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'Never waste a good crisis' ~ Winston Churchill I heard this Churchillian quote this morning while enjoying my traditional 'whatever the weather' porridge. A quick google turned up these interesting words written by Andrew Low for the commercial world. "In challenging times one must question the accepted reality because things are going wrong, rapid answers are needed and the solution may well be found outside the usual compass. In the world of business we are often guilty of not challenging the norm; we are instead satisfied with following procedure and tradition. It takes insight and not a little courage to question your leaders as to why are things done the way that they are? However, in times of crisis there seems to be more latitude to do so – management in fact is actively seeking input it seems. Leading companies nowadays recognise this and cultivate a more open, questioning climate within the office at all times because a degree of co...

Three years of planning, form filling, team building. Three years of fund raising, house buying, permission seeking. Three years of anticipation, emotion, excitement and the moment had arrived, suddenly our passport photograph family were stood with us. Suddenly Community Sponsorship was more than an idea, a project, more than names, this was real.  Beyond the chaos of suitcase upon suitcase upon suitcase and translated hellos was Rana. Below her perfect hijab, were mother eyes beyond tiredness, telling an unimaginable story. What does it take to choose an uncertain future, to trust her family to passport photographs? Everything for this moment risked, Gatwick her portal from a life known to a life unknown. Certainty, albeit fragmented, gone. Heavy, grey eyes reflect belongings and loved ones left behind for an unshaped dream.  Bewildered she trusts and we leave.  Not a week later sh...

It is refugee week 2019, six weeks ago we welcomed an amazing family into our community, it all started with a simple question 'is Community Sponsorship something you could consider?'  Looking back I can hardly believe my reply. The simple invite brutally ducked out of it with a carefully worded, six bullet pointed apologetic for non-involvement. No house, no money, no capacity, a bullet list of fear and indifference. Looking back I can hardly believe how the doors opened. It was like a retirement was meant for this moment with it availability, willingness and drive. Meetings and dreams, planning and scheming and we were on our way. A new bullet list emerging. ·              A local authority willing to help and to guide. ·              A benefactor willing to give. ·              Our ch...

I don't tend to blog as much but this is a day I don't want to forget.... btw Jamal is a pseudonym --- I looked into his eyes and I saw why we had invested so much of ourselves into this project. “Thank you thank you thank you….” , we were at the airport and the Syrian family we will be sponsoring were with us in arrivals. The boys were beyond themselves with happiness. Jamal looks at his family and then me and  whispers ‘thank you’. Communicating through google translate Jamal reads my message, “we are looking forward to sharing life with you” , he looks up at me, tears well up. Full of emotion Jamal speaks into the phone and shows me the translation, “nothing I can say will let you know how grateful we are… we are safe”. Out in the garden, high above an EasyJet Airbus banks and changes direction, the engines whine in protest, Jamal violently sucks in air, ducks and looks at me with eyes of terror. For a moment hope cowered. I try to reassure but sense the i...

I can't imagine there are many that don't enjoy sitting and marveling at what the BBC serve up on a Sunday evening with the amazing Sir David Attenborough! Octopus is definitely my new favourite cephalopod! But the spider crabs on this week were equally as stunning. Their gathering in extreme numbers to molt their shells struck me as being a rather pertinent lesson. Thousands merging together to support and protect one another as they lost their shell and the soft shell beneath hardened. Support for one another at a time of extreme vulnerability. I didn't think too much more about this until my daily dose of Rohr popped into my inbox today. I read how Episcopal Bishop Mark Dyer referred to 'recurring periods of upheaval in the church as giant “rummage sales” in which the church rids itself of what is no longer needed and rediscovers treasures it had forgotten'. Rohr continues by quoting Phyllis Tickle who suggested in the process of building necessary structur...

We used this prayer this morning written by Gary Kowalski Gracious Spirit, Who makes the first to be last and the last to be first, Who makes the rain to fall and the sun to shine upon all, Help us to understand that life is not an contest Where having the most toys is the point of the game, To realize that the victor’s circle can be the loneliest spot on earth, To recognize that the greatest rewards don’t come from winning but from relationships where both triumphs and tears can be celebrated and shared. Powerful Spirit, Infuse us with your lifegiving strength And grant us the inward security of knowing our own goodness without needing to prove it to the world; Lift us above both envy and pride -- the need to feel superior to others and feelings of inadequacy alike -- Enabling us to walk together as equals, At home in the great community of life. Wise Spirit, We know that life is not a race to be won But a journey to be savoured. Grant us the faith to live ea...

A bit of today's daily dose of Rohr... "Prophets, by their very nature, cannot be at the center of any social structure. Rather, they are “on the edge of the inside.” They cannot be fully insiders, but they cannot throw rocks from outside either. They must be educated inside the system, knowing and living the rules, before they can critique what is non- essential or not so important. Jesus did this masterfully (see Matthew 5:17-48). This is what Martin Luther King, Jr. taught the United States, what Gandhi taught British-occupied India, and what Nelson Mandela taught South Africa. Only with great respect for and understanding of the rules can a prophet know how to properly break those very same rules—for the sake of a greater purpose and value. A prophet critiques a system by quoting its own documents, constitutions, heroes, and Scriptures against its present practice. This is their secret: systems are best unlocked from inside." One of the most common complaints I h...

Richard Rohr points out "Simone Weil and others have said that the very nature of spiritual truth is that it is paradoxical. Christianity should have known this ... [however] ... The church has taught people doctrines, but has not always taught the proper mind with which to understand them."  "...many people who formerly called themselves Christians have “thrown out the baby with the bathwater,” rejecting Christianity with the same dualistic, all-or-nothing thinking that immature religion taught them in the first place." Richard Rohr

Interesting words from Brian Morgen from the Centre for Action and Contemplation. "We are living in times when many of the institutions in which we’ve found our identities and placed our trust are revealing their unworkability and brokenness. Unless we are grounded in a Bigger Story and Truth, the falling apart of the system could also be our own undoing." Ring the bells that still can ring Forget your perfect offering There is a crack in everything That’s how the light gets in. —Leonard Cohen, “Anthem”

Rohr calls the Franciscan Tradition in which he was been formed is an “alternative orthodoxy” or heterodoxy.  "The early Franciscan friars and Poor Clares wanted to be Gospel practitioners instead of merely “word police,” “inspectors,” or “museum curators” as Pope Francis calls some clergy. Both Francis and Clare offered their rules as a forma vitae, or form of life. They saw orthopraxy (correct practice) as a necessary parallel, and maybe even precedent, to verbal orthodoxy (correct teaching)."

Interesting in the light of 1 John 4:12... "In the first instance, you have just experienced a religious high. Through prayer or some other religious or human experience, you have a strong, imaginative sense of God’s reality. At that particular moment, you feel sure of God’s existence and have an indubitable sense that God is real. Your faith feels strong. You could walk on water!  Then imagine different moment: You are lying in your bed, restless, agitated, feeling chaos around you, staring holes into the darkness, unable to imagine the existence of God, and unable to think of yourself as having faith. Try as you might, you cannot conjure up any feeling that God exists. You feel you are an atheist.  Does this mean that in one instance you have a strong faith and in the other you have a weak one? No. What it means is that in one instance you have a strong imagination and in the other you have a weak imagination. Faith in God is not to be confused with the capacity or inc...

At our low points, we are one step away from either enlightenment or despair. Without faith that there is a Bigger Pattern, and the grace to surrender to that Bigger Pattern, most people will move into despair, negativity, or cynicism. We need a promise, a hopeful direction, or it is very hard not to give up. When you have not yet learned what transformation feels or looks like, someone—perhaps some loving human or simply God’s own embrace—needs to hold you now because you cannot hold yourself. When we experience this radical holding, and even deep loving, this is salvation! Rohr

"In many ways, at least in the Western world, the church is in the desert, in a dark night, lost, being pruned, undergoing a purifying alchemy." ( Ron Rolheiser) Rolheiser goes on to  point out, "We have our good seasons, but we have seasons too where we lose relationships, lose health, lose friends, lose spouses, lose children, lose jobs, lose prestige, lose our grip, lose our dreams, lose our meaning, and end up humbled, alone, and lonely. But that’s a place too, a valid and an important one. Inside that place, our souls are being shaped in ways we cannot understand but in ways that will stretch and widen them for a deeper love and happiness in the future." Rolheiser draws a parallel with the same place of stretching and widening in  " our greying and emptying churches" where "w e’re aging, unsure of ourselves, lacking in vocation". He suggests it is  a good place to be, where humbled and insecure, we can again become church. From being  lost, ...

A useful reminder today from Ricky Rohr! "The word dialectic originally referred to the Greek art of debate. A dialectic (different than our political debates) does not move forward by either/or thinking. It’s when you play the two off of one another and then come to a tertium quid, a third something, what the inner wisdom traditions sometimes call “Third Force.” It is the process of overcoming seeming opposites by uncovering a reconciling third that is bigger than both of the parts and doesn’t exclude either of them. Such truth moves you and the conversation to a different level. "  Seems to me that there is a lot of talking that goes on without listening in all areas of life, discovering something bigger than the sum of partisan parts seems creative and exciting to me?

Lovely quote shared by the Mother of the Groom yesterday... "Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your root was so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. that is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two" (Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernieres) A perfect link with the quote I shared. “Often we speak about love as if it is a feeling. But if we wait for a feeling of love before lo...

Top Moments (in no particular order) Being surprised by Kate and Eryn together with the Pirie clan as we returned through Kingston - Gordy! The last 50km all the way back from Box Hill - the best cycling I have experienced. Seeing Ashley flying along at our rendezvous at Tower Hill - I'm not stopping! Being cheered on by Adrian and Gill in Dorking Getting to the top of Leith Hill and having someone thank me for getting him up - cheers fella! Phil Wall's monumental fist pumping encouragement with Raynes Park SA Sharing all 100 miles with nephew Adam, including my worst Arriving at the top of Box Hill to be greeted by Neil, Ashley and Mark - chased them down at last Turning into the Mall being cheered through by Juster's, knowing we had made it in time - just! Cycling out through empty London Streets Cyclist banter Getting told off by Adam for being irresponsible going down a roller on A25 -  Low Moments  Unfortunate accidents and the congestion aftermath ...

Read this today, I love her idea of inventing new ways for love... "Our challenge today is to trust the power of love at the heart of life, to let ourselves be seized by love, to create and invent ways for love to evolve into a global wholeness of unity, compassion, justice, and peacemaking." Ilia Delio Ilia Delio,  The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love  (Orbis Books: 2013), xxv.

I've been really appreciative of Ron Roheiser's thoughts recently, here he is talking about how easy it is to lose perspective ... "When perspective is lost, the world turns upside down; contentment gives way to restlessness, humility to ambition, and patience to a hopeless pursuit of a consummation, renown and immortality that this life can never give. I know. It's happened to me, countless times; in fact it happens to me most all of the time. In my life, forever it seems, I keep losing perspective and becoming obsessed with a love l cannot have, with hurts that I cannot let go of, and with an ambition that leaves me too preoccupied, too self-absorbed and too hurried to fully notice what's around me. Like most everyone else, I spend too many hours waiting for a special phone call that doesn't come, for a special letter that doesn't arrive, for a special glance of affection that isn't given and for a special daydream to turn into reality. I spend ...

Richard Rohr highlights Dante's insight to faith development:- "In "The Inferno: Canto 1," The Divine Comedy, Dante describes the human experience: "In the middle of life, I found myself in a dark wood." If you're letting life happen to you, you will be led to the dark wood where you have to ask: "What does it all mean? Why am I doing this? Why don't I feel fully alive or that my life has meaning? What am I doing wrong?" Most of us have bouts of immense self-doubt..." Other insights and advice include... "It is only by a foundational trust in the midst of suffering, some ability to bear darkness and uncertainty, and learning to be comfortable with paradox and mystery, that you move from the first half of life to the second half." "If you don't have at least one good friend, or if you have not developed a prayer life where you know how to find yourself in God instead of in your own feelings, you will simply r...

Something to mull over this week... "What is the relation of [contemplation] to action? Simply this. He who attempts to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity, and capacity to love, will not have anything to give others. He will communicate to them nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, his aggressiveness, his ego-centered ambitions, his delusions about ends and means, his doctrinaire prejudices and ideas. There is nothing more tragic in the modern world than the misuse of power and action."   --Thomas Merton via Richard Rohr