Repent

Not a huge fan of the word "repent" because of the baggage it carries for so many, but the concept is helpful, to turn away from former ways, to turn towards a different path. Peace to you.

 

 

10 years ordained

10 years ordained

This is just a splurge of thoughts (largely unfiltered)

Ten years ago today I was ordained deacon at Chester Cathedral.

It’s a common story, I’m reading lots of similar social media posts in the past few days of similar, “5 years ago”, “ten years ago”, etc, usually accompanied by a smiling picture of people wearing robes and stoles. Congratulations to you all!

I’m also conscious of amazing people being ordained today, one of whom I had great pleasure to work alongside for three years. Congratulations!

I’m also seeing posts from a few remarking on anniversaries of when they didn’t get ordained for whatever reason: peace and prayers for those people. I’m particularly aware of folk who weren’t ordained because the Church of England didn’t follow its own formational rhetoric and play by its own formational rules.

As a pioneer I’m also aware of the discourse in pioneering about lay pioneering and ordained pioneering and that’s a complicated picture made incredibly difficult by diocesan decisions to seek ordained pioneers, not because they are better pioneers buts o they can get more “bang for their buck” by getting ordained pioneers to fulfil the functions of priestly ministry. There’s also sometimes a lack of understanding that some of us ended up being ordained in part because that’s the route that was opened up for us by our vocations advisors, other routes weren’t even offered, eg. OPM

I’m also aware of wonderful people who have stepped away from parish ministry, or indeed ordained ministry, or indeed any form of “ministry” (whatever that means) and have stepped away from those things or are seeking to step away from those things for various reasons. Grace and peace to you all.

At the same time the Church Times is reporting on a new CofE initiative: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/2-july/news/uk/synod-to-discuss-target-of-10-000-new-lay-led-churches-in-the-next-ten-years (limited free-views)

Original strategy document from the CofE here: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-06/GS%202223%20Vision%20and%20Strategy.pdf

With links to an event here: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2021/2-july/news/uk/archbishop-of-canterbury-endorses-urgent-plan-for-church-planting (limited free views)

Now at this stage I don’t have anything to comment about the strategy document or the articles other than things like this are never binary, need nuance and the Church is always after the next silver bullet.

There are a number of different tacks I could take in my reflections on this but that’s for another time.

Meanwhile ten years ago today I was ordained deacon and the day of my deaconing was a delight and joy, the fulfilment of a beautiful vocational journey that had led to that point. There’s not much else to say about all of that except that what followed my deaconing didn’t really fit with what my vocational journey and my training prepared me for.

And as for my priesting, that followed eleven and a half months later, that was a complicated situation, an immensely confusing, painful, ridiculous day (except for the wedding Clare went to during my ordination and to which I went to afterwards!) and once again was followed by a realisation that the ordination itself and what it meant to the institution in terms of function didn’t really fit with what my vocational journey and my training prepared me for.

The journey following both ordinations has been a bit of a headswim too.

All of this to say that when I think of ordination I quite often think of this song by Moby and the Void Pacific Choir.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VASywEuqFd8

Peace.

meta-modernism - meta-christendom

 meta-modernism

swings back and forth from modernism to post-modernism

the same can be said for christendom - postchristendom

sometimes we swing back between both, like a royal funeral

meta-christendom

Friday

Friday

 

When the sky turned

From deepest inky black

To daylight once more….

 

When the hewn remnants

Of that curtain were

Pulled down to be repaired….

 

When the cross was

Once more empty

The nail holes all that’s left….

 

When the sponge and spear

Were gathered up

And taken into store….

 

When the stone was

Rolled into it’s

Final resting place….

 

When the scattered friends

Gazed at the evening’s

Setting sun….

 

When the spices were

All sorted and

Whispered plans were shared….

 

Design

 I've been experimenting with some design lately and wanted to share a few pieces created in the last week:. These are the first fruits of a new project, SRFB.

Prayers For Peace

 

LNC PRAYERS FOR PEACE 2020

 

A Reading: from Isaiah 11:6-9 (NIV)

⁶ The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.
⁷ The cow will feed with the bear,
    their young will lie down together,
    and the lion will eat straw like the ox.
⁸ The infant will play near the cobra’s den,
    and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.
⁹ They will neither harm nor destroy
    on all my holy mountain,
for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord
    as the waters cover the sea.

 

 

You are invited to share a few minutes with us as together we hold before God:

- our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

- our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

- our firmest hopes for peace

- our dream to see an end to all violence

- our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

 

 

 

Our collective sadness for the wars that rage across this earth

Even now there are people and places around the world where war and strife are a daily part of life. Places where generation after generation have fought the same enemy. Places where generation after generation children are raised to prepare for war.

At this time we hold before God, Armenia and Azerbaijan and the Nagorno-Karabakh border conflict.

We hold before God Syria.

We hold before God Yemen.

We hold before God the places whose conflicts are unknown to us, or are at this time relatively quiet.

 

We also hold before God the conflicts that happen within nation states.

Conflicts rooted in cultural identities.

Conflicts shaped by history.

Conflicts waged over resources and people.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our shared remembrance for the wars of the past

As we look back on the wars and conflicts of the past, we recognise the complexity of history and we recognise that we see the events of the past from a very different perspective to those who fought in the midst of those conflicts.

We remember before God those wars waged as a response to acts of aggression by different nation states.

We remember before God those wars waged due to ideological and theological differences.

We remember before God those wars waged in the name and for the benefit of wealthy elites.

We remember before God that those who suffer as a result of war are by and large the marginalised, the poor – the ordinary people.

We remember before God those people and places that we hold close to us, people and places that have suffered due to war.

We remember before God those who have lived through wars and still carry the emotional and physical scars of those conflicts.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our firmest hopes for peace

We bring before God our firmest hopes for peace.

Peace for those places and peoples currently consumed by war.

Continuing peace for those places where the violence of war has temporarily been laid down.

Peace for the hearts and minds of those who live in areas ravaged by wars for generations.

The hope of peace for those who have never experienced true peace.

Peace that goes beyond ceasefires and speaks of ongoing hopeful, hope-filled mutuality.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our dream to see an end to all violence

We dream of a day when violence ceases.

A dream that is barely imaginable.

A dream that is so far removed from our present experience that the very thought of it verges on insanity.

A dream that might not even be possible – and yet we recognise that this is the realm of dreams.

Out beyond the expected, in the hinterland beyond what is known.

And so we hold to this dream as a worthy dream.

 

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

Our longing to see renewed dialogues that cross every boundary

For peace to truly blanket this world will require a level of interdependence and dialogue that is beyond imagining.

For dialogue to penetrate the hates of generations, the stories of generations and the experiences of generations would be miraculous.

And so we long for miraculous dialogues between neighbours, forever foes and former friends.

We long for the unexpected to bloom as flowers in the desert.

We long for words of grace to be spoken.

We long for open ears.

We long for receptive hearts.

And we recognise the ease by which such words are written and spoken by those detached from conflicts drenched in the suffering of the generations.

We recognise this.

And yet we also recognise our vocation as peace-makers and peace-speakers.

We long for earnest dialogue.

Dialogue that breaks down the barriers of pain and rejection.

Dialogue that acknowledges differences and difficulties and yet still seeks for something more.

We long for dialogue that reaches out beyond the sanctuary of what is known, to embrace the longings of the forgotten.

We long for dialogue that gives voice to the voiceless, those whose worlds have been torn apart by war.

We long for dialogue that strives for peace and mutuality, prophetic dialogue that is not dismayed by adversity but still hungers for peace.

In the silence we hold all this before God.

 

silence is kept

 

Lord in your mercy

Hear our prayer

 

 

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our sins

as we forgive those who sin against us.

Lead us not into temptation

but deliver us from evil.

For the kingdom, the power,

and the glory are yours

now and for ever.

Amen.

 

 

A Prayer of Blessing

Creator God,

We long for your peace

To reign in this world and in our hearts

Help us to be messengers of peace

Empowered and blessed

By the power of your Holy Spirit

All this we pray

In the name of the Father

The Son

And the Holy Spirit

Amen.

We Are. A poetic reflection from the closing session of the #Cofereimagining conference 2020

The following piece was created during the Cofereimagining conference 2020 by collating lots of phrases from the conference and adding others that summed up conference themes. The final piece was completed while ++Justin was speaking.

We Are (On Pilgrimage with Sanjee Perera, Archbishop Justin Welby and many others)

During her talk Dr Sanjee Perera stated “we are”. She went on to describe Christ’s followers in this way, “we are rebellious prodigals redeemed by grace”

The assertion that “we are” struck a chord. Elsewhere Dr Sanjee described followers of Jesus as, ‘A new tribe baptized and liberated by a new covenant.’

I think this piece would have become a call and response, a litany, had we been together in person, but instead, “we are” becomes the refrain

--------------------

The people round here, the people round there

 

We are…

 

The people together, the people apart

 

We are…

 

You, me, we, - there’s no such thing as “us” and “them”

 

We are…

 

Rebellious prodigals redeemed by grace

 

We are…

 

The called and the sent

 

We are…

 

This new tribe baptized and liberated

 

We are…

 

Followers of Jesus Christ

 

We are…

 

The Church, the body, the bride

 

We are…

Those who listen

 

We are…

 

Hungry for compassion

 

We are…

 

Filled with sighs of longing and the laughter of hope

 

We are…

 

Companions of the just shepherd

 

We are…

 

Those who call for the walls of our hearts to come down

 

We are…

 

Those who call for the frontiers of our minds to be opened

 

We are…

 

Friends of disruption

 

We are …

 

Not locked in our buildings

 

We are…

 

The Hilda’s who will scare the snakes away

 

We are…

 

Those with holy intentionality

 

We are…

 

Consumed by creative questions

 

We are …

 

Working through the gaps between what we think and feel and do

 

We are…

 

Wading through the quagmire of Christendom saturation

 

We are …

 

Fools for hope chiming softly across the land

 

We are…

 

Seeking after the Spirit wherever she is found and celebrated

 

We are…

 

The people asking after the heart of our neighbour’s week

 

We are…

 

Wanderers of wonder in a world wearied by worry

 

We are…

 

Those called further out into the world

 

We are…

 

Proclaimers of the Good News of the Kingdom

 

We are…

 

Willing to walk the wilderness roads

 

We are…

 

Those with soft hearts and hard and holy feet

 

We are…

 

Those who reimagine what it means to join in with God

 

We are…

 

Servants of our communities

 

We are…

 

The people who hang luggage tags of hope and prayer from the branches of trees

 

We are…

 

Those who carry the cross

 

We are…

 

Those who speak up for the despised

 

We are…

 

Those with eyes open to the Spirit

 

We are…

 

People with a willingness to go and act and listen and speak

 

We are…

 

Bearers of the light, speakers of life

 

We are…

 

Witnesses to tiny sparks of possibility

 

We are…

 

Those who are willing to go

 

We are…

 

Those liberated on the road

 

We are.