Wrestling with Angels

'Wrestling with Angels' is the title of a book by Rowan Williams,  subtitled 'Conversations in Modern Theology' (SCM 2007  ed Mike Higton). The picture is based on one I found on the Internet, which I painted and used for an essay I wrote on 'Faith Seeking Understanding' in Summer 2006.   But the painting for me has come to symbolise theological struggle. ......

The story is related in the Genesis narative:

Then Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. (Gen 32:24-30)

So much theology can be sterile abstraction. ‘unfruitful, abstract theology that gets lost in a labyrinth of academic trivialities’  Karl Barth paraphrasing AMOS  ‘ I hate, I despise your lectures and seminars, your sermons, addresses and Bible Studies…When you display your hermeneutic, dogmatic, ethical and pastoral bits of wisdom before one another and before me, I have no pleasure in them… Take away from me your …thick books and ,,, your dissertations…your theological magazines, monthlies and quarterlies.’ (Barth ‘Evangelical Theology’ 120 in  Migliore, Daniel L. Faith seeking Understanding : An introduction to Christian Theology  2^nd edition Erdmanns 2004 p6) 
  

Anselm coined a phare, a slogan: ‘fides quarens intellectum’  ‘faith seeking understanding’,

FAITH  

‘I pray, O God, to know thee, to love thee, that I may rejoice in thee’  Anselm

Faith is itself an engagement with the Divine Other.  Faith is engaging with the living God  - entering the ‘mystery of God.’  Theology is not about solving issues and discovering truth. It is about discovering God. Gabriel Marcel suggests  ‘unlike a problem which can be solved, is a mystery which is ‘inexhaustible’  Migliore/ p3   (Eph 1:19)

SEEKING

Christian faith prompts enquiry, searches for deeper understanding, dares to raise questions’  (Miglore  p2)

‘Searching the Scriptures’  is a key part of the seeking after God (Jn 5:39).  Perhaps our greatest struggle is with the text of Scripture itself and understanding in what way it is the ‘word of God’. The two extremes of liberal rationalism, which seems to leave little room for divine inspiration and conservative evangelical ‘Biblicism’, (McGrath  p 177 explores the Old Princeton School and the origin of concept of absolute Biblical infallibility) which appears to leave no room for human fallibility. The struggle with understanding the relationship between divine inspiration and the human fallibility of Scripture is as complex as seeking to understand the divinity and humanity of the Son of God!

 UNDERSTANDING

‘Christian faith asks questions, seeks understanding both because God is always greater than our ideas of God and because the public world that faith inhabits confronts it with challenges and contradictions that cannot be ignored’ (Migliore pg 4)

The idea that somehow ‘truth’ can be ‘possessed’ seems almost an anathema. Faith must be  always seeking, always searching, always desiring. The ultimate goal is God. (Ps 42:1)

So is theology rationally ‘thinking’ about faith?   Or is it more ‘faith’ doing ‘the thinking’? The dominant question in the New Testament  is still  ‘what must I do to be saved’, rather than ‘what must I know.’ It is not information about God but ‘the life-giving and salvation-bringing self-disclosure of God’ (McGrath 201) Revelation does not abolish the mystery of God, but is its starting point. Thinking is but one part of the outworking of this mystery. ‘faith sings, confesses, rejoices, suffers, prays, and acts’ (Migliore 7)  Faith is relational as well as rational. Experience is the starting point. The outworking, practical application, and relevance of the Gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ - is in the transformation of human lives (including mine). 

FAITH SEEKING UNDERSTANDING

The dominant image I am left with is of WRESTLING, particularly wrestling with words. Jacob wrestling with the ‘man’ becomes a metaphor of theological struggle – desperately seeking after God  - wrestling - and afterwards trying to understand the meaning of the encounter  ‘you have striven with God and men and have prevailed’

I particularly like the final picture because it is overlaid with words and part of our struggle is with words and ideas, trying to find language to describe the indescribable.  And the apparent theological impossibility of being succinct!

It is a struggle with others (‘God and man’) over meaning, but ultimately a struggle alone (Gen32v24).  It is a ‘laming-naming’ experience in that the ‘battle’ results in both ‘bruising or brokenness’ (Gen32v25), as well as the ‘blessing’ of a new identity (Gen32v28).  Any theological encounter should have a similarly profound effect on each of us. 

  

Special FX church

The image is a bit of a doodle that became a version of Rublev’s Icon of the Trinity crossed with a hint of Eric von Daniken ‘Chariots of the Gods: I remember asking 'was God an Astronaut’ as a youth)

The mysterious visit of the 3 men/angels in Genesis 18, who somehow represent the Trinity in Orthodox thinking, lends itself to a bit of speculation, full of mystery.

My picture came about as a result of drawing the halos which somehow looked like space helmets, and it sort of took off from there...... !

I can vividly remember watching the Apollo moon landings, so maybe in our age its appropriate to portray the church in these cosmic terms...

A MISSION-SHAPED GATHERING

CMS was hosting a visit by 4 Korean clergy, who wanted to look at Mission Shaped Church. We attended the Fresh Expressions and Pioneering conference run by centre for Pioneer Learning It was too good an opportunity to miss.

Over 50 participants gathered from mainly from Europe - Scandinavia, Germany, France,

Scotland. US and Canada: Australia and New Zealand. Plus the 4 Koreans.

The centre is run by Dave Male with input from Andrew Roberts on the Mission Shaped Ministry (MSM) course, Adrian Chatfield on mission-shaped spirituality. Bishop Graham Cray on the mission shaped movement; and Mike Moynaugh on mission-shaped theology. Everything was mission shaped. Even the sandwiches were mission shaped (they were nice triangles!)

SPECIAL EFFECTS

Fresh Expressions is often abbreviated as FX. For me that is Special Effects (I remember the movie of that name and FX2 the deadly art of illusion. Maybe that is what the Church is seeking to do - add some special effects making it more trendy, more audio-visual, more sexy, more appealing in the 21st century. enabling church to take somehow off.

Special effects can be gimmicky, all about lights and tricks and illusions. there can be expectations on pioneers to be similarly gimmicky.

Yet I was struck by how 'ordinary' many FX churches are : Messy church; Cafe church; Network church; rural church; Cell-church run by people who are trying to be essentially Mission-Shaped.

We visited Thirst a Friday morning Cafe Church meeting in a school and Cambourne, an ecumenical (Anglican Baptist Methodist URC) Church which started in a garage and a Doctors surgery and now has an expandable A-frame church building in the middle of a new Estate. And there was nothing gimmicky about them. They were ordinary people trying to make the church relevant to their context.

PIONEERING - TO BOLDLY GO

Like the star ship enterprise, there is a sense of pioneering being about 'going boldly where no man has gone before' A lot is experimental and exploratory, tentative and partial informal and flexible.

Pioneers are people who don't quite fit in with the centre, and like to push out into unexplored territory, they are happy on the edge.

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!

Graham Cray reminded us its not rocket science. a Fresh Expression is defined simply as 'a form of church for our changing culture, established primarily for the benefit of people who are not yet members of any church'

The Archbishop of Canterbury coined the phrase Mixed Economy to describe the range of church, traditional and modern , fresh expressions Not either or but BOTH/ AND. "celebrating and building on what is mission -shaped in traditional forms of church and finding new, flexible appropriate ways to proclaim the Gospel afresh to those who do not relate to traditional ways" Permission has been given to allow Church to take off.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS

Back to the Trinity and Rublev's ICON. Mike Moynaugh reminded us that the Missio Dei originated in the Tri-unity of God, drawing us into Communion. Mission is the eternal decision of God the Trinity 'communion in mission;

which the church takes and becomes 'community in mission' The church is misisonary and 'becomes missionary by attending to each and every context in which it finds itself' - 'The word became flesh and moved into the neighbourhood'

There is a sense that in Church, (FX or not), we are creating something 'other worldly', because in church we encounter the Divine....  sort of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'

'Encounters' Redcliffe's Mission ezine

'Encounters'  the Redcliffe College ezine is an excellent free resource for poeple interested in misison  

Produced to resource the mission community, Encounters Mission Ezine is a topical mission magazine / mission journal published online every two months.  Encounters is a place to discuss issues being faced in mission and provides a unique space where those involved in mission can respond and express their views.

I want  to draw your attention to 2 editions in particular, which focus on Asia:  

  ezine No 16 (Feb 07)

  Crucial Issues facing Asian Mission  ed Kang San Tan   a variety of issues facing Asian missions reflected through different approaches spanning North Asia, South Asia and South East Asia   You can download the full issue  or individual articles 

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• Article 1:  The Problem of an Alien Jesus for Asian Christianity with Special Reference to Chinese Buddhists.
  (Dr Kang San Tan, 3782 words) 
  
• Article 2:  Mind the Gap: The Ongoing Need for Language Learning in Missions Training.
  (Dr Paul Woods, 2963 words)
  
• Article 3:  There and Back Again: Reading an Exilic Text for the Post 1987 Operation Lallang Malaysian Church.
  (Rev Anthony Loke, 2522 words) 
  
• Article 4:  Reconciliation as Mission.
  (Rev Dr Pervaiz Sultan, 2299 words) 
  
• Article 5:  The Malaysian Dilemma: Where is the Racially Reconciled Community?
  (Peter Rowan, 1661 words)
  
• Article 6:  The South Asian Diaspora: A Missed Opportunity?
  (Robin Thomson, 2549 words) 
  
• Article 7:  The Growth of Christianity in Asia and its Impact on Mission.
  (Dr Julie Ma, 2730 words) 
  
• Book Review 1:  A History of Christianity in Asia.
  (By Samuel Hugh Moffett; Orbis Books)
  
• Book Review 2:  Shining Like Stars: The Power of the Gospel in the World's Universities.
  (By Lindsay Brown; Inter-Varsity Press)

  ezine No 24 (Jun 08) 

Partnership issues in Asian Misison    ed Jonathan Ingleby  consiting of the papers at the Redcliffe/OMF/CMS conference  Growing Asian Mission Movements: Issues and Models for Partnership   You can download the full issue  or individual articles  

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• Article 1:  China and Beyond: Issues, Trends and Opportunities - The Redcliffe Lecture in World Christianity, 2008.
  (Dr Patrick Fung, 7507 words) 
  
• Article 2:  Asian Mission Movements from South Asian Contexts.
  (Robin Thomson, 3031 words)
  
• Article 3:  Who is in the Driver's Seat? A critique of mission partnership models between Western missions and East Asian mission movements.
  (Dr Kang-San Tan, 3060 words) 
  
• Article 4:  Mission Asia: Practical Models in Mission Partnership - a summary.
  (Dr Patrick Fung, 2083 words) 
  
• Article 5:  Mission in Partnership: A Response.
  (Mark Oxbrow, 722 words) 
  
• Article 6:  Reflections on a Conference: Putting partnership at the top of the agenda.
  (Dr Jonathan Ingleby, 640 words) 
  
• Article 7:  A Dilemma for Obedience: An analysis of Japanese Christian Ethics in Silence by Shusaku Endo.
  (Rev Shuma Iwai, 3431 words) 
  
• Book Review 1:  Just Walk With Me: A True Story of Inner-City Youth Work.
  (by Jude Simpson and e:merge; Authentic Media) 
  
• Book Review 2:  The New Conspirators: Creating the Future One Mustard Seed at a Time by Tom Sine.
  (by Tom Sine; Inter-Varsity Press, USA) 

Redcliffe's ezine has many supporters and contributers, and CMS is one. I have written an article for the next issue based on a paper at the recent conference on Asian Mission Movements. It highlights some of the changes weare going through. I'll keep you posted on its publication.   

3rd places and liminality : Graceworks - Woking

Ali the Graceworks Youth Minister at Christchurch did a presentation on Youthn ministry as par tof his Pioneer ministry course at St Militus  (Graham Tomlin )

I want to reflect on 3 things I picked up on  Liminality, Thrid places and a simple rule of life 

LIMINALITY 

Roxborough is the guru on Liminality. See for example The Sky Is Falling: Leaders Lost in Transition  and also the Roxborough journal  where I found the following:     

the mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot famous for chaos theory, who generated the idea that when a butterfly flaps its winds in the middle of a South American rain forest it causes a storm over New York City. They were discussing how we typically imagine ourselves living in a managed, predictable world where repeated patterns of activity cause us to assume the patterns will continue on into the future. Their challenge this belief by stating that, in fact, small, unnoticed disturbances result in massive, unpredictable consequences in the most unexpected places.

Jonny Baker calls him   A kindred spirit

I like the expression: 'Living with the impact of the improbable'. It is on the edge of chaos where the most creativity is to be found.

If you are interested it also worth looking at together in mission  and their work on 

Responding to a changing landscape   gathering - learning - travelling

 

In their Youth strategy  Graceworks focuses on 4 areas of

Leadership discipleship worship and mission

This is part of the mission-shaped church focus. They are looking at pushing the boundaries with a possible change of venue and time  and video based teaching.  

 

THIRD PLACES

 

The Great Good Place, Ray Oldenburg (1989, 1991) 

“Most needed are those ‘third places’ which lend a public balance to the increased privatization of home life. Third places are nothing more than informal public gathering places. The phrase ‘third places’ derives from considering our homes to be the ‘first’ places in our lives, and our work places the ‘second.’”

Third places  (home is 1^st place, school work is 2^nd) are the most significant places for Christian mission to occur because in a third place people are more relaxed more open to meaningful conversation and interaction.

Places where community can be built, where access is  free, food is available  accessible places within walking distance,  gathering places which are comfortable and welcoming where friends are to be found.

BT had  agreat quote about small rituals and 3rd places 

'Third Places' are neither home nor workplace, but somewhere between. Places to meet, socialise, relax, hang out, work away from the office. Places to eat and drink without pressure to consume or move on. The 'third place' is epitomised by the modern coffee shop, with its sofas and newspapers - a revival of its 18th century role - or by the internet cafe.

That coffee shops should be third places more than bars, say, has to do with the beverages consumed. Stay in the bar all afternoon and you will get drunk. Stay in the coffee house and you will get things done. Of course it's not always that clear-cut. But for a place serving alcohol to function as a third place, its raison d'etre must not be the consumption of alcohol.

Of course, in many ways this is a new name for the role that cafes have long performed in Mediterranean life. But the 'third place' is not focussed on the act of eating and drinking in the fashion of traditional cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs. The food or drink one consumes is the entry fee, not the point. The 'third place' is a living room, but not in someone's house; a workplace, but not in someone's office.

Mission is incarnational it is about knowing 'God in Culture'   The goodnews can only be proclaimed IN a culture not AT a culture. And 'coffee shops' are part of our culuture

Exploration of the use of the coffee shop space in Christchurch (Beacon) is under review. Is it possible to create a third space which is multi-user-friendly for young and old alike ? Starbucks sees to have done so.  

Whatever he does Ali has my support.  Gracework's  Re-roote has been great for all of my kids.   

I'll leave it at that and think about the Simple rule of life next time 

'The Shack' a great story for Trinity Sunday

The Shack, a novel by Wm. Paul Young is something of a publishing legend.  I quoted from it during this morning's sermon, on Trinity Sunday, as an illustration of the relational nature of God. 

The main character Mack meets three people in the Shack who take him on a journey dealing with a major life trauma – the brutal death of his daughter.

• ‘Elousia’ a beaming African-American woman, a large, homely woman who embraces him in a bear hug.  ‘Papa’ as people call her is full of homely wisdom, as she cooks and housekeeps. 

• A Middle-Eastern looking handyman called Yeshua (or Joshua, or Jesse),   but called by his common name  ‘Jesus’ throughout. He is about 30, ordinary looking and he 'fixes things'. 

• And a small Asian looking woman called ‘Sarayu’ - translucent, shimmering in the light, with hair going in all directions as if blown by the wind.  Easier seen out of the corner of the eye, Sarayu is 'keeper of the gardens among other things'
  

 

And Mack ponders that  'since there were three of them, maybe this was a Trinity sort of thing. But two women and a man and none of them white?'     

It may not fit your image of God either... 

“Then,” Mack struggles to ask, “Which one of you is God?”
“I am.” Said all three in unison. Mack looked from one to the next, and even through he couldn’t begin to grasp what he was seeing and hearing, he somehow believed them. (p87)

One domestic scene represents this relational nature (P104-105) Mack goes to investigate a noise: 

Mack was shocked at the scene in front of him. It appeared that Jesus had dropped a large bowl of some sort of batter on the floor and it was everywhere. It must have landed close to Papa because the lower portion of her skirt and bare feet were covered in the gooey mess. All three were laughing so hard that Mack didn’t think they were breathing. Sarayu said something about humans being clumsy and all three started roaring again. Finally Jesus brushed past Mack and returned a mnute later with a large basin of water and towels. Sarayu has already started wiping the goop from the floor and cupboards, but Jesus went straight to Papa and, kneeling at her feet, began to wipe off the front of her clothes. He worked down to her feet and gently lifted one foot at a time, which he directed into the basin where he cleaned and massaged it.
‘Ooooh, that feels soooo good!” exclaimed Papa as she continued her tasks at the counter.
As he leaned against the door watching, Mack’s mind was full of thoughts. So this was God in relationship? It was beautiful and so appealing. He knew that it didn’t matter whose fault it was – the mess from some bowl had been broken, that a dish had been planned and not shared. Obviously what was important here was the love they had for one another and the fullness it brought them. He shook his head. How different this was from the way he treated the ones he loved!

The appeal of this homely allegory (some have compared it to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress)  is the domestic ordinariness of life - that God who is essential relational invites us into that relationship - to participate in a meal. 

There are interesting ‘online debates' on who might be cast for a film version. Some people are reminded of the Matrix.    

Who would you cast in the various roles?

The changing face of Asia - UBS Pune

The changing face of Asia

At our recent CMS co-mission partners CoMP conference we had people from all over india, north and south, Mixzoram, Nepal and other neighbouring Himalayan countries plus Singapore, Honk Kong and Korea. They came together for a week’s programme at UBS Pune. And they represented the changig face of CMS in Asia

This was followed by a day’s consultation with leaders and partners from all over India. We were listening to their voices regarding the future of CMS in Asia. We followed an appreciative enquiry cycle of Describing current reality, Dreaming about future possibilities, Designing a road map for the future and Delivering practical steps towards the common goal. It was an excellent day with a high level of participation. More of that another time.  

The overt purpose of the CoMP programme was for further (core) training but as always the main benefit was definitely relational. Fellowship over meals and trips out cement friendships. And friendships build community. These can be maintained by electonic means e-groups Facebook,  Flikkr. But face-to-face encounters are a must.   

I have been reading ‘God is rice’ by Masao Takenaka. He suggest it is through eating rice together that we build community and bring in the kingdom.  

As a part of the programme we also visited Satvana Home as well as Dr Lalita Edwardes work with Hijra in Pune  plus IMCARES homes for children of sex workers in Pune

We were meeting at Union Biblical Seminary  (UBS) Pune. Founded in 1953 by Dr Frank Klein a Methodist. They have been hosting an Annual missionary conference since 1977 and CMS consultation since 1992 - when initially 8 papers presented on Missiological issues in Indian context . These papers were published in 1994 ‘Doing Mission in Context’.

Other publications include:
'The Church in India: its mission tomorrow' (CMS 1996)
Consortium for Indian Missiologiocal Education (CIME 2002)
UBS journal and CD ‘Celebrating God’s faithfulness’ (UBS 2003)
10th CMS consultation in 2004 on ‘Nationalism and Hindutva: a Christian response’

The Centre for Misison Studies (CMS) was inaugurated - integrating the Dept of Mission, CES and Students wives programme It was supported through a bicentenary grant by CMS UK
I bought a ‘shelf’ of books, around 2000 Rs worth, for the Crowther mission centre library in OXFORD. This is part of changing the face of mission in Britain through hearing more Asian voices.

Christ Mandela by Nalina Jayasuriya

This is another post in the series 'God is Rice'  with quotes from the book by Masao Takenaka

Christ's anointing by Nalini Jayasuriya from Sri Lanka 

Many Asian Christian artists such as Jyoti Sahi, Nalini Jayasuriya and Alphonso are utilising the rhythmic form of the circle and centre to express the presence of Christ. They clearly and simply place Christ at the centre and in that representation he embraces the cosmos as a whole. 

Take for example the painting Christ Mandala by Nalini Jayasuriya, She is a third generation Christian from Sri Lanka, where Buddhism is the predominant religion. To be sure, there are numerous expressions of mandalas, varying according to locality, such as Tibetan, Chinese, Japanese. The original meaning of mandala is ‘assembly.’

In Nalini Jayasuriya’s Christ Mandella we find in the centre the Christ figure. He is seated in the lotus posture of meditation with his hands in a Mandala gesture of blessing. He is surrounded by a circle which can be interpreted as a mandala or halo (a ring of light) position) representing the glory of God. Or it can be read as a mandala of a circle of light showing Christ as the centre of the Universe. To the left and the right are fiur small human figures representing the four evangelists (left above Matthew , the human figure; left below Mark the lion; right below Luke the ox and right above John the eagle) we also note tha above the figure of Christ there are three suns representing the Trinity, and all the motif’s float on a sea of fine circular lines suggestive of the vibrations from the centre outwards and back again.

This suggests a harmony rather than dualism between spirit and body, secular and sacred, the paternal an the material , heaven and earth. positive and negative and good and evil

you can find more on Yale's Prism

and and article by Nalina Jayasuriya on art as theology

The 'Christ Mandella' image is used on the front cover of Christianity and the Religions: From Confrontation to Dialogue by Jacques Dupuis, 

 

God is rice: Masao Takenaka

GOD IS RICE

I am reading the classic book on Asian Spirituality 'God is Rice:  Asian Culture and Christian Faith' by Masao Takenaka (WCC,1986)

I will share some of his insight over a number of blogs because it covers a range of interests in church, culture, mission, art, spirituality. And it connects very much with the search for indigenous, Asian missiology.     The following is an extract:  

Asia is so big and diverse. It is not easy to identify Asia. What we have in common is the habit of eating rice, the ubiquitous bamboo, and the use of broken English as a necessary evil for inter-Asian communication.

We can trace the Silk Road along which silk was transported by horses and camels. We can trace the ceramic route taken by boats. Both were primarily for the rulers and the rich. But we can also trace the rice road, and that was used by common people all over Asia. To be sure there were varieties of rice; what one ate depended on geography and personal preference. Nevertheless, it remains true that rice has been and is our daily food in Asia.

It is appropriate for us therefore to say ‘God is rice’, rather than ‘God is bread.’  Kim Chi-Ha, the well known Korean Christian poet, who was sent to prison several times in the last 10 years (70/80s), has written

Heaven is rice
As we cannot go to heaven alone
We should share rice with one another
As all share the light of the heavenly stars
We should share and eat rice together
Heaven is rice
When we eat and swallow rice
Heaven dwells in our body
Rice is heaven
Yes rice is the matter
We should all eat together

It certainly reminds us of holy communion, which is the occasion to share our daily food together with all people and a symbol of eternal life. This has a social implication as well as a spiritual meaning. The Chinese character for peace(wa) literally means harmony. It derives from two words: one is rice and the other is mouth. It means that unless we share rice together with all people, we will not have peace. When every mouth in the whole inhabited world is filled with daily food then we can have peace on earth.   (p 17-19)

'Last Supper by' Sadao Watanabe

When he was in his mid teens Sadao Watanabe, a well-known Japanese print artist, fist visited a Christian church, introduced by a neighbour who was a school teacher. He had lost his father when he was ten years old, and tended to live a closed and isolated life. He described his first impression of Christianity as follows

'In the beginning I had a negative reaction to Christianity. The atmosphere was full of "the smell of butter", so foreign to the ordinary Japanese'

(Sadao Watanabe - the man and his work by Masao Tekenaka in biblical Prints by Sadao Watanabe 1986)

Now in his print work he joyfully depicts the celebration of the holy communion with sushi, pickled fish and rice, a typical Japanese dish, served on traditional folk art plates. For him rice is a more natural and a more fitting symbol of daily food than bread which is foreign.    (p6-7)

Big Garden Birdwatch - the power of participation

This weekend 24-25th Jan was the Big Garden Birdwatch. 

According to the RSPB it has now been going for 30 years. It started by asking young birwatchers to count the birds in their garden and has grown into the biggest survey of its kind.  Some 3 million BGB hours  (380 years!)  have been clocked up and 6 million birds spotted. RSPB then literally work out the pecking order! Because the survey is conducted the same way each year, population trends are observed and the RSPB can then target those species more in danger.   It's the best wildlife survey in the world. 

It's also a great example of how social networking contributes to research and the power of participation. I felt I had taken part in something much bigger. Contribution creating ownership.  

I spent a great hour before Church on Sunday morning and saw Magpie, WoodPigeon, Blue Tit, Coal Tit, Robin, House Sparrow, Great Tit, Blackbird, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Long Tailed Tit.   And three Grey Squirrels.  The highlight was seeing the longtailed Tit and the Woodpecker in the Garden for the first time.  And the birdsong was heavenly. Better than Church.  Which is maybe why we are told to 'consider the birds of the air'  - what John Stott  calls 'Orna-theology' !

The results of the survey will be out in March. 

The Global Christ

There is much talk of the Global Christ and how he is only fully realised as each culture engages with him and brings fresh understanding  (cf Andrew Walls   Ephesian Moment  ) 

He Qi's picture of the Risen Christ expresses some of this. 

 

Jaroslav Pelikan’s exceptional book ‘Jesus through the centuries’ explores some of these understandings, as various cultures have engaged with Christ over the centuries and the insights that have resulted and added to the bigger picture of the Global Christ  

Strong Son of God, immortaL Love, 

Whom we, that have not seen thy face

By faith, and faith alone, embrace, 

Believing where we cannot prove...

Our little systems have their day; 

They have their day and cease to be:  

They are but broken lights of thee, 

And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

 Alfred Lord Tennyson,  In Memorium 

The Provincial Museum of Alberta have an amazing online exhibition on the subject 'Anno Domini:  Jesus through the centuries.  Exploring the heart of two Millenia'. well worth a look.  

I also found the following quotation  thought provoking:

Jesus/Christ as hybrid concept

The most hybridized concept in the Christian tradition is that of Jesus/Christ. The space between Jesus and Christ is unsettling and fluid, resisting easy categorization and closure. It is the ‘contact zone’ or ‘borderland’ between the human and divine, the one and the many, the historical and cosmological, the Jewish and the Hellenistic, the prophetic and the sacramental, the God of the conquerors and the God of the meek and the lowly. Jesus question “Who do you say that I am?” is an invitation for every Christian and local faith community to infuse that contact zone with new meanings, insights, and possibilities. The riches and vibrancy of the Christian community is diminished whenever the space between Jesus and Christ is fixed, whether, on the one hand, as a result of the need for doctrinal purity, the suppression of syncretism, or the fear of contamination of native cultures, or, on the other hand, on account of historic positivism and its claims of objective and scientific truths about Jesus

The images of Jesus/Christ presented in the New Testament are highly pluralized and hybridised, emerging out of the intermingling of the cultures of Palestine, the Hellenistic Jewish diaspora, and the wider Hellenistic world.

P 171 Ch 'Engendering Christ' in ‘Postcolonial Imagination and Feminist Theology’ Kwok Pui-lan (professor of Christian Theology and spirituality at Episcopal Divinity School Cambs Massachusetts scm 2005

Asia Stories March & April 2008

Stories about Asia on the CMS website 

  Let Chinese Christians fan the flame
As London prepares to welcome – or protest – the arrival of the Olympic Torch, many international missions are gearing up for outreach at the Beijing Olympics. But David Wang of Asian Outreach would prefer foreign ‘gospel-tract bombers’ to stay away  4th April 2008  Read more 

  Halima makes her traffickers pay

In a month when it was reported that more than 40,000 children were trafficked in Benin in 2006 alone, a woman in Bangladesh forced into prostitution wins a ‘miraculous’ court victory over her exploiters.  14th March 08 Read more 

 Five alive

An historic drive by CMS to support more indigenous international workers is bearing its first fruits in one of the most remote regions of the world  26th March 08 Read More 

  'Taking up the cross' in the context of Islam

The Crusades: Francis of Assisi and Martin Luther. What does it mean to take up the Cross in the context of Islam?  3rd March 08  Read More