London BABY!

My plans this morning were to go to Canterbury and build a FANTASTIC snowman with my friend Craig because there was LOTS OF SNOW down in Kent.

Trouble was...there was LOTS OF SNOW down in Kent so all the trains from London got cancelled. So there I was in London. At first I was grumpy that there would be no snowman building but then I remembered that I LOVE wandering around London.

I ambled from Charing Cross to Trafalgar square where the sunshine was just glorious:

Then I wandered towards the Church House bookshop via Whitehall and caught the news headlines!



Yes the guys from Fathers for Justice were out again. This time on the corner of Downing Street (which I tried to get in the shot but failed)

Then I went to Westminster Abbey and had another look at the new statues over the West door


with a particular focus on Dietrich Bonhoeffer as I am just reading Life Together and I've also, today, purchased The Cost of Discipleship.

A very picturey day really!

Ten things...

Well here's an idea borrowed from Peter: His are way better than mine but clearly he's more exciting than me.

Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't:

1. Played the role of a pregnant woman in a youth video project.
2. Believed I was born in a tent for an embarrassingly large part of my childhood.
3. Performed Handel's Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall.
4. Eaten lunch at the BBC opposite Bill Giles the weatherman.
5. Nearly been sold by my mates to Belgian man when we were on holiday in France.
6. Been interviewed on Channel Four lunchtime news.
7. Deliberately failed at Limbo.
8. Sold my talent as a Latin motto writer at an auction
9. Told a gathering of 500 Scouts that as a child you always wanted to be a pirate.
10. Allowed a student to enter my classroom with two buckets of gravy.

The gauntlet is down... Go on blogging pals. Spill!

Falling for someone...?

Through the post today I received something that I had requested earlier this week. It's an information pack about from Iain Rennie Hospice at Home about doing a charity parachute jump for them.



IRHH is an excellent local charity which provides at home care and support for terminal patients. They were absolutely wonderful when my mum was ill and I'm now part of a team which run a two day holiday club for bereaved children with whom they've had contact. I love doing the Chrysalis club because it is a really practical way of supporting a charity which did so much for me. It is using my talents rather than demanding my money and I think we all need to do some stuff that isn't just about puting our hands in our pocket as part of our giving. Somewhat ironically that's a bit more difficult when you're in a job, like youth work, which is essentially doing that a lot of the time.

So I KNOW that this is agood cause and deserves support.

Anyway what I want to know is...

Who thinks I should commit to raising a minimum of £375 to jump out of a plane for Iain Rennie?

Proud to Present Publishing People

Tim has finally given in to pressure and begun his own blog with the great neame of Deputy Blog. Fantastic bit of cartoon inspiration! From the looks of things he may run out of things to say when he reaches the end of the P section in the dictionary but it seems a fairly eclectic selection so far.

In order to help with his inspirational requirements...

any suggestions of good (clean) P words for him to use as starting points?

The Carnival is NOT over

Christian Carnival continues, offering you access to a choice selection of Christian blogging.

Ok there might be just a SLIGHT ulterior motive for sending you over there... yes I get a feature :oD

Seriously guys I suggest you have a look at the plethora of theological reflection and debate.

Also why don't you think about submitting one of your best recent blogs to the next carnival on 2nd March at Crossroads?

The more it snows...tiddely pom

Well I'd be lying if I didn't say I was excited because it had SNOWED last night before I went to sleep and this morning it's STILL HERE.


However we have got rather woossy SOUTHERN snow!

According to my housemate there was a little more when she left for work at a SCARY time of the morning but right now it looks pretty but not dangerous to drivers.


So no sledging today but... I've got a full day of interviewing people anyway so I'm not FREE to go sledging!

Looks pretty but isn't dangerous... the best of both worlds!

Simo the Snowman

Simo has made us all a little bit jealous cos HE had REAL snow :(

Ah well... Welcome to the blogosphere Simo!

There's no Business like Snow Business

At LAAAAAAAAST!

I just got very excited by the precipitation of snow that actuallyLOOKED like snow. Big flakes and EVERYTHING.


However as I began uploading the picture it stopped
:(

Still... it was cool!

Though it doesn't look like I'll be needing a sledge!

Freshen Up!

I spent Sunday afternoon with a group from FRESH NOISE clearing up rubbish at a parade of shops in Downley.




It was really cold but great fun. We made a pretty good impact on the place filling at least twenty black bin liners with rubbish and debris from the shops.




This was just one of many projects around the town that got loads of young people engaged in doing something for their community!

Let it snow

O the weather outside is... well NOT FRIGHTFUL!

I joined last night with Pete's sentiment of excited expectation at the prospect of snow today.

However I'm lazing about at home on my day off (having decided that travelling anywhere unnecessary would be daft with the forecast) and yet... well there is NO SNOW here.

There was something that cannot event be called a flurry of stuff that was so small it looked like rain. The Eskimo people must have a word for it (they have - how many words for snow is it??)

Looking at the silver lining though - the news has just said that snow IS COMING later. Shame really. I was hoping to have some to play in today. Now it might actually be inconvenient tomorrow especially for those peopel travelling here for the Community Missioner interviews and those driving them around the town on tours.

ave atque carnivale

Just picked up on a Carnival of Christian blogging for your delectation!

Hope along over to Wittenburg Gate for the Catholic Carnival and have a look at the people who have set out their wares at the blogosphere fair.

Conference Pair

Just a quick one to point you to Ben's blog entry about the stuff he's learned from his conference of the Interschools Christian Fellowship and what he's been reading from all the matrix conference bloggers.

Smartie PANTS

This is truly an annus horribilis!

Not only have we had to face up to the shocking truth that Nestle now owns Rowntree and therefore anyone boycotting Nestle must boycott SMARTIES :o( NOW we hear this morning that they are going to CHANGE the Smarties packaging. The Smarties TUBE is going!




They're going to have some hideous hexatube and the plastic lid with the letter of the alphabet is going too!

It truly is a sad day.

The Theology of Relativity

Thanks to Ales Rarus for posting this quotation:

"Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity."

Albert Einstein

So what does that say to us about heaven? It seems like a minute?

I had some interesting comments on the whol Speed of Light theology. Kathryn tells me that Colin is apparently uncertain of the validity of the basis of relativity for the theology Tony Campolo was speaking about and Lev expressed concern that we start from science in our theology. Campolo was worried when we start from the cerebral in our theology.

So is the place to start in our heart? Surely that could lead us to picture God in our own image?

Of course an obvious starting place is the Bible but it is fascinating how little that text actually speaks about the nature of God. It SHOWS the nature of God but the word trinity never features, for example.

This is really the age old debate...

Where is the focus of your faith?

Tradition
The Bible
The Holy Spirit

How do those relate?

It's interesting that there are three of them. How very Trinitarian!

The emphasis that we place as Christians on those three says a lot about us as individuals I think. I'm rather inclined to say that, just like the Holy Trinity, they are inextricably linked and with no hierarchy as we think of hierarchy and to be Moltmannian for a second, it is more important to focus on how those RELATE to each other than to worry about structure.

A CLOSER encounter of the second kind

Ok so this evening I'd arranged to go to the cinema with some friends to see Sideways. This is a film I've been intrigued by since I saw the trailer in Canada in October. However it turned out that Sideways wasshowingtoo late so my friends bought tickets for Closer which I had,in fact already seen. Oops!

Now there are many films that I have watched several times. There are few I have seen more than once at the cinema (notably Bruce Almighty - first time as youthworker work, second time as mate, third time with guy I liked as the only alternative to Piglet the big movie) but Closer is not one I would have planned to see twice.

Not only does it contain an extremely GRAPHIC internet sex scene which is pretty embarrassing to watch WITH anyone but it depicts four unempathetic characters whose lives are not to be envied or emulated.

Watching the film a second time round I was able to reflect more deeply on their lives and the complete emptiness of their reltionships because of a lack of true love and forgiveness. The four characters all talk of love and forgiveness but it is lacking in TRUTH. They focus on telling the TRUTH as opposed to lying about their transgressions yet their honesty is BRUTAL and hurtful.

Jude Law's character is compelled to demand the truth even though it destroys his relationships. Yet most distressingly, although he is flawed, Dan is kinder and gentler than Clive Owen's character and still it is Dan who loses the girl (more times than I can count!) and loses his hope.

The world of Closer was like another world to me. I felt the people in it lived according to different rules and, I suppose they did. For me Christianity is so cnetral to my life that I sometimes assume that spirituality is at the centre of the lives of ALL people.

Seeing the film a second time reminded me that there is a whole world of people out there for whom that film would have resonated. People who, like Julia Roberts' character, have such a low opinion of themselves that they do not think they ought to have happiness and fulfillment.

Christians really are "in the world but not of the world". We are called to "shine as points of light" in what is for so many a dark world. If we look at the world through the eyes of Christ we see as Campolo said, "that their anger is hurt."

Through the eyes of LOVE...

Well I gave you a little something a bit lighter but I'm afraid the stuff from the Matrix conference is STILL making my head buzz with ideas.

Also my bible study this morning referenced to a passage that I looked at with new eyes after the insights of Tony Campolo. In the Gospel of John, we're told that Jesus said to his disciples:
"I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the FATHER WILL GIVE YOU WHATEVER YOU ASK IN MY NAME." John 15.16

Now a lot of people over the years have taken this as the ultimate open wishlist but Campolo's invitation to be IN CHRIST brings, for me, a whole new meaning to this. It is not tha, by asking in Christ's name that the Father will give us whatever we ask, it is, rather, when we put ourselves in the mind of Christ and pray that we get, not what WE want but what we ask, which is of course what Christ wants.

When he wastalking about looking through the eyes of Christ, Campolo made reference to the Catholic use of stations of the cross. The labyrinth we have set up in All Saints' is based on this same concept and follows Christ through the Easter story. It is still not quite finished but I have a few pics to give you a taster.





The journey begins with the celebrity of Palm Sunday symbolised here by the bright colours of clothes Jesus would have seen laid down before him as he entered Jerusalem, the palm crosses and the photo mad lifestyle magazines of today.



We also follow Christ to see the water that Pilate used to wash his hands of the guilt of Jesus' persecution.



Another image on the journey of Christ is the pile of nails. A painful reminder that to look through the eyes of Christ is to feel the pain Christ feels.

Things that make you go hmmmm

There are certain things in life, you may have noticed, that make you realise that despite all the VERY mature external things in life, deep down, you're just a big kid dressed up as an adult. For me these have recently been:

1. Sitting over breakfast as people are discussing theology and the Eucharist over their grapefruit, muesli and croissant... while I tuck into coco pops and boiled egg with dippy soldiers!

2. Setting up a labyrinth which involved filling a sand tray so we could put footprints in it... and wanting to make a sandcastle!

3. Finding yet ANOTHER jar of chocolate spread is nearly finished.

4. Defending the fact that jelly is COOL and a proper food stuff to my colleagues.

5. Being in a pancake race... and discussing tactics which involved the words "and then just leg it!"

6. Pulling a face when someone tried to make me eat nasty manky runny soup (the flavour of which was never discovered!)

Any other experiences people?

The Speed of Light

Even though it's been several days since Matrix now, I have still got quite a lot of the things Tony Campolo said buzzing around my head. The fascinating thing has been the different stories people have told from the conference in various blogs in the blogosphere (Alice, Ian, Kathryn, Lev, Pete and Roy)

We have all heard what Tony Campolo said in different ways. Various aspects struck each of us in particular and those have been the things we've focussed on. It reminded me of the session I went to on Theology of/with young people in which Bob Mayo was proposing a move away from the relational model of Youth ministry to a kind of relational model 2.0 which he calls a narrative model. This moves the focus of working with young people away from stressing the importance of building a relationship with the young person to sharing stories with young people. Hearing their stories and enabling them to retell their story with God in it and inviting them to become part of God’s story.

Bob used as an example the four different gospels and how their authors each viewed the world through Christ’s eyes and yet also through their own. In the same way, we youth workers seem to have seen the matrix conference through our own eyes and through Christ’s
So, through my eyes…

The thing that has stuck with me over the last few days has been Tony Campolo’s assertion that we need to be thinking in terms of a more modern theology. He based his theology on the Einsteinian theory of relativity, proposing that God works at the speed of light. This resonated a great deal with me and helped me answer a few questions about God’s omniscience and prayer.

If God works at the speed of light then to Go everything is happening at once. “I am the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.” Through Christ God experiences the way that WE see the world but this was not in the past, this was not something by which God was CHANGED, this was part of God, yesterday today and tomorrow. There is no question of God knowing something before it happened or predestining people for anything. God knows. There is no time scale of before and after.

This really reminded me of psalm 139:

“Before a word is on my tongue, Lord
You have known its meaning through and through
You are with me beyond my understanding
God of my present my past and future too.”

This makes sense of prayer to me. Through prayer we get a glimpse of the world at the speed of light and through the eyes of Christ. Through prayer we connect with this God who is past, present and future.

Campolo spoke about prayer and our tendency to “pray stupid” treating God like “some transcendental Santa Claus” but he had some reassurance for us, too. He said:“Don’t be afraid to pray stupid!” because that is the role of the Holy Spirit, our advocate. The Holy Spirit hears our stupid prayer and turns it into something beautiful and eloquent when God hears it.

Everybody needs some BODY

Well the labyrinth is now complete save for the BODY element. We need to create something that looks like Jesus' body in the tomb. There are complicated instructions involving chicken wire in the book we've used as the basis of our labyrinth. There has been talk of pillows, papier mache, shop mannikins and many other things but no body as yet. I could do a cheesy theological bid for the fact that it is still only lent and we have not got to the point of the body in the tomb yet but that would be mostly unspeakable!! Parituclarly considering that, as Tony Campolo said, at the speed of light it is all happening at once. So I suppose, at the speed of light, we have got the body!

Lead us not into temptation...

I had the privilege of hearing yet another of my young people give a talk in church. Ben did great and he's put his talk up on his blog so take a look. He talked about temptation in Genesis 2 and in Matthew's account of Jesus' temptation after his time in the wilderness.

Although having young people amaze me with their wisdom sometimes makes wonder whether I should hang up my preaching bands I also find it so wonderful to be able to encourage them in it.

Our church is pretty traditional but the people are really good at being open to young people being involved at the heart of worship and are genuinely pleased and proud to see our young people sharing their faith. I'm not sure which of them please me most the wise young people or the wise congregation. Well they're just ALL SAINTS I suppose!! ;o)