2009-07-09 - 5:43 p.m.
Well, it was a long, long trip, but so far it has been worth it. Yes, I'm well into my two week course at the Theological College in England. It's Ripon College, at Cuddesdon, which is just outside Oxford. To get here from Wells B.C., you have to drive for an hour into Quesnel, take a ten hour Greyhound ride to Vancouver, then a ten and half hour flight to London Gatwick, and then two hours to Oxford, and fifteen minutes to Cuddesdon. If you're me, throw in the airline losing your luggage when you arrive at Gatwick. Yes, the stupid airline lost my backpack on a direct flight. I have no idea how they did it. They said that it might take a couple days to get it to me, so I called two days later, and they said they had no idea where it was - they hadn't located it yet. Happily, today they found it, and it is now back with me, never again to part. I was very glad that I've been travelling before, as I knew exactly what to do. I found the desk where you report these things, was reasonably polite, but not friendly, caught my train, and stopped in Oxford to buy more clothes etc. That was the surreal part of the whole thing- shopping for ordinary clothes in Oxford.
Luggage aside, the course is wonderful. It is a two week course called 'The Bible in the Modern World'. We have a combination of lectures, reflection groups, text groups (ie Bible Study) and of course afternoon tea. The lecturers are all really smart, and quite famous in the church world. Yesterday it was the wife of Alister McGrath, who writes books about how Richard Dawkins is wrong. She's a psychologist, and was talking (indeed, teaches courses on) the Bible and Psychology. Great stuff. There are twenty five of us in the course, from all over the world, Austrailia, Hong Kong, several from Canada and the States, England, Northern Ireland and Spain. We are a mixture of seminary students and interested other people.
The college is really nice. It was built in 1854, and is the kind of place where you would not be surprised to find a secret passage. Lots of dark wood, stone and staircases. The library is beautiful, with a vaulted wood ceiling. It is right out in the countryside, surrounded by rolling fields.
It's really comfortable here, and now that I have my luggage, I guess it will be even more so!
