Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

Alan Jones Retires from Grace Cathedral

Paul writes – A voice I’ve long valued in my journey is that belonging to Alan Jones. Alan is an Episcopal Priest, and until very recently was the Dean of Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. Alan has written a number of books, included amongst which are the excellent: Journey into Christ; The Soul’s Journey: Exploring the Three Passages of the Spiritual Life with Dante as a Guide; Exploring Spiritual Direction; Passion for Pilgrimage: Notes for the Journey Home; Soul Making: The Desert Way of Spirituality.

Worth listening to then is an interview (25 Jan 2009) on the eve of his departure from Grace Cathedral. It’s woven through with tremendous wisdom and insight. All of which are deeply characteristic of Alan in his writing, sermonizing etc. You can hear the interview (and download it as an Mp3) here.

Geese, Re-Enchanting Christianity, Chicken Run and the Future

Paul writes – Attached is the latest Spirited Exchanges (UK) newsletter (Feb/Mar 09). It features a number of reflections including a book review of Dave Tomlinson’s latest book, Re-Enchanting Christianity. Also included is a great Kierkegaard parable drawn from Mike Riddell’s excellent and still very relevant (published 1998) Threshold of the Future: Reforming the Church in the Post-Christian West (Riddell “calls the community of Christ back to its radical roots and its essential character as a missionary body…” I’d recommend reading the parable and then watching a DVD of the movie Chicken Run…

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Consolation. The gift of the Other.

Paul writes – one of the great consolations for me in blogging is reading a post by someone like Simon Holt, a post in which Simon reflects something of his life, routines, and the realities he contends with, and in my reading of that account finding myself named as well. That’s encouraging and in Ignatian terms, a moment of consolation.

 

Today I celebrate the gift and encouragement of the other, the similarities and overlaps of lives, and I’m grateful for the ordinary and everyday discoveries of God (or whatever name you might use) present and at work, including in blog posts like Simon's.  

 

Here’s Simon from a few days ago.

 

“…In her little book, The Quotidian Mysteries: Laundry, Liturgy and Women’s Work, the poet Kathleen Norris explores the sacredness of the everyday and our natural aversion to it: "We want life to have meaning, we want fulfillment, healing and even ecstasy, but the human paradox is that we find these things by starting where we are, not where we wish we were.  We must look for blessings to come from unlikely, everyday places—out of Galilee, as it were—and not in spectacular events." 

Read the rest of his post here. Can I also recommend Norris’ most recent work which extends and continues the themes of The Quotidian Mysteries…?

Re-Entering the Metavista

Paul writes – Last I interviewed Dr. Colin Greene, co-author (with Martin Robinson) of my theological/missiological book of 2008 – Metavista: Bible Church and Mission in an Age of Information. You’ll find the interview here. At the time I also pointed out to Colin that Andrew Perriman had written an interesting review, one I hoped Colin would respond too, because a couple of Andrew’s points were very good, and a response from Colin would help sharpen and clarify his argument, certainly in my mind anyway.

 

Well, Colin has now written a response and you can read it here, together with Andrew’s original review. Or you can read it here on Colin’s blog. Additionally, another interesting read is Colin’s response to a pithy review by John Drane in the Baptist Times (Colin's response does have a link to the original review too). As you’d expect from John, he gets at the missional nub in relation to culture and mission, more specifically to the difference between the “bottom-up” work of doing theology in the ordinary and the everyday versus a “top-down” theory-driven understanding and practice.

 

It’s a fascinating debate and I find myself gravitating in both directions (“head” and “heart”), while attempting to sit with the tension. I’m grateful too for good and gifted friends who likewise (but with far greater imagination and creativity) “make do” in the tension, and thus mostly avoid the dualism, between the needed academic and the equally needed practical work of finding God and God’s invitations in the ordinary and the everyday.

 

I’m grateful too for Colin and the chance I had to get to know him over the last couple of years.

Henri Nouwen - Community, a Quality of the Heart

“…The word community has many connotations, some positive, some negative. Community can make us think of a safe togetherness, shared meals, common goals, and joyful celebrations. It also can call forth images of sectarian exclusivity, in-group language, self-satisfied isolation, and romantic naïveté. However, community is first of all a quality of the heart. It grows from the spiritual knowledge that we are alive not for ourselves but for one another. Community is the fruit of our capacity to make the interests of others more important than our own (see Philippians 2:4). The question, therefore, is not "How can we make community?" but "How can we develop and nurture giving hearts?"

Hear, Hear...

Paul writes – Simon Holt reflects on the call of the laity. As someone who has followed conversations on this theme for a number of years I must say little has changed and Trueblood’s observations remain very relevant.

 

“… [Elton] Trueblood was especially critical of the diminishment of the ‘ministry of the laity’ to (i) giving support to the structures and programmes of the institution, and (ii) helping the pastor with the chores around the church buildings.  Trueblood argued that "the only kind of lay ministry worth encouraging is that which makes a radical difference to the entire Christian enterprise."  In other words, lay ministry is not some second rate auxiliary to the real thing.  It is the real thing—men and women engaged at the very forefront of everyday life as ministers of liberation and redemption: "If Christianity is to be understood not as a retreat from life in the world but as an effort to transfigure life itself, if follows that the Church needs the service of men and women at the point where they are most exposed to the problems of our political and economic order."  And that’s not in church on Sunday…”

 

Read the rest of Simon’s post here…

Mark Berry – Crystals versus Christ.

Paul writes – This brief news story which quotes Mark Berry and Ian Mobsby is a good one to read reflectively in conjunction with the article by Linford Stutzman – An Incarnational Approach to Mission in Modern Affluent Societies. Blog post relating to Stutzman, can be found here.  I was reminded too of John Drane's fascinating books: Do Christian’s Know How to Be Spiritual? The Rise of New Spirituality and the Mission of the Church. And, Beyond Prediction: The Tarot and Your Spirituality co-written with Ross Clifford and Philip Johnson  

“…On one of Britain's most popular internet dating sites, more people use this phrase to describe themselves than "Christian", "atheist", or "agnostic". Mr. Berry is very clear that he is not an evangelist that he's not there to enrol.

 

"God's mission is not just about recruiting people to an institutional church," he says. "It's about wanting to bring peace, wanting to bring reconciliation, wanting to bring hope wanting to bring a kind of holistic connection with the whole of humanity as creation and all of that, and wanting to bring a restoration of relationship with God and with the spiritual"…

 

But three years into his mission in Telford, Mark Berry's core community is not spiritual-but-not-religious recruits, but already-committed Christians who use his gatherings to deepen and provide new perspectives on their faith. There may be a hole in people's lives, but there's not a great deal of evidence that it is God-shaped.”

Ian Mobsby Arriving Soon.

Paul writes – I’m really looking forward to Ian’s arrival next month. As I’ve said numerous times on this blog, Ian’s journey and that of MOOT has been a fascinating story. I’ve always wanted to hear more of the MOOT story in my own context in small town NZ and suburbia – where might God’s invitations be in this place?

Details of the Hamilton events, and one informal evening in Cambridgeare shown below:

Friday 27^th March:  The challenge of contemporary mission and ministry in the 21st century.  How do you do church (worship, mission and community) in our now spiritual post-secular post-modern world?  Ian Mobsby, an author, anglican missioner from the Moot Community in London and member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Fresh Expression team in the UK, explores how fresh expressions and the 'mixed economy of Church'  can rise to this challenge.  This workshop will explore the vision and practicalities to begin and sustain such activities.  Venue: Te Ara Hau auditorium, 100 Morrinsville Road, Hamilton. Start time: 10am. Finishing between 2pm and 2:30pm. Cost $35.00. Ian’s books will be available for sale too, so bring a few extra dollars.

Friday 27^th March: 7:30pm. Informal conversation with Ian over a pint of beer @ The Prince Albert in Cambridge (the area out by the pool tables – might be more conducive to a conversation).

One thing I’ve often wondered is: are there other creative’s in Cambridge thinking and imagining what a different way of being church might look, feel, and sound like in Cambridge. i.e. people who want to start with a blank sheet of paper, prayer, and prayer and see what emerges. This is a chance to start a conversation by engaging with the MOOT story as Ian tells it. Being informal in nature, this is a great chance to ask questions of Ian, and to really get your imagination working. E-Mail me via the blog e-mail above, if you’re interested, otherwise, it’ll just be Ian and I, a few beers, and a great conversation…  

 

Sat 28^th March:  'I'm Spiritual Not Religious'.  This is a common mantra of many in our culture of neo-mysticism. In this workshop for practitioners, Ian Mobsby explores the theology and vision of new forms of church seeking to engage with our culture of spiritual tourism; how to engage with post-secular and post modern interest in spirituality.  The session is aimed at those who are already engaged round the edges of things. It will first explore the underlying forces that are creating this new culture and then reflect on models of church that seek to engage with this context inspired by some groups in the US and UK which combine New Monasticism, Alternative Worship and Emerging Church tendencies within the Anglican, Methodist and Lutheran traditions.  These communities seek to assist people to shift from being spiritual tourists to co-travelling Christian Pilgrims, through communities that practice deep expressions of community and Christian spirituality.  Ian Mobsby is an Anglican Missioner from London, a co-founder of the Moot Community in the Diocese of London in the UK, and a team member of the Archbishop of Canterbury's Fresh Expressions initiative.

 

Time: 1 – 4pm Workshop at Lady Goodfellow chapel, University of Waikato, Gate 1 Knighton Road, Hamilton.    Cost $10. Ian’s books will also be on sale, so bring a few extra dollars. 

 

For more information, and detail on where Ian will be in Australia and NZ, visit his website, here.

Paul Elie Interviews Rowan Williams

Paul writes – An interview with Rowan Williams, by Paul Elie, has been published in the March 09 issue of The Atlantic. The interview begins here.

 

“… I [Elie] remarked that people saw a difference between his approach as archbishop and his personal views, and I asked how this applied to “The Body’s Grace,” the essay on gay sexuality. People were calling him a hypocrite: Was he?

 

“Never in my career did 5,000 words make such a tempest,” he said, and went on to distance himself from the essay—but not really. “I wrote it as a professor of theology contributing to an increasingly tense debate in the Church of England. I didn’t think, I’d better be careful what I say, in case I become a bishop one day. When people ask have I changed my mind, I can only answer, ‘Well, the questions I raised there are still on the table. They’re still questions. And I still think they’re worth addressing.’ That essay is my contribution, made in good faith at that time. Now my responsibilities are different. The responsibility is not to argue a case from the top or cast the chairman’s vote. It’s to hold the reins for a sensible debate—and that’s a lot harder than I thought it would be…”

 

Paul Elie, the interviewer, is also interviewed in respect of his perspective on Williams and the challenges facing the communion. His perspective is fascinating, including that Williams is a writer first and an Archbishop second.  I first came across Elie a few years ago, through his excellent book The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage. It reflects, in its “pilgrimage”, on the lives of Catholics: Thomas Merton, Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy, and Dorothy Day. Elie was also interviewed on Speaking of Faith (2006) – Faith Fired By Literature. It can be heard or downloaded as an Mp3 here…

One of the Best (Brief) Overviews of the Current Financial Crisis I've Read

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