Perhaps I’ve been listening to too much BBC News on the radio or I’m a little too obsessed with Britcoms but… I’ve been wishing that Jon and I could move to England. It’s not feasible right now because it would be muy expensive (especially with student loans to pay off) but I have dreamed for a while of going back there to visit and spending more than 24 hours in London and seeing the English countryside. I’d love to go to England for a month and explore or even study there for some reason.

I’ve dreamed of living in a village there, especially after reading The Shell Seekers ten years ago. Jon has expressed interest in pastoring a country church and I could be a pastor in the Church of England. I love old stone churches and high liturgies that evoke echoes of how my ancestors worshipped before pomo xianity became popular. I love churches with a strong choral tradition and Anglicanism in general.

(And yes Brianna and Richard, we are still considering a move to Canada. This will be true especially if Bush is re-elected in November.)

Hi, I’m Brianna, yet another guest blogger. My website is called Wonderblossom. Today I want to talk about sin.

Last week I was camping on the Sunshine Coast with my in-laws and one of the many things we discussed was sin. We talked about the fact that my husband feels his parents didn’t really talk about or emphasize sin while they were raising him. It’s not really hard for us to mention the word “sin”, to discuss it, or to openly – not to mention verbally – recognize it in our lives and try to correct it. His parents were raised in a way that over-emphasized sin and used it in a manipulative, unbiblical way, so they were reacting to that. My husband’s mom and dad realized that one thing they do is that they often say that something “doesn’t feel right” instead of saying something is a sin. One of the results of this is that my husband doesn’t know how to talk about sin. I was raised in a non-Christian family, so I never learned how to talk abot sin, either. That’s an area we struggle with in our marriage and in our personal relationships with Christ.

Today at church we realized that sin is almost never discussed from the pulpit, either. We confess our sins in the liturgy every Sunday, but that’s about it. We also rarely hear other people talk about sin in a personal way. We started to wonder whether it’s a generational thing. Were your parents sin-shy? Are you sin-shy? How do you deal with sin in your life? In your marriage? Do you talk about it? Do you use the word “sin” or do you use a euphemism? Are you willing to tell other people who are close to you that they are sinning? How do you do that? When you say the word “sin” with regards to yourself, what emotions do you feel? Are you comfortable speaking about sin? Do you use sin as a tool for manipulation? Do other people around you talk about sin? If so, how?

I’d really (really, really) love to hear what others have to say on this topic. Discuss away!

Look who’s having a birthday – happy b-day, Jen! May you enjoy many more. And may the fickle finger of fate be kind as you guys continue to travel the countryside!