Words of Wisdom from Jean Vanier

People come to L’Arche (or to community) to serve the needy. They only stay if they have discovered that they themselves are needy, and that the good news is announced by Jesus to the poor, not to those who serve the poor.

               

Mission, then, does not imply an attitude of superiority or domination, an attitude of: ‘We know, you don’t, so you must listen to us if you want to be well off. Otherwise you will be miserable.’ Mission springs necessarily from poverty and an inner wound, but also from trust in the love of God. Mission is not elitism. It is life given and flowing from the tomb of our beings which has become transformed into a source of life. It flows from the knowledge that we have been liberated through forgiveness; it flows from weakness and vulnerability.

Jean Vanier in Community and Growth (page 99, revised edition published in 1989)

Thoughts on Matthew 11:2-11

This morning Steph and I had the opportunity to speak at MCC-Journey a church based in the city-centre of Birmingham.

We spoke on today's lectionary readings - Matthew 11:2-11 & Psalm 146.

Here is what I spoke about. Notes on Matthew 11 and Psalm 146

Some Words from Nelson Mandela

Some words from Nelson Mandela which I was sent earlier today and thought were worth sharing .........

“It was during those long and lonely years  that my hunger for the freedom of my own people became a hunger for the freedom of all people, white and black. I knew as well as I knew anything that the oppressor must be liberated just as surely as the oppressed... The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.”

 

“I have walked that long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to steal a view of the glorious vista that surrounds me, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.”  

(Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom, the last page)

Prayer: A Challenge of Authenticity

The Below is an article which I wrote for the Carrs Lane Monthly News Booklet December edition ....

The Carrs Lane Lived community is now entering its fourteenth week; it is still very early days, we are still working out slowly what this step into the unknown is going to become. One question I have been asked several times over the last few weeks is “How are the prayers going?” a simple question without a simple answer.

Our Gospels are stories of light and darkness, of brightness and shade. As we read the intensity of this paradox gradually builds, the contrast becomes uncomfortable; we are drawn forward by the light of Love and yet repelled by the reality of where living this “Good News” seems to inevitably lead. The Resurrection is both a present and a coming reality, we can continually rejoice in our freedom; and yet the cross stands unavoidably in the way.

This spiritual tension sits at the very heart of prayer; I have felt it intensely over the last few weeks. In prayer there are times of light, and times of darkness. There are times when the joy is overwhelming, and times when a sense of despair is all encompassing. At times I can be inspired with possibility and energy, at other times stricken with a sense of palpable panic at what God might be calling me to do, and at still other times I can be lulled into a sense of unhealthy self-righteousness. There are days when I feel close to God and other days when he feels a long way away. Some days I am a pillar of salt, other days a sea of emotion, and on still other days I pass through our times of prayer with my conscious mind half asleep.

For me all of this is part of prayer, I can only pray as I am, not as the person I would like to be. But being who I really am before God, is at times hard work. Allowing God to love me just as I am is not a simple task. In prayer there are times of emptiness which make no sense, defying all rational explanation. Emptiness and vulnerability are part of prayer. There is always a strong temptation to be like Jonah and run away.

I was struck by an article which Neil Riches (URC minister here at Carrs Lane) wrote in last month’s Journey, he wrote about the temptation which we all experience to become “Functionally Atheist”. For me this temptation lives itself out most deeply in my times of prayer. In prayer it is very easy to become what the Gospels call ‘Play-actors’¹ , we pretend to seek a relationship with God but are all too aware how challenging that encounter will be, we know deep down that we are called to give everything, and so, because we don’t want to lose our comfortable existence, instead we pretend to pray. There are times when make-believe religion seems very attractive; I find it oh so easy to convince myself, and everyone else, that it is the real thing!

Perhaps it is for this reason that we need community, I am too weak to be able to really pray alone, I am realising slowly that it is better that way.

[1] The Greek work ὑποκριταί (hypokritai), used 17 times in the New Testament (13 of those in Matthew), means “an actor playing a part in a play”. It is by extension from this meaning, and possibly due to the way in which Jesus uses the word, that it has come to take on our modern day definition of “hypocrite” as one who says one thing and does another.

At The Edge

The word ‘Christian’ means ‘Follower of Christ’. As Church and as a Christian community we are aspiring and I hope attempting, imperfectly, to follow Jesus. Not an easy task! I am often astounded that we dare even to state such an aim.

If our intention is to follow someone then the first question which needs asking is a geographical one, where is he? Where can we find this Jesus?

The New Testament gives us a clear but challenging answer,

Jesus most often placed himself at the edge, at the edge he is a compassionate servant to the poor, the marginalised, the ill, the possessed and the forgotten. But his presence at the edge is much more than that, Jesus incarnates not just as a human being  but more deeply than that as a human being at the edge. The mystery of the incarnation is that whenever we exclude, oppress or ignore another person it is with these very people that Jesus seeks to be incarnated. To follow Jesus is to be a moving people, moving towards the periphery, incarnating ourselves, at the edge.

But Jesus is also present at the centre, he does not live there but he does make regular visits. At the centre he is a courageous prophet speaking truth to power on behalf of those at the edge, taking the risk of being smacked (and sometimes actually being smacked) by those who neither want to listen or to let others hear.

As Christians we are called to attempt to follow along such an incarnational path, to reject the lure of the comfortable, to spend most of our time at the edge, to be compassionate, patient and servant-like to the victims of our society. The asylum seekers, the homeless, the addicted, the depressed, those evicted by the bedroom tax, those far from a familiar home, those separated from family, those on zero-hours contracts, those crippled by debt, those forced to pay exorbitant rents and energy bills; we are called to be among those without hope.

We are called to occasionally take trips into the centre, to protest, to criticise, to be among the 75’000 at the conservative party conference lobbying for the NHS, to be among the 25 at our local drone factory protesting about killing in Pakistan and Afghanistan, to be outside the DSEI Arms fayre in London, to write to those imprisoned in the pursuit of right, to write letters to our MP and MEPs.

To attempt to be a Christian is to seek to be incarnated with those at the edge and to risk rejection from the centre, not an un-daunting calling ....... We have a long distance yet to travel.

Solidarity

The last seven days has been an eventful time in the world of politics, a lot of questions have been asked about the rights and wrongs of war, both in Syria and more generally.

On which note I would like to make people aware of two upcoming events.

Four weeks today in Louisiana, USA, sentences will be handed down to three brave individuals who broke into an American military base and symbolically dis-armed weaponry. their actions was a well planned act of non-violent resistance to American military violence.

We can all support them by writing to the judge, see details as this link:

http://transformnowplowshares.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/transform-now-plowhares-needs-your-help/

Also,

All through next week the biggest Arms Fair in the world will be taking place in London (www.dsei.co.uk/). Many of the world's most discredited regimes will be welcomed to buy weapons.

Here are some details of how you can make your voice heard against this event:
Pax Christi - Events
www.stopthearmsfair.org.uk/
War on Want - Anti Drones Event

Please write to your MP and speak out against this event happening.

You can let William Hague, the minister responsible, know what you think using twitter: @WilliamJHague 

and if you want to send the exhibition organisers a message also on twitter use: @DSEI2013 

and while your at it you could to let the excel centre know what you think again on twitter: @excellondon 

The Cogs of Community are Beginning to Turn

Steph and I have now been living in the community flat at Carrs Lane church for a couple of weeks. We have been attempting to both find time for rest and time to make preparations for living community life, it is an evolving process. The different aspects of our community life will only slowly become reality.

We do however have a website: www.carrslanelivedcommunity.org.uk

Over the next few weeks we will finalise our community rule of life and publish it on our website.

Public prayers, morning and evening, will begin on Monday 2nd September.

things are beginning to happen

Some wise words from Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Life together under the Word will remain sound and healthy only where it does not form itself into a movement, an order, a society, a collegium pietatis, but rather where it understands itself as being a part of the one, holy, catholic, Christian Church, where it shares actively and passively in the sufferings and struggles and promise of the whole Church.

Every principle of selection and every separation connected with it that is not necessitated quite objectively by common work, local conditions, or family connections is of the greatest danger to a Christian community. When the way of intellectual or spiritual selection is taken the human element always insinuates itself and robs the fellowship of its spiritual power and effectiveness for the Church, drives it into sectarianism.

The exclusion of the weak and insignificant, the seemingly useless people, from a Christian community may actually mean the exclusion of Christ; in the poor brother Christ is knocking at the door. We must, therefore, be very careful at this point.

An extract from ‘Life Together’ by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 – 1945)

Smile Smile Smile

a poem by Wilfred Owen (1893 - 1918)

Head to limp head, the sunk-eyed wounded scanned
Yesterday's Mail; the casualties (typed small)
And (large) Vast Booty from our Latest Haul.
Also, they read of Cheap Homes, not yet planned;
For, said the paper, "When this war is done
The men's first instinct will be making homes.
Meanwhile their foremost need is aerodromes,
It being certain war has just begun.
Peace would do wrong to our undying dead, --
The sons we offered might regret they died
If we got nothing lasting in their stead.
We must be solidly indemnified.
Though all be worthy Victory which all bought,
We rulers sitting in this ancient spot
Would wrong our very selves if we forgot
The greatest glory will be theirs who fought,
Who kept this nation in integrity."
Nation? -- The half-limbed readers did not chafe
But smiled at one another curiously
Like secret men who know their secret safe.
This is the thing they know and never speak,
That England one by one had fled to France
(Not many elsewhere now save under France).
Pictures of these broad smiles appear each week,
And people in whose voice real feeling rings
Say: How they smile! They're happy now, poor things.

23rd September 1918.

Feeling Empowered - Two Quotes

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Nelson Mandela in 1994

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view.
The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent
enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we do is complete, which is a way of
saying that the Kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said.
No prayer fully expresses our faith.
No confession brings perfection.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that.
This enables us to do something, and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an
opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest.
We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master
builder and the worker.

We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.

Bishop Ken Untener of Saginaw 

(Often wrongly attributed to Oscar Romero)

A Dangerous Malaise

Over the last few weeks I have been heavily involved supporting the IF campaign, I and other like-minded people have travelled to both London and Belfast in order to ask the eight of the most powerful leaders of the world to do something for the weakest and most vulnerable of this world, we want them to take measures to end world hunger.

I do not know what effect we will have had, or what difference we will have made, however I am certain that the effort has been worthwhile, making our voices heard on behalf of the poor is always better than remaining silent.

In general I feel exhilarated by the last few weeks, but not completely.

One thing which has saddened me about the last few weeks has been that there were fewer of us than in previous years. In 2005 when the G8 summit was last held in the UK 225’000 people walked around Edinburgh calling for an end to global poverty. This year that number was reduced to 45’000 in London and only 2’000 in Belfast.

So I am left asking myself why.

Undoubtedly there are some people who don’t care about these issues; there are some free market economists and believers in prosperity spiritualities who think that we should let the hungry starve. There are also a lot of deeply concerned elderly people who can no longer get to these events. 

But what about the rest?

I don’t believe the reason is that most people don’t care about world hunger, part of being fully human is to be concerned for those who suffer.

I think the difference is that many more people have stopped believing that they can make a difference. We have fallen into a kind of national despondency. We no longer believe that we have any power. I’ve listened to various people over the last few weeks who’ve told me that: our politicians don’t listen, our media prefer to decide what we think for us, multi-national corporations aren’t interested in what we think, and our fellow citizens don’t care about anyone other than themselves. So what’s the point, let’s give up.

Perhaps as a nation we are still reeling from 2003 when an overwhelming majority of the country opposed the Iraq war, over a million people marched in London, and yet it happened anyway. So why bother anymore.

Such views are understandable but dangerous. Our national malaise is dangerous because power so easily corrupts, any authority which is not properly held to account can become very dangerous. 

These ideas of powerlessness are exactly the thoughts which those with power would like us to be thinking, those with the power to improve our world would like us to believe that we have no influence, they would like us to keep our mouths shut and accept that poverty is a regrettable but unavoidable reality.

But to believe ourselves powerless would be to commit an act of heresy.

I live in a democracy, I am free. But the benefits of freedom come at a price, I have a responsibility to think about the world beyond my front door and to make my voice heard on behalf of those who have no voice. It is my responsibility to hold politicians and corporations to account for their actions. I do have power.

Right now I am feeling newly empowered.

Seeking Community

It is now just over three months since Steph and I left Corrymeela, and it is now time to announce our next exciting adventure.

We are going to be part of a new Christian community living in Birmingham.

Carrs lane church in the city-centre have for a long time been exploring ways in which they can be more present to the city-centre. One of their ideas is that the church become the home of a lived Christian community. We are going to be part of the beginning of this community from August onwards.

We will be living in a large flat inside the Carrs Lane church building. Our community life will involve four important element:

Twice Daily prayer,

A daily meal together,

Regular hospitality, and

each member committing to some kind of practical ministry in the city-centre.

This is a beginning to something which could be really exciting and, we hope, very fulfilling. There is still much to get worked out and lots of details to explore.

I suspect there will be plenty to blog about as we move forward.

I am Bradley Manning

I was simply obeying orders.

That was a defence given by defendants at the Nuremburg war crimes trials which took place after the Second World War. The argument was given that because the individuals involved were acting under orders they were therefore not responsible for their actions. So, they argued, these men who had committed horrific acts of mass murder and torture should not face justice because they were not responsible for their actions.

The Nuremburg tribunal rejected this logic, according to Nuremburg when it comes to crimes against humanity there is no defence of being under orders, we each have an individual moral responsibility not to commit war crimes.

All of which Preamble brings me to considering a significant event which has occurred this week and which, I think, concerns all of us.

On Monday 3^rd June court-martial proceeding began against Bradley Manning, the US soldier who released secret information to the wiki-leaks website in 2010. The information detailed illegal actions carried out by the US military, actions which could very easily be defined as war crimes. (For more info read here)

Bradley Manning was a young 22 year old soldier who was confronted with a moral question. What should someone do when they believe that the actions of their government are immoral and wrong? He knew that to stay silent in the face of evil is to collaborate with evil; and so he took a courageous decision. The cost of making that courageous decision could be decades, perhaps a whole lifetime, in prison. And yet he acted as the Nuremburg tribunal 65 years earlier had called on all future soldiers to act.

Anyone who has half an eye on world history knows that history is only ever redeemed by a small group of very courageous people who take a stand against the immoral use of power. Each of us has a voice which we can choose to use or not use. 

When we are confronted with the shameful truth of our sinful actions there are two possible reactions, we can repent and be converted, or we can run away from our actions doing our best to get rid of the prophetic voice in our midst speaking truths we don’t want to hear.

The US military would like the Bradley Manning court-martial to be a quiet affair of little interest to the world at large. It is our responsibility not to let that happen. In 2008 while campaigning for election Barack Obama said in a different context: “Government whistleblowers are part of a healthy democracy and must be protected from reprisal”. He was right. Too much power easily corrupts; if we are to avoid our governments and militaries being responsible for future war crimes then we need prophets like Bradley Manning who call foul when our governments step out of line. What is at stake here really is that serious.

There is currently a campaign asking people photograph themselves with a placard reading "I am Bradley Manning", inspired by the film Spartacus the idea is that we show our solidarity and support. Three Nobel peace prize winners, including Desmond Tutu, are already behind the campaign. Bradley Manning himself has been nominated for this year's peace prize.see this link

  

I will be writing to Barack Obama, and the US military; I urge everyone to do the same. (Click here for some sample letters)

For info can be found here

Northern Leg of Student Cross

Last week Steph and I were walking Northern Leg of Student Cross, from just outside Nottingham to Walsingham in Norfolk.

http://www.studentcross.org.uk/

So why did we leave Corrymeela?

Corrymeela was an experience of positives and negatives. In my previous two posts I celebrated the positives. However I do feel it is necessary to share some of the negatives, the reasons why we left. As you read please keep in mind the positives I have already shared.

In a recent conversation a community member (who I will not name) summed Corrymeela up very clearly. “Corrymeela used to be a place where people were excited about the future, now it is a place where people reminisce about the past.” During our time at Corrymeela we heard conversation after conversation about how great things were in the good old days, but experienced very little energy for the future.

Corrymeela the organisation seems to have overtaken Corrymeela the community. Decisions have been made to expand and make more luxurious the residential units meaning that the residential centre has had to become more and more focussed on what it needs to do to generate income to sustain itself, rather than what it needs to do to live out the vision of the community. So too often as volunteers we were working with groups whose booking had been accepted because the centre needed to be filled, rather than because they fitted the stated aims of the Community.

Instead of being able to run and assist the running of meaningful programmes, we were instead too often providing hospitality for groups who had no real need of the subsidy provided by our voluntary work. There were too many occasions when we were told that money was running short without there being any real acknowledgement of the contribution being made by the twenty-three full time volunteers and many more part-time volunteers.

Corrymeela is a community whose vision I cannot fault (see link: Members Commitment). This was a visions which Steph and I were excited about being part of putting into practise. But we found ourselves in a place which was not really living out this vision, and which seemed unwilling even to  allow discussion of these subjects.

Too often as a volunteer I felt like the organisation was taking me and my work for granted. There was an assumption that volunteers would always be unquestioningly available. When I asked the leader if I could read the organisations strategic plan he seemed really surprised and shocked that I should ask, unable to give me a straight answer yes or no. This unwillingness to allow us to be part of creating plans for the future was very dis-empowering and dis-affirming.

And despite being a Christian organisation which proclaims prayer as a core practise of its life, the prayer life of the centre was far too often relegated to being a fringe interest. There were approximately forty people who lived or worked on site, plus up a hundred visitors, yet it was unusual for attendance at the twice-daily worship to be higher than ten and was frequently fewer than five. Very often meetings and events were programmed to clash with the worship times preventing staff, volunteers and visitors from attending.

So we found ourselves getting more and more frustrated with the organisation. As volunteers we were not able to really believe in the work Corrymeela is doing, nor were we enabled to be part of making it better.

I still believe in the vision proclaimed by the members commitment, but it is time to move on to new challenges.

I leave sad but wishing Corrymeela well.

Another Goodbye Video

and here is another video made for us as we left Corrymeela

Time to move on

Steph and I have been living and working with the Corrymeela community since last September. Our intention had been to stay until August. However after a lot of thinking and a lot of discussion Steph and I have come to the decision that we need to leave early.

So on Tuesday of this week we left exactly five months earlier than we had planned.

This decision was not an easy one. We are leaving behind a lot of very good people who have become very good friends. Living in community was a rich and life-giving experience. It is sad that these relationships will now move into a new long-distance phase. I already miss not seeing certain people every day.

I will explain my reasons for leaving in a future post, now it not the time for that.

For the moment I will simply celebrate the new friendships which in themselves made Corrymeela worthwhile place to live. I would like to offer an enormous thank you to those who made our time so rich.

Below is a farewell video which Jamie (another volunteer) masterminded the creation of. 

Praying with our Darkness

When I am alone I discover who I want to be,

When I am with others I discover who I really am.[1]

Anyone who has spent time living in community will know the truth of these words. Ideals and theories are very important; community cannot work without a set of shared values and aspirations. But no matter how good is the ideal a certain amount of failure is inevitable. As human beings we get tired, we get frustrated, we get irritated, we get angry. There is a darker side to life. Healthy relationships have their difficulties. Knowing how to apology and how to forgive is essential.

Here at Corrymeela such self-evident human realities take on a deeper significance. If we are not able to recognise our own failings, if in our own small way we are not able to be reconciled to each other, then what hope is there that we can walk alongside others in their search or reconciliation? Being alongside those who have lived in a culture of hate necessitates an internal struggle with the darkness within ourselves. I too have a capacity to hate, I too have a difficulty to forgive.

Recognising this self-darkness can be a very de-stabilising experience. It ignites within us some very primeval reactions. We feel an impulse to fight or flight. To ignore our own darkness and pretend it isn’t there; or to desperately try to justify why in our case the circumstances are different, we genuinely are a special case! Such reactions lead us nowhere. All too easily we could descend into an abyss of depression and aggressiveness. Or instead we could create for ourselves a fantasy world where we are the sovereign king, we run away from our darkness and pretend that we have  everything sorted out, pitifully looking down on others as poor squabbling peasants.

Our prayer is a response to this reality. From a Christian perspective prayer is our road out of such dead-ends.

Prayer is absolutely central to working for reconciliation. In prayer we simply allow ourselves to be loved by God. We allow ourselves to be embraced despite all our hate, despite all our darkness, despite all to inability to forgive. In prayer we are reminded of the infinite value and worth which God sees in each human person. It is from this love that we can draw the strength to live with ourselves, not denying but accepting our darkness. It is in prayer that we can let go of our superiorities and accept that we are weak, fragile and broken. It is in prayer that we can find hope.

The work of reconciliation involves prayer not because we think God can magically solve the world’s problem. We pray because reconciliation is only possible when we know that they are loved, a way forward is only possible when we can discover a hope.

---

[1] This is a quote from someone or other, I haven’t been able to find out who said or wrote it, if you know then please let me know.

A Commentary on Matthew 4:1-11

Over the last few months I've been doing a bit of reflecting on the Temptations of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. The fruits of this reflection can be found at the following links.

The Temptations of Jesus - Matthew 4:1-11 - A4 Version

The Temptations of Jesus - Matthew 4:1-11 - A5 E-Reader Friendly Version

[The text at each link is the same it is just formatted differently] 

As always please feel free to share your comments, thoughts, ideas, challenges and corrections!

The Prophetic Ministry of Cleaning

Cleaning is an important part of our work as volunteers at Corrymeela.

We are here to serve others. That includes the more glamorous sides of service: having discussion, serving food, being involved in developing new ideas. But it also includes the less attractive jobs which are often not seen. Cleaning the rooms of departing guests is an interesting experience. Most of us as able-bodied adults clean our own homes. So cleaning a bathroom which has been used by a complete stranger can feel like an intrusive act, an invasion of personal privacy.

At the very core of peace and reconciliation work is the belief that all people are equal. We are all equally valuable. It is very easy to hold this belief as an intellectual idea but not really believe it in relation to how we live. We can all too quickly fool ourselves into thinking that we are too good for certain kinds of work, subtly believing that we are in some way superior or of greater value than other people. These feelings of being of unequal value can all too quickly lead us into conflict because when they are challenged we react.

If we aspire to believe in equality as an important building block towards peacemaking then we have to make concrete decisions to affirm this equality. What we believe is testified to, not by our words, but by our actions. Ideas are not enough; it is our actions which count. So we need to practically remind and re-remind ourselves that we are all of equal value. This means that everyone (especially those in leadership positions) has to do the work considered the lowest in status, in our cultural context this means that everyone has to clean!

Gandhi was a strong advocate of this kind of practical equality; he famously insisted that absolutely everyone, including himself, had to take turns in cleaning the toilets. No one is too important to do the work of the least cultural value.

This sense of superiority and inferiority is often engrained into our mentality. It is really fascinating to observe how many of the guests react to you when you are cleaning. It is often as if they have subconsciously made the assumption that being the person who is cleaning automatically makes you inferior and them superior. One example of this mindset is exemplified by how messy the rooms are often left, when leaving a room many guests clearly haven’t given a moment’s thought to the person who will have to clean that room.

So perhaps one of the ways in which we are prophetic in the way we live here is to clean. And not just to clean but to encourage others to clean alongside us. We are here to make people feel welcome. At a superficial level to make a person feel welcome is to do things for them, to allow them to feel superior.

But there is a deeper level of welcome which we can offer, we can challenge them to be our equals. Making someone feel at home can sometimes involve reminding them that when at home they have to clean their own bathroom.

Affirming our faith in the reconciling power of God

Steph and I have been living at Corrymeela in Northern Ireland for more than four months. I have written very little during this time, there is much to say about life here but it isn’t always easy to know how to express these things.

Corrymeela is a Christian organisation which exists to promote peace and reconciliation. The 150 members are asked each year to affirm their faith in the reconciling power of God in Jesus Christ.

Christianity holds a peculiar space in the society of Northern Ireland. Christianity is at the heart of the conflict. The two sides self define themselves as Catholic or Protestant. Many church leaders on both sides do very little to challenge sectarian thinking, their defence of segregated education being one example of this. There are, and have been, many examples of preachers angrily criticising the other. Many people have been damaged in the name of faith.

So there is a persuasive strand of thinking which argues for the road to peace being found in a rejection of Christianity. Removing faith from society would be a positive move towards peace. Atheism = Peace. At the heart of this thinking is a belief that the experience of God separates people one from another. We imagine a God who divides humanity into group, an in-group and an out-group. Our image is of a God who loves us conditionally and favours those who do as we imagine he commands. Many people here have rightly rejected religion because this understanding of God is the only one they have ever experienced.

This God of separations is still worshipped by many. It is lived out in the practises of many groups whose religious ideology is exclusive. Those in our group are favoured by God, while those in the other group are not. Christian identity is too often formed in relation to what we are ‘not’ rather than what we ‘are’.

Here at Corrymeela we experience a lot of this kind of ‘Religion is part of the problem’ thinking. Our most important role here is to attempt to live in a way which proclaims a different gospel. As Catholics, Protestants and Agnostics we are called to live in way which proclaims a God of unconditional love, a God who makes no distinction between peoples. We are called to be inspired by an encounter with a God who is continually goes out to meet those on the outside. We are called to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, embracing a way of life which is constantly looking outwards, to wider relationships, to wider community and to deeper sharing. Our challenge is to live our Christianity as a religion of reconciliation which pulls people closer together.

Our little lived community here does not exist to talk about reconciliation, nor does it exist to be perfect all the time but rather to show that when we fail reconciliation is possible.

This is our vocation. We don’t always live it very successfully.

The Corrymeela Commitment

this weekend the Corrymeela community will hold its annual dedication service. Every member of the community (about 150) will make this commitment for the year to come. Volunteers and Staff are not asked to make the commitment personally but are expected to work in a way which is in harmony with these commitments. (the capitalisation is in the original text)

Statement of Commitment 

made by Corrymeela Members

As a community drawn from many traditions, we

AFFIRM our faith in the reconciling power of God in Jesus Christ;

CELEBRATE the promise of life;

CONFESS our own responsibility for the destructive conflicts in our society;

BELIEVE that we have been called to seek a deeper understanding of our faith;

SURRENDER ourselves to the spirit of Jesus to overcome our own divisions and make ourselves instruments of his peace.

COMMIT ourselves to to work for a society whose priorities are justice, mutual respect, the participation of all, concern for the vulnerable and the stranger, stewardship of resources, and care for creation;

AGREE to pray regularly for each other,

To join in the worship of the community,

To give time to the life and work of the community,

To care for and support each other,

To live out our commitment in our daily lives,

To give, according to our ability, to the funds of the community;

And WISH, through the power of the Spirit, to walk the way of the Gospel together.

Members are asked to contribute between 4% and 10% of their net disposable income. 

Taizé in Rome

These are my Photos from our recent trip to Rome for the Taizé Communities European Meeting.