6 Month Review

Today is exactly six months since we left Australia. We have been back in England for twice as long as the time we spent in Perth. But Homo sapiens don’t experience time as a constant; and the past six months seem to me to be about the same length of time as the three months we were there…Anyway, we marked the occasion by going out to dinner with Katrina Holgate, a friend we made in Perth, who is over here for a conference. The photo is of her, in our front room, on the phone to her husband Jonathan, who is on a mine somewhere in Queensland. G’day, mate!


Just before we came home (from Australia in December, not The Three Merry Lads pub tonight), and as soon as we got back, various people asked what the trip had been about; what we had learned? And I said at the time that the answers to those questions would only come into focus with hindsight. I reckon six months distance is about right for the first fruits of hindsight, and I’ve been reflecting on our time Down Under over the past few days. Here are my current learning highlights, kairos kisses that have initiated learning circles for me:

1. time spent with Chris and Coralie Kan and the Transfiguration Community: community constituted around a shared evening meal, bread and wine, and liturgical evening prayer – simple, profound, laughter-filled…
2. time spent with Andrew ‘Hamo’ Hamilton, Alan Hirsch, John Jensen, and the forge network: guys who are imagining experimental missional communities, and fostering the imagination of others. These guys are great; I love what they are doing over there; it was a privilege to spend time with them, cross-fertilising, and I suspect (and hope) that more of what I have learnt from them will emerge in my future than any of us could guess at now…


spirituality , Australian sabbatical , Lifeshapes learning circle , transfiguration community , forge missional training , church , mission