This has been a grand weekend. My husband's pre-Synod meetings out of town went so well yesterday. Even the computer system delivering his power point presentation did not fail him. After the past week of systems breakdowns at work it seemed a near miracle that he had no technical disasters yesterday.
The series of lectures on Galatians that I attended yesterday was just fantastic. Professor John Barclay is quiet spoken, laid back and incredibly well educated! It is no wonder that one of our fellow priests, not at all Anglican when he did his PhD. work under Professor Barclay's mentorship, became an Anglican partly as a result of this man's influence. I don't know how may PhD.'s this fellow has of his own because he did not use his title even once all session, but he certainly is humble in the sharing of his academic skills.
We experienced and enjoyed over 5 hours of teaching, discussion, questions and fellowship together as a group. There were people in attendance from several parts of the diocese so it was a diverse group.
Untangling Paul's theology in the Galatian letters was a great challenge, even as we just touched the surface, but I think we all learned some new things about the Apostle Paul's teachings and attitudes.
What I enjoyed most is that the professor is very skilled in teaching a large group of people with varying degrees of theological study ability without either making those of us with less educated minds feel at sea, or dumbing it down so much for us that those in attendance who are actually theology students would feel bored and like they were wasting their time. Everyone there seemed to get something out of the teaching.
The other scriptures he quoted to support various ideas he presents left us feeling the man has memorized the entire Bible! hahahaha What a treat to once again be privileged to sit under the teaching of someone so knowledgeable.
Thank you so very much Professor John Barclay for spending your day teaching us, taking time out from your incredibly busy life and schedule just for us.
My husband is very excited to hear the teaching Professor Barclay will be presenting at the clergy conference that starts tomorrow out in Lumden. I think he will be quite pleased by the teaching he hears.
My husband arrived back in Moose Jaw just as our seminar was ending, so after an abbreviated Evening Prayer service to close the sessions, we went out for a lovely Indian dinner at Moose Jaw's new Indian Restaurant, "Spices". We were a bit leery as we have had some pretty atrocious Indian meals of late, but this was absolutely delicious!! My chicken zal frezi was full of large pieces of chicken and the sauce and vegetables were spiced exactly as I asked them to be. My husband had a very mild vegetable korma and there was so much packed into the small dish he had to bring half of it home. The samosas were huge and stuffed full of peas and potato chunks. It was an excellent meal and I am glad there was no buffet last night so that we were forced to order from the main menu. All the food was freshly cooked and piping not. It isn't a large menu, but I think that allows the cooks to do their best job on each dish. I hope the quality continues. We were happy to see so many customers in there as the street in front of the restaurant had been closed off since mid afternoon for some kind of street concert later in the evening. Some of the businesses took quite a hit by being forced to close by 3pm on a Saturday, but it didn't seem to be hurting "Spices" much. We will definitely go there again next time we are in Moose Jaw.
This morning I decided to attend church at the last possible second for getting dressed and ready, but I made it in time. It was cafe church this morning so we sat around tables in groups and enjoyed the tea, coffee, juices and many, many muffins, cookies, cheeses, fruits, dips etc. I was able to sit at a table with 3 visitors, some other congregation members joined us and all 3 visitors said how much more welcome they felt than they would have just sitting in a row of chairs for the service, then leaving afterward without as much chance to meet the congregation members. It was fun for me too. The sermon on forgiveness given by our lay reader was fantastic!!
Now it is time to make lunch and head for choir practise. My husband is out on the back deck with an electric tool of some kind removing rust and impurities from the camping pots he used on the canoe trip. He is scouring them out like a mad man and they are looking nearly new and very fresh and clean. After choir practise we will head over to his new office space, hopefully, and try to get the last of the books and papers put away and some certificates and pictures up on the walls. He is SO busy during work hours there has been no time during the last 2 weeks to finish moving in!
Chilly again today but at least we have some lovely sunshing peering around the clouds. I wore a pair of summer pants and summer suit jacket to church this morning, but it is time to wash them and put them away now with the other summer clothes. I will put something warmer on for choir practise this afternoon.
Have a blessed Sunday everyone!
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