Published by Blair May 27th, 2008
in Thoughts, Ritual and Resources.
Lord, Lord,
in your name;
we have become powerful
in the ways of our
self-reliant self-made world.
Aren’t you impressed?
Lord, Lord,
we push your name
into every conversation
and every email we send.
How can you say
you never knew us?
Lord, Lord,
we have programs
and courses
that keep us busy and focussed
on improving one another.
Don’t you just want to join us?
Lord, Lord,
isn’t maintaining
our preaching
and singing
and worship
of your name
more important than
the risk of wasting it all
on costly service
to those who don’t even turn up
to church?
Published by Blair November 13th, 2007
in Thoughts.
I saw the Compass program that was billed as looking at how united the Uniting Church might be. I have to say it was pretty disappointing for an ABC program. Almost narrow enough to be a 7.30 Report exposé.
Darren Wright has written his response, and he says it all as well as I could; so go on over to planettelex and check it out.
Published by Blair November 9th, 2007
in Thoughts.
A friend/collegue of mine, who blogs regularly on unconventional worship, wrote a small piece titled ‘god as verb, not noun.’ I’ve noticed her write hints about this before, but not yet had a glass of red with her to discuss it in depth. Anyway, this time it provoked two small repsonses from me which I thought I’d put here for what they’re worth.
1.
when are you, god, not where
when are you, god, not what
when are you,
how are you,
why are you,
god
2.
‘I will be that I will be’ not ‘I am that I am’
Published by Blair November 2nd, 2007
in Thoughts and Resources.
It struck me that I must be out of touch a wee bit since I almost accidentally stumbled across this monumental document of our time. Either I’m not reading enough news, or this didn’t rate highly enough in the media’s strange priorities. A group of 138 Muslim leaders from around the world and across the various denominations of Islam have come together to reach out to Christians, and this doesn’t get front page priority?
I’ve been concerned about the consistent sabre rattling and conflict creation climate that has been fuelled over many issues - religion not being the least of them. A Common Word, aimed at finding a common ground for productive engagement between Muslims, Christians and Jews is just superb. Each are called to seek commonality in the command to love God and love others.
A wonderful, and equally well written, reply has also been posted here. If you have any interest in interfaith dialogue, please take the time to read and digest both documents. Then think about how you can spread the news of this initiative for relationship and peace between the world faiths.
Published by Blair September 25th, 2007
in Thoughts.
I love going to wider church events of the likes of Synod and Assembly. I find them so inspiring. Not because of the general business that gets done - though it is an essential part of Synod - but because of the different expressions of discipleship that are celebrated in the gathered community of Synod. Two expressions of this that we heard about tonight were the reports on the next National Christian Youth Convention (NCYC) and the 2nd Generation report on migrant children in Australia.
NCYC is being held in Melbourne in 2009 and I so want to go. If Bacchus Marsh can’t get a small delegation of (at least) four or five young people to go and have a great time together between Jan 3 and 9, then I’ll go by myself as a chaplain. This is such an encouraging aspect of the wider Uniting Church’s life. I will be looking to keep this challenge before our Marsh Parish; “What can we do to support NCYC 09?”
The 2nd Generation project is also an exciting venture that ties in both youth expressions and cross-cultural expressions of what it means to be disciples in the Uniting Church. I’ve had cause to reflect that my commitment to the issues of cross-cultural relationship building and first-people’s relationship building has taken a back seat while I’ve been learning to accomodate the tasks of parish ministry. I hope to make these (and other) issues more obvious, focussed and engage-able (if that’s a word) in the life of our community around the Marsh.
The other aspect of Synod that has me saying ‘yes’ is the movement to develop a “culture of call” within the VicTas Synod, whereby people are actively encouraged to consider what call God might be making on their lives - including the various calls to specified ministry that exist in the Uniting Church. Obviously I’m biassed when it comes to ministry as a vocation; I think it’s a fantastic life-calling! The challenge is to find a way to build a culture around our church communities that foster full-time specified ministry - lay or ordained - as a vocational choice. I wonder if too often we see church as a hobby; if we see faith as an optional extra. Why can’t a call to ministry be a viable vocational choice for people, especially young people in our church?
More to come as I assimilate some other thoughts from this most refeshing four days.
