Evil

Attack Victims to Quit Northern Ireland

About three weeks before I left South Africa to take up my new work in Northern Ireland I saw the same scenes in the streets of Cape Town. Frightened people walking with all their earthly posessions folded in blankets and plastic to temporary shelters because they are made to feel unwelcome and unsafe by others. At that time they were Zimbabweans who came to South Africa to escape the poor economic circumstances there. It feels as though I have not moved at all. The same scenes are playing themselves out here. This time they are Romanians who are made to feel unwelcome.

I live in Banbridge and my little cul-de-sac is friendly. Relatively few foreigners live in my town and I feel relatively safe.

Should I be happy to feel safe? I want to go live where these people live. I think I'll be more likely to find Christ there, than in sub-urban Banbridge.

Alan in Belfast has a good take on the recent events.

In Times Like These

God Is Not A Man

This video was posted by Jared Wright in one of the comments on the Spectrum Blog. I think it is worth sharing. The whole article by Ryan Bell is worth reading through. I would love to do something innovative like that in my congregations one day. His concluding paragraph is particularly worth sharing:

We cannot set out to “create community” as so many church planters and well-meaning pastors aim to do. Community is not something that can be addressed directly. Rather, community forms when a group of people discovers that their journey to God is bound up with the others that God has placed in their lives. We don’t so much create community so much as we create the conditions where community can take root and grow. This kind of community is costly in every way.

Having Fun at the Apple Blossom Festival in Armagh, Monday, 4 May 2009

Belfast

When Different Identities Meet

I've been wanting to reflect for a while on the concept of Otherness and Christian experience in Northern Ireland. It is my perception that we do not deal with that which is other to us very well. If somebody does not share my experience in life, I become suspicious. If that person tries to share a different experience with me, I might even become aggressive. In reality I think that this is a universal challenge. The majority of us, tend to shield ourselves against things that are not familiar to us. We see it as a threat.

As a Seventh-day Adventist I've been on the receiving end of this experience several times in my short stay in Northern Ireland. A few weeks ago I went to visit a member of my church in Newcastle. As I pulled up to the house I noticed that the member was talking to some neigbours. I walked up to them and was introduced as the pastor. The neigbours asked me where I was from. I mentioned that I was a pastor in Banbridge. Their next response was: "Oh, so you are not Presbytarian then." They did not say anything else, walked to their car (which had a driver waiting for them) and drove off.

I am afraid however, that I, and members in my denomination also sometimes have a similar fear of otherness. Perhaps we are afraid of being hurt, excluded or attacked. Perhaps we sometimes feel that we know more than others. I wish we could cultivate a more open and accepting attitude to those who are other to us.

I just read a chapter from Alden Thompson's book Escape from the flames: How Ellen White grew from fear to joy -- and helped me do it too. In a short section of three pages (pp.16-19) he gives three quotes from Ellen White that resonates with me. Ellen White was one of the founding members in our church. Adventists have a very high opinion of her writings. Here are the quotes:

In laboring in a new field, do not think it your duty to say at once to the people, We are Seventh-day Adventists; we believe that the seventh day is the Sabbath; we believe in the non-immortality of the soul. This would often erect a formidable barrier between you and those you wish to reach. Speak to them, as you have opportunity, upon points of doctrine which you can agree. Dwell on the necessity of practical godliness. Give them evidence that you are a Christian, desiring peace, and that you love their souls. Let them see that you are conscientious. Thus you will gain their confidence.

Gospel Workers, pp.119,120 (1915)

Here is a further quote, which contains advice to A.T. Jones, who Elden Thompson describes as perhaps one of the most countercultural and confrontational Adventists alive at the end of the nineteenth century:

The Lord wants His people to follow other methods than that of condemning wrong, even though the condemnation be just. He wants us to do something more than hurl at our adversaries charges that only drive them further from the truth. The work which Christ came to do in our world was not to erect barriers and constantly thrust upon the people the fact that they were wrong. 

He who expects to enlighten a deceived people must come near them and labor for them in love. He must become a center of holy influence.

Testimonies for the Church, vol 6, pp.121,122 

Here is a final quote:

Every association of life calls for the exercise of self-control, forbearance, and sympathy. We differ so widely in disposition, habits, education, that our ways of looking at things vary. We judge differently. Our understanding of truth, our ideas in regard to the consduct of life, are not in all respects the same. There are no two whose experiences are alike in every particular. The trials of one are not the trials of another. The duties that one finds light are to another most difficult and perplexing.

So frail, so ignorant, so liable to misconception is human nature, that each of us should be careful in the estimate we place upon another. We little know the bearing of our acts upon the experience of others. What we do or say may seem to us of little moment, when, could our eyes be opened, we should see that upon it depended the most important results for good or for evil.

The Ministry of Healing, p. 483 (1905) 

Picture of Seamus and Sean. "The S-Factor" Performance in the streets of Belfast as part of theFestival of Fools

Random Thoughts: politics, budget, green issues

Disclaimer: This is written far too late on a Saturday night/Sunday morning and I suspect there is some serious circular reasoning throughout this post.

This week was an interesting week on the political front. I had my first opportunity to listen to a British Labour Government's budget speech. I am still a bit too uninitiated in British politics to make a very strong judgement on this budget. One of the obvious (and in no way unique) concerns I have is on the level of borrowing (brought out brilliantly by a little skit at the end of this programme). I am not yet a citizen of the UK. I do pay my taxes now. While there are many areas where I do not have the same security as citizens (I have no recourse to public funds), I am very aware that I will in effect be benefitting in the next two years from borrowing that I might not be responsible to pay for if I find myself in a different part of the world 10 years down the line. (Although there are problems with this line of thinking: I may still be here 10 years down the line. If I find myself in a different part of the world I will find myself paying for borrowing that that part of the world did at a time that I did not live there.)

As I listened to Darling's budget I had the impression that if I could advise any young person to position themselves in a sector that will provide the best opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment, it should be in the fields of green energy or broadband (infrastructure development) or web development. From my novice eye, there seemed to be a strong emphasis on these two issues in the minister's speech.

Then I listened to the Green Party's response. They feel that the greenish tinge to the budget is rather disingenuous as it really does not do much to encourage truly sustainable development. They are particularly critical of the £2000 subsidy that the government is offering to owners of vehicles that are 10 years or older when they trade them in on new vehicles. The energy involved in the manufacture of new vehicles combined with the fact that the new vehicles will also not last much more than 10 years really make it an non-sustainable investment. On reflection I think that their critique is quite valid. I use one example from my own experience.

I have been thinking for a while that I cannot be too proud about my own carbon footprint. I do try to do a few things to reduce my carbon footprint. I try to walk my daughter to school (approximately 2.5 miles) in stead of driving. When I can I walk to church (about 1 mile). But I still use my car quite frequently. Many of my church members live out of town. My work requires that I travel between Banbridge and Larne on a regular basis (two or three times a week). The journey is approximately 55 miles in one direction. I drive a small 1.4 litre petrol car and often I am the only passenger. I have often thought of using public transport to do my trips to Larne. This would require that I take two busses. The cost of a return trip would be approximately £15. There would be advantages and disadvantages to this. The trips would take quite a bit more time. But I would be able to spend the time reading or doing something that I would not otherwise be able to do while I am driving (I get to listen to budget speeches while I drive). I often do not leave Larne before 22h00 in the evening and then public transport becomes quite hard to find. So it is probably not practical. It costs me approximately £15 in petrol to drive to Larne and back. If I factor in road tax, insurance, maintenance of the vehicle this cost will probably be closer to £18. One problem is that my work requires that I own a car. I need to pay road tax, insurance and maintenance costs regardless of whether I choose to use a greener form of transport from time to time. When I have a passenger or two, it becomes far more economical to travel with the car.

So if I was to suggest something to Mr. Darling, I would suggest that he finds ways to lower the cost of public transport so that it would be less expensive for me to travel with public transport than with my own vehicle. I think this is a particularly relevant suggestion in the light of the controversy this week surrounding the proposed fare hike for Translink bus services in Northern Ireland.

In the mean time I'll also keep dreaming of a time when I could actually afford to buy a Toyota Prius. (Probably round about the time that the national budget becomes authentically green).

Now I wish I had some of those imported South African Grapes in my fridge to nibble on before I go to bed.

Shining Eyes

The following presentation by Benjamin Zander was produced at a big conference on vision, leadership and innovation. It is meant to dazzle and inspire. I believe it does. It is a presentation that speaks to us on many levels and I believe that some of the most important thoughts in the presentation are not stated in words. What does it mean in my community?

I've had some challenging conversations this week, that confirmed to me that our human condition is still inherently one of alienation. Like the illustration in the video we often become lost in the details. We tend to narrow our vision to look at what we can see now. We want to change the quality of our lives incrementally from one percentage point to the next. This causes great agony and suffering and like the illustration of the 10 year old in the video, we often face the impulse to give up.

I'm not convinced that it is easy to escape this reality of our lives. And yet the presenter has again inspired me with the hope that there is something more to how we experience life right now. This is something that we would do well to search for and try to capture, even if only fleetingly from time to time.

Five Minutes of Heaven

I just finished watching the movie, Five Minutes of Heaven on BBC2. I found it incredibly thought provoking and would rank it as one of the best movies that I've seen exploring how people come deal with the effects of violence and hatred to each other. Another movie that I would put in the same category is a movie that deals with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's work in South Africa, In my Country. 

Neither of the movies are easy to watch. They do not provide easy answers. They do however raise very important issues to consider and to debate. What relevance does a Christian belief in reconciliation and forgiveness have for people whose lives have been totaly devastated by violence and hatred? I am not sure that simplistic answers will do here. I think the best that we can say is that Christ entered into a world of violence in solidarity with those who suffer from violence. Christ experienced violence as the Son of God. This violence caused devastating harm to Christ and to God. The other statement that I think we can make is that the time will come when violence will be destroyed. Hatred will be rooted out. The world will be made new. In the mean time we have somebody who bears the burden with us.

One review of the movie is available here.

Intersections

I believe the following show prepared by the General Conference for Seventh-day Adventists is incredibly relevant for Seventh-day Adventists in Northern Ireland and across the world.

Understanding Other Religions from Intersection on Vimeo.

Money Matters

Prayer meeting was a bit of a frightening experience for me this week.

We started a new series in which we hope to look at issues relating to money management. The inspiration for this series comes from Rob Parson's little book, The Money Secret. Our plan is to do a systematic study of the chapters in the book.

The first chapter of this book introduces us to a character who is at the verge of taking her own life because of her sense of failure and isolation that came from poor money management. When I had read the book initially I had identified with the strong emotions that money problems can bring into a person's life. Little did I anticipate that reading this chapter in a group, would lead to such a deep feeling of communal depression! 

As we shared our thoughts and experiences with each other it became abundantly clear how relevant the topic of money is in our lives. This is a topic that we usually keep to ourselves and our own families when we try to make a budget work. The fact that it is private, increases the feelings of fear and personal shame that a person experience when one has made some mistakes and find oneself in an ever tightening knot.

Our prayer at the end of the evening had serious overtones. We all felt a strong yearning for the presence of God in our difficulties. We made several pleas for comfort an freedom.

I left the meeting with the beginning of three thoughts in my mind:

1. I wonder if many of the Psalms in the Bible would not make a lot of sense to us if we replaced the concepts of "enemies" and "foes" with that of "debts" and "creditors".

2. Most of us work for money. When we work we give of ourselves. We give our time and our energy. In exchange we receive a paycheck. It is logical that we come to equate our paycheck with our personal sense of worth and our identity. When our paycheck does not do as much as we would like it to do, it affects our view of ourselves. This is usually an alienating experience. Our Christian should undermine this reality. As Christians we believe that our value and our worth lies not in what we do, but in the identity that God in Christ has bestowed upon us. We are children of God. We are infinitely valuable even without the work that we do, even without a big income. The challenge is to allow this to give us rest.

3. Finally. If we recognise our intrinsic worth, we will also insist on working out ways to let our money work for us. We cannot allow money issues to ruin the quality of our lives. We can apply our minds and our wills to manage our finances to the best of our ability. There are some important steps that we can take that will improve our financial health. While this seems like such a worldly thing to do it is really a very spiritual task because it is an investment in ourselves, our welbeing, and our sense of place in this world.

I look forward to further sessions in this prayer meeting series.

 

Incarnational

Shortly before I moved to Ireland, I read Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Leaving Church: A memoir of Faith. In the book she tells the story of her ministry. When she moved from a city church to a smaller parish in the country, one of her observations were that she wondered what the voice of God would sound like in the new environment.

This thought has stayed with me since then. I confess that I do not always know what the voice of God sounds like. I often read books and blogs in which authors write with the greatest clarity about the truths and realities of faith, and ministry in general. I am usually deeply moved by the thoughts and experiences expressed by these authors. I wish I could think as clearly as they do. If only my analysis of situations could be as incisive as theirs. Wouldn't it be marvelous if everything that I encountered in my ministry would make as much sense as that. I will probably share some of those thoughts on this blog from time to time as they are truly inspiring. The authors seem very in tune with the voice of God.

And yet, I am very aware of the situatedness of ministry. I work in a specific context, were there are individuals with very specific needs. Often a description of this kind of ministry seems very mundane. I tend to find it difficult to relate my experiences with larger, more eloquent themes. This sometimes causes me to doubt myself. Do I have the ability to hear the voice of God? There are moments, however, that I feel a greater sense of peace. If I understand some of the themes of the Bible right, the voice of God is often very human, sometimes unobtrusive, even hidden between great deal of seemingly meaningless and often absurd human experience. I hope this blog can reflect some of this.

Sunshiny Christians

We need more sunshiny parents and more sunshiny Christians. We are too much shut up within ourselves. Too often the kindly, encouraging word, the cheery smile, are withheld from our children and from the oppressed and discouraged. {AH 37.1}