Does the Church have a future? More to the point does my blogging or writing have a future?

The poetics of ecumenism
Fragments of ecumenism
Is it all over?
The still small voice of the world church
Diversity dialogue daring

All of those are titles for articles I didn't or haven't yet written. The theme I was given to write on was "The Future of the Church"- In the end I submitted something that was a bit less "edgey" and rather less philosophical than some of my original thoughts. I suppose I am a reformer rather than a revolutionary so perhaps I shouldn't expect too much in the way of radical thinking from myself. Anyway in the weeks ahead I am going to try and set myself the task of writing something on each of the titles I had as working ideas as I wrote the rather more staid article I finally submitted tonight. If and when that gets published online I'll also be sure to link to it.
In the meantime I thought it was time I tried to get back to the blog. Life has been rather more than busy in recent weeks, we also have a house guest which means that I spend more time talking and less time with the real life of the virtual world - it is terrible when real life takes you away from blogging!

Moving Christian unity ...

Last night the local churches in Geneva organized the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity service. It took place in the chapel of the Ecumenical Centre this year, there were far more people than in the previous few years so we felt it was successful - and for the most part it was. We began with moving words from Father Megally the priest of Geneva's Coptic Orthodox Church, who thanked the local churches for their solidarity and prayers following the recent tragic attack on the Coptic Church in Alexandria.
The focus of the prayers this year is Jerusalem, the churches there prepared the material for the octave of prayer which is marked by Christians throughout the world. We had Middle Eastern as well as French music at last night's service.
The WCC's general secretary picked up on the theme of Jerusalem and of the table in his sermon
"The table is also a place and space that demands that we think about justice and the way food and access to power are shared in the world, especially at a time when speculation with food prices will mean that the poorest will become poorer, and go hungry."
"Perhaps the image of the table can help us with this, it is around the table that not only bread is broken but that the word is shared; the table is a place of fellowship, of joy, a place for learning and forging reconciliation. The table is also a place and space that demands that we think about justice and the way food and access to power are shared in the world, especially at a time when speculation with food prices will mean that the poorest will become poorer, and go hungry. Of course there is still sadly one table where we as Christians do not yet eat together. We live with the painful reality of our own divisions."

So last night, all went well, people were happy, the chapel was full, more than 30 different confessions were represented including several of the migration churches ... and yet as I look back on it I think that somehow we need to become more missional in our approach to Christian unity. I made a joke about how next year in order to change the age profile of those attending we should do a skateboard service for unity. I think of a friend who is a trained youth pastor and who is finding it hard to find a parish to go to as there are so few young people in the church. So I wonder will we dare next year to invite the church youth movements in Geneva to lead the service and do things a bit differently. It is difficult after something has seemingly worked and been a success to think like this. I'm concerned that we think we have found the formula for something that has worked and that we don't see what isn't working as a result.

So I suppose what I am saying is - things went well and that is good and to be celebrated, but a big challenge remains.

On going to mass ... some jumbled up thoughts about ecumenism and other stuff

Last Sunday I admit I was fast asleep despite having intended to attend mass in the Roman Catholic Church here in St Chinian. But this week I managed to get out of bed in time. I should add that there are of course Protestant parishes in this area but none any closer than a 30 minute drive, so that would have take alot more planning - and required my driver to also be willing to get out of bed early during the holiday. So I went to mass. I wanted to be what I am whic is an ordinary every day Christian and see what it is like to worship with others in this small town.

I claim to come from an ecumenical background, yet the first time I ever attended a Roman Catholic mass was during the week of prayer for Christian Unity in Dunkerque about four months after my ordination. I am still rather shocked about this when I think about it - I had been to prayer services in mosques, synagogues, gudwaras, Hindu temples, yet not once had I attended a Catholic mass. To be fair I had been to many Roman Catholic services of prayer and I was taught Old Testament by a Dominican. Thinking about this now certainly makes me realise just how enclosed our different confessional communities can be, how ignorant we are of one another's life and how desperately or perhaps blissfully self-sufficient we can be. It isn't right and it isn't good for us either.

In Dunkerque on a January Saturday evening I was invited to preach at mass, the next day the Roman Catholic priest preached at the Protestant temple. What shocked me terribly as I took part in the mass for the first time was how terribly familiar it all was. Although I knew none of the responses in French I still somehow "knew" them and instinctively knew where the liturgy was going. At that stage I still did not have this instinctive feel about the liturgy of the Eglise Réformée de France, I was not as at home in it as I suddenly felt on that Saturday evening in the Roman Catholic Church. After I had preached, no doubt far too cerebrally, Jacques Duquesne, the wonderful priest in charge, invited me and all other Protestants present to stand with him behind the altar at the point in the eucharistic liturgy where the Lord's Prayer is said. I returned to my preacher's place and the liturgy proceeded and tears just poured down my cheeks. People were filing past me to receive communion and I knew that although I felt so "at home" in the liturgy I could not "communicate", not in that public role in that public place. In that moment I suppose the division of the church became real for me in the bread and wine I did not receive, I understood the brokenness of things. My hands and lips remained empty, my tears were uncontrollable.

Anyway this morning in St Chinian I had no public role I could just be there, take communion according to my own conscience, arrive and leave without saying much to anyone - apart from "la paix du Christ". This morning I felt part of things but also in some ways less at home - perhaps because the music was so unfamiliar. St Augustine said "to sing is to pray twice" so I suspect that this morning I did not pray twice. Nor was I edified by the homily but in itself it is always good for a preacher to listen to someone else and realise quite how soon my attention begins to wander!

The priest was I would guess younger than me (this certainly surprised me, the Catholic Church in France has a crisis of candidates for the priesthood) and attendance was really quite good, the large church was over a third full, the organ was good. It was lovely to hear the words of the liturgy and the gospel in the accents of the south. But I realised that I was one of maybe half a dozen folk of working age there. Apart from the two altar boys the only other child present was a baby being carried by his grandmother. The reality of much of the traditional church throughout Europe is that it is white haired.

I felt very moved as people walked forwards to receive communion, so many with sticks, having problems walking, with a friend or partner helping them. The people of God, work weary, bone tired yet walking forwards in praise, in expectation. And I too went forwards.

I'm glad I got out of bed. It was a useful reality check about who the church is in a community like this. I was glad to see a reflection by the bishop on the deportation of the Roms in the monthly bulletin, invitations to a Christian Mulim dialogue group and a poster to take part in the local Cercle de Silence. I left feeling a little sad, thinking surely these people too might have been offered a little more of a sense of joy. Perhaps I am as ever too judgemental.

Of course I am - like a good Protestant - still pondering and meditating two of the Bible readings: "For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." 2 Tim. 1.7
And the end of the Lukan parable "So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, 'We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.'"

a press release about the 7 deadly sins of women in leadership

7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership: Overcome Self-Defeating Behaviour in Work and Ministry (author Kate Coleman)

Prominent Christian woman leader reveals ‘7 Deadly Sins’ of women leaders in new book launched in Birmingham this Saturday (September 11th 2010)

Leadership mentor Kate Coleman, the first black woman Baptist minister in the UK, has written a new book highlighting specific self-defeating behaviours, ‘7 deadly sins’, women in leadership need to avoid regardless of their profession or calling.

In 7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership: Overcome Self-Defeating Behaviour in Work and Ministry, Revd Dr Kate Coleman, a former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, suggests that rather than sloth, greed and gluttony, deadly sins for women leaders include ‘Limiting self-perceptions’, ‘Failure to draw the line’ and ‘Inadequate personal vision’.

“For the first time in modern history, God is placing women in strategic positions of influence and leadership within the church, public, corporate, charity and voluntary sectors, in unprecedented numbers,” says Coleman. “Women are called to flourish in these arenas. However, there are significant external and internal issues that hinder women in leadership in unique ways.” (Kate Coleman in 7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership)

In 7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership, which receives its official launch in Birmingham this coming Saturday (11 September), Kate Coleman considers what lies at the root of the many challenges facing women leaders and discusses ways of dealing with them including, adjusting how you see yourself, establishing boundaries, developing a tailor-made personal vision and cultivating a healthy work-life rhythm.

The book is based on a leadership development programme designed by Kate Coleman and delivered through Next Leadership, of which she is founder and director. Kate has extensive experience of mentoring leaders from across all sectors and also advises and supports pastors and churches. Next Leadership was established in order to develop and equip leaders from diverse arenas.

Author, speaker, broadcaster and President of Tearfund, Elaine Storkey describes 7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership as “A 'must read' book for anyone in leadership, including those who wonder how they got there!.. It's rare to find such careful research, gripping narrative and positive mentoring all in one book. I loved it!” Kay Chaldecott, Managing Director of Capital Shopping Centres also adds, “I would recommend this book to all women at any stage of their leadership journey...”
Kate Coleman believes that the book, now available from Next Leadership.org, Amazon and other online stockists, will also appeal to many men in leadership and any woman in leadership, regardless of whether they are on a Christian faith journey or not. “This book will enable all women to identify and overcome self-defeating patterns of behaviour, in ways that will radically transform their leadership capabilities,” she says.

ENDS

Note to Editor

7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership: Overcome Self-Defeating Behaviour in Work and Ministry is published by Next Leadership Publishing and is available at £14.99 from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, TheBookDepository.co.uk, WHSmith.co.uk, GardenersBooks.com, neilsen.co.uk
The official launch of the book will take place at Anthony Collins Solicitors in Birmingham on Saturday 11 September at 10:30 am.
The ‘7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership’ featured in the book are Limiting self-perceptions, Failure to draw the line, Inadequate personal vision, Too little life in the work, Everybody’s friend, nobody’s leader, Colluding and not confronting and Neglect in family matters.

About the Author

Kate Coleman is founder and director of Next Leadership and a former President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain. She was the first black woman Baptist minister in the UK with over 25 years of leadership experience, including 24 years as a Baptist minister. Kate is widely recognised as ‘one of the most influential black Christian women leaders in the UK’ (Keep the Faith magazine). She has extensive experience of mentoring, advising and supporting pastors, churches and leaders from across all sectors. Kate is a popular speaker and leadership consultant and has made numerous contributions to magazines, books and journals. ‘7 Deadly Sins of Women in Leadership’ is her first solo publication.

For more information and to interview Kate Coleman please contact Cham Kaur-Mann on 07886 633831.

Poetic, Prophetic and empowering leadership traits for a time of transition and systems failure

Regular readers of this blog know how much Paul Fromont's writing and round ups of theological and spiritual reflections at Prodigal Kiwis contribute to making up for the huge gaps in my own knowledge. About ten days ago Paul posted about the changing leadership challenges and competencies for today's church and world.
Paul points first of all to this post on Next Reformation which is a very stimulating essay by Leonard Hjalmarson looking at complexity in systems and the need for changed models - for revitalising the Ephesians 4 models - in the way we exercise leadership (see APEST on theforgottenway.org). Over the centuries the church has concentrated on developing the shepherd and teacher roles and has found less and less place for apostolic, prophetic and evangelistic gifts. There's also a good reflection on what happens in organisations when systems fail.

The loss of those roles is attributed in part to the Christendom context – a stable and state religion did not know what to do with apostles and prophets and evangelists. I’m also convinced that Alan Roxburgh is right: in times of transition we need the poetic leader type. The poet, like Adam, helps us make sense of our experience. The word in the prologue of John tells how Jesus “became flesh and lived among us.”

I'm very interested in the idea of poetic leadership and can see lots of possibitlites for it - both within and beyond the church. I will have to revisit and re-read the articles linked to from Leonard's posts.

Meanwhile Paul Fromont has slightly reworked and enlarged upon the elements at the end of Leonard's post when looking at the competencies needed and challenges facing leadership - and not just in the churches. I particularly like the look of the Surfing the Edge of Chaos book he links to here, sounds like my sort of thing. That reminds me I've been doing some reading recently about the ancient goddess chaos ... must tap into some of that energy, could make for some interesting poetry!

• Spirit – corporations are spiritual/material bodies. Health is maintained by unifying the two assets.
• Purpose – The purpose of the organization is to create “social capital” by serving its telos. Leadership guards the ethos and ensures that the team knows its purpose. 

• Creativity – The first and most important act is the creative act. Change, youthfulness and energy are requirements until death. 

• Challenge and response – The task of leaders is to create or recognize the current challenge, respond creatively, and avoid a condition of ease. Reliance on yesterday’s success leads to decline. 

• Disturb the system – The urgency to decide and act promptly leads to expansion and advance. Equilibrium is death [for more on this from a business perspective see the excellent Surfing the Edge of Chaos – church leaders could read it equally profitably]
• Unity and diversity – Advancing cultures are socially unifying and become diverse in character. Leaders resist the tendency to homogeneity in personalities and skills. 

• Specialized competence – Specialized knowledge and skills and the integration of those competencies must be pursued vigorously.
• Efficient administration – is required to achieve integration as differentiation increases. Unchecked administration leads to bureaucracy and self-protection. 

• End Command and Control – Decisions should be made by those on-the-spot.

10 reasons why men should not be ordained

Hat-tip to my colleague John Baxter-Brown who posted the link to Theopoetic musings10 reasons why men shouldn't be ordained. Here are the first 5 - and of course I take these no more seriously than if the word "woman" replaced the word "man".

10. A man’s place is in the army.

9. For men who have children, their duties might distract them from the responsibilities of being a parent.

8. Their physical build indicates that men are more suited to tasks such as chopping down trees and wrestling mountain lions. It would be “unnatural” for them to do other forms of work.

7. Man was created before woman. It is therefore obvious that man was a prototype. Thus, they represent an experiment, rather than the crowning achievement of creation.

6. Men are too emotional to be priests or pastors. This is easily demonstrated by their conduct at football games and watching basketball tournaments.

Stop exhausting the earth - do summer differently

As the northern hemisphere prepares for summer and holiday time the French Protestant Federation has launched a "give the earth a holiday campaign". You can read more about it here.
This is the 10th campaign seeking to raise awareness of environmental and care for creation issues within the FPF member churches.
The campaign is taking palce with the "live differently" collective

Local ecumenism in the global context

Last night I attended the AGM of the local council of churches. We have a strange Swiss style problem - all of the member churches pay their membership fees so we have (relatively speaking) quite a lot of money in the bank. However, we don't really have an ecumenical project or much ecumenical impetus in the bank somehow.
However, we were meeting in Onex last night where the five local churches from different confessions have strong ecumenical links going back decades. As the meeting discussed prospects for ecumenism in the canton of Geneva, the minister of one of the evangelical churches in Onex encouraged us to see ecumenism happening at the local level. In Onex during 2009 there had been no fewer than 47 meetings, meals and encounters between all five of the town's Christian confessions. Local ecumenism based on live encounter is alive and well, perhaps at the cantonal level our job is to try to link up and communicate more of what is happening at the local level.
Anyway having been worried that the meeting would not be very energizing I came away with lots of questions but also with ideas that could take things forwards.
From an international perspective being involved with the local churches in the city where our organisation happens to be based is a challenging experience, it brings me face to face with the weaknesses of ecumenical structures but also the brilliant tenacity, creativity and openness of the people of God. The global church is the local church. The local church is the global church.
It was in many ways just another boring meeting, but it was also in many ways a blessing.

Baptism with flowers or at the ocean

Last Sunday in Pankow there was a baptism as part of the Easter service. All of the children at the service - and there were lots there - were invited to come forwards and decorate the baptistry with flowers. We were sitting so far back in the packed church that we didn't see what it looked like until we went forward for communion. It's a lovely way of involving people it also reminded me of the German tradition my father brought into our family of decorating the table place of the person whose birthday it was with flowers from the garden. Baptism is about rebirth, a new beginning with Christ so I think this is a lovely tradition particularly for churches which have large old baptistries like this.
Meanwhile David Ker baptised his children on Easter Sunday in the Indian ocean. Read about it in a great post called "what water baptism means to me", sounds like a wonderful way of making baptism both special and part of life. The photos are beautiful too.
Of course you can find different perspectives on Holy Water over on Seven Weeks for Water. Next year we really must get someone from the Pentecostal churches to write a meditation for us.

Holy water starts to get wet, wet, wet ...

Over on Seven Weeks for Water things are getting wet. This week Chip Andrus encourages us to think wet and live wet as we consider the true and deeper meaning of our baptism.

The Church consists of people born of water and the Spirit in baptism. Baptism is a journey only completed in death and therefore we are called to “live wet” or practice the faith we covenanted to live with God and one another throughout our lives.
When we intentionally make connections between all water and the water of baptism, we can then find the sacredness of every encounter with this basic element of life and death. On the other hand we may find the defilement of God’s sacredness when water is polluted, deprived to humans, used as a means of wealth, or used for torture.

I was baptised as a small baby by a minister who spoke Welsh as well as English. He spent most of his working life as a teacher and helped out in the local congregation when there was no minister. Shortly before his death he also officiated at the legal part of our marriage.
Chip Andrus' piece has helped me during this Lenten time to think about what it means for me to be a baptised Christian - am I really following Christ into the deepest depths and the strongest promise of living wet?

Präses Nikolaus Schneider takes over as chair of the EKD Council

I like it that Nikolaus Schneider is not a bishop, or should I say that he is not called a bishop but a präses or president. As deputy chair of the EKD council he has now taken over as chair of the Council following Margot Kässmann's resignation, at least in the interim and perhaps for longer. Given the voting last Autumn - he came a very strong second to Kässmann and none of the other bishops or church leaders came anywhere close - I think he will be a strong candidate for Chair more permanently, but we'll have to see how church politics play out.
Schneider is head of the Evangelical Church in the Rheinland which is a United Church with strong Reformed elements - very few Reformed churches have bishops most have moderators, stated clerks, presidents or some similar name (the tiny Polish Reformed Church is one exception). It was in the Rheinland Church that the Barmen Declaration was drawn up and agreed in 1934. It's a church with strong ecumenical links, particularly to minority Reformed churches elsewhere in Europe and the world.
Schneider has highlighted four areas in initial interviews: the question of social policy and how the poorest are treated; global justice, ecumenism and climate change. He supported Margot Kässmann's position on Afghanistan and seems set to continue to take on the political agenda for the protestant churches in Germany.
Schneider speaks excellent English and some French. I've worked with him on the French Reformed Church's ministries commission over two weekends. He was keen to see what his church could learn from the way we interviewed candidates and discerned about future ministers.
A good man, he now has a very difficult job. May God give him courage and strength as well as laughter and lightness, these are not easy times for the churches in Germany - Protestant or Catholic.

Margot Kässmann - however low you may fall it is always into God's hand

Since the news broke earlier this week that Margot Kässmann had been found to have driven through a red light while nearly three times over the legal limit there has been a huge furore in the German media. Today she confirmed her decision to step down from all of her church offices - both as chairperson of the EKD Council and as bishop of Hanover.
It is difficult for me to say just how desperately sad I am about this. I quite understand how she felt she would no longer have any credibility or self respect if she tried to speak out on moral or political issues. It is nevertheless a tragedy. She is a hugely talented leader and theologian, a brilliant preacher, creative writer and speaker. The issues she raises strike chords with people's experience of God and life, she understands how to talk about prayer and faith in that sort of way.
Drink driving is stupid and dangerous and could be deadly, she will pay the legal consequences of her stupidity. Meanwhile, the church loses one of the very few world class women leaders it had. Somehow I fear that the reaction to this will be to play safe, to not choose the creative edge again but to choose the safe candidate. I suppose part of me feels that a man in this position would probably have tried to sit out the media storm, and might have been given a slightly easier time because a man would not have been quite so high profile in the first place ...
I already miss all that Margot would have been in her position as church leader, I feel as if part of my future has been taken away. And yet she remains one of my role models. Roles models are not supposed to be perfect, just to be people trying to be disciples of Jesus Christ.
As I read the statement she made below I cried as I got to the end where shes says that she knows from having lived through other crises that however low you fall it is always into God's hand.
One way and another it's been quite an emotional day. Margot may you continue to be held in God's hand and may those hands also hold all of us who today are so very, very sad ...

24.02.2010 16:21
Erklärung der Vorsitzenden des Rates der Evangelischen Kirche in
Deutschland (EKD) Landesbischöfin Dr. Margot Käßmann
Hannover (ots) - Es gilt das gesprochene Wort!

Am vergangenen Samstagabend habe ich einen schweren Fehler gemacht,
den ich zutiefst bereue. Aber auch wenn ich ihn bereue, und mir alle
Vorwürfe, die in dieser Situation berechtigterweise zu machen sind,
immer wieder selbst gemacht habe, kann und will ich nicht darüber
hinweg sehen, dass das Amt und meine Autorität als Landesbischöfin
sowie als Ratsvorsitzende beschädigt sind. Die Freiheit, ethische und
politische Herausforderungen zu benennen und zu beurteilen, hätte ich
in Zukunft nicht mehr so wie ich sie hatte. Die harsche Kritik etwa an
einem Predigtzitat wie "Nichts ist gut in Afghanistan" ist nur
durchzuhalten, wenn persönliche Überzeugungskraft uneingeschränkt
anerkannt wird.

Einer meiner Ratgeber hat mir gestern ein Wort von Jesus Sirach mit
auf den Weg gegeben: "Bleibe bei dem, was dir dein Herz rät" (37,17).
Und mein Herz sagt mir ganz klar: Ich kann nicht mit der notwendigen
Autorität im Amt bleiben. So manches, was ich lese, ist mit der Würde
dieses Amtes nicht vereinbar. Aber mir geht es neben dem Amt auch um
Respekt und Achtung vor mir selbst und um meine Gradlinigkeit, die mir
viel bedeutet.

Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich mit sofortiger Wirkung von allen meinen
kirchlichen Ämtern zurücktrete. Ich war mehr als 10 Jahre mit Leib und
Seele Bischöfin und habe all meine Kraft in diese Aufgabe gegeben. Ich
bleibe Pastorin der hannoverschen Landeskirche. Ich habe 25 Jahre nach
meiner Ordination vielfältige Erfahrungen gesammelt, die ich gern an
anderer Stelle einbringen werde.

Es tut mir Leid, dass ich viele enttäusche, die mich gebeten haben, im
Amt zu bleiben, ja die mich vertrauensvoll in diese Ämter gewählt
haben. Ich danke allen Menschen, die mich so wunderbar getragen und
gestützt haben, für alle Grüße und Blumen, die meiner Seele sehr gut
getan haben in diesen Tagen. Dem Rat der EKD danke ich sehr, dass er
mir gestern Abend deutlich sein Vertrauen ausgesprochen hat.

Ich danke allen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern in der hannoverschen
Landeskirche und in der EKD, die mich haupt- und ehrenamtlich
unterstützt haben. Insbesondere danke ich meinem engsten Team, das mir
in manchem Sturm die Treue gehalten hat. Ich danke allen Freundinnen
und Freunden, allen guten Ratgebern. Und ich danke meinen vier
Töchtern, dass sie meine Entscheidung so klar und deutlich mittragen
und heute hier sind.

Zuletzt: Ich weiß aus vorangegangenen Krisen: Du kannst nie tiefer
fallen als in Gottes Hand. Für diese Glaubensüberzeugung bin ich auch
heute dankbar.

Dr. Margot Käßmann, 24. Februar 2010

Originaltext: EKD Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland Digitale
Pressemappe: http://www.presseportal.de/pm/55310 Pressemappe via RSS :
http://www.presseportal.de/rss/pm_55310.rss2

Occasionally people even read my blog ... so are you in or out of the church?

Thanks to Stephen Timmis for reposting large chunks of my short meditation on the parable of the lost coin and Haiti to his church newsletter. I hadn't intended there to be a sermon that day and then one suddenly came to me.
Meanwhile Paul Fromont over on the splendid Prodigal Kiwis has also taken up one of my recent posts and talked more about why he is now longer part of the church yet firmly rooted in the Christian tradition.

In my case, while reading widely across religious and denominational traditions, I remain firmly rooted in the Christian tradition but have had to leave church-belonging in order to do that. What do I miss about not going to church? Eucharist, and an experience of community (centered on following Jesus of Nazareth). But, ironically, the more and further afield I explore, the harder it is to return to the kinds of churches I’ve left. The ways I want to express my faith; my understanding of church and mission etc, spiritual formation, and the diverse sources I draw from (e.g. both Protestant and Catholic) have all grown and changed and as I didn’t “fit” before I left the last church I was at, I definitely won’t fit now.

In the end I suppose clergy like myself are part of the problem in terms of getting the church to change, too involved in maintenance not mission. We become clerics in part at least because the order or disorder of the church appeals to us and we can find a place for ourselves there somehow - this is not to downplay vocation or the word of God, it's just to say that clergy have strong personal reasons to being attracted to the profession. Perhaps the truth for me is that I need structured religion in order to practise my faith. I do pray on my own but I find it much easier to pray with others. I prefer to try and build projects with others - perhaps the church seems to offer some kind of ready-made community with which to start. Of course I've also only really ministered in minority or dissenting churches where in many cases being missional was about imparting the gospel good news to those who felt that they were already "insiders" in some ways. (So of course not really misisonal at all!)
More and more though I recognise that church creates huge feelings of ambiguity in many believers. Are those of us who still bother with it at all the biggest hypocrites? I hope that's not where I am but I try to face myself as honestly as possible with the question about whether there is any integrity in my ora et labora, in my preaching, teaching, praying and work. Meanwhile I think that Paul is challenging an insider like me to realise that because I feel comfortable with the church it may mean that others continually feel they are outsiders. Inclusive church is easy to talk about but not easy to actually bring about unless you're willing to change. Am I?

So who are the women church leaders?

Yesterday, I started trying to put together a list of women church leaders currently serving in the world ... so far I have got to a rather exclusive group of five, but maybe tehre are more - let me know:

1) I was very proud when my own church, the United Reformed Church was the first in the UK to appoint a woman as head of the denomination. Roberta Rominger comes originally from the USA and she's been doing a really great and challenging job since she took over in 2008.

2) Sharon Watkins is the General Minister and President, and thus the leader of her denomination, the Disciples in the USA. She preached the sermon at the national prayer service following Barack Obama's inauguration.

3) Katharine Jefferts Schori has been presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA
since 2006 and has been involved in difficult church political issues.

4) Margot Kässmann was elected yesterday as the chairperson of the EKD Council in Germany.

5) Jana Jeruma-Grinberga was appointed as the presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church in great Britain.

Edit: Following the comments below I feel I should say that I am trying to list women in national positions of leadership. There are fortunately already quite a number women at regional levels of leadership around the world - bishops, moderators, regional presidents etc. - but very, very few at national levels of leadership. It is just starting to break through now and this does represent a huge change.

So will today be the day Kässmann gets elected?

Regular readers will have gathered that our household is rather strange. We spent a large chunk of yesterday evening watching EKD television's live coverage of the EKD Council's election. Every one of the 15 members of the Council has to get a two thirds majority. So far only 14 members have been elected in 12 successive rounds of voting which ended at about 01.30 this morning. The final candidate withdrew because she didn't get a two-thirds majority even though she was the only name on the ballot paper.
The first person elected, in the very first round of voting, was bishop Margot Kässmann pictured here. She is now tipped to become the first female chairperson of the EKD Council, making her potentially the most influential woman church leader anywhere in the world - it has to be said that the club of women church leaders is one of the most exclusive - or maybe that's not the right word, after all it's not the women church leaders who are doing the excluding, it's just a very small group.
Anyway the election of the chairperson was due to take place today but because there is not yet a full Council there may be legal problems with proceeding immediately with that. Maybe I'll be spending a second evening watching the live coverage from the synod! Meanwhile this blog wishes Margot Kässmann every blessing.

Ecclesiology - what on earth is that?

Whenever I type the word ecclesiology into microsoft word it comes up underlined. The software questions the existence of this word. If only! ;-)
Ecclesiology, is, to put it mildly, pretty esoteric. It's also a bit of a problem for translators from German to English, but I'll leave that to one side for the time being (Kirchsein usw.). The rather complex nature of some of our ecumenical endeavour is summed up well by Aimee Moiso - who seems to be about to stop writing reflections about Faith and Order on her Santa Clara blog so I better get on and quote her one last time:

I love Christian unity, I love being with great people from all walks of life and from all parts of the church, and I love talking theology.
But I’m really, really tired. And it’s not just jet-lag. These topics are complicated and require a lot of brain power, and I don’t have much brain power left.
This is an important reality in ecumenical dialogue: how tired we are, how much we have going on in our lives, the difficulties we face in our own contexts – all of these can enhance or inhibit our ability to listen and to understand each other.
Folks from parts of the world where war or conflict or poverty are the norm often have little extra energy or time in own lives to sit and ponder abstract theology. Staying in a hotel in Chicago and spending three days thinking about the church is a huge gift – one I’m both blessed and humbled to receive.
But tonight, I’m just tired.

Meanwhile as I finally got around to catching up with some of what is happening out there in the blogosphere I was very intrigued to come across a post entitled Ecclesiological Stockholm Syndrome on the wonderful Ben Myers' Faith and Theology blog

Responding to Halden on doing theology against ourselves, Adam suggests that many theologians have Ecclesiological Stockholm Syndrome: "the twin tendency to idealize and fetishize local church life and to denigrate their own role".

Maybe that explains why we find things so tiring at these international church and theology meetings. I do myself sometimes wonder whether what those of us trying to continue to enliven the institution of the church in Europe suffer from isn't some kind of survivor guilt ... or maybe it's sort of guilt in the face of possible future generations. But then that makes me ask the question, what does an ecclesiology built on guilt, complexes and survivor syndrome look like? It also made me realise how fortunate a church like the French Reformed Church is to insist that its ministers have good theological education - it does mean that there are theologians in the local church setting.
Anyway if you still haven't figured out what Ecclesiology is, don't worry too much, it does seem to have a future. There was even a new journal launched a few years ago with that title.
So what complex or pathology does your ecclesiology suffer from? If you tell me abotu yours I might manage to work out my own...

Dissent and resistance with groups of visitors

Today, in between a visit to the dentist, some tricky climate change translation and some migration editing I also spent time talking with two visitors groups. The second group came from Germany and got shown around the chapel, with a bit of a whistle stop tour of the history of ecumenism and lots of questions about the general secretary elect.
The first group I met with was of presbyterian women from India, East Africa, Congo, Korea, Switzerland and the USA. They had been on what sounded like a fascinating tour of Geneva and Southern France looking particularly at the role women played in the Reformation in those parts of the world. They finished their tour by attending the annual "assemblée du désert" last Sunday.
I was with them for their debriefing meeting and was struck by the different ways in which these women from diverse cultures had been touched by the history of French Protestantism and by the power and simplicity of the gathering of 10,000 people in the open air near St Jean du Gard. One of the African women said how moved she was to be amongst so many white people listening to God's word together. I was quite jealous listening to their accounts as I have still never attended this emblematic annual event for French Protestantism. Perhaps next year.
After listening to their impressions and thoughts I offered some reflection around the words resistance and dissent. "Résister" was the key word the women prisoners in the Tour de Constance scratched over many years into the stone. "Dissent" comes from the history of English non-conformity, being a church which is not established. I used these two words to reflect on how being a Chrisitian today is not about being a member of the majority. Being a Christian today is about being a member of a faithful minority.
For women, who are often the unrecognized majority within that minority, there are also a complex set of roles to take on as we try to give voice to God's word in today's diverse societies. For committed French Protestant women there is also a solidarity with Protestant men which comes from that minority experience and which has some similarities to the dynamic in womanist theology.
The hour and a half we spent together helped me condense some of my thinking about resistance, dissent and the difficult issue of "voice" for women. If for the most part women are not treated as equals then much of what they say comes out of that experience and reality of oppression. The word that comes from below is often a word that has to raise its voice, it can sound shrill leading unfortunately to further dismissal. The issue of finding the right "tone" was a question I left them and myself with.
It was also humbling for me as an interpreter to find myself being interpreted into French on one side and Korean on the other. I tried not to speak too fast, but then everyone I interpret says the same to me!

Word of the day l'auberge espagnole

It is no secret that I am not a tidy person. My other quite particular and tidy translator colleagues doubtless despair of my mess sometimes. However, all it takes is a visit to my husband's office to see mine as a fairly orderly space. (He'll probably edit that last sentence to oblivion within moments of reading this!)
"Auberge espagnole" is one of those nationalistic little phrases that get into languages - like to take French leave (the equivalent in French being to take English leave - filer à l'anglaise). The implication is that a Spanish hostel or inn would be a bit chaotic, a bit of a hodgepodge, a place where you have to take pot luck (by the way a pot luck supper in French is called a repas canadien).
I have also seen the term auberge espagnole used as a congretational model for churches - not trying to be all things to all people but trying to offer different ways in to faith and being church. Of course it appealed to me - perhaps a subtitle to be blog should be auberge espagnole, what a shame I don't speak the language!
Since my time at the CEC assembly I've been pondering what an auberge espagnole model of communication might look like. As we set up the communications work for the assembly I was quite excited by the fact that we had freedom to try and get messages about the assembly out there. It was fun to encourage people to blog or tweet - to offer thoughts, concerns, campaigns or groans and not try to control or santise things. It was very energising and generated quite a creative space that may have looked chaotic but actually led to everyone working as a team on the different parts that made up the whole.
In terms of the work I have been doing on leadership I suppose it's a bit like the three-ringed circus. It's very different from the control approach to communication - of which I suppose the Lambeth conference last year would be a prime example. (I leave Dr B to comment on that as he was there and found it extremely frustrating.)
Of course any good communicator will need a bit of both - a bit of the auberge espagnole approach and a bit of the control approach. The control approach can unfortunately have its roots in fear and sometimes leads to never daring to communicate anything. The auberge espagnole approach could be seen as muddled and it does rely on high levels of trust within the team.
Whether choosing a control or an auberge espagnole model for the work that's being done, working on building trust in congregations or organisations of any kind is never wasted. As I begin to contemplate the writing of my diploma for the Craighead Institute I am more and more interested in the role of "intangibles" like trust, confidence and motivation in organisations. Vision, leadership and integrity of purpose can offer inspiration for generating trust and other intangibles. I suppose that may not sound like the picture of a church near you, but I'm learning that even healthy organisations are not perfect!

Pasteur, pourquoi pas toi?

For nine years I spent one weekend a month in Paris or Montpellier interviewing candidates for the ministry of Reformed Church of France. It was often a humbling experience, it was also very energising to be part of the church's recruiting in this way. So it was fun and also quite moving to see and hear some of the people we interviewed back then speaking on this short video, which tries to encourage people to think about being ministers. Pasteur(e), pourquoi pas toi? So what is the vocation God is calling you to?

Comment devient-on pasteur ? Quelle est leur motivation à faire ce métier ? Au quotidien, comment vivent-ils leur engagement, leur ministère ?

The benefits of passion

I first read Catherine Fox's splendid book The Benefits of Passion about 10 years ago. Together with a good friend, who was living with and dying from cancer at the time, we became quite addicted to this and Fox's two other novels - Angels and Men and Love for the Lost.

I still live in hope that Ms Fox will return to writing these wonderful, meaningful novels but there hasn't been much on the novel front from her for years. I have this fear that parish life may have swallowed her up.
Anyway if you can get a second hand copy of any of her books I really recommend them. Food for the soul - really I suppose I just wish I had had the imagination and will power to write a book that is as fun and as meaningful as this.

Annie is training to be a priest but as her mind wanders during theological discussions and doubts emerge about her choice of career, she plots and writes a highly sexed novel about ... a novice priest and his flighty girlfriend.