is this a community birthing?

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So pub theo happened again last night. I forget now how long we have been meeting, but it must be around 2 years. That’s a lot of theology, a lot of discussion, a lot of arguing, a lot of pulling ideas apart and rebuilding them, a lot of learning from each other, a lot of challenging, a lot of …. well a lot of good fun with a great and always changing group of people really!

Last night we touched on the rights and wrongs of freedom of speech based on Boris banning a certain bus advert. We ended up asking whether we do actually have free speech in this country and it was interesting to see a number of us disagreeing with the sentiment of the advert in question but struggling with the removal of their right to be heard.

Last night saw a lot of theological discussion as we moved on to other topics but this was interspersed by a lot of general chat around catching up with each other. I think last night may have been the first time that the theological and the catching up discussion was around a 50-50 balance. It seemed like something of community was evident and starting to grow … and I wonder if that can be the case after meeting only a few times over beer, food and talk? I guess it is a good, if not the best, way to start!

people meeting God?

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Next weekend in Rochester sees the return of the Sweeps Festival. This is probably my favourite of the Rochester Festivals which is a collection of great music (most of it free in or outside pubs), dancing (50ish Morris Dancing groups) and of course beer. If I were to choose one festival to come to in Rochester then it would be the Sweeps Festival without a doubt; the atmosphere is great, and people come to relax, listen, watch and have a good time.

In the cathedral we will again by hosting our Dekhomai stand from Saturday until Monday. This is a ‘welcoming place’ in part of the cathedral which offers a place to sit and chat, prayer for healing, dream interpretation, the making of prayer beads and hand or foot massage. If you are in the area why not pop in and say hi … or if you would like to get involved we could still do with a another team member on Sunday or Monday afternoon. The ethos of the stand is to simple welcome and serve people with an aim of helping those who are searching to re-connect with God. At the end of every encounter, whether it is a Jesus Deck reading, a foot massage or a general chat we offer to pray for each person and their family. In this way we believe people meet with God.

In previous years people have asked about the Jesus Deck which, sadly, have been out of print and difficult to get hold of. They are now back and you can order a Jesus Deck here. While on the Jesus Deck I was intrigued to see it being used as a lectionary over on Steve’s blog … hadn’t thought of that and I could see that being really powerful for some people.

love and sacrifice

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At the Other Cinema last night I had the joy of watching W.E., the latest Madonna directed film that follows the story of Wallis Simpson and Prince / King Edward. I should say – there are no spoilers in this post!

I wondered about going to this film because I had only seen very negative reviews. The strength of my intrigue, however, to see how Madonna would take this classic story got me there and I was not disappointed! This film is worth watching – ignore the critics and go see for yourself!

Madonna both wrote the screenplay and directed and the results are, quite simply, stunning. I was mesmerised by much of the the film and loved the way Madonna’s skill in choreography shone through some of the carefully constructed walking scenes. Her mix of old and new were also exciting to see …. she uses the classic Sex Pistols ‘Pretty Vacant‘ in one scene … but as I said no spoilers here … you’ll have to see it to find out how!

This is a deep, sad, occasionally funny and sometimes hard to watch film. I think there is an autobiographical element here, and a load of religious symbolism to challenge the heart and mind. Ultimately it’s a film about love and sacrifice.

The two main characters are two very strong women. The film is also directed by a strong woman … and I wonder whether the (mainly) male critics just simply could not cope with so much proper women power around – there is no other conceivable reason for such poor reviews!

As I said above … if you get a chance … watch the film!

a sign of promise?

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The time away in Cornwall was great … the scenery stunning and the company simply beautiful. I find there are few places I can truly relax and be myself, but as we drove south I could feel stress floating away from me the closer we got to the Cornish coastline and our friends.

There was lots of space in Cornwall to rest and relax and think and pray …. my photo shows the amazing scene we woke up to one morning. I don’t think I have ever seen a complete rainbow before – it was a special and stunning start to the day with a timely reminder for me personally that God keeps promises.

It was a beautiful sight, it was an encouraging sight …. a sight that reminds us, as people, that all is not lost … that God is still clearly visible in the beauty that is at the heart of his creation.

Burn!

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So … my placement at St Stephens has come to an end. I say that with a tinge of sadness as I have enjoyed meeting and working with new people – there were some highlights of my time in a parish setting and there were some things, notably some residential care home ministry, where I was really taken out of my comfort zone and new instantly that this was not my calling. It was interesting to see in that experience, however, that those I was working with really were called to those care homes and worked under a massive blessing and ability from God. The love they were shown and showed to both staff and guests was simply amazing to see. Although this was not for me it was easy to see the power and importance of such a ministry. In the past I may have dismissed the importance of this – I will not in the future.

I guess if I were to pick highlights it would be working with different people on certain creative events. It reminded me that I love working with people who share ideas together in an attempt to produce something that will help us in our discovery of God. There were some very creative people at St. Stephens (although most of them would dent that they are) and I really loved the opportunity to work with them. I learned from them and hopefully they will have learned something from me – and that is not a fishing request for compliments!

One particular unique highlight of working with creative people was at a local school where I presided at a eucharist service.  Prior to this service the school chaplain had asked students to write things they were sorry for and these confessions were mixed in a bowl with flash paper. As I gave the absolution I lit the flash paper which resulted in a pretty amazing display of God taking away that stuff so we can lived renewed lives. The joy of working again with young people was a real pleasure …. this was not just chosen for the great photo opportunity! (although it does loo pretty cool!)

I experienced lots of good stuff on placement and the whole experience has actually helped a lot in sorting in my mind what I am called to …. there is no change in the pioneer outlook. In fact, the placement has done lots to cement with myself and others that pioneering is what I am called to … so the next step is just to work out how to do that now!

I want to publicly thank all at St Stephen’s for their generous hospitality of time love and energy …. it really was fun!

the paschal mystery

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Todays meditation from Richard Rohr .. a good way to enter whatever the Tuesday of Holy Week may have for us:

Christians speak of the “paschal mystery,” the process of loss and renewal that was lived and personified in the death and raising up of Jesus. We can affirm that belief in ritual and song, as we do in the Eucharist. However, until we have lost our foundation and ground, and then experience God upholding us so that we come out even more alive on the other side, the expression “paschal mystery” is little understood and not essentially transformative.

Paschal mystery is a doctrine that we Christians would probably intellectually assent to, but it is not yet the very cornerstone of our life philosophy. That is the difference between belief systems and living faith. We move from one to the other only through encounter, surrender, trust and an inner experience of presence and power.

In other words … we need to live it out in our normal everyday lives!

‘on the way to one’

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Dear friend
Today you will be seeing the wonderful scenes in newspapers and on TV of people celebrating Aung San Suu Kyi’s election victory. It looks as if the National League for Democracy has won most, if not all, of the 44 seats they contested.

In the past we always thought that Aung San Suu Kyi entering Parliament would be the final step on the path to democracy. As it turns out, it looks like this is just the first step. The NLD will only have around five percent of the seats in Parliament, while the military and the pro-military party have over 80 percent. Parliament itself has little power, and the Military have an effective veto over decisions by Parliament.

This is why, when Aung San Suu Kyi was asked last week to rank how democratic Burma is on a scale of one to ten, she answered: ‘On the way to one’.

Let’s not be in any doubt, Burma’s military rulers didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide they wanted Burma to be a democracy. They were under economic and political pressure, and they wanted that pressure lifted.  The sanctions and diplomatic pressure we have all worked so hard for over many years are now having an impact. Some reforms have happened, but there is still a long way to go.

Hundreds of political prisoners remain in jail, they must not be left behind. Human rights abuses actually increased last year, with the Burmese Army killing, raping and torturing.

Aung San Suu Kyi will try to use Parliament as a platform for further change, repealing repressive laws and changing the constitution, but the challenges she faces are immense. This is why we must continue to stand with her and all those still struggling for democracy in Burma.

Today is a day for celebration, but tomorrow it’s back to work. There is still a long road ahead.

The pressure is working. Please make a donation today to ensure we can keep supporting the people of Burma until they truly win their freedom. You can donate online here.

Thank you
Burma Campaign UK

PS:  Burma Campaign UK helped journalists from all over the world report on the by-elections from Burma. It’s one of the many ways we work hard behind the scenes ensuring the voices of people from Burma can be heard.

We also published a briefing paper here.

See Zoya Phan, Campaigns Manager at Burma Campaign UK, interviewed on Channel 4 News here.  Donate online at: http://www.burmacampaign.org.uk/donate

a bench of bishops

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One of the highlights of being on placement at St Stephens over Lent ans been the Lent course planned by the Chatham Deanery of churches. On 5 successive Wednesday evenings they managed to get a bishop to speak as follows:

Bishop James Rochester: empowering mission relevant to our society and culture
Bishop Stephen Venner: how does war enable or disable mission?
Bishop Brian Tonbridge: What can we learn about mission from other countries?
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali: Mission to those with other faiths and none
Bishop Michael Turnbull: A Church of England kind of mission.

In that collection we have two former bishops of Rochester, the current and Suffragen bishops of Rochester and the Bishop for the Armed Forces … the deanery did well at getting them together! A you would expect the quality of the speaking has been excellent and thought provoking.  If there was one bishop missing, I would have liked to see Bishop Graham Cray with some title like ‘mission for new times’ … but in a way many of them approached that from their individual perspectives.

Rather than write after each bishop I have decided to wait and pull out one thought from each as I look back over Lent:

Bishop James took the text of Jeremiah 29 and challenges us to settle in the places we are called to. He implied many long to be moved from where they are and hold back … but we are encouraged by Jeremiah’s words to the exiles to put down roots and really become parts of our communities.
Bishop Stephen  took a line on warfare now being very complicated and so ministry and mission being complicated to; with Jesus demanding we love our enemies as well as our friends. This could demand that Christians could be in places and positions that could be both dangerous geographically and unpopular sociologically.
Bishop Brian got us thinking about worship and mission being two sides of the same coin, asking ‘is worship mission?’ and ‘is mission worship?’ It’s a great question as many seem to concentrate on one to the detriment of others.
Bishop Michael Nazir Ali  challenged us in how we balance the hospitality and embassy sides of our faith; that is how we welcome people and how we go out to people.he underlined this by reminding us that the Abrahamic call to be a blessing to others still stood! In response to some comments he reminded us that on this earth there is no God vacuum – God is everywhere and can be found everywhere!
Bishop Michael Turnbull finished the series by talking about the importance of people and their stories and that our beliefs should be seen as a framework om which our faith grows, using a plant growing on a trellis as an image. I liked this image as it showed that the plant (faith) grows around the framework (belief) in different ways and even beyond the framework leaving loose ends. To hear a mature and respected bishop say he still had ‘loose ends of faith’ or doubt but still had  firm faith is pretty encouraging!

As I said it has been a good 6 Wednesday evenings which has given us loads to think about. They all challenge me but I guess most are those thoughts to put down roots, to be a blessing, and notice God is all situations are the things that spoke to me the most.

Mucky Paws

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For a while I have subscribed to Mucky Paws … great creative liturgies from Roddy Hamilton. I found this catching my eye this week in particular … a challenge to remember what it’s all about!

The passion of Christ is something the church is invited into… not just to try out like a new dress… but to identify with… in other words to be marked with… This Sunday of the passion of Christ is the time to betaken back to our original identity… to be in communion with the suffering of the world…

The success of a church however is usually described through numbers… a growing community… an enhanced sanctuary… a tea bar and a coffee bar… ten bible studies and hundreds in our youth groups…

But that is success only by worldly standards… The word ‘success’ is not a gospel word… it is not in the vocabulary of heaven… it is a word never found on the lips of Jesus…

Success can never be used of the church… so hush your mouthes you doom merchants of the church… Anything we do it can only be marked against how we identify with the suffering of the world… how much this community of faith-people… is in communion… shares the passion… the suffering… of the people of Palestine… Syria… Peru… Korea…

This is a passion that takes us out of ourselves… our local community… and places us… side by side… with those globally… invited into our suffering as we are into theirs…

How much do we partner people… not from a position of power… but in the place of pain… sharing the suffering enough that it becomes part of who we are… Living any other way as the church… simply bloats us with numbers… that brings a comfort that is closer to the high priest in Jerusalem… than the saviour on the cross…

This passiontide… we bring ourselves back to our primary identity… to carry that cross… and share in the passion… that is very real in our world today… In sharing in this suffering of the world… we come face to face with Jesus Christ…

You can subscribe here if you wish.

Day 36 … 20:80

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It’s been a little while since I have given a placement update … which is poor of me as SHP is the main format through which my time at St Stephens will be reflected upon in the weeks after Easter.

A lot has happened … nothing particularly out of the ordinary, but a lot. I mentioned in my last update that a reflection I had was that parish ministry is quite crammed and there needs to be a lot of discipline exerted if you wish to achieve the stuff you set out to do and not be deflected by a lot of good but other stuff. For me this is meeting with those outside the church regularly, and I have been able to develop a loose timetable around parish stuff that still allows that to happen. That does mean I am catching up on other stuff in the early hours of the morning, but that is sustainable for a few weeks.

I have to be careful how I share this next reflection, but I am not criticising anyone at all here, but I am noticing that St Stephens is like many other churches I have attended as far as distribution of workload goes. I reckon about 20% of the congregation do something like 80% of the work. I see the same people at events and various planning, PCC and other meetings. We have planned a creative Palm Sunday evening service … and again the people involved in the planning and running of that are the same people I have seen at other things.

It seems that getting a lot of people involved is a challenge because of busy lifestyles and other commitments; I have no right to criticise or challenge that. As I said, I am not making a judgement but merely reflecting on an observation. I do  think it’s a model of church that we need to be careful of. There are many ‘post church’ people around who have been burnt out by the inherited church 20:80 model and so quietly left the building!. There are a few people like that that have passed through the gathering, stayed a while and then moved on to another church.

One of the values of the gathering is one of inclusivity and on our about us/vision page you may find the following line: We believe church is about participation and engagement of the majority, rather than being consumerist and led by a few specialists. We find the reality of that to be a real challenge, and in many ways we still aspire to that value, but I think we are moving in the right direction; even if quite slowly. One thing we are learning is that it is easier to produce something or take on a task when we know what is fully expected.

I’d be interested …. is this other peoples observation of parish life, I mean the 20:80 thing? Have others noticed that? What do you think the reasons are? Is it a matter of people being too busy, or is it more a case of needing to make it easier for people to become involved? Are there any answers or is this a simple case of ‘that’s just how it is’?