Sabbatical - Day 12

At TTS. Begin day at 8 with open air worship celebrating Pongal, the harvest festival of thanksgiving to God. Thanks are giving to God for harvest, and His provision through nature. Without nature we cannot live. We remember the struggles of farmers. A cow is tethered to a tree; we celebrate farming.

 It also celebrates friendship, remembering past friendship, celebrating being one family with no discrimination. Tomorrow this will be the focus with Cow Pongal   It is a Tamilian national celebration across religions. It is especially celebrated by Hindus and Christians. It coincides with other celebrations of different names in the other states of India.

Last night we drove through town with celebrations well under way, Hindu pilgrims making their way to the Temple, walking up to 100 miles, 10 miles per day. Sugar canes are bought and waved, and I presume eaten.

Today, the young people pretend to be a family where Pongal is explained and Pongal cooked (we tasted some yesterday- delicious). There is folk singing and dance including Tamil folk-instruments. We are reminded that as we help the poor we serve God. We conclude with communion but we use nuts in place of bread, juice I think from sugar cane with ginger for wine. This is used for special celebrations, with the same spiritual meaning.

      

A new pot is made and painted for the first fruits of harvest

Pongal is also a delicious food, made in the pot. Here some queue up to enjoy it. 

Afterwards, a tour round the campus led by Jaya Karan who is bursar and teaches social analysis. The campus is built as a traditional village.

Various views:

The Dalit Resource Centre has been very influential

 in helping develop Dalit leadership in society

and developing Dalit art

Spot the ecological emphases

We discover more of how committed TTS are to the poor, especially the Dalit. They have encouraged the development of Dalit leadership and art through a Dalit Resource Centre. I hear of two theologians to explore: James Massey and A P Nirmal.

A stimulating conversation in the afternoon with the Principal J. David Rajendran, and several staff and students. The integrity of Newbigin as someone always for the poor came across, not least in stories about him. We heard debate that perhaps CSI needs to rediscover this passion for the poor, though in our experience it is very much this. But our experience is limited. 

We are privileged to spend further time in conversation with the Principal afterwards.

In the evening a wonderful outing to a Sound and Light at the palace of Tirumalai Naik (1623-1659).

It tells something of the history of his reign including the flowering of art and the welcoming of different faith traditions. Stephen Neill speaks of this period in his history of the church in India. His reign coincided with the mission of Robert Nobili who had arrived as a young Jesuit in Goa in 1605. Madurai became the centre for his mission. Neill writes (A History of Christianity in India - The Beginnings to 1707, p 260) that there "began a career marked by originality unsurpassed by any missionary in India before or after his time." Nobili determined to "as far as was possible, [to] become a Brahman for their sakes." (p281). Neil notes that Tirumai Naik "intended to make himself a great conqueror. To this end he assembled a considerable army... The people of the area suffered severely from the recurrent famines which were due at least in part to his military ambitions. The gerenal atmosphere of suspicion and uncertainty was unfavourable to amicable discussion with Hindus and to the extension of the Christian congregation."

Newbigin in "The Gospel in  Pluralist Society' discusses Robert Nobili and notes that "[a] daring effort at contextualisation has, [in the view of later generations of Indian Christians], betrayed the gospel" because of Nobili's acceptance of the caste system. Newbigin has a helpful discussion of indigenisation / contextualisation. (pp142ff)

The evening finished with a very enjoyable meal out together. The restaurant is celebrating Pongal; and we also celebrate Ginny's birthday.

A carved celebration of Pongal in a melon, with the skilled artist 

Sabbatical - Day 10 ps

Yesterday had a very interesting and helpful meeting with Revd John Davidson, Area Chairman North Madras. He trained at Bishop's College, Calcutta. The training fieldwork eg with Leprosy Mission as part of training. He trained out of his home area as each theological college has its own specialism.

Revd John Davidson is on the right

He sees Leslie Newbigin as a role model and Saint - a man of ecumenism who went to the down-trodden and served the people. He was a man of dialogue, who talked with everyone. He spoken first class Tamil, with a simple teaching style. We heard the previous day of someone who unable to get into a church appreciated a sermon from outside. Afterwards he went into the church which was empty but for one person. He went back out looking for the Indian Tamil speaker. It was then pointed back towards Lesslie Newbigin.

His father having been quite opposed to Christian faith became a Christian and was much helped by Revd David Purushotaman, who worked with Lesslie Newbigin. When his father was newly convened and John a small child, Lesslie Newbigin visited their home. David encouraged his father to be ordained but he felt he should remain a headmaster. Encouraged by Lesslie Newbigin he became a catechist.

Each village has a Catechist who leads worship and preaches. They are not paid though receive a small honorarium each year if the Diocese can afford it. It was not possible this year due to the floods. They are trained and supported by the Diocese, who also provide sermon outlines. The Diocese has 250 priests who are responsible generally for 4-18 churches. There are 200 evangelists.

A man of dialogue who would talk with everyone. Simple teaching style. Excellent Tamil.

Lesslie Newbigin founded a Community Centre so that Christian faith could be engaging all the more with the wider world.

It now adjoins the Diosesan Training Centre. This has a focus on Christian training for those from the villages. It is managed by Revd Paul Pragasam. 

Lesslie Newbigin also founded the Madras Christian Council for Social Service which celebrates 50 years this year.

In the afternoon we visit Christian Literature Society (CLS). The General Secretary Revd M Benjamin Inbaraj greets and welcomes us and introduces us to the work of CLS..They published a number of Lesslie Newbigin's books. These days they are developing and especial focus on publishing literature for catechists and others who are exercising a teaching ministry.  I find aTamil Hymn/Song Book and a book with a selection of essays re Lesslie Newbigin and buys them.

Sabbatical - Day 7

Today a lengthy post which you may prefer to skip! This is the draft text of the paper I shall be presenting. It is still very rough around the edges and my prayer is that in conversation etc it can be much improved! It may even change entirely!

Lesslie Newbigin

One of the strongest memories I have from 2012 is of a visit to a village church in Andhra Pradesh. Roughly 100 gathered for worship. Roughly 50% of the village are Christian. There seemed to be roughly the same number as men as of women. The church was established by missionaries in the 19th Century. We met two of the evangelists who continue the work today. In 2011 10,000 became Christians in the Diocese.

Lesslie Newbigin frequently refers to his experience in the village. It was clearly an inspiration and perhaps underlies a great deal of the immense legacy he has left. 

However, I am wondering whether he missed something as well.

Over 20 years ago, when I was beginning my first pastorate, I read Lesslie Newbigin's 'On Being the Church for the World’ in a book on Parish Churches. I was thinking about the shape my call should take in parish ministry - in part of the urban overflow of London. I had not come across him before. Newbigin has the wonderful image of the church as a sign.

'The point of a sign is that it points to something that is not yet visible. If you want to go to Winston Green you don't put up a sign in Winson Green: you have a sign in Handworth or Edgbaston...' He points out that denominations represent spiritual surrender to a secular age. Then he speaks about how he carries out his ministry in Winson Green. He begins by telling how he and the local ministers (Pentecostal, URC, Church of the Firstborn) meet and pray and plan together. 'We try to ask what, in spite of our divisions, our unity in Christ has to mean for the life of this community in Winson Green'. 

'And then?' I want to ask. But then... he stops. There is no 'secondly'. It seems to peter out. I came away disappointed. This seemed to be ecumenical naval gazing. I was surprised to discover recently that the contribution was by someone I had come to admire, someone who spent so much time opposing ecumenical naval gazing. So I have been puzzling.

As I have read my way into Newbigin, I realise that

• yes, I have misunderstood him; but
• in addition, perhaps he too missed something.

On the former, I will be brief. Newbigin speaks of the church as

• a foretaste of something different from the world, 'a communion in the Holy Spirit in the life of the triune God.’
• 'an instrument through which God's will for justice and peace and freedom is done in the world.'

He also writes “I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both.’

So, I had failed to give emphasis to what he says about ‘sign’ and ‘foretaste’. In addition, though Newbigin himself is pointing the way to further work to be done.

More recently, I came across Mark Laing who helped me think through my misgiving. I was encouraged to find someone who shared my hesitation! In From Crisis to Creation, p239), he writes:

‘Earlier [Newbigin] had realised that the parochial model emphasised “coming” to the neglect of “going” and was thus “not true to the biblical picture of the church as a missionary community. In re-endorsing the parochial model, Newbigin is disappointing in not providing clues for restructuring of the church which would enable it to be a community of God and the mission of God. Instead, Newbigin attempted to combine the inherent tension between the “coming” and the “going” of the congregation, by reiterating the Indian village church as his defining paradigm.

Oddly enough, for me the emphasis upon the village paradigm as one that might emphasise mission had the opposite effect: it communicated a fear of ecumenical naval gazing. But I have come to suspect that there is an inherent weakness in the paradigm, which has to do with context. It is powerful and relevant in rural situations. However, translated to my more urban situation it has a weakness which I instinctively sensed. It may be one that is relevant to you as well as me, as you evangelise both in the village and in the city.

The weakness is that a village has a givenness as a community. Where we visited in Andhra Pradesh there were 200 living there. 100 were Christian, 100 Hindu. In that church (n.b., one church, so important!) a community exists.

In many situations of church growth there is community, or something else that binds that group together.

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However, for may English towns, and in urban situations, for those not yet associated with a church, there is not this community. And in the heresy of the individualism that the west has preached for decades, all community is undermined. Laing notes this when he says (From Crisis to Creation, 225) ‘In the rural situation the parochial model was still tenable where the concepts of “locality” and “neighbour” retained their meaning. But in the urban setting “[l]ocality had been abolished. Neighbourhood is no longer a word that refers to a place. Man in no longer a neighbour; he is at best the point of intersection of two or three unrelated worlds.”’ But Newbigin does not seem to have made the connection with the paradigm of the village mission; namely that his powerful paradigm misrepresents so much of modern life.

Can we then find a more complete way ‘to combine the inherent tension between the “coming” and the “going” of the congregation’?

First of all a negative. Newbigin is very helpful in identifying the ‘why’ of why this is so important. "The life of the Church is radically corrupted if it is separated from the missionary task” (Newbigin, Relation of Older and Younger Churches in India: Uncensored Remarks", quoted in Laing and Weston, Theology in Missionary Perspective, The Indian Church by Mark Laing. In From Crisis to Creation, 17f,

Laing summarises what happens when mission is separated from the church The development of a type of self-sufficient, introverted congregation, lacking all sense of the Church catholic:

1. A failure to develop adequate ministry;
2. Missionaries seeing themselves as accountable to the mission agency, not the Indian church;
3. Unwillingness to devolve.

However, the need for mission cannot be argued from a pragmatic necessity for survival (and Newbigin does not take this approach). It has to flow from theology, the nature of the gospel, the character of God.

Perhaps a useful analogy is that of a growing child: the child is important in themselves (the coming together of a congregation as a ‘body’). But without growth the child is not a healthy child. For a child there is something inherent about growth.

Can we argue this for the church not just pragmatically but also theologically? I think we can. A renewed emphasis on the eschatological (for which Newbigin calls) comes to our aid. The future of the church is as a foretaste of God’s kingdom. ‘The church faces the world… as arrabon of that salvation, as sign, first-fruit, token, witness of that salvation which God purposes for the whole.’ (Newbigin’s The Basis, Purpose and Manner of Inter-Faith Dialogue).

Does this help us in the here and now? I think it does. For the church community is to be valued in and of itself. But at the same time it is but, as it were, an infant, which needs to grow both in size and maturity (- which takes us from the Body of Christ imagery of Paul in Corinthians to the cosmic language of Ephesians and Colossians.)

We can thus affirm Laing when he offers us the vision of a minister who leads the congregation into the world “enabling” “sustaining” “nourishing” rather than simply teaching (From Crisis to Creation, 240) And unpacking what this means is part of Newbigin’s agenda.

How can this be expressed ‘on the ground’ in terms of the structures of the local church? If the church is being pulled by the secular forces undermining community, then there needs to be that within the church which acts as a community-builder.

In traditional English parish Anglican ministry this has been the Vicar, or priest - one per parish. But in other contexts this does not occur. The Church of England has generally been moving towards developing ministry teams. But progress has been painfully slow.

I suggest that underlying this is the ‘scandal’ of the denomination system which can overflow into a top-down authority structure which disempowers the congregation. Where the local church has a healthy sense of community (such as in the Andhra Pradesh village), there is not a problem. Where other factors knit the church together there is not a problem. But where these factors are not present - and is often the case in settled suburban life in the UK - the denominational system can result in an unhealthy dependency culture.

St Paul was always careful to maintain a distance between himself and the local church community, the existing power structures can be reflected in the ministry of the vicar/ priest - often in an unconscious way. This is the same battle that Roland Allen was fighting when resisting the control of missionary societies over local churches.  Henry Venn of the CMS was arguing similarly 80 years before Roland Allen.

What is needed I suggest for England is that the lay team ministry (eldership) of the local church is more strongly affirmed, with the vicar / priest taking a more episcopal role. This would achieve three things:

• a more genuinely local church with local ministry;
• a local and consistent leadership which would affirm the identity of the local congregation;
• a church able to embody local expressions of mission much more readily, and thus
• a church where there is a sense of local responsibility
• and a church which thus seeks God’s guiding and leading and is empowered all the more by God’s Spirit in its mission

I do not believe it is yet the case in England. Much of this may well already be the case here in CSI - perhaps we can speak about that.

How this is developed is open for discussion (the New Testament offers a range of ministry options.) Some church take an eldership line. Other possibilities include Lay Presidency and Local Ordination. I personally favour the latter but perhaps this is again part of what needs too be decided locally.

Here is CSI you have wonderfully put aside so much denominational clutter as you have forged unity. We can learn from you, and perhaps all learn how to have the mind of Christ as to what community is about in an age which so often seeks to value the individual above all else.

The Anglican Church is the ideal context for this for at root I do not believe that it is a denomination. In the UK the vision - flawed as it was - was too be the Church IN England. It has in effect become a denomination, but maybe it can revisit some of its history - redeemed - to find the way forward.

Sabbatical - Day Four

A memorial to Bishop Lesslie Newbigin at St Matthias, Chennai

St Matthias, Chennai

The memorial to the right was amongst the things that re-ignited my interest in Lesslie Newbigin in 2012

These words from Newbigin's 'On Being the Church for the World' are staying with me:
"[W]hen Jesus said to them, 'As the Father sent me, so I send you', he showed them his hands and his side. In other words, the Church will be recognizable as the bearer of this mission on which the Father sent the Son and on which the Son sent the Church, in so far as the scars of the Passion are recognizable in its body. So you have that classic definition of mission, which has been so much ignored, in St Paul's letters, where he defines his apostolic mission as 'bearing in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be manifest in our mortal flesh'.
"I think we have often missed something by concentrating entirely on that Matthaean version which can produce the kind of triumphalist picture of the mission of the Church. Here, however, the Church is recognizable as the bearer of the Kingdom, the presence of the kingdom, in so far as it is marked by the scars of the Passion... And if you see the mission of the Church in that sense, then all this futile discussion between evangelism and social action disappears."

In A Word in Season, p54, Newbigin notes that Matthew 28:20 was never used as a basis for mission until Wiliam Carey (1791).

In 'Mission in Christ's Way' Newbigin explores the ambiguity of the kingdom. As when Jesus proclaimed the kingdom, the reign of God is not as plain as one might wish. He roots this in passages like Mark 4:10-12. This is supremely so in the cross "the place where the kingdom of God, his power and wisdom, is hidden and revealed."

Perhaps we might also say that the ambiguity of the church's proclamation in today's world is rooted here as well. The scandal of denominations, the role of the church in religious conflict (not least that in Europe) - all this means that truth of the message is not clear.

This should though save us from proclaiming the wrong thing. The good news is the kingdom of God, made present in Christ: not ideology, nor principles, nor systems. the church dare not proclaim itself. And when it so does (as it does all too often) those around are suitably astounded at its arrogance.

The church is a fallible instrument: yet one that God by his grace works through.
It is a foretaste of the new kingdom. But much of the 'fore' is rooted in its own fallibility
It is a sign, pointing beyond itself. It must be this or it is nothing. As a sign pointing to a vista is as nothing in comparison to the viewpoint when reached, so the church is nothing compared to that to which it points

All this is of God. The church may well be - and is - the hermeneutic of the gospel (and how can it be anything else?) but unless it points beyond itself, unless it is thoroughly aware of how provisional it is, it has nothing to offer. But unless it is a community of reconciliation, how can it offer reconciliation to the world?

In the big scheme of things, Newbigin roots this in an emphasis on the eschatological. "The perspective of the eschaton enables the church to live with the inherent tension of being holy and sinful; and of defining itself in terms of what is, and also in terms of what is becoming." (Mark Laing, The Indian Church, in 'Theology in Missionary Perspective, Ed Laing & Weston).

Where does this leave para-church organisations and 'movements'? In "What is 'A Local Church Truly United", he writes: "The existence of separate congregations in the same geographical area on the basis of language and culture have to be accepted as a necessary, but provisional, measure for the sake of the fulfillment of Christ’s mission. Necessary because there must be the possibility to bring to full ripeness the special gifts and insights that God has given to peoples of different language and culture and this cannot happen if some have no place except on the margin of a community of another language or culture. Provisional because the Gospel is the good news of God’s purpose, to bring all these gifts to their perfection in his new creation where - all together - they will shine in their true glory."

'One baptism" - a baptistry in a village in Andhra Pradesh.

There is only once church in the village

 - a powerful sign of the reconciling gospel of Christ.

He also notes:" Unity must be defined in terms of movement, not stasis. The unity of which the Gospel speaks is an eschatological reality and therefore the question which must be asked in each situation is the question of movement and direction. Not: ‘Is this body of Christians truly united within itself? But ‘Is this body of Christians functioning as a true sign, foretaste and instrument of God’s purpose in Christ to draw all in that place into unity in Christ?’ The unity of the Church at the local as at every other level must be seen in the context of the unity of mankind. One can point to a multi-cultural situation where there is a local church at one with itself but out of contact with the people among whom it lives. This is not ‘a local church truly united’. To be truly the local church in such a situation the Church must be manifestly functioning as sign and foretaste and instrument of God’s purpose to draw those of different cultures into his one family. There must be movement in the direction of unity."

Thus he is sympathetic to provisional forms of church (See Paul Weston, 'Ecclesiology in Eschatological Perspective' in 'Theology in Missionary Perspective, Ed Laing & Weston). But it is vital that they are future directed. This is an eschatological perspective.

Sabbatical - Day Three

Off today to Chelmsford to pick up some books by Bishop Stephen. He kindly signed some as gifts to the church in Chennai etc. We are planning to visit four theological colleges:
Tamilnadu Theological Seminary in Madurau
Gurukul Theological College in Chennai
Madras Christian College in Chennai
United Theological College in Bangalore.

Returning to yesterday's 'conversation' with Lesslie Newbigin through his writings... Paul Weston and I (we will be in India together) have been asked to present papers at I think two at least of the Colleges. The following rather heavy reflections (!) are by way of some preparation.

Reading Newbigin again, I will now quote him more fully:
'It seems to me that the development of that kind of local accepting of one another, in spite of our divisions and our misunderstanding, is the Catholic Church in that place seeking to erect the sign of the Kingdom for that place. These two things are mutually involved.  I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both.'

But earlier, he has referred to the church as not only a sign' but also
- a foretaste of something different from the world, 'a communion in the Holy Spirit in the life of the triune God.'
- 'an instrument through which God's will for justice and peace and freedom is done in the world.'
I am reminded of Sam Wells who says that reconciliation is the gospel.

Thus Newbigin in his conclusion is developing only one aspect of what he believes the parish church to be. But what does this mean for our mission and evangelism, and for church structures?

Key to Newbigin is that the congregation is the 'Hermeneutic of the Gospel' (cp. ch. 18 'The Gospel in a Pluralist Society'. In the chapter cited he writes: '[T]he gospel cannot be accommodated as one element in a society which has pluralism as its reigning  ideology. The Church cannot accept as its role simply the winning of individuals to a kind of Christian discipleship which concerns only the private and domestic aspects of life.'

How is this to come about? '[T]he only hermeneutic of the gospel... is a congregation of men and women who believe it and live by it. I am, of course, not denying the importance of the many activities by which we seek to challenge public life with the gospel - evangelistic campaigns, distribution of Bibles and Christian literature... But I am saying that these are all secondary, and that they have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community.'

Newbigin merely asserts this at this point.' However, it is consonant with his stress on the church being a visible community (in e.g. 'The Household of God') and the church being 'the body of Christ'. It may I think be taken as a succinct summary of what he fleshes out elsewhere. The phrase is engaged with not in itself primarily but in conversation with all that he says about the church.

The church in an Indian Village
- see also the photo below

However, in 'Mission in Christ's Way, he points to his own experience. He reflects on his own ministry in Kancheepuram in South India. He notes that conversions and baptisms did not seem to have any visible connection with his own activities. 'If one enquired how exactly this or that person had come to faith inChrist, there were all sorts of elements in the story of which I knew nothing at all...' 'But one factor was common to all: it was the presence of a believing, worshipping, celebrating congregation of people deeply involved in the ordinary life of their neighbourhood... This was no humanely devised programme for mission. It was the work of the Spirit....' And this observation he roots in the theology that the kingdom of God is 'quite simply, God's reign'.

The growth of village churches such as this made

a large impact on Bishop Lesslie and he often

refers to this in his writings.

 'It is not that the church has a mission and the Spirit helps us in fulfilling it. It is rather that the Spirit is the active missionary.' (Mission in Christ's Way)

Perhaps the church as 'the body of Christ' is the helpful shorthand for this. As Christ was and is, so the church should be (this is well beyond the way this phrase is often used to point to every-member ministry). This then places the emphasis on the whole congregation as testifying in deed and word to Christ. There is no division between evangelism and social action (which he explores in 'The Nature and Calling of the Church'.

With the emphasis placed upon the whole community, the nature of ordination follows a similar slant: '[T]he church, acting as His Body, commissions and empowers the man [sic] set apart for the sacred work. And both in the upward and in the downward movement Christ acts through the ministerial organs of His Body - organs which have been part of its structure from the beginning'. ('The Reunion of the Church', p166, Revd Edition 1960, published 2011)

With this groundwork laid, I hope to be able to return in due course to the ways in which the church can / should be a foretaste and instrument.

Sabbatical - Day Two

Over 20 years ago, I read Lesslie Newbigin's 'On Being the Church for the World' (in 'The Parish Church?' edited by Giles Ecclesone, available in Paul Weston's Reader on Newbigin). I had not come across him before, and I came away disappointed. I was surprised to discover recently that the contribution was by someone I had come to admire, and have been puzzling at my response.
Last year I reread it, and remained disappointed and still puzzled. But yesterday, discovering that Mark Laing in his 'From Crisis to Creation' expresses misgivings over Newbigin's approach to the parish system (and proposing correctives), I revisited again.
Newbigin has the wonderful image of the church as a sign. 'The point of a sign is that it points to something that is not yet visible. If you want to go to Winston Green you don't put up a sign in Winson Green: you have a sign in Handworth or Edgbaston...' He points out that denominations represent spiritual surrender to a secular age. Then he speaks about how he carries out his ministry in Winson Green. He begins by telling how he and the local ministers (Pentecostal, URC, Church of the Firstborn) meet and pray and plan together. 'We try to ask what, in spite of our divisions, our unity in Christ has to mean for the life of this community in Winson Green'.  'And then?' I want to ask. But then... he stops. There is no 'secondly'. It seems to peter out.
He does observe: 'I do not think we shall recover the true form of the parish until we recover a truly missionary approach to our culture. I do not think we shall achieve a truly missionary encounter with our culture without recovering the true form of the parish. These two tasks are reciprocally related to each other, and we have to work together on them both.'
My disappointed was to be left hanging. Is there no more to say? The model we are given can easily end up in naval gazing.
Well, maybe Newbigin deliberately left us hanging. Maybe he interpreted his brief  as to get us to that point, leaving the work to others.
Perhaps the task I am setting myself is to make something of a contribution to that.

Sabbatical - Final Day

As my mini-Sabbatical draws to a close, what shall I take with me into the future?

It has been a joy for Mandy and I to be together so much over the past month.

We have made many new wonderful friends and met many wonderful people. These are just some...

I have seen the slums of Chennai and this challenges my lifestyle...

As I have learnt, many new agendas have opened up. The following are but initial thoughts to signpost further thinking.

1 A deepening conviction of the scandal of denominationalism. Disunity is, to use Newbigin's analogy, like a drunken meeting of Alcoholics Anonymous. Our task is to point to Christ. If the church is divided, we point to a divided Christ. In Foolishness to the Greeks (145f) he states that denominationalism is the religious aspect of secularisation, the social form in which privatization of religion is expressed. A federation of denominations is not enough, if we are to confront the secularisation of society. Movements like 'Heart fro Harlow' are signposts to true unity. But the focus on relationalism is perhaps a foretaste of what that unity might consist of, as against formalities that in themselves undermine the church. I note that though CSI arose from a formal scheme, it arose out of close networking in mission over a prolonged period, and involved great flexibility, such that the wider church as not sure at the outset whether to recognise it. I perhaps need to reflect further on the basis of the CSI.

Lesslie Nebigin writes in Honest Religion for Secular Man, p 118

It is a very parody of mission when divided churches go to a new people or a new community and seek to reproduce there their own divided existence.

The CSI Cathedral in Chennai, where the CSI began

2 An ongoing desire to see our culture more and more though the eyes of others. I will seek to read more from theologians from outside the European / North American sphere. I have seen the value of this in my Sabbatical. I have come to value afresh and more deeply Newbigin's insights and can see how these have come about. I have a sense of UK Christianity as very parochial in the context of vibrant worldwide church.

3 A fresh commitment to evangelism. I see how this is something that must and can be addressed by the church at large. Individual churches are of course where most evangelism will be rooted, but resourcing and co-ordination by the wider church can have a massive impact, as I have seen.

The Chapter 'Being God's People' in his Honest Religion for Secular Man sees Newbigin addressing many of the issues I have been feeling my way towards in earlier blogs. This needs my further attention, not least his analysis of the Christendom model of church (which assumes a Christian society in a land where we meet one another less and less) as against the missionary model in the Indian village, as I observed. I note how his words are very relevant to 21st century Harlow though written well over 40 years ago.

I note the following at p105:

I have said that in the New Testament the Church is depicted as a body of people chosen by God and trained and empowered for a missionary task. It is a task force which exists not simply for the sake of its members, which would be absurd, but for the sake of the doing of God’s will in the world. The visible structures of church life which we have inherited from the corpus Christianum of mediaeval Europe do not correspond very obviously to that description.

p106: In the great majority of European towns and villages the church building is no longer the centre of a Christian society. It is a place to which a small minority of the people who desire these things may repair for worship, teaching and fellowship. It is not a place of training for the penetration and occupation of a foreign society. It is not an instrument of mission. It says ‘Come’, and there are some who accept the invitation; it does not say ‘Go’. It may conceivably support missions, but it is not itself a mission

p111: The Church is a congregation, set to draw all men of whatever kind into one family. But it is also a mission sent to the nations, that is to say, sent to men not as isolated individuals, but to men in the full reality of their cultural, social, economic life as men. For the fulfilment of that mission it is not enough to say ‘Come – all are welcome’. It is also necessary to go, to leave the establishment behind, to make daring experiments in seeking to learn what it means to live the life of Christ in every one of the idioms and patterns of the myriad human communities.

and at p120: There can be no final escape from the truth that the Church, if it is to be the faithful witness of man’s true end, must be recognizable in the world as one family, as a household in which men of every sort can be at home because it is the Father’s house. It must find the forms of unity flexible enough to allow for the freedom of missionary experiment in all the different sectors of the human community, and yet strong enough to make variety a source of enrichment and not of conflict. The more seriously we take the missionary principle that Christians must be ready to go into every human situation, accepting that kenosis without which there cannot be a true incarnation of the life of Christ in a new community, the more necessary will it be that the bonds of unity are strong enough and flexible enough to hold all together.

4 An affirmation of my conviction that deeds and words go hand in hand in the work of mission ('Soup, Soap and Salvation'). In mission we witness to Christ, in whom this was supremely true. This is rooted not in an ethical gospel (though the gospel is that) but in a Kingdom theology whereby we know that Christ has met and masted the powers that enslave this world and that the has been give. The real foretaste of this Kingdom in the gift of the mighty Spirit of God (Newbigin, The Gospel in Pluralist Society, 136).

A deepened valuing of church schools would be one particular result of this for me,

5 A clarity as to the value of a secular Public Square which affirms all religions and their contribution to debate etc (the Indian model; I am not sure how far this has ever been the English model which has tended to privatise religion) as against Secularism, which seeks to exclude issues of faith.

Newbigin in Honest Religion for Secular Man noted how secularisation in India was achieving things for which missionaries had fought. Indeed, he notes that the missionary has been the agent of secularisation. Thus in a brief period in India has occurred what has taken hundreds of years in Europe. The speed of change in India, amongst other things, means that the missionaries's legacy is still remembered and valued. He also suggests that the process of secularisation is a new phase in the movement by which the biblical prophetic engages with the total claims of a sacral society (p30), as I always has. This is part of our deliverance in Christ from the elemental powers. "It has often been said in India... that it needs Christians to keep the secular state truly secular. I think this is true." (p76).

This is of major interest in public debate at the moment in the UK. This quote from Julian Gaggini is of interest, favouring the model I suggest, though as I say above, I am not sure if he correctly represents UK secularism as it has been 'on the ground', historically...

It all goes back to how we understand the core secularist principle of neutrality in the public square. Neutrality means just that: neither standing for or against religion or any other comprehensive world-view. That is why in theory, if not in practice, the United States is both culturally the most religious country in the developed west and constitutionally the most secular. There, it is clearly understood that the value of secularism is that it allows all faiths to practise freely, without any enjoying a special place at the heart of power. That explains why when I once took part in a panel discussion with a Southern Baptist, one of the most conservative of denominations, he was as enthusiastic about secularism as I was.

Why then in Britain has secularism become seen to be hostile to religion? Because neutrality is too often assumed to require the bleaching out of all traces of faith, excluding religious belief and discourse from public life. But it doesn't, and we can see why by appeal to the notion of public reason, articulated most clearly by the late political philosopher John Rawls. Rawls was quite clear that the religious have no obligation at all to keep their faith entirely to themselves. "Reasonable comprehensive doctrines, religious or non-religious, may be introduced in public political discussion at any time," he wrote, "provided that in due course proper political reasons – and not reasons given solely by comprehensive doctrines – are presented that are sufficient to support whatever the comprehensive doctrines are said to support."

Incidentally, Newbigin notes that a prophetic spirit which denies its affirmation of the power of God is ultimately self-destructive. But the task is not to question secularisation but to bear witness in this new situation. He also notes how the process of secularisation helps the church rediscover its nature as a missionary community as the identification of church and state is stripped away

6. I want to reflect further on CS Lewis' insight as to paganism as against secularism. The pagan is aware of the sacred nature of creation; the secularist is focused on self. CS Lewis approach to paganism is helpful here. It is interesting to apply his words in the context of Harry Potter, and Christian discussion some years ago.

Some of the discussion in Lamin Sanneh's book, Whose Religion is Christianity,49ff, is of interest in this regard.

7. Teaching the valuing of the tradition of the church (not in the sense of modern traditions of worship, but rather a sense of being part of the ongoing history of the People of God in Christ.) "Christian discipleship, like all human activity, is embedded in a tradition and cannot be Iived apart from that tradition." - Proper Confidence, Lesslie Newbigin, 87

C.S Lewis' perspective that although new ideas are now always bad, we must always ask, 'How does modernity impact the human condition'? challenges the mood of our times, when new is, broadly, better. (See his poem, On a Vulgar Error).

He also writes of how the coming generation cuts itself off from the values of the past, anticipating the literary theory of deconstruction and the impossibility of meaning. See C.S.Lewis poem, Re-adjustment and C.S. Lewis: Fantasist, mythmaker, and poet, p 270, by  Bruce L. Edwards.

I wonder: does evangelicalism add to this tendency through its stress on the converted heart. India showed me the importance and vitality that comes from distinctiveness, and this in turn comes from being part of a 'tradition'. Evangelicalism at the very least needs to recover  or find a sense of the corporate, so that conversion is understood as being incorporated into Christ in all His fullness, including the Body of Christ in its historic sense. We need to discover that same sense of being part of a tradition which formed the Israelite and Jewish people, as evidenced for example in Psalm 106, and in many, many other places.

8 A fresh appreciation of the importance of praise as part of worship. May this be ever-increasingly part of my life and walk with God.

Sabbatical - Day 30 - Tuesday

Psalm is 104:26-end was a recent lectionary reading.
"Countless are the things you have made, Lord"

I see this in the great variety of ways that we live across the world. I have often thought about the richness of different cultures. I now know (and give thanks for) something more of the breadth and much more of that richness - not least the strength of the human spirit when not cosseted by the luxuries I take for granted (safe water, 24 hour electricity - in the Indian villages the power is off for 1/3 of the day 8 think. The electricity was put on especially because of our visit in the village, being turned off at midday. In Chennai it is unreliable which can cause havoc for eg a wedding reception, though we did not experience any significant cuts.)

The church of the Madavaram Pastorate in the state of Andhra Pradesh:

I also give thanks for (no particular order):

- The prayerfulness, encouraged by regular 'please pray for me' and the desire for prayers of blessing from pastors at every opportunity. We talk about 'arrow prayers' sometimes. This makes them more corporate and part of normal a conversation. This prayerfulness is evident in daily moments of turning to God rather than in having more 'prayer meetings' than most churches in the UK (at least, I wasn't aware of much difference in the latter regard. I did note with interest that each church leads prayers at the Diocesan centre for one day a year, food prepared by the centre (the Laity Centre referred to previously.)

- Other small ways in which the Christian community are reminded of their identity day to day, e.g. the valuing of 'Christian' names, church calendars, the use of the sign of the cross for blessings, vibrant publicity for events, very public welcomes for guests of the church, taking Bibles to church, etc.

- The sense of history, not only of Indian history, and the missionary legacy (recent and back to the times of the early church) but also as part of the Christian community over time (in the valuing of 'Christian' names.). In a not unrelated context, Newbigin, Proper Confidence, 35, writes, "To give the family name, as has been customary in the past [in the developed world], would identify the individual by reference to a history and a society. But this is not acceptable. the self is an isolated monad which can only be understood from within itself. Thus the inward journey becomes much more fascinating than the exploration of an external world, and psychiatry becomes a dominant element in society."

- The witness of 'one church', especially in the small communities where there is literally one church. The reality of the decision - am I in Christ or out of Christ (do I worship at the Temple or the church)? - has a down to earth reality.

A village church (the only one I believe in the village)

- New friends and fabulous hospitality (this was our being greeted in the village:)

- The clear sense of what it means to follow Christ in a non-Christian culture.
- A lifestyle uncomplicated by materialism
- The desire for mission and evangelism, taken forward with fruitfulness. I note Lesslie Newbigins words (see yesterday's blog) in this regard.
- A biblical faith across, insofar as I observed it, across the traditions.
- My beginning to understand Hinduism
- The Autos, that somehow seem to navigate safely through the traffic.
- Tender Coconuts
- Gnat bite cream
- The leadership of the Bishop of Madras
- The witness of missionaries and the widespread appreciation of them in the Christian community.
- And much besides.

What a vibrant life, something of which I find summed up in this image from the Bombay Circus in Chennai (flamethrower etc.)