Exeter update: teaching and church

Dear friends, family, colleagues, and all,

Last week was a very rich week, and there are interesting things to report!

The autumn term started here at the U. of Exeter, and I am sitting in on and providing teaching assistance for an entry level theology course that my PhD advisor is teaching. Each Thursday afternoon, all the students (over 50 of them!) come together in a small lecture hall to hear my advisor lecture and take part in group activities. Then each Friday, on a permanent basis, the students are divided into three groups, which meet separately for one hour to go into more depth on the assigned readings for the week. This entry level theology course is for first year undergrad students, freshmen as we would call them, and I was very, very impressed with their level of involvement, and with the questions they asked and answers they put forth.

I also met a couple of people last week, including another PhD student and a professor, who specialize in areas related to what I am working on, and I was very excited about these new connections.

Church on Sunday was also a highlight!  It was Harvest Sunday in the worship service, followed by the Harvest brunch.  I'll start backwards by talking about the brunch first!

I did bring food, some ginger and carrot cakes I bought at a local store that sources its products from local farmers and bakers, but I was afraid to stay for the brunch and be alone or unknown, because this was only my third Sunday at this church.  But a woman invited me to sit with her, and the group that formed at our table was quite interesting. The brunch was interesting too. They are very organized and orderly.  You have to wait to be invited to go up to the pot luck buffet table for the main dishes. Then, you have to wait again to be invited to go up to the dessert table --- and this was a very long wait, although I didn't want dessert.

Another of the treats at the Harvest Brunch was that they had a quintet playing the piano, french horn, clarinet, oboe, and flute.  They played some music at the beginning, before we ate, but I had no idea that they were going to perform a concert for us after we finished eating.  The concert was about a half-hour long, and included a combination of very beautiful and classical musical pieces about autumn or the seasons, one singing number, and several poetry readings.  I have never been to something like this at a church, as part of a brunch, and I thought it was a lovely "gift" of music and poetry.

Finally, I loved the worship service yesterday morning. It was a service in honor of the harvest, and also in honor or remembrance of all who suffer from food shortages or who are hungry, and all who labor to grow or produce the foods that we eat.  It also was about things we could do differently to help with food crises, and it included people bringing up to the front of the church their donations of food for three food pantries or charities in Exeter. The service was led by the Elders of the church (about 10 of them) and some young boy and girl scouts (that may not be what they are called).  There were skits, demonstrations about the shortage in the world of farmable land, and special prayers and hymns.  I picked up some good pointers, including some good prayers and hymns about creation and God as creator!

That's all for now.
Jane

After my first full week, plus some, at Exeter

Dear family, friends, colleagues, and all,

This blog posting will probably be more reflective than my earlier postings.  I don't have any new photos to show you, but I will when I do my next entry a week from now.

This past week was what they call "Freshers Week" here, which is an introductory week for freshmen and others.  I did take part in a couple of the welcoming events for graduate students, and I met a few PhD students from all over.  Then I took the one-day introductory class on how to teach at the university level, which I had very much been looking forward to. This was all day on Friday, and the class was excellent and very well taught, but I felt so, so, so old.  I don't usually think much about my age, but I was sitting in a lecture hall with 50-60 PhD students, and most of them were in their 20s.   I truly did feel old, and I could see all the wrinkles and faults on my face and neck when I got back home.  Even so, I am plowing forward, and I am eager to figure out how I can take advantage of my age, wisdom, and experience in a new field.  I just wish I felt more assertive.  I do not feel as much like myself here.  :-)

The other major accomplishment of this past week was that I was able to walk everywhere by myself, thanks to all the things Debbie and I did last week, and thanks to the lovely walking tour of the major parts of the city center (or "centre" as they spell it here), given to me by my wonderful landlord Rosie.  I was able to go out to eat by myself twice at night, and once for lunch on campus, and I figured out the British pounds.  I also have made additional forays to the grocery store, to get more things since the time Debbie helped me stock up, and I've cooked and eaten at home many times.  So I am really making headway.

This morning I went back to the United Reformed Church (URC), where I will be attending weekly services, and it was very nice to be there.  Some of you at our church in Bethel know that I like to sit in my pew and gaze up at the cross, and I was able to do that today at the URC church, and it made me happy.  I stayed for coffee hour, and they were very cordial to me, but then the coordinator of next week's Harvest Brunch asked me to sign up to bring something!  You know what that means to me!  It has to be something I can buy!  She asked me last, after she had everyone else signed up, and we could not settle on something.  So finally she agreed, very kindly, to allow me to bring an item of my choice to put on the table for all to enjoy!  I promised her it would be something good.

I do need to finish my huge chapter and give it to Morwenna by two weeks from tomorrow, so I have some work to do.  All the research has been done for a while. It's the serious, heads-down writing time that I need. Thank God --- literally --- I do have that time here in Exeter.  I am all settled now, after having spent last week doing things to get myself acquainted, and I have all that I need here, including your love and support.  Please pray for me.  And please stay in touch, whether by email or Facebook or other ways.  By the way, SKYPE video sessions work fairly well, although those of you who have SKYPED with me have found that we do get scrambled and dropped.

Blessings,
Jane

First few days in Exeter

Dear friends, family, colleagues, and all who read this,

I have now been in Exeter for two and a half days, having arrived safely at my new "flat" around 11:00 AM UK time on Friday. It's now just a little after 6:00 PM on Sunday.  My flight from JFK to Heathrow was far better than I could have imagined, and my very good friend Debbie, who is an American who lives in England, was there to greet me.

We found that my new "flat" is lovely. It's on the third and fourth floors of a four-storey building, and my main working area and bedroom, which are combined into one room, are on the fourth floor, in a garrett setting. I have a lovely view across the street to a little park, and it's a very short walk on the lane behind the park to get up to the university campus. It took us between 10 and 15 minutes total to walk to the building where the theology department was, and the hills were far less steep than on the other side of the campus (where I had been the time I came to visit).

On Saturday morning, Debbie and I went to the university's library so that I could ask them where to find the theology sections, including for Augustine, and they actually had someone give us a personal tour. I was thrilled to find out that they have most of the books I'll need --- many of which I had had to leave behind in my own personal library in my home in Bethel.  And there are student tables, with laptop connections, directly adjacent to the Augustine section!  They also had many of the books on the Trinity and the doctrine of creation I could need --- and fortunately, I brought the ones I really need with me.  And they have a great section on theology and creation and science.  So, that was wonderful news!

Thanks to Debbie, my new flat is now stocked with the things I need to survive. It's a fully furnished flat, and I should thank my landlords first of all, as everything is lovely, and the kitchen has all the dishes and things you would want, plus a clothes washer and dryer.  But Debbie went around the flat and made lists of thing we needed, and for over two days, she took me to various places so that I could purchase what I need.  She and I wanted to share a laugh with those of you who know that I don't cook much anymore, and that I was used to eating at Plain Jane's most of the time.  For our final "big grocery shop" today, where we took the car to get big things, she said to me, "our cart is full, and you have very little in it to eat!"  And she refused to leave the store until we had some more food, including bags of frozen salmon and cod, and lots of rice!

We went to church this morning at the Southernhay United Reformed Church, and I stayed after and introduced myself and met several people, and I told them I'd be back next Sunday. Then we walked by the huge Cathedral (Anglican), and had a lunch at a cafe on the Cathedral green. I'll go to the Cathedral for services from time to time.

I am all set up now, and Debbie, a true saint, left at 4:00 PM today.  Tomorrow morning, it's back to my huge chapter on Augustine, and I'm going to the old library on campus to see if they have any hidden Augustine resources there.

The picture of me in front of the church is at the Reformed Church.  Debbie is seated on a wall in front of the Anglican Cathedral.  We have pictures of my view out front (trees) and the view out back (a Gospel church with a sign that says that Jesus Christ is Lord).  And pictures of Debbie and me each sitting in my new desk chair, which we went out and bought, and which Debbie assembled.

Next time, my blog post will be shorter.

Jane

One more day before I fly out

Dear friends and colleagues,

After all these years of planning for - and postponing - my time at the University of Exeter, today is my last day at home, before I fly out tomorrow for the UK.

I started this blog because writing is helpful to me in centering me, and in enabling me to reflect on what is going on, whether around me or within me.  And I am hoping this will be a helpful way of sharing with you, so that we will still have some contact with each other. I hope you will respond if you wish, by writing comments in the blog, or sending me an email, or communicating with me on Facebook.

This past Sunday, my church gave me a blessing and a send-off.  My profile picture on this blog shows me standing behind the wonderful cake that Joyce made for me, and the picture attached here shows the prayer shawl that some of the women in the "Knit One, Pray Two" group gave me.  The colors in the shawl are truly beautiful, and are "my colors."  I will wrap the shawl around me while I'm in my "flat" in Exeter, and feel the warmth and the love of people from the congregation. Our Interim Minister gave a blessing for me, and I was able to choose a hymn, so we sang "God of Grace and God of Glory."  I wanted to sing the part about "grant us wisdom, grant us courage."  And then the choir did a very moving benediction response and hymn for us:  "God be with you til we meet again."

I have also been having good-bye times with my other dear friends. Lots of good discussions, food, and wine (or beer), and lots of hugs!  And tonight is my final dinner and good-bye at Plain Jane's Restaurant, my home away from home!

Finally, for those of you whom I do not see in person, including my family and friends from all over, we will still be in touch as always --- with SKYPE video calls added into the mix.

So, for now, I wish you all many blessings, and we'll be in touch.  And for future blog entries, I'll try to post a photo of something interesting I've seen.

Blessings, love, peace, grace, courage, wisdom, faith,

Jane