way out west

New Book - Starting from Zero with $0

 

Just received a copy of "Starting from Zero with $0" written by Becky Garrison - Available from Amazon

Churches everywhere are suffering from draconian funding cuts, so how do leaders with a heart for alternative ministries fund their passion and build communities that will last? Journalist and commentator Becky Garrison looks deep into the experience of nearly a dozen ministries in the United States and United Kingdom - all of them geared to the growing spiritual-but-not-religious demographic, and all of them highly creative ventures doing a lot with a little money. How did these ministries start from zero with $0? And how could you?

We are one of the featured communities, along with "The Church on the Corner", "Grace", "The Crossing", "St Marks in the Bowery" amongst others.  I haven't had time to read it all - will post more when I have had chance to.

 

Order of Saint Brendan

I heard this week from Karen Ward from the Church of the Apostles in Seattle - http://www.apostleschurch.org/ - that they are starting a Mission Order called "The Order of Saint Brendan the Navigator" - http://episcopalvillage.org/index.php/pioneer-order/

The idea is that Chapters can be formed by any group of Christians who can hold to the values and vision of the Order...

 

Missional Development' via the start up of new, renewed, and contextual Christian churches and ministries that are capable of connecting emerging generations to life and community around Jesus Christ. Especially connecting with: people with no previous church experience, people with prior negative experiences of Christianity, people in urban areas, people from non European cultures, and people from subcultures amonst whom the church rarely engages.

'Wholistic Mission' which engages all dimensions of mission: the contextual, the cross-cultural, the trans-cultural, and the counter cultural ways in which the Gospel relates to culture.

'The Reign of God Horizon' which unites us in common cause with all those working for justice and compassion in culture and society. We will develop partnerships, and work collaboratively with people of different faiths and those with no particular faith tradition, towards the renewal of human community and relationships within our various localities, because the Reign of God extends beyond the bounds of the church.

'Spiritual Stability' within a particular Christian tradition We hold that spiritual depth within Christian life and practice is most often found by living within a particular Christian tribe or spiritual tradition with integrity. Being fully part of a tradition calls for being 'under authority' within the tradition (to your Bishop, or equivalent oversight or accountability). Claiming any Christian tradition with integrity involves allowing that tradition to claim you.

I've known Karen for a few years and we've been on a few panels together at Greenbelt and met at other gatherings and we have spoken at depth about St. Brendan and new-Monasticism.  Clearly the new Order shares both the values and story of Safespace, and I am beginning to wonder wether the re-gathering and re-focussing we are going through as we try to discern the way ahead is pointing us in this direction - to connect with the order and perhaps to become a chapter?   What may be interesting is that it re-opens the possibility of growing two aspects of Safespace - the living community here in Telford but also a wider dispersed "membership" to the Order through us.  I'm hoping, if I can find the necessary funds, to join the Order in February to share stories and explore the future together.

The Magnificat - not just a nice tune!

The wonderfully poetic, spiritually and politically mindblowing Magnificat...

 

My soul doth magnify the Lord.

And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

Because he hath regarded the humility of his handmaid;

for behold from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.

Because he that is mighty,

hath done great things to me;

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is from generation unto generations,

to them that fear him.

He hath shewed might in his arm:

he hath scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.

He hath put down the mighty from their seat,

and hath exalted the humble.

He hath filled the hungry with good things;

and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He hath received Israel his servant,

being mindful of his mercy:

As he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his seed for ever.

Book Launch: Ancient Faith Future Mission: New Monasticism as Fresh Expressions of Church

The combination of Fresh Expressions of Church and the explosion of interest in monastic spirituality is resulting in the emergence of new monastic communities inspired by historic patterns of religious life, but reframed for the contemporary world.  In this book, leaders of traditional religious communities and emerging 'new monastic' communities tell their stories and reflect on how an ancient expression of being church is inspiring and shaping a very new one.

Thursday 3rd Feb.  18:00 - 21:00 

Location: Church House, 90 Deansgate, Manchester.

Free Tickets: http://newmonasticism1.eventbrite.com/

Panel for the Manchester Book Launch

(Chair) Ben Edson, Diocesan Fresh Expressions Missioner & Associate Missioner of the National Fresh Expressions Team

Ray Simpson, Aidan and Hilda Community Lindisfarne

Philip Roderick, Spirituality Advisor to the Bishop of Sheffield and Leader for Contemplative Fire Community

Mark Berry, Safe Space Community Telford

Ian Mobsby, Moot Community London

 

preparing to walk on...

A good road will be there, and it will be named "God's Sacred Highway." It will be for God's people; no one unfit to worship God will walk on that road. And no fools can travel on that highway. Isaiah 35:8

We received this passage from our dear friend and sister Jackie (from the Isle of Wight) along with an encouragement to have confidence in the God who walks with us on the road. We are currently taking a season to reflect on the way forward for safespace, for individuals and for the community. I guess one can see it as a calling back together to set off once more on a new stage of the journey. The calling together is also a calling to move deeper into the shape which God has made for us - which others have seen in us (though we maybe find it hard and uncomfortable to see/believe) and which we are being challenged to grow/live into! (as a parent buy's over-sized clothes for a child knowing that the child will grow to fit the clothes in good time) We had a fantastic "Table" this evening exploring this and we ask you to pray for us as we continue to reflect and pray individually and together and as we seek to grasp something of the shape God is preparing for us.

(for more info see the post/letter below)

Christianity, Church, Community, Emerging Church, Fresh Expressions, Missional, new-monasticism, Pilgrimage, Prayer, Rhythm, safespace, Spirituality, St Brendan, Telford

Roy Clements on his journey with scripture and sexuality

In actual fact, the modern social phenomenon of two gay men or women forming a lifelong commitment as an alternative to heterosexual marriage was probably unknown to the biblical authors. If they were aware of such relationships, they ignored them. Their comments relate solely to the kind of exploitative and commercialised sexual activity that was characteristic of pagan culture. Thus, it is perfectly possible to argue that the Bible is silent about the kind of homosexual relationships which are becoming widely accepted in Western society today; just as it is silent about many other controversial aspects of sexual behaviour like masturbation and contraception. Many gay Christian couples, however, do find a relevant biblical model for the kind of same-sex devotion they seek to express in the covenant love which is described between between David and Jonathan.

You have every right to hold that homosexuality is morally wrong if that is your considered opinion. However, I believe that the intuitive interpretive clarity you experience where the Bible is concerned has been conditioned by the church culture which taught Christianity to you. A couple of hundred years ago you would have been telling me with equal earnestness that you felt the Bible clearly approved slavery. Had you lived in Germany in the 1930's you might well have quoted the Bible is support of anti-semitism. The fact is, we Christians learn together what the Bible is clear about. And on many ethical issues we have changed our collective mind as the years have gone by. It seems to me that we are in process of changing our mind on homosexuality too. Of course, history may prove me wrong about that. Roy Clements

From courage.org.uk I found this because I found myself thinking about the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury this Saturday (He was speaking at an event which was part of his visit to the Lichfield Diocese).

Christianity, Church, theology

St Francis Day

A Prayer for Gratitude from St. Francis of Assisi

Most High, all powerful, good Lord,
to you all praise, glory and honor and all blessing;
to you alone, Most High, they belong
and no one is worthy of naming you.

Praised by you, my Lord,
with all your creatures,
especially Milord Brother Sun,
who brings day, and by whom you enlighten us;
he is beautiful, he shines with great splendor,
of you, Most High, he is the symbol.

Praised be you, my Lord, for sister Moon and the Stars:
in the heavens you formed them,
clear, precious and beautiful.

Praised by you, my Lord, for Brother Wind
and for the air and for the clouds,
for the azure calm and for all climes
by which you give life to your creatures.

Praised by you, my Lord, for Sister Water,
who is very useful and humble,
precious and chaste.

Praised by you, my Lord, for Brother Fire,
by whom you enlighten the night:
he is beautiful and joyous,
indomitable and strong.

Praised by you, my Lord,
for Sister our mother the earth
who nourishes us and bears us,
and produces all kinds of fruits,
with the speckled flowers and the herbs.

Interfaith Declarations and Worship Observance Resources; The North American Conference on Religion and Ecology; 5 Thomas Circle, NW, Washington, DC 20005

Christianity, Church, new-monasticism, Prayer, Rhythm, theology, Worship, St Francis

The Nativity of John the Baptist

Today is the feast of the Nativity of John the Baptist, the only celebration of the birth other than the birth of Christ himself... Significantly it is 6 months before Christmas Eve!  John is known as the "precursor" or "forerunner" of the coming Christ, he announces the coming of Christ and in some ways sets the tone of the ministry of Christ.  The Orthodox Church sees John as the last of the Old Testament Prophets, sealing the old order and heralding the new.  Saint Augustine of Hippo wrote...

The Church observes the birth of John as in some way sacred; and you will not find any other of the great men of old whose birth we celebrate officially. We celebrate John’s, as we celebrate Christ’s. This point cannot be passed over in silence, and if I may not perhaps be able to explain it in the way that such an important matter deserves, it is still worth thinking about it a little more deeply and fruitfully than usual.

John is born of an old woman who is barren; Christ is born of a young woman who is a virgin. That John will be born is not believed, and his father is struck dumb; that Christ will be born is believed, and he is conceived by faith.  John, it seems, has been inserted as a kind of boundary between the two Testaments, the Old and the New. That he is somehow or other a boundary is something that the Lord himself indicates when he says, The Law and the prophets were until John. So he represents the old and heralds the new. Because he represents the old, he is born of an elderly couple; because he represents the new, he is revealed as a prophet in his mother’s womb. You will remember that, before he was born, at Mary’s arrival he leapt in his mother’s womb. Already he had been marked out there, designated before he was born; it was already shown whose forerunner he would be, even before he saw him. These are divine matters, and exceed the measure of human frailty.

-

Almighty God, by whose providence your servant John the Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of your Son our Savior by preaching repentance: Make us so to follow his teaching and holy life, that we may truly repent according to his preaching; and, following his example, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth's sake; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen

Technorati Tags: China: Church: Spirituality: theology: Worship

More on the Liturgy after the Liturgy

"the liturgy within the Liturgy", is essential for the Church, but it has to be understood in all its dimensions. There is a double movement in the Liturgy: on the one hand, the assembling of the people of God to perform the memorial of the death and resurrection of our Lord "until He comes again". It also manifests and realizes the process by which "the cosmos is becoming ecclesia". Therefore the preparation for Liturgy takes place not only at the personal spiritual level, but also at the level of human historical and natural realities. In preparing for Liturgy, the Christian starts a spiritual journey which affects everything in his life: family, properties, authority, position, and social relations. It re-orientates the direction of his entire human existence towards its sanctification by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, renewed by the Holy Communion and the Holy Spirit, the members of the Church are sent to be authentic testimony to Jesus Christ in the world. The mission of the Church rests upon the radiating and transforming power of the Liturgy. It is a stimulus in sending out the people of God to the world to confess the Gospel and to be involved in man's liberation.

Ion Bria

Technorati Tags: Christianity: Church: Community: Mission: Missional: Spirituality: theology: Worship

Merton and Brendan

An interesting article titled "Celtic Monasticism as a Metaphor for Thomas Merton's Journey" by Paul M Pearson. on the Thomas Merton Society's site...

Merton found in Celtic Monasticism and in The Voyage of St. Brendan, in particular, a way of understanding monastic life and his own monastic life and this was why he was so fascinated by this subject and saw in it, as he says in a letter to Dame Hildelith Cumming, a "symbolic tract on the monastic life."

The metaphor of journey is widely used in understanding the Christian life and it is also a metaphor frequently used by and about Merton. It is a metaphor that covered his physical travels of his early life before entering the monastery and his final pilgrimage to the East, it covered his continuing conversion of life as a monk, his conversion to compassion and his conversion to his fellow human beings. Journey was also the metaphor he used to understand his search for God and for his true self.

Alongside such metaphors as solitary explorer, guilty bystander, stranger, wanderer, marginal person, Merton also used the metaphor of pilgrim of himself. In his Asian Journal Merton refered to himself as a pilgrim - "I have left my monastery to come here not just as a research scholar or even as an author. I come as a pilgrim...to drink from ancient sources of monastic vision and experience."

Technorati Tags: Celtic: Christianity: Mission: new-monasticism: Pilgrimage: Rhythm: Spirituality: St Brendan: theology: Thomas Merton: Worship