Prodigal Kiwi(s) Blog

The Church Has Lost Its Way…

Much resonated for me in a recent post by Barry Taylor. Here’s an excerpt: 

“…Young people are leaving because they have been in attendance at church services, Sunday schools, and other church events and instead of finding a community of spiritual depth and Christ-like love that truly cares about its community, they have found too many people over-concerned with gimmickry, social status, self-interest, and self-preservation. Instead of finding a community of authentic worship of God and sacrificial love for neighbor, they have found a community of fear, anxiety, and tepid pseudo-spirituality. I believe millenials are searching for authenticity and community and that the church today has, indeed, lost its way. 

But the problem is not just that the church has refused to accommodate millennials' moral shortcomings by "relaxing its commitments to make church more acceptable" -- it's that the millennials have come looking for a community passionately following Christ in all areas of life and - far too often - we (i.e. Christians) haven't given them what they're searching for. I am not surprised that millennials are leaving church because as I survey the landscape of American Christianity today I don't see that it has much to recommend itself to the next generation -- or any generation, for that matter… 

… In order to regain the trust of future generations, the church needs to regain its own spiritual vitality, but this will not come through gimmicks, ad campaigns, moral laxity, or any of the other "desperate measures" currently being pursued to stave off the church's decline. If there is to be any hope that the church will regain the next generation, what is really needed is steadfast obedience to Christ's call to sacrificial love and a commitment to be "good news" to our communities born out in concrete acts of service and radical hospitality. We need to be less committed to the "institution" -- our buildings, bulletins, budgets, and social status -- and more committed to Christ and the pursuit of the koinonia that Christ lived, died, and rose again to create…” 

You can read his whole post here.

p.s. I now have him to thank for introducing me to US musician/singer/artist Melody Gardot, the “Accidental Musician” (Youtube clips here, here, here, and here) 

Rowan Williams’ 2012 Holy Week Lectures on St Paul

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, delivered a series of three Holy Week Lectures on the theme "St Paul: the Man and his Letters". 

The lectures took place in Canterbury Cathedral, England on 2nd, 3rd and 4th of April.  

Lecture 1 [50Mb, 52 mins]
In his first lecture, "Outsiders and Insiders: Paul's Social World" the Archbishop draws from the book of Acts and St Paul's letters to talk about the world in which Paul lived - a cosmopolitan world held together by the Greek language and the authority of the Roman Emperor, but where universal human rights and dignities did not exist. 

Lecture 2 [46Mb, 49 mins]
In his second lecture, "The Universal Welcome: Paul's Disturbing Idea", the Archbishop talks about Paul's concept of a new kind of community where the powerful divisions existing within society no longer matter.  

Lecture 3 [46Mb, 49 mins] 
In the third and final lecture, "The New Creation: Paul's Christian Universe", the Archbishop considers the process by which Paul came to understand that Jesus, one of his own contemporaries, was in fact the image of God.  

You will find the downloadable Mp3’s here. 

Love: The Only Antidote to Fear

A deep-thinking Irish writer / poet / artist / philosopher I’ve loved reading, but particularly loved listening to was the late John O’Donohue (1956-2008). For me there’s always such clarity of thought, but never without the presence of a great “heart”, and there is always such wisdom and human insight; so much I’ve been able to wrestle with, both in terms of challenging me, but also in terms of affirming me, affirming who I am and how I am, even though, like all in the human race I struggle with my own brokenness, my own experiences of missing the mark and my own “false-self” or “shadow”. My many deeply human “Romans 7:14-16” moments.  

I love listening to John. As another of my favourite poets David Whyte writes, “…John was a love-letter to humanity from some address in the firmament we have yet to find and locate, though we may wander many a year looking or listening for it…” 

"When you cease to fear your solitude, a new creativity awakens in you. Your forgotten or neglected wealth begins to reveal itself. You come home to yourself and learn to rest within. Thoughts are our inner senses. Infused with silence and solitude, they bring out the mystery of inner landscape."

- Anam Cara, p. 17 

Most recently I’ve been listening to some of his Greenbelt talks. The latest being his talk Love is the Only Antidote for Fear. Its central theme is well captured in the title. It’s a wonderful uplifting and ultimately encouraging talk; one I’ve now listened to several times. You’ll find it here. 

Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul

Australia’s Radio National programme The Spirit of Things recently featured and interview with Jung specialist Claire Dunne. The topic of discussion was Carl Jung, and in particular a conversation around some of the themes of Dunne’s re-issued (May 2012) 2000 publication Carl Jung: Wounded Healer of the Soul. 

Here’s the promo for the programme: 

“…Carl Jung's exploration of the psyche took him deep into the world of religion, myth and the occult. The founder of depth psychology, Jung said that his patients suffered from a lack of what religion used to give people, but lost, and that healing would come from a direct experience of the Divine... And the Art Gallery of NSW exhibition on Australian Symbolism delves into the art of dreams.” 

You can listen to the programme or download it here. 

Of course, as with any human being (myself included), there are rightly dimensions of Jung around which one could be very critical, we are all wounded to greater or lesser degrees, but there is also much in his work that is truly fascinating, insightful and helpful. 

At Sea and the Growing Edge

Margaret Silf was a UK writer I was introduced to and read as part of my training to become a Spiritual Director. It was a few years back, but I’ve continued to value and appreciate both how Silf writes, and what she writes about. The first of her books I engaged with were Landmarks: An Ignatian Journey and Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way, and she, amongst a number of others, really nurtured my real interest in Ignatian spirituality. Her At Sea with God is currently amongst my bedside reading, and will prove, I'm sure, a deeply affirming and nourishing read for the life-situation I’m in. 

Anyway, all that to introduce a talk that she gave at Greenbelt 2002. The talk was titled The Growing Edge and is a fascinating and very accessible reflection on the importance of the “edge” of church life; the importance of the “edge” to our spiritual formation and growth; and the importance of the “edge” to change. I highly recommend it, especially if, relative to church belonging, you find yourself on the edge of the center or indeed, beyond the edge.  

You’ll find the downloadable Mp3 here. 

Ben Myers on Rowan Williams’ Theology: Succinctly!

Over the last few days I’ve been listening (and re-listening) to a succinct interview with Ben Myers in which he reflects on Rowan Williams’ theology. It’s a “whistlestop” overview of some of the key themes in Williams’ theology. Ben, as he’s done in his recently published book Christ the Stranger: The Theology of Rowan Williams (pub. 2012) does a fine job, within the time he has, of getting to the heart of the theological framework out of which Williams has operated. 

One could have wished for a longer interview, but for me it touched on the key themes that have become important to me and how I try to live – things I’ve appreciatively learnt (and am still learning) from Williams. 

Myer’s use of the analogy of marriage is a good one (if you’re married or have been), and is a grounded way of reflecting on the larger themes and challenges that Williams believes the church needs to grapple with; the ways of being that make space for, and are hospitable to the ‘other’ for the sake of the gospel.  Similarly, his reflections on how Williams understands community and relationships remain important and we will continue to need to find ways of embodying and enacting the needs and realities Williams invites us into.    

And in relation to Myers’ book I think the introduction to the radio interview gets it right: It is “a very accessible and engaging critical introduction to Williams’ substantial contribution to Christian theology.” 

The programmes promo also includes the following by way of introduction: 

“…Rowan Williams has just announced he’s stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury. He’s held the office since 2003, the 104^th incumbent since St Augustine of Canterbury in 597. Rowan Williams will be leaving the post in December, and becoming Master of Magdalene College at Cambridge. Opinions vary widely about the success or otherwise of Rowan Williams’ leadership of the international Anglican Communion, spanning a decade of huge theological and political divisions, particularly over women priests and bishops, and homosexuality. 

Yet there is much stronger consensus on the point that Williams is a theologian of particular note, one of the most influential of our time. From Christian doctrine such as the resurrection, the nature and purpose of the church, and the Trinity, to the philosophy of religious language, and contemporary issues like religious pluralism, sexuality and the body, and economics and society ... Williams has brought a sophisticated and subtle intellect, a creative imagination, and a wide reading of literature, to his theological reflections. He’s also an acclaimed poet…”

You can find the (downloadable) interview here. 

Laurence Freeman and The “Monk Within”

Benedictine Monk Laurence Freeman OSB is always worth a listen. Freeman is the Director of the World Community of Christian Meditation. 

At Greenbelt 2005 he gave a talk titled: Monk Within, in which he reflected on the archetype of the ‘monk’ within each of us and the importance of the contemplative in what it means to be fully and wholly human. In the West we’ve increasingly swung toward productivity and activity more generally. Its about how we use time, how we “maximize” what we do in the time we have. 

Freeman, Keating, Merton, Rohr et al have in many ways been deeply subversive in engaging with notions time as “commodity” and of an understanding of humanity that places what we do above who we are; an understanding that preferences and values productivity over inactivity and being. But, importantly, their arguments haven’t been for contemplation over and against action, but rather for a both/and, or for action to emerge from contemplation, or for action to return us to contemplation. Personally I think they, and many others, including those in other religious traditions are gifting us something very precious.

The centerpiece of Freeman’s talk is a wonderful and evocative engagement with the Biblical (NT) story of Martha and Mary. 

You’ll find the talk here. I highly recommend it, and indeed, any talks by Freeman. Freeman’s books are also well worth a read: his academic Jesus: The Teacher Within (pub. 2000) to its 2011 sequel The First Sight.  

Richard Rohr: What is Masculine Spirituality?

At Greenbelt 2003 Franciscan Priest Fr. Richard Rohr OFM delivered an interesting talk under the rubric, “What is masculine spirituality?” One of my person highlights was having a coffee and conversation with Richard a few years back and one of the topics we talked about was centred on a very similar question, “what are men looking for and/or needing in order to increasingly live more deeply, fully, and wholly into their humanity and into their relatedness with others?”

Rohr, not in this talk, describes the male's journey as a double-movement, downwards and inwards from “The Common Masculine” to “Shallow Masculine” and on to “Deep Masculine”. 

This lecture doesn’t get at all of these issues, but it offers somewhat of an overview of the terrain that could be crossed, and will suggest paths that the interested male could begin to explore if (and it’s a BIG “if”) they were so inclined to face into themselves, their woundedness, their pain, and their longings with a view to becoming freer, more whole and more fully alive, i.e. more who they most deeply and uniquely are. Indeed to become more wholly and healthily male, as much for themselves as others in their lives. 

You can find Richard’s talk here. 

“…There are two ways of being a prophet. One is to tell the enslaved that they can be free. It is the difficult path of Moses. The second is to tell those who think they’re free that they are in fact enslaved. This is the even more difficult path of Jesus.”

- Richard Rohr, from The Wild Man’s Journey: Reflections on Males Spirituality, p. 41.  

 

Maggi Dawn on Sabbath & Church

Continuing to catch up with talks from Greenbelt Gatherings, I’ve been listening to my friend Maggi Dawn from 2003. Her talk being titled: Church in the Noughties. It’s one talk, but has two themes running through it. The first is to do with the Fourth of the Ten Commandments – the “4^th” having to do with Sabbath. Maggi traces the history – a “whistle-stop journey” – of Sabbath from the Old Testament (or “First Testament”) to the Reformation (Post-Reformation). While the second theme, building on the first, was Maggi thought’s on the importance of gathered Church with reflections on “alt-worship”, “emergent church” and other “experiments” on the edge or beyond the edge of traditional “Sunday” church.  It was the latter part of the talk that I found most interesting, confirming for me that my own thinking about established church & new forms of church follow Maggi’s very closely. 

“…What shape should work, Church and the Sabbath take in 21st century, western culture – post-evangelical, alternative, emerging, liquid, virtual? Should we abandon traditional Sunday worship or fight to revive it?” 

It’s not a long talk, but you’ll find it here.  

p.s. If you like what she has to say, check out her books too. She’s a very gifted writer and communicator (see her blog).

Photo credit - Jonny Baker.

Rowan Williams: Kiss and Tell

I’ve been listening to Rowan Williams these last few days – well actually one 2002 talk several times. I’ve listened a lot to him over the years, but his 2002 Greenbelt talk – Kiss and Tell: Intimacy and Mystical Experience - is one of the very best talks I’ve heard him deliver, and as I’m discovering it benefits from repeated listening, not because its technical (and in that sense complex), but because its simultaneously accessible, profoundly human, and yet also deep – it’s content circling around the profundity of God’s love for us, and love for God, and the importance of human love and loving. He explores why we turn so often to the language of human love, loving, and intimacy to talk about and explore our experience of God.    

For me I couldn’t but help hear St. Paul and his letter to the churches in Corinth (1 Cor. 13:1-7). I’m glad too that over the years I’ve had the likes of Williams, the Christian Mystics and many other wise persons walking along side me, helping me change and deepen my experience of what it means to be fully human; what it means to be alive; and what it means to truly love. But, the journey is still not over, the unfolding continues. 

Other strands woven through the fabric of his talk:

• The importance of the Christian mystics, in particular: St. John of the Cross & St. Bernard of Clairvaux.
• The Song of Songs and the very human acts of yearning, passion, and hunger for another person – for love, and to be loved and wanted for who we are.
• Human loving, relating, and intimacy.
• The absence and withdrawal of love.
• The importance of love maturing and deepening.
• The mystery and depth of our humanity – there is always more; we’re always more than can be seen and experienced. The multi-dimensional, multi-layered realities of being fully and wholly human.
• The importance of the longevity of love and loving – love as something that matures and enlarges – enlarges our relating to self, others, and God. Love as a journey of unfolding.
• The inevitability that to truly love will also, as a consequence, entails the experience of pain. To feel no deep, wordless pain in our human relating and within the context of human intimacy is, as a corollary, not to have truly or deeply loved. Love hurts, but love is the source of the most profound and sublime joy, peace and deep contentment. 

If you haven’t heard Williams start with this talk (downloadable here), and then carry on with this Holy Week talks: here (the Narnia stories from 2011) and via here (on growing in prayer from 2009).