[ hold :: this space ]

We were talking this morning in a breakfast meeting about alternative communities - why the ongoing regular community stuff doesn’t seem to fit too easily into what we’re doing in this project… and why what we’re doing fits awkwardly into the church… this is where the conversation went… [it's a thought in progress, bear that in mind!]

Most conversations about new forms of church or christian community are about rethinking the table at which the disciples sit. True confession… this project doesn’t emerge from any interest in that table, or even really in the disciples. i think the really interesting stuff of the gospels is the other stories - the tables Jesus went to where the disciples weren’t invited, or where they were so absent no-one thought to mention their presence - the afternoons at Mary and Martha’s, the nameless person’s house where Jesus met the syro-phonoecian woman, dinner at Levi’s house, dinner with Peter’s mother, the ‘water into wine’ wedding table… i think they’re the fun tables.

Interestingly, there’s not a lot of evidence in the gospels that the people around those tables wanted a seat at the disciples’ table - the main event, as such. Which makes it interesting, then, that most conversation about inclusion [and about new forms of Christian community] involves making sure there’s space for everyone at the disciples’ table - the presupposition being that there is only the one table around which everyone should sit. It gives those around the table an enormous amount of power. Perhaps that’s a myth perpetuated by them – because we have been taught to look at things from the disciples’ perspective we think there’s only one table - but the disciples were never as good as Jesus at recognising the other tables.

Perhaps another way of understanding inclusion and generosity is recognising that Jesus doesn’t sit at just one table, and that the disciples don’t host the other tables, or get to decide what happens there. Often they don’t even get invited. Those other tables are out of their control… and will mostly exist out of their line of vision.

If that’s the case, the ultimate act of inclusion for Christian communities is to encourage the possibility there might be other tables [fun tables, with good food - just as good as the church's table] where God might just turn up, because the story of God is not about inclusion into the Church’s table, but inclusion into a story of life. Because as we know, you don’t have to be a disciple for god to seek you out, and just because you’re a disciple doesn’t mean you get the very best of who God is, and turning into a disciple isn’t the anticipated, or even desired, outcome of every encounter with the story of life…

Which is why we don’t believe that every act of worship, every sacred space should emanate from, or be directed back towards the church’s table. And why we have to look much broader than the disciples for our models of community.

All that, over fruit toast.

[update: i still can't leave comments on the site! but keep chatting amongst yourselves... i'm reading them all... and i need to think more about it - especially Adam's question about what the other spaces look like. Perhaps for me the question is who I am in the other spaces, because i'm not sure they can be spaces of our making... Or maybe they can be, but I'm really interested in sitting at the tables where we aren't the hosts.]

i know things are getting serious in the project because there’s a bit of me that doesn’t want to go away on sunday… i just don’t want to miss all the things that are happening in the project at the moment…

monday night the women’s worship group is meeting again. i’ll be flying above Rome at that point. i’ll miss them. Barbara and i have been preparing stuff and she’ll lead it while i’m gone. This is a big thing for her to do - i’m very, very impressed by what she’s planning to do.

it’s a mid-winter worship… all about going deep to find the source of life…

this is a reflection (very basic!) to be used in an early part in the worship: roots (QT file, 6mb download)

and this is a prayer that comes towards the end:

There are those of course,
for whom all talk of sustenance and nourishment…
of taking root and growing
seems like an indulgence

There are those who can barely think of nurturing their souls because every moment of their life is focussed on how they will feed their bodies

They long for the luxury of being able to make a choice of what to hold onto, and what to give up.

So we remember them, God,
we pray to always be reminded of them

we pray they find life to hold onto

we pray that we will live in a way that will bring life to them…

the women’s group that i’ve blogged about here met again for worship tonight.
i realised i’ve been nervous about this group, partly because the participants are all investing so much just by coming along… partly because we’re trying to do worship together in ways that none of us have tried before… partly because we’re all so different and i wasn’t sure that we had enough common language.

it turns out we did. it was a little awkward at times, but not often - and really just as people arrived. mostly it was comfortable, honest and inspiring.

we had planned to base our time together around one of the feast stories in the gospels, but barbara and i decided this morning that to do that at a time when it seems the world is blowing up would be simply denial… so we ditched all we’d planned, placed an image (Ben Shahn’s “Identity”), a bible story (Abraham and Sarah in the desert - a story that’s shared by all of the major faiths), and this prayer i wrote last week on the table. for a couple of hours - over a meal - we talked about how to find the faith and the energy to stay committed to peace and reconciliation. we talked about what kind of faith makes peace possible (and what doesn’t), and we promised to hold faith for each other when it no longer was possible to hold it on our own.

the thing that delighted me most was that it wasn’t me offering worship. we were creating it together. i’d wondered how that could happen with a group of people who were all at completely different stages in how they understood their place in faith [though i had to keep reminding myself to let go of control and let it unfold...].

last night i went to the first inter-faith women’s dinner. there were 400 women of Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist, B’nai B’rith faiths at the dinner. It was an extraordinary night of shared respect and celebration. tomorrow i’m off to curate a multi-faith blessing of the chapel in a new prison. i was talking about this with a friend on the weekend, who was asking whether we were compromising Christianity by doing this. to be honest, it feels like i’m finding new depths to faith. God seems much more resilient than we give God credit.

some background:

sallie mcfague, in Life Abundant asks a question that has haunted my mind over the last year or so… who has the right to ‘do’ theology?

she asks whether north american theology (and let me quickly add australian theology in there too!) is too bound by the perspective from which it writes – by its universal statements which are born from an assumption that the normal human being is white, western, middle class, able-bodied, straight and male – that anything beyond this is a deviation. when we, unquestioningly, do our theology from the perspective of the ‘norm’ - or even from just one or two steps beyond it - we are lulled into a sense of security that does not question the damage that theology does to anyone outside the norm.

the reason this matters is because western theology runs the risk of being, at best, paternalistic, and at worst, oppressive.

the further we are from the norm (through “accident” of birth, or through life situation – e.g. mental illness, the death of a loved one), the more “wild space” we have. mcfague says that this wild space is the window through which we can see God’s interaction with humanity from a different perspective. It’s the wild space that we can use to encounter the God who finds company with the oppressed.

i’m spending some time with a group of women, developing a new little faith community. There are 10 of us - some of whom have never been to church, some of whom have left. some are gay, some are straight. all are employed outside the home, and work in positions of considerable influence in the community. we’re united by a commitment to social justice.

last week we had a conversation about how we would shape the ‘content’ of our time together each month. there was clear consensus that we didn’t want this group to be a reaction against the ‘traditional theology’, where our worship and conversation would simply validate our experience. We wanted to be confronted by where the gospel needs to shape us – by the wild space just beyond us, that questions our actions, beliefs and assumptions.

As part of that committment, we’re going to start the conversation by reading Struggle to be the sun together …

a reminder that Jenny McIntosh from Spirited Exchanges is in melbourne on thursday night, and she’s keen to catch up with people who want to talk about alternative faith communities. We’re having dinner at Alphabet City in northcote, perhaps followed by a drink at Kelvins. Anyone is welcome, just email me if you can come.

a reminder that Jenny McIntosh, from Spirited Exchanges, is in town on Thursday 1st June. You’re invited to a conversation over dinner and drinks that night, about forming communities for people who have left the church, but not the faith.

From 6.30, in the lounge at Alphabet City, 98 High Street, Northcote.

Please let me know if you’re planning to come.

we have a new group that’s meeting for the first time in a couple of weeks. it’s the initiative of a colleague who works in a management role in our community services unit, who asked me whether we could start something for people (like her) who are really interested in exploring ’something’ christian, but won’t walk into a church (you wouldn’t believe how many times i’ve heard that comment!). i said that all we needed was to find a few likeminded people to hang out with… she came back that afternoon and said that she already had eight…

she’d emailed through her contacts, quite randomly, and invited people who she thought had some kind of ’spiritual’ inkling. she sent them a paragraph of an article i’ve written for The Age newspaper this weekend, and said that she wanted a community to explore faith like this with, and maybe they did too. they all emailed back and said yes - though most of them also said that they had no idea why they were saying yes! this is an all female group - most of them have had negative experiences with the church, they largely work in not-for-profit organisations, and are in senior or management positions. they want to change the world. maybe they’re looking for faith that is serious about that too.

we’re meeting for the first time just before Pentecost, over dinner at the moroccan soup bar. i have no idea how this will go… though i was just thinking that we might begin the conversation with this.

One of the things that was planned for Steve Collins’ visit was an alternative worship unconference - 30 people from around Australia and NZ were going to spend 3 days together talking, experimenting, discovering, playing… we’ll hold it later in the year, but there are a few people who had already booked flights, and who will be in melbourne at that time.

Jenny McIntosh, from Spirited Exchanges, is one of them… she suggested that this leaves us with a great opportunity for people from  melbourne (and elsewhere, if you can get into town) to have a conversation about alternative forms of community for those who can no longer (for whatever reason) be part of a church, but who still long for a place to explore faith and spirituality.

So, the invitation’s open. If you’re going to be in melbourne between 1-3 June, and would like to be part of a conversation about how communities like this can take shape, this will be an excellent opportuniity to share wisdom and experience (and Jenny herself is a fantastic source of wisdom…)

send me an email (my address is in the contact details on the side bar) if you’re able to be part of it.

here’s a pdf of the article I wrote for the Sunday Age last weekend: God, rid me of God

lost in faith…
heretics anonymous…for those who no longer believe, but still have faith

the first of what will probably be a monthly dinner, drinks and conversation in the lounge at Alphabet City, High Street, Northcote…

May 2nd at 7.00

12 people maximum… please rsvp by emailing me at the address on the right, or ring me on 9657 5375.