Category Archives: Life

Cathedral

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Had a great weekend away in Salisbury. The cathedral is great and has some great works of art, the coolest font and a great sculpture outside both by the same bloke. But the windows were fantastic especially the main window which was in memory of prisoners of conscience. Which set my mind and heart racing particularly as we were there the same day as the Live8 concert. It was also where the BBC did a Christmas drama thing with Timothy Spall as teacher taking a class away. A great drama tackling a load of issues. Sitting in the place I kept thinking what a great resource this place could be. I have always been quite critical of big old buildings, all that money for upkeep when you could sell it off for flats, but I reckon with a few risks you could do some really good stuff linking the building, drama and young people together around multifaith, spirituality and a host of other issues.

An inclusive bike ride

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June continues to be mad, however one project we now have underway is the FYT virtual Cycle ride who I work for. FYT have a strong history of working with young people on the edge, and working to include them in the church and kingdom. As such we wanted to do an event that everyone could be involved in, regardless of age or ability. So we have come up with a wacky concept that is all inclusive and are looking for people to join in this slightly twisted idea of the old favourite – a sponsored bike ride. Go here Once Bitten dvd for more details. If you want to sponsor me, or become a virtual cyclist please let me know via the blog. I would love to set a target of getting 50 virtual cyclists via the blog. FYT never really push themselves PR wise, for example few people would know that in the last year we have had contact with over 7000 people doing direct youth work, and 2000 youth work management. With the size of our team, to say we were punching above our weight would be an understatement. So please get behind this thing, and sign up and start linking. Thanks

Hopeful with Aslan

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I love the summer. I know feeling are very subjective, and quite in contrast to Marks last post on science. Summer makes me feel good. Summer reminds me of great residentials with young people, detached work when it is too hot to play football so you sit in the sun and talk, days out with young people who have never seen the sea, and chilling out with them as friends.

I love the evocative feeling that CS Lewis writes about Aslans recovery and his joy at rising again, but what is even better is how Aslan includes the children in the joy and journey ahead.

‘Oh, children,’ said the Lion, ‘ I feel my strength coming back to me. Oh, children, catch me if you can!’ He stood for a second, his eyes very bright his limbs quivering, lashing himself with his tail. Then he mad a leap high over their heads and landed on the other side of the Table. Laughing, though she didn’t know why, Lucy scrambled over it to reach him. Aslan leaped again. A mad chase began. Round and round the hill-top he led them, now hopelessly out of their reach, now letting them almost catch his tail, now diving between them, now tossing them in the air with his huge and beautifully velveted paws an d catching them again, and now stopping unexpectedly so that all three of them rolled over together in a happy laughing heap of fur and arms and legs. It was such a romp as no one has ever had except in Narnia; and whether it was more like playing with a thunderstorm or playing with a kitten Lucy could never make up her mind. And the funny thing was that when all three finally lay together panting in the sun the girls no longer felt in the least tired or hungry or thirsty.

‘And now,’ said Aslan presently, ‘to business. I feel I am going to roar. You had better put your fingers in your ears.’

And they did. And Aslan stood up and when he opened his mouth to roar his face became so terrible that they did no dare to look at it. And they saw all the trees in front of him bend before the blast of his roaring as grass bends in a meadow before the wind. Then he said,

‘We have a long journey to go. You must ride on me.’

What Doesn’t Kill You dvdrip

Migration: Fair Trade?

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As a response to news today about taking health staff from developing countries here is an article I wrote that was first published in Benchmark Magazine:

There are many aspects to the immigration discussion, but one that hits me as particularly pertinent to issues of justice is the movement of skilled people away from developing countries.
We can view this issue as a problem of trade. We don’t normally think of migration as a trade in people – after all it’s not slavery that is going on! However, when we offer an individual the prospect of a higher standard of living in exchange for their participation in our economy we are indeed trading. The unfortunate thing about this trade is that it is between a poor individual and our rich society with no thought for the community from which we take, the community which invested in that person, the community which that person was serving. When we trade with these communities in this way we are not practising fair trade, we are not giving them just compensation for their loss, we take and we do not give back.
However, it is worth saying that this exploitation is only possible because of the global inequities between rich and poor. It is only when the root causes of this inequity are addressed that the symptoms are relieved – the ball is in our court, as rich nations, to do something about this.
But where does that put us, as the church in a rich nation? What is our role in the migration of skilled labour? Well, I don’t see our role as global policeman, preventing individuals from moving where they want or even preventing societies from tapping the wealth of societies less wealthy than our own. However, I do see that we each have a personal responsibility – we, as Christians, must seek to not cause such migration. As with any form of trade, sometimes we have to be prepared to give up what is within our grasp, as we are called to be fair in our dealings.
In practice such personal fairness can be difficult to achieve – how do we refuse the caring attention of a Filipino nurse or the school education of a Jamaican teacher? Is there any way that our actions can compensate those societies in another way, perhaps by charitable support? Can you go out to teach in a Jamaican school or give your life to support the health of those in poverty in other parts of the world?
What if you are that Filipino nurse working in the NHS or that Jamaican teacher working in a comprehensive school? This is the hardest question for me, as I’m not such a person. However, one thing that I must say is that, for many of these people, the purpose of their lives here is to support their families back home, to send money home so that their families can live better lives than if they had never left.
So, perhaps our role is to take a back seat, not to judge, but rather to recognise the opportunities that are open to us to do our bit for our global community.

What Doesn’t Kill You download

Thinking Out Loud

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Is social action evangelism just poor mission but with good PR?
What would be a good way or word to replace the word “leader(ship)” for the way we need to start thinking about this in post Christendom?
Why hasn’t the house sold?
The difference between knowing of God and about God, how they inter relate and each help sustain a relationship with God. How one comes to prominence at different times.

Going Live

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.!.

Protest4 has gone live. Well worth checking out, and I think an important way forward. Particularly in the light of recent thoughts I have been having on the impact of individualism in current culture and the impact this has on the possibility of social change. A quote I have held close to my heart for a while is from Fiske who said

    “The people are neither cultural dupes nor silenced victims, but are vital, resilient, varied, contradictory, and, as a constant source of contestation of dominance, are a vital social resource, the only one that can fuel social changeâ€?

However the question remains what has the impact of a declining meta narrative and the increase of individualism been on this? Can people still be the social resource for change?

What about the truth?!?!

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Recently I met an old friend of mine. I had not seen him for a long time. We were never on the same side in discussions. He had been over in the States for a couple of years and had been studying the philosophy of religion. (He is really a modernist with all that follows…) He has started a new project back in Sweden. It was about abortion (he probably met some from the moral majority) and he thought that the church was ready to give up about it – maybe thats true, so he felt he should go public with picture of children which had been aborted. First I thoought he was ironic but soon I realised he wasn´t. I think the question of abortion is too tough an issue to use that method of informing people. I think the problem is not that people do not know that stuff but that they think about it in other ways – in a theological language: They do not think like a “christian”. (of course you could reply what is thinking like a christian…let´s discuss!) The problem is not that people are stupid or dumb but that they have other criteria for judging what is true. They judge regarding to their worldview and what they think is true. I think that the truth is in Christ but I have to be humble when I meet other people and their “truths”. And you are certainly not humble if you use that method. First of all we have to live the faith and in this case to show another ways of dealing with our sexuality and taking care of our children in the christian community. The truth is a way of life not a statement or a picture! And people around us have different ways of life and I think we have to give people “the freedom of unbelief”.

Ps. For you englishmen – soon the World Championship in Icehockey starts! Enjoy! Ds.

GMTV and wrist bands as resource idea

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I caught an interview this morning on GMTV about the number of counterfeit wristbands being sold and the money NOT going to the charity. One thing it highlighted was how hard it can be to get young people involved in charitable causes and political action. Their guidance was to only buy the wristbands from reputable shops or via the charity on the web. A few ideas came to mind on how we could tap into the wristband culture in our work with young people, I bet these ideas grab them more than talking about the election.

  • Do a survey of all outlets selling the bands and send this to local trading standards. AND/OR report these to local branches of the charity.
  • Extend the idea… If you give the young people a name tag from the group (official looking), get them to dress smart with a clip board as they go around the town then it is likely to cause the shop owner to ask questions and the simple response that you are conduct research as to whether the number of wristbands being sold correlate with the income the charity receives for a local organisation will probably be enough for them to withdraw them from sale.
  • Get the young people to spend a Saturday morning counting how many are sold from particular shops and send the shop the address of the charity with an invoice for the appropriate amount to forward onto the charity, copy the letter to the charity.
  • Get the young people to ask all their mates where they have got their wristbands and explain to them the issue. Ask if their friends would consider returning an dodgy wristbands and ask for a refund. This could be a good way to increase you contact with other young people as if there are enough you could arrange for adults to accompany the young people as they ask for a refund.
  • Write to local press to highlight the issue.

Let me know if you try any of these.

Wrist Action

Future Stock!

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This article first published in Benchmark Magazine (http://www.benchmarkmag.com/).

Barbie: Fairytopia

Pensions! Does anyone still believe that the pension system is functional? Do any of us think that pensions will provide for us when we retire? What is going on?

Surely the point of retirement was originally to provide for those who were too unfit, through age, to work? Pension was society’s provision of an income for those who could not provide for themselves due to, age related, forced retirement from useful work.

Somewhere along the line we confused this pure vision of care for the elderly and developed a selfish vision of escaping the ‘horror'(!) of our working lives and living out a leisure fantasy that we surely deserved!

Be Kind Rewind

Well, living as a community just isn’t like that! We all have a responsibility to do good for one another. John Calvin once said that Christians should “choose those employments which yield the greatest advantage to their neighbour.â€?

Fortunately, you and I both know people who seek to redeem their retirement, doing community work, caring for people and many other positive activities that contribute to the strength of their community. Perhaps, if we take Calvin’s advice, we can only truly review our activities at any point in our lives if we seek to break through the distinction between paid work and other forms of work.

Aside from all this there is a need for us to recognise where our provision is coming from. We should always seek to provide for ourselves and only rely upon our communities (the state) to provide for us if we are unable to do so.

Looking at the state of retirement pensions today we see two kinds: We see taxation of workers to provide for retirees (as per National Insurance) and we also see workers saving up for retirement (as per pension funds). We have looked at the former of these two in the brief comments about a community’s provision for it’s dependants. Savings, however, are a very different matter.

We recognise that we live in a changing world. We know that there is no such thing as 100% security. We see pension funds going to the wall, with pensioners ending up losing all of their life’s savings. We also see the risk of prolonged recession eating into our savings, we also live in an age of fantastic medical advances where if we live to be 100 years old we will only have done paid work for half of our lives! Compare this with an era (or even other parts of today’s world) were economically productive work starts at around age 5 and continues until you die aged 43! That would be 88% of your life working!

Are we going to insist that the our children pay for our retirement? Are the young going to rise up against the old and refuse to pay, or is our ageing population going to ensure that any democratic decision is in favour of the retirees?

Reluctance to Change

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Stuart Murray’s ‘Post-Christendom’ has got me thinking!

I wonder if there is reluctance to change in the church for this reason:
If dramatic change takes place, anyone who is in a position of power or influence in the church (or ‘a’ church) is likely to find themselves on a level with others, without an advantage. They would find themselves beginners again, unfamiliar with their newly deconstructed/reconstructed environment.

Does this mean that such people might resist change? I wonder…