Reflections and Photographs: August 2011

Tuesday 30 August 2011

Opportunity Knocks

It was fascinating to hear the Bishop of London, following the riots, referring to churches as (I think I heard) 'Community Hubs'. This may be a very helpful phrase as we seek to express what 'church' is about. 'Church' has become a religious phrase, which the equivalent wasn't in the early days of the church.

'Religious' language reinforces the public / private divide, which we need to take every opportunity to overcome.

There are vast needs in the communities of which we are part. God always provides though there are deep challenges as we step out in faith to serve him. This is for example true for Foodbank in Harlow which is seeking to expand.

Foodbank and Street Pastors draw us together in Christ. 'We do together those things best done together and apart those things best done apart.' Healing on the Streets offers another opportunity. Dave Welch and Ron Kingsmill are giving a lead.

We face many challenges, but we face them together as we step forward in Christ.

Thursday 18 August 2011

Let us be in prayer for Zimbabwe

This is the text of a recent Press Release the Anglican Communion Office:
Posted On : August 16, 2011 9:30 AM | Posted By : Admin ACO

ACNS: http://www.aco.org/acns/news.cfm/2011/8/16/ACNS4925

An Anglican priest in Zimbabwe and his family have been evicted from their home by priests loyal to excommunicated bishop Dr Nolbert Kunonga. Others across the diocese have also been ordered to leave.

The Revd Dzikamai Mudenda at Mabvuku, his wife and their extended family, were forced to leave St James Mabvuku in Harare in the wake of a High Court judgement that Dr Kunonga had interim custody of church properties.

Other priests living in parish rectories have received stamped copies of the High Court judgment from supporters of Dr Kunonga who, in one case, were accompanied by the police. The priests, including Friar Joshua from Bishop Gaul College, have all been told to move out.

The Rt Revd Chad Gandiya, Bishop of Harare, said yesterday that alternative accommodation has been found for Revd Mudenda and are preparing for the eviction of their other priests.

“Our parishes are busy finding alternative accommodation for them,” he said. “We don’t know who he is going to put in these houses. This is not going to be easy at all. It will disrupt their family life and ministry. I have been busy this evening getting in touch with my priests and encouraging them.”

A recent judgment in Zimbabwe’s High Court that upheld Bishop Chad appointment as Harare’s bishop also gave Dr Kunonga custodianship of all church properties—ones that actually belong to the Church of the Province of Central Africa.

“Kunonga was given custodianship of CPCA properties when he no longer a member of our church and province and he is now evicting CPCA priests and we don’t know who he is going to put in these houses. God help us.”

The Anglican Church in Zimbabwe has been under attack from the excommunicated bishop, Dr Nolbert Kunonga, since 2007. Kunonga, with the support of police and henchmen, has seized CPCA church property and used violence and to break up church services. In a recent media interview Dr Kunonga was quoted as saying he aimed to control the 3,000 Anglican churches, schools, hospitals and other properties in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Malawi.

Saturday 13 August 2011

Question Time

The Archbishop's words are well worth pondering...

Archbishop speaks in House of Lords

... not only for what he says but for the manner of his speaking.

Someone blogged elsewhere a helpful reference to David Ford's excellent book 'Christian Wisdom'. One of the things that Ford there points out is that Job's comforters represent God as being judgemental (p 103). But in fact for much of the book God is "powerfully interrogative. In the Prologue his first to statements are questions, and his whirlwind speeches are pervasively interrogative without much hint of answers or directions.. Both history and creation generate more questions than answers. But they also generate cries and despairs."

Much of Ford's book is a reflection on the cries and despairs of scripture, not least in the experience and life of Christ. In the context of Job he points out how God's response in the whirlwind to Job's desire for annihilation is to evoke and revel in the limitless possibilities of all creation (p109). This is not a cheap comfort. Ford writes: It is as if an almost unthinkable hope can only be suggested by a delicate opening up if the imagination through reworking the very images that had earlier powerfully expressed despair."

A brief summary can do nothing like justice to Ford's wonderful book; the danger is that these brief quotes will misrepresent his subtle and nuanced writing. The best think is to read it as a whole.

And I can't help but think that our Archbishop has read it and has sought to apply it's thinking in his response in the Lord's.

Tomorrow I am speaking on Matthew 15:21-28 (the Canaanite Woman's Faith). I think that at the heart here is Jesus raising a question (for the benefit of his disciples). A move is made from 'stigmatising' the woman as being an outsider to someone who is welcomed. The danger at the moment (eg BBC Question Time) is to come up with quick solutions that stigmatise and judge. This all too easily fails to listen to the cries of despair and offers easy answers.

When I have faced bereavement, 'comfort' comes as the grief does its work. I rarely find solution in intellectual answers but rather in a deep-wrought change which means that old answers and problems are seen in a new light. We too need to let grief do its work. Thank you Rowan for your lead.

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