Christmas Carol Celebration

This was my fourth Carol Service at the Medway campus. It's such a blessing to see this event become a recognised part of our university calendar and be supported by staff and students alike.

In addition to our usual service of carols and readings, we had a glimpse of this year's pantomime performed by our very own student Medway Amateur Dramatics Society.

At one point during the service Sally mentioned mothers and their children  ...  Aiste leaned over and said to me "You have about 200 children."  To which I promptly responded, "No wonder I'm so tired!!" 

News & Views

New & Views was our topic at TABLEtalk this week. Why not make a cuppa and watch the videos of students presenting their own news programmes (click on the link below) ...

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B80p_f9Xh_65d3FRT1VFclJnbWM&usp=sharing

Christmas is coming ...

Having not really felt very Christmassy, I can now formally announce that Christmas is definitely on it's way!!  Students helped to decorate the student centre yesterday, put the Christmas tree up and it's looking beautiful.  Frank and I shopped for next week's Christmas World Cafe and so far we've sold 68 tickets for our TABLEtalk Christmas Party on Dec 9th.

Don't forget event coming up ...

TABLEtalk Christmas Party

Tuesday, Dec 9th  7-10pm

World Cafe Christmas

Wednesday, Dec 10th  12-3pm

Bring & Share Lunch

Sunday, Dec 14th  1pm onwards

Wear Red for Ruby Day

On Monday, December 1st the University of Greenwich held a Wear Red for Ruby fundraising day at the Medway campus. Ruby is a two-year old local girl who has been diagnosed a very rare form of cancer. 

As well as encouraging everyone to wear something red, there was a big red bus, face-painting, henna tattooing, wet-sponge throwing, an on-line auction, a raffle with amazing prizes, and I helped out with a cake & craft sale whilst being wonderfully entertained by a quartet.

Hopefully, I'll soon be able to let you know how much money was raised.

The Art of Public Speaking

Our theme at TABLEtalk last night was 'The Art of Public Speaking'.  It was a great evening,with some challenges for students as we played the game Just a Minute.
I had prepared a selection of speaking topics which ranged from 'potatoes' (which I spoke on) to 'shampoo', 'world peace', 'My favourite day of the week' or 'Is there life on other planets?'

Here are some of the brave candidates ...

 

And some videos ...
(cut and paste the links below)

Here's Chris Tozer waxing lyrical on the topic of 'Faith, Hope & Love'

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hr7bhe1eahy78su/VID_20141125_204314.mp4?dl=0

Basel speaks on 'Crisis Management'

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4jwgvow0a44zajt/VID_20141125_204753.mp4?dl=0

Aiste enlightens us on 'How to drive a Car'

https://www.dropbox.com/s/b1b2ew0vrj2brq3/VID_20141125_205325.mp4?dl=0

Anu wows us on the topic of 'Public Speaking'

https://www.dropbox.com/s/dlamur97lh9yfuz/VID_20141125_203957.mp4?dl=0

Chiao talks on the subject of 'clothing'

https://www.dropbox.com/s/oy1z2y3vbv3d3gd/VID_20141125_205943.mp4?dl=0

Smile!

I saw this sign when I was in Greenwich today.

Whilst I'm not advocating doing something just to annoy 

other people it did occur to me that a genuine smile is 

something truly wonderful that translates across all 

languages and cultures and boundaries.

Smiley people are infectious to be around.

Smiley people are good for the soul.

Remembrance & Thanksgiving

Once a year our Chaplaincy team at the Medway Campus facilitate a day of Remembrance & Thanksgiving.  Whilst this often happens in November each year, it is not directly related to Remembrance Day itself. Rather it is a day for us to honour the memories of staff members, students, friends or family who have passed away during the last year.



As always, Sally Apokis, gave her creative touch to providing a space where people could come, be silent and remember those they've lost. Within our two and a half hour slot we had a short service with scripture readings and poetry and a time to read out the names we had been given and for people to light a candle in remembrance.


This year our time together was especially poignant as the University of Greenwich had lost a much loved staff member during the week prior to our event.

For me personally, this is such an important day in my annual calendar.  This is the heart of our Chaplaincy team ... to provide some space and comfort and a listening ear for those who are hurting in the middle of the demands that make up university life and work.