The Castlerigg

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Yes, BLOG! - it's short for WEB LOG, a kind of online diary...
Here are some thoughs from the Castlerigg crew

Right... I am just a teeny bit bored, so it's blog time. Not that we only write blog entries when we're bored... oh, okay yeah we do really. Anyway the theme of this blog entry is going to be August. Yes, that's right because if you work in a residential youth centre, August is not always an amazingly captivating month... or so I thought.

Half of the Castlerigg team go on their summer holidays in July and the other half go in August, and until this year I have always worked July and had August off. After 4 Julys on the trot though, I decided that it was time for a chance, so I said nice things to Caz and Fr. Peter and hey presto a trip to sunny Barcelona in July and at work in August.

Now the first thing to note about August is that there is no actual youth work to do. Suprising really given that I am in the habit of calling myself a youth worker. It's not that there isn't anything to do, but the beauty of August is that since your days aren't filled up with young people and night prayers and that kind of crazy stuff, you can have a chance to do all of the things you always wanted to do but never had the time because you had to look after a group. Now for this blog entry, I want to talk the big tidy 2006

The thing that people often don't realise about Castlerigg is it's absolutely full to the brim with stuff. I mean, every cupboard that you open has things stashed in it and nobody every seems to use the majority of it, but for rather strange reasons we never ever seem to chuck things out. For that reason, I decided, together with Teresa and Rosie (who really really really did enjoy it) to tidy Castlerigg for the first time since ABBA were cool, Ipswich Town were winning things and Fr. Peter was young and trendy. It took us about a week in total, but the good news is that Castlerigg is now officially, sort of, tidy. We chucked out 27 binbags of stuff and completely reorganised whole huge parts of the centre. In doing this we sorted through stuff that I don't think had been sorted through since the 1980s... yes, when I said that about ABBA and Ipswich town, I wasn't being sarcastic! It really has been that long.

One of the highlights of our big tidy was some of the stuff that we found. For one thing, we found a guestbook with an entry from Stephen Tompkinson in it. For the uninitiated, he is a famous actor. On a slightly less serious note, we found some really really old stuff. For example, we seem to have kept every youth pack ever produced and we even found one called 'Youth Now - Your Guide to Being Young in the SEVENTIES!'

Tidying places out is actually quite interesting and you can find some fascinating stuff. What's more we can now fill the space we've cleared with modern rubbish for team 2030-31 to find!

Blimey, it's like busses. No blog entries for months on end and then 2 come along at once. My reason for blogging this time is movies. I have secretly always wanted to be a movie reviewer and in the past few days I have seen 2 movies, both of which I feel are worth blogging; one because it was utterly brilliant and the other because... well, it was the Da Vinci Code and being Catholic I am supposed to object it.

The Da Vinci Code has been really hyped up and it has to be said that it is a brilliant movie. It is a great story, really well acted with loads of special effects and nice locations. Also loads of famous actors giving brilliant performances: Tom Hanks, Paul Bettany, Ian McKellen, Jean Reno etc. All in all a great story. But therein lies the problem. Because, you see, some people don't get that it's just a story. Some people believe it alll. I think that a lot of people love conspiracies and to think that old institutions which are stepped in history, tradition, ceremony and a bit of secrecy might be going to great lengths to protect their dark secrets is really appealing for some people. To others, the thought that the Church may be as dodgy as the film makes out could really shake their faith and worry them, I'm sure.

The Da Vinci Code has always worried me because so many people really do seem to think that there's something in it, but there really isn't. If you fancy seeing a really good movie then I can thoroughly reccomend it, but remember that it's just a story with very very little basis in fact.

If you want to have a look at some of the issues surrounding how true the story is then we have devoted a page to that here

The second film I have seen lately is Mission Impossible 3. One of the best films I have seen in a really long time. The problem was though that we almost missed it. I went to see the film with Jon and Rosie. We left late which didn't help (my fault) and were slowed down firstly by the rain. The cinema we were going to is in Ambleside and the road through the Lakes is not the best when it's raining. So that slowed us down. When we got there we had to spend about 5 minutes finding a place to park and when we eventually did find a space, it was so far away from the cinema that we had to walk quite a way to get there. When we did get to the cinema, we found out firstly that it was the wrong cinema (this one is kind of a split-site cinema) and when we did get to the right cinema there was a massive group in front of us who had also turned up late. Luckily we only missed a few seconds of actual storyline and I would like to think that Jon and Rosie secretly enjoyed running through Ambleside!

Anyway MI3 (as cool people call it) was worth the hassle. It was fantastic. It had car chases, explosions, brilliant stunts, a great story, and even a bit of romance - which was probably the only ingredient lacking from the first two MI films. There was one specific bit where Tom Cruise (although I doubt he does his own stunts) had to swing between 2 very tall buildings in Shanghi. Another movie really worth watching. At least nobody thinks this one is true!

Well, it's a fairly boring and quiet day and I was sitting in the office making some repairs and updates to the website... little things like making sure that the titles at the tops of pages all match and fixing the search engine so that it now let's people actually search!! I was doing all of this when I suddenly noticed that nobody had written in the team blog for absolutely ages. Since my last entry below, so much has happened in the world and especially ay Castlerigg...

For one thing, England's fortunes have taken a turn for the worst where Cricket is concerned. Let's hope that football offers some comfort this summer. More importantly though, Castlerigg is going better than ever. I have just finished working on 2 really lovely courses. Our Lady's was really good a few weeks ago and St. Bede's is still fresh in my mind from last week. I really had a good time working on that one. Thanks to everyone for making it so much fun.

We have also found out recently that we are going to get a new director. Have a look at this for more details. We found out just after Easter and he came up shortly after that to spend a day with us. He seems really interesting and I am looking forward to working with him. He strikes me as one of those people who probably has some really interesting stories to tell and some really interesting viewpoints.

The only other interesting thing that has happened to me lately is the new episode of Sharpe. For those who don't know about this, Sharpe is a TV series adapted from the novels about an officer in the early 1800s. It is a kind of boys-own adventure type thing. Lots of shooting, guns, explosions. The new episode was great. Probably more for the lads than the girls though. I also watched Big Brother a few days ago... hated it!

I would like to share with you all a prayer that I wrote just last night. It's a beautiful prayer and I invite you all to pray along with me:

Lord, we thank you for all your good works and especially for England's brilliant victory in the Ashes. We thank you for Michael Vaughn, Andrew Strauss, Marcus Trescothick, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff, Geraint Jones, SImon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, Ashley GIles, Stephen Harmison and Paul Collingwood. We especially give you thanks for Kevin Pietersen's 158 at the Oval, which clinched the series for England, For Flintoff's wickets and for the amazing way in which we humiliated the Aussies all summer! Through your grace and mercy England may keep the Ashes for as long as possible. Amen

I am back at Castlerigg for a few brief days between my 2 summer holidays... myself, Maria and Caz have just got back from a week in Taize... for those of you that have never heard of Taize, click here... It is a place in France where Christians of all denominations go to learn more about one another and about their faith. There were 4,000 people there last week and I got a massive amount out of meeting them and learning from them. We also took part in the Taize prayer services which were incredibly powerful.

My next little summer holiday (which starts at 5.15am tomorrow - thanks for that one, Sean!!) is to go to Koln in Germany for World Youth Day. We are expecting 1.5 million people to turn up, including the Pope. I will get back to Castlerigg tired out, but what the hey... Love & God Bless. Jack.

I have just been reading something on the BBC website about blogs and about what bloggers all over the net have been wrting about the recent bombings. Click here if you're interested. It is part of the BBC News online magazine, which every week scans the various blogs of the world for interesting stuff. Sadly our little Castlerigg blog has yet to catch their eye! But anyway, it showed what some of the people who had been close to the bombings wrote in their blogs and it was quite interesting. It reminded me that Castlerigg has a blog and that we really don't use it enough...

I was actually on some days off last week when I found out about the bombings. I was driving down a motorway in the south and I saw a message on one of those electronic sign things that you get on motorways. It said: AVOID LONDON. AREA CLOSED. I turned on the radio straight away and found out what was going on.

It was a very bizarre day, but it was impressive to see certain things... It was good to see that there didn't seem to be much anger and very few people were calling for immediate revenge. People were focussed on helping survivors and comforting the grieving. As I was coming the other way back down that some motorway listening to the radio, all of the messages that were coming in to five live were simply people saying how proud they were to be part of a country that had handled such a crisis so well.

At times like this my immediate response is, I suppose, to want to see the people responsible brought swiftly and painfully to justice. But then after a while the more Christian side of me kicks in and I remember that ultimately there are larger concerns, like praying for the people caught up in it all...

If you want my take on the situation then I suppose that the greatest sadness is that the terrorists have got such a skewed idea of God; the God they think they are serving with massive bombings... I have always thought that God is love. Above all else God IS love... He wants us to know him and to know ourselves better and we can only do that in love - love of eachother, love of him, love of ourselves... Things go wrong when people get the wrong idea of what God wants of them. Very few of us will ever be able to answer that question 100%, but how much have things gone wrong when you try to serve God with murder and violence.

It's hard to feel so detached and helpless in such a terrible situation. Sometimes all you can do is pray. Pope Benedict XVI, a few years before he was Pope said something which, for me says it all... he said that faith and prayer are forces which can influence history and that in the end prayer is more powerful than bullets and faith more powerful than armies

Eternal Rest, grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace...

Well it is getting worryingly close to the end of the year and no matter how many times I see years end and people leave Castlerigg, it is still never incredibly easy. This year we will be losing Mike, Gabi and Scott... Mike has been with us for 2 years, while the other 2 have been with us since September 04. We will miss them all loads.

New years also have a funny habit of bringing new people with them. In August Rosie will join us from Blackpool as will John from Sunderland. They are both 18 and have just finished A-levels. They will be our gap year volunteers. Jon Cornwall will also be joining the team. Jon will be a youth tutor on a 2-year contract. Jon is currently on the team at Walsingham House; the centre of Brentwood Diocese. It will be good to start getting to know them all come August.

At the moment Castlerigg is in a little bit of a lull. There are no courses this week and next week as the house is just being used to put up primary kids who are doing their own thing (well, the teachers are running it anyway!) Times like this are a little boring but it lets me get a lot of things done. IF you want proof that I am not just sitting around watching Cricket then have a look at www.lancastercys.com. Note though that I have been watching some Cricket and am looking forward to seeing England reclaim the Ashes this summer.

I watched all of the G8 stuff yesterday, which was great. Dido was a particular highlight.

At the moment I am alone in the house. Why? Because Mike, Teresa and Scott are on their summer holidays, Gabi is on days off and Caz, Rosey, and Maria are camping in a field in Edinburgh having taken part in the big Make Poverty History march yesterday.

Dear everyone, I love you all! I have just had 2 really really wonderful weeks with the beautiful people from Oldham and Lytham. They were fantastic. Extra special hello to groups 2 and 3 of respective weeks. I hope you all had a wonderful time. I certainly did. Hope to see you all on SIGNPOSTS. I am feeling very happy at the moment due to the beautiful weather at the moment in the Lake District. I love the sun. Lots and lots of love and God bless. Rosey xxx

It seems to me that the Castlerigg staff really aren't taking this blog thing seriously. Or rather, with the massive amount of work they have on at the minute, I guess they just don't have so much time. Anyway, here is my ten cents worth... life here is hectic at the moment but fun and worthwhile as always. We have had some great courses lately... Holy Cross, St. Cecilia's, All Hallows, to name but a few... We are all a bit ill at the moment though. AAAHH!

Right... here is the inaugural (not sure how to spell that word... wild guess) blog entry... I feel somehow honoured. I don't really have anything interesting to say, but I guess that's the way it's going to go generally... Big hello to the St. Mary's, Blackpool crew from last week. I am still recovering... Great week. Looking forward to Blackburn next week.