URBANarmy

if Jesus had not used the metaphor of Gehenna to call upon to describe the antithesis of fullness of life he surely would have used Southwark's Parking shop to make his point.. She looked at me bemused if not a little affected. I looked around at the now silent room caught momentarily within the eye of the storm I had caused. People backed away from me in the 'I wonder if he has multi personality' kind of way. There was no two ways about it I had caused a drama. An hour before I walked into 264 Old Kent Road and if Jesus had not the metaphor of Gehenna to call upon to describe the antithesis of fullness of life, he surely would have used Southwark's Parking shop to make his point. The atmosphere was tense, fraught as individuals paid their parking fines at one window with an incessant tirade of abuse to the girls on the other side of bullet proof glass. Individuals caught for all kinds of traffic offences vented, screamed, cried, wailed before paying anything up to £...

Every church or institution needs people who are able to disarm inflated ego. Every church needs someone who is able to laugh at pomposity and all that points to that which is ridiculous. Every church needs someone who is able to uphold that which essential yet gently undermine any unnecessary distraction. Every church needs those equipped with holy disdain for all that is nonsense. Add to that someone who was an example of bravery, tenacity; someone whose laugh rippled out bringing smiles to anyone caught in its wake. Someone who selflessly refused to think herself worse off than anyone, who dodged misplaced sympathy and you have some one who will be missed but will always be remembered with warmth and a smile. Debbie will be remembered. Personally I'll remember her for the way she took on the patronisation of a male dominated Winchester Cathedral ministerial fraternal with an extraordinary 'pah!' I'll remember her tumour induced frustration of not being able to get t...

Song 640 v.4 caught my eye through its fusion of mission, holiness and realised eschatology! The world overcoming by limitless grace, I worship the Lord in the light of his face; So with him communing, like him I shall grow, And life everlasting enjoy here below. Charles Coller (1863-1935)

The last stage within Fowler's analysis of the development faith is what he calls universalising, Jamieson goes with 'The Saint'. It is acknowledged that this is the most difficult stage to tie down, perhaps in that faith of this kind is very rare. Faith culminates into a relationship marked by selflessness with God and His creation. Fowler calls this a ' decentration from self', Jamieson talks about self being removed from the centre or the focus of an individuals life. Reflecting Gethsemane, a shift in motivation away from the usual obsessions of life results from a deep and nuanced acceptance of the ultimate authority of God and is often embodied to commitment to higher Kingdom causes as seen in the lives of of such people as Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Jamieson points out that perhaps this stage is better described through poetry, he could be right Anna Laetitia Waring in song 485 could be right too. In service which thy love a...

It has taken an unrelenting NT Wright to point that this great theme, which brings a framework of meaning and purpose, is present throughout scripture both in poetry and song and rich and dense theology but more significantly embodied by Jesus himself. "There is a remarkable image in the closing pages of Scripture that has become a touchstone for the way my colleagues and I think about faith and culture..." writes Miroslav Volf in an article ( The Church's great malfunction ). Amid its descriptions of the New Jerusalem, Revelation includes "the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations" ( Rev. 22:2 ). The tree holds out hope that whole cultures will be healed and mended, becoming places where people can flourish. And it sets an agenda for faith as a way of life that contributes to that flourishing, in anticipation, here and now. Brueggemann ( Brueggemann. (2007: 161ff). ...

While religion ever slides to the right and to the embrace of conservative ethics and politics, the bible remains a dangerous book calling us to ongoing conversation. That conversion is not simply the call to abandon our own pathetic and pitiful personal wrongdoing, but also involves a conversion from the social deformities that inhabit our soulscape. The idolatries of our time - control, consumerism, exploitation, militarism, narcissism - need to be expelled from our ways of thinking and acting, as much as the personal wrongdoing of greed, pride, lust and deception. Because the themes of Scripture are cast in the framework of a God who loves generously, redeems holistically and seeks to transform us totally, we area called not only to stop doing certain wrongs, but are called to the praxis of doing what is right. Which then draws us into the purposes of the reign of God. Ringma, C. R. (2003:122). Seek the Silences with Thomas Merton: Reflections on Identity, Community and Transformati...