Stand by your man... (NOT!)

Anyone in the UK cannot have missed the story today of Father Tim Jones, parish priest at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York, who has been pilloried not only by the media but by his Archdeacon as well. Unbelieveable... well, maybe it isn't so surprising.

It is well worth reading the full transcript of Fr. Tim's excellent sermon on Sunday 20th, based around the Magnificat which includes the sentence: 'My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.' Now although Fr. Tim does actually concede that shoplifting could, in extremis, be a solution, the context is clear in his sermon. Over and above that is the point he made so clearly on BBC Five Live today that the 'tut tutting' contempt of the relative wealthy (who spend 100s or even 1000s on 'utter tat for Christmas') for some poor unfortunate who has just taken a can of ravioli worth 80p is a 'grotesque indictment of who we are'. I am minded of the established Biblical principal of allowing certain of our crops at the side of our fields to be gleaned by the poor... there is a precedent for taking only what you need, remember the Manna in the wilderness?

What was really encouraging was to listen to some of the callers who had shown enormous and generous compassion, some simply turning a blind eye to some transgressors and others simply paying for the goods that someone had tried to liberate. In stark contrast the Archdeacon of York was condescending and dismissive, promising to give Father Tim a good talking to to put him straight. How ironic that, once again, the establishment is so readily prepared to undermine someone acting in a Christlike manner and, in a corporate sense, not stand by their very own?

Respect Fr. Tim, keep up the good work... oh that we (read I) may learn how to be as dangerous as Jesus too.

Away in a (bus shelter) manger..

After our local Christmas Market here on Mersea my son and I were 'walking' the crib back to the church when I thought I would quickly snap our local bus shelter with the manger inside... this links in with the bus stop ad that's running. Then today I read Ship of Fools co-editor Steve Goddard's tweet about the nativity cribs abandoned in London to draw attention to the plight of the 100,000 children that sleep rough each year. This is a campaign launched by the charity 'Railway Children' which champions the welfare of street children.

Encouraging yet deeply challenging stuff...

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It doesn't have to always be this way...

This article on Jonny Baker's Blog caught my eye today... initially because I know Walthamstow well and had many happy years living there and my son Sam was born in Whipp's Cross round the corner.

Just when I was getting a bit despondent along comes news of a bit of 'proper' church which made changes to their regular routine enabling them to become missional where the community is. The word re-invent is often applied to church. My preference is to use the verb re-imagine and this scheme, by ordained C of E vicar Revd Tony Cant, currently at St. Lukes, is spot on. Jonny Baker takes up the story here:

...he has been looking for ways to get involved in the community rather than get the community involved in the church. one that came up was the start of a farmers market on sunday. the market was looking for a manager so tony took the role. so as a vicar he works at the farmers market every sunday instead of leading worship in the church building! it's relational stuff... then every market has a stall for a community project. tony as manager said that st lukes church would take it. every week they brew teas and coffees all day and give them away and chat with people and stall holders. so instead of being in church on sunday they are in the market place with the community.

The article goes on to highlight the typical age profile issues of many churches, it was strangely re-assuring that this applies to an urban area as well as our rural one here out in the sticks.

Check out the full post here: Church on the High Street

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Advent inspiration two...

I'm liking this idea! Creative stuff from St. Thomas the Apostle church, Gosport near the South Coast (and my birthplace)...

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Holy mischief...

This mag, Geez, is a bustling spot for the over-churched, out-churched, un-churched and maybe even the un-churchable. Hmmm, I'm liking it already!

Includes contributions from Shane Claiborne whom I blogged about recently.

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What If Jesus Meant All That Stuff?

Now this made me sit up and take notice! How amazing (and, I would venture to suggest, how Christlike?) that regular Greenbelt speaker and author Shane Claiborne has this hard hitting article in the mainstream blokey magazine 'Esquire'? It starts with a challenging apology:

To all my nonbelieving, sort-of-believing, and used-to-be-believing friends: I feel like I should begin with a confession. I am sorry that so often the biggest obstacle to God has been Christians. Christians who have had so much to say with our mouths and so little to show with our lives. I am sorry that so often we have forgotten the Christ of our Christianity.

Forgive us. Forgive us for the embarrassing things we have done in the name of God.

As we accelerate towards Christmas it pains me to sing some of the choral stuff we do, gorgeous tunes and harmonies, yet words that bear no resemblance to the real thing. Shane doesn't miss making this point either:

It is this Jesus who was born in a stank manger in the middle of a genocide. That is the God that we are just as likely to find in the streets as in the sanctuary, who can redeem revolutionaries and tax collectors, the oppressed and the oppressors... a God who is saving some of us from the ghettos of poverty, and some of us from the ghettos of wealth.

Go read the full article!

h/t Greenbelt Blog

Living by numbers...

Honoured to have been Tagged by Archdruid Eileen of the Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley megablog - here are the instructions:

Summarise the Bible in five statements, the first one word long, the second two, the third three, the fourth four and the last five words long. Or possibly you could do this in descending order. Tag five people.

Here's my attempt:

1. One
2. Killing Field
3. The future revealed
4. The World changes forever
5. and not by faith alone

I hereby Tag: Rev Sam, Canon Phil, Pastor Joe, Youth Champion Tim and Entrepreneur Jim.

Suffer(ing) the children...

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Browsing Blogs (as you do!) I came across this uncomfortable tale from comedian Dave Gorman recounting an experience on the London Underground (subway). Here are some quotes:

The woman sat down and instantly started reading a very well thumbed copy of the bible. Her two daughters tugged at her sleeves a couple of times and tried to engage "Mummy" in conversation but she didn't look up from her book. So the kids decided to entertain themselves. They achieved this by taking a pile of leaflets from their Mum and walking up and down the carriage handing them to the other passengers.

The leaflets were advertising a church and looked to be full of quotations from the bible. I really don't know how I feel about this sort of thing. Actually, that's not true. I do know. I don't like it. I don't really think a parent should sit back and tacitly encourage their kids to engage in that kind of activity.

Faith - like politics - is contentious. People are entitled to their opinions and those opinions are often strongly felt. A grown up handing out such leaflets is, presumably, prepared for either rejection or debate - in a way an eight year old girl simply isn't.

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So now I'm sitting there, hearing two young girls tell each other that I - and a third of the other passengers on the train - are bad people. It got worse. They continued by deciding that we were all going to go to hell. Proper hell. With lots of flames and things because the devil was going to punish us because we weren't interested in the good message that God wanted them to share with the world.

Along with a few other people I was being loudly condemned to hell by a pair of sisters, a few years shy of their tenth birthday... and their mother was sat there hearing them say it and doing nothing about it.

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I know I probably should have done nothing. I know I should have just got off the train and gone about my business, dismissing it as just another bit of eccentricity in the world, but I figured I had as much right to hand out literature expressing my point of view as they did. So I did.

We were approaching my stop so I hastily scribbled a few words on a scrap of paper and then, trying to do so in a way that her kids wouldn't notice, I handed it to the mother. I know it will have achieved nothing. I know the chances of that woman seeing any fault in her behaviour or that of her offspring is zero... but it still made me feel better to have done something. At least I didn't sit by and give their behaviour my tacit approval.

The words on my note were: "I find being condemned to hell by your children upsetting. They are learning to hate."

So... how does that make you feel?! Read the full article here: Blessed Are The Children

It's High Fashion...

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A gentle video which so ably articulates many of the fears and concerns I have about church and worship... Stan's the man!

Links in to my post about the 2009 Greenbelt Festival Communion nicely!

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Blowin' in the wind

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Maybe I am becoming more tolerant as I get older? I know I do tend to resist becoming institutionalised and, hopefully, as my roots grow a bit deeper, I can sway more readily as Rob Bell so beautifully described at this years Greenbelt Festival.

In stark contrast I am concerned there is an undercurrent developing amongst some Christians who prefer their Worship to be that which they perceive as only happening when singing so called Worship songs. Evidence of this is clear in the hurtful responses on the Greenbelt website to a request for feedback on this year's (2009) Communion Service. The majority of the complainants stating that Tim Hughes should have ‘led’ the Worship are the very ones with the most unforgiving and consumerist views!

So, is this the future, I wonder? A new breed of Christian who only wants to Worship exclusively their way and with their preferred style of music who don’t get the idea of a ‘community’ of fellow travellers?

I was deeply saddened to read some of these comments on the Greenbelt website, I thought the service was fantastic. It was obvious there were some issues with the music, but, frankly, the music has been grim at around 225 of the last 250 communions I have been to in the last 5 years or so and Greenbelt has only run 36 since 1974. The vision of the service was so much larger than who led worship and whether the music was inspiring.

And why do I sway more? Well, regardless of what I think of so called modern worship music (not a lot!) I do stand up and play it when needed, I don’t walk away from services because ‘the worship is doing nothing for me’ and I try to be sympathetic to other points of view even when I don’t necessarily agree. I am no saint and I often think my preferences are best for everyone but I accept there are times to just let things happen around you for the greater good.

Ok, ok, I have to confess I would really struggle if Greenbelt sold out and did get Tim Hughes, or one of his ilk, to lead the music at communion ;-)

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The two kinds of new...

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Here is a collection of assets to support the audio of Rob Bell's second talk at Greenbelt 2009. Viewing the youtube.com videos will fill in music missing from the audio for copyright reasons.

The first picture he showed was a photograph taken on his cellphone (bet it's an iPhone!) of Desmond Tutu and the Dalai Lama embracing when Rob was up close and personal at a special event. Have Twittered Rob to see if we can add his pic, meanwhile:


Then Rob talked about round the globe sailor Joshua Slocomb, 1st pic from GB official photographer Jonathon Watkins:


This was supported by a picture of the vessel, 'Spray', which Joshua had rebuilt over a 3 year period and then set sail in (my view from afar!):

After Rob showed a lady of 73, he also showed a photo of legendary composer and producer Brian Eno at 60:


Having already introduced some of Johnny Cash's work in his Saturday talk, Rob showed the sensational video of Johnny's cover of Nine Inch Nails' 'Hurt':

It would be impossible to capture the interaction Rob had with the lady signing for the deaf, you had to be there! The picture he put up was of Flo-Rida and the 'hit' was played, here's the song with a pic:

If you haven't already bought the audio, available here from the Greenbelt Webshop I thoroughly recommend listening, it was hugely inspiring, uplifting and challenging.

Oh, what a lovely war...

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A brilliant recent post about 9/11... Hauerwas on 9/11

Raising my Ebenezer...

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It's OK, I know we ALL know about Ebenezer's and that they are, well, a really good thing! A new start...?

Every so often you read someone's Blog in the morning and it cracks you up! And a substantial part of the joy is the resonance with where you are and where you've got to, so, folks, here it is, thanks to Revd Sam for sending me the link...

Comparative Religious Exam Paper 1 - Modern Christian Songs

Love it!

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Losing my religion....

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Go away for a couple of weeks and all sorts of things happen. Seems this is just like any other man decided Covenant, potentially exclusive and divisive. Bravo for all the sense talked in blogs here and here not forgetting Rector Sam's blog here.

Making sense...

I should prefer that these vestments might be abolished, not because I believe that there is anything about them which in itself is wicked so that godly men could not use them with a clear conscience, but because I observe that owing to a chronic shortage of suitable teachers in the churches they are a source of superstitious belief to very many people: and also because they have now been seized upon as ground of contention more damaging than anyone has been able to explain. Moreover it is consistent with our profession of the Cross of Christ that we should aspire to the simplicity of Christ the Saviour and the Apostles in all external matters, including the outward dress of ministers...

Martin Bucer ~ 1550

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