This from the Spectator today, (via Politics Home) on Ian Duncan Smith and David Cameron speaking at Catholic venues in Glasgow, and how that relates to the notorious sectarianism of that city. A timely reminder that the local church is the hope of the world.
For the record, I believe IDS and Cameron are acting in an explicitly post-sectarian spirit. Political behaviour in a sectarian age means avoiding churches, leery of alienating one group or another. Through his charity work in Easterhouse, IDS knows this area better than almost anyone else in Westminster. His approach is that, if one wishes to salute the most hardworking institutions fighting against poverty, then the churches would be your first port of call. It’s hard to overstate just what an amazing job churches do there – the Church of Scotland’s welfare division is extraordinary. Politicians may argue (as Jo Moore, Labour’s ex-special adviser, once did) that there are “no votes in the poor” so they give up on Glasgow East or take Gordon Brown’s “let them eat tax credits” approach. But the churches step in where everyone else runs away.
Deplorably, church groups and other grass root charities are in Glasgow often confronted by government agencies jealous of their monopoly control over the lives of the poor (see Neal Ascherson for more). The churches, here, are Burke’s little platoons – and IDS and Cameron have come to pay homage. Sectarianism may still be bad in Glasgow East, but the poverty is far, far worse.
"when you did it for the least of these, you did it for me" (Jesus)
Monday, July 07, 2008
Mission Shaped Schools
Our school head commented this morning that most people are completely turned off by all the internal church politics they see in the media, (Mark Russell makes the same point) and that it just speaks of a church looking inward and obsessed with its own affairs.
In that spirit, I'm ignoring the women bishops vote (if you're desperate go here) today, in favour of this great little page by Margaret Withers on Christian involvement in local schools. It looks at opportunities for schools work, how to get involved, and what sort of things we can offer. If you need a starter for 10 on how to engage with your local school, you just found it. It's on the superb Barnabas in Churches site, which (imho) should be bookmarked by anyone involved in Christian ministry with children.
In that spirit, I'm ignoring the women bishops vote (if you're desperate go here) today, in favour of this great little page by Margaret Withers on Christian involvement in local schools. It looks at opportunities for schools work, how to get involved, and what sort of things we can offer. If you need a starter for 10 on how to engage with your local school, you just found it. It's on the superb Barnabas in Churches site, which (imho) should be bookmarked by anyone involved in Christian ministry with children.
Time Out
Did a Touching Base piece on Saturday at the Wardman Wire on the need for time out, but forgot to link it. In a way it's a non-religious version of what I blogged here.
Here's a snippet:
Our local leisure complex has a section called ‘The Retreat’, which offers a typical consumerist solution. By parting with large amounts of cash, you can get a facial, a massage, or something unspeakable with candle wax and whalesong. An hour in another world. It’s not long enough, but it’s all we’ve got time for. The provocative Slow Leadership recommends time out, but recognises that for many of us half an hour a day is stretching it.
Blogging only makes things worse. On a web that never sleeps, it takes a matter of minutes for a new story to circle the globe. Report it tomorrow and you’re already too late. Its said that todays newspaper is tomorrows chip paper, blog posts start to whiff of deep fat whilst you’re off having your lunch.
and it's been picked up on this blog roundup, which is nice. It's quite a challenge to write something spiritual for a non-Christian audience every week, but it's a good challenge. How can we communicate the gospel and Christian wisdom without resorting to Kingdom catch-phrases? Discuss............
Here's a snippet:
Our local leisure complex has a section called ‘The Retreat’, which offers a typical consumerist solution. By parting with large amounts of cash, you can get a facial, a massage, or something unspeakable with candle wax and whalesong. An hour in another world. It’s not long enough, but it’s all we’ve got time for. The provocative Slow Leadership recommends time out, but recognises that for many of us half an hour a day is stretching it.
Blogging only makes things worse. On a web that never sleeps, it takes a matter of minutes for a new story to circle the globe. Report it tomorrow and you’re already too late. Its said that todays newspaper is tomorrows chip paper, blog posts start to whiff of deep fat whilst you’re off having your lunch.
and it's been picked up on this blog roundup, which is nice. It's quite a challenge to write something spiritual for a non-Christian audience every week, but it's a good challenge. How can we communicate the gospel and Christian wisdom without resorting to Kingdom catch-phrases? Discuss............
Sunday, July 06, 2008
WATCH with Mother
The General Synod vote on women bishops is tomorrow (Monday), and I hope that it goes through, with some satisfactory framework for people who can't agree with it. I'm in favour of women bishops for 2 reasons:
1. Women are found in church leadership in the New Testament, a fact made all the more striking by their low social status. If you look at the practice of the early church alongside their teaching, their theology of women and authority clearly didn't bar women from church leadership.
2. I'm not entirely sure we're right to exalt bishops so much anyway - again, the New Testament sees churches led by small teams of people, and terms like elder, presbyter and overseer are used pretty much interchangeably. The idea that the order of deacons was founded in Acts 6 is slightly hilarious - 2 of those appointed sit so light to their job description that they'd be sacked under the Clergy Discipline Measure: Philip abandons the food programme to do mission work to foreigners, and Stephen does lots of miracles then gets himself killed.
My main caution over women bishops is when I look at some of the people who support it. There is a lot of wafer-thin theology which talks more about the rights and experience of women than about God. Women and The Church (WATCH) is one of the main campaigning groups. Their website has quite a thorough and concise digest of the main arguments in the bishops debate. They probably cover quite a spectrum of people, but one of the papers on the website, on inclusive language, caught my eye. Here's an extract:
God, Christology and the Church
The constant and uninterrupted use of language which is exclusive
and used repeatedly can be intimidating or even aggressive:
Almighty God, Lord of Power and Might, Everlasting Father,
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Intimidation and aggression
do not give life to the people of God called to grow in wisdom
and understanding. We need to use the full range of biblical
images for God, the tender and nurturing as well as the powerful.
Yet we must recognise that our growing includes encouraging
fresh expressions of language for each new generation. The
gospel always has a reforming, reinterpreting edge to it.
“Almost all of the language used in the Bible to refer to God is
metaphor, with the possible exception of holy...There is no point
in pontificating what metaphors like “God as father” ought to
mean. If God metaphors become problematic for a significant
group of people, it is pointless and patronising to tell them they
ought to understand differently”. (What Language Shall I
Borrow” by Brian Wren). God reveals the Godself to us throughout
the scriptures as mother, father, friend, love, wind, fire. And
for some God is more than static noun: God becomes dynamic
verb. We may leave words behind entirely: “The more I walk
with God, the less words about God will do” (John Spong). The
best God metaphors are those that move us deeply and enable
us to encounter and be encountered by the dynamic dance of
incandescent love that Christian experience names as Trinity.
Aside from having a vague worry about anyone who quotes Spong as an authority in theology, there are a number of problems with this approach to language, God and prayer:
1. The problem is not with the language, it's people's interpretation of it. Fair enough, a bad experience of fatherhood will make it more difficult to relate to God as a loving Father, but the idea that the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father' is intimidating or aggressive is bizarre. It's beautiful. These titles belong to the God who is on the side of his people: 'the Almighty God is our fortress' (Psalm 46). What's more, fathers can be 'tender and nurturing' too, and women can be aggressive and intimidating. We don't do ourselves any favours by caricaturing the genders.
2. I've no problem with finding fresh expressions of language, but they have to be anchored in the right harbour. Yes there are plenty of metaphors in scripture, but there are some key ones, and when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray 'Father', that's not something we can ignore. 'Leaving language behind' can become just a pretext for leaving the language behind which we don't like. The best God metaphors are not those which move us deeply, they are those which are true. Something which moves us deeply can be simply a good bit of manipulation. There are films which move me deeply, but most of them are selling a subhuman myth - the revenge Western, the overblown romance etc. They move me because they manipulate me through image, words, music and mood. Does truth come into the equation at any point?
3. We can't leave words behind - words carry meaning, and God has a big history of using words to communicate with us. God uses meaningful words because he wants to communicate with us, to establish a relationship. If there are no words, there is no revelation, and we are completely in the dark about God.
4. God has revealed himself to us in particular ways. If I introduce myself as 'David' and the other person immediately calls me 'Dave', I get slightly irked. Part of human dignity is being able to name ourselves, and not have other people decide what to call us. If God has spoken, and revealed himself to us, we're not at liberty to ignore that and just find names which we like saying.
and a couple of wider concerns
a) Orwell noted in 1984 that control of language is key to control of thought. If you can outlaw certain bits of language, you make it impossible to think in particular ways. I'm aware that I may be just as guilty of this as the WATCH paper, but we need to be careful with this stuff, and not assume that anyone who calls God 'Father' or 'Mighty' is an unreconstructed patriarch.
b) In terms of fresh expressions, we will find new ways to communicate the gospel to a changing culture, but how do we make sure we stay faithful to the gospel? We can't redefine God completely according to human experience - this experience is limited and touched by sin. God has shown himself to us in scripture and in Jesus, so we must stay anchored to this, whichever direction we paddle in.
1. Women are found in church leadership in the New Testament, a fact made all the more striking by their low social status. If you look at the practice of the early church alongside their teaching, their theology of women and authority clearly didn't bar women from church leadership.
2. I'm not entirely sure we're right to exalt bishops so much anyway - again, the New Testament sees churches led by small teams of people, and terms like elder, presbyter and overseer are used pretty much interchangeably. The idea that the order of deacons was founded in Acts 6 is slightly hilarious - 2 of those appointed sit so light to their job description that they'd be sacked under the Clergy Discipline Measure: Philip abandons the food programme to do mission work to foreigners, and Stephen does lots of miracles then gets himself killed.
My main caution over women bishops is when I look at some of the people who support it. There is a lot of wafer-thin theology which talks more about the rights and experience of women than about God. Women and The Church (WATCH) is one of the main campaigning groups. Their website has quite a thorough and concise digest of the main arguments in the bishops debate. They probably cover quite a spectrum of people, but one of the papers on the website, on inclusive language, caught my eye. Here's an extract:
God, Christology and the Church
The constant and uninterrupted use of language which is exclusive
and used repeatedly can be intimidating or even aggressive:
Almighty God, Lord of Power and Might, Everlasting Father,
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind. Intimidation and aggression
do not give life to the people of God called to grow in wisdom
and understanding. We need to use the full range of biblical
images for God, the tender and nurturing as well as the powerful.
Yet we must recognise that our growing includes encouraging
fresh expressions of language for each new generation. The
gospel always has a reforming, reinterpreting edge to it.
“Almost all of the language used in the Bible to refer to God is
metaphor, with the possible exception of holy...There is no point
in pontificating what metaphors like “God as father” ought to
mean. If God metaphors become problematic for a significant
group of people, it is pointless and patronising to tell them they
ought to understand differently”. (What Language Shall I
Borrow” by Brian Wren). God reveals the Godself to us throughout
the scriptures as mother, father, friend, love, wind, fire. And
for some God is more than static noun: God becomes dynamic
verb. We may leave words behind entirely: “The more I walk
with God, the less words about God will do” (John Spong). The
best God metaphors are those that move us deeply and enable
us to encounter and be encountered by the dynamic dance of
incandescent love that Christian experience names as Trinity.
Aside from having a vague worry about anyone who quotes Spong as an authority in theology, there are a number of problems with this approach to language, God and prayer:
1. The problem is not with the language, it's people's interpretation of it. Fair enough, a bad experience of fatherhood will make it more difficult to relate to God as a loving Father, but the idea that the hymn 'Dear Lord and Father' is intimidating or aggressive is bizarre. It's beautiful. These titles belong to the God who is on the side of his people: 'the Almighty God is our fortress' (Psalm 46). What's more, fathers can be 'tender and nurturing' too, and women can be aggressive and intimidating. We don't do ourselves any favours by caricaturing the genders.
2. I've no problem with finding fresh expressions of language, but they have to be anchored in the right harbour. Yes there are plenty of metaphors in scripture, but there are some key ones, and when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray 'Father', that's not something we can ignore. 'Leaving language behind' can become just a pretext for leaving the language behind which we don't like. The best God metaphors are not those which move us deeply, they are those which are true. Something which moves us deeply can be simply a good bit of manipulation. There are films which move me deeply, but most of them are selling a subhuman myth - the revenge Western, the overblown romance etc. They move me because they manipulate me through image, words, music and mood. Does truth come into the equation at any point?
3. We can't leave words behind - words carry meaning, and God has a big history of using words to communicate with us. God uses meaningful words because he wants to communicate with us, to establish a relationship. If there are no words, there is no revelation, and we are completely in the dark about God.
4. God has revealed himself to us in particular ways. If I introduce myself as 'David' and the other person immediately calls me 'Dave', I get slightly irked. Part of human dignity is being able to name ourselves, and not have other people decide what to call us. If God has spoken, and revealed himself to us, we're not at liberty to ignore that and just find names which we like saying.
and a couple of wider concerns
a) Orwell noted in 1984 that control of language is key to control of thought. If you can outlaw certain bits of language, you make it impossible to think in particular ways. I'm aware that I may be just as guilty of this as the WATCH paper, but we need to be careful with this stuff, and not assume that anyone who calls God 'Father' or 'Mighty' is an unreconstructed patriarch.
b) In terms of fresh expressions, we will find new ways to communicate the gospel to a changing culture, but how do we make sure we stay faithful to the gospel? We can't redefine God completely according to human experience - this experience is limited and touched by sin. God has shown himself to us in scripture and in Jesus, so we must stay anchored to this, whichever direction we paddle in.
Saturday, July 05, 2008
You heard (some of) it here first
On Monday I made some predictions about how tonights Doctor Who would finish up. In the interests of accountability and honesty, here's the scorecard:
"here's my guess at what will happen in the final extended episode.
The Judoon (big rhino people) will turn up just after the opening credits to save the various goodies (Sarah Jane, the Torchwood folks) who are about to be killed by the Daleks. WRONG
David Tennant will spend most of the episode in a coma, 'regenerating' (that's what I do after a pint too many at the quiz night), WRONG. Quite the opposite, we ended up with 2 of them.
Donna will do something heroic and turn out to be a Time Lord. RIGHT on both counts, including saving the universe, though technically she turns into a Time Lord rather than turning out to be one.
So far, Russell Davies hasn't killed off a single Doctors assistant, so unless he's planning a final flourish, I think they'll all survive. RIGHT
Some special gizmo, like the key Martha has, or the doctors' spare hand, will save the universe,
Half-Right: the doctors spare hand plays a part in Donna's upgrade.
and the Daleks will turn on Davros, just like they did in Genesis of the Daleks - there's already a bit of needle between Davros and the top Dalek. Half-RIGHT: Dalek Caan turns out to be on the Doctors side, and betrays Davros. However the rest of them end up getting pushed around like shopping trolleys by the Doctors chums.
Finally (in my dreams), the Doctor will regnerate as Matthew McFadyen." WRONG: Sadly not, but he seriously needs cheering up. The Christmas special has the only man on the planet who's does morose better - David Morrisey. Maybe they need the Top Gear crew signing up as travelling buddies?
"here's my guess at what will happen in the final extended episode.
The Judoon (big rhino people) will turn up just after the opening credits to save the various goodies (Sarah Jane, the Torchwood folks) who are about to be killed by the Daleks. WRONG
David Tennant will spend most of the episode in a coma, 'regenerating' (that's what I do after a pint too many at the quiz night), WRONG. Quite the opposite, we ended up with 2 of them.
Donna will do something heroic and turn out to be a Time Lord. RIGHT on both counts, including saving the universe, though technically she turns into a Time Lord rather than turning out to be one.
So far, Russell Davies hasn't killed off a single Doctors assistant, so unless he's planning a final flourish, I think they'll all survive. RIGHT
Some special gizmo, like the key Martha has, or the doctors' spare hand, will save the universe,
Half-Right: the doctors spare hand plays a part in Donna's upgrade.
and the Daleks will turn on Davros, just like they did in Genesis of the Daleks - there's already a bit of needle between Davros and the top Dalek. Half-RIGHT: Dalek Caan turns out to be on the Doctors side, and betrays Davros. However the rest of them end up getting pushed around like shopping trolleys by the Doctors chums.
Finally (in my dreams), the Doctor will regnerate as Matthew McFadyen." WRONG: Sadly not, but he seriously needs cheering up. The Christmas special has the only man on the planet who's does morose better - David Morrisey. Maybe they need the Top Gear crew signing up as travelling buddies?
3 New Resources
1. Care for the Family are holding a 1-day autumn conference 'Engage', on outreach to the community through supporting families. It's being held in Nottingham & Cheltenham. More details via the link.
2. The CofE has a new resource on vocations (or 'whether God's calling you into church leadership', to de-Anglicanise it): Call Waiting. It's aimed at encouraging younger people to consider ordination - all the more vital in the light of the fact that less than 15% of people entering training are under 30 (and if you're that age, there's 6 years of training - 3 years at college, 3 as a curate, so most of them will be over 30 by the time they're given responsibility). There's a downloadable magazine with stories of younger people in ministry, and sections on what sort of people make good leaders, and the different ways in which ordained ministry can work.
3. Finally Fulcrum have put up a summary of GAFcon for PCC members, which is a good concise version of what's happened in the last few weeks, and some cautionary stuff to think about. We put out a leaflet to our church members last week, to try to explain all the stories in the media about the CofE, and it was appreciated. Part of local leadership is helping people not to feel undermined by all this stuff, and having the confidence to talk about it during their lunchbreak.
2. The CofE has a new resource on vocations (or 'whether God's calling you into church leadership', to de-Anglicanise it): Call Waiting. It's aimed at encouraging younger people to consider ordination - all the more vital in the light of the fact that less than 15% of people entering training are under 30 (and if you're that age, there's 6 years of training - 3 years at college, 3 as a curate, so most of them will be over 30 by the time they're given responsibility). There's a downloadable magazine with stories of younger people in ministry, and sections on what sort of people make good leaders, and the different ways in which ordained ministry can work.
3. Finally Fulcrum have put up a summary of GAFcon for PCC members, which is a good concise version of what's happened in the last few weeks, and some cautionary stuff to think about. We put out a leaflet to our church members last week, to try to explain all the stories in the media about the CofE, and it was appreciated. Part of local leadership is helping people not to feel undermined by all this stuff, and having the confidence to talk about it during their lunchbreak.
Quote Unquote
A couple of weeks ago at a clergy cricket match, a friend thanked me for what I'd said in the Church of England Newspaper. I was puzzled.
Thinking Anglicans cleared things up: a report on the quality of clergy had been quoted in the press, and I was one of many who joined in the debate in blogland. A comment I'd posted on the TA website had found its way into the CEN report.
At least one other blogger, and probably most people reading the article, assumed I'd been interviewed by the paper. I hadn't, and I've just sent off an email to ask whether this is what they normally do. I'm still happy with what I said, but things sound different in the context of a comments debate on a blog, compared to a quote in a newspaper article. It also raises questions for me about the quality and quantity of research for these articles, and journalistic etiquette.
If I get a reply, I'll post it here.
Thinking Anglicans cleared things up: a report on the quality of clergy had been quoted in the press, and I was one of many who joined in the debate in blogland. A comment I'd posted on the TA website had found its way into the CEN report.
At least one other blogger, and probably most people reading the article, assumed I'd been interviewed by the paper. I hadn't, and I've just sent off an email to ask whether this is what they normally do. I'm still happy with what I said, but things sound different in the context of a comments debate on a blog, compared to a quote in a newspaper article. It also raises questions for me about the quality and quantity of research for these articles, and journalistic etiquette.
If I get a reply, I'll post it here.
Tuesday, July 01, 2008
Off on a few days retreat, so it will be quiet here till the weekend. Venue is the lovely Mill House in Devon, and the books in my bag are:
Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
Evangelical Theology - Karl Barth
Watching the English - Kate Fox
The Wild Gospel - Alison Morgan
and the Bible, obviously. And a large notepad...
Velvet Elvis - Rob Bell
Evangelical Theology - Karl Barth
Watching the English - Kate Fox
The Wild Gospel - Alison Morgan
and the Bible, obviously. And a large notepad...
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