Being Missional Today: Disruption, Liminality and Reconciliation
Being Missional Today: Disruption, Liminality and Reconciliation
Now that is a mouthful of a title for a gathering, and almost enough to put you off going. However I attended the conference run by "Reconciliation Initiatives" which was co-sponsored by the Iona Community which is how I came to hear about it. I may be retired but my brain is not and I still want to learn.
The day kicked off with a conversation between Bishop Guli-Dehqani (Bishop of Chelmsford) and Al Barrett Vicar of Hodge Hill in east Birmingham.
They spoke about their own contexts, the need for openness, about power and privilege and the need to allow others in.
Al touched on the fragility of our world, Gaza the USA etc and how people are feeling anxious.
The Bishop touched upon how so many conversations between people are seen as polar opposites, reflected in social media, mainstream news, politics etc which leave some feeling left in the middle, while others find they take sides. This polarised world is a problem in the political arena and in church life. To resist taking sides and living differently is a challenge.
The hopeful sign being that people are still searching for meaning despite falling numbers in faith communities. That while trying to live a different more creative way, we need to acknowledge the elephant in the room that people cling to what they already know and feel safe with. This clinging to the familiar makes doing mission an uphill challenge.
Al did not shy away from challenging the way the C of E operated, how he felt liberated by not filling in the forms from on high, with the the crude use of numbers to direct mission. That the assessment of success based on outcomes is the curse of the C of E and its strategy led approach. I think that has afflicted my own denomination and others. The Bishop hinted that things have become very woolly in church life, and maybe we need a bit of persecution like in Iran, where the Bishop highlighted the growth of Christians meetings in small groups.
I must confess this opening session felt very C of E biased, and there were a lot of clergy in dog collars!!! But I stuck with the day and after a coffee headed for my first seminar.
'Disruption as healing.' It sough to explore disruption in sacred spaces, creating missional opportunities. This was led by Carlton Turney and Catherine Okoronkwo. Carlton is currently a tutor in Contextual Theology and Mission Studies at the Queens Foundation, while Catherine serves as Canon Steward at St Paul's Cathedral she is also a poet and writer.
This was a great session as Carlton and Catherine had a conversation which we then followed up in small groups before returning to ask our questions of them.
Drawing on many personal examples we were led to reflect on how important a Passion for critical thinking is. That it is of course a challenge, and creates disruption which is part and parcel of the growth process. To acknowledge disruption as a good thing, you have to allow it, it is in fact a gift. All of this reminded me how so often I had observed that when ever a new person joined a group, it disrupted it, it made for change. When we are honest we know that when we join a new group, even a church we are challenged by it, we are disrupted by it, and our very presence disrupts and challenges. If our Church communities as sacred spaces can truly make room for this, then they become safe places as well, and can be then places of healing. So the call for Prophetic Imagination which can challenge the existing systems.We were led to reflect on how the church that was planted as a result of colonialism eg in the Caribbean, is still often perceived as white western and this needs to be challenged. This was picked up for me in the final seminar of the day.
Using Lego we began to use the materials to symbolise our lives.
Then we moved onto what does mission look like today?
Finally in groups what is Mission about?
As a tool I am sure Lego used in this way can open up some very important questions, and in a way that enables people to express themselves safely. There is a clear need for open questions and it reminded me of how at its best Godly Play does that.
My final Seminar was Reparations: On whose Terms? And, How to Avoid 3 Deadly Sins. This was led by Prof. Robert Beckford who is scholar-activist and broadcaster and Revd Canon Dr Gale Richards serving as a regional Baptist Minister for the Eastern Baptist Association, also a chaplain and researcher.
There was so much shared in this thought provoking time that I really needed it to be recorded and then replayed. It was hard hitting. They shared how the Jamacan Baptist Church had called for an apology from the Baptist Missionary society. That it came eventually (after ten years) which highlighted the power politics at play. That we have not yet seriously tackled the reparations required, means there is still a form of denial at play. That so often in the discourse around slavery, that the apologies given by various bodies are no more than comments about social justice. There are ways to work out what the human cost has been, that work has been undertaken, but not taken up. But of course thats because it would cost us. The irony in what I heard was that African nations are now looking to nations like Russia or China as they reject the influence of former colonial powers. My question to Robert 'Is there not a danger this is swapping one colonial power for another? ' Oh yes.
I came away energised but disturbed. White western Christianity still needs to take a long hard look at its self and as in the first seminar needs to be disturbed.
The day ended with a short plenary and worship using Iona community material.
Now all I have to do is work out what all this means for me!!!!!
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