way out west

The Myth of Orthodoxy?

I've heard a few people say recently how their worship/church is underpinned/rooted in "orthodoxy". This always prompts a question in my mind... Whose "orthodoxy" do they mean?... Charsimatic, Evangelical, Liberationist, Episcopal, Congregational, Calvinist, Arminian, Lutheran, Augustinian, Roman, Greek, Coptic, The Pauline churches, The Jerusalem church... etc. etc. I'm sure the response would be "biblical orthodoxy"... But this brings even more questions eg. what makes these good folk think they can do something Bishops, Scholars, Theologians, 2000 years of the Church have failed to do, to find a single incontrovertable, universal interpretation of the whole of scripture... The more I think about it the more I think that "orthodoxy" is inherently local (in time and place) only grace is universal so only grace is a sure enough foundation for church, worship etc.

Test posting from iPhone

I'm a happy boy! All gadgetted up for the 21st C! All hail St Jobbs.

Wellspring's Creed

A creed from our friends in Tomball (nr Houston) Texas

We believe in God – the creator of the universe:
God is full of mercy and grace,
God is just and loves justice,
God is love and is on our side.
God’s hope is to be in relationship with every person,
God’s plan is to restore all of creation to wholeness,
and to see his dream for the world
- his kingdom come.

We believe in Jesus the Christ:
Jesus is the human expression of God,
Jesus is the savior of the world,
Jesus is the living demonstration of God’s dream for the world.
Jesus came to put the world right again,
Jesus came to display the justice of God,
Jesus came to provide real & eternal life
- life as God intended it to be lived.

We believe in the Holy Spirit:
We believe that the Holy Spirit is here now,
The Holy Spirit guides us into truth,
The Holy Spirit empowers our lives
- as we seek God’s kingdom as our first priority.

We believe that God has a purpose for each of us, and so in faith:
We commit to recognize & honor God,
We commit to pursue a relationship with God,
We commit to embody the character of God,
We commit to align our lives with God’s dream for the world
- helping to make the world a better place.

Amen

Technorati Tags: alt.worship: Christianity: Emerging Church: Prayer: Spirituality: Worship

How the Celts saved Britain

A BBC Four programme looking at the early Irish Missionaries and the impact they had on the rest of Britain - interesting stuff - dates and times and iPlayer details here

Provocative two-part documentary in which Dan Snow blows the lid on the traditional Anglo-centric view of history and reveals how the Irish saved Britain from cultural oblivion during the Dark Ages.  He follows in the footsteps of Ireland's earliest missionaries as they venture through treacherous barbarian territory to bring literacy and technology to the future nations of Scotland and England.

Technorati Tags: Celtic: Christianity: Media: Mission: Missional: Television

Flip Flops needed!

If anyone feels like donating ladies Flip Flops for us to give out on Saturday nights - to help reduce the number of foot/ankle injuries... we would be most grateful... they are currently £1 a pair at Tescos but any kind will do!  Let me know and I'll tell you where to send them. :)

Technorati Tags: Mission: Missional: News: safespace: Sanktuary

A New Creator?

Watching the TV this morning as I was getting dressed I found myself watching a phone in news/comment show - The Wright Stuff - They where discussing genetic manipulation, in particular the recent news stories about how genetic changes to animals have been passed to the next generation (A Jellyfish gene which causes fluorescence was put into monkeys making them glow in the dark and their offspring glow in the dark too) and I was struck by how often "Nature" was personified... "If we get rid of all the diseases "Nature" will make some more to balance population", ""Nature" made it so species could not breed with other species, so "Nature" wont like us messing with her system", ""Nature" will punish us for messing about", "How do we know that in changing things "Nature" wont come up with new diseases that are even worse" etc. etc.  Is this an implicit creationism?  A new Creator called "Nature"?  Has our cultural language has genetically modified nature from a process/ecosystem into "Nature" a creative entity?  Is "Nature" the female/maternal entity a slow burn reaction to patriarchal religion? 

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Culture: Missional: News: Spirituality

Terry Callier and Massive Attack

Terry Callier has been a favourite of mine for some years... one of my Greenbelt highlights was lying on my back listening to Callier play in the early hours of the morning a few years back... dream like and wonderful!  The guy's a legend and he has a new Album out "Hidden Conversations" on which heo collaborates with Massive Attack including several tracks written by Robert Del Naja including the brilliant track "Live with Me"... which if I recall correctly was released as a single a few months back! 

The Album is on Mr Bongo Records, Amazon and already available on Spotify

Technorati Tags: Music

Burmese Justice?

Imagine being at home when someone breaks into your house... you call the Police... they arrive and instead of arresting the Burglar they arrest you for "allowing" him to Burgle your house... ridiculous?  You bet!  A travesty of justice?  Definitely!  Impossible?  Sadly not!

Technorati Tags: News: Politics

Church shame?

IF this is true as reported - then it is deeply deeply shameful and sinful!  The Church should be 100% honest and open even if it means saying and being sorry for abuses committed on its/our watch!

The Church of England has been accused of conducting a cover up over allegations that it drugged girls in one of its children's homes in the 1970s and 1980s.  Teresa Cooper has been battling to get hold of her files for 18 years

Last month the BBC revealed that nine girls who were heavily drugged in Kendall House in Kent have gone on to have children with birth defects.  Now Teresa Cooper, one of the women involved, has accused the Church of conducting a cover up - a claim the Church strongly denies.

"The Church are very responsible. They haven't even said sorry," says Ms Cooper. "They all just go around and they hide, you know, they hide and pretend. They won't do it because they feel if they give any of the girls support they'll be sued."

For the last month the Today programme has been investigating her claims. It has uncovered evidence that the Church in Society - the department of the Church of England responsible for Kendall House - has deliberately withheld files from Teresa Cooper and that a senior member of staff accessed and removed files from the archive despite assurances that he did not do so.

Technorati Tags: Church: Church of England: News

Ascension Day

Ascension day... a strange day, when the Disciples come face to face with the glory of Jesus... his true Godliness... and then are left behind, waiting, gazing at the now empty sky!  A mixture of awe and abandonment, majesty and mystery... 

We'll post our full meditation later.

Psalm 24
God claims Earth and everything in it,
God claims World and all who live on it.
He built it on Ocean foundations, laid it out on River girders.

Who can climb Mount God?
Who can scale the holy north-face?
Only the clean-handed, only the pure-hearted;
Men who won't cheat, women who won't seduce.

God is at their side; with God's help they make it.
This, Jacob, is what happens to God-seekers, God-questers.

Wake up, you sleepyhead city! 
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.

Who is this King-Glory?
God, armed and battle-ready.

Wake up, you sleepyhead city!
Wake up, you sleepyhead people!
King-Glory is ready to enter.

Who is this King-Glory?
God-of-the-Angel-Armies:
he is King-Glory.

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Rhythm: safespace: Spirituality: Worship

The Green Light - A meditation

The Green Light.

(Song:...”..and I will trust in you alone...”)

Walk with me on a journey.
Explore. Imagine. See

Close your eyes. Breathe in deeply, and out so that you cannot hear your breath.

Imagine a place where you might meet with God.  Perhaps a room. Open the door, go in. He is there seated the table.
He may speak or he may not. That’s all right. Enjoy His presence.

He wants us to walk together, with Him, for a little while.

Imagine the sea.    A town with lights along the promenade.  We walk around the curve of the bay, out, out onto the harbour wall, to the end.  You cannot walk any further.
Behind you is the town.  Distant now.
It is dark. The lights curve, following the bay.  You stand on the edge of the harbour wall.

It is dark.  Sky, sea and mist is one before you.  Look away from the land.  Out to sea.  All is dark, grey, all is one.  You can make out no discernable features.

That unknown nothingness.
That dark mist.
That is everything.
Past. Now.   The future.
That is Him.  That is where He wants you to be.

In the near distance is a clear, bright, green light.  It flashes. You glimpse it.
On. Off. On.   Off.
It makes a shimmering green pathway in the water.  Clear, but constantly moving.
All around us is the world of man.
Bright light. Unmissable.  Dtark and clear.  Hollow.
He wants us to turn to the unknown, mysterious, misty future.
It is a scary place.
You cannot see what lies ahead.
His gren light shines out.
You glimpse it-so strong and clear.
Visible from far away.
Then its gone again.
On.  Off. On.  Off.
There is a shimmering, moving path to follow the light.
Turn towards the bay.
The tide is coming in.  Wave after wave curls onto teh beach.  Light and dark.
Light and dark.  The dark comes from behind you.  God’s peace.  God’s way.
Wave after wave.  It will come onto the the shores of our world.
His presence cannot be held back.
His precence is strong.
He is asking us to turn from the bright, known, empty world of man.
Turn around and follow Him.
Into the gray, unkown mystery that is God.
Follow the green light.
Follow the shimmering path.
He is the light.
Sometimes we glimpse it, but it is always there shining out in all directions.
Sometimes I have to wait for it to shine on me.

We’ll walk back now.  Slowly. 
All shall be well.

The church bells ring out in the distance up on the hill.

(song-...”and I will trust in you alone...”)

AMEN

This meditation was inspired by a meditation by the community of St. Hilda and St Aidan at Spring Harvest, Minehead 2009. The images, thoughts and song came to me as I walked along the shore afterwards.  It was a very powerful experience and the church bells really did ring out on the hill!  Praise be to God.

Carol Bryan 

Technorati Tags: Poetry: Prayer: safespace: Spirituality: Worship

St Brendan's Day tomorrow

Great post from Rhymin' Simon on St. Brendan - here - a section of which I've plagiarised!

1) Adventure: without adventure, our lives become dull and empty. Today we’ve attempted to rule out any element of adventure or risk in our lives, because we’re afraid of potential disaterous consequences. (’Don’t go out on your bike, you’ll get hurt’; ‘dont play out in the street kids, you get snatched by a paedophile’; ‘dont eat that plant, you might get ill.’ ‘Don’t pee on an electric fence…’ – actually that last one is right.)

But life without risk and adventure is dull, it becomes the antithesis of itself, lifeless. Certainly in church we’ve lost the element of risk and adventure which saw Christianity spread like a virus across the world hundreds of years ago. Now we’re safe, secure, and a bit fearful – what a rubbish way to live.

Why are we so afraid of risk? We’re too sold on our consumer culture attitude of safety and security as provided by banks and belongings (ha!) – well perhaps that notion is changing…

2) Dream: without dreams we’re nothing. To dream is to transcend the present reality, to enter a place where the impossible is possible, and to live a life full of hope and mystery. My kids have crazy dreams, they make no sense, they are impossible, but when they tell me about them, their eyes burn with excitement, and their minds expand. I want them to make their dreams come true (except that one about the flying elephant.)

With dreams we need the first element too, adventure, risk, the ability to suspend disbelief long enough to just give it a good try. I’m obviously not talking now about those crazy childish dreams of flying elephants and so on, I’m talking now about the kind of dreams we all harbour in our hearts, the things we’d love to do, the places we want to go, the adventures we want to take. To see dreams come true, we need to risk them not coming true too, we need to invite risk back into the equation.

In the navigatio Brendan and his monks make an impossible journey, with all kinds of adventures along the way. If we manage to engage our sense of adventure with our dreams, and suspend our disbelief long enough to take a few risks, then we too may just see the impossible become possible, and have a blast along the way.

Technorati Tags: Blogging: Celtic: Christianity: new-monasticism: Spirituality: St Brendan

Holy Sex Batman!

I'm sure some will see this as being somewhat controversial... some will no doubt condemn it... I think it's something to be celebrated - sex is good and it's about time Christianity got over from it's victorian embarrassment about it... Father Ksawery Knotz, a Polish Franciscan and Catholic Priest has written a books called "Sex as you don't know it: for married couples who love God" (putting aside the obvious flaw of a celibate man writing about sex) about which he says...

Some people, when they hear about the holiness of married sex, immediately imagine that such sex has to be deprived of joy, frivolous play, fantasy and attractive positions [They think] it has to be sad like a traditional church hymn.  Every act - a type of caress, a sexual position - with the goal of arousal is permitted and pleases God. During sexual intercourse, married couples can show their love in every way, can offer one another the most sought-after caresses... Married couples celebrate their sacrament, their life with Christ also during sex.  Calling sex a celebration of the marriage sacrament raises its dignity in an exceptional way. Such a statement shocks people who learned to look at sexuality in a bad way. It is difficult for them to understand that God is also interested in their happy sex life and in this way gives them his gift.

I look forward to an English version :)

BBC News

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Church: Culture: Fun

Just how innocent are you?

The British Government have been told that it is against Human Rights legislation to hold an innocent persons DNA on record for life, so now they have decided that if you are innocent of a serious crime they will hold it for 12 years, if however the crime you are innocent of is less serious they will only hold it for 6 years... I'm really worried, I am innocent of the assassination of John F Kennedy does this mean they will come knocking for a sample of my DNA... how do I prove that the crimes I haven't done are of the less serious variety?  I mean I am innocent of mugging and car theft too, will they take these previous non-offences into consideration?  Or will the fact I have not committed genocide and ethnic cleansing trump these lesser non-crimes?  I wonder do all the crimes I haven't done add up and mean they can hold my sample ad infinitum?  I'm confused... perhaps I should stand for Parliament?

Technorati Tags: Culture: News: Politics

Paulo Coehlo on collective worship

well, to be more accurate Coelho (Brazillian poet, writer, inspiration etc) wants to know what you think about collective worship.

Technorati Tags: alt.worship: Art: Church: Emerging Church: Worship