I heard over the weekend of David Sheppard’s death. It is with sadness that I reflect on a man, a bishop and lord who helped me be me. A champion of the poor, FYT and the city, his words matched his life, unafraid to speak out. A man of his day who in many ways was ahead of his time, but whose life and words will continue to influence many for decades to come. If you don’t know about him read some of the blogs and tributes but better still read his books.
I always wanted to be a jet setter but I still haven’t been out of Europe. However I reckon posting from airport as the plane is delayed is the closest I will get. Serenity download
Mark has joined Sunday Papers and will be posting from time to time. However it also means that as I have tried to change some of the settings the formatting has gone a bit wonky, please stick me whilst I work it out. For some reason the blogs have moved to the right any suggestions on how to get it back welcome.
Busy few days, tomorrow Dave is doing a day on Community Organising and Liberation Theology, then in the evening I travel up to do a workshop at the MAYC conference in Rugby on Wednesday, and back for a visit in Frome on Friday. On one hand I hope it snows as much as
Calvin but I don’t want to get stuck. I guess I want all the benefits and none of the pain.
I have been in the middle of some complex negotiations at the moment but been very away of the need to maintain integrity. I have been thinking about what is fair and how can we reach a fair conclusion for all parties. My general approach is to sit down and have a chat, but what I think fair, another may not. No one wants to give away too much, people have their own ideas about how much they will compromise. I guess in most circumstances people keep arguing back and forth until a conclusion acceptable to all is reached. How kingdom centered is this approach? I hate the cards close to the chest attitude, but how different is this from saying what we think is fair. Is it really possible in modern society to lay your cards on the table and say this is what I think is a fair price or deal? Do people think that is your opening gambit and expect that you will change? Often people want to come out a winner. Can fairness and openness work in a fallen world or do you become complicit in the process and start lower so you end up with the price that is fair?
more links including two third way links one to the magazine site and one to a Mennonite initiative.
Today I finally got broadband connection. It arrived in the village in December I got on line today, but couldnt think about anything to blog about as moaning seems the order of the day. Car in garage (hoping the turbo hasn’t packed up), creditcard bill arrives, Road tax and insurance due, easy jet cancelled flights to Denmark from Bristol, and my imaginary dog, a faithful collie/jack russell cross called Bob, died and I buried him under the patio, and cant get the paving slab to lie flat.
One bonus of spending Christmas at the inlaws is the option to check out the web. Not having broadband at home this seems like a good way to keep my head down the chaos that is Christmas. So far I have linked up to Banksy and a new christain manifesto from SoJo. Also they have sky and we watched Rabbit Proof Fence last night, great film.
Angel by banksy
I have been thinking there is a link between our need to label church and the laziness of labels and how that post (labels) this links with the last post on painting over the cracks. I have been reading another Susan Howatch novel and in this one, one character refers to Jesus as the bloke, because as you read you have got to know the character Gavin, and you have got see his construct of Jesus, the bloke label fits perfectly – you understand Gavin’s worldview, and because of the process it becomes useful as a label rather than lazy shorthand. The Bloke language is also outside our names for Jesus so only works if know the process – maybe there is something here about re naming church. I always liked the names like Vurch as it resonated with the past label but was clearly something else. The issue/problem maybe when we go to the next stage to explain Vurch and use labels like emerging church
At the beach on a cold November. Excuse the nature of this post but I wanted to use this pic somewhere else so needed to post it.
