Saving the earth

With a nephew who works in 'alternative energy' I have got used to following the various debates about on-shore and off-shore wind farms here in the UK. Personally I find those tall white windmills scattered across a grren hill side rather graceful and attractive but I also hear the arguments about noise, damage to the environment and danger to flocks of birds. But surely we need to do something to harness FREE energy.

Driving across Kerela, South India, recently I was amazed to see not one, five or twenty windmills but hundreds off them stretching out on both sides of the road for around 5 killometers. I'm not sure whether this is one of the largest wind farms built so far but it is definitely serious business. In a natural wind tunnel between mountains these white blades turn day and night generating electricity for the growing economy of India. In a strange way I thought these windmills mirrored the peoples of India - growing numbers, hard working, graceful and gaining strength from cooperative working. They also say something to Christians about the power which can be harnessed as we each open ourselves to the gentle breeze of God's spirit.

Children we love and abuse

I landed in Bangalore India this weekend in the midst of a festival weekend. As well as the local Hindu festival, Muslims were celebrating the end of Ramadan and Christians were using the long holiday weekend as an opportunity to celebrate 'Children's Day' in many of their churches. Within hours of landing I found myself in an impressive, growing, independent church preaching on the place of the child in mission.

India is full of people, and even more so full of children - literally hundreds of millions of them. The children who sat in front of me in church had adoring parents who, in good Indian fashion, are prepared to sacrifice much to see their children well educated and prepared for life, but as I spoke I was just as conscious of the children we had passed on the road side begging for food and those I had not seen whose bodies are abused for the gratification of adult lust. Children are vulnerable but they are also strong and have much to teach us about discipleship - open, trusting, humble and deep. I look forward to being inspired by the lives of other Indian children this coming week as I spend more time in this challenging but hopful country.

Is Baptism necessary?

A couple of night ago I had to choose between a night at home with the TV (and a Kenyan house guest), listening to Kenneth Cragg (he of innumerable books on Islam and a real hero of mine), and a lecture by a professor of religions and Sanskrit from Nagaland, north India. I chose the third option but took my computer along so I could catch up on emails during the lecture! (Before you judge me - don't tell me you have never done that?). Well, the emails didn't get answered and instead I came away with two pages of grey-cell stretching notes. Thank you Dr. Atola Longkumar (pictured).

Speaking against the background of recent religious violence in India, Atola raised the whole question of whether conversion is a useful term, or even a useful concept, and if it is then what it involves. The force of her arguement was that Christian faith is about discipleship, a direction of living orientated towards God as seen in Jesus Christ, not church membership or even joining a specifically 'Christian' community. In India the real point of tention is over baptism as it is such a public event which appears to mark a leaving as well as a joining of communities. Atola suggested that baptism might not be essential for Christians. For some of the audience, brought up on Jesus' Great Commission to, "Go into all the world ... and baptise them in the name of ...", this was a step too far. But when baptism costs lives (as it does in India) is this an opportunity to rejoice in martydom or just an unnecessary antagonism of Hindu (Indian?) sensibilities? [Interesting programme, by the way, on Radio 4 today on how certain Hindu groups try to define Indian identity as, by definition, Hindu.] Part of me wants to say that breaking ties, changing direction, being faithful (to God) is always costly (a cost sometimes paid in blood), but before I voice that from the comfort of my Oxford home I want to know much more deeply what it really means to be an Indian follower of Jesus - not a church member, perhaps not a Christian (in the cultural sense) - but a Christ-one, a faithful follower of Jesus. More work for the grey-cells!

Story, Discourse and Narrative

Yesterday I went to listen to Enos Das Pradhan, General Secretary of the Church of North India talking about the recent violent attacks on Christians in India. It was all rather depressing and conducive of that 'but what the heck can we do about it?' feeling. Conflict is something I would rather run away from, but as reconciliation is so central of the Christian hope, I know I can't just do that. The day was saved for me by a young Indian academic, Mr. Brainerd Prince, who spoke afterwards. He was suggesting that the way into dealing with communal violence is to begin with its ideological roots and to understand the dynamic of story-discourse-narrative. In every situation, especially where there is conflict the story that is told (what happened) is always embellished with the discourse I add to explain why it happened like that and the two together become the accepted (or disputed) narrative. The clue is to realise that our discourse is always informed by ideology. The way into conflict resolution is to try to separate out story (facts) from discourse (interpretation) and then to negotiate discourse independently from story. Sounds great - now all I need is to get into a conflict so I can try it out! Thanks, Brainerd.

Missionary Diocese?

Tonight I took the risk of cooking Indian food for an Indian! - it seemed to work. My dinner guest was Revd Moses Jayakumar the General Secretary of the Church of South India (CSI). Quite a breath of fresh air after the last holder of that post (let the reader understand!). After we had survived the Anglo-Indian curry I was quizing Moses (what a great name!) about how members of CSI churches join mission agencies in India. Two of them are members of our Faith2Share network - hence my interest. What took me completely by surprise was his reply that whilst many do join agencies like Friends Missionary Prayer Band and Indian Evangelical Mission many Indian dioceses send out their own missionaries. I knew that, but what I didn't know was that several send over 400 or more each! Apparently South Kerala and Tirunelveli dioceses have missionaries in almost every state of India and beyond. Wake up Wakefield (the Church of England's so-called 'Missionary Diocese') - that's what you call 'mission shaped diocese'!