Future Shape Of Church

23.9.13

Cash for Christians

The Prosperity wing of the Christian Broadcast Industry is in the news yet again. Some sort of family financial meltdown at TBN.

In the past I have made clear that plenty of these folks hold some outrageous theology. Not in the Liberal way, but in the 'Heresy masquerading as Evangelical' way. You can read that in my old post Drawing a Line.

And yes, Premier Christian Media still broadcasts folks who preach a Prosperity Gospel. Which means folks in the U.K. are sending them money.

This is money that is being drained from local churches and mission to fund lavish international ministries. From my Fresh Expressions involvement I can share that U.K. Pioneers are not swimming in private jets.

For my part I have stopped supporting Premier publications and media until they drop the health and wealth Gospel. Not that God doesn't heal, not that God doesn't provide, but he doesn't need you to send a large donation to a TV ministry to do it.

27.8.13

Highlights from Greenbelt 2013

This year Greenbelt clashed with Momentum. There was some (mostly) friendly rivalry on Twitter between folks who had chosen one event over the other. My response was straightforward - Only at Greenbelt would I get Mass every day & be invited to speak on Being Anglo-Catholic Charismatic. The way the programme worked this year I didn't quite make that the first part, but it was a fantastic festival.

Greenbelt changes year by year, yet this years festival was very much influenced by last years. Not only in the normal sense that successful worship groups tend to carry over from year to the next, but in the size of the event and layout of the site. Due to the heavy rain last year the area normally reserved for Big Top, Jesus Arms and lots more was out of action - the ground still had not fully recovered. The more compressed site plan however had a number of advantages - shorter journey times between talks and events, and most importantly the ability to sit in the Jesus Arms with a pint and listen to Main Stage or Big Top acts, depending on which was louder.

How To Be A Charismatic Anglo-Catholic

Sign&Spirit now has its own web space - read the article there

After describing myself as Charismatic and Anglo-Catholic a friend on Twitter asked ‘So it’s High Mass and then the Fire Tunnel?’ I admit I had to look up what a fire tunnel was, although I could make a pretty good guess. If you are wondering - It involves walking through a tunnel of people praying over you, and sometimes results in some sort of ecstatic experience.

This short talk is not about High Mass and Fire Tunnels, but it is about experience, because the brief is to talk about Being. So what does it mean to Be Charismatic Anglo-Catholic?

Firstly to be Anglo-Catholic. Which is hardly a straightforward thing in itself to define.

I’d like to pinch an idea here from Ben Edson – who himself borrowed it from Frost and Hirsch, who took it from Paul Hieber. They all explore how groups define themselves, either with boundaries or centres. Or in the real world – if you are keeping sheep in a wide open space like the Australian Outback you have two choices – you either build very long fences, or sink deep wells that the sheep will be drawn towards and be sustained by. The idea then is that groups can define themselves either by fences or by wells.

And to be honest, to be an Anglo-Catholic is inescapably to be defined by wells, because it is to be outside the fences of other larger communions.

The watering holes that Anglo-Catholic’s gravitate towards are not all centred in the Vatican. There is the Orthodox tradition, The Ancient Churches of Syria and the East, India and Africa. There are springs in Wesleyanism and Scandinavian Lutheranism, as well of course as the British Church before and after either Rome or the Reformation. To be an Anglo-Catholic is to live in this fertile terrain of spirituality, worship and theology, enriched by history, sign and symbol. The American Roman Catholic writer Eric Stotlz refers to those who inhabit this territory as ‘The Apostolic Communions’.

Lad's Mags and the Song of Songs

I am not sure I have ever read a Lad's Mag. I bought Stuff once, in the days before the internet provided tech news. Bizarre magazine used to float around the alternative scene - in those days it had a sealed section with naughty bits in, and had far less focus on just female bodies - that has been a shift in more recent years.

To be honest, I am not sure I know anyone who does buy Lad's Mags. And I can't really understand why anyone would. If people want to look at half dressed women I am sure there are less public ways to do so. So perhaps the articles are scintillating? Yet as other writers have noted this all places me in a privileged position. Some of the backlash against those campaigning against Lad's Mags has come from women. Imagine your partner reads a Lad's Mag. Reading the Lose The Lad's Mags website could suggest that your husband as a reader:

Is significantly more accepting of gender stereotyping, sexual harassment, interpersonal violence, and rape myths.
Is more likely to treat women as sex objects and their behaviour towards women is more sexualised
Has an idea of male sexuality as based on power and aggression.

No the logic of this isn't sound, and I suspect that their is truth in the research - especially when you read the sexist abuse some supporters have received on Twitter. But I can understand why some folks are so defensive.

Middle Aged Spread gb@40

It seems impossible that Greenbelt is only a few weeks away. Greenbelt brings together a wide spectrum of ideas, people and worship, always changing whilst somehow staying the same.

This year is no different, with plenty of faces old and new.

Worship wise Graham Kendrick returns to the festival. Now I am not the biggest Kendrick fan, but when so many event's line ups are packed with young trendies there is something nice about someone quite so old school!

I Am Over It.

I am over it.

No really I am.

High mass and six sticks delivered in a detached monotone. Three scared ministers.

Over enthusiastic prophetic repetitive contemporary worship. The same every week.

Dull dry sleep inducing BCP. Heads held in washing hands.

Stone holding, tree watching, beat listening. Is it Alt, is it Worship?

Even the parsonical perfections of dreaming Dearmerism. Whatever happened to that.

I am no longer interested in that conversation. Not the way we do it.

Let's talk about encounter, mind body and spirit.

Let's talk about offering ourselves and all we are and all we could be.

Imagine if we could talk about worship without the tradition specific language,
without the clues that weight others perceptions
and give our preferences and prejudices away.

And why not?

Here is a plan. Try to write a couple of hundred words about worship and you. Then edit out the clues.

I dare you.

29.6.13

From a Wedding Homily

So much that a preacher would normally say to a couple and their families at a wedding has no need to be said this day. So much that I could say has been expressed in language far richer than I could muster.This leaves a homily stripped of its humour, its practical application, and reduced to a raw heart, of Love.

God is Love the Scripture tells us. Like hot coals, love burns the Scripture tells us.

With love comes pain and joy, the delight of sharing souls and the participation in one-another's hurts and harms. To love is to give that which one should not be willing to give. To love is to take that which one should not be willing to receive.

Such is the love of God, exuberant in its self-sacrifice, joyful to the point of solemnity. Such love transforms us, never denying the past, but shaping that past into a part of the future.When we are joined together in holy matrimony we acknowledge that shaping - and willingly submit, not just to our beloved but to love itself.

In that mutual submission, new life is born. To reduce this to a merely physical expression would be to dismiss the reoccurring Christian narrative of spiritual birth.When we love another with the love that God is, then we are a little more in the image of God, and so His creative action flows out of that union. Those closest to us can be caught up in this spiritual procreation, bringing blessing to household, family, friends and community.

For although marriage is deeply personal, marriage is not a private thing. Expressed in the laws and liturgy of the church - through public proclamation, the reading of banns, the use of nave and chancel not drawing room and study, the ringing of bells even; the love that we celebrate today is explicit in its publicity.

It is great pleasure to share in this celebration with you. Although I joined your hands this day, they were I think already joined in love. May the love that God is be at the centre of your life together as you bring all that you are, together to shape what shall be.Amen

25.6.13

Where are the Christians on G+

It's bigger than Twitter, growing faster than Facebook ties together a whole range of services, offers easy to understand privacy tools, and yet G+ is still a Ghost Town. Except it is not, if your interested in Technology, Photography, Gaming, SciFi, or Atheism then +Google+ is the place to be - as my stream shows.

And you can understand why, because of its rich feature set. G+ Communities can replace web forums. Circles of friends can be shared with new users with ease, making it far easier to get into the social network than Twitter. Add to this Hangouts, rich integration with other Google services and the growing sense that G+ makes the whole web a social network rather than being a stand alone site.

For Christians some of these features are particularly important - especially in Ministry. Using circles and communities you can control your public and private profiles, and follow whole sets of active users. Facebook has caught up with many of these features, but few clergy I know use them.

This goes beyond clergy. Increasingly the only professional people on Facebook are Social Media Professionals.

For many of us Twitter provides the space outside of Facebook that we need for quick fire conversation and debate. But even here clergy are withdrawing behind locked accounts.

G+ makes a lot of sense. And it needs a Christian presence. In the past Christians have been slow in embracing Social Media, always a step behind. Google may well be building Web 3.0 and so far we are not taking part.

24.6.13

Missing the Miracle in the Song & Dance?

First things first. I think The Rev'd Kate Botley is brilliant. Would I do a Flash Mob in a wedding? Probably not - now Kate has done it first! See it is very easy to disapprove of something once it has been splashed all over the media.

I am however a huge proponent of participatory church as +Vicky Beeching writes about it in the Indy. Lots of us are out here exploring participatory worship for a generation who have forgotten how to participate, and have only been taught how to consume. Vicky is in a unique position to help raise awareness of this Christianity that brings together vibrancy, participation, and tradition - the living faith of the dead.

And now the discomfort. The media circus seems all a bit too Vicar's got Talent.

The reality is this. Two people got married, as they do in countless parishes across the land. What happened between them was a sacrament, a mystery and a wonder, as they were bound together in a threefold cord with God in lifelong love, procreation and companionship. A living miracle of love.

That is what the song and dance was all about. I am certain Kate and the couple would agree.

And I suspect that, in all the song and dance, what the media is missing is the miracle itself.

Update: Kate has said much the same thing on the BBC.

The Press, Pagans and the Parish

It must be silly season, because strange stories about the church are in the press. Especially about the Church of England's plans to pinch pagans. It has to be said the not much in modern life is more counter-cultural than being committed to ancient spiritual paths, gathering for dawn rites, and doing it all in fancy dress - and I am sure some pagans get up to fun stuff too.

The best place to start is to read the explanation that +Steve Hollinghurst has given himself but I do have some positive thoughts about what I am going to call the 'Earth Traditions' and the Christian Faith.

Contemporary Christianity and Modern Earth Traditions share some common roots. Before the Reformation, between the 7th and 17th centuries there was a different religious settlement, bringing together a range of rites and traditions. From pre-Augustinian Christianity's pattern of the year through to the herbalists of the reign of Elizabeth I there was an evolving tradition that in many ways respected Christ and creation. The interface was not always easy, as anyone who was accused of murder by witchcraft could contest, but celebrating lunar, solar and earth festivals was very much part of the Christian year.

Depending on your point of view these rites and traditions were either appropriated by the Christian Church to convert poor pagans, or were deviations from true Christian faith. I am sure Steve has a mailbag full of people of both persuasions regarding his work with Fresh Expressions. Both views however are deeply wrong.

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