Category: Uncategorized

You can download a service order here.

You can download the service order here.

You can download the service order here.

The Summer seems to have flown by and now we are in September with all that that entails as far as new beginnings, returning to school and work after holidays. And it is also the time when Parliament return to the debating table, hopefully refreshed and reinvigorated after the summer recess. This forthcoming parliamentary sitting seems so momentous knowing that within its span key decisions will be taken about the future of this country.

Before you stop reading, let me hasten to assure you, this is not a Party Political broadside, but it is political in so far as I attempt to reflect upon the question in all of our minds … what will life be like post Brexit? Given the divisive public discourse, the divisions evident in family, neighbourhood and society at large, how can we move beyond what divides and embrace again what unites?

There is an old Irish proverb that is written in the halls of Stormont: “It is in the shelter of each other that the people live.” If there were any society that has grappled with the challenge of coming together after years and years of entrenched and bloody conflict then it is Northern Ireland. The Corrymeela Community, a Christian community who sought to work for peace and reconciliation in the midst of ‘the troubles’, has a lot of wisdom to share with us as we seek to look beyond our differences and unite around what can build and strengthen community.

Pádraig Ó Tuama, former leader of the community, has recently commented on the state of the Brexit negotiations and public discourse.

One of the interesting things about the Brexit project in Britain is that it is people in Britain having civic discussions, the likes of which they haven’t had to have. We’ve had to have this for 100 years … so we know that here. And actually I think that Northern Ireland does have a key to providing something about what civic discourse looks like … what will save us … is the capacity for a community to hold itself together and to speak to each other rather than ripping each other apart.

So how can we foster that capacity in our families, our neighbourhoods, our towns and villages? Could we begin to view difference as an opportunity to understand a different perspective? How can we embrace the other as made in the image of God? How can we find common ground that provides a firm foundation for the common good? How can we discover together that love can go beyond the border of similarity, entering the places where we are strange and foreign to each other and there discover something of the possibility of being human with each other?

In the gospel reading this week, Jesus shares with his friends the costly conflictual path of peace (Luke 12:49-56). When we seek a Kingdom that is based on mutual flourishing, on wholeness and fullness of life for all, then we will find that we differ from those whose kingdoms are less roomy and welcoming than the one God is growing here on earth. When we find we are invested in different futures, the way ahead is not to retreat in our silos and throw stones but to reach out to the other in an attempt to share, to connect and transform.

Life after Brexit offers us an opportunity to transform divisions with human encounter. It invites us to cultivate the art of good conversation which makes space for difference and transformation. I came across these guidelines for the art of dialogue that we may find helpful in the days to come:

Say what you actually think and say it to them, looking at them in the face. Talk, talk to them. Tell them how you feel, describe what it’s like in the space that you inhabit. And then sit back and listen.

Life after Brexit is a future that is only just emerging and we are co-creators of this new reality. So let’s embrace all the opportunities available and engage in powerful, courageous, brave, risky conversations in the present that might create the very future we say we want.

On the 22nd November at 7:30 Dr Anna Rowlands will be coming to Keswick Methodist Church to talk to us and facilitate a public conversation on ‘Brexit, a Christian vision of the common good’. Suggested donations £5. This is an Engaging Theology in Cumbria event. Further details are available from Nicki.

In these uncertain times, our nation is spending a lot of time attempting to predict what the future might look like, under a new Prime Minister, outside or semi-detached from the European Union. And different folks are attempting to promote their particular vision of what this future might be like. As with any predictions, it’s hard to know with any degree of certainty what might happen.

And yet vision is important. It gives direction, it shapes the way we live in the here and now. The Bible warns that without a vision people perish. So what kind of vision can we put our faith in?

The classic film, Wizard of Oz and its bestselling single, ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow,’ connects strongly with the hope we all have for a better future, a future where all have what they need to live and thrive, where people can know joy and delight…’where lemon drops grow on trees.’  In what seems to me to be a grown-up version of ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’, John Lennon imagines a future where there is no war, where people live at peace, in contentment. It seems to me that both of these visions are a bit like wish fulfilment,  detached from the real world, a world where we all from time to time make poor choices, choices that can damage ourselves and others and the natural world.

In the Bible we find a different vision, a vision of the future that accepts and encompasses all the frailty and brokenness that we find in ourselves, that we see in others and in the natural world and yet a vision that in spite of this seeks the fullness of life that a life lived in relationship with God can bring. The Bible calls it the Kingdom of God, a state of being where in God’s strength, we learn how to live in ways that bring peace and hope and joy into our world, that safeguard and support the most vulnerable, that includes all enabling all to flourish. It’s a vision which is as much about how we live in relationship to the natural world as it is about society of humankind. This is a realistic vision because God knows our capacity to bring pain and suffering to ourselves and others. And yet through God’s forgiveness and in God’s strength, God shows us how to be reconciled with those we have hurt, how to open our lives to God’s love and to be transformed so that we can live in ways that restore and renew the broken places in our lives and in our world.

In the county of Cumbria, Churches across the denominations have attempted to encapsulate that vision in three words, God for all. It communicates our faith in a God who understands and accepts that life is hard, a God who longs to offer us a rich and fulfilled life lived in connection with God and in harmony with our neighbours and the planet we live on. A life that is filled with the joy and peace that comes from knowing we are loved and accepted and cherished by our loving maker. And that vision is realisable in your life now…you don’t need to search for the land which lies over the rainbow.