Traidcraft

On a Tuesday morning I teach the mission module here at Cranmer Hall. Today I had Paul Chandler in to speak. Paul is the chief Executive of Traidcraft.

They say: ‘We work with more than 100 producer groups in over 30 developing countries to provide 450 fair trade food, craft and textile products. We have 120,000 customers and a turnover approaching £20 million. Traidcraft was instrumental in setting up the Fairtrade Foundation which awards the Fairtrade Mark to products which meet internationally recognised standards.’

Traidcraft was launched in 1979 and grew out of the efforts of Richard Adams, an ex student of Cranmer Hall. He had arrived in the early 70’s to train for ordained ministry in the CofE, but after setting up the UK’s first ever fairtrade shop he left Durham (without being ordained) to establish a company that imported the food produced by small farmers in Indian to the UK market. The fairtrade shop is still open. It’s in my college (St.John’s) on the South Bailey.

Michael Ashcroft’s paintings

I went to art school with Michael Ashcroft. I sculpted and he painted. We didn’t really know each other. I had a couple of studios after college but in the end I went on to use my creativity in a different way… He (because he is actually genuinely talented), carried on painting. He has exhibited at Saatchi Gallery, May Wigram and Anthony d’Offay in London, as well as Andrea Rosen in New York. He was selected for the project “The Triumph of Painting III” at the Saatchi Gallery in London.
‘His paintings are not created from direct observation, instead he searches for photographs in old publications that celebrate the Alpine setting. In this way, his work refers to our relationship with nature and landscape, as well as the cultural connotations of beauty and the sublime that go hand-in-hand with it.’

You can look at more of his amazing paintings here

pioneer? patient endurance required

I’ve been speaking to quite a few people recently about Ordained Pioneer Ministers in the CofE.

Nationally and locally discussion on the whole thing is hotting up. People have quite strong ideas about the concept – including selection, training, formation, deployment, ongoing supervision, relationship with existing structures, future possibilities etc etc.

I guess, as with any new thing, there are bound to be all sorts of complex teething (and ongoing) issues – especially since this involves the church recognising the need to ordain and utilise the gifts of those who may see things slightly differently.

Again, as with anything, clarity and communication are key players.I think we could do better on this.

Those driving and enabling pioneers (mostly, but not exclusively, evangelicals) need to make it clear to the wider church (in all its breadth) that they know that pioneer ministry is nothing new (friars and catholic worker priests being two historical examples), that pioneers are not here to save the day – or the church (that is God’s job), that pioneers are not another strand of ordained ministry (if you are ordained as a priest in the CofE then, although you may have particular gifts, you also share common responsibilities and should possess the whole range of competencies expected of someone in Holy orders).

There is one Church, ordination is into one priesthood, and we share one call to engage in God’s mission in the world (although there are obviously distinct and equally valuable ways of going about this).

The gatekeepers know this stuff and they try to communicate it. But I’m not sure it’s being widely heard. So perhaps they need to shout a little louder? And OPMs in training, and in posts dotted around the UK, can help things along by understanding that as well as being entrepreneurs, they are ambassadors. Not of a brand-new-order that sticks its finger up at inherited church, but of an ordained pioneer ministry that must be marked by maturity and humility as well as creativity and fresh thinking.

The Church doesn’t need pioneers who rant at the system or who go off and do their own thing in the misplaced belief that only they can see what is truly required. The Church in the UK needs pioneers who listen (to God and a range of others), who learn, and who pray. The UK needs pioneers who can innovate in the midst of the Church that they claim to have been called to serve within.

New times call for new ways of being church. The new country stands before us but we all need to go. For those who can see further ahead, there is always the temptation to rush on alone or with a few others in tow. But the call at this time is to patient endurance held in tension with prophetic creativity. If you can see further into the new country than those around you, then speak of its wisely. People can only hear so much in one go. Tread gently but firmly and keep moving forward at a pace that honors everyone.

Friday

It is Friday. The day for knocking off early, being in the pub with friends, going on somewhere later, being out and about, and feeling the freedom of the coming weekend loaded with possibilities, or something along those lines… With this in mind I’m listening to Gavin Frome via my headphones whilst I work on Greenbelt festival stuff, a Pioneer training module (for kick-off here in Durham this September), and a new book proposal for SCM Canterbury Press (a multi-author effort focused on the need for Small Missional Communities in the UK & USA – to be published 2011 – a while, I know, but these things take time…).

I’m just about to mail my second draft worship program for Greenbelt’s new forms venue to the festival management. hopefully we’re almost there. next step – invite participants. It’s all looking very exciting. The venue will have a new name and a different concept from previous years. Still space for participants so if you are part of a community that would like to be considered for inclusion on the line up then get in touch.

up in the air

Last night I went to see (6 Oscar nominated) Up in the Air . Very good indeed – at least 8 out of 10 from me – well worth your while toddling along to the cinema! A powerful, well nuanced take on life in the west in the twentyfirst century. It tackles the big themes – love, life, purpose, commitment, betrayal – and treats them with the respect they deserve. No easy answers, plenty to make you despair about what our culture thinks is valuable, a couple of scenes to make you realise what makes life worth living – and, as it’s a comedy, lots of laughs along the way. Interestingly, the the most ‘human’ scene in the film was a church wedding. It highlighted the deep need we all have to belong in community – to share our lives with others who make us human. Clooney’s character lives in self-imposed isolation and tells himself that this is the truth about the way we are meant to live. The wedding – which is far from idealized – tells another story; a story that resonates with a deeper truth.

twilight…?

You might have come across Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series; Plenty of teenage angst, sex and vampires. There are a whole lot of the books out there (and DVDs, and graphic novels, notebooks, i-phone aps and much, much more) and they are seriously popular. I was in Waterstones bookshop just now and in the children’s section was a ‘top 15′ display. 9 of these were Vampire stories. That’ll explain Ms Meyer’s smug grin then…

She’s obviously hit on a potent combination. We’ve always loved stories about the supernatural (the more so when its been chased out of the public sphere) we love stories about romance and adventure – put these together and give them teenage heroes and you’re made eh?

Expect the Christian marketing machine to start rolling out a multi-million dollar series in response before too long.

nothing new. please

I’ve been reading Wolf Hall (winner of the 09 Booker Prize). It’s good. Long. But good (that’s assuming you enjoy historical novels…).

Anyway, at one point the main character, Thomas Cromwell, is on a ship crossing the Channel. He’s  noticed that the ship is very slow and, having looked at the way the rigging is put together, he suggests to the captain that it would be more efficient to try something new. The captain isn’t interested. He says it would look wrong and other ships would assume you were a threat – a pirate. Thomas says:

‘There cannot be new things in England. There can be old things freshly presented, or new things that pretend to be old. To be trusted, new men must forge themselves an ancient pedigree… Don’t try to go it alone or they’ll think you’re pirates.’

The beauty of a really good novel is the way it speaks into our own time. I can relate to Cromwell’s point here. It subtly translates into the context in which we find ourselves trying to do mission…

There can be new things (in the church) in England but maybe only ‘pirates’ (the guys who are kept out on the edges – the artists, the visionaries, the freaks) can see clearly enough to make them happen? Maybe they’re also the ones with least to lose – which is always a solid starting point for introducing ‘the new’

stop worrying…

I get a thought for the week by e-mail from Bob Mayo each week. From time to time I fling them up on here. Enjoy…

‘In the Gospel passage for this Sunday Simeon is joyful at seeing the baby Jesus in the Temple (Luke 2:22-40). Simeon felt that everything that he had experienced in his life had been leading up to that moment and now his life was fulfilled. We are unlikely to feel a similar sense of joy so long as we allow anxiety and worry to cloud how we live our lives. Joyful people worry less. When we worry we end up like Eeyore wondering whether the sky was going to fall on his head. “It’s snowing still,” said Eeyore gloomily. “So it is.” “And freezing.” “Is it?” “Yes,” said Eeyore. “However,” he said, brightening up a little, “we haven’t had an earthquake lately.” Sometimes we feel that we are being responsible when in reality we are just worrying and putting pressure on ourselves, trying to deal with a situation on our own (as if God does not exist). Hauerwas (1991) wrote that people care more about who their doctor is today than whom their priest or minister may be. Most Christians live lives of practical atheism. … Atheism isn’t explicitly a denial of God; it’s to live in a way that God does not matter.’

the (over)confidence of youth…

this is nothing to do with anything missional. but hey, so what?

I just watched this. if you’ve ever skied, you’ll like it. if you’ve ever reckoned you could pull something off and then come a cropper, you’ll know just how this guy felt…

weekend

it is the weekend.

yes.

that’s it. that’s all i have to say. I’m off home now.

off to London on Monday – to the Greenbelt offices here for a meeting with the worship sub-group. We are dreaming dreams and starting to think creatively about how this year’s GB might be different from last years in all the right ways. ace. will let you know how it all goes.