Oil Fast?

I'm in a quandry. I was all checked in, bags packed, passport in hand, and ready to board my flight to Nairobi and then I decided to check the Christian news sites. The first item I hit on was from an organisation I had not heard of before. Apparently Operation Noah are a Christian environmental agency in the UK and they had the bright idea to call for an "oil fast". When? Tomorrow just as I board the 1020 to Nairobi and listen to those engines roar and look out my window at those graceful wings that will carry me hundred of miles in just a few hours - wings full to the brim with oil. Do I cancel my trip? Do I encourage others to fast while I go ahead with my trip? Why am I special?

I will fly and in fact I don't feel so bad about it. I quite like flying!

But there is a deeper question here. If we are to take environmental questions seriously how much will we allow them to impact our own life style? Do we just go back to hanging about in trees and caves and eating whatever fruit we can find, or is it OK to enjoy a good DVD on a Saturday night and take a drive in the country on Sunday afternoon. We need to be reasonable about all this but we also need to be serious and honest.

In fact this is the first long-haul flight I have made for a while as I have managed to divert some of my business onto Skype - oil free as far as I know. If you are interested I'm off to Nairobi for four days, on to Ethiopia for a few more and then ending up in Cape Town for the Lausanne III Congress. More reports will follow ......

Poor politics

In the UK you could have been forgiven for not knowing that major decisions were being taken in New York last week effecting the lives of millions of the world's more vulnerable people. The media here were in a frenzy of excitement as the brothers Miliband fought it out to lead a baddly battered Labour party. In the end David nearly cried, Ed told him how much he loved him, and the rest of us are still trying to remember which is which. Meanwhile in New York the great and the good of governments from around the world where trying to out do each other in proving now much they believed in, but could afford to do little about, the MDGs.

The magic year of course is 2015. It is by then that we will have put right all ills, and the poor (who of course won't exist any longer by then) will live happlily ever after. The problem is that when the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals) were first drawn up 2015 was a long way off - now its only five years away, and what's more we have a global recession to keep us all occupied. In those heady days (remember the fireworks?) of 2000 the British governmemt wrote (I have the publication in front of me now), "It's not pie in the sky to talk of achieving basic social services like education and healthcare for everyone in the world in the next fifteen years". But what about in the next five year?

To be fair several governments did put new resources on the table last week and my own (UK) government has committed major resources to join Bill Gates in combating Malaria in Africa. But the real problem is that if the poor are to get less poor the rich (that's us) need to get less rich - and who's going to elect politicians who offer to make them poorer?

But there is a hopeful side to all this. In her 2009 provocative Dead Aid, Dambisa Moyo suggests that Aid doesn't work anyway and that if we are going to meet targets like the MDGs then we need to take a very different route - a route that has to do with enterprise, vision, community, and equitable trade. Perhaps that's where China and India may now lead the way to a better world. ... Perhaps? The thought I'm wrestling with tonight however is whether a 'community of enterprise' is more in keeping with the Christian gospel than 'a community of aid'? (I'm thinking of all those parables Jesus told about workers and wages.)

Men allowed?

I shudder to think of all the accusations I lay myself open to when I say this, but ... are men allowed in church? Or to put it another (dangerous) way, has the Christian Church in the UK become a religious insitution run by women for women? Before you all rush to the "respond" or even the "report" button let me explain that I have been a member of "Priests for the Ordination of Women", have voted for women bishops and strongly support the equal ministry of women at every level in the church. I am also not so blind to have failed to notice that senior leadership of the church in the UK is still dispropotionately exercised by men. But still I have a question.

I was singing the final hymn in church last Sunday when it hit me. I was in a church I rarely attend but I was concious that it was not atypical of many I have been in recently. What struck me was this ... The person who welcomed me, the two lesson readers, the intercessor, the organist, the priest, the person who took my collection, the church warden, the people who made me coffee, all these wonderful people had one thing in common - they were all women. I was not alone in my gender - there were three of us males in church that morning - and we were made very welcome, but it was definely a women's place. When I got home I pulled the weekly bulletin out of my pocket (not my handbag!) and read the long list of activities in which I could participate that week - not a single 'man' thing to do!

I suppose this is troubling me more this week because next Sunday is "Back to church Sunday" and I feel guilty that I'm not rushing round inviting all my male friends to join me in church. Help me someone. Has religion always been a 'women's thing' or did we men just loose the plot along the way? Its great that we provide so many activities, and opportunities to serve for women in our churches, and I will rejoice when the first women becomes Archbishop of Canterbury - but let's not forget that men can be Christians as well! Can we. please?

Rebirthing a nation

What a joy it was today to receive a surprise visit from Bishop Andre who leads the 'missionary diocese' of Angola. I first met Bishop Andre a few years ago and we have kept in touch on a number of matters but today he just rolled into the office unannounced - wonderful. Such a humble man, not totally at ease in English (his third language) but listening with a wise ear and measuring his words in reply.

For years the very word 'Angola' cunjured up a deep sense of despair - a civil war raging out of control and a popilation reduced to abject poverty. It was one of those nations you were tempted to write off as without hope. Listening to Andre today, however, I heard a very different story. Angola, a land of sunshine and fertile lands, a place of diamonds, oil, and rich mineral deposits, a country blessed with energetic and hopeful people determined to bless other nations and end any sense of dependence. A bishop, proud of his nation, told me that they have the capacity to feed a third of Africa and to provide the world with all the diamonds we could hope for. But more significantly he spoke of spiritual hope.

The Anglican church in Angola is very small - but growing fast. Desperately short of resorces and with only twenty clergy on salaries, the church is in expansion mode. Most of the leaders, clergy and lay, have full time employment as teachers, farmers, and civil servants, but that does not stop them leading vibrant communities and planting new churches. There are whole provinces of the country with no Anglican churches today - but tomorrow will be a different story I was told! The great challenge is training the leaders, but as Bishop Andre made his farewells I felt a strong sense of optimism - it is a challenge he is up to! Perhaps our small part in Faith2Share will be to provide links with Portuguese speaking (Angola's trade language) mission movements in Brazil and India and so see what they can do together. Angola is very definitely reborn.

How to stop Christian ministry for a day (or longer)

I'm not in the habit of cross-posting on my blog but I'm so tired tonight after so much email traffic during the day caused by one small church in Florida that I decided Jim Wallis could say it much better than I can! Literally hundreds of senior Christian leaders have been engaged around the world on this issue today - just think what other good work this has prevented. Jim's comments on the "Qur'an burning" plans of Dove (that's an ironic name!) World Outreeach Centre in Florida say it all. He writes today, "There has been near-universal condemnation of the Quran burning planned for this Saturday by Terry Jones and his Florida church. Opposition has come from Muslims, Christians, Jews; Republicans and Democrats; civilians, politicians (including the president), and generals.

"What Jones doesn't seem to understand is that the message he is really sending is a sacrilegious slap in the face of Jesus Christ. If Jones and his followers go through with their plans to burn the Quran, they might as well burn some Bibles too, because they are already destroying the teachings of Jesus. Jesus called his followers to be peacemakers, and to love not only their neighbors, but also their enemies; instead Jones and his church have decided to become agents of conflict and division. Jones needs someone to tell him that Americans should not judge all Muslims by the actions of a small group of terrorists -- and I hope somebody tells Muslims around the world not to judge Christians, or all of America, by the actions of a radical fringe like the members of Dove World Outreach Center.

"But just as the proclaimed faith of the terrorists bears no resemblance to the faith of most Muslims, the actions of Jones and his followers bear no resemblance to the faith of most Christians. Jones knows that his actions are legally protected, but if he follows through he should know that he makes a mockery of the teachings of Jesus and even puts our country and U.S. troops in danger."

My network, Faith2Share, has set up a prayer chain for Friday this week. If you want to join it email me on f2s@faith2share.net

Burn, burn, burn

On a golf course in southern Britain a few days ago, early morning golfers discovered a body burnt and tossed away in the bushes. So bad was the burning that it took forensics to determine the gender of this discarded humanity, but now a few days later we get to know this man and his story. Overtaken by life he takes to drugs, lives on the streets, finds a home and friends in a hostel. "A quiet man" say his friends - but someone needed to set fire to that life ... was it out of fear or anger? Why?

Several hundred years earlier three more men were set alight. Not secretly at night but in front of crowds, jearing or silent. A cross of stones still marks that spot in the centre of my city where three bishops (Ridley, Latimer and Cranmer) burnt like candles. They, and many hundreds of others, were burnt by Christians, in the name of Christ, for the sake of truth. Was truth strengthened? Did Christ's kingdom grow out of those ashes?

Now a different fire is proposed. Pastor Terry Jones of Dove World Outreach Centre in Florida has announced that his church will mark September 11 this year as "International Burn a Quran Day". How many lives will that cost? Not in Florida of course, but all around the world such an act is designed to enrage Muslim communities who will have ended their most sacred season of Ramadan just two days earlier. Why are we so fearful of each other? Why do we think that burning things - people and books - is going to solve anything?

I had an email tonight from a senior world Christian leader saying he and others are seeking to meet Pastor Jones and persuade him that there is a more Christ-like way to respond to our Mislim neighbours. Join me in praying that their efforts to meet and talk with be effective. We must stop burning everything!

Disconnecting to connect

In response to my yesterday thoughts on 'Short Change?', Martin came back to me saying, "I'm not sure if the harder questions are the financial ones?" Thanks Martin, that gives me the excuse to write more on this topic. (Plug .... In fact I have already written quite a lot more which will come out at the end of the year as a chapter in the Edinburgh 2010 report.) But back to our discussion now ....

Short-term mission is costly but I agree with you Martin that there are harder questions. I hinted at one of these right at the end of my last piece. I have just been rereading Tom Sine's The New Conspirators (2008 sequel to Mustand Seed Conspiracy) where he invites "followers of Jesus to do the hard work of decoding the cultural influences in our lives" (Pg.90) and I strongly believe that one of those cultural influences is short-termism and its consequent devaluing of sustained relating. It is becoming counter-cultural to have a two-hour conversation with one person - the 'cool' thing to do is to Tweet the world. This buying into cultural short-termism is one of the hard questions but there are others. Perhaps I have space here for just one more ....

Disconnecting in order to connect. Jesus would never have cried "My God, why have you forsaken me" if he had stayed at home, but he disconnected in order to connect - with us. That's tough and it takes time. When I look at the design of most of what goes for short-term mission today I see very little disconnecting. The umbilical cord of text messages and "my life in Africa" blogs back to the home church, the bonded group of fellow short-termers (sometimes 100 strong!), and the return ticket tucked into the passport ensure connections are maintained. So what space (time, emotional, spiritual, etc.) is left for connecting in the host culture? To parady scripture, "My home church, my family, why have you forsaken me?" might be an important step on the road to a deeper participation in the relationship building cross of Christ.

Short change?

Only twenty years ago the mission agency I worked for sent out 'Short-term' missionaries to do 2 - 4 years service. Some extended to six years but they were still 'short-termers'. That was then. In contrast, back in June I had a conversation with an American church leader who was very excited about the dozens of members in her church who offer for 'short-term' mission. I'm not stupid so I asked her what she meant by 'short-term'. "Oh, its normally a two week trip but some do three weeks or even a month." she continued enthusiastically. We were standing in the lunch queue at Edinburgh University and I wished she had been in the session that afternoon when my friend Darrell Whiteman had voiced his concerns.

Darrell shared with us the following statistics for short-term missionaries in the US

1965 under 10,000

1989 120,000

1994 200,000

2005 1,600,000

That's some growth and my first reaction was to rejoice that so many people are offering for mission service. But then Darrell started asking his questions! If most of these 1.6 million Christians are abroad for just 2-4 weeks can they really be effective in mission? What do they understand about their host culture? How do they build deep relationships? Is this more about enriching the experience to US Christians (no bad thing!) rather than mission in Bolivia or wherever? Should we not be honest and call this "cross-cultural exposure" not "mission"?

Just as I was coming to terms with these questions, wrestling with the concept of 'ecclesiastical tourism', Darrell went on to ask even harder questions ...... If 1.6 million short-termers contribute 192 million hours of free labour to local projects across the world is that not a good thing? But what effect does that have on the local economy? How does this help to build partnership rather than dependancy? If 1.6 million Americans had stayed at home instead and sent the US$4.8 billion that they would otherwise have spent (on air fares, accommodation, food, etc.) to the local church what might that have purchased in the local economy?

There are no easy answers but it does make me wonder whether Christians have bought into the 'short-termism' of our contemporary culture and whether anyone will ever again want to do anything long-term.

Who says what's 'orthodox'

It was June and I was in Edinburgh. The evening was warm and I was climbing Arthur's seat. Mark and Mark walked together - my companion, a bishop from Canada ... not a son of France or England or some other colonial power but a true son of the lands that we Europeans decided should be called Canada. Of course they were not nameless before, nor were they without peoples and soul.

I had had a frantic day running sessions for the (history-making?) Edinburgh 2010 coference, but as my steps fell in line with Mark's steady rhythm my mind began to settle and I began to listen to his story - not from the beginning (my mind was too busy to attend at first) but a story which made sense from the middle. A story of indigenous Christian communities across the arctic north of Canada. The Edinburgh air was calm and the sun still bright but I was transported into a world of dark cabins, of hymn singing late into the night, of Bible stories retold in local tongues, of healing and wisdom ... and pain. The pain I remember most from Mark's story came when settlers, good righteous Christians, brought their bright lights of truth into these native cabins to chase out 'misguided' faith and plant 'orthodox' religion. That pain is still felt today - I felt it in Mark as we walked - I wanted to share it, but could not.

Of course 'ortho-doxy' (right worship) is important and we all need to rid ourselves of our own superstitions and 'idol-doxy'. But who says what is orthodox? Dare I?

Not dead but sleeping

So many of my friends have been challenging me to start writing this blog again that in mid-August I finally set myself a target date and now that magic date has arrived. This blog somehow fell asleep in February this year but 1 September seems a good enough day for a resurrection.

My blog may have been asleep I was certainly not. A lot, I mean a lot, has happened to me since February - some good, some bad, some ... well "life happens" as they say. I'm going to use the next few blogs to do a little catching up with myself and if you want to read along with me - welcome!

When I was planning today's resurrection back in August I was reflecting again on what a blog actually achieves. Well, I suppose they all do different things. Some advertise, some vent the spleen, some impart valuable information, some amuse, some (can I be frank?) bore. If I'm honest most of the time I will be writing for myself (to get those muddled brain cells laid out somewhere where I can see them and begin to sort them) - but if you want to listen in, that's fine.

My Malaysian friend just gave me a Russian gift - let me share this 'amazing gift' with you.

Courage to Change - Dom Helder

Come April and I'm off to the sunshine of Brazil, to Recife in the north east to be precise. Yes I am fed up with this cold damp winter in the UK but there are more acceptable reasons for going to Recife - like work! Preparing for a week in Recife with mission leaders from around the world I decided I ought to get back in touch with one of my school boy heros. Despite my 'evangelical credentials' (did I hear you say, 'what credentials?') I received all my secondary education at a Roman Catholic school run by some fantastic religious brothers who taught me how to drink, enjoy worship, and get hooked on theoretical physics! But I digress. My schooling coincided with the Second Vatical Council and the hero of that great meeting in Rome for me was the Brazilian bishop Dom Helder Camara - champion of liberation theology, or more correctly, champion of the poor. He was bishop of Recife.

Not having read any of his thinking for almost 40 years I picked up Francis McDonagh's little book Dom Helder Camara - Essential Writtings, published by Orbis just last year. It has been great to read him again and I hope it is preparing me for something of the reality of 2010 Brazil, but the book also gave me a great shock. McDonagh begins her selection of writings with a short biography of the man and after a few pages I found myself reading about a young man who enthuisatically joined and then led the fascist Integralist movement in Brazil. That just dodn't fit for me - McDonagh must have got it wrong. How could the great champion of the poor, famous for his work with Catholic Action and his support for liberation theologians - a bishop who was often accused (unjustly) of being a communist - have recruited fascists? But it seems he did.

It was only some years after his ordination that his ministry amongst the poor of Recife and his faith in the poor man Jesus led him to reject fascism and embrace a whole new understanding of God's priority for the poor. Don Helder was a man big enough to admit his mistakes, to redirect his life, to change, to move on. We need more big men like him.

He wrote in 1970, "A people united and organised, a people united and relying of the grace of God, will rise up from poverty without hatred or violence, but with decision and courage."

Courage to change - Jack

I very much doubt whether you have ever heard of Jack Sparks - he died in Alaska a few days ago, aged 81. For years I had known, and been fascinated by, Jack's story and then seven years ago I found myself in Alaska (as you do!) and so headed straight off to Eagle River (great name - great place) to meet him, just a year after he had moved there from California. It was an interesting meeting.

So what's the story? Jack was a national leader with the very evangelical student movement called Campus Crusade for Christ in San Bernadino, California during the sunshine, 'flowers in your hair' and LSD years of the 1960s. In his desire to share his faith in Jesus he published a range of rather way out newspapers and then created the Christian World Liberation Front (what a 1960s name!) to minister amongst hippies and students. I was running a few years behind Jack, joining Campus Crusade in 1969 when my hair was very long and my flares very wide (but I missed out on the LSD - honest!) There would have been nothing unusal about Jack's story (Campus Crusade evangelists are not that rare) except that a decade later he, and a group of Campus Crusade leaders, decided to join the Orthodox Church! The crunch came for Jack when he saw so many of the young people he had introduced to Jesus just packing up their faith with their flares when they left university, cut their hair, threw away their CND badges and got a 'proper job'. Jesus, for so many was part of the hippie, student, package but an unafforable luxury when real life came along. Jack saw that Jesus freeks needed to find a home - in a church! He set out looking for the New Testament church and discovered Orthodoxy.

.

Jack never gave up sharing his faith, getting young people excited about Jesus, but now he could bring them home - to his home - to the community of Orthodox Christians. It's a long road from Campus Crusade director to Orthodox priest (Jack was ordained in 1987), and it takes courage to travel that road, but Jack was a man of courage and convictions. I'm glad I met Jack, just that once, and I'm glad I discovered Orthodox Christians as well as Campus Crusade - I needed them both.

Pricing Haiti's Orphans

My good friend Harriet Mirembe in Uganda (or the USA - you never know where people are these days in this virtual world!) commented on my last post and linked it to children in Haiti who have become vulnerable to those seeking cheap orphans. I find it incredible that a Christian organisation could even consider taking a 'day trip' to Haiti to fill a bus with good looking orphans which they can then give away to nice infertile parents in the USA - but, if the reports are correct, that's just what they did do.

What is even more alarming though are the stories beginning to emerge of those who have gone to Haiti to acquire children as part of a commercial enterprise which will nett them good profits as these children are sold on to love hungry parents in the rich world, parents who know nothing of the culture, language or background of the kids they adopt - or should I say 'buy'.

As well as getting angry about this trade in suffering kids I also have to ask myself a question. If I condemn the actions of charities that 'rescue' children and traders who 'market' children, what will I do instead? Am I prepared to be part of a better solution - a solution which will provide Haiti's children (not just the orphans) with a viable future in the community, culture and nation of their birth.

That solution is going to be much tougher than a day trip to Haiti.

Pricing Archbishops

We got the good news this morning that Archbishop Peter Imasuem of Benin Diocese in Nigeria had been released. If you hadn't heard, he was abducted at gunpoint outside his home after morning service in his cathedral last week. As far as I have heard he was released unharmed but what we don't know, and may never know, is whether the US$100,000 ransom demanded by his captors was actually paid or not.

Paying ransom money is controversal everywhere. The mission I used to work for always refused to pay ransom money (not because they lacked the cash - although that was also true!) but because paying out once only invites bandits to collect a few more hostages and increase their business turnover. But, try explaining that to the family! If my brother was taken hostage of course I would want to pay the ransom, as soon as possible, but is that just selfish? What about the next family to be effected, and the next?

Hostage taking has become a real industry in the seas off Somalia and there is a risk it will become so in the oil fiends of Nigeria. So was an archbishop worth just £63,000? Sounds rather cheap to me. So how much would a shop assistant or a motor mechanic be worth? Surely the answer is that we cannot put a monetary value on any life and we must do all we can to stamp out hostage taking - and every other form of trading in human lives.

Sometimes you wonder why your name happens to end up on an invitation list, and sometimes you wish it hadn't. This week I found myself invited to a London reception put on by the Institute for Religion and Society in Asia - posh venue, posh food, left feeling hungry! But is was a good evening, I met up with a whole range of friends and colleagues, and I was glad I was invited.

The IRSA was set up by Dr. Charles Hancock and began with a clear focus on the role of religion is Chinese Society post-Maxism. (They are widening this to include most of Asia now, which I think is a mistake - but that's another story.) The presentations were mixed but I came away clutching Charles' final words which are worth further rumination. He said:

Faith is changing the face of China

Faith will be slow to change the heart of China

China is quick to try to change the face of faith

China is vulnerable to the reality of spirituality.

Walking out onto the rain drenched streets of London with their crowd barriers and heavy police presence (President Hamid Karzai was in town and Tony Blair was due at the Iraq enquir the next day) I wondered ...... How vulnerable is Britain to the reality of spirituality?

Statistical puzzles

Some people live on a diet of statistics, others just choke on them - I quite enjoy them as an occasional 'meal out' when I want to think a few different thoughts. Thanks to a friend who eats only trends, varriables and mediums, I recently came across quite an interesting set of numbers. (Thanks Peter - after all someone has to digest those numbers!)

Apparently there are only two religious groups in the world projected to grow in the next 40 years - Evangelical Christians and Muslims. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 7% to 15% of world population

1970 to 2050 Muslims From 15% to 25% of world population

As a total Christians are currently the largest religious group in the world, at 33%, and if all Christians groups were to grow at the same rate as Evangelicals then this would remain the case - but the fact is that non-Evangelical Christian communities are just not growing (with a few notable exceptions such as certain Orthodox groups). You see this more starkly when you view Evangelicals as a proportin of the Christian community. The figures are:

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 14% to 46% of Christians in Developing World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 25% to 47% of Christians in Developed World

1970 to 2050 Evangelicals From 21% to 46% of World Christians

So? Well perhaps Evangelicals need to help their non-Evangelical sisters and brothers to grow. Not to become Evangelicals, but to be confident in their own faith and to GROW.

Anglican Evangelism?

Put three bishops in a room - one Nigerian, one Canadan and one from Peru - add the Director of Alpha International, the Mission Director of the Anglican Church in Kenya, and season with a sprinkling of Liverpudlians, South Africans, and a canny guy from Zambia, and what do you get?

Answer - the crazy idea that Anglicans could do something positive about evangelism and growing the church, especially in places where there are almost no Christians at all.

Well that's what happened last week. I spent the week with the, wait for it, 'Core Group of the Anglican Communion Evangelism and Church Growth Initiative'. Guess what, we are looking for a better name! Sadly the British goverment ensured that our colleagues from DR Congo and Pakistan could not join us (visa restrictions!) but the nine of us who did make it through the snow to Woking had a great week together.

Of course the idea that Anglicans could be good at, and even enjoy, sharing the good news about Jesus, is not really so crazy - it just feels that way sometimes when all we seem to care about is church bells, lesbian bishops, and who stole the ladies fellowship teapot. After all much of Africa was evangelised by Anglicans, not to mention Malaysia, China, India, and more. In fact we used to be very good at it. Now the leadership of the church (the bishops when then met at the Lambeth Conference) have said, "let's have another go". I feel very privileged to be at the heart of this. It might be a challenging task to excite Anglican about Jesus, but it will be great fun. Watch this space.

Can I call you Allah?

"Thank you Mr. Oxbrow", says the young call centre worker in Bangalore when I give him my account details, "can I call you Mark?". When I have spent too much of my precious evening talking to call centres I must admit I am sometimes tempted to reply, "No, please call me Your Majesty". Names are important. The fact that one person calls me "Mr. Oxbrow" another "Padre" but most people "Mark" says something about the relationship I have with those people.

Yesterday an angry mob in Kuala Lumpur felt so strongly about names that they set fire to a church, tried to burn three more and damaged cars belonging to Christians. They were Muslims reacting to a court ruling that Christians were free to call God "Allah". (A friend, Bishop Ng Moon Hing of Kuala Lumpur, has written a response which you'll find on the Faith2Share website.) Whilst Christians in Malaysia have been campaigning to be allowed to use the word "Allah" for God in their local language Bibles, Muslims have maintained that they alone have a right to use this word. Of course there are many Christians as well who would be concerned about calling God "Allah" because of the confusion, they claim, it causes.

Underlying all this is the much deeper question - is the God whom Christians worship one and the same as the God to who Muslims pray in their mosques? That's a 'big question' which I don't intend to answer here ... other than to suggest that if God is really God then there can only be one God and we are not in a position to choose which God we want to worship. So ??

Perhaps, like the call centre worker, we need to ask God what he would like us to call Him. God, Yahweh, Jehovah, Allah, Jesus - in the end they are only names, surely not worth fighting over. Pray peace on Malaysia.

New Year Prayer

Sitting at my desk this morning, my coat collar turned up against the cold - the heating had failed again and it was minus six outside - I opened my first (work) email of the year. It was a leadership briefing from the Micah Network and the words which caught my eye were, "May God bless us with discomfort"!

Thank you Dino Touthang (chair of the Micah Network) for reminding us at the start of this new year of St. Francis' powerful blessing.

May God bless us with discomfort ... at easy answers, half-truths, and suferficial relationships, so that we may live deeply within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger ... at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears ... to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them, and to turn their pain to joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness ... to beleve that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

Dare I pray that?

Long life Queen

I haven't watched much TV over the holidays but on Christmas Day I watched the Queen and tonight, New Years Day, I watched Queen (the rock legend). Both have aged somewhat since I first became an avid follower of one and a sceptic about the other. The Queen concert (excellent by the way) was from 1975, the year before I began my ordained ministry. 1975 was also the year that the Vietnam War ended (at least that's what the US claimed) and yet 35 years later much of the Queen's speach was given over to an expression of gratitude to soldiers and their families who continue to loose their lives in Afghanistan - another unwinable war?

In October of that year, 1975, Queen released their all time great Bohemian Rhapsody which included the lyrics,

Mama, just killed a man

Put a gun against his head

Pulled my trigger, now he's dead

Mama, life had just begun

But now I've gone and thrown it all away

Sobering thoughts for the start of a new decade. So many lives just thrown away, in Vietnam in 1975, today in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, DR Congo (and the list goes on). Lives thrown away not just through war, but in senseless living and moral confusion as well.

Now for the interesting fact! Do you recall that line later in Bohemian Rhapsody?

Bismillah! We will not let you go. Will not let you go. (sung as the hapless teenage killer is being dragged into jail (so you think you can love me and leave me to die.) What on earth does Bismillah mean? Well, Bismillah is the opening word of the Qur'an meaning literally, "In the name of Allah" So ...... "In the name of God, we will not let you go"!

Queen may have believed in that unforgiving, punishing, God in 1975 (or perhaps it just made a good lyric!) but I have spent the last 35 years living with a very different message, "In the nane of God, get up and walk", "In the name of God, be free". Even to the distressed 17 year old I once met on a prison visit who had stabbed his friend to death in an arguement over ten pounds, "In the name of God, stand up, believe, begin again, find life."

Thank you Queen, now I feel a whole lot better about the new decade which began this morning. "Bismillah! Live .... for God's sake."