Post Religious?

I heard this phrase used on Radio 4 this week - on Michael Burke's "moral maze". He used the phrase it as if it were a given. This is nothing new - it has been heard quite frequently for a while now, mostly on the lips of "evangelical" Atheists. (They are so unattractive in their fervour - maybe we Christians need to learn from that.) Ironic then that the programme was peppered with quotes from the Bible.

I also took a look at an article in today's Independant by Bruce Anderson. However good the article is (very in my opinion) the assumption is actually untrue - if our local cemetery is anything to go by, to say nothing of the ever increasing number of roadside shrines.

A peripatetic liturgy

My opening hymn of praise on today's cycle ride (with apologies for appalling singing to those whose gardens are alongside "The Lines" cycle path in Allerton Bywater) is from Sting.

You could say I lost my faith in science and progress
You could say I lost my belief in the holy church
You could say I lost my sense of direction
You could say all of this and worse but

If I ever lose my faith in you
There'd be nothing left for me to do

(My latest favourite recording - a Radio 2 concert featuring Mr Ben Castle on Sax). Funny how woship songs can sound like love songs (and vice versa) - or is it?

I think I have lost my faith in some aspects of Church. We had a debate this week in our Church about allowing alcohol "in the building". As some helpfully pointed out the place we need to be talking about is the mouths of the members! - in the building or anywhere. Some people sadly didn't get that joined up sort of thinking. (No wonder Kez is depressed)

After a stop for a crappychino at RSPB Fairburn Ings (Hey they stock Divine Chocolate now - last year I suggested they stock it and now they do!) - time for the communion hymn (alcohol free)

"Grace" from Jonathan Elias's Prayer Cycle complete with brilliant memories of Viki Hannan's dramatic communion prayer set to the music.

Closing hymn on the HiFi at home - Pulse from Floyd in very loud Dolby 5.1 (Flora still not in from church and Jono out overnight with his arty meatalhead mates)

chained forever to a world thats departed
its not enough
its not enough

Post everything

Post Christendom - post evangelical - post modern - yes I am that groovy (?) - but post religious - no - on reflection I think not. After all - those who ignore the lessons of history....

And no - I dont only do church (or religion) on my own - I'll be in the building this evening - oh joy unconfined - Jeremiah again.

He is a bit depressing isn't he.

Signs and reality...

On my regular sunday ride (wearing the aforementioned shirt) I was returning mud spattered (my front mudguard fell off which didn't help) to Sunday lunch when I saw this sign.

"Go throw yourself into the sea" (it was pointing roughly to Blackpool I think).

I briefly considered it as a piece of advice and rejected it - October is a bad time of year for doing that, and Blackpool is probably a bad place to do it at any time of the year.

A bit of Googling revealed the following:

1. It is a quote from the bible (Jesus actually)
2. It is an art installation from Pippa Hale and Stuart Tarbuck.
3. It has moved (was in Victoria Gardens)
   

I nearly fell of my bike taking the picture (see I suffer for my art too).

Actually though I didn't recognise it as from the Bible, it sparked a train of thought about signs and what they point to.

We often confuse pointers to the truth (does this sign qualify?) with truth. I've been tempted to equate the Christian metanarrative with the Bible - where maybe the Bible is more a sign pointing to it.

I believe that the Christian metanarrative is not a book but a person. Not the Bible (which is what some people call the "word of God" - but The Word - i.e. Jesus (John's Gospel chapter 1). Both God, and God expressed. Suspect him if you will but I find him trustworthy and true.

I wonder if one of my theologian friends will set me right.

Frightening small children (and others)

I can think of little that is as scary as an ageing bloke in a Lycra top.

Just be glad that the photo hides the worst angle.

It's all my beloved sister's fault - Ann very kindly sent me a wonderful cycling shirt - in the style of Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon". If you look inside the rear carry pouches/pockets they read "the lunatic is on the grass", "the lunatic is in the hall", and perhaps most aptly in my case "the lunatic is in my head".

As I say - wonderful shirt - until of course I am wearing it.... When I first got it I put it on late one night after everyone else had gone to bed so I could see it in the mirror in the hall.

I couldn't stop giggling.....

I wore it for my Sunday ride, happily I got tangled up with a charity bike ride and found myself among loads more middle aged men in colourful Lycra.


One thing I like about the shirt - it is worth 3 times what my bike cost!

(The bike was 15 quid on the supermarket noticeboard)

Bet I enjoyed posting this a lot more than you enjoyed reading it!

Time off in Shkoder (Albania)

We have a 10 day job in Albania and today we got a day off (for good behaviour??)

Church this morning was great - a privilege to break bread with a fellowship in the town. Singing sounded enthusiastic and felt "local" in style. Though we were made welcome I was heartily glad that the service was as usual - the only concession to us was someone pointing out which number we were singing. I hate it when the foreigners are made a fuss of!

Cycling down the lake it was a beautiful day - I guess about 20 degrees and blues skies. A one and a half hour bike ride to a little restaurant near the end of the road (after the end of the road is the Montenegro border)

Lunch with some of the team here, on the terrace overlooking the lake, a leisurely affair. I had kofta and salad (and chips!) Then eventually back for ice cream and expresso in the city.

Blowing God's Trumpet

Sometimes PR is easy...

Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bell;


I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell.

C.T. Studd

It cost a fair chunk of our budget - but when this slogan was worn by about 80 recovering addicts at an event with about 10,000 Christians - it was one of the high points of my summer.

I could have sold a load of the T shirts - but it would have killed the message. (something cynical about naked money-grubbing commercialism in the church springs to mind....)

I was giving out postcards - this is what they said:

CT Studd, founder of WEC International, knew that he risked his life and his reputation when he sailed for Africa in 1913. But he believed that it was a risk worth taking. Studd worked within a yard of hell; workers joined him knowing they may not return home alive. Studd was buried in the Congo where he worked.

To follow in the spirit of WEC's founder is a continual challenge. WEC's Betel ministry, in UK and elsewhere, still epitomises that same radical, passionate, vision.

Begun in Spain, Betel is a community that demonstrates the reality of God's activity in the lives of people on the margins of society. Within a yard of hell are those whose lives have been destroyed by addiction, they live on the streets of cities in the UK, and across the world. Betel runs a rescue shop right there. The lives of Betel members demonstrate vividly the love and power of God in places some would be tempted to call ‘God-forsaken’ - they are not.

Betel communities demonstrate the power of God over addiction. They are a church which knows the cost, but pays it anyway. Many are rescued every year.

WEC International continues to reach out to the last, the least, and the lost. It is WEC's intention to demonstrate the life-giving power of God and see churches started all over the world - wherever there is no church.

Job done...

Shock and sadness

A dear fellow worker and his wife killed in Pakistan. I've stayed with them each time I visited Pakistan.

Links:

• "Thin end of the wedge"
• Daily Record (Morris County New Jersey)
  
• Pakistan Christian post

Even more shock to see how some seem to "want" this to appear to be about terrorism (Islamic I think they mean) when it appears that the suspects are "christian". Particularly because I see echoes of that in myself - not wanting one of "ours" to be to blame - how sick is that?

Playing with words

I quite like playing with words. It can be a great pastime, it can be good communication (an underrated activity in my view), and it can occasionally be a teeny bit self-serving (as illustrated in Kez's blog on the Ikon service at Greenbelt).

I read these words in Brian McLaren (Generous Orthodoxy):

language can be a window through which one glimpses God, but never a box in which God can be contained

McLaren also quotes my "favourite human author I almost understand" - C.S. Lewis (who is not trying to be clever, he just is a lot more clever than me).