The Complex Christ | Signs of Emergence

Middle Class, White Reactionaries | Theatre and the Emerging Church

There was a superb interview with Edward Albee tonight on the radio which is well worth a download (for this week at least). Superb not for fluid questioning and erudite follow ups, but for genuine engagement.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a school assembly on 'how to write a book' (small pond, education, they're easily impressed ;-) and one of the points I made was that I believed that one writes not to reveal, but to discover, a sentiment mirrored by Albee when pressed about the roots of his plays. "I write my plays to find out why I'm writing them" was his wonderful reply.

Later in the interview he voiced some concerns I have had on recent theatre visits: the economics of theatre are disgusting. The cost of tickets and costs of productions are driving it into the long grass, where only the "well-stuffed, over-comfortable, upper-middle-class, white, middle-aged reactionaries" can afford to be entertained. A great example was Tom Stoppard's play Rock 'n' Roll. The writing was fabulous, the ideas brilliant. But, given this was a play about revolution, about political injustice and oppression, the backing track was shameful. It was virtually all Pink Floyd, the ultimate musical expression of Albee's caricatured audience.

Between each act a screen came down and music was played (shockingly loudly, I couldn't hear myself think, muttered one buffer in the interval about the faint PA) - and the track details were shown on the screen in animated graphics that would have had the entire Vaux cemetery turning in their graves. In other words, great writing, but no idea about some of the really good alternative music around at the time, just as Albee described.

He went on: where are the minorities, where are the young? Where are those on the edge? When it's £40 for a seat... plus a £4 booking fee, (or £50 with a £5 fee - what, is the ticket heavier or something? FFS!) this is clearly an art form that has lost something of 'the gift'.

It's a question that perturbs me about the Emerging Church. Is it all just becoming too comfortable? Where has the edge gone? It may just be personal rather than universal, but I wonder if part of the reason that movements lose their edge is when they begin to exist not to discover, but to reveal. The praxis is lost amidst the performance?

Technorati: Albee | Front Row | Stoppard | Rock 'n' Roll

Long Live The Queen

I'll add my congratulations to Helen Mirren for her Oscar win last night. I thought the film was fantastic, primarily because it exhibited 'the miracle of restraint'. It would have been too easy to go for money shots of Princes William and Harry grieving their mother's death. As it was, you never even saw their faces.

At a guess, I'd predict that most in the emerging church movement are more naturally liberal than traditionalist, perhaps more anti- than pro-monarchy. I'm not.

Am I a flag-waving Unionist who stands for the National Anthem? Do I think there's some divine right of succession? That the Windsors are somehow better than the rest of us? That power hierarchies are good? No. But I also don't see any other practicable system working in any other nation. Does the current system do our democracy any harm? I don't think so. Quite the reverse: to have a - albeit nominal now - totally independent figurehead who the Prime Minister's government has to report to, and who has the right to refuse to sign into law any bill, is a strong and robust checking mechanism.

We may not believe the Queen has a divine right to rule. But, as the film suggests, the fact that she might think she has means she takes her role very very seriously. Unlike the fly-by-night Alistair Campbells and Cherie Blairs of this world. And it is essentially a benign system. It isn't broke; let's not whip ourselves to fix it. As a Spanish dignitary once said when asked if he thought the monarchy should be replaced, "It would make as much sense as getting rid of the tigers in London Zoo. They are toothless, and the tourists love them."

Technorati: Helen Mirren | Monarchy | Oscars | Britishness | The Queen

Finally Teleportation is Possible ¦ So That's How Philip Did it

I've always gawped in wonder at the bit in Acts 8 where "the Spirit of the Lord suddenly took Philip away, and the eunuch did not see him again, but went on his way rejoicing. Philip, however, appeared at Azotus".

The only teleportation reference in the Bible?

Anyway, seems like they've finally worked out how to do it. A brilliant paper by a top US defense scientist on practical teleportation can be found here

Best quote from it:

A traveler stepping through the throat will simply be teleported into the other remote spacetime region or another universe (note: the Einstein equation does not fix the spacetime topology, so it is possible that wormholes are inter-universe as well as intra-universe tunnels)

In other words, we can teleport you. But we've no idea where you'll end up. Could be somewhere in this universe, could be somewhere in a parallel one.

Volunteers? If Apple release iTeleporter, who'll use it in a service first, Grace or Moot? My money would be on iKon turning up at Greenbelt and causing havoc with it ;-)

The Truth Isn't Sexy | Act Now

There's been a lot of talk around the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, and rightly so.

But, right now, there are more people caught up in the international trafficking of sex slaves than were ever involved in that slave trade. It's happening right now. Young girls duped into thinking they're getting a better life in the West, ending up being brutally raped 40 times a day to 'break' them. Make them malleable. So they're ready to answer the calls of the men who take the cards from the phone booths. Tonight. Every night.

The Truth Isn't Sexy is a brilliant campaign led by a devolved network of concerned people. And that ought to include you. Don't hesitate. Do something positive this Lent and visit their site to find out what you can do to make a real difference. Like get hold of some of their award-winning beer mats and distribute them in your local pub.

For those based in London, the Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are holding a gig in the Bloomsbury Ballroom on the 6th March, all the proceeds of which are going to the campaign. Contact Si for more info.

Technorati: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club | Lent | London | Sexy | Slavery | Truth Isn't

A Humanist Jesus?

Interesting post here, via Steven Johnson.

"Paul was wrong. Our faith is not foolish if Jesus is not literally and physically risen from the dead. We know our faith is true, because we know that death has not defeated him. As a humanist, I do not discard the rich legacy and richness of the Christian tradition, rather I claim to be the true heir to the Christian patrimony. Christians embrace a shallower version of Jesus. I know this because I continue to be transformed by Jesus's love and he continues to inspire my humanist faith"

Technorati: Humanism | Steven Johnson

The Spiritual Failings of an 'Emerging Leader' 2 | Lent

I have never, ever given anything up for Lent.

Not once.

Not one tiny thing.

Oh dear :^/

Suggestions for this Lent?

Technorati: failure | Lent

Wireless Crucifix | Transmitting Now...

Great tip via the Moot site - this cheeky electronic crucifix, which transmits the Lord's Prayer in ASCII at 916Mhz to all around. The blurb on the site (affilitated to the wonderfully imagined Interactive Televangelist Program - part of the Faith-Based Electonics Group) is pitched beautifully:

Many people affix crucifixes and other religious iconography to the walls of their homes for metaphysical security. Crucifix NG goes a step further, bathing a physical space in an anointed electromagnetism. The signal is strong enough to fill the average size room, perfect for use at home or at the office, and is received by any object that acts as an antenna....

The power of Crucifix NG is even stronger when one considers that the human body itself is an effective antenna. While we are not tuned to perceive electromagnetic signals at 916 Mhz, our body receives these signals nonetheless. In a gallery context, all people within range of the signal receive the Lord's Prayer, their bodies imbued with an anointed electromagnetism, and it is beyond their ability to accept or reject this transmission. It simply happens to them. And as the transmission is entirely invisible, the only evidence of it is noted on the placard next to the device. Even then, the gallery visitor has no verifiable way of knowing that the signal is being either transmitted or received. After all, it is a faith-based initiative. The battery will eventually run out. And it may not matter.

I'm knocked out with some evil virus at the moment, so could do with a couple of these around the house ;-)

Technorati: Crucifix | Electronics | Interactive Televangelist Program | Religion

The Trouble with Black Boys | Where is Stage 4 Pentecostalism?

Tragically, last night a 3rd boy was shot dead in South London, the latest victim of a possibly-connected spate of black on black youth killings. The police have responded by saying they are going to have armed patrols on the streets now. Like that's going to work. Two of the boys were shot in their beds.

This morning I was reading the page proofs for the US release of the book, and came across this end-note to a part of the book discussing Fowler's stages of faith:

I am perhaps stepping beyond my remit, but in my work teaching in an inner city comprehensive I have seen many, many examples of students from families from strongly ‘Stage 3’ Pentecostal churches who, in their latter years at school, develop real problems with discipline. I wonder if this is because they have so few role models at the latter stages of faith, and once they begin to appreciate the complexities of their situation in the city, have few resources for helping them cope with it and so end up kicking hard against the system. It is for others to comment in a more informed way on these casual observations, but perhaps absence of any Stage 4+ expressions of faith in Pentecostalism is doing young people in troubled communities a great disservice.

Perhaps I am speaking out of turn, perhaps there is a 'Stage 4' / doubting path within the black churches?If there is, I've never seen it. All the literature you see - and masses of it - is all about 'Holy Power Apostolic Life Church International Healing Power Ministry Prophecy with Big Pastor Somebody and his Shiny Suits.

And I think this is a very deep problem. In my, admittedly small, experience working with teenagers, there needs to be a path from infancy (dependency on the mother) into adulthood (walking alongside the father). Adolescence is the difficult in-between stage, the stage of doubt. The stage where all that Stage 3 certainty is debunked.

It is here that all systems are challenged and all authorities are questioned. And I think ideally this tricky place is best negotiated with one hand still on mother, and one hand reaching out to father. Not only that, but the other social structures that these becoming-adults are part of also need to walk this stony ground with them.

If I am right about the lack of any clear path beyond Stage 3 in the black churches, then, combined with the horrific statistics about absenteeism among black fathers, these young men are being let down on two out of three counts. Believe me, I've met the mothers, and they are desperate. Their boys - who tend to be angelic up to age 11/12 - suddenly leave them, and they have no way of helping them.

Other cultural factors are at work here too. It seems that music is letting these boys down too. If you are middle-class and white, then you have a whole catalogue of depressing, soul-searching music to act as your soundtrack for this journey. The Smiths, The Cure, Radiohead... all these are bands who are playing music for that journey beyond Stage 3. But, tragically, there is almost no angst-ridden hiphop or garage. And again, in the absence of other support structures, this leaves these boys with almost no resources to negotiate this journey into adulthood.

So what do they do? They do what anyone else would: help each other. That's what a gang is: a self-help group when no one else is around to do it.

The solution? Obviously this is a massive problem that is very deep-seated. This Sunday is 'Amazing Grace' day, and thousands of churches will sing out heartily to raise awareness of modern-day slavery. Quite rightly, but old-world slavery still has it's fingers of shame and worthlessness round so many necks. What will not work - and what is just political posturing to pander to us middle-class whites - is arming police. The solution must lie within. The black churches must find some way of holding on to young men beyond 12 years old and resource them with wise guides-men to listen to their doubts, affirm their challenges to authority, and lead them out of the maternal into adulthood.

At least, that's what one white, middle-class, Anglican teacher thinks.

Rest in Peace, Billy Cox.

[PS - great representation from the 'From Boyhood to Manhood Foundation' on Channel 4 news tonight. They need our support.

Technorati: Amazing Grace | Billy Cox | London | Pentecostalism | Shooting

Happy Valentine's | Love and Suffering

So, Happy Valentine's everyone.

Who Saint Valentine was is lost in the mists of time. He got lucky though: his Saint's day happened to fall on the day when traditionally birds chose their mates and began to nest with them. So if you get a soppy card, blame Chaucer.

Last night I went for a drink with a few friends, and the conversation fell deep. As usual. As we left, one turned to me and said

'that's the thing Kester, when we suffer, we suffer alone.'

I left saddened. On this Valentine's, we seem to celebrate a slushy, padded-pink version of love. Spun sugar, disappearing on contact. Surely this is the true mark of love, not that we share our joys, but that we can share our suffering with someone.

Perhaps I'm being idealistic to suggest that the last person to suffer alone should have been Christ. After that the people of Christ ought to have done better. We haven't. So perhaps on this Valentine's we ought to re-commit to this tougher love, not to offer useless words, but sit like Job's friends in silence and just be.

Technorati: Love | Valentine's | Suffering

The Spiritual Failings of an 'Emerging Leader' 1 | Failing to Fast

At a lecture given by a world-renowned and very high-brow artist, a friend asked in the Q&A afterwards "It's been great hearing about your work, could you outline some of your failings." The guy was floored. But his answer gave more insight into his work than 3 hours of talks about his great work ever could. Failure is far more interesting than success. And far more important too. A corrective to the spun-sugar culture that inflates importance.

So in the spirit of deflation, here's the first in what could be a huge series on failings: fasting.

I think fasting is great. It's healthy, it brings focus, it shows appetites who's boss and our Muslim cousins have a great rhythm of it. I've done it on and off for a while. Mostly off recently, truth be told.

My first attempt was a wonderful failure. I'd eaten a healthy dinner the night before in preparation, and had a late-night snack too. Woke up, had a glass or two of water, and brushed my teeth vigorously, careful not to swallow, lest an nourishment might slip down. Richard Foster, author of the wonderful Celebration of Discipline, warned of bad breath during fasts, so I really scrubbed hard.

Off I went on my bike, feeling holy as hell. Did a morning's work at the church I was employed by. Which meant making a bunch of stuff up to make it look like I was worth employing. Made my excuses over lunch - very carefully. Mustn't let the right know what the left was doing, etc. And, feeling totally ravenous, cycled home.

I'd already made the spiritual sacrifice not to see my girlfriend of the time... and decided I would cap a day of leaping whole rows forward in the Kingdom by getting a bus (I thought I'd drop off the bike if I'd tried to cycle it) back up to church for a prayer meeting.

The Number 28 runs up the North End Road in Fulham. I've no idea what it's like now, but it was terribly unreliable then. So I waited at the bus stop. And waited. And all I could think about was burgers. My whole brain just zoned in on this 4-pack of quarter-pounders in the freezer and sliced cheese and ketchup and a loaf of white bread. I think I actually drooled onto the pavement.

I prayed for deliverance, for a bus to come, or some sign.

But then thought 'sod it', turned and went home and, choffing raw bread by the handful while I made them, ate probably the best burgers I have ever tasted. Someone asked me the next day why I hadn't been at the meeting. I lied. What a great day ;-)

Technorati: fasting | failure

Labyrinth of Inaction | The Symbolic Life

In the comments on the environmentally tinged previous post, 'Suzanna' wrote that:

"Some is my faith community are thrilled that it is so "easy" to go to Nairobi in a group 60+ to help with AIDs sufferers.
Airfare? CO2 emmissions? What kind of economy are they demonstrating?"

It's a frustration I fully sympathize with. The problem is that it seems that our every good turn is armed with poison for somebody. Our desire to do something for AIDS sufferers kills the planet. Just yesterday I went out to buy something... the environmental, organic version was only available from a shop some distance away. Do I drive and get the more 'just' product, or walk to the local shops and buy a big brand?

It seems, as Marquez wrote so beautifully of General Bolivar "is there any way out of this labyrinth?" If we are not careful, our determination to 'do no evil' leads us into a path of total inaction. It's the end-game of postmodernism: there is nothing true, nothing to pin our colours to, nothing firm, nothing real... and nothing we can do.

I think there is a way out. A third way between blind belief in the goodness of our actions, and the tangled web of hopelessness. It is what I would call 'the symbolic life'. It is, for me, what The Symbol Society is all about.

To live symbolically is not to do nothing, and nor is it to believe that we are saints with pure actions. It is simply to attempt, in everything we do, to point to something beyond ourselves. It is to live in hope, realizing that everything we do will have some ill effect somewhere, but believing that to keep raising symbols will, in some small way, have some greater impact at some unknown time in the future.

If I keep turning the lights off in my classroom when we leave, I know full well I am doing little to save the planet. But this tiny act is perhaps in some way symbolic, pointing people to a greater thing, to an idea about care for resources, and discipline to do our bit.

The Symbol Life is thus connected to the gift, which goes out of sight, and thus to generosity. We can't do everything. But we can not do nothing. So we keep raising symbols, throwing up symbolic acts in raw hope...

Technorati: Environment | Marquez | Generous | Society | Symbol

Global Re-boot | Deep Ecology

The Norwegian government today released the final plans today for the 'doomsday vault' that will eventually hold seeds from all known varieties of crops in safe storage in case of 'nuclear war, asteroid strike or environmental catastrophe'. They're building it on a remote island near the North Pole. In the event of a burn up or freeze, it's going to be the recovery disk for a global re-boot.

So called 'Deep Ecologists' would have it different. They see a catastrophic event such as this seed bank is trying to survive as nature's way of getting rid of us, and carrying on. We're a virus; the planet will get a 'flu, heat up and knock us out.

It's a question of scale. If we look at the highest mountain (just under 9000m) in relation to the radius of the earth (around 6,500,000m) then scaled down, the earth would be as smooth as a billiard ball. All our grand projects: 'skyscrapers' and vast cities are no more than a surface irritant. We exist at the fragile membrane between the ocean of the atmosphere above and the seas below. We climbed out of the water many millions of years ago. And now, having become an annoyance to both oceans, the sea is rising to take us back.

I have many sympathies for this view. I'm not optimistic about humanity's chances of averting global warming. A 90% reduction in global CO2 emissions in 30 years? I doubt it, even with the $25 million carrot Branson is now dangling.

But I just don't think the deep ecology takes seriously the deeper fact of our evolution into conscience. Somewhere, at some time, when the Spirit moved over the surface of the deep, the spark of conscience moved us from ape to something more. And that intervention changes everything. The earth is not a simple closed system.

So will God intervene and protect us from disaster? No. But we will be held responsible for screwing up the greatest gift we were given. And if nothing else works, not the doom-mongering or the cash incentives, it's this theological imperative that might just swing the US Christian right to force the government to do something wildly significant.

Trouble is, when the shit hits the fan, we can be sure of one thing: it won't be the poor, the hungry, the vulnerable who'll be holed up in special bunkers. The rich will survive. And with some sick irony they'll thank God for it.

Technorati: Branson | Deep Ecology | Environment | Seed Bank

The Open Office ¦ Liturgy Share

The Artists Formely Known as Vaux have just launched a project called The Open Office. (Here's one of us at work ;-)

What we're hoping to achieve is simple: an open-source, online space to resource a liturgical rhythm of life. A monastic office... but for the emerging city.

Over the years we've written a whole load of great pieces, and it seemed a shame that they were only really used once. And over the course of this year we are trying to create new pieces for whatever's going on: daily prayer, birthdays, dedications of children... even A Prayer for a Meal on a Tired Evening After a Day of Struggles in the City. A full list of what's there so far is [ here ].

But this is about us; the aim is for as many groups as possible to join and share their resources too. If you'd like to be able to post, leave a comment here or email theopenoffice {at} vaux [dot] net and we'll send you an author invitation. Include the name of your group so we can add a category for you. Then read the posting guidelines and get sharing.

Soliton II

The Celtic Soliton Sessions have just finished. Some great times, as ever.

Reflections? Thoughts? Conclusions?

There's a Chinese proverb I quote at the beginning of Signs... which says:

‘The fish-trap exists because of the fish.
Once you’ve got the fish, the trap can be forgotten.
Words exist because of meaning.
Once you’ve got the meaning, the words can be forgotten.’

It was a wonderful time of conversation. But with a sense that the time for conversation is drawing to a close, with a time for gently increasing action, just getting on with it, coming.

I was talking to Andrew Jones about this in connection with blogging... Sometimes it feels like a lot of people standing in a room all shouting at once. Everyone posting. No one listening, reflecting, commenting...

I'll speak personally: I want more doing, and less frothy talk about doing. I hope I can be faithful to that. There'll be some updates on what that might mean practically soon I hope.

Thanks to Jonny for helping us to reflect so beautifully on this Rembrandt picture.

Technorati: Prodigal | Rembrandt | Soliton

Wake up, sleepy heads!

Sleep has always fascinated me. Something about absence making the heart grow fonder, perhaps. Via Wired today there's a great article about science's renewed interest in sleep: why do we do it? Fish die quicker without sleep than food... It is essential to all mammals.

One interesting perspective it raises: the more sensible question is perhaps "why do we wake up?"

[When we are awake], the body's metabolic system shifts into the catabolic phase. The body's cells are tearing themselves down in support of the body's need for energy to be mobile, to obtain food and to procreate. It's something that the body can only tolerate for a matter of several hours. Then the body must revert to it's 'default' mode of sleep, the anabolic phase when damage is repaired, growth can take place and the body's heightened immuned defenses intensify their battle against the foreign organisms and viruses that have invaded the animal.

I had a hunch in an article I wrote for EmergingChurch.info that sleep is the time when the brain properly 'networks' memories and experiences. Without sleep time, our minds have no time to reflect, to make connections, to learn. Without sleep, we're just default impusle/response machines. The point? The church needs sleep time. Without times when the body rests, it can never reflect and learn, it's thinking can never evolve.

I think this is still vitally true. Without sleep, churches, like fish will die. But the question about why we bother to wake up at all is relevant. If we just remained asleep we could never reproduce.

For some of us, we need to heed the call to 'wake up'. Others need to be sent to their rooms. All of us need a balance, of waking and sleeping, of reflecting and acting. It's a pattern we see Jesus modelling in the gospels. Time away, time doing stuff. And in the target-driven data-mad world of industrial church it's important to realize the significance of doing that. But, in the sometimes horizontal world of the sleepy emerging church, it's also important we realize we've got to get out of bed and get one with the work.