Great day yesterday at the Cathedral with Exeter diocese as part of their Fishnets training days. You can download a text version of my keynote address here or the slides from the address and workshop here 150 Cartoon Classic [Popeye Vol. 8] ipod . If you came along and have any questions or thoughts feel to add a comment to this post and i will respond as approriate. If your are interested in developing a Church on the edge type of approach feel free to get in touch.
I will be going tofishnets
Good time with ICC students in Glasgow if you are trying to find the notes they are on the FYT site here
. Good to meet Chic and hear about stuff going on in Perth and great to spend the evening with the fantastically grounded Hot Choclate Ben movie full and chat to the team. Still here but on my way to aberdeen.The Hills Have Eyes film
I am preparing for a MA lecture on Flow Spirituality and wondered if this makes any sense to anyone else but me?
In How not to speak of God Pete Rollins explores some of the mystic tradition and for me mission and the Christian mystic tradition have always been closely aligned so here I want to explore some of the implications for mission/us when we embrace a mission spirituality shaped by this and how that that fuels the kind of mission I am engaged with through Church on the edge
Meister Eckhart God rid me of God – the God we know cant be God because God is always more, so what does it mean to engage in mission with the unknown God, where is always more?
If we reduce theology to a formula we see God as transcendent- beyond and then God as imminent – close, almost as if the only way to get our heads around it is a formula that says god is sometimes transcendent and withdrawn and sometimes imminent and close, but what kind of God is this – the mystic tradition teaches that God is imminent because she is transcendent, God is in all, and so close we cant see – God is hyper-real
The unspeakable is very thing we must not stop speaking of – desire is not born in the absence of God but in the presence of God, so we speak of God not to tell others so much as to discover the hyper-reality of God for ourselves, religion is the response to the God event, and this God event is a missionary event, where we are embraced by the Father, who sends the Son, and where the Spirit is left to engage us in the ongoing embrace. God is a missionary God – missio-dei and as such if we truly desire God our mission is not so much as to find him as to reveal him to others but by embracing God in others so we reveal more of the hyper real God to ourselves and help others see the trancenent God that is imminent.
Get it??????????????????
Grenbelt has always been a thin place for me where Flow and earth meet. This year I am really excited as usually I find for me it is either a good year for music or a good year for talks but this year both seem fab to me. Especially looking forward to David Dark Birds of America download
Drag Me to Hell movie download and Pete Rollins
and CMS has interesting series around emerging church and mission which is worth checking out including a sessions from asbo, tsk, richard subworth, mark berry. I am also doing a session on God as Flow on Sun 12-1 and FYT will have a table in the resouces area so hope to catch up with lots of people which is always the best bit anyway .
Hope to see
The debate about the ordination of women bishops in the CoE is being discussed again Rob highlights pro petition and john a case against, and Maggie notes the issue raised in the house.
Having just come out of a day teaching on community organising and change a few thoughts went through my mind. Firstly how the issue of power is so pertinent to many of the anti arguments, the issues of power and control are not explicit in the writing, but bubble under the surface and can be seen by the way names and titles are used, the magic power (as community organisers would call it) as jargon and quotes are couched into the arguments, that bedazzle the reader. Although this can be also seen in some of the pro posts read although to a lesser extent.
The second issue is the general tendency to avoid too much tension and how the strategies for change employed such as petitions are quite weak. There seems to be bit of a lack of imagination in the process for change, (maybe this is why is seems to be taking so long) perhaps because of the avoidance of tension. Creative methods to promote change will need to accept that tension may be caused, but organisers would happily live with this as all action is in the reaction.
Today I did my first web lecture. From the office in my bedroom I ran a session in Sweden on detached youth work. I could see the class in front of me and we were able to do some group work and one to one questioning. It was strange to say the least but generally went quite well. I had the window open and was very aware and self conscious that as i lectured, people outside could be wondering what was going on, especially when i heard the postman delivering mail. Although I reasoned later that as they couldn’t see me they would think I was just talking loudly to someone in the house. I was able to run most of the session as usual, and use slides etc, but really missed out on picking up some of the body language, and non verbal cues, even though when idividuals responded they zoomed into who ever was talking. Hope i didn’t bore them stupid. It is always hard communicating in different cultures but it really made me realise how reliant I am on reactionary work, and going with the direction the group seem to need to go. I havent much of clue yet how it worked from their end, the fact that they had my face to watch over the projector was probably off putting enough!
FYT have faciliated a network of youth workers in M5 area between Taunton and Bristol. Rob has taken this on for us and If you are in this area it would be great to see you. Details below
I am just contacting you all about the FYT M5 network meeting which most of us had attended previously. As you can see Emma has handed over the facilitating of the group and the meeting venue. Part of the vision of the network is that we all have ownership of the group and every 18 months/2 years another church or organisation would take over the running of the group. This means we can tap into our contacts and bring them along to do a presentation and also see some new faces.
As Living Waters Church does a stint, I want to build on the excellent teaching and ideas we have had before. And I have lined up some speakers to come and speak at our events. This will hopefully include:The George Muller foundation – on networking and church partnerships
Roy Maguire from the YMCA – on youth justice
Lynda Richards PCSO – on peer mentoring and youth watch within schools
Tim Blasdale – PYO North Somerset
Pete Worthington designer of 24-7 prayer website – ministry through the net
Richard Passmore – FYTIn addition to this as we cover a massive geographical area, and generally our only contact time has been at the meetings. I see an area for us to develop is as an internet community. Part of this is to promote and let other churches know what is going on in our areas. To enable this I have had an account set up which is:
m5@living-waters.org.ukIf any of the group wants to send out an e-mail or info to this address it will be circulated to the entire network database. I know we all have busy schedules with some times being more manic than others, but I would ask for your support as the network develops, by inviting new people from your area to come along and to use the internet network to keep us all connected to each other.
Lastly the first meeting will be on Friday the 9th March @ 10.15am. The venue will be No 24 Old Street Clevedon BS21 6BY (see website www.living-waters.org.uk for directions) Drinks and cakes will be on ready supply. At the moment I am anticipating we meet about every 2-3months does that sit well with everyone? And could you let me know if you are intending to come?
If you have any more ideas or just want a chat drop me a line on 01275 344955 or rob@living-waters.org.uk
Have a blessed day
Rob England
As promised here Coal Miner’s Daughter movie full is the file from the session today. If you want to discuss any points or have any questions feel free to leave them as comments and I will respond. You may also like to check out the articles particularly the Tacking church which links with the session today. There are also a variety of other resources related to todays sessions including info the FaSt game, and redefinitions of church.
The Government has announced the first wave of 40 Respect Areas. The Department for Education and Skills is investing a further £6 million for parenting classes in the 40 areas in 2007/2008.
‘Raising inter-agency working to a higher level’
The National Association of Connexions Partnerships are being funded through the Children’s Workforce Development Council to run four one-day conferences for the different occupational groups who work with young people. It will be a chance for practitioners to reflect on the implications of the ‘integrated working’ agenda and have conversations with colleagues.
Futurebuilders England, the government-backed investment fund to help the third sector deliver better public services, is running a series of free regional roadshow events for regional infrastructure bodies to help build understanding of how Futurebuilders works and how to help others to apply for investment.
Votes at Sixteen
Jo Swinson (LD, East Dunbartonshire) has put down an Early Day Motion calling on the Government to allow a free vote on giving people over the age of 16 the right to vote.