The View from the Nest

George MacDonald on BBC Songs of Praise

2011-01-16T15:03:00.002Z

New Look to George MacDonald Web Site

2009-09-13T16:33:00.001Z

The George MacDonald web site now has a totally new look and I would be very interested in knowing what folks think. Rather like painting the Forth Bridge, a web site is always a work in progress - so you can expect further additions now that I am able to step back and look at the big picture again. In particular I will be working on the front page to add up to date information and some pointers where to start.

You will also notice a separate section for the George MacDonald Society. We have now merged the two web sites for ease of update but I have tried to keep them visually distinct because the Society has its own voice and should therefore be distinguished from the other pages.

For those who are interested in such things the new site was created in Rapidweaver, a very nifty piece of Mac software that, while template based, offers a fair degree of customisation and makes very good use of .css. The idea is that I will be able to concentrate on content rather than coding, which cannot be a bad thing.

Digital-Disciple is now on iPhone

2008-09-28T17:01:00.001Z

I’ve just completed a long overdue overall of my digital disciple web site (www.digital-disciple.com) formatting it so that it is viewable on the iPhone and other hand held devices. The main challenge was structure since there is a fair amount of content and I wanted everything to to no more than two clicks away. The links page still needs an overhaul!

I used Rapidweaver for the Mac which is ideal for simple pages like these. Let me know what you think!

The Shack

2008-09-07T13:54:00.002Z

I've just finished reading William P Young’s ‘The Shack’ and, from looking on the web, can see that this this book has generated a lot of energy (including heat!). Somehow I had missed all this and only became aware of the book when I saw it by chance in W H Smith's in Manchester Airport when we were flying out to Hungary in August to help with a children's mission. So I had no preconceptions about it and avoided all the hype.

I'm not going to go into detail about the story for fear of spoilers - but from my own perspective I would definitely recommend it. You need to keep objective though - it is just a story. It's not scripture or necessarily even great literature (though Eugene Peterson in his endorsement suggested that it ‘has the potential to do for our generation what John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress did for his. It’s that good!’). Indeed theologically it may at times veer into unorthodoxy (lack of hierarchy in the Trinity for one). But, in my view, that's to miss the point.

This is where I tread on thin ice. At times it is possible for people of faith (I hate the word religious) to aim to be so right that they become wrong. Twenty years ago I would have described myself as a card carrying evangelical - but the older I get, the more I realise that all our systematic understandings of theology are at best only approximations of truth. It's not what you know or believe but who you know that matters in the end. Transformation comes through relationship with The Father/ Son/ Holy Spirit and fellow believers on the Way. Life is a journey - you don't arrive when you become a Christian, you walk through a door. In God's eyes some significant things happen but the work of transformation continues.

This, for me, is where The Shack hits home. It is inspirational/ motivational in the best sense. It encourages you personally to enter into a more intimate relationship with God, especially as Father. At the same time it deals with some of the stumbling blocks that as 'recovering' human beings we all face/ experience to greater or lessor extents in our lives. Scripture teaches that in Jesus we can know what the Father is really like. But is that really how we relate to God in our regular Monday to Saturday lives. Young's depiction of God in The Shack shakes our preconceptions. Do you really believe that he/she 'is especially fond of all' of his children? Are you able to call God 'Abba', or "Daddy', like Jesus did? Each of us will respond to different aspects of the story, but this is what struck a chord with me on a first reading

Another criticism that I've seen online is of implied universalism. All I would say on that hot potato is that again I believe that God's love and ability to redeem his damaged creation is much greater than my definitions sometimes allow. Interestingly, in his postscript the author quotes George MacDonald and the Inklings as among his inspirations. That made me ask who were my 'spiritual' inspirations (humanly speaking). Many, but top of the list would be Simone Weil, George MacDonald, John Wimber and William Barclay. At least two of those (MacDonald and Barclay) have, rightly or wrongly, had the accusation of universalism levelled at them. At the end of the day though, if we are co-operating with God in his masterwork of restoring humanity and creation, does it actually matter? One of the quotes that struck home to me in the book is that 'God is a verb' - it is the core of God's nature to be doing. He is the active ingredient that transforms from the inside - not a passive external observer. God cares about us and his creation. Enough for Jesus to limit himself, become a man and embrace the cross. A deeper appreciation of that truth has the power to transform our lives

I will shortly be leading an Alpha Group (for new christians/ seekers) and my instincts are, while pointing them toward scripture, to recommend it. Sometimes the heart needs to lead the head. In human terms if the blood flow stops the brain dies. Increasingly we are having to think about new ways of getting the gospel across to people. There's still a place for solid bible study (neglected I would argue) but that, for many people, comes later in the journey. Once again, the heart of the Christian faith is a relationship not a list. We are not under law, we have grace to enter.

George MacDonald Quote

2007-12-15T21:44:00.000Z

Two people may be at the same spot in manners and behaviour, and yet one may be getting better, and the other worse, which is the greatest of differences that could possibly exist between them. (The Princess and Curdie)

Wise Words

2007-10-30T22:00:00.000Z

Act without doing;
work without effort.
Think of the small as large
and the few as many.
Confront the difficult
while it is still easy;
accomplish the great task
by a series of small acts.

Lao-Tze
translated by S Mitchell

Charles Spencer. Blenheim Battle for Europe.

2007-08-31T20:46:00.000Z

This was a real surprise! The author is not one I would naturally gravitate to, but I picked it up on impulse in Waterstones. Spencer's style vividly brought alive the campaign and significance of Blenheim in shaping the future of Europe. I found it an easy read, a real page turner that placed you at the heart of the events described. I would happily give this 5 stars and am looking forward to reading his biography of Prince Rupert (English Civil War).

Buy it on Amazon.com
Blenheim: Battle for Europe , How two men stopped the French conquest of Europe: Battle for Europe

Find it on www.amazon.co.uk

Minnie O'Brien & Sylvia Pankhurst

2007-07-15T19:28:00.000Z

Minnie O'Brien was my grandmother's older sister and in a separate post I'll speak of some of the family stories passed down about her and the family, who were deeply involved in the political life of London's east end at the turn of the last century. The paintings came into the family as a gift to my great-grandfather, Frederick Henry O'Brien from Sylvia Pankhurst but more of that another day.

We travelled down for the auction, and I would have loved to have kept one of the paintings in the family. Sadly the prices were beyond our reach. One picture is now in the House of Commons.

----------

DAILY TELEGRAPH 14/02/2002

The suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst is remembered today as a militant campaigner for women's votes but her skill as an artist was largely forgotten until the discovery of a remarkable archive of watercolours and drawings. Sylvia Pankhurst's painting of women at work in a pot bank

Ten previously unknown works by Miss Pankhurst revealing that she used the talent which won her a scholarship to the Royal College of Art to promote her campaign for women's rights are to be auctioned in London next month.

Their survival is a miracle. The watercolours and drawings, depicting British women's grim working conditions in the early 1900s, were once thrown away by the present owner's grandmother who believed that they were worthless.

"My grandmother threw them out and said that we didn't need them, " said Molly Cook."They would have been burned but I and my husband-to-be went and got them back."

Now Mrs Cook, 61, from Northamptonshire, has decided to sell them at Bonhams on March 5 where they are expected to fetch up to £32,000.

Miss Pankhurst, the second daughter of the founder of the suffragette movement Emmeline Pankhurst, is believed to have given the watercolours and drawings to Mrs Cook's great aunt Minnie O'Brien.

Miss O'Brien grew up in the East End of London where Miss Pankhurst had founded the East London Federation of Suffragettes after breaking away from her mother's Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) because she considered it too middle class.

In her autobiography Miss Pankhurst refers to "little Minnie O'Brien with her bent little legs and pinched face showing childhood's rickets." But this frail child apparently grew up to become one of Miss Pankhurst's most reliable campaigners.

Miss Pankhurst studied at Manchester School of Art and then won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art in London in 1900 before taking an arts diploma in Venice.

From 1906 to 1907 she toured Britain producing the images of women's working conditions which are to be sold at Bonhams. They include On a pot bank Staffordshire - apprentice thrower and his baller at work should fetch £5,000 to £8,000 while Scouring and stamping the maker's name on the biscuit china is estimated at £4,000 to £6,000.

Shirley Harrison, who is writing a biography of Miss Pankhurst, said: "She always dreamed of devoting her art to the underprivileged. Her work was very, very highly thought of at the time."

Facebook

2007-07-01T16:54:00.000Z

I now have a Facebook account. Let me know by adding a comment if you want to be added to my friends list. It's lonely there!

Video and the human eye

2007-06-24T21:49:00.000Z

It struck me today what an amazing thing human eyesight is. Genuine HD quality and 3D as well! A simple thought, perhaps, but well worth recording.

Recently, I’ve been experimenting with video and have quickly discovered that it is that not easy to get good results particularly without a tripod. I’m sure the camera I’m using picks up the sound of every passing car or conversation. As a way of recording memories, though, it goes one step further than a still photograph. There’s an art and a skill to it, you are your own photographer, director, editor and scriptwriter. I'm still using iMovie, it will be a while before I outgrow it.

I’m in the process of extracting something worthwhile from the footage I recently took in Crete, though my L Plates are pretty obvious. Next time I shall try using a monopod (I like Manfrotto) since weight is a key factor for me when I travel by plane. I am also wondering whether a better microphone would help as well?

Oh, and to return to my initial thought the quality of the image is nowhere as good as the real thing . . .

The Purpose of the Artist?

2007-04-29T18:57:00.000Z

Over Easter I heard a sermon where it was argued that the purpose of the artist, to quote Samuel Becket, was "the accomodation of mess". This might just pass as an appropriate text for Good Friday but it seemed inappropriate on Easter Sunday, when the message should be one of joy, rebirth and fresh hope displacing despair.

The role of of the artist is to transcend. To take 'the mess' of our everyday existence and help us to be aware of the wonder of being alive, the deeper patterns that give meaning to it all. Their function is to distil not to accomodate. In Gericault's painting 'The Raft of the Medusa' the artist took rotting limbs and cadavers in the studio and made of them an arresting image of human suffering and the indomitable will to surive. On Easter Day we are reminded that Jesus, is the perfect artist in that he absorbs the mess of our lives and transforms it into something new, right here and now. Forget accommodation, this is something much better!

Pan's Labyrinth

2007-03-18T15:05:00.001Z

Last night I watched Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth on DVD. Having seen the reviews this was a film I had been waiting for with a great deal of anticipation. It was much darker than I had expected, particularly the scenes set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War (surely no coincidence that this was the same time as the D-Day landings in France). There is no attempt to disguise the realities of war. Choices are hard and can have consequences.

The 'other world' also has its dark side but there is also the potential for transformation, but only after a series of tests have been successfully completed. In some ways this is a 'Narnia' for adults. Both films features themes of 'disobedience and choice'. There are fauns and mythical creatures, a sacrifice that gives life and hope. The symbolism of the labyrinth and doorways into another, more magical (but still dangerous) world places the film firmly in the tradition of fantasy literature for the 'childlike' of heart.

The ending is all the more effective for being enigmatic. We are left asking key questions of faith which I won't spell out for risk of spoiling the surprise for you. I shall want to watch it again, preferably with the directors commentary. There are many layers at work here and it does not disappoint.

2007-02-25T10:46:00.000Z

Amazon have a justified reputation for customer service, indeed the success of their business has been built on it. Yesterday, though, I had an experience that caused me to question whether that is still the case. I got a phone call to say that an order I had made from amazon earlier in the week had been delivered in error to an address in a nearby town. I drove over to pick it up and was concerned that the other persons order (a camera) was still missing.

The only way to complain and bring this to Amazon’s attention was via an email form on their web site. In reply I got an email saying that they were sorry I had not received my order and that it was being sent again. Clearly they hadn’t bothered to read my email!

The message came from an automated address, so it was back to the email form on the web site. I asked them to cancel the second order and not make matters even worse. Too late, I eventually got another email to say the order had been despatched (this was all less than 5 hours after the first complaint).

I am now faced with the additional hassle of returning the books I don’t need and reclaiming my costs in doing so.

There are several things that concern me in all this:

• Nowhere on the Amazon web site is there a telephone number. If I had been able to talk directly to a human being this comedy of errors could have been avoided.

• The emails I received from them were clearly largely automated and any human element was unclear and ungrammatical. It does not fill you with confidence that you are dealing with an intelligent and caring organisation.

• I have already spent an hour collecting the books in the first place. Add in several phone calls, two emails and the time and expense of returning the second order this amounts to considerable inconvenience. I am the customer. I am not employed by Amazon. If my time was money they would now owe me.

The lesson, perhaps, is that automated systems work well 99% of the time but when they go wrong there needs to be a human being you can talk to. Amazon need to learn to listen to their customers.

Diary of an Old Soul

2007-02-24T16:05:00.000Z

Marilylle on the Wingfold Email list (see www.george-macdonald.com/wingfold_email_list.htm) has begun re-posting some old items and she started with one of mine from 1998.

It's fascinating to see this again, almost as if it's from a more leisurely era (a different century certainly!) when personally I seemed to have much more time and space to ponder such things. What's changed? In a word - work! The demands and stress ramp up year on year and 2007 already looks like being a corker with substantial targets to achieve. For those of you who are of faith I would appreciate your prayers. That I get the balance right between work and life, for energy and good health, and for direction for the future.

That goes a way to explaining why I have been such an occasional poster on Wingfold lately. I keep an eye on what goes on though and it's great to see how this group has evolved into something quite mature. In the Wild West of the web such places are rare and to be valued. Everyone who participates there should be proud of the part each of them plays in keeping the fragile bloom alive. I'm sure there is a George MacDonald quote in there somewhere, something about 'reviving fragrances' perhaps? :-)

__________

I am browsing through some old Wingfold files I put on floppies. I thought a few re-postings may be of interest. M

This one form Mike Partridge - April 1998.

I'm inclined to agree with the suggestion that the Diary of an Old Soul is, in many ways, like a modern day Book of Psalms. There is the same brutal honesty and expression of doubt and perplexity as well as faith and certainty by the writer. Somehow, in a work like this, the light and shade seems necessary if it is to be relevant to our lives. I guess I just don't relate very well to perfection (hence the need for the incarnation of Jesus -- he became like me so that I might become more like him)!

One of the things that I appreciate about MacDonald is that he never gives the impression that he has somehow "arrived" -- he is on the journey with me. What he does so successfully is to give me a language and symbols that help me to make sense of my own experiences, hopes and fears. Sometimes the style (the Diary of an Old Soul is not great poetry, however profound the ideas it contains are) gets in way -- it seems to me, though, that in the fantasies and the best of the stories the style, imagery and ideas all come together in a powerful and unique way.

Scrivener 1.0 Now out of beta

2007-01-21T21:33:00.000Z

“Designed for use by writers of all kinds, Scrivener is a virtual writing studio that integrates the processes of outlining, storyboarding, research and writing. It's a notebook. It's an outliner. It's a cork notice-board. It's a ring-binder. It's a place to store and cross-reference your research. It's a basic word processor. From first idea to first draft: Edit. Outline. Storyboard. Write.”

This software has been in public beta for over a year, with a developer open to feedback from the active user base. The simplicity of the interface and comprehensive features make it a joy to use, whether for a long work (such as a novel or non-fiction book) or shorter pieces such as articles or essays. If you need to write creatively, this could be just the tool you are waiting for. It knocks the socks off Microsoft Word.

Yesterday it came out of beta. The price is $35 (approximately £22 including VAT) so it hardly breaks the bank and is guaranteed to increase your productivity. The only down side is that it is Mac Tiger only, so if you are a Windows user it is yet another reason to switch!

Scrivener Website

The George MacDonald Blog

2007-01-01T21:18:00.000Z

I have just set up a second blog as a joint initiative by The George MacDonald Society and www.george-macdonald.com my own web site. The aim is that this should be a one stop venue for all the latest news, events etc. in the world of George MacDonald. I have invited several people to be authors. I'm looking forward to being able to interact with visitors via the 'comments' facility.

For the unitiated George MacDonald was a Scottish Victorian writer who was a friend of Lewis Carroll and a key influence on C. S. Lewis and produced powerful works of Christian fantasy as well as other numerous novels and writings. I would recommend The Golden Key, The Wise Woman, The two Curdie Books and and Lilith for starters. Check him out!

Christmas in Hungary

2006-12-18T15:13:00.000Z

The last weekend saw us in Hungary, where in August we led a team from Altrincham Baptist who helped to run a week long children's club in conjunction with our friends at Pécel Baptist Church. When we left Manchester it was relatively mild but wet. The temperature on arrival was just below freezing and we were told it had been like that for a few days. The trees were white with thick frost and many homes had external Christmas lights, which brightened up the early evening darkness. People, young and old were well muffled against the cold. All very different from our last visit in the summer.

Pécel is a small town on the outskirts of Budapest not far from the main Ferihegy Airport. The purpose of our trip was to be involved with a Christmas Children's club being run from 4-7 p.m. on the Saturday during which we presented the owners of the local football pitch with six footballs to thank them for letting us use the pitch for football coaching free of charge last summer. We also had the opportunity to look forward to the ways in which our two churches can work together next year.

While we enjoyed 'doing mission' together we appreciated just as much, if not more, seeing our many Hungarian friends again. As always they made it very hard for us to say good-bye but we have already promised to go back again in 2007. The time we have spent in Hungary this year has been very different from visiting as tourists. We feel we have got to know the country and people from the inside. Travel broadens the mind and, while there are differences (like presents on the 6th December), what you bring away is the knowledge of just how much we have in common.

Meister Eckhart & Truth

2006-12-01T14:37:00.000Z

Recently I heard someone quote from the writings of the German theolgian/ mystic, Meister Eckhart (1260 - 1327/8).

'No one can attain the truth without a hundred errors on the way'.

I googled this but was unable to find the attribution. Does anyone know?

To draw close to an understanding of truth we need to be painfully aware of our own limitations. From a human perspective all truth is provisional (the only exception perhaps is in the moral sphere, but anyone who has studied ethics will appreciate the shades of grey that exist there too). This is something that scientists can readily appreciate. A theory explains the facts as we know them. New facts require us to develop new theories or revise the old ones. Truth is provisional but it can describe an objective reality. Humility is required, though, in expressing our understanding or responding to those with different interpretations. They may have something to teach us after all.

Emily Dickinson - Parting

2006-11-27T16:50:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite poems by Emily Dickinson, the reclusive poet from Amhurst.

PARTING.

My life closed twice before its close;
It yet remains to see
If Immortality unveil
A third event to me,

So huge, so hopeless to conceive,
As these that twice befell.
Parting is all we know of heaven,
And all we need of hell.

I love her cadences here, the steely way in which she faces eternity head on. Anyone who has experienced the loss of a loved one can appreciate the power of her words, particularly the last two lines. We are not told what the two previous climatic events in her life were but it is not necessary for us to know in order to be gripped by her words.

Welcome!

2006-11-27T15:32:00.000Z

Welcome to my personal blog. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the weeks to come, think of it as a place where I jot down ideas and interact with the world at large. Anything 'shiny' that catches my eye may well end up here!