Suu Kyi Barred From Burma Election

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Burma’s dictatorship have finally published laws governing so-called elections later this year. The new laws ban Aung San Suu Kyi from taking part in the elections, as she has a conviction following the sham trial last year after an American man swam to her house. The Burma Campaign UK is calling on the United Nations Security Council to take action, as even countries sympathetic to the generals can no longer claim the elections will be free and fair. You can view our media release here.

Campaign Success! – UN Burma Expert Backs Calls For Inquiry Into War Crimes
The UN Special Rapporteur on Burma has called for a UN Commission of Inquiry into possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in Burma. For years the regime has been raping and killing civilians, recruiting child soldiers, and using hundreds of thousands of people as slave labour. Now we need to persuade the British government to support the call for a UN inquiry.

Take Action:
If you live in the UK, you can write to your MP asking them to sign a Parliamentary motion calling on the government to support an inquiry. Already 178 MPs have backed the motion.

A few moments of your time could transform the lives of others!

Creativity is not a novelty

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http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=10024185&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Creativity is Not Novelty from Transposition Films on Vimeo.

‘We confuse creativity with novelty’
and
‘church is not the place for evangelism’

are two comments from Steve Frost that may get you thinking …. creatively(!?)

Hysterical fabrications

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Hysterical Fabrications opens tomorrow evening at the Nucleus Arts Centre in Chatham.

This is Nigel Adams’ first solo exhibition of his work; so it will be a great event to get to. I love the fact that Medway is becoming a place where local artists can be both encouraged and display their creations.

I’m planning to go along tomorrow to the opening – anyone fancy joining me?

The Prodigal Father

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Today’s Lent thought from Giving It Up was based on what is probably my favourite story from the bible.

Maggi gives a taste of her thinking on her blog today.

‘the first person in the story to throw the cash around was actually the Father, not the son…’ intrigues … go read more!

a safe place

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http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=9882718&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
Providing A Safe Place from The Work Of The People on Vimeo.

some wise words here from Walter Bruggemann on church being safe place for people to come with their pain and their doubts:

‘church ought to be providing a liturgical grid and a safe place inviting people to be honest about their life, because when we get honest that gives us energy for transformation.‘

discuss ……

Mother

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There is an amazing art installation in the cathedral at the moment, which if you are around you might like to make the effort to pop in and see. Actually, if you are not around, plan to come see Mother and then meet me for coffee or lunch afterward (your shout!! lol)!

Mother is an exhibition of Vaughan Grylls, who is one of the lay members of chapter. The images are gripping and provide a real presence in the lady chapel.

I have put some pictures taken yesterday on Flickr here; but they do the exhibition no justice at all, so come see! We have the exhibition here until 26th march.

There is a great news report here from BBC South East which includes an interview with Vaughan outlining the exhibition and his inspiration for the work.

finding the Kingdom in the everyday

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It’s been a good weekend with quality time spent with friends and a mixture of stuff to do at the cathedral. The Gills even picked up 3 points, although the performance was pretty inept and it is crystal clear that the manager has no more ideas up his sleeve and simply needs to leave … but that’s another blog story.

The weekend has been one of those where we have been able to spend lots of time with lots of different people: drinking in the club before the match, being with friends during the match, with friends again after the match at a Chinese restaurant to celebrate Conors birthday. After Evensong this afternoon we popped down to Andrew and sarah’s for coffee … which turned out to be a bottle or 2 of red wine …. that’s a great way to let the rest of Sunday disappear.

In the cathedral itself I have been struck by the quality of our worship. The choir were brilliant as is normal, but today conversations with people seemed to show the depth of love and respect that is around the place as well. It is difficult to put into words, but I think there was something special about today.

I guess I am reflecting on how fortunate I am. It is easy to become complacent. I am part of a fantastic family and group of friends, I work in a magnificent place with an amazing job to do and I guess it is quite easy to take all these things for granted.

In my Lent reading today I read of the lost coin (Luke 15) and Maggi’s commentary on how the Kingdom of God works through the little everyday things that seem insignificant in the wider scheme of things but are personally quite important.

Today I have experienced the brilliance of the Kingdom of God in the normal everyday things of my life.

church: an echo chamber for the divine word

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I went to the changing the landscape conference yesterday in Lincoln which was excellent for me on a variety of different levels.

First it was great because I was able to catch up with some friends from my past. Vaughan and Karen Pollard were on the staff of Holy Trinity Nailsea, when I was the youth pastor, there and now run Connect, a new Fresh Expression in Spalding. Secondly I managed to grab coffee with new friends such as Heather who I have been chatting with over things like Twitter for a little while. It always amazes me how the emerging/fresh expression world is quite small but well connected, which I think is important for us if we are to survive!

The conference was amazing with Archbishop Rowan being his normal outstanding self. I think Heather best described his address when she likened it to steak …. amazing at first sight but then as you chew you realise how amazing it really is. Rowan said a lot in 40 or so minutes which needs to settle in my mind; but some highlights:

 – church is simply what happens when Jesus Christ is around and church is always a verb before it is a noun

– it takes time to be a Christian, and so we need patience and respect to let things unfold and not put new churches under pressure for results in a short space of time.

– for all we know, we may be the early church!

– we are not about membership, or a great new product – church is about transformation in both individuals and communities.

and my favourite ‘steak like’ comment which is going to stay with me for a while and no doubt appear in a  lot of blogs and sermons over the next few months: 

– the church is an echo chamber for the divine word; it resounds in us from our inner being. Christ needs to be audible and visible

No doubt the whole text will appear on his website or the Fresh Expressions website soon. 

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As I have said before I am reading Maggi Dawn’s ‘Giving It Up’ during Lent.

I have been moved close to tears by this morning’s reading and thought. The reading is Exodus 3:1-4 where Moses ‘turns aside’ to investigate the burning bush.  Maggi uses this to outline how Moses has seemingly got into a rut, trying to stay below the radar, so not to get into trouble for his past life.

When Moses turns aside and follows his curiosity that he hears God’s voice. He did not do the sensible thing – the sensible thing would have been to stay away from fire and protect the sheep that were in his care. He left the sheep to look after themselves and went to see what was happening – he was attracted by the bright sparkly thing …. and in the bright sparkly thing which he was naturally interested in he found God.

I chat with too many people today who seemed trapped inside their own minds. People who feel the call from God on their lives means lots of hard work and little fun. It’s the ‘Oh I don’t say I’ll never go to Africa – because if I don’t want that God is sure to send me there’ syndrome.

How doid we get here?
How have we missed one simple fact which oozes from scripture.
GOD LOVES US AND WANTS THE BEST FOR US!
yep – that’s in capitals, yep its bold, and yep I was shouting it!!! No … it’s not netiquette!

If you love dancing and that gives you joy – dance for God!
If you love singing, sing. It’s its football, play for God.
If you love numbers, solve sums with God!
If it’s serving in the armed forces, serve for God!
Follow your dreams – they come from your creator!
Don’t believe all callings are into full or even part time ministry -God needs people who are fully alive, and you become fully alive by following your dreams and using the gifts you have.

Maggi ends todays thought with this paragraph:

Put aside what other people say you ought to do, and put aside your own mental commentary about what you think God will make you do. Instead, do what Moses did. Follow whatever you find intriguing, intellectually or artistically stimulating; go where your curiosity and your natural gifts lead you; and when you do, keep an ear open, because sooner or later you will hear the voice of God whispering your name.

Go be …..

mind body spirit at sweeps … come join us!

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‘Medway’s annual Sweeps Festival recreates the joy and laughter enjoyed by the chimney sweeps at their traditional holiday: the one time of the year the sweeps could leave the soot behind and have some fun. The sweeps’ holiday was traditionally held on 1 May each year. Locally, they used to mark the occasion by staging a procession through the streets of Rochester. The modern day Rochester Sweeps Festival is a colourful mix of music, dancing and entertainment with more than 60 Morris sides and entertainers celebrating throughout the three-day festival.’      (Medway Council website)

Essentially, Sweeps is a 3 day folk, Morris dancing and beer festival. The people that attend are looking for an experience and searching for opportunities to engage and/or make sense of with what is going on around them.

At Rochester Cathedral we have a history of being open and available during festivals and in more recent years we have attempted to attempt to engage more with people during a variety of worship and art installations.

Following attending my first Sweeps Festival last year I noticed very much that the festival goers appeared to be looking for an ‘experience’ and were interested in ‘spiritual’ areas of luck/blessings associated with sweeps and the spirituality that exists around morris dancing and folk music.
Our plan this year is to set up a stall outside the cathedral, pretty much along the same lines as Dekhomai; offering foot and hand massage, prayer and anointing for healing, prayer beads, blessings, prayer postcards based on St Florian (the patron saint of sweeps) and so on.

The festival runs from Saturday to Monday and I am looking to recruit a team to cover 6 sessions over the 3 days. I hope to recruit six groups of 3 people, around 18 people in total to cover a session. People are fee to volunteer for a whole day or days rather than a session if they wish. The sessions will run from 10am – 1pm and 1pm – 5pm. Of course we can be flexible with these timings as well!

If people have not done stuff like this before hand we will run an informal training session at the cathedral.

If you might be interested please contact me through the blog and we can take it from there.