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At The CMS Members Day I met up with Jim Barker... Jim is both a member of hOME, a new-monastic community in Oxford ('led' by Matt Rees) and one of the volunteers working alongside Gill Poole on the new Mission House for CMS... the Misson House is part of a shift for CMS, from being a Mission Agency to being a Mission movement... part of this shift is the move to partnering in new-missional communities like ours and putting people in place to resource these communities e.g. Andrew Jones and Richard White - who work together with the vision to see thousands of new small missional communities spring up across the UK, and Johnny Baker (all part of the Mission Leadership Team with me).... The characters who seem to be 'driving' this shift are Chris Neal and Paul Thaxter... both of whom have the most incredible energy for Mission and for change (though not for change sake!)... The House is not 'A Church' in the sense of a gathering, but a place for people to come and live in order to impact the wider community... Jim described the difference in terms of Church as a Citadel (a place where people go to for safety and security - a defensive place) and a Coracle (a tool for the journey - a place that is designed to lead people out, but also provides people with a safe place to make that journey)
Jim Blogs here... mainly on issues of community and ethical living...
If you want to appease the 'Trick or Treaters' (horrible tradition we've imported from the States... why can't we go back to 'Apple Bobbing' etc... much more fun!) and you want to communicate the good news at the same time... then try one of these holy treats!
Technorati Tags: Religion
One of Today's readings is the well known Psalm 137...
Alongside Babylon's rivers we sat on the banks; we cried and cried, remembering the good old days in Zion. Alongside the quaking aspens we stacked our unplayed harps; That's where our captors demanded songs, sarcastic and mocking: “Sing us a happy Zion song!” Oh, how can we sing GOD's song in a strange land?
One interpretation of the metaphor, could suggest that the emerging culture is a Godless one... we are in exile in the spiritually dead desert of post-christendom, maybe... but the image that stirs me relates to both the a) the Egyptian Exile and the Exodus (Moses and crew) and the Exile (from Jerusalem to Babylon)... The exile in Egypt saw the establishment of a nation, a culture i.e. structures and patterns, these patterns ensured the stability of the nation, they ensured orthodoxy I suppose and they provided both identity and security. Once they left Egypt they found themselves lost... I guess they could no longer define themselves in opposition... and searched for a new pattern that would sustain them... some focus... they tried all sorts of things; altars, golden idols etc. What worked in the end was the Tablets and their container, the Ark... interesting that it seems that maybe the writing on the tablets, the words of God had less significance to them... They were not ready to let go of the cultural patterns... and fought to sustain them.
The other Exile, when the Babylonians conquered Jerusalem and took the leaders away to Babylon... this is the subject of the Psalm... when their structure; religious and cultural... their identity was taken away, they had to rethink what it meant to be the 'children of God' in a strange land, a strange culture... they could no longer sustain their faith with the patterns which had become the norm for them. A cultural faith isn't sustainable when culture changes for whatever reason...
So... what now, I guess it could be said that we are in exile, in a post Christian culture... we can see that as a call to hold onto our structures or to desperately look for a new focus... to restore a cultural faith... or... we can begin to ask the question, how can we sing the same old songs in a strange land? My guess is that rather than look for new structures to refocus the church we need to look for God here and now... it is argued that many of the leaders might not have returned from Babylon (some even suggest that the Wise Men of the Nativity were from Babylon (east of Palestine) and may be the spiritual descendants of those spiritual leaders.) they must then have found God in Babylon, and found new ways within the culture to express their faith, and to welcome people with no background in the structures and patterns... I wonder can we!?
... just thoughts!
Technorati Tags: Bible: Church: Culture: Emerging Church: Mission: Religion: Spirituality
From "The One Year Book of Saints" by Rev. Clifford Stevens.
ST. CEDD—A.D. 664
Feast: October 26
Cedd belonged to a family of brothers, and all six of them were chosen by King Oswald of Northumbria to be trained by St. Aidan to be monks and missionaries. This was in 635, when Aidan came from the monastery of Iona in Scotland to become bishop of King Oswald's kingdom. One of St. Cedd's brothers was St. Chad, who was the first bishop of York and then bishop of Lichfield. In 653, Peada, king of the Middle Angles, asked Aidan's successor at Lindisfarne for a bishop for his diocese, and St. Finan chose four monks from Lindisfarne to evangelize Peada's people. Later, the king of the East Saxons, whose chief city was London, also asked for a bishop, and Finan called Cedd to Lindisfarne and consecrated him bishop of London. Cedd founded three monasteries of his own, the best known being Lastingham, where he died of the plague in 664. St. Bede has a beautiful story of Cedd's founding of Lastingham: Cedd spent forty days in prayer and fasting in a remote spot given to him by King Ethelwald. In 664, Cedd was present at the Synod of Whitby and was a member of the Irish party, those wishing to retain the Irish date for Easter. But when the synod decided in favor of the Roman date, Cedd accepted the decision, not wanting to cause any further disunity in the English churches. After the Synod of Whitby, a plague struck England, and Cedd was among those who died from the plague. At the news of his death, thirty monks came from London to spend their lives where their founder had died. But they, too, caught the plague and were buried near the little chapel that had been erected in Cedd's memory. Cedd was the second bishop of the city of London; the first was Mellitus, who came with St. Augustine and later became archbishop of Canterbury. Mellitus was driven from the see by the king of the East Saxons in 616, and London was without a bishop until Cedd's arrival about 654.
Alan Hirsch has a new book pending and following in the footsteps of Kester and Steve Taylor... has started a Blog of the same name... The Forgotten Way
ht to Matt Stone
Technorati Tags: Blogging: Books: Emerging Church
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