This morning was my final attendance of the College staff team meeting. Next time the new Director of Residential Training will be in place. It's been a stimulating experience, being accepted even temporarily as a member of such a well focused, confident and creative working team with vigorous commitment to the mission of the church and education of its ministry candidates. While many in the church struggle with the need for change, here's a group of gifted people alive to opportunities that make others nervous. I hope fervently that their vision and commitment will be recognised as they move reluctant learners in the right direction, when the work of the College comes under review in the coming term.
While I was posting some cheques into my account at the end of the morning, the annoying live news broadcast feed that pollutes the dignified silence of the bank - or makes it impossible to overhear the conversations of others, or hear yourself think - depending on your point of view, announced the death of Margaret Thatcher at the London Ritz Hotel where she'd been staying since Christmas. Not totally unexpected, given her age or condition over recent years. There'll be nothing else but this in the news for the next week or so, and the profound wounds which her era inflicted on society will be re-opened and licked painfully by the 24/7 news media.
I hated the change of moral and social ethos which characterised the mindset she represented with such courage and conviction. But her practical realism was to some extent admirable and worthy of respect. She led from the front, but was not alone in her convictions, rather she was the voice articulating a deep shift in values, and I still think that much of this shift generations to come will live to regret. Whatever, may she rest in peace.
From getting an overview of the College's developing integrated pastoral skills training programme in the morning, I moved after lunch to laborious line by line scrutiny of the draft Constitution for Cardiff's Business Crime Reduction Partnership management board. It's the first time since our landmark meeting last November that Ashley and I have really had a chance to attend to the details and discover potentially risky flaws that could undermine the stability of the organisation's set up. Ninety-five percent of this six page document is just the way it's meant to be, but as ever, the devil is in the detail. Fortunately Ashley is as good at nit picking as I am at seeing the whole picture. So we need a good argument over a document to bring out the best in both of us, for the good of the cause.
I hated the change of moral and social ethos which characterised the mindset she represented with such courage and conviction. But her practical realism was to some extent admirable and worthy of respect. She led from the front, but was not alone in her convictions, rather she was the voice articulating a deep shift in values, and I still think that much of this shift generations to come will live to regret. Whatever, may she rest in peace.
From getting an overview of the College's developing integrated pastoral skills training programme in the morning, I moved after lunch to laborious line by line scrutiny of the draft Constitution for Cardiff's Business Crime Reduction Partnership management board. It's the first time since our landmark meeting last November that Ashley and I have really had a chance to attend to the details and discover potentially risky flaws that could undermine the stability of the organisation's set up. Ninety-five percent of this six page document is just the way it's meant to be, but as ever, the devil is in the detail. Fortunately Ashley is as good at nit picking as I am at seeing the whole picture. So we need a good argument over a document to bring out the best in both of us, for the good of the cause.
It was well after seven by the time I got home. I still had a student report to draft, but after that I was grateful to have nothing much to do except stare vacantly at the telly at the end of a day of such mental exertion.
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