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’......

Shaken, not stirred

A personal reflection on the UN killings in Afghanistan



"Diatribe never gets anywhere"





(Painting: © Phil Simpson/CMS)



This article is from the CMS website
The painting is an oil pastel I did, based on the photo used, which was taken by Simon in Korea



I followed the events in Afghanistan with shock and horror. The brutal murders in Mazar-e-Sherif and then protests in Kandahar and Jelalabad – all in response to a fundamentalist pastor in Florida and the ‘trial and execution’ of the Qur'an.

The image of the burning Qur'an inflamed minds all around the Muslim world.

It struck me that the Bible could similarly be tried and found wanting, because it is how the text is interpreted and (mis)used that is the real issue.

Unfortunately, careful debate of our sacred texts is not a factor in these situations. What concerns me is the typical pattern of people in the mosque on a Friday being stirred up by the preaching to retaliate.

What may start as a peaceful protest so easily escalates and gets out of control (and the same dynamic happens in London when students take to the streets to protest against tuition fees) until you have a frenzied crowd seeking revenge. That appears to be what happened in Mazar.

What is needed but so sadly lacking in Afghanistan is interfaith dialogue – even more than the usual condemnation of such provocative acts as the Florida Qur'an burning. The trouble with such condemnation is that it provokes an equal and opposite response. And leads to escalation.

Diatribe it seems to me never gets anywhere.

CMS is involved with partner organisations in Afghanistan and has been for many years. There are team members working there in various humanitarian roles. I have visited many times over the past 15 years and seen their excellent work.

One of our people based in Mazar-e-Sherif wrote shortly after the crowd stormed the UN compound and killed staff there:

“We are ok. Shaken up but ok. Gunfire all afternoon off and on. We are staying inside and just waiting to see what will happen. Really devastating that so many UN workers were killed in such a terrible way, so brutally…. It changes how you view people. I am sick of all this senseless killing. The building was our side of town, some people one street away had bullets land in their garden. We will probably just keep a low profile for a few days while the facts of what happened comes out.”

That’s the problem with senseless killing – it makes you sick, tired and weary and can erode your commitment. 'Compassion fatigue' can apply to workers as well as donors.

Like the apostle Paul, we are at a loss to understand but not despairing (2 Cor 4:8–9). Shaken by events but not stirred up to participate in the cycle of revenge.

The challenge is to ‘hope against hope’ and to just keep going.

Imams and Clergy

Archbishop Rowan is so good at interfaith dialogue:

"You can only understand each other when you see the other's face turned towards God. Then and only then, can you turn to each other with expectation, patience and charity."

Portrait of Archbishop Rowan Williams by Victoria Russell

I was attending an 'Imams and Clergy' meeting where you come as a matching pair. It was run by the Chritstian-Muslim Forum - "creating spaces for Christians and Muslims to meet, learn about and understand each other"

It was hosted by the Archbishop at Lambeth Palace. With key addresses from ++ Rowan Williams, Imam Sheik Raza of Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board (MINAB), Mark Fisher of Churches Together England CTE and a flying visit from the Government Minister Andrew Stunnel, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government (responsible for race equality, community cohesion (including the future of PREVENT), building regulations, housing and regeneration, and the implementation of the Big Society)

He emphasised the continued emphasis on social cohesion, an interfaith week in November and a Faiths in Action scheme (with grants available for £6000) currently there are 113 projects running around the country.

The over 50 participants all contrinuted in smaller groups to a discussion about how to use a statement being issued by the C-M Forum in support of local encounter covering areas like : live up to the best ; speaking generously of the other faith ; developing friendships meet each other ; work together locally (the full text will be available later and I will publish it on this blog)

The Christian Muslim Forum have also written a helpful booklet 'Local Christian-Muslim Friendship: building relationships between mosques and churches' - available as a pdf download here

Ethical Evangelism - the 10 commandments of Mission!

St Francis and the Sultan 

The first ever set of guidelines giving advice for Christians and Muslims, who want to share their faith in an ethical way, will be launched on WED 24th June at Islamic Relief’s Headquarters in London. 

The guide, which contains 10 points of advice, has been produced by the Christian Muslim Forum, a national body set up in 2006 to improve relationships between the 2 faiths. 

Youth Specialist on the Forum, Dr Andrew Smith, will be one of the key speakers at the launch. He has been working for the evangelical organisation Scripture Union in inner city Birmingham for the past 14 years and has been active in promoting his own faith whilst at the same time seeking to listen to and understand his Muslim neighbours.

 

“Speaking with local Muslims and sharing my faith has been fascinating, stimulating,  even fun,  but at times it has become competitive, aggressive and has left a nasty taste in my mouth. I was lef feeling frustrated and defensive and with no wish to do it again!  Talking to others I realised that this was a common experience, so the idea of a set of principles that would help both faiths avoid this, seemed  to me an obvious way forward” 

Speaking alongside Dr Smith will be Shaykh Ibrahim Mogra, Interfaith spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain. He recognises that this is a controversial and sensitive area 

“Islam and Christianity are two world religions that are missionary- and therefore are ever vying with each other for converts.  But we should be able to speak of our faith honestly and with conviction, without  demeaning or ridiculing others. There is no place for coercion or manipulation and when a person does convert from either faith that decision should be respected. It is our hope that these ethical guidelines will be adopted by many Christian and Muslim organisations.” 

The launch will be chaired by the Vice-Chair of the Christian Muslim Forum, Dr Richard Cheetham, the Bishop of Kingston, and will be attended by many representatives from Muslim and Christian missionary organisations. 

READ MORE IN THE CHRISTIAN MUSLIM FORUM  PRESS RELEASE