Some postings at last!

Hi, I have just been wading my way through all my ‘saved’ articles in Google Reader. That means that I have actually managed to put some new posts up via other people. I know it has been a while, but work and other things have got in the way since I became full-time in prison. Please comment….

On recidivism and our responsibility by The OrthoCuban

http://www.orthocuban.com/2009/05/on-recidivism-and-our-responsibility/

Father Orthoduck recently received a note in which a person commented on the problems that an ex-con faces, and there is significant truth in what that person said.

The problem is an offshoot of the popular religiosity subject which Fr. Obregón is beginning to discuss on his Orthocuban posts. In the USA officially we believe that when a person has served their full time (incarceration plus parole) then they have paid their debt to society. But, our popular belief is otherwise. You can see that in many TV shows. Our popular belief is that once a criminal, always a criminal. No one wants to be the first person to give an ex-con a job.

But, this brings up a double problem. One problem is for society. But, the other problem is for Christianity. And, as much as Father Orthoduck hates this saying, it is a question of which comes first, the duck or the egg. [Father Orthoduck wishes to state that chickens stole that saying from us ducks, but that is ancient history.]

So, which came first, the recidivism rate or the hesitancy of people to hire ex-cons? If one is an ex-con, but cannot get a job and resorts to a crime in order to survive, which is more guilty, the society or the ex-con? The answer is actually rather complex and not one that Father Orthoduck is going to get into. But there is actually guilt on both sides. Which gets us to our popular religiosity in the USA.

We love to have people give their testimony of having been a criminal but redeemed by God. We see the ex-criminal on Christian TV shows, on the stage of many a Protestant church, etc. Our official religiosity is that God can redeem anyone and change them. We love to do sermons on the Prodigal Son and on the woman caught in adultery related to the unforgiveness that people have in their hearts. Officially we believe, and state that we believe, in redemption.

But our popular religiosity is distinctly different. There is little room for redemption should the local pastor wish to hire an ex-con to be the janitor of the church, or the secretary. That pastor will find that the church board wants somebody else to be the first to hire that person. Rare is the goodly church member who is a business owner and will deliberately try to hire ex-cons (particularly those claiming to have found redemption in jail) in order to give them a new opportunity. That goodly church member has a popular religiosity which does not really believe in redemption.

Yes, yes, Father Orthoduck has heard all the excuses. “They must prove themselves first.” Hmm, how are they going to prove themselves if no one will give them the opportunity? “Well, it is their fault, they are the ones who committed the crime!” Hmm, well, I thought that we agreed that they had paid their debt to society. Moreover, if they have found Christ through a prison ministry should we not be the first to receive them? “Well, it is probably a con and they are going to take us!” Undoubtedly some are.  Father Orthoduck is not näive, and his friend, Fr. Obregón was involved in some maximum security prison ministry in Perú. But, prison ministries are quite clear on saying that some slide away from the Lord after prison precisely because of the bad treatment that they receive from their fellow Christian.

The problem is an old one. St. Ananias was rather afraid to go see St. Paul after his conversion. But, St. Ananias took the chance that the Lord was correct, went to St. Paul, baptized him and received him into the Church. Today we have the majority of the New Testament thanks to St. Paul, the ex-murderer, not to mention one of the Gospels, written by one of the men who was part of his traveling missionary team. That man was St. Luke, the physician.

And, so, oh church or oh supposedly “Christian” business owner, will you take a chance on hiring the next saint of the Church? Or, will you simply succumb to the popular religiosity of American Christianity and look the other way, like the pharisee who was glad that he was not like that publican?

Henri Nouwen: From Blaming to Forgiving

An excellent snippet found at : http://prodigal.typepad.com/prodigal_kiwi/2009/05/henri-nouwen-from-blaming-to-forgiving.html

 

“…Our most painful suffering often comes from those who love us and those we love. The relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, teachers and students, pastors and parishioners – these are where our deepest wounds occur. Even late in life, yes, even after those who wounded us have long since died, we might still need help to sort out what happened in these relationships. The great temptation is to keep blaming those who were closest to us for our present, condition saying: "You made me who I am now, and I hate who I am." The great challenge is to acknowledge our hurts and claim our true selves as being more than the result of what other people do to us. Only when we can claim our God-made selves as the true source of our being will we be free to forgive those who have wounded us…”

What Church isn’t..

http://www.bradruggles.com/2009/06/25/what-church-isnt/

Church Isn’t About Protecting Christians From The World

Some of the church environments I experienced maintained that the church was a haven of peace and hope in a horrible, broken world. We were the sheep. They were the wolves. We had to protect our sheep by keeping the wolves out. We were “in the world but not of it,” remember? While there are many churches who consciously or sub-consciously adhere to the idea of being a place to hide from the evils of the world, I remind you the type of company Jesus kept when he walked this earth. He could have adopted the Pharisee’s method of separating himself entirely from everything “unclean.” Instead, he was known as a “friend of sinners.” Can our church say that?

Church Isn’t A Club

One of our strengths as the church is the friendships and community that come out of our local expressions of worship. People who have been hurt and rejected for years find healing in healthy relationships. However, if we’re not careful, friendships can turn into cliques and new people walking through the door will find themselves on the outside looking in. Our circle of friends is important but let’s not be so self-absorbed that we miss those Christ is calling us to serve.

Church Isn’t An Event

In Western culture especially, we have equated church with an event that happens once a week. We get ready for church, we drive to the church, we do church, we come home and then we don’t think about it again until next week. God never intended church to be an event that we only participate in for a couple hours each week. We are the church. That means that we carry it with us 24/7. It follows us wherever we go, whatever we do. Church is as much a part of the conversation we have with a co-worker on Monday as it is about the worship songs we sang the day before.

Church Isn’t A Location or Building

While most of us know this intuitively, we still need to be reminded that the church isn’t a specific building or location. Our buildings and programs create environments for church to happen but they are no more or less sacred than our living room or even the neighborhood pub.

Church Isn’t A Denomination

We each like to think that our own beliefs and doctrines are the “right way.” Which is understandable. We wouldn’t practice them if we didn’t believe them to be true. The danger comes when we begin to see our way as the only way. There are some hills to die on but then there are other battles that don’t need to be fought. Some sprinkle, some dip. Some take communion with wafers and wine, others with bread and grape juice. One day soon we’re all going to be sitting up in Heaven wondering what all the fuss was really about.

Church Isn’t About You

This one is the most important distinction in my opinion. Church isn’t about YOU. It’s about THEM. I have no patience for people who visit a church and come home complaining that the music was too loud, the message too long or the air conditioning too cold. Some people view church as a “pick-me-up,” a little boost of joy and happiness to get them through the week. Show up, sing a couple songs, shake a few hands, go home and pull out the potroast. The church was never meant to be a place to cater to Christian’s comforts. It is and always has been about “seeking and saving those who are lost.” (Luke 19:10)

Interventionist History And Theodicy

http://freedompastor.blogspot.com/2009/07/interventionist-history-and-theodicy.html

 

An article which seeks to examine a Theology of Hope and Jurgen Moltmann

 

 

A key aspect of the Theology of Hope is their theory of history. In many of the Pentecostal/Charismatic communities I’ve been part of, an interventionist view of history prevails. That is a view where God intervenes in history from another place, often bending the natural order. This view of God as miracle worker is often questioned by those who wrestle with theodicy, specifically why does God seemingly intervene in some situations and not in others? While this denotes an underlying karmic expectation of God, it is a legitimate complaint. If God is so fickle as to pander to the cause of just those who (especially in affluent countries) pray the "right" way, then is that a God worth worshipping? I think not. Fortunately, Theology of Hope offers a different, and I think more satisfactory, approach.
It is important to note that Theology of Hope has its roots in WWII. It is theology after Auschwitz and Hiroshima. And it is theology that is convinced that hope for the world has to be hope for the victims of these tragedies. These events can lead one to think that God is distant from and unconcerned with the follies of humans. But neither the deist clockmaker or the fickle interventionist will do as God – both should die.
Theology of Hope places history as the main place of God’s activity. But not as a puppeteer pulling strings from the outside, rather as an actor who has entered into our history with us. This theology takes a distinctly incarnational view of God’s relationship with history. But it also takes very seriously an idea the aforementioned views of God reject – God is a passable participant in history. God doesn’t enter history to eradicate the mess carte blanche, God enters into history to live our suffering with us. This notion of historical solidarity is not passive. It comes as a response of God to the cries of God’s people – just as in the story of the Exodus. But also like the Exodus we learn that God’s people undergo the journey of hope, even though they may never see the final destination (and like the Exodus the journey continues to unfold).
History is not some preview to the "real" show. At the heart of interventionist notions (and its only response to theodicy) of history is the idea that ultimately this world does not matter. Theology of Hope rejects this view of history. History is where God meets us. God’s action in history opens up possibilities for the future of this world. It is hope that says all the deaths and suffering of this world is not in vane, it is not just to be endured until the real show begins. It means our lives count – or should count! It calls us to act and gives us the resources to act beyond our assumed capacities, simply because we act with God. (Implicit in Theology of Hope are theologies of Grace and Christology, I will turn to those in further posts.)
This view of history is also the proof against a reason controlled deistic world of laws. If God works outside of laws then God is guilty of failing to intervene in the most horrific situations. If God is restricted by the laws then God is simply a functionary and probably no more than a construct of our minds. But God who meets us in the midst of life, where life is a dynamic range of possibilities (grace) opens a place for God’s activity in history. An activity that does not violate our freedom, yet calls us to a deeper freedom that involves our conscious participation in God’s project of undoing the ravages of what might easily be called our sinful acts of freedom in this world.

Renewal Movements And Reactionary Movements

The below article is from a long distance fellow Nazarene Minister, who is seeking to be used in building God’s Kingdom in Edinburgh, Scotland. We seem to be on the same wavelength often…..

 

 

I am working my way through a well written and thought provoking book at the moment called MISSION SHAPED QUESTIONS edited by Steven Croft. It’s a collection of essays which are looking at critical questions surrounding mission in post-modern and post-Christendom Britain.

The essay which is particularly exercising my grey matter this morning is one by renowned New Testament scholar James Dunn. In his essay “Is there evidence of fresh expressions of Church in the New Testament” he looks at the character of NT Christianity and how it freshly expressed the faith of Israel. Of course this area of Christian and Jewish divergence is Dunn’s particular area of interest and expertise so what he says comes with real understanding and authority.

He sees the New Testament Christianity as having five characteristics and goes on to draw out these implications based on those characteristics:

• A Christianity that has lost all sense of newness, of what had only been hoped for being now realized, is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

• A Christianity that cherishes no sense of intimate relation with God through Christ, that regards the Spirit as effectively shut up in the bible or confined to the church, and that treats experience of the Spirit as essentially threatening, is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

• A Christianity that regards the maintenance of and faithfulness to tradition as its highest responsibility is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

• A Christianity that can think of Church only as building and not as people and that is not seeking new ways to be the people of God, to be church, is no longer Christianity as defined by the New Testament.

• A Christianity that defines itself less in terms of Christ and more in terms of ecclesiastical hierarchy and liturgically correct forms is no longer Christianity as defined by the NT.

Dunn goes to described early Methodism as a renewal movement within Anglicanism seeking to restore these characteristics to the church, to express them freshly, to be a fresh expression of church to use the current British term. He goes on to say “Methodism reminds us that fresh expressions are not the only way in which Christianity began but also the way in which Christianity will be revived.”

As part of my doctoral course we did a huge survey of church history and what struck me was the regularity with which revival/reforming movements emerged in the church to “freshly express” these characteristics Dunn is talking about. There were the Montantists and Dontatists in the Early Church. In the Catholic Church the Franciscans and the Brethren of the Common Life. Then of course the Reformers themselves and the Annabaptists. When the reformed tradition was established along came Pietists and Moravians. Of course we have mentioned the Methodists but when Methodism became institutional the Free Methodists, Wesleyans, Nazarenes and Salvation Army emerged as “fresh expressions.”

But sadly that is only half the story because in each of those cases the renewal movements were met by reactionary movements within the church that tried to defend the ecclesiastical “status quo” as they understood. Wesley clung onto the Church of England but most Anglicans wrote him off as an “enthusiast” of the worst kind. William Booth was forced out of the Methodist Reform Church and Phinees Bresee was forced out of the United Methodist Church. Renewal movements inevitably are met by reactionary movements in the Church. I think in general these people’s hearts are in the right place, to start with, but they end up defending the status quo which they fail to realise was once a fresh expression of the church opposed by a previous reactionary movement.

I think this gives me some perspective of the current controversy between those of us who want a fresh missional incarnational expression of NT and Wesleyan Christian within the Church of the Nazarene for our 21^st culture and the so called “concerned Nazarenes” who claim that such a movement is seeking to destroy the church just as those who forced the early Nazarenes out of the Methodist Church claimed. Its only to be expected. As I currently work part time for an Episcopal Diocese in Scotland I am encouraged by the determination of the Anglican Church in the UK to encourage and enable fresh expressions of church, protect them from reactionaries and keep them within the Anglican communion. My prayer is that my own church would exhbit the same nurturing and protective attitude to those of  uswho want to freshly express our faith and heritage incarnationally in our communities.

RAF Chaplains – Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch

 

RAF Chaplains – Royal Air Force Chaplains Branch

Well, here is the update to this weeks trip to London and the interview. On Tuesday, I was in at Prison as normal, but I paid my respects to the late Doc Hugh Rae who had been an inspiration to so many in Nazarene education and Pastors. The funeral took part at NTC, and we had to stand through the whole service because there was so many there wanting to say goodbye to this higher than highly respected friend.

I eventually got home and went to bed at about 20:30 and woke up at 00:30. We then travelled to Manchester where I got the Megabus at 04:00, arriving in London Victoria at around 09:00. My interview was at Methodist House at 25 Marylebone Road. I walked there (45 minutes ish) and found a very nice cafe just round the corner. I had two very slow Lattes before a slow walk along Baker Street before the interview. The interview started 30 minutes late, and consisted of a panel of eight people around a rather large board table.

The interview went well and lasted for about 30 minutes. I left and did a touristy walk down Oxford Road, and some of the other sites. My bus was due to leave at 18:30 and whilst on there, I found out via a phone call from a very nice man, that they were very pleased and able to say that I had been accepted and that they thought my interview was excellent!

So I landed back at home around midnight, straight to bed and up at 05:30 for the next day in Prison!!! Compared to train prices, the time was worth £13:50 return by bus.

The next stage now is an interview at RAF High Wycombe either in July, Sept or October. Hey ho!!!

Pending interview

I received today an email giving the details of my interview by the Methodists. It’s at 12:30 on Wednesday 10th June in London. I have had to let the prison know what the situation is and the reasons why. I hope they understand that it’s not a response to anything within the walls.

I have also received the paperwork from the RAF, and if I do get through this stage, then the next stage would be in September or October of this year, when they do their interviews. I have said for some time that I am in a win-win situation, but I must be really honest and say that I really want the RAF position. Last week involved 2 days at RAF Valley and meeting the Chaplain there. We got on really well, things have changed a bit, but it was like being at home. The first year would comprise of Officer Training, and a posting to a station with a team set up. I would stay there for a year and then probably go overseas to Afghanistan before a solo posting. All this would tie in well with my wife having to stay put until Ross completes his ‘A’ Levels.

No doubt I shall let you know. If I don’t then you will be able to guess.

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Chaplains serving in the Armed Forces

As you may be aware, I am attempting to return to the RAF after leaving 20 years ago, but this time as Chaplain. At the moment I am part way through reading Stuart Murray’s ‘Post Christendom’ and have found it a good read.

Murray comes from an Anabaptist position, and is therefore very opposed to Christianity being hand in hand with the State. I agree with this, I like what he writes about the problems caused since Constantine, and also on how the institution called church needs to rediscover many aspects of community.

A point that he has also raised is the issue of Christianity and it’s involvement in times of war, and is particularly cutting regarding Chaplaincy in the Armed Forces and the apparent understanding of Christianity ‘blessing’ war. This where I have a problem with his idea… I don’t think a Chaplain is qualifying war in any way. I believe that all people are to have a Christian witness and the opportunity to respond to God’s Good News regardless of circumstances. These people (and anyone else) are in extreme circumstances, rightly or wrongly, they are serving a country in times of conflict and war, and for me, these same people should have God’s love made known to them where possible.

Do you think it is a legitimate thing for a Minister to be a Chaplain in the Armed Forces?

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Trying out a new-to-me browser… Flock

I go through fits and starts when it comes to browsers, but today I decided that I would give Flock a go. It is based on Firefox and comes with several plug-ins installed as standard. One of the main reasons was because of the ability to link easily with Twitter, my blog, email account and other media options all there to be used in what seems to be a smooth, feature loaded browser.

I am writing this from a built in Blog Post Editor, so we shall see what happens with that. I must admit, so far I am impressed and will have to explore it further. It certainly appears to have the features I need.

I welcome any comments about Flock from you folk out there. The browser may well be the distraction that I need as I am now full-time in Prison, and surviving well so far. Ii still think I need a real world contrast though.

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