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."

Angels of rebellion

Salim is a colleague who leads a reconciliation ministry in Palestine/Israel. Having just visited the Shepherd's Field in Bethlehem from which he was able to look across to the mountain-tower of Herodian, he wrote to a number of us, "The proximity of the two historic locations struck me, especially given the extent to which they were interwoven in the narrative of Christ's birth. They represent two polar opposites, the political, arrogant power of Herod's palace, and the simple,rustic fields were the shepherds slept."

Salim then goes on to sugest a radical reading of Luke's gospel that I wanted to share. He writes, "Seeing these two spots also brought into sharp focus the politically subversive nature of the angel's announcement on that starry night. The angel spoke to the shepherds, saving "Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be for all people." (Luke 2:10) Most people interpret this to mean that the shepherds were afraid of the angels. But I can imagine them casting a nervous glance over the angel's shoulder towards Herod's palace, knowing that he would not be happy about a 'Savior' being born in the 'city of David'. Essentially what the angel was suggesting could be perceived as an act of rebellion against the cruel reign of Herod."

So those angels were planting the seeds of rebellion were they? Sadly many Herods continue to exert their cruel influence in our world from palaces, board rooms, penthouse appartments and military bunkers. What will the song of the angels "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests" (Luke 2:14) say to us this year about justice, and rebellion against evil?

Thank you Salim for starting this train of thought.

Making Room

Carol service tonight, and the church was heaving. I'm not sure what happened to the fire regulations but we had stacking chairs everywhere and a fairly challenging mix of candles, carol sheets and excited kids! But how can you turn people away from a Carol Service when its minus three outside? I was the inn keeper - or rather I read a highly adapted version of Luke's gospel in the voice of the inn keeper. That too was about 'no room at the inn' and then 'making room'.

Walking home later, under a wonderfully clear star filled sky which was allowing even those minus degrees to escape, I reflected further on 'making room'. Not so much the rather prosaic 'making room for Jesus in your heart' - mine's full of valves and sinues - but rather God making room for me. It strikes me that there was no reason at all why Father, Son and Holy Spirit could not have gone on enjoying each others fellowship throughout eternity, without all these risks of creation. The risk of creating a world that we so easily mess up, and women and men who forget their place and try to be God. But that's just the beauty of it all - with no compulsion at all, God made room for us. That's what creation is all about - God made room for us. It's like eternity was full (complete) with Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and yet God created a space for us, for me. Wow!

If mission is 'in the pattern of God's dealings with us' then mission is also about making space. Even when life is full the love of God calls us to make space for the child who is hungry, the alcoholic who smells, and the angry young man with too much money and too little sense. Years ago Michel Quoist wrote a prayer called Before you Lord in which he talks very powerfully about this 'making room' for others in our lives - as God has made room for us. Use the link and pray the prayer - I dare you.

Virtually friends

I'm not good at keeping up with Facebook but having put up the Christmas tree, survived the supermarket and sorted out my home group for January I decided to skim through my home page. What an amazing bunch of friends I have!

Justin is 'as happy as a 4 year old' walking and rolling in the snow (good picture!), Stephen thinks cheese graters are pretty sharp on the fingers (which leaves me wondering what he does with grated cheese as 11.00pm.), Bindy just posted three great pictures of snow on the river Lot just outside their front door (in France), Geoff had his flight from Chicago to NYC cancelled and is waiting to be rescheduled, and Jill 'loves her job' - but I have forgotten what she does!

The strange thing is I've emailed several friends in different parts of the world today, read my Facebook and prayed for two very speciual people who I haven't seen in ages - but I haven't seen my neighbours all day and I'm not even sure I know whether Alice (in the house opposite mine) is at home right now or back in hospital. I have great friends here in Oxford, and good neighbours too, but my friends out there in cyberspace are important too. How do you define friendship? What is Jill's job?

13,589,257

That's how many people had signed the Avaaz petition to world leaders gathered in Copenhagen when I last checked their website earlier this evening. I'm not sure whether that gets them a world record for the largest petition ever but I do know its a lot of people - more than voted for the X-Factor winner! But that's just as it should be, after all the future of our planet is slightly more important that Joe McElderry's singing career.

The petition says, "We call on each of you to make the necessary concessions to meet your historic responsibilities in this crisis. Rich countries must offer fair funding, and all countries must set ambitious targets on emissions. Do not leave Copenhagen without a fair, ambitious and binding deal that keeps the world safe from catastrophic global warming of 2 degrees."

When I logged on to sign I was struck by the single word 'concessions'. In fact it almost stopped me signing. My struggle with the c-word is that it implies that I have a right to burn as much fossil fuel as I like and fill the sky with CO2 but, 'as a concession' to some suffering people in Bangladesh or somewhere I will make a generous gesture and reduce my emissions a little. But this is not about generosity, its about responsibility, and for Christians its about stewardship. However, I'm not naive enough not to realise that the world of politics, especially international politics, is all about concessions and compromises. So for the sake of a result I was prepared to ask our leaders for concessions ... but in my heart I really hope we might see a little more responsibility and even stewarship of God's wonderful creation.

The Bishop and the Taliban

What a gift for the Daily Telegraph - a bishop, indeed the Church of England bishop for the Armed Forces - who is caught praising the Taliban for their faith and sense of layalty to each other. In fact the paper made so much of the story on Monday that Bishop Stephen Venner was forced to appear on the BCC apologising, recanting and musing whether his indiscretion might cost him his job. Of course what bishops should say is that Taliban are bad guys and British soldiers are good guys, full stop.

Bishop Stephen's real sin was, of course, to completely underestimate the British press who are convinced that none of its readers have any capacity to deal with shades of grey, subtlety or nuance. For that he is guilty. His sin appears even worse when two days later we read of more bombings in Pakistan and another 22 innocent people dead in Dera Ghazi Khan.

But if the Telegraph will only let the man speak then he might have a point to make which could challenge our simplistic thinking and help us to engage with the real forces behind terrorism. He speaks of course about the power of faith (not just religious faith?) to motivate and empower people as well as the significance of 'community', 'commradeship' or (to use a churchy word) 'fellowship'. Without in any way approving the object of Taliban faith or its outworkings in violent action we can, nevertheless allow our reflection on their faith and brotherhood to challenge the depth of our own faith in God and the community we find (or don't find) within the Christian church.

Now that Bishop Stephen has apologised for his naivity perhaps the Telegraph might like to apologise for its treatment of its readers as simpletons - unable to even begin thinking about this highly complex human conflict of convictions.

The Professor and the Bishop

For almost fifteen years now I have been meeting with a small group of 'fellow pilgrims' with whom I once sent a month living in Windsor Castle. That was a very special month - a wonderful warm English summer, royalty as neighbours, the historic St George's chapel and its choir to aid worship and six great colleagues to work and reflect with. We met again a few weeks ago and as a reward for organising our meeting place (alas not Windsor Castle this time!) I received a book by one of our number.

Taproots for Transformation by Prof. Richard Whitfield is not the sort of book I would naturally read but as it was written and gifted by a friend a have been exploring its pages, or perhaps I should say 'joining in its conversation'. The book takes the form of a 200 page conversation between Richard (a professor of education passionate about child development and adult nurture) and Bruce Gilberd (the retired bishop of Auckland, New Zealand). As Christmas approaches I quote one short passage - from Richard:

"The baby born at Bethlehem, whose parents ensure that he avoids Herod's jealous infanticide, who, from a carpenter's apprenticeship, becomes the radical teacher and healer, and who dies unjustly, with his integrity intact, with two thieves on a Calvary cross changes how we might view each other. ... Everyone counts, and profoundly. ... Now we must avoid [all human] dereliction in the future by letting deep spiritual taproots source humanitity's transformation, in which 'religion' as such is clearly a very mixed blessing." If you want to read more you can find the book here.

Positively Gideon

I have spend quite a lot of the past day with Canon Gideon Byamugisha (right) from Uganda. If you haven't heard of him don't worry - but you should have! Gideon was the first religious leader in Africa to publically say that he is HIV positive. He is now the Goodwill Ambassador on HIV and AIDS for Christian Aid and engaged in a hundred different programmes to change our attituded towards people living with HIV and AIDS. Last night he was awarded the prestigous Niwano Peace Prize.

Is being positive a negative thing? Not if you get anywhere near Gideon - he's one of the most positive people I have come across for a long time, positive about life, the gospel, and AIDS. Could I catch something from Gideon sharing time with him today? Yes, he is highly infectious - don't get too close or you really will catch a nasty case of joy in the gospel and anger at the way so many people living with HIV/AIDS are treated in our world. We had great conversations about the difference between sin, failure, criminality and sickness. We touched on the new (homophobic?) bill being pushed through the Ugandan parliament at the moment. I listened as he spoke about living life to its maximum potential (John 10:10). Great stuff.

And ... don't forget World Aids Day is just ten days away.

Think positive!

A grown up ministry

It feels like I grew up this week. A little baby that I sort of adopted ten years ago has just become a responsible adult. It has been great fun for me, over those years, to nurture the Faith2Share vision and to see an ever-widening network of mission agencies coming together and enjoying each other - most of the time! Now we have become a charity and that means we have to act responsibly - maybe a little boring, but growing up can be fun.

We submitted our carefully prepared application to the UK Charity Commission in late October and were told not to expect to hear anything for a couple of months - then less than two weeks later Faith2Share Charity No. 1132727 was born. I couldn't believe it when I opened the letter. The good news is that we can now raise money and get some tax back from the government - and that means we can really do the business of mission. To be a charity you need trustees and over the summer we found four great people to do that - four people representing six countries. How? A Kenyan running a mission agency in New Zealand, a Canadian businessman, a Sinaporean teaching mission in Britain and an American mission leader in California - welcome Steve, Loun, Robb and Kevin.

If you want to know more about this brand new charity (but a ten-year old vision and ministry) find us at http://www.faith2share.net/

Too grounded to communicate?

I arrived late at our 'lunchtime theology' yesterday and had to eat my baked potato right under the nose of our speaker. Good job I know him well and he's such a decent bloke! Stephen Bevans, Catholic missiologist from the US with a great approach to thinking theologically about mission, was introducing his latest book An Introduction to Theology in Global Perspective. Get yourself a copy!

The thought which hooked me in his presentation and our discussion afterwards was about contextualised theology. We all agree that theology (at least Christian theology) has to be contextualised to make any sense. But then comes the problem. If my theology is so contextualised (expressed in my mother tongue, using my own cultural idioms, resonating with the life of my community, expressing my own inner deeply personal experience of divinity and life) then how on earth can anyone else be expected to make any sense of it! Now I undserstand why I struggle with Friedrich Schleiermacher - he was German! But more seriously this does open up a very interesting discussion about the inter-cultural dialogue of inculturated theologies.

On Pg. 187 Bevans writes, "To do theology from a global perspective, ironically, is to look to the local. ... We need ... the blossoming of theologies in every part of the world, in every historical situation , among every social group." The real challenge is then the "cross-pollination" of these theologies - in such a way as retains the integrety of each?