What are your 8 good reasons to stick around? I found myself thinking of this in terms of Brian McLaren's question
about prophetic hope in our everyday contemporary context and thinking about what I actually do ......... My 8 good reasons include
FAMILY (R
T J A J),
faith,
health,
work/ministry,
network of friends/contacts;
home/house,
Pounstina,
Ceili&Walks...
and an open fire...
and
my favourite quote so far from the book.......
'to be alive in the
adventure of Jesus is to have a desire, a dream, a hope for the future.
It is to translate that hope for the future into action.... in the
present and to keep acting in the light of it, no matter the
disappointments, no matter the setbacks and delays. (p80)
Gaza may be small – something like 50km by 10 km – its
c 360Km2 about the size of the Isle of Wight ! But being small and
living cheek by jowl is no excuse for Hamas (alegedly) using human shields or firing
rockets from hospitals or schools – although there are a lot of myths
about this and I’m not sure I believe the propaganda …
And I suppose its a matter of perspective – resistance
fighters in WW2 are seen as heroes – and ‘collaborators’ as traitors.
But it really does depend which side you’re on....
And peace is the only side to be on in the Israel-Gaza
conflict.
It’s not black and white. There are no goodies and baddies.
But I have enormous sympathy for the citizens of Gaza who were being
strangled by the blockade, before the rockets and the bombings. And for
Israelis and their desire to live in safety, but…….
a friend of mine Tanas Al Qassis A Palestinian Christian who works for CMS wrote some wise words:
'If
I were part of the Israeli government, I would invest in the
Palestinian economy, make people flourish, be sure they have enough
food, medicine and schools. This way, I will ensure that Israel will be safe.'
I have been watching far too many images from Gaza and Iraq and am lost in the horror of what is going on ….
All I / we can do is pray (and silence is so much better than words) and somehow hold on to hope …
a friend of mine posted the following quote: “The world
is a messy place. Particularly in the context of the digital age where
the noise of data can feels tsunami-like. Your job …. is to translate
the noise of living into sounds that people can hear. De-cluttered
writing is the art of bringing the noise level down”. Ravi Koli
I have turned to song as a way of translating the noise into sound that people can hear….. And this one does it for me ….Sinead O’Connor – If You Had A Vineyard from the album Theology – ’
'O that my eyes were a fountain of tears that I might weep for my poor people’
I came across this song on YouTube sung by Lisa Gerrard, who sang the hauntingly beautiful songs in Gladiator
You, oh Christ, are the Kingdom of Heaven by Symeon the New Theologian English version by George A. Maloney, S.J.
Original Language Greek
You,
oh Christ, are the Kingdom of Heaven;
You, the land promised to the
gentle;
You the grazing lands of paradise;
You, the hall of the
celestial banquet;
You, the ineffable marriage chamber;
You the
table set for all, You the bread of life;
You, the unheard of drink; You, both the urn for the water and the life-giving water; You, moreover, the inextinguishable lamp for each one of the saints; You, the garment and the crown and the one who distributes crowns; You, the joy and the rest;
You, the delight and glory; You the gaiety;
You, the mirth; and
Your grace, grace of the Spirit of all sanctity,
will shine like
the sun in all the saints;
and You, inaccessible sun,
will shine
in their midst and all will shine brightly,
to the degree of
their faith, their asceticism,
their hope and their love,
their purification and their illumination by Your Spirit...
A Pakistani friend living in the States recommended a reality TV show about a Gora/foreigner ‘becoming Pakistani’ in 3 months
Watch this on Youtube George ka
pakistan 1/60 this guy is from Uk and wants to become Pakistani in three
months with the help of Geo channel. Very interesting. Hope you will
like it. Arif
I actually have the DVD but have
not watched it all Here is the first part. It is in Urdu and English.
It’s a good example of cross cultural engagement …..
One day you finally knew what you had to do, and
began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice
-- though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old
tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn't
stop. You knew what you had to do, though the wind pried with its stiff
fingers at the very foundations, though their melancholy was
terrible. It was already late enough, and a wild night, and the road
full of fallen branches and stones. But little by little, as you left
their voices behind, the stars began to burn through the sheets of
clouds, and there was a new voice which you slowly recognized as your
own, that kept you company as you strode deeper and deeper into the
world, determined to do the only thing you could do -- determined to
save the only life you could save.
I was sent a link to this 2013 production 'Addiction: Afghanistan's Secret Shame'
by BBC Persian journalist Tahir Qadiry - filmed and directed by Darius Bazargan
It is an excellent 45 min documentary, which looks at the contemporary addiction
problem in Afghanistan with over a million heroin addicts (2009
figures). Afghanistan is not just a producer and exporter of drugs, but a major consumer. It's one way to deal with all the trauma of over 3 decades of war and current 40% unemployment.
The documentary focuses on addicts in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sherif (and Balkh). And it features the NEJAT centre, which is the organisation I used to work for in Peshawar, as Drug Advisor, back in the 1990s. I am still on their advisory board. They come over well in the documentary and I felt proud to be associated with them. But I also felt somewhat disillusioned in that in spite of all our efforts the drug problem has been relentlessly increasing. Nejat may indeed be one of the most established treatment programmes in the country, yet they still couldn't help Jawed the young 18 year old addict from Badakhshan, who is the storyline focus of the documentary. He is seen leaving, having gone back on drugs, wandering the street of Kabul alone, as the snow falls around him, with the 'Velvet Underground' Heroin song as background music (lyrics by Micheal O'suilleabhain) :
'I don't know just where I'm going.... but I gonna try for the kingdom if I can'
During a Candlemas Retreat at St Columbas Woking we had space and opportunity to do our own thing. So I tried my hand at an 'icon', using oil pastels on an A4 art sheet (larger than my normal A6 pad). More a impressionist painting than a proper, spiritual 'writing' of an icon. It was based on, or rather 'inspired' by an actual orthodox icon:
I loved the cheek-to-cheek intimacy in the picture. As always the Christ-figure looks more a small adult than a child. And Simeon does not look that old...
Simeon, if you remember, is the old man, who is on the scene when Jesus is presented in the Jerusalem temple (Luke 2:22-40). He is described as 'righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Spirit was upon him'.
When he sees the Christ-child he proclaims what is now called the nunc dimittus or 'Canticle of Simeon'. He declares, among other things, Jesus to be'a light to lighten the nations and the glory of your people Israel'.
My Guardian: This must be my favourite song at present
'
'You go before me, my Guardian' by Ben Cantelon #Guardian. We sing it a lot @CCWoking. You can hear it/ watch it on YouTubehttp://t.co/jnU9V5K5
King of love and grace My Guardian All my hopes and fears Are in Your hands I'm in Your hands
Where You go I'll go Show me the way Every step I take Be now my guide God on my side
You go before me You're there beside me And if I wander Love will find me
Goodness and mercy Will always follow You go before me My Guardian
When I hear You say Trust in the way I will walk by faith And not by sight God of my life
So let Your kingdom come Your will be done All Your promises will stand forever You're my defender
You go before me You're there beside me And if I wander Love will find me
Goodness and mercy Will always follow You go before me My Guardian
You are God Our Great defender Strong in love Forever faithful We are Yours And we will trust in You (x2)
You go before me You're there beside me And if I wander Love will find me Goodness and mercy Will always follow You go before me My Guardian
My Guardian
Wandering4theloveofGod
I wanted to change the words a bit - in fact I do sing the chorus slightly differently. The song implies there is something wrong with wandering. I suppose it is talking about wandering astray. But I do it (wander I mean) all the time. As you can see, my blog is called wandering4theloveofGod. 'Peregrinate pro Dei Amore'. To me 'wandering is a good thing, it is part of our pilgrimage and involves being attentive to the winds of the spirit guiding us.
So I now sing:
You go before me You're there beside me And when I wander Love will guide me
Goodness and mercy Will always follow You go before me My Guardian
I mentioned to a friend that this song is like me, left of centre and couldn't imagine an equivalent 'My Telegraph'.So during the service at the back of church (which is a very creative space!) he wrote the following:
My Lord, my God,
You hear my prayer
You listen to what I have to say
And in the silence
When I'm listening
You speak to me
We talk both ways
My Telegraph
Now I'm thinking of maybe a whole series on My Newspaper........
In fact I seem to remember a conference I went to (Spring Harvest?) organising different streams based on Newspaper titles.
So how about'my Mirror' (I Cor 13:12 or James 1:23?), 'my Sun' (of Righteousness? Mal 4:2) 'my Daily Mail' ( abit like Daily bread readings), 'my Times' (1 Chron 12:32?), 'my Independent' (I Cor 11:11??)
When I saw this, I immediately tweeted it on to my 'followers' but then felt I needed to add it to the blog which seems to make it a little more permanent. You can find it on YouTube:
#MyJihad: This Video Will Renew Your Faith in Humanity
It is about an Imam Mazhar Shaheen from Omar Makram Mosque in Cairo and his visit to Qasr-el-Dubara Church in Cairo to bring Christmas Greetings. He did his doctorate at the famous Azhar University in Cairo, in Q'ranic Rhetoric. it shows........
I found it an astonishing statement of solidarity, discovered though working closely together. It gave me a real sense of hope.......... I hope you find it inspirational as well.
I was alerted to this amazing map via Twitter. You must click on the full version on HugePic to explore. But it is basically a one word 'wordle' (word cloud) on each country based on their wikipaedia History. The designer writes the following description on his Tumblr
Laconic History of The World(2012)
My first attempt at a typographic map. Don’t be content with the
shrunken version up there: this thing is pretty dang sprawling: I’ve
prepped a mind-boggling 12,500 pixel wide version you can enjoy
exploring: http://hugepic.io/d2012641f/3.00/57.89/9.67
This map was produced by running all the various countries’ “History
of _____” Wikipedia article through a word cloud, then writing out the
most common word to fit into the country’s boundary. The result is
thousands of years of human history oversimplified into 100-some words.
I’ve also prepared a reader’s companion to highlight a few of the more interesting findings. Read it here.
How
depressing! Reminds me of Bob Marley's setting of Haile Selassie's
speech to the League of Nations: 'Until the philosophy which hold one
race superior / And another / Inferior / Is finally / And permanently /
Discredited / And abandoned / -Everywhere is war.'
PLAYING FOR CHANGE
Which in mind mind sent me straight to the Playing for Change version of 'No More Trouble': if you've not heard it before you really should .......
This is a scene from Mr Bean's Merry Christmas video when he interacts with a Nativity Set in a department store - it is full of deep theological meaning ! Do watch it and enjoy..... It is full of exotic imagery and wild imagination........ just like the book of Revelation!
I particularly like the appearance of the 'Dragon' in the form of a Dinosaur. And a 'war in heaven' that is fought over the Nativity scene, represented by the appearance of Tanks and a Dalek, before the child and holy family are whisked off by an angel / helicopter to a place of safety. Well more likely to have been a 'Wilderness' in Egypt than a comfortable palace/ doll's house. There is even an earlier hint when the Dalek attacks the vulnerable lamb and exits laughing, thinking it has won, which clearly is a reference to the cross and 'the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world' and Satan's apparent victory at Calvary! Whilst this is all very 'tongue-in-cheek' the Revelation account is a parallel story to the 'normal' nativity scene and show another dimension to the narrative. Worth thinking about DUNGEONS & DRAGONS
The picture is from a blog for "nativity scene with dragon," which points out the extra Biblical Nativity Narrative which is not normally read out in Carol services! It seems more appropriate for a Dungeons & Dragons style fantasy game. 'The Birth of Christ was designed to overcome doom and gloom, and the dragon belongs in the Christmas story.'
1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. 7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back..... (Rev. 12:1-7)
WAR &PEACE
I received an email which quoted an extract from a Christmas news letter by a Christian worker in Afghanistan:
"This Christmas, we pray for places of ongoing conflict in the Muslim world, like Palestine, Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan... Even as we are grieved with the senseless deaths of young children in Connecticut, we also wept over 10 young girls in Eastern Afghanistan who were senselessly killed when a landmine exploded while they were gathering firewood. Across the border in Pakistan suicide attackers killed more people on the same day and vaccination workers were senselessly killed for doing a polio eradication campaign...
The one who wages war on earth, the Great Dragon of Rev. 12 is also part of the Christmas story—although not usually a part of the nativity scene (!)—he is clearly seen in the murderous fury of Herod and his soldiers. In Rev 12, this Dragon is thrown from heaven, that ancient serpent who seeks to destroy the Child and make war on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12: 17)... But his time IS short, and we know how it ends:
"Salvation and power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down..." (Rev 12: 10)
In a strange way the "peace on earth" announced by angels at Jesus' birth is mingled with the wrath of the Great Dragon. But our salvation is near and our eternal home is secure. Emmanuel is with us."
Christmas is seen as a time of Peace, but all peace must be fought for, it carries a price.... a laying down of life, a sacrifice. Hopefully not literally for most of us, but at least involving a struggle, an effort. ' Indeed we are encouraged to 'strive together for peace' (Heb 12:14) So may you strive for and experience that same Peace the Angels proclaimed to the Shepherds (and there are is a lot of emphasis on sheep in Mr Bean's Nativity):
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highestand on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”Luke 2:13-14
I came across this video made by a church in New Zealand of the Christmas Story told by Palestinians in the 'Land of the Holy One'. It has a real sense of authenticity about it and we will be using it in the International Carol Service at Christchurch, Woking on Sat 22nd Dec 2012
Published on 16 Dec 2012
The story of the birth of Jesus told
by the people of Bethlehem. Made by St Paul's Church, Auckland, New
Zealand. Anyone is welcome to show this film publicly, but not change it
in any way, nor publish it, nor make money out of it.
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
Simon Barrington-Ward
Harry Moore
Michael Nazir-Ali
Diana Witts
Tim Dakin
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’......
