Well that was a marathon !

We just got back from the Pastorale Nationale of the Union Nationale des Eglises Protestantes Reformées Evangéliques de France (UNEPREF) which was held at Chausse deep in the heart of the Cevennes.

We left Pessac at about 3:30 on Sunday afternoon and made good time till we got very near our destination. Sadly the GPS didn't actually have the conference centre in its data, so we had to resort to following the instructions, read by our indomitable navigator. Thankfully the instructions were good and we arrived just in time to be in bed by midnight. 625km door to door.

The main sessions were on handling conflict in the church and I found them very helpful.

It was also very good to meet up with the guys again.

Also to put in motion the process of establishing a protocol between the mission and the union of churches, which would also involve me becoming a non-stipendiary pastor on the churches' list.

The conference centre is in the middle of forests of sweet chestnuts. It's a gorgeous place though very much off the beaten track. We drove back this afternoon and made very good time because we only made one brief stop at Carcassonne (about half-way).

Tomorrow I hit the ground running with a CNEF meeting at 10am - 12, a Pessac guys reading group 12 - 2, then meeting up with Simon at FAC at 2:30, then the TheOshow preparation meeting in the evening.

Comments

Emmanuel said…
there are problems in your time table. How can you finish your meeting at 12 and be in Pessac for 12? Also, there is no time for you to eat. That's not very French, is it?
11:58 am
Alan said…
It's true.
However, we eat pizza while reading.
And today we had to call it off anyway.
1:18 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A bit about music exams in UK and France

They're really different. I think I have already mentioned that while in the UK people generally find a private teacher for their instrument, or do it through a school scheme, here there are municipal music school, conservatoires and so on. The situation is a little more complex than I had first understood, because the schools vary in the rigidity of their organisation: the most, the conservatoires, next the municipals, then the associations. Our music school is an association, but it tends to apply the standards of the municipal schools with its programme of cycles, etc. Britain - grade 1 to 8, grade 8 being roughly equivalent to A-level, pre university/conservatoire. France - 3 cycles, each taking about 4 years, with 3ème cycle being roughly equivalent to grade 8. Theory of music - UK to take grade 8 you need theory grade 5. In France you study theory alongside your instrumental studies, very slowly. Catrin's flute music is MUCH more difficult than the stuff she does in theor...
Read more

Good news from my sermon buddy

Yesterday we went over my script from August 13. There really wasn't much she had taken exception to. Once or twice she wondered quite what I was getting at (they had the same problem at Deeside, I think...) and I do have difficulties with the word " de ", but then she said "Who doesn't?" So I felt very encouraged. I also took the opportunity to ask her about one or two things: 1) Direct preaching. Like I used to in Britain, I preach saying you - using "vous" when I am talking to the whole wide world and "tu" when I want it to feel as if I am addressing each person individually. French preachers tend to say rather "What will we do, what will one do". So I asked her if she felt my way was too direct, too brutal for the French ear. She said "I think you can get away with it with your English accent". In fact several people have commented on how much they appreciated being spoken to directly in preaching. 2) Liaisons Last...
Read more

A brief sortie to North Wales

 Following the Great Keswick Debacle, when our volunteering at the Keswick café was sabotaged by our assorted indispositions, we had airline tickets to use up. Yes, we had not taken travel insurance, so we paid even more money to change our tickets to fly for a short visit to North Wales. This time we were able to go. We passed extremely slowly through a very crowded Bordeaux airport but in good time to get our plane. All seats in the terminal were taken so we leaned against whatever we could find while waiting to board. Hey, bags need seats, too! though sometimes pointing out to Pat, "No, that's a bag seat", makes the bag find a new refuge on the lap of the person sitting next to it... Once on the plane we quickly found our allocated seats - right at the back on the left hand side - stowed our bags and the flight was smooth and uneventful.  We had 30 minutes in Manchester to disembark, get through immigration , hustle off to the station and board our train for Shotton. I...
Read more