CMS Ireland Spike Corbridge

Challenging Questions...

2008-05-05T00:00:00Z

HIV is a huge issue – no kidding.

For many of our partners the reality of working with HIV/AIDS is one of the biggest challenges they face. I read this in the Times over the weekend and thought it was worth flagging. Not sure I agree with all of it but it made me think.

The basic gist of the article, by Elizabeth Pisani, is that political correctness over criticising sexual practices such as multiple partners in Africa has prevented us finding an effective strategy to fight HIV. It also raises some big issues about how charities, agencies and NGOs have responded over the years.

Here’s a quick extract from the article or you can link to the whole thing here.

“When I started out in this business in the mid1990s, the world was spending just $250m a year on HIV in poor countries. Later, as African infection rates soared, HIV was repositioned as an affliction of the innocent. The cash started to roll in and, last year, the world spent $10 billion on HIV in poor countries.

When the funding pie was small, HIV prevention meant doing helpful things for sex workers, gay men and drug injectors. Now that the pie has grown to 40 times its original size, and HIV has been painted as almost exclusively a matter of poverty, youth and “innocent victims”, everyone wants a bite.

The UN agencies were the first to jump on to the growing pile of funding, each finding a way to link the blood-borne virus to its own mandate. Other agencies dealing with children, development, economics, labour and agriculture all suddenly found that HIV was fundamental to their work. But the trail of funding hasn’t always taken them in the right direction.”

What do you think? Where does faith fit in all of this? Does the Church have a unique role to play?

The Upside Down Kingdom. The Back-to-front Empire.

2008-04-25T00:00:00Z

I have spent a fait bit of my time writing recently. Whilst researching some stuff I stumbled across this quote from Tom Sine – and loved it.

“When Jesus began teaching he made it clear that his new empire would be unlike any empire the world had ever seen. It came on a donkey’s back. It’s imperial council was comprised of a handful of unemployed fishermen, a couple of IRS agents, a prostitute and some hangers on. Jesus demonstrated how to wield his imperial power by washing feet, telling stories and playing with kids. Jesus’ empire is based on the absurd values that the last should be first, losers are winners, and the most influential in the empire should clean the toilets. Members of the empire are instructed to love their enemies, forgive their friends, always give twice as much as people ask of them and never pursue power or position. Jesus insisted that those who are part of his empire shouldn’t worry about finances, but simply trust god. the resources to run this empire were basins, towels, and leftover lunches. This empire also developed a reputaion for constant partying – almost always with the wrong kind of people.

Seriously is this any way to run an empire? Imagine what would happen if you ran a political, economic or religious institution with these bizarre values. Clearly it wouldn’t have much of a future. these values might even get the leader assassinated…”

Thanks to Jonny for the pointer.

Reminder...

2008-04-18T00:00:00Z

When I started in CMS Ireland the first thing I worked on was a project for Sunday Schools called ‘Counting the Cost’. The project was based in DR Congo and tried to raise awareness of some of the issues facing the local church as it tried to help communities put their lives back together after decades of misrule, civil war and instability.

In the eight years that have passed DR Congo has continued to face many of the same problems – and some new ones, earthquakes and volcanoes amongst them.

I came across these pictures on the guardian website and it reminded me that some things haven’t changed – almost a decade down the line…

Hopeful

2008-04-07T00:00:00Z

I realise that church law and structure are unlikely to be the most interesting subjects for most people but I’ve been encouraged to see a significant moment for mission in the Church of England last week with legal provision put in place to accommodate new forms of church that don’t fit within traditional parish boundaries.

The new legislation works through ‘bishop’s mission orders’ and a code of practice seems to give some useful ideas for groups, churches and dioceses looking to make the most of this new opportunity.

It seems, to me, to be a recognition of the need to acknowledge, accept and perhaps even celebrate pioneering expressions of mission and ministry that would perhaps previously have been been left with little support. I wonder how easily any of these ideas would translate in Ireland and what the consequences would be for the training and support of missional leaders…

I’m still not sure how helpful the terms ‘Fresh Expressions’ or ‘mixed economy church’ are (or indeed will be as we look to the future) but the movement towards provision and inclusion seems like a good one to me.

Jon Birch’s take on ‘Fresh Expressions’ made me smile last week – and now it’s the only image I have in my head when I hear the phrase!

Despite any misgivings I may have about the phrase ‘Fresh Expressions’ I am convinced that we do need to continually find ways of freshly expressing and contextualising the message of Christ into the situations in which we find ourselves – that seems to me to be, at least in part, the challenge of mission.

That question of contextualisation has prompted a fair bit of discussion and debate on TallSkinnyKiwi’s blog over the past few days and has made me think – not least by reminding me of John Stott’s fundamental question about mission:

Cross-cultural messengers of the gospel have to ask themselves: ‘How can I, having been born and raised in one culture, take the gospel from Scripture which was written in other cultures, and communicate it to people in a third culture, without either distorting the message or rendering it unintelligible?’

I suspect that its a question worth at least a few moments of our time…

Holy Week and the Media Scrum

2008-03-18T00:00:00Z

Perhaps unsurprisingly the fact that it’s Holy Week has seen faith pushed further up the media agenda.

The events of this week lie at the centre of the story we have to tell as Christians and it’s been interesting to see some of the media reaction this year. A few things have caught my eye…

The BBC are showing ‘The Passion’ – a four part dramatisation of the events leading up to the Crucifixion. I’ve watched the first two episodes and, once I managed to get over the notion of James Nesbitt as Pilate, thought it was good stuff. I’m not sure it has grabbed me or challenged me in the way that the Manchester Passion did a few years ago but it does give a real sense of the political and religious backdrop to Christ’s arrival in Jerusalem – and conveys something of the ‘pressure cooker’ type atmosphere that we forget about in our (often) remarkably sanitised celebration of Easter. If you’ve missed it check out iPlayer for the next week or so to catch up – the final two parts are being shown on Good Friday and Easter Sunday.

rejesus have been working with the BBC to provide some resources to accompany the series – also worth having a look at.

Over the past year I’ve read through some of Dawkins’ and Hitchens’ material and was interested that The Guardian ran a challenging piece on ‘The Atheist Delusion’ on Saturday, as Holy Week was due to begin. Definitely worth a read.

Lastly, Easter often gives Christians the opportunity to speak (and be heard) and the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, is taking full advantage of that opportunity. In an interview with The Times he has a fair bit to say about living counter-culturally.

Anyway, enough for now – I hope the Holy Week journey gives you new depth of insight this year…

Challenged by Gandhi...

2008-03-07T00:00:00Z

I have been reminded this week of something that I read on Jonny Baker’s blog ages ago. I lifted the quote back then and every once in a while it comes back to challenge me a little.

It’s from ‘The Christ of the Indian Road’ by E. Stanley Jones and the chunk that stood out for me was part of a conversation between Jones and his friend Gandhi. I reckoned it was worth sharing…

“Mahatma Gandhi I am very anxious to see Christianity naturalized in India so that it shall no longer be a foreign thing identified with a foreign people and a foreign government, but a part of the national life of India and contributing its power to India’s uplift and redemption. What would you suggest we do to make that possible?”

He very gravely and thoughtfully replied: “I would suggest first of all that all of you Christians, missionaries and all begin to live more like Jesus Christ”.

He needn’t have said any more – that was quite enough. I knew that looking through his eyes were the three hundred millions of India and speaking through his voice the millions of the East saying to me, a representative of the West itself, “If you will come to us in the spirit of your master we will not be able to resist you”. Never was there a greater challenge to the West than that, and never was it more sincerely given.

“Second” he said “I would suggest that you must practice your religion without adulterating or toning it down”.

This is just as remarkable as the first. The greatest living non Christian asks us not to adulterate or or tone it down, not to meet them with an emasculated gospel but to take it in its rugged simplicity and high demand. But what are we doing? As someone has suggested we are innoculating the world with a mild form of Christianity, so that it is now practically immune to the real thing…

"Third I would suggest that you must put your emphasis upon love, for love is the center and soul of Christianity".

He did not mean love as a sentiment, but love as a working force, the one real power in a moral universe and he wanted it applied between individuals and groups, and races and nations, the one cement and salvation of the world….

“Fourth I would suggest that you study the non Christian religions and culture more sympathetically in order to find the good that is in them, so that you might have a more sympathetic approach to the people.”

Don’t know about you but it makes me think…

New Site Goes Live...

2008-03-02T00:00:00Z

So the new site has gone live! After about a month’s full-on work I’m pretty happy with the result and looking forward to seeing how it all pans out over the next few months. Big thanks to Stuart, Roger and Niall for all their work on it too. Let us know what you think…

Beyond the Pitch Black...

2008-02-25T00:00:00Z

Jools has been involved with CMS Ireland over the past few years as the host of our Summer Madness programme – but it’s only fair to say that there’s a whole lot more going on in that wee head than we get to see in the pitch black hustle and bustle of ‘the Cavern’! At the moment he’s having a bit of a think through Eddie Gibbs and Ryan Bolger’s book, The Emerging Church It seems like a good discussion is starting in the comments.

Sustainable Mission...

2008-02-20T00:00:00Z

Andrew Jones has written an interesting piece that explores how mission initiatives might be self sustaining. He takes some of Henry Venn’s (a key player in the history of CMS) ideas from the mid-19th century and looks at how they might resonate today. There is also a fuller article on the CMS-B website. Definitely worth a look.

Missing the point?

2008-02-12T00:00:00Z

I’m loving some of the stuff that Jon Birch is doing over at ASBO Jesus...

Is it possible that we spend a lot of the time missing the point?