Alphabet Cricket

I was recently given a copy of 'In Darkest England and The Way Out' by General Booth. Though I have skip read a few pages to sense the tone of Booth's concerns, my main interest has been in the missing title page and annotated fly leaf and front board. On these pages are inscribed a code and game scores as follows:

A = 2 E = 1 I = 0 O = 3 U = 2
B = Bowled C = Caught D = 4 F = 2 G = 3 H = L B W
J = 5 K = Caught L = 6 M = Stumped N = Run Out
O = 0 P = 4 Q = 6 R = 2 S = 1
T = 3 U = 6 V = Caught W = L B W X = 5
Y = 0 Z = 6

This game of cricket from text has repeated (different) entries for the vowels, O and U, and thus appears to have been improvised. Remnants of games are also evident:
*1 3 1 out 4
*2 out 0
*3 0 1 6 2 out 9
*4 1 3 2 3 out 9
*5 3 3 1 0 2 out 9
*6 3 0 out 3
*7 0 3 out 3
*8 1 0 out 1
*9 0 6 1 4 6 out 17
*10 0 0 1 out 1
11 0 2 4 not out 6


*1 0 1 out 1
*2 0 2 0 out 2
*3 1 out 1
*4 0 1 4 2 2 out 11
*5 1 0 1 0 2 out 4
*6 0 0 out 0
*7 1 0 out 1
*8 3 2 0 6 2 2 2 1 2 out 20
*9 2 0 1 1 1 3 6 1 0 3 2 0 1 0 out 21
*10 1 4 2 2 3 0 1 13
*11 0 out 0


*1 3 1 1 2 6 2 18
*2 0 0
*3 1 2 0 3
*4 2 4 0 6
*5 0 2 4 out 6
*6 3 1 2 3 3 out 12
*7 1 0 0 6 1 out 8
*8 2 3 2 3 out 10
*9 2 out 2
*10 3 3 2 out 8
*11 2 3 3 8


What these annotations represent is a form of alphabet cricket as popularised in the Eagle Annual number 5

With news that the new Bishop of Bath and Wells will live in the Palace, a comment from the episcopal doormat:


THE EPISCOPAL DOORMAT

I hear that they know my threshold - the one where in future I’ll serve:
The place of coming and going, of greetings and farewells.

‘Beautiful feet’ shall know my fibres taking the damp, the muck, the grit
From their soles as they enter in to meet my Bishop, and his Lord -

Who washed the feet of His friends: the one’s He called to serve.
To people, all coming and going, my greeting shall be in Wells.

My Bishop shall show his fibre: sharing the tears, the hopes, the fears
Of the souls who enter in to meet with him, and his Lord.

I’m only a humble doormat: offering a practical welcome,
A simple role of service that’s all that I can do.

I have no beauty or attraction, many will not notice me at all,
Taking the damp, the muck, the grit of greetings and farewells.

And caressing the daily rhythm as my Bishop walks to prayer:
Spending time with his Lord and with his servant friends.

“The Lord defend his going out and his coming in, now and always”

http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2014/02/house-of-bishops-pastoral-guidance-on-same-sex-marriage.aspx

Pilling...

The publication of the Pilling Report signals the beginning of an important period of listening and conversation in and by the Church of England about relationships - a period during which there will need to be some seriously gracious listening and careful reflection. As with this comment, which is personal, we need to be careful in distinguishing between what we individually may feel or believe and what can in any sense be owned as common or shared belief. I was particularly drawn by the remarks of the Bishop of Buckingham, Alan Wilson, on his blog http://bishopalan.blogspot.com/ where he writes: "I have been asked by various people, however, for some resources to inform, enrich and enlarge intelligent conversations on this subject. Such conversations carry their own risks. It can exacerbate the problem when straight twosomes talk, even well-meaningly, about gay people rather than with them. I also realise how weird it seems to the majority of people younger than me who have sorted this subject and moved on that we are still talking about it at all. They feel as though they had strayed into a Saudi discussion of whether women should be allowed to drive."

Twitter conversation: Re #Synod

Twitter conversation: @O...D... How many #Synod members does it take to change a lightbulb? - CHANGE???! @A…….. What's a lightbulb? @C….A…... #synod might sit in dark & not change lightbulb - debating type and size of candle acceptable for non lightbulb users @O...D... That may not be too far from the truth!

AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR DIOCESAN BISHOP 21 November 2012 - In response to General Synod

AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR DIOCESAN BISHOP 21 November 2012 - In response to General Synod Dear Bishop Peter A deep sadness… but also a very thin wearing of patience is where I stand at present following yesterday's vote. The over riding will of the Church has been frustrated by the unrepresentative House of Laity. There will be women whose full gifts are not able to be delighted in by the church in a way they might have done - just when in South Africa a Woman Bishop is consecrated. But above all I do feel the need to share the feeling that in the long long process of dialogue my patience and that of many others is wearing thin. We have walked a journey of goodwill and compromise with resolutions A, B and C available - we have attempted to compromise over Women Bishops. But still the minority stick out for an uncertain more. Meanwhile small parishes with resolutions force benefices that would rejoice in a female incumbent not to have one - and I know that the patience of the real 'laos' (as distinct from the House of Laity) is very tried by that limitation. In terms of the Mennonite ways of approaching conflict of which we spoke the other week it is as if we have been walking the route of taking the issue and the relationship seriously - working the time consuming route of seeking the win-win solution only to find that for a significant enough few the path that they have been walking is all about the issue and they do not value the relationship as much. Today it is not only women with gifts for ministry and leadership in the church who feel hurt but also all those of us who have tried to walk the extra mile with those with whom we disagree. We who now find that their actions and voting imply that they do not respect or value those with whom they disagree as much as we have valued and will continue to try to value them. Our missional credibility, many of our ministers and our unity all suffer as a result of yesterday. In this context the role of any Bishop is unenviable. Be assured of our prayers

Creation

Today I attended an 'Early good Friday' at Wells led by Melvyn Matthews. During this he said that "The cross essentially focuses in one event what has been going on all of the time in Jesus life and, I would add, in the life of God. God pours himself out in sacrificial love from the beginning."
The image picks up on this and the hymn verse:
"Come, see His hands and His feet, The scars that speak of sacrifice;
Hands that flung stars into space, to cruel nails surrendered."