Ordinary Radicals film

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Chris Goan

A new film is being released in the USA, trying to get to grips with emerging Christian movements across America, called ‘Ordinary radicals’ check out information and trailer clips here– looks interesting…

Not sure whether it will be released over here, but I think we will be able to download it when it is released.

This is the synopsis;

In the margins of the United States, there lives a revolutionary Christianity. One with a quiet disposition that seeks to do “small things with great love,” and in so doing is breaking 21st Century stereotypes surrounding this 2000 year old faith. “The Ordinary Radicals” is set against thie modern American political and social backdrop of the next Great Awakening. Traveling across the United States on a tour to promote the book “Jesus for President”, Shane Claiborne and a rag-tag group of “ordinary radicals” interpret Biblical history and its correlation with the current state of American politics. Sharing a relevant outlook for people with all faith perspectives, director Jamie Moffett examines this growing movement.

As Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw write in the book, “This is not a set of political suggestions for the world; this is about invoking and embodying the alternative. All of this is an invitation to join a peculiar people- those with no king but God, who practice jubilee economics and make the world new. This is not the old-time religion of going to heaven; this is about bringing heaven to the world.”

Featuring Interviews with: Becky Garrison, Shane Claiborne, Jim Wallis, Brian McLaren, Tony Campolo, Rob Bell, John Perkins, Brooke Sexton, Michael Heneise, St. Margret Mckenna, Logan Laituri, Zack Exley, Aaron Weiss and many more Ordinary Radicals.

Here is a taster…

Canoes and wilderness- a perfect combination for the soul…

Posted on August 30, 2008 by Chris Goan

Will and a Loch Eck Cranog

Living where we do, within reach of wonderful lochs and mountains, is such a blessing.

A few years ago, we bought an old beaten up ex-outdoor centre canoe. It still gives amazing service. I slap on a bit of filler around the wear points on the hull every now and again, but on the whole, it seems indestructable.

We have taken it out to the islands of Eigg and Gigha, and paddled many lochs and rivers. We have been buzzed by sharks and dolphins, paddled through packs of slightly scandalised seals, and used it for canoe-camping trips and beach barbecues.

I think the kids take it for granted a little. I sometimes have to persuade them it is a good idea. Michaela has never been totally comfortable in it- despite the fact that we have never once capsized. It can feel very exposed however when the wind and rain whips in, and it is very difficult to make progress if you are heading into the weather.

But canoes get you to places that few other forms of transport can- and their quiet, sedate way of achieving this means that are much more likely to encounter wildlife.

I came across the following clip which kind of dwarfs our humble little adventures. Enjoy…

Acts of the Apostles- whatever happened next?

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Chris Goan

As I have mentioned previously (here) we have begun a study in our group called ‘Exilio’, which combines a study of a Book called Exiles by Michael Frost with a study of the book of Acts.

The whole thing is intended as a way to consider the nature of the life of faith in this post- modern/Christendom/enlightenment western world that we live in.

One of the exercises given to us has been to read parts of Acts in a public place. This places the stories of the first followers of Jesus firmly in our own context in a quite powerful way. The stories of these Christian communities forming and storming, living and loving in their own imperfect imitation of the Jesus way…

It set me thinking… what happened next?

We know a little- through surviving fragments of history. We know that the stories of Jesus spread like wildfire through the Empire of the Romans. We know that to be a Christian was often to be considered a dangerous subversive, and to be subject to state censure and persecution. Far from eradicating this plague of proselytisers we know too that the very capital of the Empire became the hub of an underground network.

And in some cases, this network was literally underground! Christians from the 2nd Century until the adoption of Christianity as a state religion in 380, made miles of tunnels in the soft Volcanic rock below the city of Rome- where they were thought to meet in secret, and to make shrines to dead martyrs.

Here are some of the symbols left like boy-scout patterns for others to follow;

What was it like to live in those times? What did Jesus mean to these people that he would become the centre of their lives- at risk of everything?

How much of our their world view, their understanding of God, or their doctrine would we recognise today?

But how much could we learn from them?

Here are some more of the marks they left- Adam and Eve, and Jesus, the Good Shepherd.

What marks will our generation of Christians leave behind?

Loch Fyne, September

Posted on August 29, 2008 by Chris Goan

September is upon us.

The kids are back at school, and this weekend, Dunoon is askirl to the sound of massed bagpipes as the annual Cowal Games begin. The year is turning, and I always feel a tinge of sadness coming like the premonition of winter…

The colours of autumn are already seen in the tops of the oak trees around beautiful Loch Fyne.

Which turns me all poetic;

September

The water moves like light on glass
It slides in silver strands
Stretched out by tide
Underlined by the wake
Of a fishing boat
Pulling a wave that shines and rolls
Like a whales back

And for a backdrop
The low sunlight
Makes sepia the ancient hillside
Here kissed by gold
There deep in the shadow of a summer almost gone

Above the ragged hill farm
Dogs hurry sheep to lower ground
Flowing like beads of mercury over the folds of ground
Until a corrugation funnels them out of sight
And the hills are empty for their passing

In the moment
I take nothing for granted
I close my eyes
And blink back a tear
Blown out by a cold wind
And try to pixelate
Perfection.

September 2005, Loch Fyne.

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Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven…

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Chris Goan

Come with me my loved ones

Come into this Kingdom of mine

Shake free your feet

From concrete shoes

And dance

With me

Let me speak some tender words my loved one

For my heart is laid

Wide open

Ventricle and clavicle

Could easily be

Broken

Hear my distant voice

Dancing in the mountains

My music in these flowers

And flowing in the fountains

Come away with me my love

In this hillside let us…

Dally

Apple of my

Shining eye

Lily of my valley.

Favourite word 3- ‘indigo’

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Chris Goan

Indigo.

Another lovely word.

I think it reminds me of something half remembered from primary school- a reading set of books that only the keen readers ever progressed to taking home.

Or an ink pen whose innards bled blue blood all over my fingers.

It describes colour, distance, depth. It contains a promise of space beyond space- like a night sky.

Gregory of Nyssia, a 4th Century mystic, likened the move towards God as to a journey into holy darkness. He suggested that the deeper and further we go, the more darkness we find in the light. For him, God is unknowable- a dark purple mystery, drawing us on- calling us to explore further and further…

Indigo.

In we go.

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Englishness

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Chris Goan

In an earlier post, I said this…

I loved Seth Lakeman’s set on Saturday evening- he made me proud- not sure what of exactly- perhaps that English-ness thing again.

A trip down south set me thinking again about my roots, and the nature of our heritage in these wonderful islands.

I have struggled to feel fully at home anywhere- at least in terms of geography. I am Northern English, if anything- and that is a different thing from Southern English I can tell you!

But my father is Irish.

And I live in beautiful, proud Scotland.

But still, I remain… English.

This comes to me in subtle ways. In gentle landscapes and rugged hills misted with rains and quartered off by ‘dry’ stone walls.

In a love for cricket in all its skillful grace.

It is wrapped up in stories of working men trespassing in the Penine hills in defiance of the landowners- claiming the gritstone for their weekends and their children’s picnics.

Of the Levellers and the Luddites and the Chartists.

Of the Methodists who formed the labour movement with their English kind of revolution.

It has nothing to do with this

or even this

Perhaps most of us encounter our roots through our cultural connection- perhaps above all things, through music. Perhaps that why I enjoyed Seth Lakeman driving folk music at Greenbelt so much. Despite him being a Southener, his music, rising as it does from working class South West England, communicates something of the history that connects me with who I am, and where I came from. My Scottish friends can not understand this- any more than I can really ever become Scottish.

One of my favourite bands is another West country duo called A show of Hands. They wrote a song that captures something of this. Here’s a you tube clip of their (somewhat naff!) video. Song is great though…

Favourite words 2-‘fecund’

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Chris Goan

I came across this delicious word a few years ago, then tried for ages to find a poem/song I could fit it into. It is one of those words that is a pleasure to roll around the teeth.

It is also another microcosmic sermon…

fe·cun·di·ty (fi-kuhn-di-tee)
1. the quality of being fecund; capacity, esp. in female animals, of producing young in great numbers.
2. fruitfulness or fertility, as of the earth.
3. the capacity of abundant production: fecundity of imagination, ideas.

There have been times in my life when I have experienced what can only be described as the presence of God.

I can not easily describe, or explain these experiences. I only know that at the time, I never wanted to be anywhere else again. The air seemed to crackle with a kind of electricity, and everything, anything was possible.

One word which seems to capture something of this experience is- fecund…

As a response to one of these times, I wrote these words;

Listen to Him, you sons of Eden
As He opens the way for words to fall on you
Like the dew of the morning on the mountains
Gentle showers of rain upon the hillside.

I breathe in the air that smells of heaven
It’s verdant and green like the early springtime
In the leaves of the trees is the voice of Jesus
Pregnant with grace, and bringing new life

Wave after wave after wave after wave
Here is falling

My heart is bursting and
I’m falling down

On my knees,
On my knees.

Greenbelt 08- a Goan review…

Posted on August 27, 2008 by Chris Goan

Brian McLaren makes do with a bullhorn after power failure...

We are back.

Greenbelt 2008 was great- it was Michaela and the kids’ first time, and I think it was a bit of a culture shock for M at least. Will took it all in his stride, nintendo in pocket for the boring bits, and we only saw Emily every now and again- she had a ball.

M struggled with the crowds, the thousands of tents with guy ropes akimbo, and, of course, the questionable hygiene arrangements. But we all had highlights that we brought away as memories.

For Michaela, I think it was the communion service, visiting a spiritual director, and some of the talks.

For Emily, it was meeting new friends, a hard core screemy-teeny band called Fightstar and having the freedom to be herself in a large setting.

For William, who knows? Bless him, he is so easy with life. He seemed to really enjoy some of the ‘Children’s Greenbelt’ activities- particularly the chance to hold a snake, and to sing some songs. He badly needed some partners in crime- but seemed quite happy to hang out with the adults.

For me- a mixed bag really.

I loved Seth Lakeman’s set on Saturday evening- he made me proud- not sure what of exactly- perhaps that English-ness thing again.

I really enjoyed Brian McLaren, but more in agreement than revelation.

I also enjoyed hearing Philip Yancey- he is a really good speaker, and it was good to put a voice to the books. His combination with the Saltmine theatre company made me cry several times (in a good way!)

I somehow missed loads of stuff I wanted to see- partly because of family things that mean that time is shared in different ways, and partly because you just get overloaded at festivals like GB, and the effect this has on me is to make me wander aimlessly, sticking my head through tent doors and then moving on…

I missed out on a planned beer with Simon Smith because he was mad-busy doing some very impressive art stuff, and likewise Gail Findlay and Stephen Tunnicliffe, who were engaged on other Greenbelt business. I did manage to spend some time with old friends Mark and Denise from the Rhondda Valley, along with John, who is always great company. It was really good to see them again.

Along with fellow Dunoonite and Aoradh member Alistair (who had been volunteering the week before constructing various weird arty things) we performed a short version of 40 at the Proost lounge event on Saturday evening. Not sure how it went down, but it seemed to hold peoples attention, and feedback was good. Mark did us proud by reading the part of Jesus in a lovely rich Welsh accent (He asked if we wanted him to perform as Richard Burton or Uncle Bryn… I think he opted for the former in the end!)

The Proost lounge thing clashed with a discussion about whether there should be a Scottish Greenbelt (Scot belt? Tartan belt? Thistle Belt? You decide!) This was led by Doug Gay, and seems an interesting proposition. Huge amounts of work though- step forward the masochists!

Anyway- attached are a few more photies…