Jude Smith

Elitism, David Mitchell and other things.. I suspect that there might be a few people this morning reading the papers, or checking the news sites and making comment on the jailing if the guy who swam his way through the boat race this spring. In my mind's eye I can hear people tutting that he has been jailed for his noble affront to the elitism of Oxbridge. We should applaud him they may tweet. Allow me to rebuff. First anyone who swims in the Thames is undeniably brave or daft. Second anyone who swims near 16 axe shaped pieces of carbon fibre, adds to the daft evidence. Third, and more importantly, the premise of the protest is wrong. I don't believe that Oxbridge is essentially elitist in a class or social status way. David Mitchell agrees.. (Guardian Sat 20th Oct). "Well, my feeling is you have to draw a distinction between people who are successful coming from Oxford and Cambridge and people who are successful coming from Eton and Harrow. Because with ...

I am not sure whether it was the moment when I threw my bike* to get through a still just green light, or the moment where I was almost looking for a motorbike to film my overtake on the A65.. but at some point today I realised that I have perhaps over entered into Olympic World. There are a bunch of worrying signs. Cycling to the gym, before working out is just one. Putting your bike into the rack and then trying to do "transition" quickly is another! And thats before even getting onto the gym floor. Aside from waiting by each piece of equipment, subliminally thinking a lady dressed like an air hostess would escort you to the next stop on your rotation- there is even more with performance.. I nearly raised my arm at the beginning of my chin up routine. My dismount from the treadmill was solid if not spectacular.. And through all of these things I had Mitch Fenner in my mind commenting on my performance thus far! When I came to leave I was actually disappointed to n...

Its 0649. I'm sat on the one sofa in the house that looks out of a window. There is not much of a view to speak of- an empty house, the road.. the big bird poo splash on the window (always happens in between the window cleaner cleaning and when he turns up to be paid). I have a light on (come on jet stream do your thing). I have an open book by my side and an empty coffee cup on the floor. I'm sat in a big old woollen cardigan that makes me feel both warm and a little like Grace out of Waking the Dead. I'm contemplating the day ahead- meeting in school this morning, I'm gearing up to be forceful in defence of some other people. Then its an Olympics meeting.. not with LOGOC but with local youth workers, then its all about the end of year event for our youth project. The day finishes with a celebration of the a new role for a friend. Its quiet. I enjoy the quiet. These are the moments for me which set me up, where with food and drink for body, mind and my...

So the government has backed down on House of Lords reform. That is sheer cowardice and may be the beginning of the end of the coalition- agood parliamentary whacking would have been good for all.. Voices within the LibDem party have to start talking about replacing Clegg before the next election if they are to regain any credibility (or in fact keep their deposits). Anyway- I have to say I am cautious about Lord’s reform. Yes, the Lord’s is too big. It is weird that you can still get born to it. It is a place of massive patronage- its like school inspectors, you got thrown out as a politician so have a seat in the Lords. But, and I know that I may get thrown out of all sorts of places for saying this. We need an unelected chamber. Look what our random, crazy ass version of democracy (which isn’t democracy its representative government and is far from that) is doing to us. Look at who gets pandered to and who gets ignored. Look at the gerrymandering and lack of voting clo...

As I tap away (avoiding writing wedding sermons), #followjesus is trending on twitter. I won't bore you with the details, save to say that the whole pantheon of Christian spirituality is there for all to see. Underpinning all of it is a sort of sense that trending worldwide is a good thing. And maybe it is. None of us can knock that very special sense of something that was going on as the world said #prayformuamba. More locally the support of #teamjoel and other things have been profoundly moving. However I am struck this morning about how much our excitement about such things is a sign that we actually all want our little bit of fame, we want to feel that we are validated. (Validation is worth another post of its own). If its trending its OK? If I'm blunt about it, we want fame and mainstream acceptance and respect. For the social media fans its about twitter feeds, for the institutions of church its about about being heard in Parliament, being allowed to marry p...

This week I have been watching the news a little like one watches a tense thriller.. Slightly hiding behind my fingers in case the very worst happens. The scene which I fear playing out is one where the characters start tearing into each other but many people are caught up into the cross fire. As you can probably tell, I am talking about marriage. Once again communication around what marriage should be is getting muddied and sullied and people are getting hurt and are not listening to each other. So- here's my thinking. I want out of marriage. I think I would like the Church of England to drop its legal function in marrying people (of any gender combination). Why- well my reasons are many and varied but include. The idea of marriage goes back way beyond the day that the CofE got the right to do the legal bit. If we rid ourselves of the civil obligations it will create a helpful space for the church to think about (both locally and nationally) what it thinks about ...

I have spent this early morning (when perhaps I should have been training or doing something else) reading a few blog posts and tweets. There have been a couple of good ones today.. talking about why we don't go for exponential growth in churches.. this tweet.. "So many write on principles for successful churches. Hardly ever do they mention intimacy with Christ, dying to self & loving the unlikely." I have a dilemma. I want to write about some of these things. I sort of feel that I have something to say about church with people who aren't like me, or in fact who are not like each other. I want to talk about the difficulty for my ego of having a church which is bursting with potential and yet not quite there yet. But its really hard when the people you are talking about are real. Its really easy to tweet into the ether about loving people who aren't like us until this people are concrete real people with ether unique smells and sounds. Maybe this stuf...