les Davey de France

It's a long time since I put any music on. You may find this music hard to like, I don't know. I find it amazingly beautiful. The title is, I think, a pun on the angel Gabriel and the Venetian brass composer, Gabrieli.

So why not use an established Confession of Faith ? Many Christian groups do just that. They identify with a short modern confession like that of EMW. Others, one of the longer confessions of the 17th century. Still others, aware of the need to state one's place in the flow of church history, adopt a 17th century confession plus the historic creeds (Chalcedon, Nicene, Apostles', etc.) I think another strength of this approach is that it avoids the "not invented here" approach that can sometimes make evangelicals appear arrogant and divisive.

Another strength of writing your own confession of faith is that it allows and encourages you to address the contemporary eccentricities of the world 'christian' scene from the standpoint of the Bible. 'What do you think about : elders, healers, prophets, modern songs, tongues, falling on the floor and barking, "kicking people in the face in the Holy Ghost", prosperity teaching, the DPP, etc ?' people ask. If it's in your confession of faith they can read it quietly at home and reflect on it. Of course, this is also a weakness. After all, who still falls on the floor and barks ? In five years' time who will still 'kick people in the face in the Holy Ghost' ? Our contemporary worries are often passing fads (thankfully !). Then we are faced either with revising our confession of faith to remove all references to barking, lowing and bleating, or with explaining the historical context in which it was written. But of course, it was ever so. It is s...

There are about 500,000 cases of tapeworm in France each year . The larvae of the worm in question ténia saginata , live in the muscles of cows, and so the worms are contracted through eating beef that is not thoroughly cooked. If this expression (beef that is not thoroughly cooked) rings any bells with you, it does with me, too.

Really you're pretty unlikely to catch a viral infection from breathing in droplets in the air. (A possible exception may be in planes, where air is pumped round and round the cabin !) Normally we pick up the viruses on our hands and then transfer them to our mucous membranes by displacement behaviour (nose-picking, etc...) And don't imagine that you don't pick your nose. I have seen you do it during the sermon. Moral of the story ? WASH YOUR HANDS ! OFTEN ! After taking publc transport ? WASH YOUR HANDS ! Also here in France people will often say "on fait pas la bise, je suis enrhumé" and attempt to shake hands instead. Bad move ! Either wave from a distance or put your hands in your pockets and do la bise . You're NOT VERY LIKELY to pick up the virus from touching cheeks - but shake hands with them (and they've just blown their nose in a sodden paper hankie which they stuffed back up their sleeve etc...) and then pick your nose and the deed is done ! If...

This morning I meet up with a student to go and visit one of the low-cost housing agencies. I'm accompanying him because he has almost no French. The agency is near where he's doing his research and he's hoping to get a bedsit ready for when his wife and child come to Bordeaux in September. It'll be interesting because one of the BIG ISSUES with work in the big cities is the cost of accommodation. We pay out a fortune in rents (and a mortgage). Monthly (approximately) : Church: 1200 euros FAC : 450 euros UFM Housing : 1000 + 900 + 600 Church housing : 1200. Add it all up - you get 4450 euros in rent and 900 in mortgage. I have always wondered whether there would be a cheaper option if we tried to rent in HLMs, in low cost housing. However because we are paid from overseas it is very difficult to find people who will take the risk of renting to us. Not only that, but we looked at the low-cost housing agency website to see what they advertise as being available and basica...

When your group decides that it needs a confession of faith you have a choice to make. Do you adopt an existing one or do you write your own. There is something to be said for writing your own. For example, you may not want to identify yourselves with any particular movement within evangelicalism. Again, the nature of your group may impose particular constraints - you may need a confession of faith in very simple English, for example. Whatever the reason, it's a good exercise to try to write a brief confession of faith - to try to set out in a structured way the basics of what you believe as a christian. Then to look at some other examples (e.g. UCCF , EMW , AECW , Prison Fellowship ) and to reflect on what you wrote and what you read.