Mulubinba Moments

Ordinary sunday - subdeacon

Sunday dawned grey with a light drizzle. I woke early in order to run through my reading and intercessions and hoped upon hope my cough stayed away and my voice remained. It was an "Ordinary" sunday today which meant for the first time since February we wore green. It was also my first time wearing a chasuble similar to the one in the photo. Subdeacon has a simpler chasuble compared with the Deacon and the celebrant.The service was almost dream like for me - I think I was so conscious of what i had to do that I almost forgot there was a congregation. I wondered if actors felt the same slightly detached but "on high alert" feeling on the opening night of a play. I do have to say here that it was great to have our Dean whose cues to move, bow, and genuflect at the appropriate times were invaluable for first timers like me. I was also able to follow the Deacon who had practised with me on the Friday. 

One confession - in the Gospel procession, as the Deacon had just finished the reading, that great line in Vicar of Dibley when Geraldine turns to Harry during their wedding and says: "Going swimmingly so far..." (see photo below) popped into my head. On this occasion however, I'm happy to say it all went quite smoothly. There were a few challenges with the chalice, mainly with people who still felt they could not touch it and also some who bowed their heads so much that I couldn't see the wine level. In the side chapel during ablutions (ie you cannot let any blessed wine or bread be left unconsumed), I have to say there was a good 80mls of wine left which needed immediate drinking - I couldn't face it at that time of the morning so had to give it to the verger to drink who readily took up the challenge! (...and it wasn't Alice's Ribena either!). Just as well I didn't drink it as there was a random breath testing unit stopping drivers just down the street as we left.

Photo: Screencap from Vicar of Dibley Finale. 

Geraldine to Harry: "Going swimmingly so far...."

Trivia question: What is Harry's buttonhole? Does a brussel sprout feature? So far no one has managed to come up with a definite answer.

Whales and others enjoy the water off Nobbys

The Hobbit Movie: Possible casting for Bard the Bowman? Richard Armitage?

Last Sunday, I registered for an online chat (The Unexpected Party) hosted by Weta. It featured Peter Jackson (LOTR) and Guillermo del Toro discussing their latest project - The Hobbit Movie (in fact it appears that there will be two movies). The transcript for the session can be found on the Weta website. Unfortunately PJ and GDT were very vague about casting for the films mainly because they had not yet written the scripts. The prediction is that they will start filming in 2010, so there is plenty of time for consideration.

One of my favourite characters in The Hobbit is Bard the Bowman, heir of Girion, Guardsman of Esgaroth and last king of Dale. Bard was a skilled archer who in the story was able to slay the dragon, Smaug, with the Black Arrow after learning of a weakness in the dragon's armour. Bard shared a fourteenth of the dragon's treasure with the Master of Esgaroth, and with this, they were able to rebuild their town which had been destroyed by smaug. After the town's rebuilding, Bard became the first King of restored Dale. Bard is described as "grim faced, and as guardsman of Esgaroth, often predicted floods and poisoned fish" (Wikipedia). Apologies, I need to search out my copy of the Hobbit to do more research.

All that aside, a number of people I am in touch with as well as Lalaithiel from The Hobbit Blog  and her (35?) commenters, are certain that the actor pictured below is ideal to be cast as Bard. Why? He is a great actor, he can play "grim faced" as needed, he has used a bow and arrow (lol), and it would be a change to see him play the hero.

" And they praised the courage of Bard and his last mighty shot. 'If only he had not been killed' they all said, 'we would make him a king. Bard the Dragon-shooter of the line of Girion! Alas that he is lost!'

And in the very midst of their talk a tall figure stepped from the shadows. He was drenched with water, his black hair hung wet over his face and shoulders, and a fierce light was in his eyes.

'Bard is not lost!' he cried.......'I am Bard of the line of Girion. I am the slayer of the dragon!' "

THE HOBBIT

J.R.R.TOLKIEN

I am now shooting a thousand of the broadest hints using my hypothetical bow to the producer and director of the movies as well as Richard Armitage's agents, not to mention RA himself.....PLEASE CONSIDER!

Feel free to leave a comment - contact details remain private, names can be fictitious if you wish.

For those people who don't know, this photo is of Richard Armitage playing the role of the infamous Guy of Gisborne in the BBC production of Robin Hood but he has acted in many quality BBC productions including North and South ( a few mentions of which occur in this blog), and of course he married the Vicar of Dibley (on screen).

Our cathedral

 

I don't seem to be able to manage to text wrap these photos. For my new cyberfriends, this is the Cathedral I have been telling you about. For my longterm visitors to the blog - Sunday is the day when I trial the role of higher order server (or subdeacon). One more practise today - a few more tips hints with the chalice ie.  beware ladies with lots of lipstick - wipe chalice well. Did you know that silver can act to kill germs so that if you rotate the chalice a small turn after every communicant, by the time you do one full rotation, the silver would have sterilized the spot you started from?? (Tvindy - I bet you have something to say to that).

Intercessions - still a little to do with those and I need to add prayers for rain for the drought stricken Upper Hunter. 

Sunday's looming....

I'm experimenting with Typepad's new options here. We now have a toolbar but I don't think you can change the font. Arial is a good acceptable standard anyway...

Last rehearsal with the head server took place on sunday with a walk through. I have an appointment with our assistant priest tomorrow to check intercessions and run through the chalice. The intercessions are coming along....I looked up all sorts of resources and ended up sticking with the prayer book format....quite nice wording. I'm hoping upon hope we don't have any more disasters given Myanmar/Burma and SW China. I just need to add the sick list, marriages and baptisms...

I've been fighting a chest cold - I sincerely hope cough disappears over the next 3 days. Chalice and cough - not a good combination. Intercessions and coughing fit - lousy combination.

Update: Second reading has just been given to me. Romans Ch1: vs 16-17 & Ch 3: vs 21-28.

This is all beginning to seem very real - up until now, I've just been having fun going through the paces......

SAY NO TO CYBERBULLYING !!!!

Call me old and naive - I had never realised until a few weeks ago that there was such a thing as internet bullying, cyberfights and flaming. I was aware that children are warned about inappropriate searches on the internet and about stalkers but not bullying. I recently did a quick search on the net on cyberbullying and came up with a few useful facts (mainly from school sites). Facts as follows from The Computer school.net internet safety tutorials:

"Cyberbullying can occur through an Internet service such as e mail, chat rooms, discussion groups, instant messaging or web pages. Cyber bullying can include 1. Teasing and being made fun of 2. Spreading of false and hurtful rumours about people online 3. Sending unwanted messages 4. Racist or sexist attacks 5. Defamation Preventing cyber bullying 1. Always treat other people online the way you like to be treated. 2. If you are chatting in a chat room or by instant messenger, stop doing so if anyone says offensive things to you. Shut down the message or window and tell your parents about it straight away. 3. If somebody in a chat room is offensive to you, tell the chat room host or moderator. Trolls (I thought these were the things in LOTR or "3 Billy Goats Gruff"). A troll intentionally posts messages about sensitive topics constructed to cause controversy in an online community such as a forum. Trolls post on message boards. More recently they have been posting on blogs. Dealing with trolls People who run message boards and blogs always say "Do not feed the trolls". That means you should ignore what they write. Do not respond to them or attack them back. They are only trying to stir people up." (The Computer school.net internet safety tutorial)

Dr. Parry Aftab in his paper Kids Online in Schools: Risk Management and the Law proposes that there are four types of online bullies: 1. The Vengeful Angel 2. The Power-Hungry or revenge of the Nerds 3. The "Mean Girls" in which group he includes Malfoy from the Harry Potter books. 4. The Inadvertent Cyberbully or "Because I can". I inadvertently witnessed what I think was an example of Vengeful Angel behaviour on a messageboard quite recently which I found quite dreadful and can now understand why the school system has had to introduce strategies to protect pupils. This group however were adults and therefore cyberbullying is not necessarily confined to the middle school years as described in many articles on the subject. Dr Aftab describes the "Vengeful Angel" (in my recent experience I would call them "Avenging Angels") as follows:

”

"In this type of cyberbullying, the cyberbully doesn’t see themselves as a bully at all. They see themselves as righting wrongs, or protecting themselves or others from the “bad guy” they are now victimizing. The “Vengeful Angel” cyberbully often gets involved trying to protect a friend who is being bullied or cyberbullied. They generally work alone, but may share their activities and motives with their close friends and others they perceive as being victimized by the person they are cyberbullying. Vengeful Angels need to know that no one should try and take justice into their own hands. They need to understand that few things are clear enough to understand, and that fighting bullying with more bullying only makes things worse. They need to see themselves as bullies, not the do-gooder they think they are." (Aftab, P. 2005. Kids Online in Schools).

He goes on to say that their sense of injustice and reasons for bullying need to be addressed but that this should be done through official means.

My reading states that if you are witnessing a case of flaming, cyberfighting or cyberbullying on a messageboard for example, you do not respond in kind but report the abuse to the administrators. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This time 10 years ago

This time 10 years ago I was sitting on QF1 bound for the UK to visit my sister for the first time. What a stunning place she lives in! The view here is taken from one of my favourite places - Glastonbury Tor.

Stage fright?

Less than two weeks to go and my ability to think about my role as subdeacon is at an all time zero. I started some intercessions - there are a few formulae but you do have to have some inspiration in terms of wording. I had one practise with an empty chalice and managed to tilt it so just imagine with a full one! I've asked for a run through of steps/where we stand/bow etc with the head server next sunday and have to catch a time with the curate to run through with the chalice. I was told to be wary of administering the chalice to "tall blokes" as apparently you can misjudge where their mouths are....very funny, i don't think!!

Autumn sunset - Newcastle harbour

Fishermen on Newcastle Harbour

View over Horseshoe Beach (right).

...when you are made to feel you've done the wrong thing.

Last night we were ushers at a local venue (I will not disclose the venue). A gentleman who was dishevelled and in what we perceived to be an acute psychotic state was seated at the back of this venue talking to himself loudly. He was not making a lot of sense and was using expressions that implied violence (I won't quote for fear of spam) to himself/property/others - it was difficult to understand him and he was unable to give us his name or contacts. We made the decision to call an ambulance as we felt that he needed medical/psychiatric attention. The ambulance sent two policemen instead. (I think this was an OH&S issue/mental health act policy - not sure). The gentleman decided he would move to the front of the venue thus coming into full view of a number of people. The police professionally and gently escorted him outside and then took him to a facility that could provide him with appropriate medical/psychiatric assistance. As ushers, we were approached by two people outraged by what we had done in terms of calling for assistance - they stated they would have been happy to have had the gentleman stay implying we should have been more tolerant. They clearly misunderstood that we had called the ambulance out of concern for the gentleman's condition and welfare of others should he become aggressive (implied by some of his speech). The irony was that only two people had bothered to speak to him, most people steered a very wide arc away from him. They therefore had no way of assessing the state of the gentleman's mental state and what the issues were.
The other irony was that at the end of the performance, the audience would have left leaving the workers at the venue to ask the gentleman to leave in order to lock up - where would he have gone in that state? To roam the streets at night exposing him to more harm to self or to others... who knows? If we had waited until the performance had ended and then called an ambulance (they probably still would have sent the police), would that have appeased the people who were outraged? We left the venue (and we are volunteers with no procedures to follow in these circumstances) feeling we were entirely in the wrong.

I should point out that we are in no way strangers to mental health issues having a close relative who has had first episode psychosis. I wonder if the attitude would have been different if the gentleman had been a younger person - would they have let a young person alone to fend for themselves or would assistance have been called? As a parent, I know what my preference would have been particularly if the child had been in such a state rendering them incapable of telling people their name and next of kin.