FAQ's

A couple of people have asked us why we have come back to Sheffield. A lot of people have asked us what the time in Australia was all about; and how long we're around for now we're back.

Q: Why have you come back to Sheffield?
A: This is our home, and the home of our Order. Wherever we go from here, we would envisage returning to here. It is a point-of-reference - geographically, relationally, spiritually...

Q: What was the time in Australia about?
A: I think there are layers to the answer to this question that will only become visible to us with the erosion of time. But I think we can make a partial answer, as the trip related to people we met there, and as it related to us.

I do believe that God led us to Perth, and that it was His timing. For example, once there we were able to hook up with one church we had no previous links with but whose leaders had been watching St Thomas' for about six months; and we arrived on the scene at a point where they were making big decisions about their future and were able to meet with us - as people who had been very involved in one of the models they were looking at - in person to ask questions and get a better feel for what they were looking at. That was probably the most timing-specific event, and completely unplanned by us or by them. It was also great to meet up with some people who were interested in The Order of Mission, and/or LifeShapes; again, the face-to-face dynamic is much better than written words alone.

For me, it was great to meet with some people I'd first 'met' through the bloggosphere; for both of us, probably a good thing to take a break from leading after having been leaders-of-leaders for over seven years; for all four of us, great to spend a lot of time hanging-out together before our children started the school years. But none of that really merits selling our house! I think the biggest part of what God was doing in us was changing the nature of our relationship with Sheffield/St Thomas'/the Order: severing some ties (such as being on the staff team at St Tom's); loosening others; tightening still others. I think it was important to be able to differentiate between St Thomas' and the Order (which are not one-and-the-same thing but overlap a lot when you are on the staff at St Tom's); and that it would have been harder to do that if I'd left work but we'd stayed in Sheffield, or even kept and rented-out our house.

Q: How long are you back in Sheffield for?
A: The short answer is, we don't know. But, as far as we can tell, we'd hazard a guess at eighteen months. At that point, Susannah will have completed infants' school, and Noah will be about to start school; so, it would be the next obvious window of opportunity. There are a couple of other factors that also tie-in, but I'll save those for future posts.

God has been really good to us since getting back:

• we've been able to rent a lovely house (we move on Wednesday), which exactly meets our requirements (unfurnished, but with all the kitchen white-goods included; we stored most of our furniture, but sold or gave away our kitchen appliances), and is just a few doors down from some friends of ours.
• the pub at the end of our old road, which was a very violent place, applied for and was granted an extension until 3am every night just after we sold up!
• there was a place for Susannah in the catchment school for the house we will be living in, which has a much better reputation than the catchment school she would have attended before (we would not have sent her out of catchment); and several of her friends are there to (whereas none of the children she was at nursery school would have gone on to the school she would have attended with her).
• there was a place for Noah at the usually over-booked nursery at the end of the road we will be living on.
• although I am looking for work, it has actually been a blessing that I haven't got a job at the moment, and won't have one until after we have settled into a space of our own again.

Anyway, I hope that answers some of the questions people have been asking. More to follow as things unfold...

Getting Gritty With Integrity

Westminster politicians and sleaze go together like fish and chips, beer and peanuts, picnics and rain…The association is thoroughly cross-party; but right now it is the Liberal Democrats who are taking centre stage.

Charles Kennedy’s position as party leader became untenable not because he had a drink problem (that didn’t prevent maverick genius Winston Churchill from being a great war-time Prime Minister), but because he had repeatedly denied it. In other words, he lied.

Mark Oaten’s hopes of succeeding him were scuppered not because he had a three-year affair with a male prostitute, but because this family-man led a double life. In other words, he lied.

Simon Hughes’ hopes of succeeding Kennedy might or might not fail not because of being forced today to admit to being gay, but because he had previously and repeatedly denied it. In other words, he lied.

Having a drink problem should not bar one from office in a parliament that has deregulated licensing laws. Having a relationship with a prostitute should not bar one from office in a parliament that is considering allowing small brothels to operate legally. And being gay should not bar one from office in a parliament that has recognised homosexual partnerships in law. The issue in question is simply, and fundamentally, a matter of integrity.

As a nation, we do not deny those in public office a private life. No-one – not even the tabloid press – is calling for politicians to life in Big Brother-style 24-hour televised observation. We do not decry privacy; but we do expect transparency.

And here lies the real moral dilemma: why do we, as a population, demand a greater transparency of those in public office than we are willing to accept ourselves?

politics sleaze

Bed-time Story

Charlie and Lola is great - a CBeebies cartoon, combining a great retro '70's look with hugely entertaining knowing '00's children.

This is one of my favourite episodes, adapted for the internet. Don't forget to follow the interactive prompts on some of the pages...

CBeebies

Instilling Values, Part 2

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14

"And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and men." Luke 2:52


Yesterday I looked up and saw the words inscribed over the other door at Susannah’s school: GRACE – Infants – TRUTH. Where ‘grace’ and ‘truth’ walk hand-in-hand, they form a literary reference to Jesus.

Grace is a word that has been popularly defined in certain Christian circles of late as “freely-given and underserved gifts from God.” And that may be a partial definition; and useful in countering a Protestant Work Ethic or Catholic Guilt Complex. But if every good thing in life comes from God (as James 1:17 suggests), freely and undeservedly, then grace, on that definition, seems somewhat redundant. And if Jesus himself is a freely-given and underserved gift from God, then for him to be described as being full of grace seems tautologous…

At least amongst other meanings, grace, to the generation that carved the word over the school door, referred to social poise – in movement, and conversation. That might not feel ‘religious enough’ for some Christians today; but I think we lose something by excluding it. What did it mean, in practice, for Jesus to be “full of grace and truth”? In part, at least, I think Luke gives us the answer when he wrote that Jesus “grew in wisdom…and in favour…” He possessed the social poise to be a popular party guest; and yet – even, in spite of the fact that – he often challenged his hosts and fellow-guests in uncompromising ways on such occasions. There was something very attractive about his personality, that resulted in his finding favour, which we might describe as being full of grace. And then there is the truth: not knowledge, but wisdom; not so much learning information – the whats? wheres? whys? hows? and whos? – as learning right from wrong, and how to act in any given situation in order to bring blessing to others.

I do not wish my children to leave school having been moulded into dutiful and orderly citizens; but I do hope, and pray, that in the rough-and-tumble of the school experience they will emerge possessing the grace that results in favour, and the ability to use that favour to speak truth into the lives of their generation.

grace truth favour wisdom

Instilling Values

Susannah is loving school. And the School Gate is a whole new parental experience for me.

The school building is an imposing Victorian one (purpose-built for a Victorian education; though, obviously, it has gone through various internal re-workings since then), intended to impose a certain sense of Education. Today I happened to look up - always risky in a playground milling with small people moving at high velocity in random directions! - and noticed for the first time three words carved in the stone above the entrance. Now, carved words are not unusual in this context: in schools of this era there were commonly three doors marked, respectively, GIRLS, INFANTS, and BOYS (i.e. segregation). But the (three) words over this (one) school entrance are different. Directly above the door is the (expected) word INFANTS. To the left is the word DUTY; and to the right, ORDER. A particularly Victorian view of how children ought to be moulded.

The word 'duty' is so emotionally-repressed, so passion-less. It used to be one of the highest-held British Values. One did one's duty because it was The Done Thing - whether or not it is the right thing. Dutiful citizens do not rock the boat; they do not confront or challenge society; they certainly do not engage in public protest against the Government - let alone peaceful Civil Disobedience. Dutiful citizens do not petition against the role of Western governments in global poverty; or wars judged to be illegal by the UN.

As a member of a religious Order, you might expect me to be more favourable when it comes to 'order.' But the kind of order that hangs around with duty is no better. It is not ordered, but orderly. Orderly citizens do not Step Out Of Line; do not give in to base emotions such as joy and wonder. This is the hushed order by which one catalogues nature, rather than the vibrant order of creation itself. It is, I suspect, dull (which is an abuse against the inquisitive minds of children).

I'm glad things have changed. I do not wish my children to be dutiful and orderly. I hope, instead, that they will be faithfully connected, to their generation and, yes, to God.

Maggi Dawn has some good reflections on how we might raise our children, here.

education values Maggi Dawn

Have You Ever...

...been thinking of someone - someone you know, as a friend or an acquaintance; but don't see or hear from on a regular basis - and then you bump into them on the street or get a phone call or email from them, completely out-of-the-blue, within the hour?

It happened to me this evening (see the comments, here). (Alan and I have never met, but visit each other's blogs from time to time; coincidentally, he's known "in-person" by a good friend of mine who lives in Lexington.)

So, are such things random events? Or divine promptings?

Alan Creech telepathy

(A Qualified) Hurrah!

My sister rang me this evening. She's been discharged from hospital (she'd been there since Christmas Day, this time around), and gone home today. This is good news! She is understandably nervous that something else might go wrong - if nothing else does go wrong, she's home for good - but, other than that, seemed in very good spirits. It was (as British Telecom used to say) good to talk. Hopefully we'll go up and see them in a few weeks.

She asked me to keep praying; and I'm asking those of you who have been praying with us to do the same. Thank you.

Everything I Learnt, I Learnt From The TV...

I watch a lot of TV dramas. While several of the bloggers I read write about what they've seen at the cinema, I just don't go to the cinema very often. And I think that what is on television both reflects and shapes British culture more than cinema does, and so is worth reflecting on.

This afternoon I was making a tower out of magnets with Noah, when he asked, "Is it a virgin queen's castle?" Hmmm. That would be the subconscious power of the trailer, then!

The Problem With Heresy

Following on from the previous post:

Last night I watched the first part of the BBC’s latest adaptation of the life of Elizabeth I, The Virgin Queen. The princess Elizabeth was a rallying-point for the new Protestants, at a time when to be Protestant was to be a heretic. The episode included a scene in which two Protestants were burnt at the stake, and another in which it was reported to the imprisoned princess that 300 Protestants had been burnt in 300 days. And this highlights the problematic consequences of Christians labelling other Christians ‘heretics.’ For while angry agnostic scientist Richard Dawkins can only accuse religion as being responsible for most of the world’s conflict by conveniently failing to recall the Nazi Holocaust, Stalinist Gulags, Killing Fields of Cambodia, Disappeared of South America, Rwandan Genocide…(perhaps he has an under-evolved history ability), the liturgy of Christians murdering other Christians in God’s name is an undeniable tragedy. It always comes down to one party claiming their own orthodoxy as opposed to another party’s heresy; and typically comes with an end result of Inquisition and bloodshed.

Any Christian leader who accuses others of heresy is a dunce in the class of Church History, however much a dux they may be in Doctrine. They would do well to go back to their books, rather than throw their weight around against the younger, smaller kids in the playground.

heresy

The Problem With Truth

There's an interesting discussion going on over at Hamo' s blog.

Perhaps because my upbringing was conservative evangelical, and so I have some sort of filial loyalty there even though it is no longer a neighbourhood in which I choose to live, it bothers me that conservative evangelicals are so hung up on truth. It is not that I do not think truth matters; but that I see truth very differently. It bothers me when well-respected evangelical writers and speakers such as DA Carson and Ravi Zacharias accuse those grappling with what it means to be Christian and post-Modern of having a low view of truth – by which they actually mean, “understand the nature of truth differently from themselves” – and a low view of God’s Word – by which they mean the Bible, and the Doctrine of its Inerrancy – thus creating a breeding-ground for aberrant Christianity.

Jesus claimed that he was the truth. That implies that truth is not synonymous with ‘facts,’ but is a person; and that, therefore, truth is not something to be learnt intellectually, but something to be experienced relationally. Not doctrine to believe, but a person to get to know over time (and into eternity). That is, I would argue, a very high view of truth. And I would add that my knowledge of truth is both partial and provisional: partial because this side of heaven I cannot fully know God as I am fully known by him (though we are promised that this will change); and provisional because my expectation (based on Jesus’ expectation) is that my faith should grow, not remain static. But, again, I would argue that that is not a low view but a high view of truth.

A little generosity would concede that there are aberrant views in every tradition, denomination, movement and schism of the Church. Perhaps most of these are children of their own time. Those parts of the Church that do not baptise the infant children of believers did not – and could not – have existed in any significant extent before the advent of Modernism. Likewise, within Anglicanism, neither Liberalism nor Evangelicalism could have existed before the Modern Era. Liberalism, with its Higher Criticism, denies the literal nature of miracles, ascribing solely symbolic meaning instead, because miracles are un-natural and un-scientific. And in so doing, it denies the immanency of God. Evangelicalism defends the literal nature of biblical miracles, but creates the Doctrine of Dispensationalism in order to occupy the same ground as Liberalism in denying the miraculous today. And in so doing, it also denies the immanency of God. (The not unprecedented irony of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming together to remove Emmanuel…) Two sides of one coin, minted in a given period of history that is losing currency.

I’m naturally cautious when it comes to Doctrinal Statements to be adhered to as a measure of orthodoxy. Specifically, I’m uncomfortable with evangelical claims that the Bible is the only Word of God – because the Bible itself claims that Jesus is the Word of God…And I don’t accept inerrancy, either. For a start, it requires too many caveats. Well, no: for a start it goes beyond any clear claim that the Bible makes for itself. That said, caveats. Clearly the Bible is not inerrant in a literal sense when it speaks in a poetic voice: the earth does not rest on pillars; the sea is not held back by gates. Therefore inerrancy claims that the Bible is inerrant [in relation to matters of faith and conduct] [when taken as a whole] [in its original languages] […] Too many caveats. But there is a more serious issue: there is no inerrant interpretation of the Bible (unless you accept the authority of the Pope, which Protestants don’t). And that means that if inerrancy is required in order for the Bible to be inspired and authoritative as a revelation of the nature of God and his creation, then it isn’t a revelation at all: it is, rather, a concealment. And, as I understand the Gospels, I’d rather hold to a God who chooses to reveal himself, than to a book that is inerrant. And again, only a Modern definition of truth requires such convoluted doctrinal positioning…

The fundamental difference here is between a Modern view – in which truth is propositional, and empirical (concerned with the physical, ‘natural,’ world) – and a post-Modern view – in which truth is relational (which, contrary to standard accusations, is not the same as relative) and ‘soft’ (embracing the emotional, spiritual, ‘super-natural;’ capable, say, of thirst, or of being moved to weep). And ‘my concern’ with those who are ‘concerned’ about people like me is that they may well be more defending a Modern understanding of the Gospel than the Gospel itself…

truth christian orthodoxy inerrancy

Pooling Or Scattering?

This, from my friend Christoffer's blog, seems to resonate with some of the ideas I've been thinking about over the past couple of days...

Mobility / Locality

Following on from here and here...

What sort of dynamic might effectively engage in mission to a society that is both highly mobilised and highly localised? Drawing historical parallels [from my previous post], we might suggest:

• an outward-looking but gathered/clustered community;
• offering a quality contribution to the wider population (a 'product', such as youth work, for example);
• delivered through networked small-scale diversity, rather than a monopoly;
• having a stable critical mass at its core, but a high turnover of individuals;
• moving in multiple directions between connected communities in other cities.

We might even go so far as to look for churches that bought/leased several houses or business premises on one street, rather than looking to fund a purpose built worship or community centre...

It would be interesting to collate some examples: if you know of any, let me know.

Locality

While the population has always been mobile - in part, highly mobile - day-to-day community tends to be extremely localised. [This applies equally to geographically-distanced virtual communities: bloggers put permanent links to other blogs they read regularly on their sidebar, but, how many do they visit - as opposed to monitor through RSS - on a daily basis? In my case, only three or four. That's localised.]

Historically in English towns and cities, traders arriving from the countryside or the Continent set up localised communities. We can trace these through street names, such as Threadneedle Street, where seamstresses and tailors lived and plied their trade. The pattern was later echoed by Quaker entrepreneurs building model neighbourhoods for their employees, such as Bourneville in Birmingham - and even by the contemporary trend in city planning to designate Quarters, such as the Jewellery Quarter, also in Birmingham. This concentration meant that anyone arriving from outside the city with a particular trade had an immediate starting-point for employment and relationship with like-minded people. They did not set up ghettos, in the sense of self-imposed segregation to maintain the 'purity' of their community. They didn't form one big monopolised workplace either, but clustered a trade together, regulated by Guilds (apparently the advantages of such clustering outweighed the potential problems of too much direct competition).

Broadly speaking, churches - and pubs - took a different approach, spreading through the city rather than concentrating their resources in one area - long before, say, schools did the same. (Though the Quaker entrepreneurs provide an interesting alternative model.) And that is valid, of course. But the rub lies where mobility and locality collide: as a friend said to me not long back, [something along the lines of] "We spent two years getting to know the neighbours, building relationships; and then a couple of the families who had been most open to us moved out in quick succession...it was like a kick in the teeth."

Mobility

We followed Sheila Hancock - actress and widow of actor John Thaw - as she traced her family tree on Who Do You Think You Are? tonight. This is a fascinating programme (now in its second series), and Sheila's story was one of the more interesting episodes I've seen.

One of the things Who Do You Think You Are? highlights for me is how mobile people have always been. We often hear pop-cultural commentators - such as the media - talk about the rise in mobility since the Industrial Revolution, conjuring-up images of previous generations whose horizon was just beyond the edge of the village. But, though we can trace geographically-stable families down census reports, there has always been a counter-beat. Humanity has been incredibly mobile (restless, even): usually for economic reasons; often (also) for reasons of persecution. It is that trade mobility that spread ideas - in every sphere of culture - sometimes over vast distances and across multiple language/etc. barriers. We have our contemporary expressions - from asylum seekers to blogging hubs - but none of this is new under the sun.

The spread of Christianity across Europe, the first time around, and every time around since then, is as much (perhaps more so) the story of such mobile traders and refugees carrying their faith as it is the story of set-apart 'professional' missionary monks. Somewhere along the line that confidence has been lost - in no small part because of an increase (or perceived increase) in competing ideas and voices. But moving our ideas, beliefs, values around is part of being human. Perhaps it is more the sphere of the apostles and evangelists - the pioneers and enthusers - whether apostles and evangelists for the Gospel or anything else. But that doesn't entirely rule everyone else out. Let's be human. Let's be carriers. Let's network.

Who Do You Think You Are?
social history family tree mobility Christianity

Blogger Of Distinction

Andrew Hamilton is a friend, and one of my favourite bloggers. It was great to see some of what he is doing on the northern-most growing edge of Perth, having read about it for over a year now.

I'm often asked what is distinctive about The Order of Mission and/or St Thomas'? That is a hard question to answer because - although there are distinctive elements, and combinations of common elements - I don't think the distinctives should be distinctive.

Hamo's post The Importance of Losing our Distinctives is a really interesting read. Thanks for sharing it with us, mate!

hamo emerging church

Gifted

Last week we were at a friends house, and the children were threading beads on plastic string. Susannah decided that she would make a bead necklace as her birthday present for Noah. She did, and put it in my coat pocket to bring it home; where she made a card; found a gold-paper gift bag to put them in; and hid the bag in the back of her underwear drawer so Noah wouldn't find it. All of this was entirely her own initiative; and I was both impressed by her thought-process, and touched by her thoughtfulness.

A few days ago Susannah was playing here with a friend. They were playing with beads, and Susannah wanted more...unbeknown to me, she raided the gift bag...

This morning Susannah gave Noah his present. He looked in the gift bag; took out the card; and there, on the bottom of the bag, lay one turquoise-coloured plastic bead. One bead.

My adult conditioned response was, "Where's the necklace?" Noah's response was, "A bead?! For my birthday?! Awww, fanks!" I don't want to sound ungrateful for the other presents he received, but he was so grateful to be given a bead [that, technically, already belonged to him already...] that my adult perspective was confronted by something greater.

Enjoying...

...flickr - especially having my own photos streamed to my blog sidebar.

flickr

A Lifetime Ago

Life on Mars is shaping up to be very, very good. Nineteen-seventy-three is a lifetime ago [I was born in November '72; Jo in June '73]. Even allowing for artistic licence, period drama gives a fascinating insight into the past; and the Seventies are a particular past that resonates with me, because it is my collective, cultural childhood [even though I didn't actually live in Britain until the late Seventies]. The clothes are great - I wore those over-sized collars in primary school; and I like brown and blue - as are the cars. Each episode is full of the absence of things we take for granted today - much pertaining to police procedure and resources; but also things like ambulance crews being paramedics, not just drivers, these days; mobile phones; and the ever-evolving English language...

Collective memory interests me. It isn't really about claiming to remember something that you didn't experience firsthand and at the time; more about being able to experience something second-hand and after-the-event. Not denial; but identifying. Collective memory is a key component in creating culture, because culture is shared. I wonder what collective memories will shape the future of the Church in England?

Life On Mars
BBC memory culture

Year In Review

Each year on the eve of our children's birthdays I write them a short bullet-point letter, recording some highlights of the year they have just lived through - milestones, interests, events. I don't know how much Noah will make of it tomorrow, but he'll be able to look back on it in the future; and anyway, it is a good exercise for me...

Happiness

Noah has been obsessed with guitars for as long as we can remember, and we'd decided ages ago to get him one for his third birthday. So we had a family outing yesterday, and introduced him to the Secret World of the Independent Guitar Shop...

Back at the flat, he and Susannah busked worship songs and nursery rhymes for us. And fiddled with the tuning-pegs, just like he's seen "Daisy's Daddy" do...Well, he is at the bottom of a learning-curve!

But it is a learning-curve for which it is already clear he (unlike me) has 'natural ability' - one of the elements that combine to make him him. That 'becoming process' is fascinating to watch; and humbling to invest in. That 'becoming process' - becoming who we are created to be - is the heart of our story.

Localised Increase In The Cost Of A Stamp

Buying a book of 12 self-adhesive second-class stamps from a newsagents is a convenient way of having a stamp to hand when you need one...

...until Noah - who still has time not to reach his 3rd birthday on Tuesday - comes across it and sticks 11 of them to the top of the coffee table.

Making Adjustments

While Susannah is getting used to going to school, and Noah to not having Susannah around as a play-mate, I'm spending my time filling out job application forms. It is a long time since I have been in this position. At the moment we see the bigger picture clearer than the detail; the longer view better than the foreground; and I'm pushing doors and seeing which might open. It has been interesting to think through those areas I might like to gain experience in, and the transferable skills I would bring to a position outside of my immediate previous experience; and at times it is quite intimidating, too.

An update on my sister: she had several really good days looking after her baby in the mother-and-baby facility, but has since had to be readmitted to the neuro-surgical ward, as there is still too much pressure inside her skull and the medics aren't sure why that is. So it is a game of snakes and ladders.

Big Wide World

Past, Present, Future?

The BBC/science fiction theme continues tonight, with another new series (comedy, this time; and decidedly Geeky), Hyperdrive. But before that on BBC2, the return of Who Do You Think You Are? in which well-known personalities trace their family trees.

What links science fiction and social history is the idea of connectivity: whether of actions or of character traits. Because behind exploring our past is the hope of gaining some insight into ourselves. Which is why genealogy is so important in the Bible, including the records of Jesus' family line in Matthew 1 and Luke 3 - though that importance has largely been lost to his followers since...Genealogies, and family trees, are short-hand representations of blessings and curses outworking themselves - including curses being redeemed - down through the generations. Because, however broken down our society has become, we are (whether we like it or not) fundamentally connected to our relatives - and the rise of the step-family adds extra layers of connection. In the context of family 'nature' and 'nurture' intertwine in shaping us, in an inevitable - though not deterministic or fatalistic - fashion. The Good News is that, though we cannot escape our past, our future does not have to be imprisoned by it.

Who do I think I am? Who do you think you are?

Who Do You Think You Are?
BBC sci-fi connectivity genealogy Bible Jesus

Time Travel

The BBC has its fair share of detractors, but it has its fair share of good drama, too. Last night we checked out the new series Life On Mars - basic premise: a policeman is hit by a car in 2006, and comes round in 1973...Interestingly enough, Jo had just finished reading The Time Traveller's Wife, which also explores the idea of chronological displacement.

Science fiction certainly has its Geeksville element, but it also has a place of affection in the broader British national psyche. Other than the fact that so many of us grew up watching (the - brilliantly - recently returned) Dr Who, I'm not really sure why that should be the case; but it would seem to be so. We seem to have a fascination with the genre, that takes us beyond the weighing, measuring, cataloguing, and physical-horizon-pushing of Science into the warmer realm of the intangible elements that make us human.

It is too early to know what I think of Life On Mars as a story-line. But the concept of time travel, with the attending moral dilemma of whether or not to change a bad past (might an even worse future ensue?) is a fascinating one. It reminds us of the connectivity of all our actions; that we cannot fully know what our actions might set in motion, nor should we take full responsibility for the subsequent actions of others; but, we might give our actions more thought as a result…

Life On Mars
BBC sci-fi connectivity

Starting School

My little girl starts school tomorrow!

At least, she'll go along for an hour, and we'll take it from there...She'll be at Lydgate Infant School, in the same class as her friend Jake, and with a few other friends in other classes too. Susannah has been looking forward to going to school for some time now, and it has come together really well, having thought she wouldn't be able to go yet. We only found out this afternoon. I bought her a dozen miniature red roses (her choice) to mark the Rite of Passage. And we look forward to the joys of an exhausted little girl by the end of the week...

A week ago we were in need of a house, a school, and a job. Two down...

After Epiphany

Over the last few years, the Feast of Epiphany (6th January) has come to be one of my favourite dates in the Church year. [this year has been a-typical; but here's how we celebrated, and what I shared on the closest Sunday, twelve months ago]

No self-respecting nativity set is complete without three kings and a camel - though the gospel account, in Matthew 2, keeps silence on how many Magi there were, their regal-or-otherwise status, and transportation choice. Indeed, there are few details of any sort, though enough to hint at a journey of adventure the better part of two years in the making by the time they arrived at a destination they didn't realise was their goal until they got there. I've loved the implied scholarly research, and practical preparations, that went on behind the scenes; the setting-out-not-knowing-where-you-were-setting-out-for; the choosing and giving of gifts...

...But this year I have been struck by a fresh realisation that the epiphany was not the end of their uncertain journey. I imagine their angel-guided journey home, avoiding obvious trade routes so as to slip past the soldiers of a vengeful paranoid megalomaniac, hiding by day and journeying by night; like Aragorn leading Frodo and his companions cross-country under the noses of the Ring Wraiths. The outward journey was blind; the homeward journey no simple retracing of now-known steps.

Re-grouping

We have found a house to rent for 6 months in Crookes. Hopefully we will move in at the start of February, by which time Susannah should be in a local school and Noah in nursery. Until then, we're staying in a flat belonging to friends - we were there, briefly, before, when we sold our house last summer.

Although I lived in Sheffield for 14 years, I've never lived in Crookes. Jo did for a year when we were students. But we'll be well placed for friends around us as we try to discern the longer-term future. And in the meantime, I'm looking for work locally.

If all went according to plan, my sister - who is still in hospital - moved to a mother-and-baby accommodation within the Psychiatric Department today. It is, apparently, the only such facility in the country, and will allow her to have her 10-week old baby with her - supported - while the negative effects of the steroids work their course. Rachel did her psychiatric rotation (she is a GP) there not too long ago; knows the team; and is happy with the arrangement - which should be good for everyone involved.

A friend of ours is in the Hallamshire Hospital at the moment, with a painful condition the doctors can't, so far, identify. And just before Christmas another friend found out that she has breast cancer. I'm sick and tired of what feels like a massive increase in serious illness among those around us. But I'm not going down without a fight. Rally the Prayer Warriors! Like the imposing Gates of Mordor, the Gates of Hell will not prevail...

From Finland

My friend Christoffer Perret has started blogging, from Finland. We've got together several times, in Sweden and in England, though not - so far - in Finland. I'm looking forward to what he will add to the blog-based conversations on re-imagining the Church in Europe...

Getting Stuck Into January

Belated Happy New Year! (I haven't had access to t'internet over the past several days.)

Things have been fairly low-key anyway. It's a quiet time of year; not an easy one to network face-to-face in, though I guess things pick up again now. With our future still up for grabs, or at least discussions, we need to bed-down here - Sheffield is our 'base' - for the time being. Today we've been following leads towards finding a house, on a six-month rental. Hopefully we'll get something fairly quickly, and be able to get S into a school.

I've never seen the New Year as a time to make grand Resolutions, but I think I'll make a moderate one this year: to get a friend to initiate me into the darker arts of blogging - such as tags! - so as to take it all a bit more seriously. Apparently there are people out there who like to keep an eye on me...

There's nothing to report on my sister - keep praying.

The Great Big Pastry Chef In The Sky

...had got up early yesterday and dusted icing sugar through a sieve over the trees, fields, hills and hedgerows. Most of the journey down was a Calvin-and-Hobbes-esque winter wonderland. Today the roads have been treacherous, with vehicles having to be dug out of drifts. The 9am news already reported five crashes on the A1(M), and drivers were advised not to travel. I'm glad we chose to drive when we did.

We passed under several motorway gantries warning THINK DONT DRINK AND DRIVE - and one that read FINK SDOWN AND DRIVE. Drunk in charge of a telex?

I ventured onto the Bole Hills with S&N today, making four-inch-high snow families (S wanted to add a "big, fat grandpa"; I'm saying nothing), and seeing who could throw snowballs the furthest (me; sorry, I guess you're supposed to let children win; but, hey, it was a competition). They had fun, and were content to return indoors, with rosy cheeks and noses, after ten minutes fresh air.

Due South

We're heading back to Sheffield today, a little earlier than planned. S & N have been somewhat out of sorts in all that's going on, and it will be easier all round if we are surrounded by familiar friends and places. There isn't really anything we can do here, and we'll need to be Sheffield-based while working through our own future anyway. We intend to make regular, short visits to Glasgow over the coming months.

They are keeping Rachel in hospital at least until the psychosis passes - hopefully within a few days. She is actually tracking the anticipated arc of recovery; and at the moment it is her husband, who has to watch her go through this disturbing stage, rather than Rachel herself, who I'm more concerned for. Please do pray for Colin at this time.

The Bonnie, Bonnie Banks

Looking up Loch Lomond from Balloch, Boxing Day 2005. Beautiful.

Boxing Day Blues

Christmas Day was not very festive. My sister joined us all for lunch, but during the meal she lost the use of her right side, so was unable to use her knife. Things got worse from there, and in the afternoon she was taken back to hospital (again) in an ambulance; first to A&E in one hospital, then transfered to the hospital where she had the brain tumour removed just a few weeks ago. We haven't had much news since, other than that she has been hallucinating and that they did a brain scan and a lumber puncture (to help relieve the pressure in her head); but mum and dad are at the hospital now. They are both emotionally and physically worn out (physically, because they've had Rachel's baby Rosie at night since she first went into hospital); we'd love to be of some practical help, but they won't let us.

I wanted to say thank you, again, to all of you who have been praying for our family this Christmas; and to ask you to keep praying.

LATEST: 4:30 pm: It turns out that Rachel has a blood clot in her brain; she is also having fits; and they also think that she is suffering from steroid-induced pyschosis. Please pray.

Father Christmas' Communion

The children have gone to bed now, having set out the traditional mince-pie-and-glass-of-sherry for that great bishop of the Church, Santa Claus. It struck me how much they looked like the elements set out for Communion - not surprisingly, given that in their most elemental form they are (sweet) bread and (fortified) wine.

And that, in turn, got me thinking about communion, the coming-together-in-unity of God and humanity, Creator and created. We tend to view taking communion as an act of remembering Jesus' death on the cross - his body broken and his blood shed for the forgiveness of sins. But it speaks of Christmas as much as Easter - Jesus' body broken and his blood shed; the physicality of the Spirit; the visibile expression of the Invisible God; Emmanuel - God with us.

Panto Season

Everyone is familiar with the Christmas story: young woman raised as a boy by an old man in drag finds dusty old lamp / sells the family cow for three magic beans, and is granted three wishes by a genie / fights a giant who lives in a castle in the sky...

...but who would have imagined that the High King of Heaven would be found as a baby in a cave where the (familiar pantomime) animals sheltered? Not even the (traditionally-represented-as) three wise guys. The Prodigal Kiwi(s) have a great quote from everyone's favourite pantomime hero/villain, Bono: "That there is a force of love and logic behind the universe is overwhelming to start with, if you believe it, but the idea that the same love and logic would choose to describe itself as a baby born in shit and straw and poverty is genius. And it brings me to my knees, literally."

"Blessed Are Those Who Mourn...

...for they shall be comforted."

This Christmas it feels like we've been bombarded with a litany of pain and loss, from friends' serious illnesses, to friends and acquaintences losing unborn and new-born babies, to news this morning that a member of my parents' church was killed in a car crash yesterday...

Christmas seems to magnify what is unspeakable heart-ache at any time of year. But the heart of Christmas is not escapism from pain, but the decision to identify with the pain of others. That is what the Son of God did in becoming, also, the Son of Man - a baby born, to live as us, and wage war on our behalf against sin and sickness and sorrow...

And if Jesus chose to identify with the pain of others, as well as to experience pain himself, then those of us who choose to follow him also need to identify with the pain of others - regardless of whether or not we are naturally pastoral. We need to stand with those who hurt. And while I know that there is a heart-healing work that God alone, directly, can do on earth; and a heart-healing that awaits us in heaven; I also suspect that when Jesus proclaimed that those who mourn shall be comforted, he had in mind that his followers would play a part in that comforting.

That isn't easy. There's the delicate, often awkward, balance to be found between words and silence, prescence and giving space, practical help and prayer...But we need to recognise that hurt is as rightfully a part of Christmas as happiness. There's a good resource for doing that collectively over at Steve Taylor's blog, here. Perhaps taking the time for this should become as familiar a part of our Christmas services as carols around the crib.

Christmas Comes Early

'We' got our first Christmas present in the post today: 50 trees planted for us by Oxfam, from [Jo's sister] Laura and Steve. Oxfam unwrapped is a great gifting initiative, for all occasions. 'Our' trees will help a community become more self-sufficient, their fruit providing food and income; the trees themselves also working against soil erosion and air pollution. All round, a winner. We'll have to wait and see what else we get, but I know Jo is hoping for a goat...

Star Of Wonder

In all our moving around, we haven't been able to send out Christmas cards this year. So, I thought I'd put some images on the blog over the Christmas season instead; some - though not all - with meditations alongside.

This one was taken from out the back of my in-laws' barn conversion. You can see Venus in the sky, and a chink of light (it might even be car lights) at ground level. I like it because it translates the star that told ancient astrologers of a new king's birth, and the manger-scene, into our contemporary world - albeit a rural world quite different from the urban world I have mostly inhabited. (It also ties in with one of Steve Taylor's creative worship suggestions.)

Relative Values

One day (yesterday); two sets of grandparents; two sets of two cousins; one-and-a-half sets of aunties and uncle. We've relocated from Leicestershire, via Bolton, to Glasgow. It was especially good to see Rachel at last, and to meet Rosie for the first time. Rachel's hair is starting to grow back; her face is swollen by streroids; and she is still very weak. But at least she is back at home again.

Home Ground

We've racked up plenty of motorway miles in the last week - plenty of opportunity to enjoy how beautiful rural England is in winter...

On Sunday we went to a Christingle service. A Christingle is a visual aid - an orange, representing the world; pierced with four cocktail sticks skewered with sweets and raisins, represnting the four seasons and the fruits of the earth; with a candle stuck in the top, representing Jesus the Light of the World; and wrapped around with a red ribbon, representing his blood shed on the cross to save the world. Each child was given a lit Christingle to process around the church - allowing for the minor miracle that was no-one melting their face or their neighbour's coat...In the anglican tradition of 3-point-sermons-each-point-starting-with-the-same-letter, it was Christmas, Children, organised Chaos. In other words, just how it should be!

{Either, Or, Both, And}

One of the issues we came across a lot in Australia was the Attractional v Incarnational debate (summarised/stereo-typed as: church that expects people to come to you v church that seeks to go to where people are; church that extracts people from their community v church that grows an indigenous expression within a community; etc...). More often than not, the issue seemed to us to be fairly polarised - incarnational church as a(n over-)reaction to attractional church. But I just don't see the two as being mutually exclusive, and I see working out how the two relate to each other in a given context as being part of the fun of the challenge of growing healthy churches. Another issue we came across was the Sodality v Modality debate (single-focus team v broader community), and who/how/when/why a mission team engages with the wider Church...To be honest, I think we saw a real danger of isolation in several 'sodality' contexts.

Having been part of the St Thomas' story for fourteen years, it was interesting to hear the latest chapters. I don't think St Tom's has ever said, "Here is the package" (though others might have seen it that way); the reality is much more, "This is what we've tried; this is what has and has not worked well; this is what we have learnt as we have observed, reflected, discussed; this is what we have gone on to do as we plan, account, act...

In my view, "missional" values embrace attractional and incarnational values, and sodality/modality - and transcend them. An attractional element is definitely part of the big picture, in the Jesus story 2000 years ago and today. Just last Sunday thirteen people made the decision to become Christians at a St Tom's carol service - and to those who don't like attractional church, I'd point out that the "incarnational" practice of having a meal and inviting others to join you is as "attractional" as inviting people to a service. As I understand it, the latest/current chapters at St Tom's have been about how incarnational communities relate to attractional events, and how small mission teams are supported/cared for/nurtured by bigger and broader (though still mission-focused) communities. And I am aware that it is a hard journey; that continually revising community is very demanding for those who are part of those communities. But I still believe that the result has been, and can continue to be, more rounded than models I have seen elsewhere. It will be interesting to see what grows in 2006 - from wherever I'll be watching.

One

"We're one, but we're not the same...we get to carry each other..." U2

Today is the one-year anniversary of my blog. It is the most sustained journal I've kept. I have valued the discipline of writing; valued the connections it has given me with both 'old' and 'new' friends; valued the interaction with the thoughts of other bloggers and 'theoblogians'; valued the way in which the physical and virtual worlds have weaved together. Such as staying with Ben and Helen these few days.

We had lunch with my former senior team leader at St Thomas', Paul Maconochie, today. It was good to catch up, to hear something of what God has been doing in his life and the life of the church here in the months since we left; and to bounce future possibilities together. Although God has moved us on from here, this place is the source of those things that we are about; the place to which I think we will always return between one living-place and another (in the language of Orders, the monastic home of peregrini - wandering monastics). Just as the relationship between parents and adult children who have left home needs to be re-negotiated, so that it continues, but is not the same as before, so - probably in January - we will have to re-negotiate our relationship with the team here at St Tom's: not going back to what is was when we were colleagues, but not a dead relationship either. That's just part of being family; and a very positive thing, too...

My sister was able to go home last Saturday; but had to be re-admitted to hospital yesterday. She is still in too much pain to be managed away from the hospital, and they want to monitor her and hopefully be able to help her recover more fully and quicker. As far as we can tell, her vision isn't very good at the moment. Please keep praying for her, and the family around her, who are under a lot of strain. We are heading north to Glasgow on Monday. Pray for us, too.

Christmassy Now

We're back in Sheffield, briefly; visiting with the Gillingham's in Crookes, and heading down the hill to the Askew's in a little while...Driving through Sheffield earlier on was wonderful.

Since we got back, we've really appreciated it being dark by mid-afternoon (having never got very light all day - that orange light of the low winter sun); and the coldness in the air. These things are a part of the anticipation of Christmas, that we missed in Australia. It's not only a Christian festival; it's fundamentally a northern-European Christian festival - the Christ-story transforming northern-European pre-Christian culture. Advent makes sense at a spiritual level in the Southern hemisphere; in the North, it makes metaphorical, symbolic sense, too: light literally shining in darkness. That's important: a connection between Christ and culture. And it needs to be an ongoing connecting, across cultures - including both non-European and post-Christendom European cultures...

Just Because I Can

I'm blogging at altitude, 4 hours out of Heathrow, for free thanks to the lovely people at Boeing and Singapore Airlines...I've just watched LOTR parts 1 & 2 back-to-back, and now I'm going to watch as much of part 3 as I can - my own hobbit interuptions permitting - before they turn off the TVs for landing.

[date stamp, time on-the-ground at Heathrow]

Re-imagining

Counting down to heading to the airport...

This might shape up into an interesting conversation over at Alan Creech's blog...

Eschatology*

*the study of the Last Days.

Today is our last full day in Australia. We fly out at 2am tonight...19 1/2 hours travel with small children - thank God for individual TV screens on every seat! The day we fly on a plane that doesn't have them, the hobbits are going to feel betrayed.

Today is also our host's birthday: happy birthday, Malcolm! It feels a fitting way to end this chapter of our journey together; and who knows when and where we'll meet next?

Yesterday was my brother's birthday: happy birthday, David!

Where next? Immediately, a couple of days with Jo's parents in Leicestershire; a couple of days with friends Ben and Helen in Sheffield; then up to Glasgow for Christmas with my family. My sister is doing really well after her brain surgery. Beyond that, we wait to find out: there are a couple of possibilities.

A big thank you to everyone we've got to know here; for all the ways you've blessed us as a family; for sharing our lives together briefly but open-heartedly; for God's kairos kisses...May He continue to bless you and lead you, and maybe cause our paths to converge again.

Oh, and if you have my Perth mobile-phone number, don't use it anymore!

Post-Sermon

[The sermon is not my favourite form of communication; I don't believe it is very effective for teaching - and so I try to teach in pre- and post-sermon forms, such as story-telling and engaging with all five senses. But sometimes I am asked to preach, as I was last Sunday at St Philip's, and then I am content to know that the Holy Spirit is at work in people both during and post-sermon. And it is in this sense that I use the term in the title of this blog post...]

We were at the playgroup Christmas party in the park yesterday. Various people wanted to thank me for what I shared on Sunday. But one lady's story stood out. One of the things I'd talked about was the Australian capacity for resentment, and how Jesus can heal you of the hurts caused you by others. It turns out that the local council had done some work adjacent to this woman's property, and, as a result their fence had fallen over. Her husband had contacted the council, and asked them to repair it; I think they resisted at first, but in the end they sent someone out, who did a very unsatisfactory job. The husband wanted the work done properly, but the council were not interested: as far as they were concerned, they had done what was required and the matter no longer concerned them; they refused to speak to their tax-payer when he called...After church on Sunday this man told his wife that he realised he resented the council for what had happened, and had decided to forgive them, to drop the matter and do the work himself. The very next morning he had a phone-call from the man who had done the repair, admitting that he had done a sub-standard job, and asking if he could come and make it right!

I'd also spoken about physical healing. This same woman had had a piece of glass stuck in her toe for about a year; the doctor did not want to try to remove it, as that might have caused more permanent damage than letting it be, and monitoring it from time to time. In response to the sermon, she brought her toe to God. It had flaired-up, and she went to the doctor again. Taking an ultra-sound, they discovered that the glass had started to move, withdrawing out of the toe: she showed me a little blister that had appeared, where it will pass through the skin...

I love it when God brings things together like that!

Poems For Advent

A Good League Hence

Christ-child-
in-me:
homeless,
future – uncertain;
seeking a place
to live
the life of
incarnation…
Familiar ground.
I’ll follow.


Nativity Set (In Cool-Britannia)

Teenage-mum, toddler
Boyfriend (Not-the-Dad)
look on;
Pop Idol contestants,
to entertain the crowd;
Big Issue vendors,
Reminding them, “Good-will to all!”;
Three lads off EastEnders,
turn on the lights
of Winterval…

The cast,
All present and correct,
Just like last year –
A little shabby
Beneath the neon promises;
These script[ure]s of Very
English hopes
And fears
Are met in countless squares
Tonight…


AD
Jindalee, Western Australia, 08/12/05

[the 'ure' is meant to be struck-through, not in editors brackets; but, I can't format that in Blogger.]

Rachel

Rachel came through her operation well, and is recovering in the High Dependency Unit. The surgeon was able to remove all of the tumour, which was benign. Very soon after coming out of theatre, Rachel was aware of her family, and expressing concern for their emotional welfare. She also accused the surgeon of bringing in a horse to kick her in the head. So neither her compassion nor her sense of humour appear to have been impaired : )

What is needed now is for the swelling to go down, without any internal bleeding, and without Rachel contracting any post-op infections. Our whole family has valued the prayers of friends around the world, and we know that you'll keep praying now. Thank you.

Theatre

Around about now - 7am her time - my sister will be on her way to theatre prep. In about an hour's time, her surgery is scheduled to begin.

We wait, and pray.

Aqwa

We had a fantastic day out at AQWA – the Aquarium of Western Australia – with friends Melinda and Lucinda (the “inda’s”) yesterday. Our kids love visiting aquariums, and AQWA is excellent. The WA coastline is so long, and covers so many climate zones and ocean environments that – unlike other aquariums we have visited in the UK and USA – AQWA can afford to restrict itself to species found in WA waters, and still have the most diverse range you could care to imagine. The attraction is divided into different zones, each presenting species from different sections of coastline. One of the zones comprises of a slow-moving walkway that takes you around a large tank in which sharks, turtles, and rays swim around and over you, as you are carried along a Perspex tunnel. We’ve been in similar tunnels before, but without the moving walkway; and it makes a huge difference: no views blocked by a few people who refuse to move on! If you’re ever in Perth with children, make sure you pay a visit…

A week today, we’ll be back in the UK, sleeping-off jet-lag...

Zooropa

One of the areas we all enjoyed at Perth Zoo the other day was the orang-utan enclosure. In order to create an appropriate environment, researchers studied orang-utans in the wild to identify their primary activities – activities such as taking introvert time out to watch the rest of the family from a distance; climbing around the tree canopy; making nests; searching for food; and resting in the shade. Then, rather than attempting to recreate a rain-forest environment in the zoo, what has been done is an attempt to provide for all of these core activities in a habitat made of wood and steel and rope, which has a very urban feel to it. Indeed, it felt much more like creative human architecture than anything else. Information boards presented pictures showing what each core activity might look like in the wild, and how that same activity was paralleled in the enclosure.

This approach seems to me highly appropriate* for reconstructing church in a new world reality [post-Modernity; post-Christendom; post-9/11; post-]. First we need to decide what we consider to be core activities for a given community of Christians. I don’t mean minimum-requirement essential doctrinal statements – though doctrine does matter – but what any given group looking to be church in this new world considers to be key elements of their praxis. And it is important to figure that out, at least provisionally, before setting out: too many good ideas have floundered, to many pioneering spirits have become disillusioned, because this groundwork has not always been done.

Then we need to avoid the temptation of seeking to re-create the ‘original’ – or even last known – environment in which those activities were previously done. When the last natural habitat of the orang-utan is felled by loggers, it will be no good denying it – and, though that day can (and in this case ought to) be resisted, its inevitability probably won’t be reversed. In the case of the passing of one age of history into another, resistance truly is futile. Rather, what we need is creative models of how those same activities might look in a completely different, an alien, context. Orang-utans need to nest – but traditionally they haven’t built their nests out of plastic crates and Hessian sacks. Christians need to worship – but how they worship must take into account their changing context, as well as their un-changing God. That is not to say that there is no place for continuity – the orang-utans have a great deal of that. Pioneering expressions of church have often ‘thrown the baby out with the bath-water’ when it comes to continuity – but that’s as short-sighted as throwing the orang-utans into the fairy penguin enclosure and expecting them to adapt...

* and not only because Anglican bishops are also known as Primates ; )

Advent 2

I preached at St Philip's this morning, sharing with them some observations we've made in the three months we've been here that might help them share the Gospel in their community. [I've posted the sermon text here.] The feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive and appreciative, for which I'm thankful: St Philip's is a very mixed community, and I was unusually nervous about speaking to them...

Before that point, we'd been asked as a family to light the candle and lead the prayers for Advent week 2. Susannah had read her lines word-perfectly without an audience, but we were expecting her to "corpse" (as stage-fright is called) on the day...but as it turned out, she did really well : )

Among the faces we've got to know while we've been here was one from the past...Adam Lee left Sheffield for the southern corner of New Zealand a few years ago, but his work regularly brings him over to Australia. Although we didn't know each other well - St Tom's is a large church - having heard we were in Perth he'd made the effort to look up where to find us: he'd never been to St Philip's before! We ended up going out to lunch together at Barista. It was one of those bizarre-but-very-welcome moments, and it was a fun addition to our day. Thanks, Adam!

World Service: Headlines

This evening has been my first chance to net-surf in ages - luxury! - and, as I don't have much chance to post many theological reflections of my own at the moment, I thought I'd do some pointing in other directions.

• Ryan Bolger is always worth a read, and this post is no exception.
• This post on Jonny Baker's blog is really hope-full, too;
• and ties-in with this over at Prodigal Kiwi(s).
• Steve Taylor is one of the most creative worshippers I know: his Advent journal idea has been taken up at St Philip's this year, and his thoughts on the northern-centric Church Year in a southern hemisphere context chime with our own recent experience...
• Every bit as creative is Andrew Jones. Check out the Advent :: Grid Blog, and this piece on the need for those of us who are concerned about the mission of the church to get beyond the minefield of language to seeing each other's heart behind our words.

At The Zoo

Last night we gate-crashed Chris & Coralie's Friday-night neighbourhood social, and then I went on to an art exhibition with Chris while the kids helped decorate the Kan's Christmas tree and watched Shrek 2. The exhibition was a uni Art School end-of-year bash, and we went to see the work of one of the other members of Chris' group, the Transfiguration Community. (Thankfully) I genuinely enjoyed Pete's wood sculptures, and would have bought one of his pieces had that been at all possible (which it wasn't, not least because it had already been sold); but over-all I was a little depressed at how little genuinely creative ideas I saw there...

And I got to show Jo Jacaranda trees in blossom for the first time. I'd come across them in Zambia a few years ago, and they've been my favourite tree ever since. Jo doesn't share my love of trees; but even she thinks the Jacarandas are pretty special...

Today, we went to Perth Zoo with Chris, Eliza and Noah, and 'Chelle who lives in community with them. Zoos are sure-fire winners with our two, and we had a great time.

I got to speak to my brother-in-law late afternoon (his breakfast-time). They're okay; Rachel just wants next Tuesday out of the way. It was good to be able to speak with Colin. We're looking forward to see them soon now.

I'm preaching at St Philip's tomorrow, at both services (7:30 am and 9:30 am). So Jo dropped me off in Cottesloe before heading back up the coast with the kids. I'm sitting in the dark, drinking red wine, with a Gregorian chant CD in the background. It almost feels Christmassy...but not quite (for one thing, the wine isn't mulled). It's truly bizarre the way the Aussies go in for such a northern-European Christmas, when there's a cat-in-hell's chance of snow!

More...

The surgeon is intending to operate on Rachel this coming Tuesday (6th December). The procedure will probably last 10-12 hours. The medical team are suggesting a "best-case scenario" of her returning home after one week, and being able to return to work (Rachel is a GP) after three months (though I think she'll still be on maternity leave at that point), though not allowed to drive for twelve months. There is, of course, a spectrum of other possible outcomes, and Rachel and Colin are doing what they can to make plans right across that spectrum. The situation is clearly putting strain - both emotional and physical - on my parents.

That's about all I can update you with at present; it should give enough to be getting on praying into...

Whatever the outcome - even a "best-case" - it might be right for us to relocate nearer to the rest of my family for the next season of our lives (which might make it a "blessing in disguise" that nothing else has really materialised). Who knows? We're actively exploring possibilities in various other places; but if anyone knows of anything going in or near Glasgow, send me an email (not a comment on the blog, please). Cheers!

Latest News

Here's the latest, as I have it. The tumour is approx. 5x4 cm, about the size of an egg. It is pressing on the optic nerve, and, as a result, Rachel doesn't have vision in her left eye at present. On closer examination, the medics aren't convinced there was internal bleeding; they have put her on steroids to reduce the swelling, and intend to do several scans over the next few days in order to pin-point the tumour as accurately as possible, so as to operate with the least damage possible, hopefully some time later this week.

Ironic 'good news' is that Rachel had to bottle-feed Rosie, so she at least is able to feed as normal. Please continue to pray for the whole family, and also for the medical professionals involved in looking after Rachel, as well as for healing. Thank you.

Urgent Prayer Request

I had a call from my dad earlier today, to let me know that my sister is in hospital, and they have discovered a tumour, and internal bleeding, in her brain. This news comes, as I suppose it often does, without any advance notice...

Rachel is 27. She is married to Colin, and they have two children - Jamie (just turned two) and Rosie (about four weeks old).

I've just spoken to dad again. It's hard to know what to write, as my information is second-hand and hampered by the difficulties of cross-global communication. Apparently she has been accepted for operation, and is due to be moved to the appropriate hospital. The size/shape of the tumour would suggest it is most likely benign (though these things don't come with any guarantees), and the medics are being confident that they can do something about both the tumour and the bleeding...

It is frustrating to be on the other side of the world, even though all we can do is pray and that isn't location-limited.

Please pray that we would experience God's peace reigning in heart and mind: for Rachel; for Colin, Jamie and Rosie; for my/Rachel's parents, our brother, me and my family, Colin's parents...
...And please fight for full healing for my sister Rachel. Thank you!

Toy Story

Today Susannah asked us whether Jesus had any toys when he was little?

I suggested that, being a carpenter, Joseph might have carved him an Advent crib set...Jo thought probably not.

Susannah agreed with Jo. She decided that Joseph made him little toy cars out of wood instead!

Fellowship Of The (Advent) Ring

We worshipped with friends at Concordia this morning - and felt very much at home. Jo and I both love the season of Advent, which begins today. "At home" Jo would bring out one or two decorative pieces on each of the four Sundays in Advent, so that there was an accumulative building-up to our preparations for Christmas. It is important to build family traditions like that: a glue that binds us together. This year we don't have any of those things: they are all in storage.

Concordia is a Lutheran church. Many of the congregation are of Eastern European descent (you can see that DNA in their faces!). And they have chosen to do certain things - such as observe the seasons of the liturgical year - because they are Lutheran; while choosing to be very relaxed in the way in which they observe their traditions. We think that is very wise - a path that avoids both empty repitition of a way of life now past, and the (common) over-reaction of throwing out the heritage that has formed us (an action, once done, that leaves us in a very real sense form-less).

While I want to celebrate diversity, I think that churches that don't walk through the historic church year - starting at Advent with the preparation for recalling Christ's coming, and looking to his coming again; through the stages of his earthly life and the early church, marked by seasons and weeks and days; and taking in the history of the whole Church since then - really miss out. The action of a community walking together through the year, on a pilgrimage, a cycle of remembrance and hope, is profound; through it, God changes us in ways we can't begin to understand.

And, this idea of shaing a common journey is also key to mission in a Postmodern context - to the Fellowship Of The Ring generation; the Children Lost in the Forest; who see life more as a journey of discovery, than as a fortress to defend against the odds; and who are open to other pilgrims in this world...

Grappling With Jensen

We met up with another Concordia family, the Kerspiens, on Friday afternoon and for a barbeque together. That Concordia bunch are very friendly! I'd have loved to stay longer into the evening, but had already arranged to meet a blog-land friend, John Jensen. John is a missionary over in Melbourne, who drops by my blog from time to time, and - though we'd not met in person till now - is good-friend-enough to pray for us.

The adjective "interesting" is often used when one is too lazy to think of something better to say, but in John's case it truly applies, along with other words like "colourful" (though, being American, I guess he'd call it "colorful"). One facet of John is his life as a professional cage wrestler - though you can see from my photo that these days he's reduced to wrestling high-backed chairs...John was sharing with some of us about mission; I kicked myself for not bringing a pen, but here are some of his thoughts that stood out in particular for me:

• When it comes to determining the validity of something, Modern people judge/d the message; Postmodern people judge the messenger.
• Our mission is to inflitrate culture / the community...and to have something to say about the things that are central to the construction of that cultural identity. [The church has often failed to do either.]
• The businesses in a community relate to each other in a symbiotic relationship - e.g. the people who work in those offices eat their lunch in these cafes. The church has not been / is not part of that local economy: an analogy [and sometimes a factual description] would be buying a prime shop-front and then doing nothing with it all week except on Sunday - the one day when everyone else who works in the neighbourhood isn't there...
• When Jesus used illustrations like, Look at the flowers of the field, or bread and wine, he wasn't just using images that people were familiar with and could identity with; he was using images that they could not avoid...every time they saw the physical thing they would be confronted with Jesus' words. [It would, in one sense, "spoil" that image for any other purpose; this also ties in with the genius of iconic imagery I touched on in my last post]

Each of these stand-out points got me thinking - though I've tried to limit my thoughts [in editor brackets] in noting his. I'll let them turn over more in my own mind first...

Iconic

We went into the city centre yesterday, to check whether Susannah and Noah's feet had grown (they hadn't). There's a shopping mall on one side of the station; the State art gallery, museum and library in a fairly bleak square on the other. We had lunch at the art gallery, and I just had to take this image of two women drinking coffee beneath one of the greatest iconic images of the twentieth-century: Marilyn Monroe's face, depicted in coffee-cups of five clours (white, and four shades of brown) on a dark brown background...

We live in an iconic age: images so familiar we don't even notice them at a conscious level, but which tap-into our sub-conscious mind (in this case, Marilyn singing Happy Birthday to JFK; goofing with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon in Some Like It Hot; that white dress being blown up by the hot-air vent...all images from before I was born, but which are part of my shared Western popular cultural memory.)

The Word became flesh. The Western church has looked to the written word to point to the Word. The Eastern church (e.g. Greek and Russian Orthodox) has looked to icons to do the same. In this regard, it would be timely for the West to look to the East...

Concordia

A week ago on Sunday, we spent four hours with the leaders at Concordia Lutheran Church, Duncraig. They are interested in learning from what they refer to as "the Sheffield model" - something they've been looking at closely. It was a good afternoon, and they appreciated being able to put faces to ideas.

Over this past weekend, we've had meals with several Concordia families - the Helbigs, the Kowalds, the Zadows - and yesterday afternoon we joined them for a baptism in a backyard pool, followed by lunch and then all the kids playing in the pool together. It's been a good weekend, though tiring by the end of it!

If it turns out that our time in Perth has been just to bless people and be blessed by them, and if no more comes of it than that, then Concordia will have been a significant example of such "kairos kisses"...

Koalas

On Friday we headed to Yanchep National Park in search of koalas...all four of us had a wonderful experience; we didn't expect to get so close to them. On a bush walk round the lake we also came across two kookaburras, who were confident enough for me to get pictures of - something I'd failed to do while we were in Margaret River.

Catch-up

Thought I'd post some photos from our holiday...the first is the view from the holiday house; Susie took the one with me in it : )

Photofit

For the convenience of the general public, and making the constabulary's job much the easier, the criminal element in Perth wear that very uniform of villany, the horizontally-striped jumper and eye mask...

As Real

A combination of factors has lifted our spirits over the past couple of days:

• a dip in the ocean
• being able to process our experiences with some trusted friends
• several unexpected calls from people we have met with here, each wanting to say how much they have appreciated whatever we have shared with them; and inviting us to spend more time with them, over meals
• knowing that people are praying for us
• renewed dreams

This is not to say that anything concrete has changed in terms of clarity concerning our future; but these things are not just trivial distractions either. What I wrote in my previous post was, I hope, an honest portrayal of part of what we are experiencing. But it is as real to say that life is good. It is not so much that life is a rollercoaster - though it is fair to say that there have been up days and down days - as that the wonderful things and the hard things are running together in parallel. Neither one nor the other is the full picture, even at any given moment.

Wine Press

Irregular and fleeting internet access has hightened the sense of isolation lately.

We have just under a month left of this trip now. We've met with various individuals and groups, and have been led to believe that our time with them has been helpful for those who have invited us to meet with them. And for that we are grateful. But we are not yet any closer to knowing what our own future is, and that is not only hard but gets harder with every passing day.

All along the line we have sought to process our journey with those we have been sent out from. Together, over an unfolding process of time, we agreed that God was calling us to leave Sheffield; to go somewhere else; that Perth was the place, where we would either be invited to come alongside a community seeking to engage in mission, or receive a clear invitation to do so from somewhere else; but, that an ongoing, relentless nomadism was not the call on our lives at this time. That rootless life has already been ours for seven months now, with no immediate hope of a place to put roots down, and - among other things - a daughter who has taught herself to read in the past couple of weeks, and who needs to start school somewhere soon...

Is it too much to want a place to belong? To hold on to a promise? It is certainly harder when our sense of community is fractured by time zones, mobile phones that run out mid-conversation, and limited access to email.

And then there are plans that need to be made. Where will we stay when we go back to the UK (okay, we will visit relatives and friends and sending community, but I mean specific details of where when)? And, given that it will take time to make necessary practical arrangements to move to the next place - once that place is known - where do we base ourselves, and what do we do, while those details are being resolved? Even more fundamental, how do we work through the very different needs of our very different personalities - Jo's need for me to make plans I feel unable or even unwilling to make, while still needing to honour and cherish her?

I guess we aren't the first people to face these issues; nor will we be the last. They are perhaps inevitable issues for those who go ahead, to spy out new land. But they need to be voiced, to be understood, to be lifted up in prayer. Right now, I don't have answers. But I cling on to the One who does, and lift my family to Him each day.

Xanadu

We celebrated my birthday with a fabulous lunch at the Xanadu Winery, and then drove south through the forest to the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse, at the point where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet.

Thirtysomething

Today is my 33rd birthday; my first spring birthday, if my memory serves me right.

I'm blogging from a cybercafe that can't handle uploading photos (but hey, at least Margaret River has public wi-fi, which is more than I've found in state-capital Perth so far), but we're having a great break down here and I'll just have to share some pictures when we get back to Perth at the weekend.

Yesterday we went to the Busselton Jetty - at over a mile out into Geographe Bay, the longest jetty in the southern hemisphere. For most of its length, the jetty is very narrow, and has a hand rail on only one side: getting to the end was a little scary at times, what with someone as care-less as Noah in tow; and took a long time, with someone as care-full as Susannah along too. Somehow the journey back to land seemed shorter, and safer - simply because we were heading towards something 'certain.' The whole experience was a picture of our lives right now - not knowing where you are walking to is a slow and scary process...

At the end of the jetty there is an 8-metre deep observatory, from which we watched the fish that have made the jetty pilings their home - including a shoal of salmon that usually pass through at Easter but, for some unfathomable reason, never moved on this time around.

On Holiday

We're off to Margaret River (3-4 hours drive south of Perth) today, for a week-long holiday. (But haven't you been on holiday for the past couple of months? you ask. Er, no.)

No new people to meet. No engagements to speak at. Just the four of us, in a house, in a forest, on a river, on the edge of a small town, near the sea, in wine country. Bliss.

Three Sides To Every Story

I had been invited to speak at a local Bible College yesterday, and, as all we are doing out here is, essentially, responding to whatever occasions we are invited to, I agreed and we went. One of the staff team there knew of me, and had heard that we had come from a church context that had flown in the face of both the massive decline in church attendance across the UK in general and the more specific almost total absence of the 20- and 30-somethings from the UK church scene. She wondered whether I would share with them how we had done it; I would have about twenty minutes to talk to them…Given the constraints set me, I gave it a go. Here are my notes:

• It would appear that God has created humanity in such a way as to relate to each other in communities of different sizes. Biblical examples would include the family/clan/tribe structure (Old Testament) and the home/synagogue/temple structure (New Testament). But we see the same essential structure in almost all cultures that have existed – except Western Modernity (and by extension whatever is now coming out of the other side of the breaking-down process of individualism…)
• The different sizes have different purposes: the family provides intimacy and security; the extended family or clan provides communitas (see recent post) (e.g. when an Amish community comes together to build in a day a barn that will last a generation); and the tribe is ideally suited for war (e.g. when the West Coast Eagles tribe and the Sydney Swans tribe clashed recently, through their chosen champions) and celebration (often following, or on the anniversary of, a victory)
• In re-building community in a post-community context, the church must recognise the above
• The church must also recognise that the expression of life at all these sizes must involve relating to God (UP e.g. Jesus teaching his disciples to pray); relating o each other (IN e.g. Jesus building community with his disciples); and relating to outsiders (OUT e.g. Jesus’ community was initially sent to look for the lost sheep of Israel; later to Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth)

I then went on to describe three churches I have known personally, in terms of these three relational dimensions:

• Church a. UP: out-sourced to a professional (the minister, who prayed and preached – the only active involvement of the congregation was to sing hymns); IN: non-existent; OUT: out-sourced to professionals (missionaries – out-sourcing expressed through prayer- and financial-support). (At this point I pointed out that Bible Colleges produce the professionals churches out-source to…)
• Church b. UP: owned by the people; IN: owned by the people (when our family moved there, we had more invitations to people’s homes in one month than we had had in twelve years at church a.) OUT: out-sourced, but including individuals within the community engaging in ‘home mission’; occaisionally owned (e.g. several men came to, or grew in, faith through a weekly volleyball game, for a season), but not as primary OUT expression across the church.
• Church c. UP: owned; IN: owned; OUT: owned (as community activity; as opposed to [just] something we support each other to do on an individual basis, a concept definitely owned in church b.) note: Church c. is not perfect by any means, including struggling with the weight of inherited church practice. Examples of owned OUT, specifically pertaining to young adults, included football teams (7 or 8, playing in local league; 30% Christians/70% friends they are discipling; also praying for each other’s circumstances before matches – UP – and eating together – IN); also, involvement in the planning and servicing (e.g. stewards) of local community festivals, including prophecy tents next to the tarot/horoscope tents, and healing ministry tents next to the crystal healing energy tents…
• Essentially, the lesson we learnt in Sheffield was to build extended-family communities each with a clear OUTward vision, that were large/small enough to engage with their vision (but also related to smaller and larger expressions of community within the church)
• I closed by noting that an interesting property of the triangle is the fact that it is infinitely reducible within itself; to do so infinitely isn’t helpful as a diagnostic tool, but to do so once is helpful: i.e. there is an UP-IN-OUT triangle within the OUT corner of the triangle. The UP of OUT would include things such as signs and wonders; the IN of OUT is the understanding that we engage in mission more effectively when we do so together, not alone; the OUT of OUT would be expressed by finding the one individual who opens up their whole community to you (such as Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well, which results in the whole village coming to him and asking him to stay with them for several days…)

Okay, I may have gone a little over my 20 minutes…but this is, in my opinion, pretty fundamental stuff. It’s not rocket science (though the final point probably requires a bit more thought than the rest). But it isn’t the common-knowledge it ought to be. And I couldn’t think of anything more important to tell them, in answer to their question…

Always Read The Label

We spent Tuesday late afternoon/evening with Chris and Coralie Kan, and their children Eliza Rose and Noah (spookily close to our own Susannah Rose and Noah). We had a lot of fun, and came away with borrowed books (hurrah!): Jo, P.D. James’ Death In Holy Orders; and me, an omnibus of GK Chesterton’s Father Brown stories.

Chris is a teacher, and that day next year’s fresh intake (a riot of 10 year olds) were visiting the school for Orientation. One of the kids in Chris’ group has been classified as having both ADD and OCD…a source close to me who, for fear of the PCD (Politically-Correct Disorder) types wishes to remain nameless (but let’s say she’s the mother of my two children, just to narrow it down a little) asks, “So, does that mean that she wants to wash her hands all the time, but doesn’t have the attention-span to do it?”