Welcome to Col's Blog….. Fàilte oirbh gu Bhlog a’ Chailein

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Blogging for Beginners?

A blog, in the newspeak of the noughties, is an abbreviation of web-log - in my case, it means an online periodic burble, (sort of stream-of-consciousness thing) of daily/weekly/monthly doings. So, here's Col's blog, with things deep, light-hearted, thought-provoking and generally celebratory of life.

Ma tha Gàidhlig agaibh , bhithinn mi glè thaingeil ma tha sibh a'cuir thugam ceartachaidh mo iomrallan

Thursday June 5 2008/Diardaoin 5 an Ogmhios 2008

You can read more about people and projects by clicking on the links….

What a gap since the last entry! But I pick up my quill and ink to scribe a few words about yesterday, as it was an encouraging and inspiring day. At 7am I was driving into the car park of the Inchyra Grange Hotel, (left) in sight of the chimneys of Grangemouth refinery on the Forth to be part of the National Prayer Breakfast for Scotland. This is the third one I’ve attended, and they are a highlight of the year for me. It’s a coming together of church leaders, politicians, police, charity and business leaders to pray for Scotland, over breakfast. It was a pleasure, when I got to my table, to find myself sandwiched between Peter Neilson of ‘Church without Walls’ and Colin Cuthbert, one of the founders of Prison Fellowship in Scotland, and now of Christian Prison Ministries. I spent a lot of time catching up with Colin, who is part of the Harvest Fellowship in Lanark, one of the Network Churches.

The formal proceedings were opened by Andrew Welsh, MSP, who invited the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, Alex Fergusson MSP to welcome us. He shared that he had been session clerk to Barr Parish church in Ayrshire, where his father had ministered from the age of 25 up to 1999, a son of the manse. Others then came to pray and share from the Scriptures, including Annabel Goldie, the Conservative leader at Holyrood, and Cameron Rose, City of Edinburgh councillor. We were also addressed by Garry Brotherston, who had served time for a murder in his teens, but is now a Christian singer, and working with youth in Polmont young Offenders institution. His was a powerful testimony to the transforming power of Jesus.

The main address was given this year by Robin Oake, former Chief Constable of the Isle of Man police (left). He spoke on the ‘forgotten F word’ – forgiveness. Movingly, he spoke of the reconciliation he had seen in his own career with a local gang-leader who had been at the forefront of the Moss Side riots in Manchester, when he was assistant chief constable there. He also shared of the tragic loss of his son, Stephen, in a terrorist bombing in Manchester five years ago, and of his forgiveness for his son’s killer. He urged us to make space for forgiveness, highlighting the fact that on the same platform this morning we had heard from someone who had taken a life, and someone who had the life of a child taken, and both were witnesses to the power of Christ’s forgiveness.

The seminar after the main breakfast was given jointly by David Strang, Chief Constable of Lothian and Borders police, and Colin McKerracher, Chief Constable of Grampian police, with Robin Oake sitting in for the question time. What a wonderful sight, three senior policemen, making it clear that they are Christ’s men, and helping us together find ways forward in the nation.

David Strang shared on Zechariah 7, and justice and mercy, and the need for us to engage with the marginalised of society. He appealed for a restoring of relationships, which would be key to reducing crime in Scotland. Colin McKerracher then spoke on how as churches we can engage with community, citing as an example of effective engagement the work of street pastors in Aberdeen. He encouraged us to let the name of Jesus be heard again in public life, saying that agendas of diversity and equality had suppressed the voice of Christians, but that we bring a value to society which can be valued in millions of pounds of public funds which would need to be spent if Christians were not engaged with communities as they are.

I was so encouraged that Street Pastors were mentioned this morning by CC McKerracher, since this afternoon, after lunch with Alistair McIndoe of Rock Dumbarton Community Church, I was at a meeting at Family Church to look to the launching of the Street Pastors project in Edinburgh.

Street Pastors are trained, volunteer Christians who are out on the streets of British towns and cities from 10pm to 4am on Friday and Saturday nights, listening, helping and caring for people at their most vulnerable when they are often the worse for alcohol. There is an excellent article in the Sunday Telegraph of 1^st June about the work done, and with representatives of other Edinburgh churches (Charlotte Baptist, St Paul’s and St George’s, Family Church, Lighthouse, St Mungo’s, Salvation Army and Community Church Edinburgh) we heard from Eustace Constance of Ascension Trust, the umbrella organisation in London about what is involved in the work. He showed an excellent video of the pastors at work in Aberdeen on a snowy winter night, which can be seen online by clicking here.

It was an exciting time, and I came home challenged that as churches, working together, we can impact our communities, being good news in order to share good news, making a difference ‘out of the box’ of our church buildings. As Eustace said, through street pastors and similar initiatives, ‘the church has left the building’! Watch this space….

Friday April 11 2008/Dihaoine 11 a’Ghiblein 2008

I’ve been spending part of my holiday considering more of the ancient story of this region, and visited the Museum of Scotland and the Museum of Edinburgh earlier this week. I was particularly researching the Gododdin, the ancient Brythonic inhabitants of Lothian, who predated the Anglo-Saxon incomers in the area.

The Gododdin were here when the Romans arrived in the second century AD, and traded with them from their hill forts on Arthur’s Seat, Salisbury Crags and further out from Traprain Law near Haddington. A superb example of Gododdin craft is to be seen in the Museum of Scotland, a scabbard found at Mortonhall, just on the southern edge of the city of Edinburgh. (pictured left). Also in the same museum is the Duddingston Hoard, a pile of broken Gododdin weapons found in the loch below Arthur’s Seat, a votive offering to the gods of the water, either in prayer for a battle, or as a thanksgiving for victory.

There is an amazing record of the Gododdin’s last great battle at Catraeth about 600ad (popularly Catterick, in Yorkshire, but possibly also the catrail – a defensive fence against the Angles built from Tweed to Solway). It is the earliest extant poem in the Welsh language, written by the bard Aneurin in the seventh century. It speaks of the bright halls of Eidin, which is Edinburgh, the fortress of the Gododdin king, Mynyddawg Mwynfawr. The Gododdin lost the battle and only a handful of their warriors returned home to Dyn Eidin.

With their forces on the wane, they would have been no match for the new Celtic-Anglian force of Oswald of Northumbria when he besieged the fortress on the rock in 638ad. Oswald took the fastness, and renamed it Edwinesburgh in honour of his martyred uncle, Edwin, first Christian king of Northumbria.

Yet one fact has struck me in a way I had not seen before. St Kentigern (his name means either Lord of the Dogs – Conthighearna – or Great Lord – Ceann Tighearna) was the illegitimate son of Princess Thenew, or Enoch of Lothian. Although Kentigern’s father is not definitely known, it is thought that he was of royal blood, either Urien of Rheged or Prince Owain. These were possibly also relatives of the legendary king Arthur. Thenew’s father, Llew or Loth, was furious with her, and subjected her to the full force of the law for her sin – to be thrown off a rock, traditionally Traprain Law. Miraculously she survived, so Loth had her put in a coracle and cast adrift at the mercy the waters of the Firth of Forth.

The tiny boat came ashore upstream at the monastery of St Serf at Culross, or perhaps at his retreat at Dysart, in Fife. Serf had compassion on the young, rejected woman and took her in. When her son was born, he took on his raising, and nicknamed him Mungo, ‘my puppy’. When he left Serf in his twenties, he moved across to the Clyde valley and founded a community (muinntir) on the banks of the Molendinar burn, where the present Glasgow Cathedral stands. However, he was opposed by the local chieftain, Morken, and fled away. Going south, he became a bishop several times over, first at Haddom in Dumfriesshire, then in Wales, where according to legend he founded the diocese of Llanelwy. In Welsh he is known as St Cyndeyrn Garthwys. He studied with St David for a time, who was his contemporary. Eventually, he was called back by the king of Strathclyde, Rhedderch, to be their bishop, and took up again his ministry in what had become known as Glas-chu, ‘dear green place.’

What has been so fascinating in tracing this through is the realisation that, essentially, Kentigern was a Gododdin prince, of noble lineage, from East Lothian; his ministry was to the Cumbric people, being himself a Briton. Hence his ministry and life were spent among Brythonic rather than Gaelic people, speaking Welsh rather than Gaelic or English. That said, there is a tradition of his meeting his Irish brother, Columba, who was also his contemporary. As their two companies approached each other, tradition has them singing psalms to each other, antiphonally, recognising their common faith.

Kentigern died on January 13, probably in 613ad, aged around 85. He is buried in the crypt of Glasgow Cathedral, which has been an important place of pilgrimage for Scots for many centuries.

Easter Day 23 March 2008/Latha na Caisge 23 a’Mhàirt 2008

Christ is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Praying at the King’s Hall early this morning, (I can make a lot of noise there without disturbing anyone) I made an amazing discovery, and sensed the Lord’s help solving a puzzle which has bothered me for ages. I was using our painted-glass windows at the east end of the King’s Hall as an icon to praise Jesus Christ’s resurrection, singing the traditional Greek Orthodox Easter chant ‘Christos aneste ek nekron, thanato thanaton patesas kai tois en mnemasin zoen charisamenos’ – ‘Christ is risen from the dead, through death, treading down death and gracing those in their graves with life.’ ( I know, still as eclectic as ever..) The windows are wonderful, as they depict scenes from the resurrection; Mary’s meeting with Christ on the left, the road to Emmaus on the right, and Christ showing Thomas his wounds in the centre. But I was puzzling over the inscription written over the window. It says,

IC XC NI KA

I have always thought there must be a connection to the Greek language here. I and X are the first letters in the Greek alphabet of Jesus Christ (Iesous Xristos), but the C didn’t fit. I know that in Russian, C is the letter S, but why would C go with I and X? It should be the Greek letter Sigma, surely. Then I looked at the letters NI KA. Suddenly, it dawned – the word NIKA means ‘conquers’ or ‘triumphs’ in Greek! I thought I was just reading something into the letters, and wasn’t sure. But I had an inkling I was on to something. It was exciting to realise that our building has written over it ‘Jesus Christ conquers’, and to discover it on Easter Day was a double joy!

When I came home, I put IC XC NIKA into Google (it is an amazing facility!) and, sure enough, it came up with a Wikipedia entry for Christogram, and fills in the gaps. The reason C is there, is because it was used for Greek Sigma in the Byzantine era – which is why St. Cyril gave it to the Russians as their letter ‘S’ when he gave them their alphabet (Cyrillic.) And the letters IC XC are therefore the first and last letters of the name, Iesous Xristos in Greek, followed, right enough, by the word Nika, which means Conquers.

On this day, when Jesus shattered death, and graced us with this promise of resurrection, He truly has conquered.

Friday 29 February 2008

Since the last blog entry, I have been in beautiful Prague again, taking the second module of my MTh course, in Learning and Leadership. It was hard work, and thanks are due to my tutor Linas Andronovas, who guided and helped me the topics on a one-to-one, with the help of some excellent herbal tea! As a result, two essays are at second draft stage, which is OK considering I am only six months into a possible five-year time limit to complete.

Some of the highlights of Prague for me this time;

· Two late-night trips to the cinema on Na Přikopě in the city centre, and the last metro home.

· One of the films, Citizen Havel was very impacting, depicting through actual footage, Vaclav Havel’s presidency in the 1990’s, showing him to be a mild-mannered and gentle man, often manipulated by the politics around him.

· A visit to the Mucha museum. Alfons Mucha was a Czech artist who painted in Paris at the end of the nineteenth century, in the art nouveau style, of which he was one of the originators (painting for an ad for a Prague bank, left) but returned to Prague where he did much to establish the new Czech nation after the Second World War. He died after interrogation by the Gestapo following their invasion of Prague in 1939.

· Tram rides up to Kobylisy, high on a cliff overlooking the city; great views of the city from the north, over the river. Then entertainment on the way back down, watching a young guy on a mini-scooter chasing the tram downhill two stops, and catching it again at the second one!

· Good fellowship with other students – several visits to the Café Slavia at 1, Narodní Třída, opposite the National Theatre. Pleasant atmosphere, piano bar, art deco setting, and views out onto the river and castle hill beyond. A must for anyone in Prague.

· The funicular up to Petřín Hill and a walk along the ridge to the Strahov Monastery, whose magnificent baroque library holds thousands of ancient books, going back to the ninth century. Then a walk downhill through the Malá Strana streets and across the Charles Bridge.

· An afternoon walk up the Šárka Valley, through the steep gorge where legend has it that a Bohemian Princess threw herself from the cliff-edge rather than marry. Such quietness and peace in the midst of a capital city, it reminded me of Blackford Glen here in Edinburgh.

Now I’m back, and February has proved a very busy month. It has been a great privilege to travel and study, and what I have gleaned is feeding back into my preaching and teaching. I have been steaming through Alasdair McIntyre’s After Virtue, an important work of moral philosophy, published in 1981, which argues that the modern era’s rejection of Aristotle’s argument for man having a purpose and meaning (telos) has rendered liberal individualist morality incoherent, built on a fiction of individual moral agency, and the Enlightenment a failed project, leaving modern society ‘a collection of strangers, each pursuing his or her own interests under minimal constraints.’ (p251) He argues for a restoration of virtue ethics, seeing man-as-he-happens-to-be on a journey to man-as-he-should-be, which requires the virtues, classical and theological, for a life to be finally lived as fulfilled. His philosophy was very influential on the theologians I am reading such as McClendon and Hauerwas, and I find him compelling.

Saturday 19 January 2008

My first entry for 2008! I was just archiving my blog, as I do every so often, and realised that I have been putting down my burble like this since 2004 – how time flies, the years have just disappeared, but how grateful I am to God for a wonderful journey of grace, even through times of challenge.

I was at Abercorn this week, only for a few hours, in prayer. I love the place so much, with its story going back possibly to Ninian, and Serf (the church was dedicated to St Serf before the Reformation) and documented so early on by Bede in the Ecclesiastical History. I picked up one of their new guide books, and found, to my joy, that Nethermill Beach (pictured left), the site I love to walk down to from the church when I am there, where the Whitehope Burn falls into the Forth, had a monk’s cell standing on it in former times. It makes sense to me; it is a place where I love to stand and pray, looking out on the river. On Thursday, when I was there, I saw something I had not seen before. There, rising up clear in the distance was Ben Lomond in snow, about fifty miles away, rearing above the Ochils and the river, beyond Longannet power station. It made me realise how compact this part of Scotland really is, being able to see almost from the East Coast to the Western highlands.

It was very muddy walking down from the church to the beach; there was smell of sulphur in the air, probably coming from the decaying leaf-mould on the ground. When I came to the Cornie Burn, which gives Abercorn its name, at the place where it flows down into the Whitehope Burn, I found it in full spate, running across the path in front of me, gushing out from under the Hopetoun Estate wall running alongside the path. I noticed that the burn had flowed over its banks above the site, and had found other outflows further along the wall, turning the footpath at one point into its temporary bed. I laughed as I waded through the new shallows – and the sight of the Whitehope below, roaring along to spill into the Firth, running under the old stone bridge, was beautiful.

Sitting in the church, with the candle-flame of a tealight for warmth, it was so peaceful. It amazes me that just three miles from the teeming traffic of the road bridge, it is so quiet and secluded. I sat a while also in the museum, with the bishop’s cross, sensing our present place in the story, allowing the weight and glory of centuries of God's worship here to settle on my spirit and calm me.

I have just read, for the next part of my course in Prague, for which I leave on February 3^rd, Henri Nouwen’s In the Name of Jesus, Reflections on Christian Leadership. He leads in his first part of what is a very moving and reflective work to the conclusion that we need as leaders to move from the struggle for relevance to the discipline of contemplative prayer. Being at Abercorn brings home to me that need; with the perspective of the whole story, I am freed from the idolatry to significance, from the need for success. I can then seek, as Nouwen directs, my first love, not first because it was the earliest, but first in the sense that He first took the initiative with me (1 John 4.19)

How I need that love in the year and years ahead. Without it, there is no meaning, no purpose. Henri Nouwen says;

The leader of the future will be one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there. (Henri Nouwen, In The Name of Jesus; Reflections on Christian Leadership p22 [London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1989] )

Sunday 30 December 2007

The blog has not been top of my priority list since coming back from sabbatical. There has been a lot to be involved with, and writing it up has gone by the board rather. But here are some of the highlights of the last couple of months, in bullet fashion.

· It’s been good to get back into church life. I’ve continued visiting some of the cell groups. Small groups are such a key part of who we are as a church, in with our DNA as a radical reformed community, seeking to restore Biblical patterns of life together in a new way.

· At the end of November, Allan Cox was with us for staff reviews, deferred from August due to my sabbatical.

· At the beginning of this month, we hosted Pastor Andreas Reichert for a few days. It was good to catch up and hear of good things God is doing in their Baptist community in Aachen; there were missional resonances between us. In particular, linked to their new building, a former Roman Catholic church, which is in a needy community of the city there. In Andreas’ words, ‘we were looking for more car park spaces and God gave us a community to serve.’ Andreas is a fan of Ian Rankin’s Rebus detective novels, set in Edinburgh, so we had some ligher moments hunting out some of the places from the books, including Arden Street (his flat), and St Leonard’s Police Station, where Rebus is based. We even had a drink in Rebus’ local, the Oxford Bar in Young Street, off N Castle Street.(See Andreas with pint, left.) Since then, I have started reading one of the novels, Set in Darkness, a gift from Andreas, having been provoked by his interest.

· Mid-December has seen the start of David Hewitt’s sabbatical. He is on leave until the beginning of March, and will be in the States in January, visiting prayer houses there.

· It was a privilege to be asked to teach on the Edinburgh Business Alpha day on November 18 at Houston House Hotel. There was a great sense of God's presence with us by His Holy Spirit throughout the day.

· Christmas services are past, and with it the day itself. These few days over Christmas and New Year are holiday, interpolated with the New Year cèilidh on Hogmanay. This year, for those who feel they want to, we are gathering for bread and wine and worship after the turn of the year, a first for us.

· Personally, it has been a challenging time, coming back into some powerful breakers on the shore, but sensing God is in control. I sense increasingly God's high value on faithfulness and He is provoking me to look for where faithfulness is most manifest, to build there. As a reading from Amy Carmichael reminded me the other day, in Celtic Daily Prayer, when we come to stand before Him, the Lord will not say to us, Well done, good and successful servant, but, Well done, good and faithful servant.

Have a great New Year when it comes! Bliadhna mhàth ur dhuibh uile, nuair a thig i!

Tuesday 16 October 2007/Diluain 16 an Damhair 2007

So my sabbatical has ended, and I am on a final few days break with family for half-term. It has been a very full and productive time, in terms of study, travel, visiting other churches. It has just gone so fast, though; at the start, three months looked like forever, and now I find it’s gone like a day.

Uill, tha mi a’criochnachadh mo làithean sàbaideaich, agus tha seachdain saora agam a-nis comhla rim theaghlach aig an taigh. Bha e àm gu math loma-làn de beachdaich, de siubhal agus de cèilidh air eaglaisean eile ann an Alba agus thall-thairis. Chaidh e cho luath, gu dearbh! Aig an toiseach, bha e dhomh mar àm gu bràth, ach mu dheireadh thall, chaidh e seachad mar aon latha…

Here are a few bullet points again of the last couple of weeks of the time

· Finished a first draft of my second essay on a missiological hermeneutic from Matthew 28, and got it sent away to Prague. Comments have been received back on both essays which are encouraging, but there are pointers to improvement for both also. More work ahead on that! I return in February to IBTS for the next intensive. (3^rd to 16^th)

· Visited Bishopbriggs Community Church on Sunday 7^th October. They were having a family service, with all age elements, finishing a series on the Fruit of the Spirit; Jamie was speaking and co-ordinating the meeting, and Keith Short was also taking part in the commissioning of one of the body to go to Mongolia. It was good to be with them for a Sunday morning.

· The same day was our son Ben’s 21^st birthday. Although he’s having a party later in the month, we had a family get-together, and he did a try-out of his new highland outfit for everyone’s benefit. It doesn’t seem possible, somehow….

· This last week, I took two days out to have some quiet time in ‘storied places’. On Wednesday, I was in Culross, in Fife. It was a superb day, for October, with the temperature up in the mid-sixties Fahrenheit (about 18’C) and the autumn colours so beautiful. I was there to take some time praying in the Abbey church there, which has links to the Celtic saints Serf (or Servanus) and Mungo (also known as Kentigern.) The actual hard dates of these two are tricky to pin down, but the guide to the Abbey church gives the date of the Pictish foundations as 5^th century, making it one of the oldest established monastic remains in the country. I found a superb nook to pray in; (left) up a wrought-iron stepladder are the remains of the lay brothers’ refectory, with handy niches to sit in, looking out down the hillside to the shining waters of the wide Forth, across to Lothian and Bo’ness. The church itself was open, and I spent time there in the remarkable stillness, being with the Spirit of Christ. (In such silence, even the buzz of a wasp in the rafters is distracting!) Culross is such a beautiful little village, I shall be back there often, I know.

· I called in at Abercorn on the road home from Culross, the Northumbrians’ establishment the other side of the River, to pray for a short while there. I am sure there would have been contact between the monastery here and Culross, as both places are easily accessible to each other by boat.

· On Thursday, I brought my sabbatical to an end with a wonderful day on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne. Walking out of the house in Edinburgh at 6am into the darkness before dawn, I was surprised to feel the warmth of the air. I sped down the coast, reaching the causeway just after the official safe crossing time began at 7.10am. (left) This meant I was in good time, arriving in the quiet of the morning, before the rest of the tourists, to join in Morning Prayer and Communion at St Mary’s Church. It was a perfect start to the day, to worship in Aidan and Cuthbert’s shadow, in this small community, sensing the presence of Christ, through the bread and wine.

· After service, I made straight for St Cuthbert’s Island, stepping over the mussel beds and rock pools lying between the beach below St Mary’s and the tiny isle of Hobthrush which is now named for the saint who came here to refresh his spirit from the press of the sick and dying. The wind blew around my shoulders, but I was not cold. I said morning office there, as there is no Northumbrian daily office on the island presently. And I stayed a good couple of hours, reading, waiting, praying, watching the tide wasn’t cutting me off….

· I went at midday to St Aidan’s RC church, as I noticed there was a mass at 12pm. The church has been completely refurbished, and is quite modern and understated. But there is no sense, I found, of its being in such a storied place, apart from a couple of stained glass windows imported from a church on the mainland.

· At the end of the mass, the priest called to mind the ‘friends we have in heaven’, and I was struck by the sense of community I feel with those who have gone before, the cloud of witnesses. I was aware of our being part of the one narrative with them, which is His Story, God's telling of us, of the earth, even through its painful drama, His desperate rescue in Christ, the triumph and promise of Resurrection, His renewing all things by His Spirit; here, in that sense, we are one with those who have gone before. Running my hands over ancient Celtic crosses, I am touching those places chiselled out in worship of this God of all things. It makes me so sad when I see so many today exhausted by the fripperies of modern material life, missing the amazing threads of the history we share with those whose lap of the relay of time is run.

· I took a walk to stretch the body, just a couple of miles beyond the castle, along the old waggonway, by the beach. The breakers foamed white all along the shore, with Bamburgh and the Farne Islands on the horizon, and sunlight sparkling on the water.

· I went for an hour or two and sat in St Cuthbert’s centre, the converted United Reformed Church. Again, a peaceful time to be alone. It is very precious to have places like this on the island to just sit and be at rest, and read. By this time, the village had reverted to island mode, the tide being in, (my preferred state when I visit ).

· I ended the day with a couple of hours with Andy (left) and Anna Raine. We caught up with each other, talking about life on the island, and their travels to South Africa, and Andy’s time in Malaysia. As the sun went down, we shared evening office together in their living room, with their son Joel reading one of the passages for us. It had been a fitting end to a full day.

· On Sunday 14^th, Ann and I drove up to Perth (undelayed at the Forth Bridge, in spite of roadworks!) and were at Gateway Community Church for their Sunday meeting (left) . It was good to see faces we knew there, Chic and Isabel, Jeremy and Jane McDonagh and Don and Margaret Fairbairn. It was communion Sunday, quite a contemplative and thoughtful presentation of the liturgy. After the service, we had lunch out by the riverside in the city centre with Chic and Issy, which was a good chance to hear all their news, and to share some of ours. We returned over the Kincardine Bridge, as signs were warning us of an hour’s delay at North Queensferry, which gave us the opportunity for a pleasant Sunday afternoon drive through Clackmannanshire’s autumn colours.

Now, the weather is changing. With rain and cool air, the autumn is here. I am deeply grateful for this time of being ‘apart’. I return with a fresh sense of heart for community, of ‘jealousy for the house of God’, to see us please Christ together, to turn a tide of focussing on me and mine, to His, to find a way of being together that is different to the fragmented and atomistic culture which is in breakdown all around us. We can only see that happen as we ourselves step out of that personalistic stream, and look at what God has called us to be with one another in the Body of Christ. There is much still to be and to do in the days ahead.

Finally, I have been encouraged once again over the last few weeks by the biography of Karol Wojtyła, the late Pope John Paul II. What has impressed me above all is his commitment to pray and be with Christ in the midst of a life packed with events and duties. His priority, always and above all, was to pray, to be a man found often alone with God. I know that this is the indispensable key to serving, aligned with a saturation in the holy Scriptures and their narratives. Without this, we become businessmen, project managers, leaders but not servants. John Paul II is a model I happily accept.

Sunday 30 September 2007/Didómhnaich 30 na Sultainne 2007

Another full week or two. So just highlights again;

· Last Sunday (23 September) Ann and I were at The Apostolic Church in East Richmond Street (pic left). We were made very welcome there by Adrian Galley and the congregation; there was a warm atmosphere of fellowship, and we felt at home in the Pentecostal worship which they enjoy. For us both, it recalled to us memories of former days, since some of our formative experiences with God were in the arms of Pentecostal communities. It was good to recognise and ‘discern the body of Christ’ so close by to our own home-base.

· I have been working hard on my first essay for the masters’ course. Taking as a theme J W McClendon Jr’s work, Biography as Theology, I have taken as my subject the life and convictions of my dear friend Bohuš Živčák, leader of the River of Life Fellowship, Podolínec in Slovakia, to look at the narrative of his journey with God against the background of the demise of communism and the formation of the new communities in the Roman Catholic church. It has been exciting to be able to explore this as part of my studies, and I am looking forward to taking other subjects closer to home for future assignments. One future possible task will be to organise and lead a retreat, and to write up the process as a submission toward the MTh.

· My second essay, which I hope to complete before my return from sabbatical will be on establishing a ‘missiological hermeneutic’ for a local community. I will return for this to an exegesis of the Greek of Matthew 18.19-20, looking at what it is to ‘disciple the nations’ and how we need to move from a ‘decisional’ to a ‘narrative’ model for following Christ in a post-foundationalist era, giving more of a key role to the crisis of baptism than we have previously. I need to buckle down to this, since there are really only two weeks left of my sabbatical proper, the last week being a family holiday, including Ben’s twenty-first celebrations on October 20.

· I have been musing much still on the subject of koinonia, the Greek word for community. Returning to a theme from my last entry in the blog, the whole cultural milieu in which the UK is cradled and nurtured enshrines the sacrosanctity of personal choice and freedom. The individual is idolised in a way quite inimical to the gospel of the cross and the corporate nature of discipleship which the New Testament points us to. This is the challenge the church faces; to foreswear the godhood of self, to take up the cross, accepting that I need others to help me die on it, (since crucifixion is never a one-man job!) and to live together as a city set on a hill. It will mean asking of every decision, ‘What does this cost my brothers and sisters? How does my action edify or diminish my neighbour? How does the exercise of my life point away from myself and to Christ and His church?

· I have been reading a new biography in French, gifted to me by Bohuš, of the late Pope, John Paul II. (Jean Paul II, Bernard LeComte) It comes home to me again, how much he laid down for his calling, how risky was the road for him, when fellow students were shot and deported by the Nazis, when his own life was threatened by the godless communist authorities. It was especially poignant for me to read of his days as a secret seminarian, studying underground in his house in Dębniki, just across the river from the Old City of Kraków, joining the young people at St Stanisław Kostka there, and of his retreats at the Salesian seminary just upriver from his home. In the 1990’s, before I knew any of this history, I led a couple of teams to the Siloe community based at St Stanisław Kostka church, and also shared an evening with the Salesian seminarians, not realizing the significance of these communities in the life of John Paul II. It was very moving to read that the seminarians who had led the retreats in which the young Karol Wojtyła had participated were all deported by the Nazi regime, and many of them died in concentration camps during the War. I think it is this which challenges so much the comfort and self-centredness which British Christianity has come to accept so uncritically…..

· We have survived the installation of a new bathroom this week. Having lived with the retro avocado fittings of over twenty years’ vintage, we’re now resplendent in ivory and white – we don’t know ourselves!

· This morning, I continued on my extra-mural church visits, and went to Family Church in Macdonald Rd. I was warmly received, recognising many faces of people known for many years. Their meeting-place is spacious and lends itself to movement and ‘breaking out’. Angie Townsend was leading worship; it was lovely to experience her enthusiasm and commitment to praise, still going strong. Then Drew Barton spoke on ‘God’s Presence’ and how it changes situations, taking as a theme Acts 16 and the Philippian gaol encounter of Paul and Silas. It was also good to see the ‘ladies’ of Redwoods again, who despite a few more grey hairs, are as lively and chatty as ever, enjoying the worship and family atmosphere of the folks there.

· Chaidh mi an-diugh dhan Eaglais ‘Teaghlaich’ aig Rathad MhicDhomhnaill ann an Dùn Èideann. Chuir iad fàilte càirdeil orm, agus bha mi eolach air aodann no dhà de luchd an sin bho bliadhnaichean air ais. Tha an talla anns a bheil iad a’choinneachadh glè chomhurtail agus math airson dannsa ‘s saoirsa adhraidh. Thogail Andsaigh Townsend am fonn airson a’ mholaidh agus bha e math a bhith ga cluintinn a rithist an deidh àm fada. Shearmonaich Anndra Barton mun làthair Dhè, agus ghabh e mar eiseimplir an sgeul Phol agus Silas anns a’ phrisein ann an Philipi. Chord e rium a’bhith fhaicinn a rithist na mnathan de Redwoods, beagan nas glasa, ach gu math beòthail mar as abhaist.

Thursday 20 September 2007/ Diardaoin 20 na Sultainne 2007

Back in bonnie Scotland! This has been a really full couple of weeks (nearly three) since my last entry, so it’s bullet points again, really.

· The last two weeks at IBTS were very full and stretching. Because there was the opportunity for those of us on the applied theology masters’ course to sit in on the PhD students’ lectures to hear Nancey Murphey, J W McClendon’s widow, lecturing on post-foundational philosophy and theology, we crammed the lectures we would have had last week into the nooks and crannies of the second and third weeks of the intensive. So, it was very intensive, but very rewarding , particularly Nancey’s lectures on the history of philosophy and its relevance for theology. Some things began to make more sense with the overview she brought. (Nancey is Professor of Christian Philosophy at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, USA).

I was in Podolínec, Slovakia (left) for the weekend for First Sunday, and had a refreshing time away from the hallowed halls of academe in Prague. I spent most of the Saturday with Bohuš, who leads River Fellowship there, in the Café Tatra in Starý Smokovec, catching up and sharing heart to heart, as well as extracting his life story for my essay on ‘biography as theology’ which will be my assignment for the first course essay. (So it was field-work, really!)

· On Sunday, we met together, and Bohuš gave me the floor to share with the community; on my heart was God’s encounter with Moses in Exodus 34.6,7, when God shares the essence of His character with His servant. I pointed to the fact that although Moses did not see God’s face, we have seen the ‘light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.‘ (2 Cor. 4.6), along with those character virtues of God, compassion, favour, slowness to anger, loyal love and truth. I invited us to meditate on the cross, as we heard those words of Exodus, and realise that all that God is, is revealed in the crucified Christ. But, there is one corollary. The Holy Spirit has been unleashed in our lives, and has only one mission, to form in us the character of God in Christ. So He will stop at nothing to reproduce in us the compassion, grace, slowness to anger, loyal love and integrity which is God’s essence.

· Back in Prague, Monday 10 September was my re-birthday! It’s forty years since I prayed to invite Christ into my life in the (now demolished) evangelical free chapel at South Green, in Essex. But something has come home to me, especially in thinking towards my second essay for the Prague course, which is on the transition from a ‘decisional’ model of discipleship, to a ‘narrative’ model: although that evening was a crisis in my life, the preparation for it had been going on for some four years, from the day I walked into the chapel’s Sunday School, and sang those wonderful songs which we loved as kids, like ‘Sunshine Corner’ and ‘ Wide, Wide as the Ocean’. The teachers had begun to disciple me from the first encounter, and so the step I took in 1967 was the culmination of that first stage of the journey. And the journey had only just begun, for I am still in that school of discipleship, which lasts into eternity!

· Ann came and joined me for the last weekend in Prague, which was pretty perfect. The sun shone, it was warm and clear, and we ‘did’ Prague together. I lost count how many times we walked across the Karlův most (Charles Bridge), at different times of day, and at dusk. We drank coffee under the chandeliers of the Obecní Dům (the Municipal House), which sounds pedestrian, but which is one of the loveliest art nouveau buildings in Prague, and hot chocolate at sunset by the river in the Café Slavia, an art deco building, haunt once of Franz Kafka and, more recently, Vaclav Havel, with views out over the Vltava river and the castle hill beyond. As we came out of the café for the late tram back, we were delighted by the sound of fireworks, which were shooting up into the night over the Charles Bridge. And that same evening, we went to the Laterna Magika theatre, a typically Czech entertainment which has been housed in its home on Národní Třída (National Avenue) for nearly fifty years. It’s a mixture of ballet and mime, wordless, so no language problems, played against a clever cinema-screen backdrop which allows the actors and dancers to create a world of movement and scale beyond the limits of the small stage. There’s a snatch of video of the show we saw on their website if you click here. (And don’t worry – Venus was wearing a body-stocking!)

· On Sunday, a boat trip on the Vltava, and a meal on the riverbank at the Rybářský Klub restaurant added to the joy of being together for this, our twenty-fourth anniversary weekend. We came home on Monday, having had a great break together.

· Just a promotional – if you are thinking of a break in Prague, we can thoroughly recommend the Hotel Jenerálka, where we stayed. It’s on the campus of the college, in a superbly quiet setting in the glorious Šárka Valley nature reserve, but only twenty minutes from the Old Town Square by bus and metro, and even closer to the Castle and Cathedral. It’s a three-star hotel, not plush but comfortable, and what made it for us was the peace and quiet, and the greenery of the place, as well as the beautiful setting (see picture above.) Follow the link above or mail me if you would like to know more.

· Lastly, what have I come back with? The word which has rung out again and again over these last three weeks is the word community. We are formed by community, by our setting. No child can grow mature without a community forming them, for good and ill, teaching them the basics of language, of life. Yet, as Nancey Murphy’s overview highlighted to us, we have yielded, even in the church, to a view of Christian life philosophically based in atomistic individualism. The church at large has become infested with the practices of the social contract instead of being a place of loyal covenant, shared convictions and service, to see the Body of Christ formed in His character. I find myself yearning again for that vision of a people, dancing together the flowing circle-dance of Trinity, in Him and with Him, working out together the virtues of presence, transcendence and intimacy, a place of forgiveness and peace. Instead, so often, I seem to be confronted with the reality of a Body of Christ (including myself!) as fragmented, self-pleasing, individualistic, where personal betterment and development matters far more than the community of Christ, where commitment is seen as a threatening word.

Yet, the Holy Spirit has been unleashed among us. One question I keep asking myself, and others, is What is God doing? What are the signs of His Kingdom being established among us? He will not rest until he has formed that people in His likeness, and those communities who can stand before a fragmented, decommunised world, as cities set on a hill, who are not hidden, but who are visible and present to their darkness.

Monday 3 Sept 2007/Diluain 3 na Sultainne 2007/Pondělí 3 zaří 2007

Prague/Praha Day 7

The time has already passed so quickly, and it would be an impossibility to give a detailed account of the last seven days, so here are just a few higlights in bullet point format

· Week of lectures on critical thinking and how to put material together for assignments, excellent

· Great bunch of people here, and real sense of a worshipping, learning community

·