It is the work of a generation. In concept it requires a master architect, in execution, the labours of many." Hubert Humphrey (US vice president under Lyndon B Johnson)

Two more weeks and one more TV debate to go and it looks like this could be one of the most exciting elections in a long time... There is a number of useful websites for undecided voters - here is a selection: Whoshouldyouvotefor, Voteforpolicies (very detailed!) and Votematch (below) is a fun way to match your views with those of the  parties, but they tend to ignore key areas like ethics (and, no, I'm not going to tell you what I came out as!)... BBC: Will Christians swing the 2010 UK elections? You might want to consider signing the Westminster 2010 declaration... CARE has an excellent website with a page on Christian resources:  makethecrosscount2010.net Christianity Magazine Election Special on a range of issues... And a book recommendation:

[DEUTSCH macht heute mal Pause, da der Buchauszug recht lang ist -  viel Spass beim Englisch lesen! Morgen werde ich hier entlassen...] [ENGLISH] I am going home tomorrow and I suspect this blog will be updated much less frequently. So I need to make good on the promise to select a passage from Rob Lilwall's book "Cycling Home from Siberia" (see entry on 7 Feb), which I am hoping to finish tonight... Apart from Rob's gift for describing foreign countries and cultures with a lot of colour and the hairy bits when it gets quite dangerous, one of the things I love about his book is his encounters with people who have amazing life stories to tell. Here is the story of a Cambodian pastor (shortened from Rob Lilwall: Cycling Home from Siberia, pp. 219f): "I was nine years old when the Khmer Rouge took power. I lived in a village with my parents and I had seven brothers and sisters. One day the Khmer Rouge soldiers came to the village. They ordered me to go with them to work on a farm 23 kilometres from my home. I worked there for three years and was very unhappy. But then the Vietnamese invaded and I thought that we were liberated. But still I wasn't allowed to return to my family. There were many land-mines and every month someone from the work camp was killed or injured. So me and a group of friends decided to escape. During the escape eight of my friends were killed. I was sure I would die too. One night I heard a voice speaking to me. It said that I would not die. I thought it was one of my friends and told him to be quiet. But he said it wasn't him. Then I heard the voice again. I didn't believe in God. We had been told there was no God in the camps. But later on I realised it was God telling me this. "At the Thai refugee camp they gave out Bibles. I accepted one because the pages were good for rolling cigarettes. Gradually I started to take an interest in what the Christians were saying. After a number of years I became a Christian. "After the war I want back to my village to look for my family.  My old neighbour told me that the Khmer Rouge had killed my parents and all of my brothers and sisters. Then he said quietly, 'So I was the only one who had survived.' "My life is still full of sadness, but I believe that God is good. He has helped me to forgive and love. I even forgive the people who killed my family. Cambodia still has many troubles but I believe God has called me to start a church here so that I can teach the people how to forgive."

[ENGLISH] "You have set my feet in a spacious place." Psalm 31:8b Spending two weeks in a small hospital room has been much less claustrophobic than anticipated. Not only does the world come to me in the form of doctors and nurses from all over the world, but my excursions around Chelsea have also been wonderful 'bubbles of freedom'. I have discovered new things (very interesting exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery about Indian art - the taxidermic camel in the photo (Huma Mulji: Arabian Delight, 2008) certainly does not luxuriate in a lot of space!); I even bumped into a colleague of mine from St Mellitus College (in London!) and got a tour of his church. A third way in which I can break out of my confines is the book I am currently reading: Rob Lilwall's "Cycling Home From Siberia". I first met Rob about six years ago when I was doing a diploma in theology at Wycliffe Hall in Oxford. He was a fellow student in the first year, then decided to go on an epic bicycle trip around the world. It took him three-and-a-half years in the end and he met his wife during the trip! A few weeks ago we met again at St Mellitus College and he told me about all the things he had been up to. So I ordered his book and am now travelling around the world with him (so to speak). For my time in hospital Edda has given me Lonely Planet's "The Travel Book", with four pages on every country in the world. Together these two books make the perfect combo for a virtual trip around the world. (I will give you a taster from Rob's book in due course.) [GERMAN] "Du stellst meine Füße auf weiten Raum." Psalm 31:9b Zwei Wochen lang auf ein kleines Krankenhauszimmer beschränkt zu sein hat sich als viel weniger beklemmend herausgestellt als erwartet. Zum einen kommt die Welt zu mir in der Form von Ärzten und Krankenpflegern/-schwestern aus der ganzen Welt. Zum anderen sind meine Ausflüge hier in Chelsea kleine "Freiheitsoasen". Ich habe neue Dinge entdeckt (sehr interessante Ausstellung im Saatchi Museum über indische Kunst - das ausgestopfte Kamel im Foto (Huma Mulji: Arabian Delight, 2008) schwelgt auf jeden Fall nicht in zu viel Raum). Ich bin sogar einem Kollegen vom St Mellitus College mitten auf der Straße begegnet - er gab mir gleich eine spontane Führung durch seine Kirche… Eine dritte Art wie ich aus meinen Begrenzungen hier ausbreche ist meine augenblickliche Lektüre: Rob Lilwalls "Cycling Home From Siberia"  (Nach Hause radeln aus Sibirien). Ich traf Rob zum ersten Mal vor sechs Jahren als wir beide ein "Diploma" in Theologie in Oxford machten. Nach dem ersten Jahr entschloss er sich, den Lehrerberuf an den Nagel zu hängen und um die Welt zu radeln (na ja, fast um die Welt: Sibirien, via Australien und wieder quer durch Asien nach England). Vor ein paar Wochen traf ich ihn wieder bei St Mellitus und er erzählte mir, dass sein Abenteuer dreieinhalb Jahre dauerte. Er traf unterwegs auch seine jetzige Frau! Habe mir also gleich das Buch gekauft und reise jetzt mit Rob. Edda hat mir fürs Krankenhaus das Lonely Planet Travel Book geschenkt: vier Seiten über jedes Land der Erde. Zusammen ergibt das die perfekte virtuelle Weltreise. (Einen Auszug aus Robs Buch gibt es demnächst.)

[ENGLISH] Yesterday I chatted to the man who daily cleans my room here. He is friendly. He is from Poland and has lived in the UK for four years. His English is bad. Does he want to go back to Poland? I ask him. Not yet, he says. Only when his son has finished primary school here. When he was a pupil, they had to learn Russian. No English. Now he wants to make sure his son is fluent in English and gets a good education. Then he will go back. He tells me all this in his broken English and then he continues to clean the hospital, room by room, day by day. Elsie put a new cannula in my arm this morning - the old one started to leak. She is from the Philippines. Before she came to the UK she worked in Dubai. And before that in Saudi Arabia. When they arrived at the airport there, they had to line up in two queues - men here, women there. And then they were searched. They had to hand in all Christian symbols and literature. Elsie had to relinquish here Bible and her rosary. "That was hard", she says, "because prayer is important for us Catholics." And then, after a pause, "it is better here." [GERMAN] Gestern kam ich endlich ein bisschen ins Gespräch mit dem Mann, der täglich mein Zimmer hier putzt. Er ist freundlich. Er kommt aus Polen und ist seit vier Jahren hier. Sein Englisch ist schlecht. Möchte er zurück nach Polen, frage ich. Noch nicht, sagt er. Erst, wenn sein Sohn hier mit der Grundschule fertig ist. Als er Schüler war, mussten sie Russisch lernen. Englisch ging nicht. Jetzt möchte er dafür sorgen, dass sein Sohn fließend Englisch spricht und eine gute Grundbildung bekommt. Dann wird er zurück gehen. Er erzählt mir all das in seinem gebrochenen Englisch, und dann putzt er weiter das Krankenhaus. Zimmer für Zimmer. Tag für Tag. Heute früh hat mir Elsie eine neue Kanüle gelegt. Die alte hatte ein Leck. Sie kommt von den Philippinen. Bevor sie nach England kam, arbeitete sie in Dubai. Und davor in Saudi-Arabien. Als sie am Flughafen ankamen, mussten sie sich in zwei Reihen aufstellen. Frauen hier, Männer dort. Und dann wurden sie durchsucht. Alle christliche Literatur und Symbole mussten abgegeben werden. Elsie musste sich von ihrer Bibel und ihrem Rosenkranz trennen. "Das war schwer," sagt sie, "weil Gebet für uns Katholiken wichtig ist." Und dann, nach einer Pause, "hier ist es besser."

Exzerpte eines Interviews mit Enoch Freiherr zu Guttenberg in Cicero. Freiherr zu Guttenberg ist Dirigent und Vater des deutschen Verteidigungsministers. "Meine Lebenserfahrung besteht darin, Abschied nehmen zu müssen (...) . Ich habe Heimweh, sogar wenn ich hier in Guttenberg sitze. (...) Am schlimmsten aber ist für mich der Abschied vom eigenen Glauben.  Darunter leide ich täglich. Wenn heute eine Fee käme, ich würde mir als Erstes wünschen, wieder so glauben zu können, wie ich es als Kind, sogar noch als junger Dirigent getan habe." "Wenn ich die Matthäuspassion dirigiere, dann hab ich vom ersten Ton an überhaupt keine Zweifel mehr. Und mit dem letzten Ton ist alles wieder weg." "Kein Viech kann dichten oder ein Musikstück schreiben. Das können nur wir. Darin sind wir Gottes Abbild." _____ "Ich glaube; hilf meinem Unglauben!" Ein Vater spricht mit Jesus in Markus 9 [ENGLISH] Excerpts from an interview with Enoch Baron Guttenberg in political magazine Cicero. Baron Guttenberg is a conductor and father of the German secretary of defence. "It is a constant experience of my life that I have to say good-bye. (...) I am homesick, even when I am at home. (...) Most difficult I found saying good-bye to my own faith. It burdens me every day. If a fairy came to me today, my first wish would be to be able to believe like I could when I was a child, even when I was a young conductor." "When I conduct [J.S. Bach's] Matthew's Passion, all my doubts disappear as soon as the music strikes up. And when the last note vanishes, my faith does, too." "No animal can write a poem or a piece of music. Only we can. In that we are God's image." _____ "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" A father, speaking with Jesus in Mark 9

Als Kirchengemeinde sind wir ein Austragungsort in Großbritannien für die “internationale Ausgabe” der Leiterschaftkonferenz, die wir im August in den USA besucht haben. Wir sind beide aktiv bei der Gestaltung der Konferenz. Danach haben wir einen herrlichen Kurzurlaub in Cornwall - hier die "Pilgertreppe" auf dem Weg zum St Michael's Mount. St James was one of the churches in the UK which hosted the Global Leadership Summit. Both of us were involved - Christoph as executive producer and band member, Edda as part of the music group. Afterwards we had a few wonderful days in Cornwall - lots of bracing walks! (Picture: Pilgrims' Steps at St Michael's Mount)

Was filled with preparation for the various Christmas events at St James and both of us wrote our first essay as part of our courses. The photo was taken by Christoph at St Pancras train station at the beginning of his journey to France, where his first study week took place (first journey through the Eurotunnel). ...war überwiegend mit Vorbereitungen für die verschiedensten Weihnachtsgottesdienste und mit schriftlicher Hausarbeit ausgefüllt. Das Foto hat Christoph am Bahnhof St Pancras in London aufgenommen. Er hatte eine Studienwoche in Frankreich und ist zum ersten mal durch den Eurotunnel gefahren.

Schnee in Gerrards Cross - eine Seltenheit! // Snow in Gerrards Cross - a rare treat!