What week is this?

Our time here in Oxford is a bit odd, as the "weeks" of the institute run from Thursday through Wednesday (if we assume that the day of rest is the 7th day of the week, a la Genesis). So last Thursday as I set myself up to take notes after lunch, I typed: Monday. 'Cause it felt like a Monday!

But then we also get Saturday and Sunday free (yeah -- these summer institutes are just killers!). So this morning it was easier to realize it's a Monday, except that the date isn't the 15th, as it will be a week after that first "Monday" of the session. And just when I figure this out, I'm sure we'll be about to leave. Alas!

The mix in the institute is fair, though we have a very limited number of Asians, Blacks, and Hispanics. Age and gender diversity is pretty wide, though, with an predominance, if anything, of early- to mid- 30s and female. Jeremy Cohen, the first-week leader, commented on the likelihood that we wouldn't get over our politeness in time for him really to begin to enjoy the session -- and he seems to be just about right! We've been a bit tentative so far, exploring how much we can each bring from our very diverse backgrounds to engage the conversation, hopefully without hijacking it in any one direction. We've moved from the New Testament through the early church theologians and Augustine's paradigmatic doctrine of Jewish witness, to the first crusade with its violence and now into the meaty center of our focus -- the High Middle Ages of the 12th and 13th century. There is no dearth of interesting questions, substantive and methodological, to keep us busy.

On Thursday last we headed into Oxford for the evening and found a quieter town than in the daytime. Had some good traditional pub food at The Red Lion right off Gloucester Green, and have learned to navigate pretty well on public transportation (the Stagecoach bus service). Friday Lynn took the walking tour of Oxford and got some nice pix, along with a lot of info. I headed off after lunch to North Oxford Golf Course and teed it up for the first time in four weeks. Nice enough track -- on the short side at par 67 but narrow and demanding. Played with a couple of nice young programmers who try to get out regularly on Fridays at about 2 pm when twilight" rates come in -- that despite the fact that twilight had only begun to arrive when we finished playing about 6:15 pm. My two-bus connection back to Yarnton missed by 8 minutes, so I walked the 3 miles or so and learned that it isn't any quicker walking than it would have been waiting 50 minutes for the next bus.

Up on Saturday early and off to "That Other Place" (as each of the major university towns is known in the other one). Arrived about noon and found the Railway Lodge Guest House. We had been fortunate to charm the owner into releasing an unsecured reservation for us, as the city was packed -- an air show nearby, a Formula One race, and the annual city summer festival all were going on. Lovely afternoon in the Fitzwilliam Museum exhibitions and then early supper at The Eagle, where one day Francis Crick announced from the bar that he and James Watson had discovered "the secret of life" -- the double helix of DNA -- just 'round the corner at the Cavendish Lab. That lab is a center of the universe, as it was also the location for the discovery of the electron and the neutron, the first splitting of an atom, and the first fully functional stored-program electronic digital computer. And now all the relevant departments have been moved to other locations, so who knows what might come next from this omphalos?

After supper walked the "Whistlestop Tour" of Cambridge, round and round, to get a taste of the whole town and university. Stopped by the town fair on the way back to a welcome bed, albeit in a hot third-floor garret with a very noisy cooler that ran all night.

Sunday breakfast courtesy of Mr. Tony King and his staff was most ample, then off to the 10 am Eucharist at St. Bene't's (abridgment of Benedict -- he of Nursia), with its 11th-c. stone tower, the oldest structure in Cambridge. Also the parish home of the Rev. Deborah Ford and her husband, Dr. David Ford, Regius Professor of Theology at the university. David and I have worked together and known one another through the Hartman Institute and his scriptural reasoning project for a good decade, and it was good to catch up again after the service. Also to catch up with Ed Kessler of the Cambridge Centre for Jewish-Christian Studies at a local Caffe Nero. Then to Kings' College where the line and one-hour total opening time finally precluded our visiting, and back on the X5 direct bus to "That Other Place."

Off to visit new friends whom we met in Istanbul and who live here in Oxford. More soon! --p&l