July 2008
Electronic, ecumenical news from Churches
Together in England
Click headings for more…
First a
Reflection…
The Kingdom of God and Disability
John Bradley was recently asked to speak to the staff of
World Vision about disability.
Now
here’s the news…
A new national criminal
justice charity, Circles UK, supports an award-winning community response to
reducing sex offending.
Rejesus partners with Church Army to make Jesus famous
Rejesus.co.uk announced
that the Church Army is to become a major strategic and managerial partner in
the future development of the site.
Following Jesus into virtual space
13th European Christian Internet Conference in Lyon,
France, 13-17 June.
Winning essays on prospects for ecumenism
"gifts
of inspiration and leadership"
Anglican-Methodist
Covenant five years on
Joint Implementation Commission reports to Methodist Conference and General Synod of Church of England.
County Ecumenical Officer made Cathedral Canon
Revd Simon Taylor, CEO for Devon, is among the new St Edward’s Canons of
Exeter Cathedral.
One World Week launches new Inter Faith Project
Development
education charity is broadening the scope of its traditional development
education work.
Leaders
challenge Churches to Engage with their Communities
Church leaders are backing charity Care for the Family's initiative to
encourage Churches to use family issues as opportunities to engage with their
communities.
The Kingdom of God and Disability
There are many wonderful stories in
the Bible where people get healed.
Those who see a healing get excited because it shows them that prayer
really works. It is the same today and
for some Christians, from Catholics to Pentecostals, these are the surest sign
that God is really at work. If you
regularly watch a TV programme such as Casualty, you will know the
familiar scene when a new character appears at the start of an episode and is
doing something foolish. You think,
“Oh-oh, they’re going to end up in A&E!”
And in the Gospels, when the story starts with someone who is sick or
disabled and Jesus comes along, you think, “Oh-oh, they’re going to end up
healed!” So those of us who pray and
are prayed for and yet visibly remain impaired are a problem. It can seem like we are letting the side
down. That’s not only in the Church;
it’s also in the medical world. Doctors
really like curing people. Bring them a
sick person and they like nothing better than prescribing a medicine or doing
an operation so that the person is no longer sick. If the sickness is such that they can’t cure it and they can see
that the person is probably going to die from it, the whole Terminal Care
process swings into gear to make their last days as pain-free as possible. But those of us with chronic conditions are
an enigma; we probably aren’t going to die from it but they can’t cure us from
it either.
I want to distinguish two pairs of
words which are often confused: healing and cure, disability and
impairment. Many people pray for
healing when what they really want and expect is a cure. The difference is that healing is moving
forward to a greater wholeness but a cure is moving back to a previous time
before the trouble began. It is
significant that the biblical word ‘to heal’ also means ‘to save’. So if you ask me if I want to be cured of
MS, I would say no. Millions of pounds
are being spent on research into the causes of MS and I pray that it will
succeed so that one day MS will no longer be an incurable condition. But for me personally to be cured would mean
turning the clock back fifteen years and asking God to take back all that I
have learnt through the experience of becoming disabled.
The distinction between disability
and impairment goes to the heart of the current debate over how disability is
to be defined. The two sides are called
the medical model and the social model.
The medical model defines disability in terms of what an individual
cannot do that a ‘normal’ person can do.
Normal people can see, hear and walk.
Blind people are disabled because they can’t see, deaf people because
they can’t hear and lame people because they can’t walk. Notice each time I use the word ‘people’. That is deliberate because often we get
clumped together as ‘the blind’, ‘the deaf’ or ‘the lame’. The main trouble with that is that it
defines people by what is wrong with them.
Impairment
is a gentler word and is, I think, more than a mere euphemism, like ‘disabled’
is a euphemism for ‘crippled’.
Impairment recognises that there are parts of my body which do not work
as well as they might. In my case, it
is the skin around my brain and spinal cord which has scars which delay and
distort the messages transmitted by my nerves.
In my experience, a progressive impairment is like a partial premature
mortality: parts of my body behave as if they were dead already. That would be very hard to cope with if I
were not a Christian. As it is, I am
daily inspired by the hope that ‘our feeble bodies will be made like His
glorious body’ (Phil 3.21) and I consider that ‘this slight momentary
affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure’
(2 Cor 4:17).
So while
the medical model of disability says that it is about something which is wrong
with me, the social model says that it is about society and how it is or is not
arranged for people like me. That is
the problem with the medical model of disability for those of us who are
defined as disabled. We are damaged
goods and it costs the world of healthy people a lot of time and effort to cope
with our deficiencies. If we do manage
to contribute something to society, it may be considered far less than if we
were not disabled. The Christian
revolution of love sees us in a radically different way. Paul describes the difference in 2
Corinthians 5:16f
With us
therefore worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of anyone;
even if once they counted in our understanding of Christ, they do so now no
longer. For anyone united to Christ, there is a new creation: the old order has
gone; a new order has already begun.
Those
‘worldly standards’, literally ‘according to the flesh’, are about assessing
all other people as either an opportunity or a threat. The friends of Franz Schubert gave him the
nickname ‘Kann er was’ because whenever he was introduced to someone new, he
would ask ‘What can he do? Can he sing? Can he play an instrument? How can I
use him?’ Or worldly standards could
equally ask how this person is a threat to my ambitions. The new creation in Christ is about seeing
every other person as the object of the eternal redeeming love of God, as one
for whom Christ gave his life. That
includes people with disabilities and that very change of perception is the
beginning of our healing. So whenever you meet a disabled person – and remember
that many impairments are not visible like mine – remember that they are the
object of the redeeming love of God, one for whom Christ died, and therefore of
intrinsic infinite value. If you want
to know what you can do to help them manage their condition, ask them! Never presume you know or you will only
contribute to their disempowerment.
There
will be no disability when God’s kingdom comes fully, not because being
disabled is sinful or a punishment for sin or a consequence of lack of faith,
but because then we shall each be fully enabled to be the people God made us to
be. If it is society which disables,
the kingdom of God will be a society which doesn’t disable anyone. Meanwhile, praying that God’s will may be
done on earth as it is in heaven is a way of anticipating that perfectly
healthy society now. Whatever you do
and wherever you go, you can be God’s agent to bind up the broken-hearted and
proclaim liberty to those who are still the captives of their disability. Back to top
A new national criminal
justice charity, Circles UK, is being launched in London to support the
development and effectiveness of Circles of Support and Accountability,
(Circles), an award-winning community response to reducing sex offending. Circles enable trained volunteers and
criminal justice agencies to work together with the aim of “no more victims”.
Circles originated in Canada, where studies show they can greatly reduce offending.
The Home Office funded pilots in the UK, the two main ones being run by Quaker
Peace and Social Witness and the Lucy Faithfull Foundation.
The launch conference
for Circles UK, held last month at Central Hall Westminster, London, brought
together more than a hundred people with expertise in dealing with sex
offenders, including some from prison, probation and police services; academics
and agencies working to promote child safety or working with adults at risk of
sexual offending.
Keynote speakers
included Maria Eagle MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Ministry of
Justice; Professor David Wilson, criminologist, writer and broadcaster; Tim
Newell, former prison governor and worker for restorative justice; Dr Robin
Wilson, forensic psychologist, Clinical Director, Florida Civil Commitment
Centre; and Tim Richley, Criminal Justice Adviser, SACRO, Scotland.
Helen Drewery of Quaker
Peace and Social Witness, said: “It was a little daunting for the Quakers in
1999 to pioneer this work in the UK. It was a big task for a small faith group.
This work shows that the community can respond positively to the challenge of
released sex offenders living in our communities.” There are Quakers among the volunteers and Trustees, but Circles
UK is now an independent charity. Back to
top
Rejesus partners with Church Army to
make Jesus famous
Rejesus.co.uk, a leading home on the internet for all
things about Jesus and related faith issues, announced that the Church Army is
to become a major strategic and managerial partner in the future development of
the site.
Rob
Freeman, Archdeacon of Halifax and Chair of the rejesus board, said, "I am
delighted with this news. Rejesus.co.uk was established to enable people who
are not connected with church to be able to explore issues around who Jesus is
and how he impacts on issues of life and spirituality. The partnership with
Church Army will help bring fresh impetus and additional resources to the
development of the site and help build on our success in establishing
rejesus.co.uk as the number one place on the web to go to find out about
Jesus."
Church
Army's Chief Executive Mark Russell added; "Rejesus is a fantastically
creative and entertaining resource for those who want to discover more about
Jesus and the Christian faith. Our passion at Church Army is to do all we can
to make Jesus more well known and we are excited at the prospect of working
with the creative team at rejesus to do just that and help make this great
resource even better. We want everyone to be talking about it and all the
churches to help support what we do and join us in helping to make Jesus
famous"
Rejesus.co.uk
is probably one of the most successful current UK evangelism initiatives with
hundreds of thousands of people using the site each year and many of these not
in contact with church and exploring issues of faith and spirituality. Recent
modules launched by rejesus include specially produced content for the BBC's
The Passion series and for the movie Evan Almighty, a Jesus on-line pub quiz
and guidance on prayer. Back to top
Following Jesus into virtual space
As
the internet has developed into a social network where individuals as well as
institutions exchange ideas via text, sound and pictures, churches face new
opportunities and challenges. At the 13th European Christian Internet
Conference in Lyon, France, 13-17 June, participants came from as far away as
Iceland and Romania to share their views on how the churches should be "following
Jesus into virtual space", as one of the keynote lecturers put it.
Among the presented
projects, ranging from an interactive virtual church for Finnish children to a
Swiss pastoral care service by email and SMS, was for the first time a
cooperation that also originated at a European Christian Internet Conference.
The World Council of Churches (WCC), the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD)
and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria have teamed up to set a standard
for a more flexible and integrated way of sharing Christian resources. The
project is based on the emerging "semantic web" technology, which
according to the "inventor of the worldwide web", Tim Berners-Lee,
will be the key ingredient of the internet of the future.
"The semantic web is
a chance for churches to share and show what they hold in common. Our dream is
to make resources, like the ecumenical prayer cycle, available to other
websites in a simple and clever way," says Olivier Schopfer, WCC executive
web editor. "We want to help churches to make their best contents
available to other Christian websites. This will make the ecumenical fellowship
more visible in the virtual world, as it should be in the real world”. From WCC News Service Back to top
Winning essays on prospects for ecumenism
Ideas
for "bringing unity down to earth", "communicative action"
and a "theology of the wilderness" were among the winning entries
submitted for an essay contest on Prospects for Ecumenism in the 21st Century.
The winners, two women and four men, come from Africa, Asia, Europe and North
America.
The essay contest is part
of the programme to commemorate the World Council of Churches' (WCC) 60th
anniversary. More than 50 young theologians from 36 churches in 24 countries
submitted papers. Participants in the
essay contest gave "hope, inspiration and leadership" to the
ecumenical movement, WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia wrote in a
letter announcing the six winners. "This is the best birthday gift the WCC
could receive".
The winners, whose essays
where selected by an international team of WCC executives and Bossey Ecumenical
Institute professors, are (in alphabetical order, additional information
below):
Ms Erin Brigham, Roman
Catholic Church, USA
Mr Beril Huliselan,
Indonesian Christian Church (GKI), Indonesia
Mr Gu Mengfei, China
Christian Council, China
Mr Peniel Jesudason Rufus
Rajkumar, Church of England, United Kingdom/India
Rev. Chad Rimmer,
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, USA/Denmark
Ms Lucy Wambui Waweru,
Presbyterian Church of East Africa, Kenya/Netherlands
The selected essayists
will have the opportunity to discuss their ideas at an international
consultation on Ecumenism in the 21st Century, to take place in January 2009 in
Belem, Brazil. Theirs and other selected essays will be printed by WCC
Publications and published on the WCC website. "After reading your papers, we are more confident that the
one ecumenical movement is the work of the Holy Spirit - created and sustained
to make our unity in Christ visible and our witness to the world
credible," Kobia wrote to the participants.
Erin Brigham, a member of
the Roman Catholic Church in the United States of America, is a doctoral
student in systematic and philosophical theology at the Graduate Theological
Union of Berkeley in California. The focus of her work is on ecumenical
dialogue and ecclesiology, with an emphasis on the Roman Catholic Church. Brigham's essay on Communicative Action as
an Approach to Ecumenical Dialogue discusses how visible unity has been
understood in the past century, and the current ambiguity on the nature of the
unity we seek. She proposes a way to recognize unity within the process of
dialogue itself.
Beril Huliselan, from the
Indonesian Christian Church (GKI), is a graduate of the Jakarta Theological
Seminary. He currently staffs the Theological Research Commission of the
Indonesian Christian Church. His essay
Bringing Unity Down to Earth asserts that ecumenism should be understood as the
"moment of God’s incarnation in Christ". The author argues that what
has become a "unity movement" seeking to fix norms and forms must be
converted to "unity in movement". Christ must be the central figure
of the ecumenical movement. It must be active, bringing fullness of life to
all. The first step for actualization is pre-theological, he writes, it is a
matter of ongoing faith. The second step relates to reflection about God from
the context of humanity - the hermeneutic of incarnation.
Gu Mengfei, is a staff
member with the research department of the China Christian Council. He is a
graduate of Nanjing and Beijing universities. His published work concerns the
history of the church in China. Mengfei's
essay The Post-Denominational Era - Chinese churches on the way toward unity
describes how the churches in China are striving to overcome Christian
denominationalism inherited from Western missionaries. It highlights important
steps, such as the move towards united worship in 1958, and the principles of
seeking common ground while retaining difference with mutual respect.
Peniel Jesudason Rufus
Rajkumar, a member of the Church of England, is a lecturer at the United
Theological College in Bangalore, India. He completed his doctoral thesis in
Applied Theology and Ethics at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.
He has authored Challenges of Transition: Religion and Ethics in Changing
Contexts (2007) and is currently working on a book on Dalit theology. His essay, Towards a Transforming
Togetherness, is a contextually-grounded treatment of the topic: the future of
ecumenism in the twenty-first century. Understandings of
"togetherness" through trinitarian unity and "difference"
within postmodernity highlight the dialectical tension between promise and challenge
within the ecumenical movement.
Rev. Chad Rimmer, an
ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is pastor of
the International Church of Copenhagen. His essay Towards an Ecumenical Theology of the Wilderness
attempts to place ecumenism in the context of a post-modern world in which
attention to function takes precedence over concern for form. Therefore it
suggests to articulate the evolving functions of the ecumenical movement,
rather than reconfiguring its forms. The "theology of wilderness" he
proposes, applied to the current ecumenical scene, involves a return to
observing the giftedness of each ecumenical partner; an embodiment of the
Sabbath as a gift and church unity as a gift in Christ; as well as the
expectation that the ecumenical movement will be transformed by the journey.
Lucy Wambui Waweru, from
the Presbyterian Church of East Africa in Kenya, is a graduate of St Paul’s
University in Limuru and is currently pursuing a master's degree in New
Testament with the Protestant Theological University in Kampen, Netherlands.
She hopes to serve her church as an ordained minister. Waweru's essay Preparing for Tomorrow
celebrates many of the achievements of the past 60 years from the biblical
perspective of the Israelites coming into the land of Canaan under Joshua’s
command. The author articulates a vision for ecumenism that addresses the
challenges posed by globalization, taking note of the shifting paradigms, the
need to empower people at the grassroots, especially youth and women, and the
need to encourage the gift of service. Back to top
Anglican-Methodist
Covenant five years on
A
major report received by the Methodist Conference and the General Synod of the
Church of England addresses the progress made over the last five years of the
Anglican-Methodist Covenant. The
Covenant between the Methodist Church in Great Britain and the Church of
England was agreed by both churches in the summer of 2003. It was signed by the
Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the President and Vice-President of the
Methodist Conference and the general secretaries of both churches in the presence
of Her Majesty the Queen on 1 November that year.
The quinquennial report of
the Joint Implementation Commission (JIC) commends the work done so far by the
churches to implement the Covenant, and features a number of ‘cameos’
illustrating how the Covenant is being put into action in a variety of
contexts. These include a joint Anglican-Methodist primary school in Kent and
volunteers from both churches working together to run a night café and creative
arts centre in Manchester.
The Methodist Conference commended
the report for further study and endorsed the recommendations, which include
appointing a successor body to the JIC for a further five-year period. The
scope of this body would extend to involve representatives of the Church in
Wales and the Scottish Episcopal Church and from the Methodist Church in
Scotland and Wales as well as relating more closely to Ireland where there is
already a Covenant between the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Church of
Ireland.
Later at the General Synod
of the Church of England, the Bishop of Peterborough, Rt Revd Ian Cundy, moved:
‘That this Synod:
(a) thank the members of the Joint Implementation
Commission for their report Embracing the Covenant and for their work during
the past five years;
(b) commend the report, with its recommendations, for
study, action and response in the Church of England, and for discussion with
members of the Methodist Church;
(c) endorse the Commission’s recommendations regarding the
shape of its work in the next phase; and
(d) request that Bishop’s Councils consider the report and
refer it for study by other appropriate bodies in the dioceses and that
responses be sent to the Council for Christian Unity by 31 December 2009.’
The motion was
overwhelmingly carried.
Professor Peter Howdle,
Co-Chair of the Commission and past Vice-President of the Methodist Conference,
said; ‘As the Covenant nears its fifth birthday, this report offers a chance to
reflect on a major initiative for unity and mission in the history of our
Churches. We have heard so many encouraging stories from those living out the
Covenant both in church life and in serving their communities. But it is clear
that there is still much to learn and much to do in order to make the journey
towards fuller visible unity.’
The report recognises that
further work is needed for the Covenant to move forward, particularly in
encouraging and resourcing local churches. Expert support and advice is being
made available to Bishops and District Chairs wishing to encourage deeper
engagement with the Covenant in their area and take up the opportunities it
gives for unity in common life and mission. Back to top
County Ecumenical Officer made
Cathedral Canon
Revd Simon Taylor, County Ecumenical Officer for Devon since 2001, was
made one of five new St Edward’s Canons of Honour at a service at Exeter
Cathedral on Monday 30 June. The other
new Canons are Bishop Pierre Pican from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bayeux
and Lisieux (which is twinned with Exeter); Revd John Carne, Chair of the
Plymouth and Exeter Methodist District; and Rt Revd Christopher Budd, Bishop of
the Roman Catholic Diocese of Plymouth.
St Edward’s Canons seek to promote the mission of the Church in Devon in
partnership with the Bishop, the Diocese and the Cathedral. They are not
members of the College of Canons and have no formal role in the governance of
the Cathedral, but are invested with a badge of office and are allocated stalls
in the Cathedral Quire which they are invited to occupy for major diocesan and
cathedral events.
Previously the Bishop of Exeter, Rt Revd Michael Langrish, installed new
Lay Canons including Professor Michael Winter who is a member of the Methodist
Church as well as of the Church of England.
He is an expert in rural sociology and made a major contribution to the Faith
in the Countryside report of 1990.
After training as a lay preacher, he was simultaneously accredited as a
Methodist Local Preacher and licensed as an Anglican Lay Reader, the first such
instance in the Diocese of Exeter. Back to top
One World Week launches new Inter Faith
Project
One
World Week (OWW), the development education charity, is broadening the scope of
its traditional development education work with church communities to other
faiths with a new three-year DfID-funded project, "Exploring Ubuntu – One
World Week Across Faiths". New staff are currently being recruited to
carry this forward.
This
England-wide project aims to focus initially on Muslim communities and black
and minority ethnic groups, drawing on those shared concerns of many religions
that relate to believers' responsibilities to poor people and for the
environment. OWW will support people
with new ways of planning together "international development
awareness-raising activities" (called "OWW Ubuntu events"),
within their own faith community and beyond.
The
word "Ubuntu" is an old African word which acknowledges the oneness
of humanity. It has been chosen by One World Week to convey the value of people
working together co-operatively, with mutual respect, across barriers of creed
and culture, to explore the relevance of global issues and interdependence in
their everyday lives.
The
Department for International Development (DFID) is funding the project, which,
by highlighting areas of commonality between Christians and Muslims in the
first instance, will concur with DFID's strategy to “explore the scope for
joint activities with other faiths…" and "…ensure our work is
inclusive and that ethnic and minority groups are fully involved”.
Milind
Kolhatkar, One World Week Chair, says: "In a world where it's easy to see
how religion divides us it is worth remembering that faith can be one of
humanity's great unifiers - encouraging love for one another, teaching a duty
to care for the beautiful, diverse earth we share with others, and showing us
ways to live in peace with our neighbours.
Organisers of One World Week activities have proven this over the decades.
Now we look forward to involving people of different faiths in our shared
journey towards global justice, building confidence and self-reliance along the
way, so that in three years' time people's lived experiences of One World Week,
of how it relates to personal and communal faiths, and of the active spirit of
Ubuntu will be real and documented, an exemplar to other faith groups."
Further
information from Ingrid Wilson, One World Week Trustee, at
one_world_week@hotmail.co.uk or oww@ideasuk.co.uk www.oneworldweek.org
Tel: 07976 267367. Back to top
Leaders challenge Churches to Engage with
their Communities
Rt Revd John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, Revd Jonathan Edwards, General
Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Major Paul Main of The
Salvation Army and Rt Revd Tony Porter, the Bishop of Sherwood are backing
charity Care for the Family's initiative to encourage Churches to use
family issues as opportunities to engage with their communities.
Engage, a new project, wants church leaders and congregations across the
UK to think about their community, its needs and how to effectively meet
them. The aim is to make the Church
more relevant to its locality by engaging with families.
Dr John Sentamu says: “As carriers of God’s message of hope and
transformation our Churches can in turn transform the lives and communities of
our nation. I welcome the ‘Engage’
Conference and its equipping to better serve our communities.”
Engage, which takes place in Nottingham in October and Cheltenham in
November, promises to provide churches with simple and effective ways to reach
out into local communities and engage those who usually have little or no
contact with church. Engage intends to inspire everyone interested in meeting
community needs when it comes to family issues. Headline speakers include Rob
Parsons and Ian Coffey who, alongside other keynote speakers, will be sharing
their expertise on different elements of family life.
Care for the Family's Head of Church Relations, Richard Hardy is
passionate about seeing churches get to grips with community issues. "For
too long we have failed to engage with our neighbourhoods by talking about the
things that really matter to people. After spending many years in local
ministry myself, I'm convinced our failure to address real life issues is the
root cause of the Church's marginalisation in our society." said Richard "The attitude of many
people who are struggling today is why would they look to the Church for
support? How could the Church possibly help them?"
Seminars at Engage will include:
• The need to engage
• Leading your church to
engage
• Transitioning your
church to engage
• Engaging in the
workplace
• Money Matters
• Drugs and your
community
• Engaging 21st century
families
• Engaging 20s and
30s: Building Relationships
• Building teams
Engage takes place in:
NOTTINGHAM, East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park, NG7 2RJ
Saturday 4 October 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm
CHELTENHAM, The Centaur, Cheltenham Racecourse, GL50 4SH Saturday 8
November 2008, 9.30 am- 5 pm
Thanks to a generous subsidy, ticket prices for Engage start at £54
(full cost £99), book before 31 July to qualify for the early bird discount
taking the price down to £44. Group discounts are also available. Tickets can be booked online at www.engagetoday.org.uk,
or by phoning Care for the Family on (029) 2081 0800. Back to top