I’ve just come across someone who describes their religious views on Facebook as ‘Secular Christian’.  Anyone got any ideas what that might mean?

John Hobbins has challenged Bible bloggers to take on the world of children’s literature.  John has a five-year-old daughter who many find a number of the books being reviewed a little too much just now.  My choice, however, should be ideal bedtime reading.  I adored Paddington when I was little.  The cartoons on TV with their sketchily drawn backdrops and the three-dimensional figures in the foreground were transfixing.  We had some of the books too which were perfect for being read to, and later for reading.

The latest addition to the Paddington corpus celebrates the fiftieth birthday of the bear from Deepest Darkest Peru.  Paddington hasn’t aged noticeably, though the world he inhabits has changed somewhat.  The Browns are still a comfortable middle-class family in which the children are away at boarding school, Mrs Brown has no noticeable occupation, and Mrs Bird is the live-in housekeeper who holds it all together.   But outside the doors of 32, Windsor Gardens there are all sorts of new obstacles: having one’s shopping trolley towed away; government inspectors looking for illegal aliens; tabloid journalists; talent spotting scouts for record companies.

Paddington falls amiably into one scrape after another, always somehow landing on his feet.  Each chapter is a self-contained story and most follow the same pattern: Paddington has a Good Idea; something goes Horribly Wrong; everything Works Out In The End.  Safe and reassuring.  Poor Paddington struggles to understand the world, in just the same way that children do, but he always means well and his family are there to step in if need be.  And that’s what these books are really about, being adopted into a family who love and accept this bear just the way he is.

I heard an interview with Michael Bond recently who said that when he first wrote Paddington, he wanted to address some of the issues that the post-war wave of immigrants into the UK was causing.  The bear at the railway station, with the label round his neck, was the helpless innocent who just needed help and love.  In 2008, the attitudes towards immigrants (legal or otherwise) in the UK haven’t changed a whole lot, at least not for the better.  I’m not sure that the new Paddington stories will cause a dramatic shift either.

Because the stories are told from the point of view of Paddington himself, the thing I really loved as a child was the sense that I wasn’t the only outsider in the world.  Paddington is always getting the wrong end of the stick and ending up in situations he didn’t mean to.  He doesn’t quite understand the world he’s living in and that’s okay.  He gives children a way to learn, to ask questions, to say if they don’t understand, to not be the same as everyone else, and to make mistakes.  He’s funny, charming, honest and confused and it’s no surprise that, fifty years on, children and adults still love him.

Paddington: Here and Now is beautifully bound with a lovely illustration from the original illustrator on the front cover.  Inside, the illustrations are done by a different artist, but they are equally charming and funny.  It’s a book that I think will be well-loved and will stand up to sticky little fingers for many years.

There are two teenage girls playing tennis on TV at the moment. One is tall and blonde, wearing a little fitted dress that barely covers her bottom. The other is wearing an aertex shirt and pleated skirt that look like my old school games kit. She also has acne and looks like she could do with a proper sports bra.

So, which one just hit three aces in a row?

I love when the British girls do well at Wimbledon.

Reading these comments on inner-city ministry from Hugh Balfour on Neil Robbie’s blog, I was reminded of a discussion we had in a women’s book group a few years ago concerning the sacrifices one might need to make in overseas mission work.  Unsurprisingly, for parents, health and education provision for their children was very high on the list of concerns.  And, of course those things are right and proper issues for parents to consider as they want the best for their children.

But here’s my question: what do children need most?

The best education the world has to offer?

Or parents who model godly, faithful and sacrificial obedience to the Lord?

In the olden days (and yes, that means I have no idea when) kings and queens and their courts used to leave their comfortable winter palaces in the summer months to go on a summer progress, or tour of their realm.  This is when they would stay with various highly-favoured subjects, bankrupting many in the process and allowing an enormous number of people to put up plaques saying “Queen Elizabeth slept ‘ere”.

In recent years I seem to have instituted my own version of the summer progress, thanks to many kind friends who are willing to put me up for a few days here and there.  This summer, the tour will include:

• Aylesbury
• Wolverhampton
• Southgate (and other parts of London)
• Sevenoaks
• Tranmere
• Oxford
• Swansea
• Bath
• Royal Tunbridge Wells
• Eastbourne
• Chelmsford
• Lowestoft

and, of course, Stafford and Philadelphia.  I’m hoping it will also include the New Jersey shore.

So far, it’s been fun, though exhausting and I’m looking forward to a quieter few days next week.  Thanks, everyone!  You’re very welcome to put up plaques in your guest rooms announcing that “Ros slept ‘ere.”

Here’s the one-liner:

the Bible as it is is without error because the Bible as it is is God’s Word.

For the rest, see his blog post.

Or at least a step in the right direction.  Willow Creek seem to have finally realised that church isn’t about becoming like the world but about teaching and building up its members so that they can win the world.  It’ll be interesting to see how they respond when people start leaving the church as a result of the new onslaught of bible teaching.

(HT: Neil Robbie)

David Field has a little odd-one-out quiz.

The answer is clearly (a) since the other two might actually be worth the time taken to read them.  Nor are they massively overrated nonsense.

David Field has a very helpful post capturing some of the methodological differences between those who might be labelled ‘confessionalists’ and those who might be labelled ‘biblicists’.  Sadly, these methodological differences can lead to much more serious fallings out.

…for a new game to play on camp this summer. I call it ‘Paparazzi Photo Run’. Send the kids out with disposable cameras to take pictures of local celebrities. Points scored according to celebrity status:

10 for an Olympic yachtsman

15 for a Ken Russell

3,000,000 for a Johnny Depp.

According to today’s Telegraph they should all be there.