God and politics

I have been thinking a bit about Julia Gillard's statement that she is not a believer in God, and some of the responses I've heard to that statement. This was sparked mostly by the 7PM Project on Monday night - you can read the discussion here. 

Steve Price suggested that it would cost Gillard votes that she is not a person of faith. The overwhelming response on the discussion board seems to be that it won't, that people are more concerned with the integrity she showed by being honest and up front about her position rather than lying to appease one group in society or offering some sort of wishy washy compromise of a non-answer. And that's my feeling too. I am a person of Christian spirituality, and I am comfortable with a PM who can say - no, I don't believe in God, with a gentle confidence. 

Now, on the comments on the discussion board, I'd want to respond to some by that people open to God or Spirit or the Divine or even to spirituality generally are not in the low numbers some of the commenters suggest. I would also want to ask people to be less derogatory in their painting of people of faith as having an imaginary friend, being superstitious or worthy of disdain to such extent. 

I would also agree with the many commenters who suggest that Steve Price is mistaken to suggest that Julia Gillard is anti children because she has none of her own, or anti family because her family looks different from a norm that is actually now more the exception than the rule (husband, wife, 2.3 kids). 

I would refer these people to Hugh Mackay's excellent work, Advance Australia ... Where? so that they might offer more informed contributions to the conversation. And I thank Steve Taylor for guiding our Sociology for Ministry class (at Uniting College for Leadership and Theology / Adelaide College of Divinity) last semester, because now I feel more equipped for engaging in such conversations. 

hope restored for Trinitarian theology

I discovered a book recently, browsing the book stall at the fresh expressions seminars, The Becoming of G-d by Ian Mobsby. The rider on the cover says 'What the Trinitarian nature of God has to do with Church and a deep Spirituality for the Twenty First Century,' and given my struggles with Trinitarian theology, it looked like an approach that might be helpful for me. So I bought it (and a few other books, which, given the massive bill for repairs to my car this week, I now slightly regret). 

I don't think I'm really going to regret buying this book at all, though. Already it is living up to my hopes that it would be a discussion in language that didn't make me cringe and addressing the struggles I've been having with this central element of Christian tradition. 

So there will be a few posts to come that reflect on my journey with this book - preparing you. 

Tonight I've got excited by a couple of passages. 

First, where Mobsby talks about Spirit and prayer. It follows earlier discussion of the Spirit and worship, and he states: 'Prayer, like worship, is about encountering and relating with the Triune God as the expression of the desires of one's heart' (p. 40). It's that encountering and relating that grabbed me. I am reading From Nomads to Pilgrims (Diana Butler Bass & Joseph Stewart-Sicking) as well (in fits and starts which is neither fair nor any reflection on the quality of the book, just the number of books stacked up waiting my attention). One of the stories in that book has been sitting with me ever since I read it (some weeks ago now), in which the author talks about changes in the gathered worship at the church in which he serves (Eric Elnes, Scotsdale Arizona). Worship is now approached as an experience, multi-sensory, inviting people into an attitude of openness to encountering God together. I've written a note to myself in the Mobsby book to remember that when I am crafting gathered worship spaces, I am to be issuing an invitation to people to become open to God, to be ready to encounter God, to be in relationship with God. 

The other things that grabbed me this evening was when Mobsby is talking about the Age of the Spirit in which we now live - this now and not yet realm of God we experience. He is talking about how right relationship, the healing relationship we can have with God, is the goal of Christian spirituality rather than the reward of eternal life: 'we will experience the fulness of relationship with the Divine for which we have been created, in all its healed wholeness.' healed wholeness - I like that. 

There is more, of course, but that will capture the essence of my enthusiasm for this work for now.  

Register now for the National Biblical Storytelling Gathering!

The flyer is out - registrations can now be taken for the 10th National Biblical Storytelling Gathering! Email NBSsouthaustralia@gmail.com

It is happening on 24 - 26 September 2010. And for the first time, the national gathering is happening in South Australia!

These gatherings have been, for me, times of warm community, vibrant creativity; they have been inspirational, renewing, and so much fun! So I have no hesitation inviting you all to be a part of this gathering.

This gathering promises all this and more.

Steve Taylor will share from his experience as a pastor in communities of faith: he brings us examples of gospel stories reimagined, and a process for helping people to shape and tell their own stories.

Workshops will also build up skills in telling the biblical story, including using different media and Godly Play; reflect on story and healing; explore story and music, story and worship.

Each year participants are invited to take part in an Epic Telling - a longer story is broken into smaller portions that each person prepares and then tells in order. It is a remarkable way to tell and to hear the biblical stories.

This year following the epic telling we will hold something of a birthday party to celebrate this tenth gathering, which promises to be a celebration of, dare I say it ... epic proportions!

I encourage you to consider coming to the gathering, and to spread the word among your networks. Who among your communities tells the biblical story and would appreciate the opportunity to gather with others who tell the story, the opportunity to build up their skills? Who among your communities is passionate about the role that story plays in the wholeness of our humanity? Please encourage them to participate in this gathering for their refreshment, to be equipped, and to be affirmed in their gifts as tellers of stories that bring us to life.

Note that a significant discount applies for those who register early!

further reflections on fresh expressions

I am not sure where these reflections will go, but I do think it will be helpful to record some of the thoughts that have emerged for me out of seminars with Dave Male over the past two days. 

We've been thinking through creating fresh expressions of church for the 21st century and how to lead and equip leaders for these communities. 

The timing of the seminars coincided with something of an ebb in the life of The Esther Project, the fresh expression of church I've been involved with these past ten months. For those who have been following the story of The Esther Project,  you will know of the changes in direction we have taken - from the planned theatre production, Esther and Mordecai, for the 2010 Fringe Festival, to focussing on establishing a community that gathers for deep and creative encounters with biblical stories, and the various shapes the pattern of our gathering has taken. 

There has been a small, committed group imagining this community with the Spirit. However, it feels as though perhaps the time for this group is drawing to a close. And so if the Esther Project is to continue, new people will need to take up the story from here. 

What I have been thinking, then, over the past two days, is how will this transition happen? How do I, as a leader of this community, guide us though this phase? 

Some important principles became clear to me. 

We need to tell / hear our story often. As we gathered in the early months, often with people who did not know each other, we often heard the story of the Esther Project, and shared something of our own story and what had brought us to The Esther Project. However, as the core group became more settled, and we knew the story of the Esther Project, I stopped telling it. I now see that it is important to keep telling the story of the community - even if you think the people know it - because we need to hear and hear again the vision, the dream, the purpose for this community of people gathering in this place in this time, so that we can continue to commit to it and share it with each other. So that we remind ourselves of our common purpose to avoid fracture. So that we can each continue to live out the vision, take our part in it, owning it. 

Fresh expressions are fresh expressions partly because of their goal of connecting with people who are not currently part of church communities. The Esther Project grew out of a dream to connect with artists / storytellers, who are encountering the Spirit in their creative pursuits. The dream is to journey together with these people, to hear their stories, and to bring into conversation with those stories of Sacred encounter our stories of Sacred encounter, and the story of Jesus Christ through which we have found life, meaning, grace. I am reminded of our vision, of our call from God to journey with the artists  - a group of people so often disenfranchised by, particularly the protestant, church. This needs to become our primary goal again. 

A leader should be living out this vision herself - and I have not fulfilled my role as well as I might. 

I am wondering, then, if the past ten months have been something of an experiment of what it might be like to gather as a community of faith, creativity and sacred story. And I wonder if w might continue to gather alongside my work of making connections with artists and storytellers, in order to keep a story space open and welcome for anyone we meet who might be interested in exploring the sacred story of our tradition; in order to hold a safe space ready in which individuals' stories might be heard, as an essential part of the wholeness of our humanity. 

So I come away from the seminars with more questions - but these are the questions for which I was searching, through which I think I can now guide our fresh expression of church as we continue to faithfully answer God's call along this path into the unknown with the Spirit, following the Way of Wisdom / Jesus. 

discovering seeds of hope

Dave Male works with churches in the UK exploring the implications of 'fresh expressions' of church, particularly for forming and equipping leaders for these new forms of church. 

He's here in Adelaide this week, and yesterday had some conversations with some of the faculty and students of the college, and then at [re]generate, our occasional gatherings for dinner and exploration of new ways of being church. 

These conversations have got me wondering, mostly about The Esther Project: how can we tell our story more often - the story of The Esther Project, reminding ourselves of the dream, the purpose, the people we hope to encounter through this community, have we forgotten our dream / vision?, how do we move from a place of finding a way to gather that is life-giving and invite the people for whom we dreamed this community - inviting people to come to faith and walking with each other as disciples living as followers of Jesus, should we be gathering in a venue other than a church building? - like an art gallery, cafe, pub, art cafe ... ??? 

The main discovery I made last night was that I know clearly our vision, but I have recently not been holding that vision before the Esther Project community, and I suspect this is part of the reason for our current lethargy. 

It is good to have had a chance to reflect with someone of Dave's experience and to have found some clues for how to guide our community forward. 

So I head into the next two days of seminars with Dave with expectations of making further discoveries and gaining more seeds of hope. 

God in the still sheer silence

The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, the tenement halls, and whisper'd in the sound of silence ... (Simon & Garfunkel) 

The word of God whispered to Elijah on the mountain (1 Kgs 19) 

Enter the silence, enter the story, Monday 7 June 7.30 pm, The Effective Living Centre, 26 King William Road Wayville. 

The Esther Project - community - creativity - sacred story 

families

doing all my posting at once here.

having posted some reflections on the process of grieving as it plays out this time around, here is a post on the presence of new life in my story this week.

this weekend I was in Melbourne celebrating the baptism of the newest members of the Mitchell clan. I have two cousins whose babies were being baptised, and was so delighted to be invited to take part in the baptism.

I've been doing a lot of reflecting on that participation and what it might look like, because in the Uniting Church it is part of the role of the ordained ministers to baptise new members into the community. this is because ordained ministers are part of the whole people of God, representing the community - and it is the community, the church, who baptises, who celebrates eucharist. which is part of the reason for wearing liturgical garments like the alb and the stole - the alb represents our baptism, represents the baptised people of God, the stole is the symbol of ordination.

ordination - as I approach it, I come to understand it more fully, and see how it is the community, the people of God, asking some of its members, recognising the gift and calling of these members, to engage in a ministry role on behalf of the people, guarding our story, preserving our sacraments, ensuring that we are all equipped, encouraged, and enabled to engage in the mission of God, in ministry roles, in the world as we are gifted and called.

So the minister of my cousins' congregation baptised the children, and I spoke some of the words. As a member of the Mitchell tribe who is also a member of the Uniting Church tribe and has a particular role within the latter tribe, it was - how can I say this without being trite? - well, it was a lovely moment in which to be involved, welcoming these members of my family tribe into the body of Christ, the ultimate family to which we belong.

grieving

After my friend Pam died, I posted farewells everywhere - here, on facebook, on the black wood jazz blog. But I didn't actually believe she had gone. Part of me still doesn't. Pam was so full of life - how can someone that vibrant and alive no longer be alive?

Well, the denial took its toll - the weekend after Pam died, I fluffed about not doing anything productive, but trying to do things rather than letting myself do nothing but be in the sadness. So by the Monday, I was feeling physically ill, and in quite a lot of pain. It seems to me on reflection, that this was grief demanding to be felt, acknowledged, attended to. While I was in the kitchen cooking tea on Monday night, I let my thoughts run, bringing me in front of a metaphorical mirror to see that I was twisted in pain because of denied grief, and finally, finally, I let myself see the world without Pam in it, and I let the grief have its way.

It was interesting to me to experience the effects of grief denied and ignored. I have no idea why I was treating the grief in this way, but it does give me a deeper layer of understanding for those times when, as a minister, I will sit alongside others in their grief, and the myriad different ways we respond to it when it comes our way.