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.
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’
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.
I had the slightly odd but wonderful priviledge to participate in a slice of history today. I stood up the back of our memorial church in Parwan South, helping to operate a 16mm projector, on which played a Buster Keaton film - “The General” from 1927 - and also slapstick comedy film from 1912 that I can’t recall the name of.
Both films were silent films, and were very ably accompanied on the organ by Gordon McKenzie, who was the host of the Pleasant Saturday Afternoon programme. True to the old cinema-going format, we began the ’show’ with a classic newsreel from the 1940’s, and it was interesting to note the number of stories the showed unrest and protest around the world. It seems not much has changed in sixty years, apart from the fact that we can now receive images like this from around the globe in a matter of electronic heartbeats. So much for the ‘good old days’.
The films were enjoyable though, and Gordon played wonderfully. The only complaint that was heard from the crowd was, “Where’s the lolly-boy?” and that need was well met after show with a groaning table full of cakes and sandwiches in the Hall.
As a kid (and every now and again as an adult) I’ve often daydreamed about what it would be like to travel back in time. Well today, for a short three hours, around fifty of us travelled back to experience an afternoon of ’silent’ cinema and virtuoso organ playing. It was a very pleasant Saturday afternoon.
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.
