| 28/6/2005 Last weekend we had the Jugendkonferenz (Youth Conference) at the German Church, in remembrance of the 60th Anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's death. You should take note that the German Church is named after him. The German Church that used to be there was bombed by Germans during WW2 (oh the irony!). Anyway, in this entry I'll give some highlights. Even though the German and Swedish groups started the (small amount of) work on Friday, I naturally couldn't because unlike the other two countries, England is not on holiday. I was the only one from England, but nevertheless I was cheerfully welcomed and considering I can speak German, I didn't feel like an alien. Our work was reading the sermon that Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in prison on the day of his nephew's christening, two extracts from the Bible and an article he wrote criticising the New Year's Resolutions, then we gave our impressions of them. Then we had snacks. We were put into groups to plan parts of the service held the next day. I did the intercessions, or string of prayers. The only reason I mention this is because we (my group that is) worked on the altar. I even put my cup of apple juice on it! ^^ I swear we would have been whipped for that behaviour a few years ago. Lunch was...something. I thought it was Gulasch at first but no one eats a type of soup with pasta. In the afternoon, groups split up and visited either Madame Tussaud's or the British Museum. I've already been to both, so I went home. Having a few hours spare, I played with my brother on Tekken 5. Damn it's a good game! The best Tekken so far! The only downfall is that the character's endings are so...crap. I was invited to go to the Lancaster Hall Hotel, otherwise known as the German YMCA. Don't get any ideas, this is just one of those places where they have exclusive clubs and give people plaques. There we watched a documentary (American made) about Dietrich Bonhoeffer. On the way I found out people ate before entering the hotel so I explored the area around and found a Mandarin restaurant. I wanted Prawn Balls but it was slightly out of my price range, so I had fried squid in battered rings. They were yummy. The documentary was very good, but there was something wrong with the TV because the entire vision was in black and white. But no one seemed bothered to do anything about it. What struck me was that the set provided was TV and DVD player. It used to be TV and VCR and it still is in schools, but hey, technology moves on. On the way home I went into the underground station and saw a homeless person next to the platform entrance. Inspired by Bonhoeffer's teachings of 'act as a Christian now' I gave him a 50p (coin). But immediately after I questioned how he got in if he was poor, since those machines at the station entrance only allowed people in with valid tickets. Strange... On Sunday, the service went well, except some Swedes said Bonhoffer instead of Bonhoeffer (Bonhoofer). But for lunch that day the groups were given frankfurters. FRANKFURTERS! The best sausages in the world! Native to Germany and made best by the Germans! So I took one, despite expecting my Sunday meal. |