I hope that you’re enjoying the school holidays and have had some time to rest and relax a bit! Keeping an eye on our health and well-being is important – especially when there’s a global pandemic at large!
This weekend there will be 15 or more of the men up at Hanmer for the annual Men’s Retreat. We are fortunate to be able to hold this retreat under the Alert Level 2 guidelines – please be praying with us for a special time of connection with God and faith, as well as relationship building and encouragement.
As you will realise, we are continuing to operate our Sundays around “Ilam in Groups”. Although it involves some organisation, it seems to be operating reasonably successfully, and some mixing up of groups has resulted in a bit more variety in who we might encounter each week. Both staff and Governance Team have talked about other options we might try out – and a meeting of service leaders and some of our musicians last Sunday evening also gave things some consideration. We are keen to experiment with running services for a limited number at Ilam School, with a livestream option to families or small groups for those unable to attend. However, these are likely to happen at most fortnightly as there would be some set-up logistics to work through each time. The better weather ahead also opens up more opportunities to operate outdoors rather than inside.
At the same time as working through how all of this might work, we are – of course – keeping an eye on the general situation around the pandemic, and the likely implications for meetings of any sort should COVID-19 reach us here in the South Island. The situation still feels very precarious, doesn’t it?
Please make sure that Sunday October 31 is firmly in your minds! It is our Annual General Meeting Sunday. This year it will be entirely different! The plan is for an ‘Ilam in Groups’ Sunday, with the groups all connected via Zoom so that we can have some live interaction with each other as well. There will be a chance to celebrate what we have been reading in the 2021 Annual Report (out this week) as well as a budget presentation from Andrew Jeffries for our 2022 finances with a chance to bombard him with questions about how things are tracking. We will be voting for our new Governance Team as well – Mike Martin and Tjun are stepping back this year, but all others are up for re-election. We will be utilising an on-line voting system for this – and will advise you how that will work next week. Please plan on being there for your group on that Sunday – no waffles this year at the school, unfortunately .
The staff are trying to keep in touch with people – but please feel free to contact any of us if you would appreciate support or help – or even just a coffee and catch-up – at any time. And if there’s someone you haven’t seen for a long time who is on your mind – maybe give them a call (and meet up for a coffee?). We are community together.
I won’t go into the convoluted story of how or why the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky came into my mind this week – I think it had something to do with the wet days and the word “frabjous” from the poem came into my mind, seemingly the opposite of my feelings about the weather outdoors! Anyway, I thought for a poem for this week I’d include this poem – which many of you probably know. It comes out of Carroll’s book, Alice through the Looking Glass, and is pretty nonsensical. I have a thin book version of the poem published in the 1970’s (my university era) with each page illustrated by John Minnion – I really love the late-hippy era flavour to his drawings, so included the one of the slithy toves along with the poem
Jabberwocky (Lewis Carroll)
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand;
Long time the manxome foe he sought—
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
