Merry Christmas

All the women at Newbold would like to wish everyone all the best for the Christmas Season and we pray that God will continue to lead your lives, to guide you and bless you.

Top Tip

As a ministerial student I have been wondering how to do ministry before I get into paid ministry. This weekend I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderfully vibrant woman who is church planting in a part of Lincolnshire where there are no Adventist Churches. Among some other wonderful things, she has taken advantage of the free business cards available at vistaprint.co.uk which she gives to people she meets in her ministry.

I would recommend the site. From time to time they have other free offers so if you sign up for newsletters.

Annual Beach Lecture with Dr Gunnar Stålsett

The scheduled lecture by Dr Gunnar Stålsett took place in Moore Close Chapel last night. Dr Gunnar Stålsett was a member of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, and had previously been the Bishop of Oslo, and the General Secretary of the Lutheran World Federation. He is currently serving as the Vice President for the International Religious Liberty Association as well as the International President for the World Councils for Religion and Peace.

This 2007 Beach Lecture was on Peace and Religion and, as you would expect covered all the three Abrahamic religions and questioned their contributions to peace or its lack of contribution! He started by paying tribute to the inter-Christian dialogue which he sees as having contributed to the success of the ecumenical movement. Historically we have been skeptical about the movement but Dr Stålsett was careful to point out that the ecumenicalism does not imply unity of all religions but rather, says that unity is based on one world and one humanity and not one church.

The speaker describe the age in which we are living as World War III which, on the surface seems like a bizarre and far fetched statement until you dig deeper and undertand that he was referring to genocide, continued oppression, marginalisation, extended poverty, HIV/AIDS, international terrorism and the breakdown of human rights as well as civil liberties. This is a civil war, he says, which makes previous strategies for peace obsolete - the media, governements and non-govermental organisations the world over have all drawn the same conclusion.

So, where do we find solutions to end poverty and to stop the endless and mindless killings which we all too often hear about and read about? Dr Stålsett believes critics of religion have some validity when they say that religion has not left obvious footprints in history but rather it has laid confusion and ambiguity. He concludes that the natural solution to these ills can only be religion itself. It's a solution which will challenge any of us whose eschatology drives our theology - why try to fix something if it is all going to burn anyway? If it all has to get worse before Christ can return, leave it alone and give the clarion call for Christ's second coming. But we can't sit idly by. Can we?

It is in finding a way forward that we will throw off the mantel of ambiguity. Then we will be able see through the fog of tradition and admit that there are aspects of every religion that serve to debase humanity. It is then that we will be able to see those things which we promote in the name of God which really aren't from God. Then we will be able to check ourselves to see whether our teachings are based on cultural, ethnic and tribal divisions and to change them where identified.

Is it true that religion will find its way out of extremism through the reinterpretation of its teachings? What benefit is there in seeing out teachings through the eyes of others? Any such steps will be both difficult and painful but its rewards will bring a new richness to our interpretation which will it be worth it

The night was an interesting one. Challenges were thrown down which will call us to question ourselves on all levels. How, for example do we even begin to discuss open dialogue with other other religions considering our own historical developments and eschatology? How do we even begin to address how culture and traditional practices have shaped our understanding of Adventism? And to what extent should this be a personal journey as compared to a corporate one? And, where do we start?

The lecture has left me with many questions which I don't know how to begin to answer.

De Bron

I had the very lucky privilege of being at the TED workers meetings in De Brun in September. I was one of the few ministerial students who were allowed a look into this wonderful world of pastors and workers and it made for an interesting time.

One of the highlights for me was the impromptu meeting some of the women ministers had at that time. They managed to squeeze a minute in-between meetings and I was so encouraged by seeing the range of women in ministry currently. It was a true blessing to witness and to so many women from different backgrounds, cultures, races and ages together and talking about their work in ministry.

One of the most encouraging points was their willingness to embrace the female student ministerial students at Newbold. They have now got an email list that they would like us to be a part of. They are planning a retreat for the female ministers and would like to coincide it with our semesters so that we can be a part of it and they can encourage us. All in all it was an inspiration and they were an encouragement.

So on the back of that session we would like to meet with all the female DTS students next week Tuesday lunch in the canteen so we can have a chat about the session and see what we can do. We would like to collect email addresses so they can go on the mailing list. Also have a think about anything we might need or any support that would be good for us.

Please come along share lunch and fellowship with your fellow female DTS students, bring your ideas and enjoy some time together.

Female Student DTS Meeting

Tuesday 9th October

1pm

Newbold Canteen

Taking Care of Your Laptop Battery

My laptop has been a life saver but I have recently come to realise that I have no idea how to look after the battery to

I found the following on the zbattery website and wanted to share it. I hope that it's useful.

How do I extend the life of my laptop
battery?
A batter should last 2-4 years depending on how frequently you use and charge the battery. If you travel a lot and use and charge your battery frequently then you might only get a couple of years at the most out of your laptop battery.

So how can you care for your laptop battery to get the maximum life out of it?
1.) Always use your laptop on a hard surface - Using them in bed or on the sofa can cause them to overheat. Heat is one of the biggest obstacles to battery life longevity. Your laptop computer fan cannot circulate the air properly when your laptop is sitting on soft surface.

2.) Do not keep your laptop battery installed when you use your laptop on AC for an extended period of time - For best results, only charge your battery when you need to charge it, don't leave the laptop battery plugged in all the time.

3.) Use a full charge cycle before recharging

4.) Be careful where you store your laptop - is goes back to the heat issue. Batteries hate heat and your laptop battery will go on strike permenantly if you expose it to too much heat.

Holy Hush

I was fortunate enough to be invited to Holy Hush, a seminar on abuse within the church. The church being referred to is not the Adventist Church only but all churches, the wider body of Christ.

Abuse doesn't happen in my church? Well, when you consider the various ways in which abuse is committed, anyone would be pretty hard pressed to say that it doesn't happen in their local congregation let alone the wider body.

Verbal abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, financial abuse, spiritual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and satanic abuse- you name it and it was discussed. We talked about the various ways in which we rationalise it, make excuses for it and even accept it. Think about the jokes we hear from all manner of comedians about the beatings they received (and that some of us received). We laugh about it and even reminisce about it saying, 'it didn't do us any harm'. The fact is, it has had an impact. The fact, is has left scares, but they are scares that no one ever talks about until an event such as Holy Hush.

Successive generations have beat their children and the consequences of violence are there for all to see. Gun and knife crime aren't just being increasingly reported in the press, they are happening more frequently and when we look at the legacy that has been left for our children, we shouldn't be surprised.

Then we talked about 'little wife', something practiced by married men in some African countries. It is a an unwritten protocol which allows a man to inappropriately touch and to also fondle the breasts of his wife's younger sister. It is done in the name of culture but it can lead to penetrative sex - usually without his wife's knowledge. It is sexual abuse in the name of culture but there are parameters which can be overstepped.

Culture should play no place in our religious practices but all to often it does. Should Pastors and members alike hold on to culture for culture's sake? Isn't God's culture more important? Aren't his expectations more important than the expectations of our cultural group?

It was a busy and long day and there was much to be discussed and some of it was a little lighter in nature. The practice of giving libation to the ancestors in return for their favour was also addressed. All of which is permitted even within Christian religions and is also carried out by church leaders and pastors. What cultural practices will I hold onto while telling members that they need to let go of their old practices, their life of sin and their old self? I hope none.

It is all too easy to point the finger from our hermetically sealed western environments and I had to consider how we too have our challenged within the church. What would you do if a young woman comes before you church board and she is grilled because she is pregnant and not yet married? Would you allow board members to ask her details of where and when she had sex, who she had sex with and, if you would permit such questioning, would you also require that the young man is also questioned? What if the child is stamp the Head Elder or one of one of the Deacons? All things that Systematic Theology, Hebrew or Biblical Studies fail to address and that is why I was fortunate to be at this meeting. It has given me the opportunity to reflect on what might be.

I was grateful to Womaash for puttingon Holy Hush, for allowing churches to come together to discuss abuse, for bringing it out in the open and giving me an opportunity for thinking about what I would need to do when in ministry.

I would be even more pleased for other students to havethe same opportunity to hear what I heard from the mouths of some who were brave enough to stand up and tell their personal stories or rape, sexual and physical abuse. Every ministerial student should consider what they would do and how they would tackle abuse within the church before going into ministry. We all need to be aware of the practices which perpetuate it and we should certainly know where to turn to so that members receive the professional care they need. All ministerial students need to think about how they might have to alter their ministerial practices to challenge beliefs, cultural practices and their own understanding which can inadvertently give rise to abuse.

The final question I will leave you with is, should time be set aside so that Womaash can come here to address the issue before we go offinto our churches in all the different countries which we represent and how best can that be facilitated?

Imagine the impact that it would have!

2007 MA Intake

We have just completed a two week intensive course for the Masters in Theology and I was so pleased to see that 11 out of the 28 students are women. We are from Finland, Iceland, UK, Nigeria, Sweden and a few other countries yet to be divulged.

I wonder what the impact is on the men giving lectures and how, over time, they have adapted their delivery style. I have been highly sensitive to the neutral language that has been used and am looking forward to see what other changes the gender balance brings to class, delivery and papers!

Good luck to all the women currently studying at seminary!