evokes a completely different set of feelings!!

Saints 6 Norwich City 5

One of the thrills of being in the lower leagues is that you play in the Johnstone's Paint Trophy! Last night saints progressed to the area final by beating Norwich City - the game went to a penalty shoot-out.

This time Papa Waigo and Bart Bialkowski were the heroes - the former scoring both goals in ordinary time and the latter saving three penalties. there are some great photos here.


This result sets up a Southern Area final again MK Dons. If we mange to win that, then it's off to the final at Wembley. Happy Days.

COYR

The magic and the mystery of the Red Balloon!

I was leading a training day with a group of curates yesterday exploring links between film and theology. It was a good day and the folk engaged well with the subject. In one of the sessions we were looking at the use of metaphor and seeing how films deployed this device. In the session we watched The Red Balloon - a celebrated film from 1956. It's the only short film (34 minutes) to have won an oscar. The film has very little dialogue as the visual images tell the story.

The film is set against the monochromatic dullness of post-war Paris. An eight year old boy finds a bright red balloon tethered to a lamp-post on his way to school one morning and he unties it. It is as though the balloon becomes his best friend and they go everywhere together. This causes difficulties at school and at home but both are eventually overcome. It is clear that the balloon befriends the boy and is very playful in the way in which they interact.

The balloon becomes an object of envy for the other boys in his neighbourhood and eventually they capture it. They attack the balloon with stones and catapults and eventaully it springs a leak and falls limp and shrivelled to the ground where one of the boys stamps on what's left and it pops.

The balloons 'owner' is understandably downcast. Shots from all over Paris then show balloons escaping from thier confinement and travelling for a rendez-vous with the boy. He gathers the strings from all of these balloons and they carry him up and away with the city spread out below him. End of film.

At the end of the film, reactions ranged from tears to complete boredom - although most did appreciate the opportunity to see it asnd for some it enabled them to reconnect to a former life! We discussed the metaphors that the story could be representing with lots of good ideas being offered. When I said that some have seen this a s a 'Christ movie' (the balloon could be seen as Jesus) there was widespread support for this view and the discussion went to some interesting places.

I would recommend this film. You can simply watch it and enjoy the story or you can begin digging deeper. I'll give it 7/10.

Saints 3 Tranmere Rovers 0

A modest but noisy and faithful number of fans made their way down from Mersey-side to Southampton for yesterday's game. It really was a game of two halves. In the first half, the predominant thing was the Referee and his whistle. He wasn't helped by an assistant who got his first few decisions 100% wrong. There was no flow to the game. Some of the Tranmere players appeared to be injury prone and at the slightest provocation would writhe in agony of such severity that the Ref was forced to stop the game only to find that they popped to their feet and were as right as rain - all without the intervention of the physio. There were some more brutal challenges that did require the physio but too much injury was feigned and more than once poor sportsmanship was exhibited at the restart.

In the second half, Saints suddenly looked like a team who knew what they were about. Dan Harding's scorcher was a beauty from 25 yards. When a defender tried volleyball to defend a corner, the resultant penalty kick gave Rickie Lambert the opportunity to increase his impressive tally. He added a further goal from a 25 yard free kick - eat your heart out Christiano Ronaldo!

All of which goes to show that Alan Pardew is indeed forging a team who play to win every game and are translating that into points. If you were to add in our 10 point deduction, we would be in the play-offs with a goal difference to match. Very impressive.

Some very difficult games lie ahead - this will be our greatest challenge so far.

COYR

Ordained to the forgotten corners

This morning I had the privilege of participating in the ordination of a colleague as deacon. It was a great occasion and both the Bishop and her parish did her proud. The parish worship in the local Sports Centre as their church building is too small. It was therefore a little surreal for a group of clergy - male and female - to be gathered in the men's changing room to witness the swearing of oaths as pictured above.

The ordination liturgy is a rich text that echoes centuries of faithful and committed service to God. The full text can be found here. It contains, as part of the description of the role of deacon this phrase: 

"They are to work with their fellow members in searching out the poor and weak, the sick and lonely and those who are oppressed and powerless, reaching into the forgotten corners of the world, that the love of God may be made visible."

I think this phrase paints a wonderful picture and is a potent reminder of what Christian ministry is all about.

The worship was excellently led by a choir, a youth orchestra and a worship band and we sang a wide variety of songs. One of the songs got me thinking and I'm not sure that I can accept what I sang without raising a question or two. The lines that tripped me up were:

No guilt in life, no fear in death
this is the power of Christ in me.
From life's first cry to final breath,
Jesus commands my destiny.

I'm sure the first sentence is something we would all regard as aspirational - but if we are honest, how many folk feel absolutely no guilt and have no fear at all about the transition from this world to the next? It seems to me that feeling guilty and having honest questions about death and existence beyond this life are part of the human condition. Indeed, experiencing these things lead us to ask good questions and questions are the bedrock of growth as disciples of Christ. Wrestling with doubt and uncertainty is a good route to growth. Boldly stating truisms not only undermines integrity, but it also inhibits an open and questioning culture thereby limiting growth potential. (I am not suggesting the host parish is like this!)

The second sentence reads like something Jean Calvin himself would not have probably subscribed to - and that's before the disciples Arminius waded into the debate!

However, this is a little aside and in no way detracts from an ordination that is to be celebrated. Although I'm not sure this banner is quite what Pope Benedict had in mind when he issued his  latest invitation to Anglicans to defect to Rome!

2012 - Schmalzy film about Noah and bed-wetting

Saw 2012 yesterday.

The momentum was maintained well throughout this film and the cgi action sequences were on the whole well done although they did become a little repetitive. How many times can you successfully take off from runways that are being consumed by an abyss opening up beneath them? How many times can nation-defining landmarks crumble into similar abyss'?

If you like apocalypse movies, you'll love this one. In the end, the human spirit and power of love conquer the best-laid governmental plans and protocols. The airborne Chinese zoo is worth a chuckle and without spoiling it, the ending is far too convenient and the story ends just when it would really start to get interesting as new kind of colonial invasion threatens. And, given the outcome, what was the point of the airborne Chinese zoo?

Worth going to see if there is nothing else on you would rather watch! I'll give it 5/10.

The 'oddity' of religion

It seems that as a rule folk are quick to marginalise and side-line faith groups - particularly Christians and especially the Established Church. They are also quick to say that The Church never speaks out. These may be sweeping generalisations, but I don't think I am being over-sensitive or unrealistic.

Those who lead The Church at both a national and local level are constantly speaking into the contexts that confront them. The BBC website is carrying an article reporting an interview with Rowan Williams featured in the Daily Telegraph: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8409310.stm  which reports "Dr Williams told the Telegraph: "The trouble with a lot of government initiatives about faith is that they assume it is a problem, it's an eccentricity, it's practised by oddities, foreigners and minorities. "The effect is to de-normalise faith, to intensify the perception that faith is not part of our bloodstream. And, you know, in great swathes of the country that's how it is."He said it would not do "any harm" for political leaders to be more open about their religious beliefs.He said the three main part leaders "curiously" all have a "very strong moral sense of some spiritual flavour".

All of this is good stuff and the Archbishop's analysis is spot on. I wonder if he said anything about how the Press portray religion and faith?

Saints are marching upward!

Following the take-over of the club by the Swiss Markus Liebherr, his investment under the shrewd guidance of Nicola Cortese is bearing fruit - on and off the pitch.

Planning application has been lodged with New Forest District Council for the redevelopment of Saints training facilities. This will give the club first-class facilities and can only be seen as a serious commitment to the long-term development and growth of the club.

Well done Markus and Nicola - and thank you.

View the development prospectus at:

http://web3.newforest.gov.uk/images/...s/129047_1.pdf

2010 Lectionary - electronic formats

Those awfully nice people at oremus.org have produced a range of electronic formats for the 2010 lectionary for free download. Thanks guys.

Make sure you check it out - and their other resources. Please make a donation if you can.

Here's the link

http://almanac.oremus.org/lectionary/2010.html

MBTI - personality type and movies

I have been reflecting on may previous post. I have also been doing some work on Personality Types using Myers Briggs. My type is ISTJ and part of the characteristics that outline this set of preferences is:

"ISTJs are very loyal, faithful, and dependable. They place great importance on honesty and integrity."

I wonder if this contributes to why I find it so hard to watch these kinds of films. There must be a research proposal in this somewhere!

What movies, if any, do you find hard to watch?

I don't mind blood and gore quite so much, although acts of utter violence are hard to stomach. I'm a great fan of Tarantino's story-telling - even if that does invlove lakes of blood. With adavances in CGI and green-screen technology, it's easy to say that most action in movies these days is camera trickery.

The real danger in allowing ourselves to be fooled by that stance, is that we find it easier to explain away the violence that happens to the characters in a story - we desensitise ourselves and so violence inexorably becomes okay and part and parcel of everyday life. So whereas films like Star Trek, Kill Bill and even No Country for Old Men are emminently watchable in my eyes, why do some 'straight-forward' dramas casue me real difficulty?

I really struggle with movies such as Notes of a Scandal even though it has stunning performances from Cate Blanchett and Judy Dench. I struggled to make it to the end. One film I couldn't watch to the end was Closer even though it had an all star cast (including Natalie Portman who usually gets my full attention). It is thie kind of violence done in these films that I find I cannot watch. Deceit and the abuse of power within relationships are things I find really hard to deal with. (Before anyone gives me the number of thier shrink - I am married to one!)

I wonder what kinds of films others find difficult to watch and why?

Saints win - again!

Well done Southampton - another strong performance against an in-form team. Up to 15th in the league - Markus must be increasingly pleased with his benefaction!

The style with which the team is playing and the string of results in recent matches is surely a cause for optimism? A play-off place now looks increasingly likely. I doubt if we can catch Leeds this season.

COYR

Rudesheim Christmas Market

We did make it to Rudesheim - and it was well worth it. There were lots of stalls from different countries although it was interesting to see that Gluhwein is also native to Mexico!

More photos on Flickr.

Wiesbaden Christmas Market

I'd heard a lot about German Christmas Markets - so I decided to check them out and see what images I could manage to create. This is my favourite. You can see more photos at http://www.flickr.com/

photos/duncanstrathie/

sets/

I am staying with friends in Wiesbaden and have visited Frankfurt, Mainz and Wiesbaden markets so far. This evening I hope to add Rudesheim to the list. There is an excellent website that shows all the markets - catch it at http://www.germany-christmas-

market.org.uk/ and then click on the locations on the left to get the details.

I must say that visiting a market at night is completely different experience. Apart from there being many more people, the lights completely transform the character into something very special. Of course you get the great smells whether it's day or night - the air is heavy with the scent of cinnamon, melting cheese, grilling sausages and much much more. A truly memorable experience.