Bigbulkyanglican

My relationship with the Apostle Paul

I stumbled upon Daily Episcopalian and the Episcopal Cafe through their coverage of the Lambeth Conference.

It is collection of resources and reflections from the liberal tradition of the Episcopal Church in the US.

Today's reflection on our relationship with the Apostle Paul seems to some up some of the dilemmas which many of us face when reading Paul's writings - or more often when other Christians "quote" Paul at us.

"But the deepest conversations come from when I can’t figure out what Paul is trying to say. Lord knows, he’s quoted all the time by anyone and everyone who wants to make a point on any and every subject. And Lord knows, people claim to understand exactly what Paul means, especially on the most controversial of current issues, sexuality."

Read the full reflection here

Celebrating 30 years of full-time ministry today

On 3rd July1978 a young 21 year old theology graduate walked in CMS headquarters to begin a new job as "Youth Adviser" - I remember it well.

I was too excited (and naive?) to be nervous and was tremendous well cared for by Richard Handforth the Education Secretary and Margaret Kerlogue who was the profoundly professional and caring UK Personnel Officer (in those wonderful days before "Human Resources" were invented) .

Both had the wit and the wisdom to realise what a 21 year old would not know, and also what I could bring to the role and HQ - and nurtured me over the next few months into a new pattern of ministry for CMS

The diary entries for the day read:
11am 157 tour ( remember thinking just how big the place was and how would I remember the names)
"Harry Lunch" (lunch with Harry Moore the "Home Secretary" - a rather formidable man ex-army officer and Manchester Vicar - the generation gap was a delight and behind the bluff exterior was a great heart for people)
Collect car" ( the really scary bit was driving this brand new car through London to Wimbledon)
4pm Shelter ( I was already interested in the work of Shelter who shared 157 with CMS in those days!)

.And so 30 years of ministry followed via

five years at CMS in London
a year post graduate youth work training/study - with thanks to the All Saints Educational Trust  - at Westhill College Birmingham
two years at Battersea Basement Studios
three years as Senior Youth Worker at Leeds Parish Church
nine years as Diocesan Youth Officer in Blackburn Diocese
three years as curate at Mirfield Parish Church
seven years as Vicar of Oakworth
and now as Chaplain to the Scottish Ports

I have prepared some 30 year reflections on what has changed (and what has not) which will follow over the coming week.

Moving house

Can you imagine the conversation about "moving" between a splendid 80-something lady who has lived in the same house for all of her life, and the 50-something priest who is just about to move to his 14th home.

We shared our different experiences of what "home" means - and realised that we were perhaps a little envious of the others experience

We were agreed on two things - the actual process of moving is a bit of nightmare, and whether you move or not the world changes around you.

Bless you M for your wisdom and support.

A priest in the world

Fidelias Sisters the American Episcopal support group is know for its focus on women priests - but I am equally impressed with its focus on "young" priests. Joy Caires writes today of her ministry:

I am a hospital chaplain. Prayers, games and tears are the economy of my day. I baptize the dead—a theological no-no but in the midst of tears can anyone say “no” to a families request for their dying child? I bless the intubated. I offer reassurance, but more often, there is none to give. My smallest parishioners are weighed in grams, my largest are sometimes older than me with congenital problems best solved in a pediatric hospital. I drink lattes on my way to work, a bribe to leave my room, my warm, safe place where death is something that happens to pets and grandmothers.

Read the full article here

Farewell reflections at Imagine today

I have been asked to post todays reflection - which I do with some reluctance since it rarely seems to carry outside its context - while never in any sense a sermon I am reluctant to post sermons for the same reason - anyway as a one-off or in fact a final-off herewith - (with apologies for any mistakes for it is a transcript of what was said and I don't have time today to check it all that thoroughly.

Maybe it has something to do with saying farewells, or perhaps even people risking deeper conversations because they know I am leaving Yorkshire - but new people have been most wonderfully honest and trusting over the past five or six weeks - it simply brings home to be the possibility of genuine faith sharing which is made possible through Imagine and other free wheeling groups which sadly rarely seems possible in formal Church groups.

One common theme seems to be the struggle for faith in the face of the "state of the world".

This is fundamentally expressed as : "how can I believe in God in a world like this."

There seems to be two assumptions behind this thought which the Gospels challenge.

1. Firstly that things "getting better" personally is a sign of the presence of God - whereas the Gospels actually record that the greatest sign of the presence of God comes when, in human terms, things seem particularly grim. In Christian theology healing and hope is to be found at the foot of the Cross.

2. On a much larger canvas in the "cosmic order" of things there is a similar perception - that things "getting better" would be a sign of God presence. This comes in no small part from an increasingly perverse and prevalent interpretation of the Kingdom of God as some kind of "happy clappy wonderland" which is deceptively dualistic.

The Gospels, and especially Mark 13 indicate the reverse. Christ's return will not be heralded by a gradual ascent to meet him - rather as in the Incarnation, the return will be at a time of increased war and poverty and conflict. It will be at a time of increased polarisation between love and evil. As with the Incarnation the whole of the travelling will be dome by the cosmic Christ. Remember that although created by God, creation does not contain within it the seeds of its own redemption. Redemption is always by divine election and creation, not by intrinsic ability.

Travelling last week down from Scotland ( I am looking forward to travelling and driving more as a time to think)! I realised that many people "long to be able to believe in the world in order to be able to believe in God" - the Gospels require the reverse ie that we are called to believe in God in order that we can believe in the world.

The Christian festivals at this time of the year contain the potential to re-inforce the former in a way that is unhelpful.

The Feast of the Ascension is not about the separation of heaven and earth- indeed the reverse is true, it is about the fundamental sealing of the covenant between the two when humanity sits at the right hand of God. While at one and the same time it is the final flourish of the earthly present Jesus which emphases that he is no longer limited by space time, but can appear wherever he wishes and pass through walls etc.

In an associated way we need to avoid understanding Pentecost as the beginning of the work of the Spirit rather than a specific gift-experience of the continually dynamic Spirit (one of many throughout time with many more to come) - if we see it as a one-off which we seek to recapture then we will be blind to the ever-present activity in the present.

People have asked what I have learnt from our experience together - few outside have understood its dynamic - and few I think among us yet understand its potential - whether a stepping stone to some more formal community under the same name - or whether it remains a provisional entity.

I think that what I have learnt most ( and it is an important lesson for one who has been steeped in the life of the Church since birth)is that faith is present among the most tentative and the most questioning - among those who are on a journey. That if individuals are offered a group which has no limits in terms of sharing experience, no norms in terms of expected words, then something rather special can occur - something which I think I see particularly in Luke's Gospel when Jesus encounters particular individuals.

I have always passionately believed that to be a priest is first and foremost to be a person who is sensitive to the presence of God in people - not you note a person who brings God "in" as the biblical image of 'salt' is so often misinterpreted - but perhaps a litmus person which highlights what is already present and at work. I hope that in some small way I have been able to offer that priesthood among you.

What some of you will know is that it has been this experience of Imagine (among others over the years) which has given me the confidence that in my new role and ministry I can go to be a priest outside the confines of the congregational expressions of the Church (while remaining unequivocally a priest of the Church). This is what I mean by being a "mission(al) priest" - a person who seeks out where God is at work in the world around rather than focusing on inviting people into God-like territory which some mistakenly believe is the preserve of the Church

So I leave with my thanks to you, and perhaps more than a little amazed at the depth of thanks which you have expressed to me for which I am also grateful.

So we move into what I believe is the heart of the Christian experience - the greatest divine gift - the Eucharist. "

What is distinctive about Christianity?

Brother John writes modestly and helpfully about distinctiveness here (click on the graphic to download the text.) which ends with Bonhoeffer's words

"The Church is not about religion, but rather about the figure of Christ and its taking shape in a multitude of persons. Are we sufficiently aware that, two thousand years ago, Christ came to earth not to start a new religion but to offer every human being a communion in God? "

There are two other short writings covering "unbelief" and "salvation" available in the right hand column.

I am delighted to read the new generation of Taize theologians writing with such clarity.

Moving update

Several people have prompted me that I have not updated on "the move" for quite a while - so this brief update will save me repeating myself.

+ I am now in my last three weeks at Oakworth with my final Sunday on May 18th - I hand over to the Wardens and the Ministry Team in the week beginning 5th May, and then the final week beginning the 12th is a dizzy round of farewells and visiting individuals. It is hard to put into words how strange this already feels - and I can't see it getting better until the deed is done. I will hugely miss Oakworth and its people.

+I have already started shedding my other commitments in youth work, spiritual direction and music some of which go back over a 15 years. To date this "moving on" has been a very positive experience - it is sense groups and organisations move on without me at a time of considerable strength for most of them. The personal farewells are inevitably more difficult.

We are moving to an excellent Chaplaincy House in Linlithgow which is both easily accessible to the motorway networks for the national part of the role and to Grangemouth where I will have a two day a week face to face base. Details of address and telephone etc will be emailed out when they are finalised. Initially I will be working from home until I can review the advisability of an office base for the work.

+ From a family point of view the house is different from No 18 - much more modern but smaller in some respects. Scots will understand me when I say that it is in the important secondary school catchment area - and we look forward to life in Linlithgow as a town - and the access to many leisure and music places as well.

+ We are moving 27-29th May, and I start the chaplaincy work on 2nd June. The initial few weeks will be taken up with induction and orientation and during the early part of July two weeks family holiday.

+ There will be a commissioning/licencing service in September at a time and venue yet to be agreed. This feels good to me because it will be a gathering of people that I have already had the chance to meet. I will post the details here when they are known.

Having past 50 without too much sense of its significance last summer while I was sabbatical - I now move towards celebrating 30 years of full-time ministry in the July with a whole new range of opportunities in front of me.

I realised the other week travelling down from Scotland that this kind of move would have scared me witless only a few years ago!

Now perhaps age has blessed me with a new realism while at the same time adding experience, and hopefully none the less energy.

I have much appreciated people's encouragement and support, (particularly from Scotland) over the past few months as we negotiate this move.

Round tables - says it all

In search of a round table

Concerning the why and how and what and who of ministry,

One image keeps surfacing: A table that is round.

It will take some sawing

To be roundtabled.

Some redefining

And redesigning,

Some redoing and rebirthing

Of narrow long Churching

Can painful be

For people and tables.

It would mean no daising

And throning,

For but one king is there

And he is a foot washer,

At table no less.

And what of narrow long ministers

When they confront

A round table people,

After years of working up the table

To finally sit at its head,

Only to discover

That the table has been turned round?

They must be loved into roundness,

For God has called a People

Not "them and us".

"them and us" are unable

to gather round; for at a round table

there are no sides

and ALL are invited

to wholeness and to food.

At one time

Our narrowing churches

Were built to resemble the Cross

But it does no good

For building to do so,

If lives do not.

Round tabling means

No preferred seating,

No first and last,

No better, and no corners

For the "least of these".

Roundtabling means

Being with,

A part of,

Together and one.

It means room for the Spirit

And gifts

And disturbing profound peace for all.

We can no longer prepare for the past.

To be Church,

And if He calls for other than a round table

We are bound to follow.

Leaving the sawdust

And chips, designs and redesigns

Behind, in search of and in presence of

The Kingdom

That is His and not ours.

Chuck Lathrop

Dietrich Bonhoeffer remembered

Today in the Anglican Lectionary we remembered the life and witness of this remarkable man - i was struck by the number of posts, and links and emails which I have received which are a contemporary tribute to his influence.

Chris Tilling has this prayer:

Dear Father, thank You for Dietrich Bonhoeffer's bold witness in life and death, his determination to seek truth, and for his many writings that have deeply inspired your people for decades. Grant that we too, in life and death, may also passionately love Your truth, ready to give up all in costly discipleship of his master, and ours, Jesus Christ the Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

I did a primary school assembly on his life today and why he was a "brave" man.

I asked what made a person "brave", and one Year 6 member contributed the idea that people are "brave" when they have the courage to speak to someone else about their secrets and the things which are really important.

I have in recent years grown to love Bonhoeffer's book on the Psalms which I think is so revealing of his spirituality and the topic. I am surprised how many people have not heard about it so here's a link

I particularly love this more relaxed image of him

Missional Church

Having been spent part of today preparing a training session on " what we mean by a missional faith" - it was interesting to get some immediate feedback from one of my training colleagues referring me to Alan Roxburgh's latest material on the Allelon site with his excellent material on " what is missional Church" - and of course the differences between our approaches although we both draw on material from Leslie Newbiggen.

Given the audience for the training day I think I am going to have have to add some material which explains the difference in understanding which emerges from an essentially Protestant view of mission ( and how that feeds into the missional definition) and a Catholic or Eastern view of mission.

The most obvious example of this comes with the diagrams at the bottom of Alan's article which adopts Leslie's view of missional, but then puts a contemporary Protestant/Evangelical spin on it that equates Newbiggen's "Gospel" with "Missio Deo".

I find this fundamentally dualistic - and am sure from my discussions with Leslie Newbiggen that he would have seen " missio deo" to be the context for all three axis.

Somewhat ironically in the previous paragraph Alan Roxburgh alerts us the danger of equating "missio deo" with the Church, and then proceeds to equate it with another of the mission axis.

I also think that Newbiggen's view of culture is considerably wider that simply the "missionary context" which is how Alan translates the third of the mission axis.

Perhaps when the move in complete I will find some time to write this up!

I look forward to the training day - my last before the move!