On a train to Berlin but having to get off before I get there

I'm on a train and its destination is Berlin but in a few minutes I shall have to disembark and change for Basel and then Geneva, ah well, I can dream of Berlin and all that might be - that will be for the next holiday perhaps.

Kennings - for fun, for reflection, for getting to know ourselves and God more deeply

So here are some of our Kennings from this morning's session here at the British Army's Church House in Lübbecke where the CAECG were having one of their twice yearly Council meetings.
The idea for writing kennings came from Janet Lees and you can read a rather more focused method than the one I used today on the Vision4Life website here.
Today had a much broader brief to try and write kennings particularly about God and Jesus but also to write kennings about any other biblical story that came to mind. i did this just as a way to free up people's minds and open them up to the idea, so folk didn't get too hung up about not being able to think of a kenning about God.
On the morning I arrived I also sat down and wrote around 50 kennings on small cards, most about God and Jesus but there are also some characters from the Hebrew scriptures you may recognise (not all of them have found their way back to me so there's just some here). My kennings are at the end in italics and we used those twice, reading them aloud around the group in two sessions before we dared to write our own and read them out to everyone. This was a really fun session and I was so happy it worked well for people.
Later talking with a former colleague and fellow linguist we realised that this process actually turns the original reason for kennings being used on its head. In old Norse poetry kennings evolved as a way of trying to show respect for a person or thing, describing it differently to get appropriate distance, to make something more noble, less attainable. However, what this method tries to do is use the writing of kennings to gain new insights and intimacy - intimacy with God and Jesus, insights into the stories and understanding of what is going on within us at our time of remembering - how we are interpreting the story. The etymological root of kenning is from the verb to know, so these easy little phrases are about new ways of knowing as well.
A very powerful simple little tool and such fun too - great for tweeting!

God wrestler
Blessing stealer
name changer
soul lover
whole maker
shame atoner
hope holder
pallet lowerer
Bible preacher
lone giver
peace bringer
soul healer
sleep giver
silence holder
truth teller
people lover
path leader
live giver
wounds healer
mosaic maker
wave wader
hand holder
tension holder
relationship healer
life delighter
city destroyer
sin forgiver
sick lover
gospel proclaimer
demon conqueror
faith shower
sin taker
heart warmer
darkness teaser
parable puzzler
hem toucher
world maker
love giver
sin forgiver
world lover
promise maker
son sender
dead raiser
life giver
manna dropper
humble raiser
pride pricker
Dawkins lover
marmite sender
crowd feeder
praise provoker
eternal forgiver
faithful helper
patient listener
constant lover
eye opener
Unity maker
Rule breaker
Free setter
Freedom giver
One maker
Blessing bestower
all things new maker
constant encourager
open-armed includer
ever-present challenger
Incarnated new-life giver
Road accompanier,
sun lighter
idea giver
heart opener
joy giver
neighbour lover
purse opener
warmth giver
light giver
support giver
Demon driver
word sender
God bearer
Crowd feeder
dream interpreter
wine multiplier
life giver
peace bringer
faith giver
grace giver
peace giver
sorrow taker
worship receiver
dream giver
darkness bearer
soul befriender
comfort giver
hate disperser
life changer
wisdom teacher
balloon burster
Angry preacher
sad weeper
meaning reaper
feisty teacher
soldier saver
beloved brother
peace maker
picture painter
dream treasurer
life adviser
water vinifier

thirst quencher
storm calmer
stone dropper
bread breaker
God lover
sheep finder
flock waterer
darkness divider
seed setter
law giver
animal pairer
dove releaser
breath breather
story teller
footware remover
plate filler
fish mulplier
death defier
water walker
fish barbecuer
child lover
way giver
love maker
cup giver
man lover
foot washer
Zaccheus befriender
manna finder
temple cleanser
woman lover
whip wielder
family leaver
parent deserter
temple preacher
olive-branch receiver
blood stopper
hem toucher
lamp lighter
apple eater?
earth former
water seeker
wood worker
cross bearer
fruit stealer
brother killer
serpent talker
kingly philanderer
tear crier
oil provider
tomb quitter
tomb opener
sea parter
whale whiler
desperate sufferer
ark builder
wave strider
jonathan lover
beatitude talker
bush burner
wind calmer
desert wanderer
satan rejecter
cave shelterer
tambourine dancer

Kennings and labyrinths for a retreat of the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany

On Thursday evening I caught the night train to Germany to come and spend the weekend with folk from the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany.
I was privileged to be able to sit in on their business sessions yesterday - I have to admit that I really must be a bit of a sad case ecumenical bureaucrat to find business meetings interesting. However this was less a business meeting and more a news of the local congregations' life. There were also a couple of opportunites to talk about the WCC's work on environmental issues and the current time for creation, and in terms of ecumenism in Germany through the ACK and involvement in the Ecumenical and Protestant Kirchentag.
However, the real reason I was with this group is that in a moment of weakness (also known as the well-known stranz inability to say no) I agreed to be a retreat leader for three "input" sessions. It's always strange to have a completely free hand with a group and it was wonderful for my brain to try to piece together something that I hoped might be both useful and meaningful for them (and of course for me!).
So, based on the ideas of my friend Janet Lees in Word of Mouth and on the Vision4Life website, I decided to try and do Bible Study without Bibles, and encourage them to allow themselves some time to see how much their story crosses with Jesus' story.
In the first evening session I did a bit of story telling, about myself and where I "come from" to try to empower them to do some deep talking about their own journeys. Then I gave each of them an A4 photocopy of a chartres labyrinth to trace with their fingers or a pen, both inwards and outwards and encouraged them to talk in groups of three and dare to name where they thought they might be going ... and perhaps even acknowledge where they might be coming from.
At the end of that session I distributed some "kennings" that I'd prepared on small pieces of card and we read them aloud around the room as a way of trying to sense where God's story and each of our stories were crossing, how we could pick up the thread.
This morning we began by remembering the labyrinth, thinking about the difference between labyrinths and mazes Then I got everyone to write some kennings - which was fun and the results were brilliant - I'll type them in later.
The main part of that session we then spent in remembering in the large group Christ's passion and betrayal. Our remembering was a powerful time of words and silence, of promptings and saying. It became clear to me just how good a tool Remembered Bible is - we were interpreting and telling at the same time, adding ourselves, our feelings into the story, But today I also felt very much how meditative and emotional remembering the Bible can be.
In the third session we moved to remembering resurrection and the Emmaus story. I had never done this before with a group and as the "remembrance teaser" told them the text we were going to remember together was about bread. so we remembered lots of bread stories before I moved them on to Emmaus. Remembering Emmaus really showed me how much the Bible itself is a remembered story, all about anamnesis. More about the content of our remembering in a later post.
To close I gave the group another labyrinth - this time the Peace Convocation logo - just a black and white version rather than the colourful one pictured here. We prayed and then moved to the chapel for our eucharist where our remembrance became real in the taste of the broken bread.
By the end I felt we had all walked a fair way together, seeing how our paths and God's were crossing and intertwined, how even seemingly dead ends might hold the opportunity for new life and challenge.

Tears before bedtime or actually just after waking ...

My friend, colleague and fellow editor of the Ecumenical Review Theodore Gill has been leading morning prayers this week. As ever the 15-20 minutes he invites us to start the morning with are spiritually uplifting and intellectually stimulating. I try to help as I can with leading any singing that might be needed - though as ever early in the morning this rather depends on whether my voice agrees to behave and whether I know what has been chosen!

On Wednesday morning we had some wry smiles as we listened to the passage from Proverbs 31 on the character of the noble woman! You can find our order of service here.

As we moved into the prayers of intercession I found that tears were splashing down my face. For once I was in the chapel without my bag and so no access to a hanky - it's not really the done thing to wipe your face with the hem of your skirt - certainly not when you have legs like mine! The prayers of reconciliation from Eastern Europe moved me, I can't say too much here about why but they did - it felt to me as if they had been written with my concerns in mind and I felt very much not cut out to live up to such an ideal of forgiveness and newness of life.
I wish I could say that the tears refreshed me but they didn't really. However my early morning chapel tears which sprang from a doubtless deep source of guilt and incompleteness within me were quickly over. For that I am greatful. I have wept too often in recent weeks, indulging in a daydreaming of grief, losing myself in pointless (though it seemed to me very real) pain and sensing no way out or forwards. So perhaps sudden and brief tears are some kind of progress ... I hope so. Not exactly refreshment but getting there.

Daydreaming - Simone Weil

I believe that the root of evil, in everybody perhaps,

but certainly in those whom affliction has touched, is daydreaming.

It is the sole consolation, the unique resource of the afflicted;

the one solace that helps them bear the fearful burden of time;

and a very innocent one, besides being indispensable.

So how could it be possible to renounce it?

It has only one disadvantaage, which is that it is unreal.

To renounce it for the love of truth is really to abandon all one's possessions in a mad excess of love and to follow Him who is the personification of Truth.

And it is really to bear the cross;

because time is the cross.

In all its forms, without exception,

daydreaming is falsehood.

It excludes love. Love is real.

The greatest dignity is that of belonging to the community of the beloved disciples of Jesus Christ - a reading at morning prayer

Morning prayer this week is being led by Theodore Gill. On Tuesday he read this for us as we reflected on 1 John 1. You can find the order of service for the prayers here. These were powerful words to hear early in the morning ...

Conclusion of Raymond E. Brown’s
The Community of the Beloved Disciple
(Paulist Press, New York, 1979, p.163-4):

…At various times I have referred to the theology of the Fourth Gospel as challengingly different, volatile, dangerous, and as the most adventuresome in the New Testament… Over the centuries John’s Gospel has provided the seedbed for many exotic forms of individualistic pietism and quietism (as well as the inspiration for some of the most profound mysticism). Johannine christology has nurtured a widespread unconscious monophysitism, popular even today, in which Jesus is not really like us in everything except sin, but omniscient, unable to suffer or to be tempted, foreseeing the whole future. (At the same time, Johannine christology has been the mainstay of the great orthodox faith of Nicaea.)

The ultimate check upon what Kysar calls the “maverick Gospel” has been the church’s hermeneutical decision to place it in the same canon as Mark, Matthew, and Luke, Gospels which implicitly advocate the side opposite to many Johannine positions. This means that the Great Church, “the church catholic” of Ignatian language, whether consciously or unconsciously, has chosen to live with tension. It has chosen not a Jesus who is either God or man but both; it has chosen not a Jesus who is either virginally conceived as God’s Son or pre-existent as God’s Son but both; not either a Spirit who is given to an authoritative teaching magisterium or the Paraclete-teacher who is given to each Christian but both; not a Peter or a Beloved Disciple but both. Tension is not easily accepted in ordinary life, and we usually try to resolve it. So too in church history – but because of the church decision about the canon, attempts at simple resolutions of these theological tensions into a static position on one side or the other are unfaithful to the whole New Testament.

This means that a church such as my own, the Roman Catholic, with its great stress on authority and structure, has in the Johannine writings an inbuilt conscience against the abuses of authoritarianism. (So also the “free” churches have in the Pastorals an inbuilt warning against the abuses of the Spirit and in 1 John a warning against the divisions to which a lack of structural authority leads.) Like one branch of the Johannine community, we Roman Catholics have come to appreciate that Peter’s pastoral role is truly intended by the risen Lord, but the presence in our Scriptures of a disciple whom Jesus loved more than he loved Peter is an eloquent commentary on the relative value of the church office. The authoritative voice is necessary because a task is to be done and unity is to be preserved, but the scale of power in various offices is not necessarily the scale of Jesus’ esteem and love. In this day when Catholics quarrel about how much respective authority pope, bishop, priest, and lay person should have, and when Christians quarrel about whether a woman should be an ordained minister of the eucharist, John’s voice cries out its warning. The greatest dignity to be striven for is neither papal, episcopal, nor priestly; the greatest dignity is that of belonging to the community of the beloved disciples of Jesus Christ.

La rebelle - a bottle of wine in the feminist tradition

I said it would take at least 10 posts to begin to do justice to our feminist theology evening last night and I sense that I am probably going to run out of energy before I get to the end of what I want to say - unlike our brilliant 89 year old speaker Jacqueline Berenstein Wavre.

We always give our speakers a present to say thank you for their time and last night Ria carefully included a bottle of local pinot noir wine from this vinyard which celebrates local Genevan and Swiss personalities for it various "cuvées".

La rebelle is the female rebel and as soon as Jacqueline received it she started to talk to us about Emilie Gourd in whose memory it is named. I did not know that Gourd had founded an early feminist journal called "le mouvement féministe" in 1912. It will celebrate its 100 anniversary in just under two years. The journal has gone through problems in recent years as has much print media but is continuing with a web presence which I think I may have manged to track down here.

As is often the case when you remember one person from the past you also recall others and speaking about Emilie Gourd prompted Jacqueline to talk to us also about her friend Jeanne Hersch, who had been a close friend of her husband's and a passionate defender of human rights.
So much to learn about about women's history, so much to read, so much to be enlivened by ... just like good rebellious wine!

"La Rebelle" rend hommage à Emilie Gourd, Genevoise qui se battra toute sa vie pour la condition féminine. Ce n’est qu’en 1960, quatorze ans après sa mort, que son rêve se réalise enfin : le droit de vote est accordé aux citoyennes genevoises.

Between the past and the present, live in the present

Jacqueline Berenstein Wavre is pictured here speaking to us at our first evening of feminist theology for the new year. She chose words from Judges 6.14 - the vocation of Gideon - as her leitmotif for the evening - somehow I find this works and resonates much better in French than in English "Va avec la force que tu as". "Go in the strength you have" really doesn't have quite the same élan at all!

She used this phrase to talk about her life and political campaigns - about which more in a later post - but also more particularly to speak abotu what she had discovered really quite late on in life through attending our feminist theology group. "I'm not a theologian but I do have a Bible at home" she said.

Surprisingly it was an evening with Armenian Orthodox theologian Teny Pirri Simonian which gave her most pause for thought. Until then Jacqeuline admits to never having thought much about the Holy Spirit. Thinking about the spirit helped Jacqueline to look at her own life through a rather different lens and consider the energy that drove her forwards and sustained her. None of the campaigns she was involved in were won quickly. Still today she is living proof of extraordinary tenacity.

I was deeply moved to hear Jacqueline speak about her husband, whom she married when she was 40 and who was a secular Jew. He was a lawyer and Jacqueline spoke about how important law is in Judaism and how important faith is in Christianity - in French of course this has the lovely assonance of "loi et foi". In our wide ranging discussion following her presentation I mentioned that the festival of the law in Judaism was taken over in Christianity as the festival of the Spirit - Pentecost.

Et Dieu créa la femme - an amazing evening at feminist theology ...

It will take me about ten posts to begin to try to communicate the sheer joy and energy that I felt after last night's first feminist theology session of the new season.

Ria van Beek had the brilliant idea that we should invite Jacqueline Berenstein Wavre to speak to our group. A few years ago Jacqueline, a famous local Swiss politician and women's rights activist turned up to our group and we felt very honoured. She was genuinely interested in learning more about the faith into which she had been baptised and the idea of feminist theology was quite new to her when we began our francophone group about 5 years ago.
Anyway I shall begin with the ending, here is Jacqueline putting on her her coat at the end of the evening and showing us that even her coat has a feminist message - "And God created woman... " Et Dieu créa la femme - the infamous Brigitte Bardot movie!
"So, Jacqueline" I said - after teasing her for being a socialist and wearingis this designer model coat - "is this coat a few years old?" "oh a bit more than that - I inherited it from one of my sisters in law!" and then she proudly displayed the taped repairs she had made "about 10 years ago"! Twirling like a young woman at least 70 years younger as she did so.

I came home last night feeling truly privileged to have been able to listen in quite intimate circumstances to an extraordinary woman talk about her life and times, her convictions, questions and also of course her current campaigns.
Jacqueline is 89 years young, full of life and the most wonderful example of tenacity and vivacity. She also spoke extremely powerfully about faith and law and the Holy Spirit, more on that in another post very soon I promise.
Ah yes and Jacqueline in on Facebook and also has a blog!

A tough day for theology ...

My wonderful colleague Theodore Gill preached a bravura sermon again this morning - we must send him away for long weekends the beautiful Swiss scenery more often I sense ... it was an enlivening and thoughtfull way to begin our week:

A tough day for Theology. Much better P.R. for Science, which
apparently has now solved the riddle of Creation without an assist from a
Creator.
But I can’t help wondering whether the headline “Theology is
unnecessary, says Hawking” will go down in the annals of journalism with “The
end of history, says Fukuyama”.
You remember “the end of history”, just after the Berlin Wall came
down? But then, there was September 11, 2001 … And I also wondered: Whatever
became of humility? And whatever became of Thomas Kuhn?

Theo moved from reflecting on Toblerone to thinking about paradigm shifts and kept on repeating but whatever became of humility?

Is “Theology” necessary? I don’t know. I really don’t. I suppose it
depends on your goal.

But I do know that repentance is necessary. Humility is necessary.
Careful – “care-full” – thought is necessary.

And… Beauty is to be desired, and affirmed, wherever we find
it.

You can find the full text here.

If Christian theme park is to offer "live resurrection" what on earth was resurrection before?

I've just read this report in the Guardian about Europe's first Christian theme park offering "live resurrections". And I just thought - that is just weird! Resurrection is about being alive, about the triumph of life - it's not about "enactment" or pretence. I started wondering what a dead resurrection would look like?

Anyway just a passing thought I suppose, as I get cross about themepark religion and realise how totall behind the times I am.

Anyway, I'm sure the person writing the headline about "live resurrection" had fun.

Preaching on the roesti graben!

Yesterday afternoon in perfect weather I took the train up to the "Jura bernois" near St Imier. I stayed overnight with Hansuli and Rose and preached this morning at the lovely Mennonite chapel in La Chaux D'Abel.
I realised how little I actually know Switzerland and particularly this part where German and French merge - often known as the Roestigraben - the fried potato ditch. However it's less of a ditch and more a sort of moveable feast as land and house prices mean that people move outside their linguistic areas. Most people over 40 in this religious community speak both languages. Gradually more services are being held in French in the Mennonite communities of the region. Very interesting to chart the linguistic changes for minority communities who have also suffered historic persecution.
Anyway, the service today - a celebration of Hansuli and Rose's commitment to one another and life together - gave me much to think about. We stood with them in a circle - praying for them and for the world. We celebrated love and joy and a sense of belonging in time and space. It was good for me to preach in French again rather than in English and fascinating to hear the beauty of Swiss German even if I don't always understand it. Plattdeutsch or dutch are easier for me, my ear just doesn't get the southern German dialects so well ... interesting that the Bible passages were mainly read in hochdeutsch.
Discovering this until now hidden away region made me realise just what riches Switzerland has - we ate beef, honey, butter, cheese and vegetables from the local villages. Local food is good, in fact it is utterly delicious!
More than a 100 people were fed in the garden this afternoon - there was the occasional queue for food or the toilet, but no sense of hectic. A sense of wider family, of village and local life, and a deep and real openness to a much bigger and wider world beyond, not simply as a place for tourism but as a place for engagement, commitment and challenge.
It was "wohltuend" to be with good people having a gentle and joyful time.
I preached on joy as being "imprenable et essetielle", probably I need to listen to and understand my own message at some point. For now I give thanks for a beautiful and memorable 24 hours in my life.

Notes from the Hall of Uselessness - words of adieu for a dear colleague on retirement

Next Tuesday my very dear colleague Rosemarie Dönch will retire, technically she doesn't retire until the end of the month but she has much deserved holiday before then. Rosemarie has been the WCC's German translator for 39 years and is like a walking terminology database. It is a little bit like having our dictionaries walking out of the door. Below is some of what I said at her leaving party. She herself wrote and read a lovely poem in French (the lingua franca as she said of our small and now smaller language service) and Theodore Gill also prepared a very funny poem which I'll share later.

While I was in London I came across the "Cahiers Series" from the American University of Paris center for writers and translators. I bought two of them as a small present for Rosemarie. The title of the first booklet became the focus of some of what I tried to say ... is our writing and translating just years of notes from the hall of uselessness ... perhaps ... anyway you can raed more about the Cahiers here and here.


“Notes from the hall of uselessness”

Rosemarie
You and I know that
“Übersetzen ist wie dichten aber schwerer“

And I realised how true this is just trying to translate this one short sentence:
“Translating is like writing poetry just more difficult.”

I think it would be fair to say that most of what we receive to translate here is not very poetic but I also know that over the years some of the translation you have most enjoyed doing and coordinating has been of poetic texts.

For thirty nine years you’ve been doing this difficult job in this wonderful and difficult place, and as I consider that I say in French “chapeau”. I recognize the extraordinary discipline and attention to detail that represents, the years of discretion and humility spent trying to get a good German version out of other people’s texts (often, very often, improving the original English on the way). Today I want simply to say how much I admire your calm, rigorous professionalism, your staying power and also the pleasure you obviously have in doing an interesting job well.

When you leave we will all have to hunt high and low for quotations and footnotes, you simply know not only which assembly people are writing about but often which chapter of which report they are quoting from. I’m not sure how we’re going to cope. We always knew that you were irreplaceable now we have the proof.
I am however delighted that in recent years you have been able to train and share your extraordinary knowledge with a younger generation of professional translators particularly as we prepared the terminology project.

But at the same time as I say “chapeau” I also admit to wondering what it is that has kept you going over all these years and realized – perhaps rather theologically - that it was the word or rather words that gave you energy. Love of language, love of trying to sculpt accuracy and readability. Translating is both a skill and a vocation, it is sometimes frustrating but often both calming, satisfying and intellectually stimulating – we are always looking for the right word, learning new words. Translating keeps the brain young and I am sure that love of language will also be something that continues to give you energy in your retirement – though I am sure you will be delighted to never have to translate the changes to the WCC’s constitution ever again!

There is only one constant truth in translation – however well and however much you translate, people will only ever notice the mistakes!
I need to be careful how I put this - but I have a sense, based on several years experience now, that some German church people notice mistakes more … I think I won’t say more other than to add that I am glad that I have not been having to translate into the mother tongue of one of our general secretaries! Once more “chapeau”!

And now for the Notes from the hall of uselessness …
The translator and writer Simon Leys (the pen name of Pierre Ryckmans) has put a name on his study door “the hall of uselessness” – saying something profound about keeping an essential humility about all the words we try to produce, all the translating and communication between cultures and ideas we try to achieve.

And at the same times as that reminder of humility I also wanted to give you something rather more transcendent, Translating Music by Richard Pevear, a promise that there will be time in retirement for new languages, new melodies, new words … the two books might encourage you to perhaps take up classical Chinese or Russian.

However today I noticed that you have renamed your office and have put the fire escape notice with your day of departure on your office door!

Hmm … we really do not want to see you go. Please come back from time to time, eat with us and tell us about the new words and worlds you are discovering.

May retirement bring you time for reading, for poetry, for writing and for many walks in the botanical gardens. Many thanks for your contribution to the ecumenical story.

Leb wohl liebe Rosemarie!

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.

"Are you joking God?"

A year ago our friend and colleague Suzanne died, she took her own life in moment of despair.
This morning we sang and prayed, lit candles and picked up grain seeds of hope. A colleague from Aotearoa sang a wonderful lament in Maori, other colleagues played flute and piano, read despite tears and emotions.
Nyambura Njoroge preached an extraordinary sermon from the heart. She had suggested preaching and chose powerful texts from Numbers and 2 Corinthians as her starting point. She spoke of a meeting of bishops in Africa of the despair some of them expressed about working for the kingdom of God. In particular she spoke of her own son's suicide, of Suzanne, of her daughter's depression. Facing such suffering she said made her ask "Are you joking God?"
Gently, calmly, without notes but with humour and with a conviction that comes from faith and hope, she preached for herself and for us. Despair cannot have the last word, we have to learn to speak the truth to power - that truth has to be addressed to ourselves before we address that truth to others. I wish I had recorded Nyambura preaching but I'm glad there were so many of us there to hear God's word of hope and resurrection preached slowly, passionately and from the heart.
You can find our liturgy here. You'll see that we sang Shine Jesus Shine - this was Suzanne's last joke against me - I always stopped her from putting it onto the service sheets, it is one of my least favourite hymns. This morning as we began our serivce with it I really enjoyed it. Hope can tranform us.
We ended by saying "live love laugh" together before receiving the blessing. These were the words on a necklace that Suzanne had given to her sister a few years ago.
So we try to carry hope forwards.

Voltaire plays saxophone for the fanfare de Ferney

I love the tshirts for the Fanfare de Ferney. voltaire playing saxaphone.
Here are three of the trombonists who played this morning at the Protestant Kermess here in Ferney.

When events you have lived through become walks of history

At one time I had intended to call my GDR memoir "Herr Modrow walks home" Hans Modrow was leader of the SED in Dresden at the end of the GDR. Many attribute the fact that early in October things took a peaceful turn in Dresden to his leadership at the time - he was in the end the premier of the GDR when the first free elections took place.

Today coming out of the Hauptbahnhof I was confronted by the Wege in die Freiheit street installation. I remember those days in early October 1989 so well ... then less than a year later on 3 October 1990 Germany was united. Who has even heard of or remembers Hans Modrow now? A trivial pursuit question in a very specialised history section.

Walking through the streets of Dresden and finding my way to the Ibis hotel where the Kirchentag is putting us up and realising it is the same hotel we stayed in when we started our honeymoon here in Dresden is quite an odd trip down memory lane. It looks the same but it doesn't at all feel the same ...
everything has been so repackaged and events are such a long time in the past already.

My heart loves this part of Germany. Coming to Dresden has shown me how much this is part of me and I am still part of this history - not just from 20 years ago but from further back still. My German grandmother came from further east still, Breslau, now Wroclaw. The streets here speak to me, even without the history installation, but perhaps without that visual reminder I wouldn't have begun to listen to the streets talking.

Of course I never did write a memoir - maybe I'll have to change that and finally type up my diaries for the 25th anniversary.

On a train to Dresden

This morning I am on a train to Dresden and it's like a train to parts of my past in the GDR - from Frankfurt through Fulda - where the German Protestant Kirchentag has its headquarters - and then into the East with Eisenach, Erfurt, Leipzig and then Dresden. So many friends I could visit, so many memories in each place but not quite enough time to stop off and enjoy some of my favourite cities ...
Just over 19 years ago we began our honeymoon by arriving by train in Dresden and ended it leaving on a train from Erfurt.
So now to the real work of the day which is to prepare a short presentation on the structures and vision of the WCC in German for the international committee of the Kirchentag.

Pondering corruption in the churches

"Corruption in religious instituions is specifically disturbing because these institutions and their representatives are worldwide seen as moral authorities, even in secualr societies. If even pastors and bishops are corrupt, who else can set benchmarks of truth and transparency?"

Christophe Stückelberger of Globethics.net

One of the privileges of being a proof reader is that you get to read books before they are published sometimes. Currently I'm going through an interesting upcoming publication called "Corruption free Churches are possible". It's going to be an excellent resource on issues of transparency, governance and corruption and I'll post a link once it's published.

It has set me thinking though. As a pastor, as an ordained minister, I am keen never to pretend that I am any different from others - neither holier, nor less prone to sin, nor closer to God, nor less vain ... of course we should be shocked when Christians and bishops and pastors lie, or line their pockets ... but I wonder about setting up the religious as supposed paragons of rectitude. Like other Christians I'm just a human being trying imperfectly to follow Jesus. As a pastor I've never felt myself to be a "moral authority" (even tho' I know I can be moralistic on oaccasions) though I have often keenly felt moral responsibility.
Perhaps that's the way forwards - Stückelberger's previous publications have been on responsible leadership - a corruption free church is possible if we all take our moral responsibilities more seriously. One of the things I find particularly heartening in the line that is set out in the book is the multi-disciplinary, systemic and networked approach to tackling corruption that is proposed - linking gender issues (the more women organizations have in leadership the less corruption there tends to be - churches take note!) with structural issues (obsession with hierarchy can encourage corruption).
A friend who recently retired as a church leader with responsibility for congregations and clergy said that one thing he had learned was how bad at managing finance many clergy were. How "responsible" is it of the churches to pay clergy low wages and expect long hours alongside moral rectitude?
Then I think of the time I lived through in the GDR after the fall of the wall and how everyone was obsessed with which pastor or church official had been an (IM) unofficial worker for the Stasi (secret police). A person who knew the GDR churches well remarked at the time that there was actually a much bigger scandal around how money, Western money and state money, had been used by the churches in the GDR yet no one was very committed to writing that story - interstingly noone seems to have done much research in that area.
So I suppose I am left with the thought that although I am not perfect I am still called to exercise leadership both responsibly and accountably.