Eyeless in Gaza

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Banksy-gaza.jpg Painting of Hope in the Gaza Strip Barrier Wall On June 2002 in the Occupied territories a concrete barrier walls were being erected.

I have read Malanie Phillip's  Times article about not getting the real truth about Gaza  and still think the Israeli response is disproportionate ....

I am no supporter of Hamas and their tactics, but Israeli bombing of Gaza is inhumane  - the casuality figures speak from themselves.  I think the same about Hirohima and Nagasaki (which we remember this weekend) and also allied 'smart' bombing in Afghanistan.  

The 'Muddle East' is very complicated and evades any attempts to make it clear distinctions between goodies and baddies. And once the dogs of war are released everything gets even messier. But the killing of so many civilians is not a proper response.  

In all of this dreadful conflict, I have found Colin Chapman’s article below most helpful….  Trying to make sense of Gaz   It's on the Fulcrum website   http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/articles/trying-to-make-sense-of-gaza/  Just one quotation from the article:

If some Palestinians have not been supporters of Hamas and blamed it for the escalation of the fighting in the last two weeks, the ferocity of Israeli attacks on Gaza has probably had the effect of rallying widespread support for Hamas and its demands. One of the lessons of the Northern Ireland peace process was that there was no significant breakthrough until all parties – including those regarded as being extreme – were brought into the political process. …

Also BBC today had an article on life in Gaza  (Here is a more up to date trip from May 2014  of Mosaic conference)  It brought back memories ....

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I visited there as part of a delegation  (Feb 2002) when I was Regional Director for CMS and have seen the situation first hand (I know it was many years back) but it helps to identify and imagine what people are going through. Re-reading the report of the visit,  I realise, of course, nothing ever changes ....  The endless cycle of violence keeps repeating itself. 

 The reference to Samson as possibly the first suicide 'bomber (below) made me think of the play I'd studied at school: 'Eyeless in Gaza' (hence the title of this blog)   O that we would have eyes to see ..... and know how to pray  ...

‘Pray not for the Jew or Muslim or Christian, Israeli or Palestinian or Arab; pray rather for ourselves, that we might not separate them in our minds but instead join them in our prayers.’

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Report:  Across the lines (CMS, Feb 2002) DAY 8   Gaza   Suhaila Tarazi, Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza City

“Today began ominously. There had been several Israelis killed over the last few days, and Israel was in the mood for retaliation.

We went down to Gaza this morning, passed through the Eretz checkpoint where you choose either to be a VIP, diplomat, or international organisation/tourist. Palestinians are filtered off to enter what looks like a cross between a long tunnel and cattle grid, but of course there weren't any Palestinians today. Gaza has been closed for a long time. Most of its citizens are effectively prisioners. Over 100,000 Palestinian people used to work in Israel. Now they can't, and unemployment is at 60%.

The oppression of a people is nowhere more tangible than by taking the dusty road across Israel down to this strip of land - a mere 25 miles (along the coast), by 5 miles. Disconnected from the heartlands of Judea and Samaria (modern day West Bank), Gaza contains over 1 million people. Blown about by desert sand, Gaza City is more akin to Egypt or Pakistan than any town in Israel or even the West Bank….”

Katharine Maycock

“We made our way to the Al Ahli Hospital, founded by CMS in the 19^th century and now run by the Anglican diocese: the only Christian hospital in Gaza where 3000 Christians live alongside 1 million Moslems! The hospital is quite simply a beacon of light in a desperately dark place.

We met the hospital administrator, Suhaila Tarazi. Suhaila is a saint. She is smart, vivacious, friendly and generous in her explanation of middle-eastern politics and the sufferings of the Gazans. She spoke about the desperation of the current situation and how desperate people do desperate things! She spoke of the desperation of Samson when he killed himself as well as his Philistine captors. Was he the first suicide bomber? The hospital feels poor and run down. There were memorials on the wall commemorating Welsh and Scottish soldiers who fell at the battle of Gaza in 1917. Gaza has seen too many battles.

We made our way to the chapel for a eucharist. The service there was simple but moving. The first sound of shelling left me unmoved: surely a sonic boom or the local quarry? But then more consistent sounds and this time it did seem like bombs. In fact it was Israeli F16 bombers. They were bombing a PLO prison in the centre of Gaza city, only about half a kilometer from where we were!! We shared the peace to the sound of war: a moment we will never forget. After the service we went up on the roof of the building to see the smoke pouring from the site: a bit scary and a bit unreal! Then comes the post-mortem. Where? When ? Why? How many? Is it safe to move yet? Just another day in Gaza! My God its crazy!”

Rev Daniel Burton

“Everyday, life is full of blood. Every day there is a new victim.”  Suhaila Tarazi, the Palestinian Director of Al Ahli hospital told us. “We are all children of Abraham – we are all brothers, but because of politics, ‘blood’ brothers.”

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Pioneering @ CMS

Some of you maybe aware that we are exploring a merger of sacred:space (@ Christchurch Woking) and HolyGround  ( @ Trinity Methodists) and creating a new FX -  Fresh Expression of Church 


So I was looking at the CMS Pioneer website to get some inspiration and found a few things  which might be of  interest to others.    

PIONEER HUB -   This supported by  and South Central Regional Training
Partnership  RTP  which includes our own Guildford Diocese

As part of the Pioneer Hub they are creating a  Community of Practice  and meet locally for informal conversations (typically in coffee shops around the country)  Coming to a starbucks near you.....!

Have  a look at the brochure - It is all about what has already happened  but gives you an idea   This look like just what we need to support our new FX venture!    You can also read about Chrissie Lacey's involvement   She did a Pioneer Witness about ScAT, Woking. I took a picture of her preaching from a bath at Christchurch one Sunday evening service - I think it was about soaking prayer but I can't really remember - but it was nonetheless very pioneering!

There is also a regular Pioneer blog.  For example here's one about Jonny Baker's  trip to Seoul, Korea a place I know well.   You quickly learn the biblical imperative to 'eat what is set before you'

I noticed an OPEN DAY on TUES 12 NOV:  Conversations on Pioneering: Research and Reflections   costing £15 at CMS, Oxford. Looks like some very good content. Anyone interested in attending?   I am..... Maybe we could go together ?

There is also a PIONEER OPEN DAY  on Tuesday 26 Nov 2013   (Also Tuesday 11 Feb 2014  Tuesday 13 May 2014) You can download the flyer here  By the way it seems that most things happen on a Tuesday with CMS pioneers.

Nasruddin: a fool and his money

Nasruddin used to stand in the street on market-days, to be pointed out as an idiot. No matter how often people offered him a large and a small coin, he always chose the smaller piece.

One day a kindly man said to him:
"Nasruddin, you should take the bigger coin. Then you will have more money and people will no longer be able to make a laughing stock of you."

"That may be true", said Nasruddin, "but if I always take the larger, people will stop offering me money to prove that I am more idiotic than they are. Then I would have no money at all."

 

I've been thinking quite a bit about fundraising recently, and I'm no expert, but I think this story highlights a few helpful points:

1. fundraising is for idiots
 
there is something about asking for money that makes you look foolish - idiotic even.   In the bible it talks about how the foolishness of this world confounds the wise (1 Cor 1:25)  Nasruddin is prepared to be the idiot, since he has found a good income stream.  He is not afraid of being a 'laughing stock' and as always there is wisdom in his foolishness .   a little and often is better than a lot occasionally. 
  
2. small coins are easier to give than bigger coins
 
'small is beautiful' which seems to be the conclusion of the famous story of the 'widow's mite' (Luke 21:2) or maybe it should be 'widow's might' !  There is power in a good story to inspire others  - we think 'If she can give something like that and be praised, so can I'.   Giving a little - 'a small coin'  is achievable  for everybody    'Big coins' are only for big people. This little parable of the large and the small coins suggests that small repetitive acts can achieve big results  ...

3. It's all about going public. 

visibility, standing on the streets on market day  people wanted to give   to prove he was more foolish than they are ....  he was on to a winner.  
it was counter intuitive   bigger is better  or small is beautiful   crowd sourcing

4. people give to people. 

'people offered him'  -  some say it's not about fundraising but friend-raising  -  people give to people.  And as it says in the story they were 'offering him money'   but they had their own needs and needed to keep the bigger coin for themselves .....

5  don't always listen to the advice of kindly old men.

experience and wisdom of the past is not always the best guide. as has been often quoted  'If you do what you always did you'll get what you always got'. Sometime you just need to try something different.  And Nasruddin discovered a winner.   

Stewardship - 'transforming generosity'

here are 4 of the things I am involved in:
Global Teams -  as Partnership Facilitator (UK and Europe) I love their strapline 'the heart of Christ in the skin of every culture'

Mahabba - currently in a voluntary capacity helping  to mobilise ordinary Christians to befriend ordinary Muslims. They have  a very simple  strapline: 'loving all Muslims'

Faith2share   -   a network of mission organisations, new and old, who support each other and collaborate in global mission - their slogan is 'we believe faith needs to be shared'
  
AsiaCMS - a new mission agency in Asia (that I helped to set up), part of the CMS family  which is focused on 'advancing God's Mission through training and resourcing leaders'


I have been involved in setting up a small cooperative, so we can work with such groups - Paraklesis is a group of experienced consultants who 'come alongside to help'.


If you would like to, then you can give to any of them via Stewardship - transforming generosity'   Just log on the site and search for any of the above mentioned organisation. (you need a Stewardship  account)  If you would like to give to my personal support and ministry fund click here.  Or you can check on their individual website to find other ways of giving (feel free to mention me!)

Finally if none of that works for you, we can meet on a street corner somewhere and go through the 'Nasruddin routine'   ........  I'll take the small coin and you keep the bigger one - I promise!  And, by the way, I've no problems with being a laughing stock...... 

Storm Warning - some personal reflections

 
I've been reading a book that has taken me back to our Peshawar days. Storm Warning: Riding the Cross winds in the Pakistan-Afghanistan Borderland (Radcliffe Press 2013) by Robin Brooke-Smith, who was Principle of Edwardes College Peshawar

The title comes from an Iqbal couplet which is cited by the head of Pakistani Intelligence Service the ISI in Peshawar:   "Oh Eagle do not fear the crosswinds / They are blowing to make you fly higher.'

Robin is a close friend. We overlapped in Peshawar, when I was working in a Drug rehabilitation project as Drug Advisor. I used to go round to the Principal's House to watch rugby on occasions, for a meal (I remember Scottish Country Dancing there)  and even preached in the little chapel. Robin used to come round to our house in University Town to watch a video and get a way for a short while.  Reading the book was to be transported back to those heady days.
  
I even appear in the dramatis personae at the front of the book as 'CMS representative for South and Central Asia'  and I know a number of the characters in the book, mainly from the church side:   Bishop Manu (USPG Gen Sec), Humfrey Peters the Diocesan Secretary  Cecil Williams (Principal of Edwardes High School and then Bishop), Rev Ghani Taib, Col. Tressler and Col. Khanwal Isaacs, the college bursar. We know each other, we have shared bread together.   I am facebook friends with a  number of them.

I also developed a great affection for the Principal's house staff: Ilyas the chowkidar, the driver   Fayaz, Raj the mali, and of course  Yousef the cook, who used to bring me sweet milky 'bed tea' when I stayed over during later visits. I also remember 'Jet' the mine-dog (we also had a ex-UN, failed-mine dog called Nicker, who we renamed 'Snicker'!)

Our son Tim had a term at Edwardes College School in the hot, humid summer of 1996 that Robin mentions. It was the first time he had worn a jacket and tie. The heat nearly did him in and helped him decide to go into boarding at Murree Christian School (MCS) in the cooler climate of the foothills of the Himalayas.

As Regional Director I participated in the Centenary Celebrations in April 2000, visiting Pakistan with my wife Rachel. I preached at the Centenary Service, but was also involved in some behind the scene diplomacy with Church of Pakistan leadership, which helped to change the story a little.

And for me the highlight was the contrast between The Band of the Irish Guards and the Khattak Dancers.  It was as if a history of the Raj and the NWFP was being enacted before our very eyes. The Great Game seemed somehow very real...... and as yet unfinished.


I even wrote about it in a piece I did for my masters back in December 2000, the same year as the centenary celebrations:
  

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‘Carry on up the Khyber’:  A Strange Loop in Peshawar.

Helping to ‘Change the Story’ in a situation of complexity and cultural diversity.

 
Robin has gone into much more detail and writes a fascinating mixture of personal and poetic reflections on college life, with a sharp grasp of the bigger picture -  the wider geo-political context in which a drama was being played out in a college campus.  It makes for fascinating reading.

But I thought I would quote three extracts from what I wrote, which echo and in some ways add another perspective to what Robin has written: 

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Principal’s House, Edwardes’ College Peshawar,  Easter Sunday

A week of celebrations is about to take place to mark the Centenary of this old institution. I have been invited to represent CMS, which had a significant role in the foundation of the College and give an address during the Celebratory Service.

I arrived to learn that the Diocese has refused  to allow the use of All Saints Church in the Old City, next to the old Edwardes’ School (where the college started) for the Celebration Service. In addition an advert has been placed in the local Newspapers entitled APPEAL AND PROTEST, appealing to ‘worthy leaders’ on behalf of the ‘parent body’ and ‘owners’ who had been ‘humiliated’ and deprived from taking part in the centenary celebrations’.  And signed: ‘The Moderator Bishop’s Commissary and the Officers of the Diocese of Peshawar, Church of Pakistan’.

 

On Saturday, a press conference was held, resulting in a number of published articles, which appeared in the local Urdu and English papers on Easter Sunday. The Frontier Post declared ‘Edwardes College Principal’s appointment termed illegal’. It went on:‘The church is sad that having taken advantage of our vulnerability and innocence we have deliberately been deprived from our rights and authority in the College. Given that the Church is the legal owner and the initiator of the College, it is an injustice and an insult that we have deliberately been kept out of the Centenary celebration’. 

Edwardes’ College is a very significant college. One of the staff quoted a Pathan friend as saying that ‘the NWFP has nothing to present except Edwardes’ College’ and commended its Principal as a man of great strength, honesty and integrity. Yet the church feels that they are not involved in THEIR college and that a conspiracy is underway by the Government to take the college away. What had caused such polarisation and ambiguity, and extreme positioning of opposing forces ?

Khattak Dancers

Culture

The NorthWest Frontier Province (NWFP) is the wild-west of Pakistan, part of the untamed, semi-autonomous FATA areas  (Federally Administered Tribal Areas).  Pathan culture is one of the oldest democracies, with the ‘Shura’ (village elders) system, and a strong tribal code ‘Paktoonwali’ with its emphasis on honour and shame, relationship and revenge, hospitality  and hostility. Women are closely guarded and cocooned behind ‘chadar and chaar diwaar’  (cloth covering and 4 walls)  

Steeped in history, this is where Churchill as a war correspondent took pot-shots at Hill Tribeman (as recounted in ‘My Early Life’) Untamed by the British Raj, it was a final outpost of the Empire before the Durand Line, running through Afghanistan along the line of the Oxus River (now the Amu Darya)   separating the ‘British Lion’ from the ‘Russian Bear’. This is where the Great Game [1] was played immortalised by Kipling’s Kim. Full of romanticism, adventure, treachery. Boy’s Own country.

Since the Russian Invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, Peshawar has been also been ‘deluged’ with over a million Afghan Refugees. It has been a hot-bed of intrigue, drug smuggling (Afghanistan is the World’s No. 1 producer of Opium) and Guns (Darra Village where any weapon can be copied and Kalashnokovs sells for a few pounds). This is all symbolised by ‘The Khyber Pass’, connecting Afghanistan and Pakistan, the scene of the ‘Carry on’ film drama of the title.

Pakistan means ‘Land of the Pure’ yet it is reputedly the second most corrupt country in the world. It was set up as an ideological and religious state in 1947, a homeland for the Muslims of the Indian Subcontinent. Its flag of predominantly Islamic Green, has a strip of white to symbolise space for minorities. But as they say in Pakistan in various sayings or texts in urdu: ‘majority has authority’ or ‘whoever has the stick has the Buffalo’ (‘jyski lathi, uski bayhns’)

Band of the Irish Guards

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All’s well that ends well ?

The final Celebration was a grand affair with a large colourful ‘Shamiana’ [2] providing covering for hundreds of visitors in front of the New Centenary Building. The Governor of NWFP was the chief guest, with the British High Commissioner and Greek Ambassador, along with other Dignitaries. There were apparently marksmen on the roof because of a bomb threat against the band, which added to the drama of the occasion.  But the Church was present and represented by the Moderator and officers of the Diocese. A degree of reconciliation had taken place.  This had been given public expression and ‘face’ was saved.

The Pipes and Drums and Fifes of the Irish Guards, marched on in their military splendour, wearing large black, Bear Skins in spite of the heat – performing for half an hour. They were followed by the Frontier Constabulary’s troupe of Khattack dancers in an exciting display – like whirling dervishes with swords. It seemed like a hundred years of history was enacted before our eyes. The British Raj, pomp and ceremony, followed by the untamable excitement of Tribal Rule. ‘Carry on up the Khyber’ indeed! 

During the inevitable speeches, the Principal recalled the college’s academic past. The Governor made his opening remarks and a public promise of a donation to the college of 2 lakh Rupees (£2,500). The Moderator was invited to pray and used the opportunity to express the churches’ support. A scuffle of activity from the Commissary, a word  to the Master of ceremonies and a whisper in the Moderator’s ear. Then he also announced a contribution of exactly the same amount from the church.   A proper balance of power had been restored!

A postscript

During the after-ceremony lunch, there was a presentation of a British Council collection of English classic books, ‘the Everyman Millenium Collection’, to the College Library. The British Ambassador making the presentation gave the Principal a token book and chuckled.   He had chosen -  Machievelli’s ‘the Prince’ ! [3] 

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[1] Peter Hopkirk The Great Game (OUP) - Captain Conolly of the Bengal Light Infantry first coined the term ‘The Great Game’ to describe the shadow play of British and Czarist agents across Central Asia as the Russian frontiers pushed closer to India’  

[2] A Shamiana is a very colourful tent used at times of public functions: weddings and funerals. Culturally  more often than not  representiing celebration – and a place where people are honoured publically. And attendance is everything.

[3] cf McAlpine A. ‘The New Machievelli: Renaissance Real Politik for Modern Managers’  (Aurum Press 1997) ‘There is no evidence to suggest that Machiavelli was himself an evil man. However he clearly understood the capacity for evil that links all of us. The point is not that Machiavelli advocated evil doing , rather that he accepted that for all human activity and especially politics will involve evil doing. Having acknowledged that evil is unavoidable, Machiavelli tries to show his Prince how to recognise it for what it is and to use it for his own advantage.’   Pg 6

I recommend the book. Buy a copy or get your local library to order a copy (I've been reading CMS's Crowther Centre library copy). Read it and let it transport you to the wild (north) west, frontier town of Peshawar, in the mid-nineties before 9/11 and the subsequent war of terror.

There are more details of the book first public response on Wordpress.
There will be a book launch at Shrewsbury School Saturday 16th March

Nasruddin: Cutting off the branch he's sitting on

LEAVING CMS
 

As you may know, I have been due to leave CMS for some months now following the successful launch of AsiaCMS based in Kuala Lumpur. So now it really  is 'time to say goodbye' (have a look at the YouTube video)

I finished my formal contract with CMS as a Director on 31/July 2012  And since then have been working as a self-employed Mission consultant.

For the past few months this has included helping CMS 3 days a week with transition. I have also been teaching the CYM Diversity Module and doing an engagement survey with SAC  I have also done some Appreciative Inquiry workshops with Tearfund and have engaged with a change process with a  church in Quinton, Birmingham. I am open to other work as part of a developing portfolio,  so if you know anything....

There are lots of opportunities and I am also starting to raise a ministry fund (via Stewardship Services)  so I can continue to engage with work in Asia through AsiaCMS and Faith2Share

Some people have asked if I'm retiring!  to which I usually reply that I am far too young.  And there is far to much to do. So I am developing a portfolio of global-local consultancy. 

My role in CMS  has been handed over to Kang-San Tan the new Executive Director of AsiaCMS based in KL and Paul Thaxter the CMS Transcultural Director based in Oxford.     Olivia Jackson, the new Transcultural Manager for Asia has taken on the work that Adrian Watkins and John Hayward did, but in a redefined role that works alongside AsiaCMS .  I wrote about this earlier - the three Musketeers finding their D'Artagnon

LOOKING BACK

  
 





It has been a privilege to work with CMS these past 26 - Nearly 13 years in Pakistan as a Mission Partner and then as a Regional Director for nearly 14 years.  I wrote some notes for the speech I never did at CMS (I just told a Nasruddin story instead - see below) 

But just a few of the highlights since joining CMS in 1985: 

• CMS Training at Crowther Hall (and SIL summer school) in 1985
• IBTIDA drug Rehabilitation Project in Karachi – 10 years of ministry ‘heady days’ of rushing around the city trying to save heroin addicts from their addiction  
• Ordination as a permanent deacon in 1998 in Church of Pakistan
• Accused of blasphemy by the infamous Takhbeer magazine – a spiritual ‘high’  
• Moving to Peshawar and working with ORA  and the Afghan led NEJAT drug project (the start of my relationship with Afghanistan)
• 1998 taking on role of Middle East and Pakistan ‘secretary’ following Bob Wilkes (and John Clark before him) and doing  ‘Bob’s Job’ (I only got the job cos I was the closest look-alike!)
• Lots of CMS Residentials for strategic planning  and pub conversations   
• the RTA when I broke my sternum on the way to St Julian’s (now St Cuthman’s)  George got whiplash and Richard broke his ankle.
• President/chair of our partner organisation in Afghanistan for 8+ years with trips twice a year to Kabul
• The CMS move to Oxford from Partnership House (see  my blog on end of western mission)
• The AsiaCMS process and the setting up a new mission entity in Asia
• Flying well over one million miles of mission since I started (mainly with Emirates – Dubai lounge being my second home!)
• My kids still think my job was about taking people out for meals and giving them toblerone ....   (or maybe a spook – ‘MI5 not 9to5’)
• As I have travelled Nasruddin has been my constant travelling companion....
  

There are many other experiences over the years.  I have worked under 6 ‘General Secretaries’/ CEO/ Executive Leader

1. Simon Barrington-Ward
2. Harry Moore
3. Michael Nazir-Ali
4. Diana Witts
5. Tim Dakin
6. Philip Mounstephen
   

I feel CMS is in safe hands under Philip’s leadership and look forward to seeing what the new ‘radical continuity’ looks like.......

CONSULTANCY 

 Now back to that story about Mullah Nasruddin:

 

 Nasruddin is sitting on a  branch, chopping it off for fire-wood. A passerby warns him: 'What are you doing, if you cut that branch you will fall and die!'

The Mullah thinks: "This is some foolish person who has no work to do but go around telling other people what to do and what not to do." 

While his mind was on this train of thought, down comes Nasruddin together with the branch he had just managed to chop.

Lying dazed on his back, the Mullah realises the man must indeed be a prophet and that therefore he must be dead as he predicted. So he continues to lie down dead, wondering what would happen next. 

Passerbys see him 'dead' underneath the tree and lift him up and put him in a coffin to carry him to the graveyard. As they are taking him they come to a fork in the road and start arguing about which is with quickest way to the graveyard. 

After a while the irritated Mulla sits up, pointing and exclaims: 'When I was alive that was the right way.....'

The past few years helping to realise the vision of a new AsiaCMS has been like sitting on the branch that you are cutting off.  It involves an inevitable and predictable ‘fall’ and a sort of ‘dying’.  And I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way (except maybe finding another branch to sit on!)

And being a consultant is very similar to sitting up from the coffin when people are confused about the way forward and suggesting ‘well, when I was around we used to do it this way...’
Well that's one form of consultancy (diagnostic) anyway - I actually prefer helping people to think through and decide for themselves (dialogical).   But if any of you need a consultant to suggest ways forward just get in touch with ‘the Mullah’......

The Fourth Musketeer

 

Alexandre Dumas' famous Musketeers as in this 1894 image by Maurice Leloir

The Three Musketeers (French: Les Trois Mousquetaires) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, first serialized in March–July 1844. Set in the 17th century, it recounts the adventures of a young man named d'Artagnan after he leaves home to travel to Paris, to join the Musketeers of the Guard. D'Artagnan is not one of the musketeers of the title; those are his friends Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, inseparable friends who live by the motto "all for one, one for all" ("un pour tous, tous pour un"), a motto which is first put forth by d'Artagnan.^[1]


There have been numerous films that retell the tale of D'Artagnon  and the 3 Musketeers
one of the most inappropriate being Barbie and the 3 Musketeers! And there is a lego set to boot.... 

Even made famous in Asia through Slumdog Millionaire as the final million dollar question....

And I suppose any group of 3 men can easily be nicknamed 'three Musketeers'  which is exactly what happened to us in CMS.  It was at our Nepal Conference in April that the 3 Musketeers were first farewelled - Adrian, John and myself who had all worked for the formation of AsiaCMS  : 'One for all and all for one'

Since then we had been looking for a D'Artagnon to pass on all our skill and experience. Until finally the new musketeer has been chosen  .... and all is revealed  ..... 

















 Athos (Adrian)  Porthos (Phil)   D'Artagnon (Olivia)  and  Aramis (John)  

Olivia now joins us  as the forth musketeer.....  and will be looking after CMS work in Asia as the new mission manager.   And I understand she has had a certain nickname.  So maybe that 'Barbie and the 3 Musketeers' was not as outrageous after all!  

This now means the other three can start enjoying their 'retirement plan'. Mind you any sighting of Cardinal Richelieu will bring them all running to defend the Kingdom ......

All for One and One for All !    ('un pour tous, tous pour un')

Partnership House and the 'end of Western Mission'

I used to work in Partnership House in Waterloo,  London, the 'headquarters' of the Church Mission Society CMS. The local post office used to call it 'Go Forth House' because of the stone inscription across the doorway.  It was the Great Commission according to Mark 16:15  (NEV)

 ‘GO FORTH to EVERY PART of THE WORLD and PROCLAIM the GOOD NEWS to the WHOLE CREATION’     

 
Now the site on 157 Waterloo Road is empty air as it has been knocked down and is being built on .  CMS moved to Oxford back in in 2008.

After being sold,  Partnership House was all boarded up (with squatters living in) until it was finally knocked down.  I travelled past on quite a  few occasions and it looked like Western Mission Agencies (WMA) had indeed shut up shop.  

Some have suggested that mission ended in the 20th century.  People like Vishal Mangalwadi  have suggested we have reached the end of Christendom model and Western Mission. 

But there has been a Global shift. In Church terms the Global North may indeed have been squeezed and shrinking,  but the Global Balloon is expanding in the South.   South America, Africa and Asia are where the church is growing and are becoming the new centres of mission. Mission is no longer from the 'West to the Rest' but (as in the title of a book by Michael Nazir-Ali) it is  'Everywhere to Everywhere'
 

 

Someone sent some pictures to us in CMS which showed PH in the process of being deconstructed  (14 June 2012) 

I thought you might be interested in the attached Pictures of the former Church Mission Society HQ in Waterloo Road which has been bricked up for sometime and was covered in Scaffolding whilst they demolished it.
However I remembered the Phrase above the entrance from Mark 16:15. Well, today I had my Camera for another reason and happened to go that way and they are obviously down to the last part of the entrance/chapel and have uncovered it ready for final demolition.
I always thought it was a pity that this should go and not be listed /moved to another location somehow, but then it was a 1960's office block..... Still I took a couple of poignant pictures of the verse. 

 

 

Yes it is in some ways poignant, but as I have blogged beforehand.  it may be that the Institution is being replaced by a new sense of movement and community. The Good News is still around to be proclaimed to the whole of creation......