Wearing my headscarf...

Today I learnt about ritual purification before prayer:

Your hands are the implements with which you will wash the rest of your body, start here.
Gargle with water three times.
Cup water and inhale to clear nasal passages.
Wash the face.
Wash right arm to elbow.
Left arm to elbow.
Run water down both arms and allow to drip from elbows.
Run wet hands through hair. Clean out ears.
Run back of hands around neck.
Wash right foot to ankle.
Wash left foot to ankle.
Wash hands again.

Today I learnt that Muslims profess that Allah is God, that Muhammad is the last and final prophet and that there is only one God and there is a call to prayer five times a day, a call to do good deeds and to profess that God is great.

Today I learnt that intentions are rewarded by Allah even if the good deed does not become accomplished, that the call to pray requires you to be punctual, that this was dictated by Muhammad.

Muslims believe that God has sent and continues to send many prophets, Buddha is probably one of these prophets. These prophets that God sends are perfect human beings, true representatives and role models. Many prophets manifested as the gods of other faiths are their prophets gone awry.

I learnt that Muslims understand something of Jesus and he is referred to as Messiah but this means that he touches and heals. They understand Jesus as the divine Word of God and as the Holy Spirit but there was no crucifixion or resurrection. God replaced Jesus with another man and took Jesus up to heaven from where he will return one day to indicate the end of time before dying a natural death.

Jesus' feeding of the 5000 is recounted in the Koran as the miracle of the great feast. Resurrection appearances are due to his ability to form miracles like that of the great feast.

A sect of Islam who emulate Jesus believe Jesus was cut off from the world and absorbed in the divine and so they live lives in imitation.

Muslims believe that before they are born there is a primordial conference of the souls and they are given an imprint of the divine but a human being only has a soul when it is a fetus of more than a hundred and twenty days old. This soul then needs perfecting over a life-time through religious acts and good deeds so that that soul can be freed from the body, although it still contains a memory of the body. This soul ascends into paradise. If the soul ends up in purgatory, recompense can be made. It is up to the individual to work out their own salvation.

The Koran is learnt by heart in Arabic and children are instructed in classes so that they might do this.

It is difficult for Muslims to engage with Christians about the trinity.

Muslims have no concept of the atonement but they intercede for people.

I have narrated this in a detached way. During the presentation, I sat for much of it with an openness to learning and only during talk of Jesus did my stomach churn and I feel a bit sick. This is okay. I am not surprised that this happens to me. I hoped I might continue smiling and listening and I did. Actually, my smile probably left my face but I continued to sit and listen. The Imam was very gracious and he is working very hard to love his Christian brothers and sisters. He was eager to listen to our questions and received us with love and was very hospitable.

As a consequence of today I am more in awe of God than before, more in love with Jesus and feel more blessed by the gift of his Holy Spirit. God did not leave us alone. We do not have to earn our salvation. He reaches out to us first in his Son, loves us completely and wholly and is not just interested in our souls, the incarnation proves this.

Thank you Jesus that you became involved in the messiness of humanity, died on a cross for us and gave us your Holy Spirit so that we can come into a personal relationship with you. You rose again and defeated sin and death and valuable to you are every hair upon every head of every one of your children.

There is much we have in common with our Muslim brothers and sisters but perhaps more differences than I had anticipated too. The important thing is to listen to one another, admit the emotional pain but move to a place where love reigns over the differences. This is what Jesus would have asked us to do. He is the way, the truth and the life and we witness to that by treating other people the way that he does. He invites and does not coerce, he listens and walks alongside, he serves without an agenda.

"...although He [Jesus] existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, ⁷but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. ⁸And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."

NIFCON (Network for Interfaith Concerns) support Christians in dialogue with Muslims and describe Rowan William's 'Generous love' thus:

If we proclaim and serve a generous God can we be any less generous in our dealings with our neighbours of other faiths? How does our understanding of the Trinitarian nature of God, a core Christian belief, inform the content and method of our thinking about inter faith relations? How do we affirm the importance of dialogue without compromising our allegiance to the one Lord and Saviour? This document is offered for study and as a stimulus for discussion and further reflection.

You can read it here

Retreat on the streets and calming Christadelphians

Just like the clip. Not really related in any big way to my reflection below but looking forward to this new comedy coming up soon on BBC 2. 

Today we ventured into Nottingham with our personal possessions denied us but one pound fifty pence generously supplied for a six hour escapade. We were to reflect on how it feels to be without and with little to live on. Now, in some ways, we knew that this was not going to be an ordeal, by any stretch of the imagination. Indeed six hours walking around a city is certainly something I am sure we have all done before, even for the purposes of shopping, perhaps when travelling and holidaying or when having become lost somewhere new. Confined as we have been in lecture rooms for much of this lovely weather, it seemed to present more opportunities for joy than hardship.

I buddied up with my wonderful friend and prayer partner and off we went. We chat and we chat, my friend and I, about faith and ministry and life and experiences and our past and our futures, our dreams and our fears and one of our early conversations was about a dream I had had the night before in which a grey haired lady was hoping we might identify our spiritual gifts. We were standing in some kind of semi-circle and my friend said very clearly, 'God has gifted me with the ability to speak in tongues'. I was last in the semi-circle and she prayed over me and said the words 'Father and Mother' and I just remember feelings of slight bemusement and then the dream seemed to finish. We went on to discuss other things as we walked. And we walked and walked. Good exercise.

My friend and I window-shopped and discussed the places we knew in the city and visited St Peter's Church, we chatted to a man selling The Big Issue and visited an art gallery or two.

We then walked from place to place negotiating our small funds for a sandwich, a pear and a bottle of water, feeling as though we had done quite well for ourselves, resisiting the temptation of a meal for £1.39 at McDonalds and we found a place to sit and eat near a fountain.

After lunch, we found ourselves in the 'Bible Learning Centre', curious by what it might be advocating, God, we hoped but we were open to the possibility that we would discover it was something else entirely.

Inside we were faced with a somewhat surreal display of clinical, white, plastic boards outlining the Old Testament grand narrative through the lens of the prophet Daniel in particular, so that certain prophesies might be proved to have come true by the events that have unfolded in time and history since. Christ was presented as the stone or the crystal and the second coming was imminent. The sparse room contained old manuscripts which we were not allowed to touch and small booklets called 'Glad tidings' and Bible reading programmes and information about seminars we could attend should we wish.

We sat on a sofa and were joined by the woman in charge, who had grey hair. We asked her to explain to us her vision for the shop and then we began to discuss matters of faith. She referenced a Dr Thomas, through whom she had arrived at her understanding of Scripture. He had acquired divine revelation as to Scripture's meaning two hundred years ago when he was on a dangerous voyage, in fear of his life, and had promised God that if he was spared, he would disseminate the information and to cut a long story, we have the Christadelphians.

We seemed to have some common ground with this woman but she informed us that we were mistaken in our doctrine. There is no trinity. There is no devil. Christ was not pre-existent, although she seemed to understand the concept of the Logos. The Holy Spirit is not a person and the Spiritual gifts are not for today. I asked her about whether she believes that the Kingdom is breaking in and she said no, that she sees no signs of it. I asked her about miracles and about speaking in tongues and other manifestations of the power of God and she said that they had all ceased. My friend, just like in my dream, said 'I speak in tongues' but the lady said that this was 'babble' accompanied by trance-like fits or altered states of consciousness. I said that in my experience there was no trance-like state, it was all just the most normal experience and simply a part of many Christians' prayer life. She was unconvinced and informed us that there is no heaven, we are all waiting for the second coming, she was a creationist, a fundamentalist and there is really no hope until Jesus comes back. Her father had expected his return and lived and died disappointed and she was hoping for it because from what she understands about the world, and the state it is in, the time must be near.

We wished her all the best and affirmed her searching after the heart of God but left really sad for her that she has no concept of the power of the Holy Spirit, God's love and his constant inbreaking. The now and the not-yet, the joy.

We returned to St Peter's to give thanks and also to pray for her, that she should come to know the Living God. I do not doubt that as we left, she was probably praying for us, that we give up our babbling and join one of her seminars.

Outside St Peter's, we overheard a street-preacher, lamenting sin and separaration and handing out leaflets in the hope that people would turn from their evil ways and repent and join the Kingdom.

So...we entered a shop and were the only people in it and were received with suspicion and then watched people dodge their way around the street preacher, hoping not to have to take one of the leaflets that he was thrusting into their path.

I need to unpack all of this, think about what it is God is doing using the Church of England as his mouth-piece, very grateful that he is and that it is something unthreatening to most people. I am left reflecting on the generosity of our faith, its ability to listen to others, its hermeneutical openness and its great process of discernment, the traditions of the last two thousand years by which we have arrived at our doctrine. I am grateful that the voices are many, that the view of God is wide and expansive, that those theologians each reveal something which we can wrestle with. I am grateful that I do not have to follow the interpretation of one man a couple of hundred years ago but that the Anglican faith has wrestled and listened and considered and continues to do so. I am grateful for a living God, who lavishes his children with Spiritual blessings, who is powerfully at work in our lives so that we can feel it, that his word is a living word, pointing to Jesus Christ and that we come to understand it by the power of the Holy Spirit.

...and all that for just £1.50 and few miles of walking!!

Signs of the times

Relevant and young? Compromising or contextualising the gospel.

Today we hit the streets. I went to the Westfield in Derby, until I discovered I would need some kind of permit so I left its sanitised confines for the shoppers beyond. We are studying Mission and evangelism methodologies and our lecturers sent us out with surveys to ask people about their experiences of Church, Christianity and Jesus and for their opinions on how we could encourage them to explore the Christian faith

I would say that about 50% of the people I asked for a few minutes of their time were prepared to speak with me.

I find this kind of thing energising, talking to people I do not know, not knowing quite which way it will go. Armed with a smile and a clipboard I am not too far out my comfort-zone really. 

I had a good range of responses from people on the street, from those wearing crucifixes with not a clue about the meaning they had, (they just look good!) to those who had living faiths that were very private affairs with no desire to join a worshipping community.

Young people were reluctant to enter churches that lectured at them. They wanted fun, fellowship and relevance.

I met a wonderful man selling balloons, who talked about church but only in the context of a few funerals he had been to but then went on to to talk to me about a drop-in centre that had helped him off the streets and into accommodation and whose cafe he attended, Jake's. on a Friday night for food, fellowship and prayer. He spoke about this as if it was not church, it was something else. Of course this centre is run by The Christian Life Centre in Normanton.

This is all throwing up interesting reflections for me about the gospel as proclamation and social action. It has to be both. Not one at the cost of the other. Jesus was concerned about the entire person, no body/soul dichotomy.

Most people were very encouraged by the fact that I was out on the street asking people questions and their biggest problem with the church appeared to be clergy inside churches and buildings, as they perceive it, who do not mix enough outside with people in the world.

I was left challenged by this again. Ministers also have to build up and disciple those who have faith and yet throw our doors wide open to those seeking, whatever their motivation might be to start with, until God gets hold of them.

Back in the classroom later with our lecturers, we analysed our surveys and reflected on our experiences. We had had very little abuse or hostility. We found that informing people we were future vicars in the Church of England helped people to relax into talking about Jesus and prayer. It is a passport, I guess. At other times we might have to think about how this might hinder people, who have been wounded by the church.

Ironically, the most hostility one of us had received had come from another evangelical Christian who didn't believe in the ordination of women and refused to answer questions about Jesus from a woman. I'm just glad that there were not any witnesses to that exchange!

Some found our denominational difference off-putting, one man believed in Darwin and was not a God-fearing man. I did meet a chaplain however, who was very encouraging, saying that the church needs to be out on the streets like we were, wrestling with people's perceptions of church.

So, I come away, aware that most people are living without Jesus, that for some the very last place they would go looking for him is a church, which is a very sobering thought. I come away thinking that I need to inspect less the content of my sermons for exact turn of phrase and potential heresy and more for how I might make Jesus' message speak into the lives of today's people.

I come away realising I am not entering something easy, by any stretch of the imagination but I also quite revel in the awesome challenge that it is going to be. I enjoyed the fact that young people, particularly, would give me their time and had a level of open-mindedness that was really encouraging. It's all becoming more real and I am realising that life beyond the classroom makes what we absorb inside it, all the more challenging. I need to work out carefully how to make it all relevant without ever feeling I am compromising anything - this is going to need more reflection.

OOOh Snazzy!!

St JOHN'S

College yay!!

Leavers photos (one more year for me)

Just stuff

...and stuff to work on so I can look back and say, you know, that's stuff I am working on:

To fill less gaps with noise. Shut up more, listen harder
Wait, assess, act
Be
See with a wide-angled lens
Stop bloodie apologising all the time
Remember I am all grown-up (most of the time!)
Joy is an imperative, yes, but it's really very okay to lament
Remember that "God's got all the time in the world" (Thanks D Runcorn)

HOME

This was the house.
Its walls no longer white but sandstone, but much of it the same
This was the house.
An oak porch now for shelter from the rain 
This was the house.
Pebble-stoned drive-way now cutting through the lawn
This was the house.
Where a part of me was born
Purchased ambitiously, business booming but change on the horizon we didn't see looming.
This was the house.
And we're giving it back now.
Lent for a while, for a reason I believe
This was the house.
A house we will leave.
And inside it, a family to one another cleave.
A life-time of wonderings and God's finger-prints impressing and in this house questions were answered
It won't be quite so distressing. It's stone and its wood and yes, all of it good, but it's time now to leave.

So our FOR SALE board goes up next week. And I will find a new school for the children and we will move to college for my final year and live in student accommodation. And the timing is quite tight and we hope to be out for September and the strange thing is I will then have the journey to do in the opposite direction. For two years I have commuted from Derby to Nottingham to study. I will commute from Nottingham to my Derby placement church. But I still have to study and harder than ever, having taken two years to do one year, I will now be like all the other final year ordinands, completing the last academic year in one year and training on placement as well. It will be very intense. And God never promised me it was not going to be costly. But I prayed for this, I think, and he is faithful. The calling seems to be all of ours now, not just mine and I hope you read that generously. It is that there are four people on board for this God-adventure and not just 'Rach doing her thing'. And we will all be together and that is what counts and we will not have any money but it matters far less. And so we step out, this family that used to have its ten-year plan. And we have no clue about where we will live in September or which school the girls will go to yet but we step out with lots of other people who have just got through their BAPs this month or are about to go and are doing exactly what we are doing, although we are one year in, laying down jobs and houses and following, just following, one foot in front of the other, just one foot in front of the other...