Reader Training - Weekend away.

We travelled to St. Marks college to spend the weekend studying and practicing the Pastoral Cycle. Its a tool for understanding issues or problems, and coming towards a resolution, or maybe agreeing that there is no resolution. We were put in groups of four and asked to present an issue. the facilitator helped us to use the cycle on the issue. To do it four times may seem like overkill, indeed thats what I thought at lunchtime. In the second two sessions the process became almost automatic, and the facilitator had to spend less time and effort guiding us. Each session was followed by a break, or a meal. This gave us time to rest our brains. Concentrating that intensely for seventy five minutes is quite tiring. We now have a basic understanding of the tool, and hopefully will be able to use it at some stage before we forget what we have learned.

The training was very good, the facilitator for my group was very capable, and insightful. The overall management of the weekend was pretty good too. The food was nice, if a little old fashioned. The time set aside for 'free' time was useful, and the weather was brilliant. The film shown on the Saturday evening "Sideways" was OK, a nice little story of a couple of teenagers (in their thirties probably) finally beginning to grow up. A number of people said the wine snobbery thing was a bit annoying, some people just drank wine. Personally I think being annoyed by that was part of the film - teenage obsessions are annoying!

What didn't I like? The accomodation. St Marks is designed for children. Sharing a room as an adult is a different ball game altogether, and is something that everyone seemed unhappy with. I had a really poor nights sleep on Friday. The curtains don't close properly, the stairs (which were almost a ladder) have an automatic light, that detected all movement updtairs and switched on the light. So I turned over, and on came the light! I covered the PIR on Saturday, so no light. The bed was also too short, and very uncomfortable. The choice of date was also less than ideal. Some of the participants have young children, and Sunday was Fathers Day in England.