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’......

Sadhu Sundur Singh - Iconic Indian

This time a picture inspired by Sadhu Sundar Singh (1889-1929). Except he looks a bit like Captain Haddock in Tin Tin ('Blistering Barnacles'....) I copied it from a B&W picture , Maybe I should have painted him in a Saffron robe....

I just have one book on him: 'The Gospel of Sadu Sindar Singh" by Frederich Heiler ISPK 1989 (First published in 1924 under the title 'Sadhu Sundar Singh Ein Apostel des Ostens und Westens' abridged translation by Olive Wyon) And it only cost me 50Rs in India. It is available as a FREE googledocs download

There are some other good online resources - an introduction to his life plus of course a Wiki version and the new world encyclopedia entry and if you speak German try this. He was obviously very popular in Germany, having visited in 1920s (he also visited Britain, Australia and the States on a preaching tour)

He was converted from a Sikh background in Dec 1904. He was disillusioned and suicidal at the time. He describes his conversion in his own words:

“Suddenly — towards half-past four — a great light in his little room. He thought the house was on fire, opened the door and looked out ; there was no fire there. He closed the door and went on praying. Then there dawned upon him a wonderful vision : in the centre of a luminous cloud he saw the face of a Man, radiant with love. At first he thought it was Buddha or Krishna, or some other divinity, and he was about to prostrate himself in worship. Just then, to his great astonishment, he heard these words in Hindu- stani : Tu mujhe kyun satata hat ? Dekh main ne tere liye apui jan salib -par di (" Why do you persecute Me ? Remember that I gave My life for you upon the Cross"). Utterly at a loss, he was speechless with astonishment. Then he noticed the scars of Jesus of Nazareth, whom until that moment he had regarded merely as a great man who had lived and died long ago in Palestine, the same Jesus whom he had so passionately hated a few days before. And this Jesus showed no traces of anger in His face, although Sundar had burnt His holy Book, but He was all gentleness and love. Then the thought came to him : "Jesus Christ is not dead ; He is alive, and this is He Himself " ; and he fell at His feet and worshipped Him. In an instant he felt that his whole being was completely changed ; Christ flooded his nature with Divine life ; peace and joy filled his soul, and ** brought heaven into his heart." When Sundar Singh rose from his knees Christ had disappeared, but the wonderful peace remained from that moment, and it has never left him since. He said afterwards : " Neither in Hindustani, my mother- tongue, nor in English, can I describe the bliss of that hour."

He believed that a message that was for all mankind, and had universal significance:

If the Divine spark in the soul cannot be destroyed, then we need despair of no sinner… Since God created men to have fellowship with Himself, they cannot for ever be separated from Him… After long wandering, and by devious paths, sinful man will at last return to Him in whose Image he was created; for this is his final destiny.

He dedicated his life to a Sadhu-style mission particularly within North India, and the Himalayan region of Tibet and Nepal. He went wider afield to South India, Ceylon, Burma, Malaya, Singapore, Japan and China .

He disappeared in the Himalayas in 1929 (possibly in Tibet) and his body was never found. He remains a fine example of indigenous Christian leadership, modelling a non-Western form of mission, the Sadhu wandering the dusty footpaths, which had a far reaching impact.

He once said (on a mission trip to the West):

'We Indians do not want a doctrine, mot even a religious doctrine, we have enough and more than enough of that kind of thing; we are tired of doctrines. We need the Living Christ. India wants people who will not only preach and teach, but workers whose whole life and temper is a revelation of Jesus Christ'

Abdul Masih - Henry Martyn's convert

I decided to do a drawing of Abdul Masih, based on an Oil Painting we have in the office. It is a picture that has fascinated me for a while. I wanted to know more about him. I had found a couple of pages on a book some time ago, which I had photoed and now have typed up. But I cannot remember the title, which is most unhelpful. Still it tells something of his story. He is remembered on 4th March . . . . .

Abdul Masih’s name was until his baptism Sheik Salih. As that implies he was a Mohmmedan, and was in fact the first member of that faith to be converted by the Anglican Church in India and ordained to the Anglican Ministry

He was born into an orthodox and respectable family in Delhi about the 1765 and was brought up with a good knowledge of Persian and Arabic. As a young man he had a somewhat varied career until the time when he was staying with his father at Kanpur and happened to hear Henry Martyn preach. He was deeply impressed. Through copying Persian manuscripts for Martyn, and when Martyn had finished his Persian translations of the N/T. it was given to him to bind. Whilst doing this he read the book carefully and became convinced of the truth of Christianity. However he did not open his heart to Martin at once, but waited till Martyn was about to leave for Calcutta in the autumn of 1810

Martyn was not fully convinced that Sheik Salih was ready for baptism, se he took him to Calcutta and, when he himself sailed out for Persia early in 1811, left him in the care of David Brown who was then in charge of the Old Mission Church. The enquirer was baptised in that church on Pentecost Sunday 1811 with the Christian name of Abdul Masih, servant of Christ. He lived for some time longer in Calcutta and at Shinsurah, working as a preacher and catechist, showing not only his considerable ability but also a wonderful humility and zeal in the face of much opposition and persecution.

When Daniel Corries was posted to Agra as Chaplain at the end of 1812, he told Abdul Masih with him as catechist in the pay of C.M.S. Their joint ministry at Agra was so greatly blessed, both among the Christians of all races and in preaching to non-Christians, that when Corrie left for England in 1814 he left him in charge of the congregation jointly with an Anglo-Indian catechist. Abdul Masih received Lutheran orders at Calcutta in 1820. Four years later Bishop Heber was so impressed by his work at Agra that he brought him to Calcutta and gave him Episcopal ordination in St John’s Church in November 30, 1825. Though he was under 60 years of age he health was already failing and he died at Lucknow on March 4, 1827

The report of the Calcutta C.M.S committee for 1827 includes a ling and laudatory notice of his work including the following words, “He had laboured in the service of the CMS for upward of 14 years, during the whole of which period he had uniformly adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour, and greatly endeared himself to Christians of all classes in society. By patience and meekness under persecution and reproaches for Christ’s sake, and by persevering endeavour to return good for evil, even his enemies had become at peace with him”

We thank God for Abdul Masih’s witness to his Master both by his work and he Christian character. Let us pray that all who bear the name of Christ in our day may follow his example.

You can read more in an article which mentions him by Eugene Stock

and a downloadable pdf by Graham Kings called Abdul Masih: Icon of Indian Indigeneity

The old boys are leaving

I remember the Runrig song 'The Old boys are leaving'  (full lyrics here). Marking the end of an era and the passing of the 'old guard'. Harri Patch who died today aged 111 was the last survivor of WW1.  You can see his life in BBC Photo Essay  According to a BBC article 

Mr Patch was conscripted into the Army aged 18 and fought in the Battle of Passchendaele at Ypres in 1917 in which more than 70,000 British soldiers died.

He served in the Duke of Cornwall Light Infantry.

I have visited Ypres or 'Wipers' as it was coloquially known, to see where 2 of my Great Uncles are remembered in the carnage of the treches. It was a very sobering experience. ... 

Another WW1 survivor Henry Allingham  died recently (22 July) aged 113.   A survivor of the bettle of Jutland and a founding member fo the RAF. he is also rememebr in a portrait  by Dan Llywelyn Hall

The second portrait is of Harri Patch by Peter Kuhfeld.   it's a great way to remember them. 

BOTH of their stories is told in Max Arthiur's Book The Last Post: The final word from our First world war survivors  

Another book worth reading is  Forgotten Voices of the Great War by the same author. They make the WW1 conflict 'come alive' or maybe I should say made the WW1 become more 'realistically dead'.   

The old Boys
Are all leaving
Leaving one by one
Where young birds go flying
Spread your wings and run
But over the fields
By the drystone walls
An eagle will come no more

We will remember them .....

CH is not cheap - Switzerland May 09

CHEEESE & CHOCOLATE 

I have decided that CH stands for not just Commune Helvitia.  but more like Chocolate and Cheese: Fondue and Raclette,  Emmentaler and Edammer, Gauda and  Gruyère, Appenzell and Sprinz.  And famous Swiss chocolate names Lindt,  Nestle,  Suchard. And of course Toblerone. There is a richness about Switzerland that has nothing to do with banking

CHURCH

And CH for church. Whilst I was attending board meetings, my wife accompanied me, mixing business and pleasure. We decided to explore some Protestant roots 

Visited  old City Parc with Granite statues of reformers. Huge, austere, almost Stalinist.  Not people you would naturally warm to.  when you see the full size image of the refromation wall  they are even more menacing.  Tall. larger-than-life, solid, granite, stern.  Some one had put red paint on the head of Calvin  So much blood has been spilt in Europe ‘in the name of the Father’ 

St Paul’s Cathedral, cold granite and polished wood and chandeliers  I was left wondering where do the Gargoyles fit in to the scheme of things in this austere interior. A lighter or even darker mood.  Stained glass the only colour. The Bell towers offered splendid views of the city and good cardiac exercise.  

No wonder Geneve is known as the “Protestant Rome” 

Near the cathedral is the International Museum of the Reformation   

PERHAPS THE MOST REMARKABLE THING about Geneva's new International Museum of the Reformation is that it has taken so long: in 1959, on the 400th anniversary of the publication of Calvin's Institutes, the idea was first floated that a museum should be founded in Geneva, the Rome of Protestantism. In April the museum finally opened its doors, with an impressive array of objects relating to Calvin and the Reformation in Geneva and its expansion throughout the world.

an article from History Today (Aug 2005).  

The website offers a virtual tour   And it is a fascinating insight into the causes and context of the reformation 

CHATEAUX 

We took a trip on a bateau 'the Grebe' run by Swiss Boats to see the views of Lac Leman (or Lake Geneve).   The Lake is a massive 50 miles (80km) long and the tour included many rich houses some dramatic chateaux. 

   

One thing we decided  CH does definately does NOT stand for is cheap!

1509-2009 Calvin Jubilee

 

Chennai Steeple Chase - February 2009

In the footsteps of St Thomas

I attended Egmore Wesley Church in the morning for the 8:30 service.  Doors and windows were open in the airy church Fans whirled over head, Simple décor of whitewashed walls, stained glass (patterns not pictures) no wall plaques. two large Chandeliers. Pastor Leanard preached on ‘God is your lover’ to a packed church. More exhortation than encouragement, with a strong an emphasis on obligatory rather than optional obedience. Communion was wafers and individual glasses of juice at the communion rail. I was somewhat distracted by a second collection which seemed intrusive. But I was surprised and uplifted by the choir singing an anthem Mozart’s ‘Ave Serum Corpus’ . They were very good.

Afterwards over chai/tea chatting to members of the congregation I asked about places to see in Chennai, One person suggested a ‘steeplechase’ of the historical churches and the different influences on Madras/Chennai: Mount St Thomas, Little Mount, San Thom Basilica St Mary’s chapel in Fort St George The Armenian Church at Paris corner, Portuguese Luz Church and Scottish St Andrew’s Kirk. There were plenty of options.

Back at the CSI guesthouse I found a taxi driver who could take and along with Victor, a young internet professional from a Telagu background, who had taken me to Egmore Church in the first place, I spent an enjoyable afternoon evening racing around Chennai visiting 4 out of the 8 churches.

Little Mount

St Thomas reached Muziri around 51-52 AD having established 7 churches in Kerala. He converted King of Maliapore (Madras) He was martyred in AD 72.The Church of our Lady of Health, built in 1551 by the Portuguese, Is situated on a small mount about 80 feet above sea level Known in Tamil as 'Chinna Malai' and Portuguese as ‘Monte Poquino”

In the grounds, a DisneyWorld style Via Dolorosa (way of the cross) to walk and interact with statue tableaus of the Stations of the Cross.. This was a pilgrimage that anyone could make. It was visual, colourful and compelling. A young man knelt in devout prayer at the foot of the cross. Two young boys were running around flying a kite. A woman sat under a large sign in English and Tamil declaring Thomas’s mantra: ‘My Lord and My God’ 

St. Thomas is remembered as the Apostle of India.   Here is a cave where he sheltered and another small cave where he before an ancient carved cross. There is a red ‘footprint’ for devotees to touch and water from a Spring to drink - the same spring that succoured Thomas. 

It is a place to walk the way, to pray. to mediate, even to picnic. To express very practically and tacitly the faith. 

I thought it was very appropriate at the site of the so called doubting apostle Thomas. ‘Unless I touch … smell…. feel, I will not believe’. Here faith is made physical.  

St. Thomas Mount Shrine

Called ‘Phirangi’ in the vernacular and ‘Monte Grande’ in Portuguese, the Mount lies 300 feet above sea level. It is the scene of St Tomas’s martyrdom,  On the way up we passed the ‘brothers of the Sacred heart’ and ‘St Thomas Retreat House’, ‘a place for retreat and pilgrimage’

Outside a statue where people could pose for photos, like Madam Toussauds,  Mother Theresa was particularly popular with women.   When I visited no-one was posing with the Pope
The church contains a simple shrine an ancient 'weeping' cross, a Madonna and child painting supposedly by St Luke himself, a relic containing fragment of bones of St Thomas.  

We were allowed surprisingly close right into the sanctuary itself and photography was encouraged. In that we differed from Medieval pilgrims.  

Afterwards we had a cold drink of Mango juice in the convent which runs a baby’s home, with cheap tacky religious souvenirs. I picked up a copy of a book 'In the Steps of St Thomas' by Rev Herman D’Souza (Siga Madras 2008)  

San Thome de Melipor Tomb and museum

The Catholics do things well and on a big scale.   The church was large – a basilica - and a wedding was happening inside. It was full of life and noise.

At the back of the Church a museum with artefacts connected with Xavier and Thomas. In particular ancient stone crosses and a double sided stone with Thomas on one side and his convert Kandapa Raja, Gondaphores, the King of Mylapore on the other.

There was also an underground shrine above the supposed burial site. Devotees knelt in reverent prayer before their Indian apostle.  And a very graphic scene depicting his murder , stabbed in the back by a spear as he knelt in a garden in prayer (before an ancient cross. An almost Gethsemane like betrayal.

St Mary’s Church in St George’s Fort

This was the most difficult to find since it is located within was the military fort now the Tamil Nadu secretariat.   We were well past the closure time but the lady guard took pity on me, when she knew I couldn’t return the next day and let us in to see the church from the outside.

We had to walk around old camp buildings to get to the Church itself. Built in 1680, this is oldest church east of Suez. Clive of India was married here and the founder of Yale also worshipped here.  I would have loved to see the plaques inside but we had to be content to look at the gardens though iron railings and get an idea of the shape. A Military museum was also closed but a statue of Cornwallis was clearly visible through the doors.  And ancient canon  upon the walls, (including some from Sind ) completed the image of Christianity as a colonial religion. Mission backed by military gunboats.

Which I suppose is why the St Thomas narrative is so important. His arrival in India predates Xavier and the Portuguese in the 15th century and the British East India Company in the 18th and 19th century.  

I find it ironic that he who doubted most, travelled furthest with the gospel. But then the Great Commission was given to all believers including the doubters (Matt 28:17)