It started out with a long drive down to Coalbrookdale, Telford, where we met up with some great folk who are part of the Tautoko network.
We met some great people, and had a chance to share hopes and dreams with others who are experimenting with new forms of church, mission and worship. It was strange to meet people from so many groups who I had heard of, visited on line, and perhaps even used ideas/material from.
I always find the process of being thrown into a sea of new people like this difficult at first. Michaela was in her element, swimming strongly, whereas I paddled in the shadows for a while. But by the end of the weekend, I hope we began to make some real connections- with people with whom we will get to know more in the future. Certainly it will make attendance at Greenbelt Festival very different, as there will be so many more familiar faces involved in planning and running parallel events.
I hesitate to mention any names, as we met so many folk, and had such great conversations- and typically I will get the names wrong! But I will risk mentioning a few…
Great to meet Laura Drane (thanks for the invite!) and chums from Sanctus 1 in Manchester. Also Jonny Baker, Mark Berry, Jenny from Spirited Exchanges, and Julie Wilson from Big stuff up here in Scotland. I also enjoyed meeting Martin and hearing about Beyond, down in Brighton- and loved the beach hut advent calender thing they did last year.
After all this, we had a great day out at the Blists Hill living museum– a step into Victorian industrial life.
We then visited family up in Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire. I spent a day and a half renovating my mothers garden pond (not a recommended pastime) and the kids visited Matlock Bath, and took the cable cars up the Heights of Abraham.
Here are a few assorted photo’s. Click to enlarge…
We are taking the family on a bit of a road trip this weekend- to meet up with people who are part of the Tautoko weekend in Ironbridge, Telford.
We don’t know exactly what to expect- as we don’t really know who else is going to be there, although we know some folk by name. We are going because we were invited, and because it sounded so great- a weekend to meet up with people who are interested in doing church in new and creative ways…
Michaela was just so keen to go to something that someone else organised as well!
We have been hungry for connection since we started out on our church-outside-Church way of being. Sometimes we have felt so isolated and cut off from other Christians. And even if our call is OUTWARDS, not inwards, we were very aware of needing connection, encouragement, mentoring, mutuality and a sense of being part of a wider stream.
So we are hopeful for this weekend- I’ll let you know how things go!
As someone who works in social care and mental health, I have a particular interest in the effects of alcohol on the lives of individuals and wider communities. A recent draft policy document I was reading suggested that people whose lives were directly threatened by addiction may well be referred to community mental health teams for emergency intervention. This was of some immediate concern as I manage some of these teams, and resources/skills/training to meaningfully engage with trying to help people at a point of life such as this have not been discussed as yet- although it is already a major part of what we try to do.
I am also a director of a addictions charity, providing counselling and support, employment advice and links to other health care and rehabilitation. It is a good organisation, but there is always the perception that we can only do so much, for some people.
The recent news about alcohol related deaths in Scotland is staggering. A recent NHS study took a long hard look at death rates from statistics collected in 2003, and examined the root cause of death of people from cancer, liver failure, as well as serious accidents and mishaps. Their conclusion was that one in 20 people in Scotland die as a direct result of alcohol- roughly twice the previous assumed rate. Check out the story from the Herald here, or from the BBC here.
Here are some of the facts-
8 people die every day.
More men than women, and significant amounts of younger adults.
Alcohol accounts for one in four men and one in five women who die between the ages of 35 and 44.
It also accounts for one in twenty hospital admissions- 41,400 in 2003. Goodness knows what the cost of this care was in terms of lives shattered, employment lost and taxes spent.
Compared with the latest figures compiled by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Scottish Government said this would place Scotland as having the eighth highest pure alcohol consumption level.
This put the country behind Luxembourg (15.6 litres per capita), Ireland (13.7 litres), Hungary (13.6 litres), Moldova (13.2 litres), Czech Republic (13.0 litres), Croatia (12.3 litres) and Germany (12.0 litres).
But it put Scotland ahead of Russia – where alcohol-related deaths have cut the average life expectancy for men to 59 – and also the US and China.
What is to be done?
This is certainly no simple issue- but rather a complex socio-economic-sociological one.
For my money (even as someone who enjoys the odd pint, or dram) prices have to go up. High prices =people drink less. It works.
And we need to do everything we can to challenge the drunken-hero-good time girl/boy- morning after war story culture. The getting off your face in order to have fun- seen across class, gender and age barriers in Scotland. Works nights out, birthdays, Saints days, sports events- all are a reason to drink, and to celebrate excess.
And for people caught in addiction- these are not second class citizens who are burden on the health services- characterised as ‘scum’ and ‘neds’. They are you and me- a product of the society that we have created together.
The role of Christians in this issue is interesting. The tradition of evangelical groups who championed the temperance movement as a response to the Victorian concerns about their own alcohol related societal problems is interesting. There are still Christian groups who operate in this tradition- sometimes adding a charismatic fervour to this tradition- for example the Maxie Richards foundation who are active in our area.
I am not convinced that temperance is the answer. But all power to those who try to make a difference. There are many chains that need to be broken…
Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced. You can develop a healthy, robust community that lives right with God and enjoy its results only if you do the hard work of getting along with each other, treating each other with dignity and honor. James 3:16-18
TWO
“Let me give you a new command: Loveoneanother. In the same way I loved you, you loveoneanother. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.” John 13:33-35
THREE
“I’ve told you these things for a purpose: that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature. This is my command: Loveoneanother the way I loved you. This is the very best way to love. Put your life on the line for your friends. You are my friends when you do the things I command you. I’m no longer calling you servants because servants don’t understand what their master is thinking and planning. No, I’ve named you friends because I’ve let you in on everything I’ve heard from the Father. John 15:10-12
FOUR
And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. Greet oneanother with a holy embrace. All the brothers and sisters here say hello. 2 Corinthians 13:10-12
FIVE
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don’t use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve oneanother in love; that’s how freedom grows. For everything we know about God’s Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That’s an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then? Galatians 5:12-14 (The Message)
SIX
My dear, dear friends, if God loved us like this, we certainly ought to love each other. No one has seen God, ever. But if we loveoneanother, God dwells deeply within us, and his love becomes complete in us—perfect love! 1 John 4:10-12
Like many of my predilection and generation, I have become entirely dependent on ‘tinternet for all sorts of things.
It does some things very very well.
It plugs me into an international stream of humanity that is transforming the way we live and work and think.
It gives me access to endless (if sometimes dubious) amounts of information in relation to any subject.
It allows me to connect with individuals and groups at a huge distance in a meaningful way- without leaving my living room- particularly useful if your passions and interests are not of the mainstream, or if you live in the Scottish Highlands, or the middle of the Atacama desert…
It allows me to find any product I may wish to buy, compare it with others, and find the cheapest place to purchase it from.
It gives me instant access to entertainment of all sorts of kinds.
There is of course a downside to the changes that the internet is bringing to us. All the positives listed above have a much publicised and debated negative side-
(Time to bring in Some Grey Bloke again I think!)
The stream of humanity we plug into is unequal, full of contradictions, exploitations and does not include ALL of humanity- in short, it reflects the power and wealth differentials found in the physical world. Most would say that the early hopes for the democratisation and empowerment of the small over the large has simply not been realised- beyond little reshuffling and re-entrenchment of existing powerful corporations.
Information is rarely truly free, and always contextual and comes pre-loaded with values and assumptions. Some of it is simply wrong, wacky, or malign- and there is so much of it to filter through. The internet can be said to devalue information- which only has worth because of the amount of attention (hits) achieved. So the superficial, celebrity driven nature of our culture continues to feed itself…
Social networking- I’ll come back to this later- but in the meantime…
Shopping- like we do not do enough of this already! Has the internet just become the new means to maintain the unsustainable and unequal lifestyles dictated by capitalist imperialism? (Oh dear- the old class warrior in me just hiccupped!) There is also the problem of the further destruction of local networks of commerce, with yet more consequences for erosion of community and isolation and loneliness.
Entertainment- don’t get me started on that one! Bite sized, mind numbing, celebrity driven drivel- a million channels to fill. And the pressure that we all feel to participate in mass manufactured experiences, in order for life to have meaning.
I suspect you have all heard this before- and may even wonder if there is any point in worrying about these things- after all, the internet, in all its mixed glory, is here to stay. It is perhaps the defining characteristic of western (and increasingly of southern) cultures. It just IS, and we people of faith have to get with the programme, and carry Jesus out there with us, one server at a time…
And this is my feeling too, most of the time. But every so often, I lose faith in the medium. And I remind myself that we Christians are supposed to be ‘…in the world but not OF it’- that as well as looking for truth and beauty, and salting/lighting it, we are also called to bring to bear what Michael Frost calls ‘dangerous criticism’. (Decent summary of this stuff here.)
So my take on this is that we Christians, faced with the megalithic construct that is the world wide web, should participate, contribute and celebrate truth and beauty, but we should also be driven by a deeper radical alternative set of principles that are the cultural capital of the New Kingdom, arising from the teachings and very personality of Jesus.
I think these are some of the principles that seem relevant-
People before product, before project, before everything.
Community as the evidence of the beloved, the blessed ones, the agents of the Kingdom.
Community offered freely and looking outward to serve.
Real community- the dirty, messy hand-in-hand, painful kind- as school for life.
Learning to love, practicing grace and valuing simplicity and humility.
Justice- a skew towards the small people, the poor and the oppressed.
I have discussed the relationship between real friendship and the internet before here. In this article, I shared some research about the some negative isolating effects of social networking, and suggested that it’s value for me was only the degree to which real flesh on flesh connection was facilitated and enhanced.
So, the question for me is whether or not this has been my experience?
I think the answer is mixed for me, and so the jury is still out…
I have connected with some wonderful people- but most of these connections have been transient and brief. We have hoped for the establishment of real networks of people who seek to mentor and support, but so far this has not happened. This may be that we have not yet found the right combination of people and processes that allow this, or in more negative moments, I fear that we are as addicted to those safe saccharine personalised spaces that the internet allows us to wrap ourselves up in as anyone else…
But of course, that is not the whole story. There are people who keep offering themselves as a place of hospitality and openness. God bless them- because my feeling is that we need them now more than ever.
I spent a few hours this afternoon cutting slices of wood to use as part of a worship installation that Aoradh are putting together for Greenbelt.
It occurred to me that this too was worship.
Each cut, all noise and spewing sawdust. Each tree-disc a little slice of branch, still holding the shape of years of growth.
I was suddenly aware that every one of these pieces of wood was intended to be held in someone’s hand. People I have never met will be asked to use these things as prayers and statements of hope for life.
I don’t know how you discover new websites/blogs/interesting organisations with a web presence?
I have kept my blogroll to a fairly small list up till now, as I have only included people who I visit regularly. I have avoided the obvious ‘celebrity’ linkage for the most part, and tried to stay with people with whom I have either a direct connection, or others who I think have something really interesting to say.
But I realised that I often tend to connect with new things via other people’s blogrolls. That is what they are there for after all. As this blog has had more visits, I suppose there is an increased responsibility to see it as part of a wider stream of thought, information and inspiration, and to be a deliberate signpost for people who might be dipping their toes into this stream…
There are some issues/dangers in choosing to do this I reckon…
Linking can be seen to be endorsing. Which I may or may not be of course!
There is also a tendency to go for ‘reflected glory’ of others who have made a bigger splash in the Christian blogging world. I am determined to avoid this if I can.
Wider linking in this way will miss out some folk who should perhaps be there.
This blog will then become defined by the nature of it’s links- guilt by association.
Anyway, here are a few new ones I am going to add…
By chance, it seems that I have connected to very few female bloggers/thinkers, so I am glad to be adding-
Cheryl Lawrie and ‘Hold::this space‘ in Tasmania. I connected with Cheryl as she edited the material I wrote for Proost that became ‘Listing’. The blog is full of stories of the adventures of their community, alternative worship ideas, lovely poetry…
Maggi Dawn has been a name I have known for a long time- since my earlier days leading worship in the C of E. She is a musician, author and blogger, as well as a regular speaker at Greenbelt festival.
I have also decided to add some other well known names, as I think they have become ‘people of influence’ whose thinking is shaping a wider direction of travel.
Pete Rollins- writer, philosopher, member of IKON, Irishman and another Greenbelt regular.
Brian McLaren. Writer, pastor, songwriter, encourager, speaker, and gentle agitator. Enough said.
Jim Wallis and Sojourners– protestor, agitator, activist for the poor and oppressed based in Washington DC.
The Iona Community– a gathering of activists, thinkers and contemplatives based on Columba’s island of Iona, with roots deep into inner city Glasgow.
And I will discover new music via the wonders of the BBC multi screen player, competing with my daughter for the remote control, lest she force me to endure any more Lady Ga Ga or Evanescence.
I enjoyed Regina Spektor this evening- interesting, creative and edgy, with a great voice. One song that caught my attention was this one-
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’re starving or freezing or so very poor
No one laughs at God
When the doctor calls after some routine tests
No one’s laughing at God
When it’s gotten real late
And their kid’s not back from the party yet
No one laughs at God
When their airplane start to uncontrollably shake
No one’s laughing at God
When they see the one they love, hand in hand with someone else
And they hope that they’re mistaken
No one laughs at God
When the cops knock on their door
And they say we got some bad news, sir
No one’s laughing at God
When there’s a famine or fire or flood
*Chorus*
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
Ha ha
Ha ha
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God
When they’ve lost all they’ve got
And they don’t know what for
No one laughs at God on the day they realize
That the last sight they’ll ever see is a pair of hateful eyes
No one’s laughing at God when they’re saying their goodbyes
But God can be funny
At a cocktail party when listening to a good God-themed joke, or
Or when the crazies say He hates us
And they get so red in the head you think they’re ‘bout to choke
God can be funny,
When told he’ll give you money if you just pray the right way
And when presented like a genie who does magic like Houdini
Or grants wishes like Jiminy Cricket and Santa Claus
God can be so hilarious
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughs at God in a hospital
No one laughs at God in a war
No one laughing at God in hospital
No one’s laughing at God in a war
No one’s laughing at God when they’re starving or freezing or so very
poor
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
No one’s laughing at God
We’re all laughing with God
So, this week marks the 500th birthday of John Calvin, something which, given the preoccupations of this blog, was something I did not think should pass unmarked.
Happy Birthday John.
You turned your world upside down, and we stand in your shadow.
Or at least we did. Some say it is time to walk out on our own adventure.
To make our own reformation.
Praying for patience and grace on our own modern versions of Michael Servetus.
You can listen to a radio programme called Beyond Belief here that reflects on the enduring legacy of Calvin- half an hour of theology and reflection- well worth a listen.
this fragile tent 