What a weekend

First off - French word of the day. Jolly useful, eh? I found it when I searched for vétérotestamentaire on the web.

Anyway - yesterday was the Synode of Toulouse. Sammy had to go down on Friday night because he is part of the Commission Exécutive who were preparing for the synod that night. Mme Louis and I met at Sammy's house at 6am (OK - 6:30 ish) and drive down to Toulouse, which takes about 2 hours. The Synode is just so much like our regional councils, with some extra bureaucracy and so on. It lasted a long time, though, and the seats were very hard. We broke for lunch at the Casino (supermarket) cafeteria - another new word - cafette, which means a place like that. I had 1/4 chicken, lots of vegetables and a slice of orange tart for pud.

We got home about 9:30 pm, and it was time to finish off the PowerPoint for Sunday morning, and my sermon about elders (basically from Acts 20) and the PowerPoint for the afternoon elderisation service for Patrick.

So it has been a long and busy weekend, but an intensely joyful one. You have never seen a bunch of people so happy as when Patrick was installed as elder. Also the Conseil Prebyteral was confirmed in office. Also I was presented to the congregation (but nobody actually took me so I ended up going home with the family again.)

For me the chief benefit of the synods is the opportunity to meet people and get to know them.

The array of different accents round the table is very reassuring. At Toulouse there was one guy who is Dutch, another who has the most refined English accent, another is an Afrikaaner. Another is Chilean. Then there's me. It's a heady mix. Folks cope very well with our linguistic antics. During a presentation on prayer, one chappie used the word prieur for the person who prays. Well prieur means either prior (like a chief monk) or a prayer desk in a Catholic church. It doesn't mean someone who prays. For that you have to say priant. "But don't worry about it", they all said. "Don't change it. We all understand what you mean."

Another benefit is getting to know more about how the denomination works.

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