Confirmation Sunday

Today was Confirmation Sunday at the Mint. Four new Methodists were confirmed, and several new Mint members were welcomed to the family. Among those welcomed were Joe and Kirsty, who were mysteriously absent; however, they were welcomed in abstentia. The confirmation portion of the service can be found on pages 97-101 of the Methodist Worship Book, and was really quite boring. It was followed by communion. We sang two hymns with tunes I knew today; one was "Great is Thy Faithfulness," and the other I knew what was at the time we sang it, but I can't remember anymore. It was one of the "printed in the service sheet" type hymns that consists of new words written recently set to an existing tune, in this case number 272 in Hymns & Psalms. Hymn 272 isn't one that I'm familiar with, but I know the tune by two different names (one from the Baptist Hymnal, taken from the first line, and one from every other hymnal in the world, taken from the refrain).

Andrew's sermon was necessarily brief; however it contained a few golden items. He began by discussing some sort of Millionaire's Club that is run out of Hong Kong, which has an annual membership fee for its highest level of $15.2 million per year. He then turned to cheaper clubs, noting that you can get a family membership to the British National Party for 40 pounds for the year. He then went on to say something in the vein of BNP, thirty pieces of silver, and selling your soul. He then launched into an attack on the BNP as being the antithesis of Christian values, and encouraged everyone at the Mint to vote for anyone except a far-right party at the upcoming elections on 4 June.

He briefly touched on the discussion topic for tonight, MP's Expenses. I hadn't planned to go tonight, but as I was thinking over breakfast "I hope Andrew talks about the MP Expenses crisis today," I think I am going to have to change my plans to go!

Lunch after the service today was rather sparsely attended. There were three students, me and two Japanese girls. Olive popped by, but another couple were doing the lunch today. Andrew and Liz came by just after the two Japanese girls had left; they discussed the topic for tonight with the three of us (me and the two doing the lunch) that were still there. Olive, while she was there, called me "Jim" at least three times. Some things, apparently, never change . . .