God's Clearing House

Good morning God,
I wonder how many of our seminaries will be contacted as part of the UCAS clearing process today, after all, every one of them offers degree programs, from Foundation Degrees, through to Bachelors, and even Masters and Doctorates.

This could be a great opportunity for us.

We could advertise for students by suggesting that a failure to obtain the grades they needed for university might just be God's way of 'calling' them to the ministry instead.

No, I'm not being facetious.

We have long since stopped expecting the countries brightest and best to join the ministry. (if we ever did of course) Historically it was once expected that the oldest son of the landed Gentry would inherit and manage the family estate, whilst younger sons would enter the Army or Navy or the Church!
Now, to be truthful, we no longer expect or even try to attract young people of university age into the vocation.

Madness!

Instead of retreating from the younger generation we need to be courting them: advertising our degree courses, pushing our vocational degrees, even attending the milk-round of graduates and offering them further vocational training to complement their degrees, if they will take a fast-track to ministry.

We should be thinking about our failing Churches and Circuits in the same way that the government thinks about failing schools. It takes good management skills, entrepreneurial ability, marketing and business skills to turn a failing Church into thriving centre for the next generation's growth in grace and holiness. It's time to start fast tracking student ministers in the same way that the state fast tracks student teachers. We need young people, with the necessary skill base who are prepared to take on the challenge of real leadership, to use all the gifts and graces that God has given them, to turn the Church around and bring it kicking and screaming into the 21st Century.

Perhaps getting the wrong A level Grades is just the start - try a different sort of degree...

NO - we don't need the young person to be an exemplary Christian first, we don't even need them to have faith - we need them to want to do the work, to want to have faith.
Wesley's lack of faith didn't stop him doing the job.. He was told : Preach faith until you have it, and then, because you have it - you will preach faith..

So for all the young people out there who don't have the grades they needed and who want a real challenge in life: Contact one of our seminaries: Not only might you get a place on a degree course, but the way might be open to a whole new way of life that is deeply rewarding and endlessly fascinating!

You too might be heading up a charity with a turn-over of over of anything from £50,000 to half a million pounds or more a year, managing a highly skilled staff and using your position to make real changes to the local community and perhaps even the world - all within just a few short years of your graduation/ordination...

May the Lord lift up his face..

Good evening God,
can we talk frankly for a moment? I need to be honest about something that's really bothering me..
it's my face, or rather,  the fact that the face I see in the mirror these days isn't a face that I recognise as mine, and that's something that really is beginning to bug me. What's disturbing me is how quickly other people have grown used to this face - as though it is mine, as though this is who I am now...

I've never been particularly interested in my face before now, I've only put make-up on once or twice in my entire life, and as for my hair, well I've been as happy to cut it myself to get it out of my eyes as I have been to pay someone else to do it for me. So I think I can truthfully say, my problem is not based on vanity or or any need to look a million dollars (who wants to look that green and grubby!)
I'm not concerned about looking 'pretty', I just want to look like me, to me, again.

Please don't misunderstand. I am truly grateful for the miracle of life. I do know how amazing it is to still be here after surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. I am well aware of how petty this must sound to some people! I am alive, so what if it means that I don't look like I used to, surely that's a small price to pay isn't it?

Yes..

and no.

There is something about the image of ourselves that we carry around inside our heads which is intensely personal and definitive: It doesn't just shape how we see ourselves, it affects how we relate to others on a very deep and spiritual level. It took courage to wear a wig when I lost my hair through chemotherapy, but it actually takes more grit and determination to simply face the world each day looking like a stranger to myself. The insecurity it generates is quite astonishing.

The bottom line is that I can't rely on this face to communicate all the love and compassion I have for the people I meet: I don't know how well, if at all, this face is able to reflect the light of your love, the gift of your grace, and the joy of your presence.  I don't know how to lift up this face..

Did you?

I mean, did you, when you took human flesh, know how to look out at the world through a face that was not able to express all that you wanted it too, all that you needed to say, all that you truly felt inside? Did your face as Jesus, feel strange to you, alien to you, less than who you really were? Did you feel you were able to sustain relationships, form new ones, communicate love, grace, hope and joy just as you wanted to?

or was this why graven images are forbidden, is that why they can seem so empty, so undesirable?

I am grateful for the fact that deep inside, I know who I am.
That for most of each day, I am able to forget that I do not look like me to me, and so am able to simply be me..
I am grateful too for that amazing prayer, and for the promise it offers to people like myself who may, or may not, recover the outward image of themselves in this lifetime and so have to trust that they reflect your face instead:

The LORD bless you

and keep you;

the LORD make his face shine upon you

and be gracious to you;

the LORD turn his face toward you

and give you peace.”’

Thanks for the rant

Wife Hunting

Good morning God,
One of the joys of being able to keep a church open every day during the day, is the opportunity it provides for prayer and pastoral ministry to the whole community.

Given its size and location, New Malden is a surprisingly diverse community. It is currently dominated by three specific groups;
White Europeans (including a growing number of Eastern Europeans),
Koreans (New Malden has the largest community of Koreans in Europe) and
Sri Lankans (mainly Tamil).

In our cafe we also have a regular table set aside for a group of Syrian Orthodox, Iraqi refugees.

On some days, it can sometimes seem as though the whole world has come to us to share in the warmth and hospitality that the Church is able to offer by its presence on the High Street.
It does, however, also pose some interesting pastoral conundrums - when cultures clash and faith is challenged to think differently about prayer and action, morals and ethics.

This week, for example, I was asked to pray with a Christian Tamil gentleman who had traveled to New Malden  from Denmark in search of a wife for his 25 year old Son.  "Only God can help me in my search",  he explained, "so it makes sense to start here - would you please pray that I will be successful and find for him a wife who will travel back with me to Denmark?"


Although I know that many Christian cultures still practice arranged marriages,  it is not something that we encounter very often in the Churches here. Throughout most of the Western world, people presume that marriage is the union of two people who are already in love. The idea of someone else choosing our life-partner for us challenges our presumptions of freedom, individuality, autonomy..

BUT
Isn't marriage all about the renunciation of those things? The loss of I in WE, the willing abandonment of personal freedoms in favour of shared responsibilities, the death of self for the sake of something new.

The difference is, of course, that some cultures still consider marriage to be a part of their social and religious duty rather than just a personal privilege. They believe that those who can marry should, for the sake of society; not least, to ensure that children are raised in the best possible environment.
Marriage is not about what 'I' want, or even about what 'we' would like to do, but about what You command and the world needs,

Considered in that light, it is far too important to be left to the whim of an often fleeting emotional or physical response to another individual. If it is to benefit society, and enrich the life of the whole extended family then it needs to be carefully, prayerfully thought through.. and who best to choose the partners than those who know the young people best?
You - and of course, the parents!

Whilst I could never condone a forced marriage or an unwilling marriage - I believe there is much to be said for an arranged marriage based on loving trust and mutual consent.  Following conversation, and a shared service of holy communion, I found that I was genuinely happy to pray with the father in search of a bride for his son. What's more,  I trust that our prayers will be answered and that you will guide him to the family of the young woman who would be willing to commit herself to the new life waiting for her in Denmark.

It is indeed, a great privilege to be able to share in prayer with people from all over the world, not least because the requests that others make of us are such an amazing invitation from You to rethink our own requests.

A five day week..?

Good morning God,

I was reminded this week amidst all the comments about Clergy Burn-Out of my first Superintendent (You never forget your first!) In the first three months of my ministry, he took the trouble to go through my diary with me, and make sure that I took things out as well as put things in. He would point out, for example, that I had a ladies fellowship meeting arranged for Tuesday afternoon, but had set aside no time to prepare for it - were these women not worth the effort - or did I think I would prepare in my sleep? Similarly for Church meetings - when had I set aside time to re-read the minutes of the last meeting, to pray about the work to be done, to seek God's guidance - or was that supposed to happen sometime in between the opening devotions and the apologies for absence?
His gentle but insistent reordering of my diary, helped me to shape not only my time but also my theology of Church order - invaluable!
Later on, as we developed a team ministry in the Circuit, we would meet weekly at 8:00am and the final part of our business was to share our diaries as part of watching over one another in love. This also had the amazing effect of teaching us what work we were each engaged in, how to play to one another's strengths, and how to avoid duplication. There can be no doubt about it - opening the diary to scrutiny reduced the work load.
BUT
It's not common practice, most ministers seem determined to hoard their work-load as though it is treasure from heaven (which it certainly isn't!). Very few ministers seem confident enough to celebrate a lighter week as a Godsend, leave alone ask for help with a demanding week.
There can be no doubt in my mind that collegiality is better than legislation when it comes to the provision of appropriate pro-active supervision. We shared diaries because we cared about each others work load, as well as the work of the Circuit. We worked as a team because that was what Circuit ministry was supposed to be all about. We also learned the hard way that it only takes one unwilling person to destroy a team.
Given the increasing sizes of circuits and the demands placed on lay and ministerial staff alike, it becomes harder and harder to realistically watch over one another in love - leave alone create and sustain an effective circuit (ie team) ministry.
So what to do?
I think that Micky Youngston and others are right - now is the time to debunk the myth of ministry being of necessity a 24/7 job and recognise that it is the calling that is 24/7 not the work!
It's time to insist first and foremost on realistic working hours for ministers. If the European time directive is good enough for other vocational professionals like doctors and consultants - then it should be good enough for ministers. No more than 40 hours per week maximum. And - YES - ministers should have two days a week off - if possible to be taken consecutively!
A radical rethink of ministerial working hours would undoubtedly serve to re-engage the laity - or better yet - help us to set realistic priorities. Do we really need yet another meeting for the carpet in the Sanctuary or to set the calendar of social committee meetings for the year?
Above all this however, it would send out the message, loud and clear, to ministers  and laity alike that the work of ministry should not be so demanding that the minister is unable to take the time to grow in grace and holiness, to fulfil their calling which includes their responsibilities to their families and friends.
I know that few ministers would be able to hold to 40 hours, but changing the working hours would make it possible to hold us accountable for 40 hours - and questions could then rightly be asked about any excess!
It might make ministers more willing to share their diaries, if they didn't feel that every hour from 8:00am til 10:00pm had to be spoken for. It might encourage greater honesty about unrealistic work loads, and help to stem the tide of those leaving the ministry for better paid, 5 day a week posts. (It's worth noting that Connexional posts are only 5 days a week rather than the Circuit based 6 days!)
It's time to draft circuit and district resolutions to Conference, to send a message loud and clear - along with personnel files for ministers, we want decent working hours.
But above all this God - what we really want is a means of watching over one another in love.

Never just a username.

Good afternoon God,
I've spent a significant amount of time online this week, engaged in various forms of ministry: prayer support by email, fellowship via blogger, twitter and facebook, bible-study via the net.bible, theological education via moodle, pastoral care and evangelism in second life. I have to be honest, I really enjoy this ministry. I 'meet' people from all over the world, am challenged by what I encounter and am frequently supported in my own ministry by the general grace of the online community.

Thank you - for making the digital world such a means of grace sometimes.

But of course, there is another side to all this: there are the abusive emails, the offensive tweets, the lurkers and spammers with their malicious viruses and trojans.. The digital world can be every bit as unpleasant a place to minister or just spend time in, as the 'real' world can be.

Perhaps it has something to do with the anonymity of the internet. It is easy to forget that there are 'real' people behind the usernames.

People often 'say' things in emails, blogs and tweets that they would never say face to face, and can behave in the most inappropriate manner. I have known friends whose careers have been ruined by being tagged in edited facebook photos and by having bad references posted about them in Linkedin & Plaxo.  Internet bullying is a significant problem which effectively results in the victim being too scared to go online to see what else has been blogged/tweeted/Digged about them. This is more common than many realise: Half the people surveyed by BeatBullying last year, for example, had heard of people setting up a fake profile pretending to be another person; one in five had seen hate sites or groups set up to bully someone online.

Much as I love this digital world - especially the always on variety - and the ways in which it can be a means of grace, I am bothered about the level of fraud, abuse, deceit and manipulation that I encounter online these days. And even more concerned about the less obvious, but just as harmful snide remarks, cutting comments, thoughtless tweets and breaches of confidentiality.

I may not set out to scam or phish or defraud - but as part of my own ministry, I need to keep checking - am I as considerate as I can be, as thoughtful and as sensitive to the fact that behind each username lies a real person, with real feelings, who can be hurt deeply?

I believe those of us who are logged on and online could help by practicing 'ministry' more effectively and deliberately in the virtual world. The online community can be an amazing place for people to learn of you, to study your Word, to witness to your grace, to proclaim your gospel, to minister genuine care and compassion, as well as to campaign against racism, violence and abuse wherever these are found.

But all this requires each of us who aspire to such a ministry to remember that people are not just a username - they are never just a username - YOU have called each and everyone logged in, by name, they are REAL and they are YOURS - no matter how crazy their avatar or icon is!

Clerical Errors: Child abuse and Women's Ordination

.
Good afternoon God,
I've been needing to talk to you about the fuss caused by the Roman Catholic Church's recently published

MODIFICATIONS MADE IN THE NORMAE DE GRAVIORIBUS DELICTIS


The part that has caused several of my fellow bloggers to get all excited is:

Art. 5


 The more grave delict of the attempted sacred ordination of a woman is also reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith:


1° With due regard for can. 1378 of the Code of Canon Law, both the one who attempts to confer sacred ordination on a woman, and she who attempts to receive sacred ordination, incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.


2° If the one attempting to confer sacred ordination, or the woman who attempts to receive sacred ordination, is a member of the Christian faithful subject to the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches, with due regard for can. 1443 of that Code, he or she is to be punished by major excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See.


3° If the guilty party is a cleric he may be punished by dismissal or deposition[31].

Put in English this means that both the woman and anyone daft enough to try and ordain her is automatically and instantly excommunicated.

Now there is nothing new in this - this is NOT what has upset people - it is the fact that the next item in the document is:

Art. 6
§

1. The more grave delicts against morals which are reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith are:
1° the delict against the sixth commandment of the Decalogue committed by a cleric with a minor below the age of eighteen years; in this case, a person who habitually lacks the use of reason is to be considered equivalent to a minor.
2° the acquisition, possession, or distribution by a cleric of pornographic images of minors under the age of fourteen, for purposes of sexual gratification, by whatever means or using whatever technology;
§ 2. A cleric who commits the delicts mentioned above in § 1 is to be punished according to the gravity of his crime, not excluding dismissal or deposition.

Again - to translate this into English - a cleric who has sex with a minor (or vulnerable adult) or who acquires, produces, uses or distributes pornographic images of minors will be punished 'according to the gravity of his crime - which could mean that they get dismissed or removed from office.

People (including some newspapers) have therefore assumed that the Catholic Church is equating women's ordination with child abuse. Not so. They are simply recording in one document all the changes that have been made to the document which details delicts against the faith.


Ok.. so the Catholic Church has shot itself in the foot maybe by putting both things in the same document - but the document collects a number of changes together - including the prohibition against con-celebration, and; 'the taking or retaining for a sacrile­gious purpose or the throwing away of the consecrated species'


There ARE things that I would want to take the Roman Catholic Church to task over - but sorting out their clerical errors, their admin and documentation is not one of them.  Putting these things in the same document was bad PR maybe, but there was no intent on the part of the Catholic Church to equate the items in the document in any other way than as willful acts or crimes against the faith and its moral and sacramental standards

I'm more upset that the attempt to ordain women results in automatic excommunication for both parties whereas abusing a minor may result in dismissal - now that IS something to get upset about.


Why.. because it says that the Church is more afraid of the influence of women on faith than it is concerned about the lives of children. It says it really still hasn't got the message that abuse is NEVER acceptable in Church - that it destroys not just the individual's life of faith, but the Church itself.
I abhor the hypocrisy of a Church that can preach suffer little children to come unto me - but which will not take steps to ensure that those same Children are as safe as they can be in the Church's hands.


I really don't mind that the Catholic Church is scared of my influence on the life of the Church - it should be - that's why You call women to Holy Orders - to challenge any human attempt to limit Your action in the world - or in Your Church. I don't mind because if the Church really is of You God then your will, will be done in the end - whereas if it is not - then the Church will simply die.

BUT
When the Church sends out signals that effectively says the Church is more at risk from women than from abuse - I am afraid for us all - we really have lost the plot.


As a Methodist, I don't believe in excommunication anyway - it is a denial of your grace God - (as though WE can decide who is and who is not a part of your body!)  But I do understand that for Catholics and Orthodox, excommunication is a serious matter - a matter of life and death for all eternity as there is no salvation outside of the Church according to this way of thinking.


SO - it time to end the abuse - to work on the text

But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea. (Matt 18:6)

No, I can't get excited about the Catholic Church's attitude to women - I just don't need the catholic Church to approve my ordination - and as I am not and never have been a Catholic - the threat of excommunication doesn't bother me. I have Salvation by faith, not by belonging.


I do however need their clerics to stop abusing Children and making a mockery of the good news of Jesus Christ's invitation to 'let the Children come' - and I suspect the threat of automatic excommunication might have more of an effect than the threat of deposition.

I think God, that there are some clerical errors  still in need of correction in that document.

Reasonable Religion

Good morning God,
Thank you for the gift of reason, and for the invitation you extend to all of us to use it to understand, appreciate and evolve, to grow as your children into the inheritance you have prepared for us.

There is, of course, a world of difference between the genuine attempts of both science and theology to understand why and how the world is as it is - and the less distinguished (but understandably human) efforts of all too many to find someone or something to blame for the mess we are in.
It is much easier to blame than explain. Its often much more rewarding too - especially if we can blame those who are at the top of the current scape-goat list: In the past this list has included Jews, Blacks, Communists, Gays, Liberals, Fundamentalists, Catholics, Muslims, Politicians..
You know the list I mean, the people it is fashionable to blame for holding humanity back, for the wars, for the hatred, for the economy, for.. well, whatever it is we want to have a rant about really..
No matter how apparently rationally it is presented however, blaming is not the same as explaining - and does nothing to further human growth and development.

Science and theology require an openness to reason without prejudice, but most people are too willing to sacrifice reason on the altar of prejudice. Take Dawkins for example, and the new breed of militant atheists. Many will happily throw away all scientific objectivity to take a pop at religion - as though 'religion' is a genus, easy to categorize, define, analyze and generalise about! All 'religious' are fanatics, 'Bible Bashers', irrational etc etc. Yes, yes - of course, just as all Politicians are liars, all Communists are evil, all Liberals wishy-washy etc etc etc.

What fascinates me is the way in which those more interested in blaming than explaining seem to think that they actually KNOW how 'the religious' (whoever they are)  or 'Politicians' or 'Gays' etc behave, think, act etc..

The Social Sciences may have proven that violence begets violence - that even watching acts of violence can lead to violence, but the gospel doesn't allow us to blame the TV or Computer games, or politicians or 'the religious' or anyone else for it. You have repeatedly shown us that the violence that really destroys this world begins in ourselves.
In the life of Christ, you showed us the best of what humanity is capable of, and in the death of Christ you showed us the worst of what humanity is capable of.  The gospels thus become an invitation to do more than blame others for the past, they invite us to consider an uncomfortable explanation - that the violence we claim to abhor, begins in ourselves.

We may have mapped the human genome, but to the best of my knowledge, we have yet to find a way of accurately and predictably mapping the thoughts of a single human mind..  Even though we know this, even though we know that we cannot really know the mind or heart of another human being, we persist in pretending that we know enough to identify, label and blame..

Because it is easier to blame others than it is to look to ourselves.


You gave us reason - for a reason. Not to make a god of our intelligence (time and time again we see how wrong we are and how little we really understand). You gave us reason as an invitation to learn and grow and understand. Reason enables us to recognise that we are made in your image, to wonder, to be curious, to explore what it is to be. And not content with this, you gave us the ability to develop our reasoning to remember and to imagine, to learn from the past and envisage a new future. A future where we take full responsibility for our own acts of violence, greed, fear and prejudice - and so learn how to deal with them before they create more of the same in others.