The write to be heard!

Yes I do know that I'm not blogging as much as usual apologies, things are busy and a bit complex at the moment and I'm doing alot of non-blog related writing.

Anyway this article by Rowan Williams in the Daily Telegraph has encouraged me to a least drop a line to my blog and get enthused about the right to write! It's all about encouraging young people to write about the big issues of our time and to bring their fresh thinking to those questions:

If you believe that religious faith is one of the things that quite rightly gets people talking, for and against, it is important to help younger people make the connections between the issues of the day and the ideas and ideals associated with faith. They may want to argue furiously against it or they may discover that it has more to say to them than they expected. But it is wonderful when there is an environment in which those connections can be made.

Anyway looking at the titles for the essays sparked my itnerest and made me think that maybe some of us who are no longer under 21 should also apply ourselves these questions and get our grey cells thinking and our pens and key boards to pour out some creative approaches. After all isn't it a biblical call to become like little children?

Here's the list - which title do you want to write about? Maybe I should try one a week to get me back into the discipline of blogging.

Ages 13-15 (800 words maximum)

Must you be religious to be good?

Does God care about global warming?

The Bible says that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil”. Can money make you happy?

What are school assemblies for?

God cares for the poor. How can people of faith demonstrate this care?

Ages 16-17 (1,500 words maximum)

How can one person improve the lives of the world’s poorest?

Why have chaplains in prisons?

Should politicians “do God”?

What’s the point of different religions talking to each other?

Ages 18-21(2,500 words maximum)

Is believing more important than belonging?

Does God believe in the existence of society?

What is “good news” for the poor? How can we be part of this?

Is environmentalism a new religion?

Who can enter

The competition is open to all people aged 13-21 on September 1 2010.

You should give the name of your school, college or university on the entry form if you have one, but you do not need to be a student to enter.

How to enter

Download an entry form from www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/3110 and send it with your completed essay to:

Faith in the World Competition, Lambeth Palace, London SE1 7JU.

Seven Weeks for Water is back and this year it's holy!

Seven Weeks for Water is back and this year it's holy! "Holy Water – Water, worship and prayer" is the theme of this year’s Lenten reflections provided by the Ecumenical Water Network based at the World Council of Churches in Geneva. Starting at the beginning of Lent, seven weekly reflections will explore the connection between the use of water in liturgical practices and our "daily water".

The reflections are posted week by week along with complementary links and ideas for activities for individuals and congregations. Among them are reflections on Christ's baptism by the Rev. Dr David Holeton of Charles University (Prague, Czech Republic), the Blessing of Waters by Elias Crisostomo Abramides of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Buenos Aires and South America, as well as "Living wet" by Presbyterian theologian and song-writer Rev. Chip Andrus.

Holy water is the theme of the Lenten meditations on water that will be published week by week on the Ecumenical Water Network's site.
Today some liturgical and other resources in preparation for World Water Day on 22 March were posted :
“Water in the desert” – Order of Service for the Fifth Sunday of Lent (21 March 2010)

“Water, Passion and Betrayal” - An order of Communion for Maundy Thursday(regular readers of this blog may recognise this material)

Please also download World Water Day tool kit with more ideas and resources for activities around World Water Day on 22nd March.

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En español tambien.

Not only holy but multilingual as well!

Restorative justice

I've been reading Howard Zehr's Restorative justice blog.
Thanks again to Paul Fromont who wrote the points below on restorative justice following some of his reading of Zehr:

To summarize restorative justice as a way of addressing wrongdoing, we might put it in a series of “threes:”
3 assumptions underlie restorative justice:
When people and relationships are harmed, needs are created;
The needs created by harms lead to obligations;
The obligation is to heal and “put right” the harms; this is a just response.
3 principles of restorative justice reflect these assumptions: A just response…
acknowledges and repairs the harm caused by, and revealed by, wrongdoing (restoration);

encourages appropriate responsibility for addressing needs and repairing the harm (accountability);

involves those impacted, including the community, in the resolution (engagement).

3 underlying values provide the foundation:
Respect
Responsibility
Relationship

3 questions are central to restorative justice:

Who has been hurt?

What are their needs?

Who has the obligation to address the needs, to put right the harms, to restore relationships? (As opposed to: What rules were broken? Who did it? What do they deserve?)

3 stakeholder groups should be considered and/or involved:

Those who have been harmed, and their families

those who have caused harm, and their families

Community

3 aspirations guide restorative justice: the desire to live in right relationship…

With one another;

with the creation;

with the Creator.

There are lots of interesting ideas and links to further reading on practical peace building and healing of memories on Zehr's blog. You can find his The Little Book of Restorative Justice and others on similar by his colleagues at Eastern Mennonite University.
However, because of my current interest in organisational learning and the role of the individual in the system I was intrigued by his post on 10 steps to avoid personal cooptation. It follows reflection on a book called The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo.

1. “I made a mistake.”

2. “I am mindiful.” (Be more aware of clues – operate less on auto-pilot.)

3. “I am responsible.”

4. “I will assert my unique identity.”

5. “I respect authority but rebel against unjust authority.”

6. “I want group acceptance, but value my independence.”

7. “I will be more frame-vigilant.” (Be more aware of how statements, etc. are framed.)

8. “I will balance my time perspective.” (Keep things in a larger time perspective.)

9. “I will not sacrifice personal or civic freedoms for the illusion of security.”

10. “I can oppose unjust systems.”

Quite a personal agenda, to say nothing of an organisational one. I may aspire to such integrity, am I able to practise it?

Blogs - for daily bread and greater campaigning solidarity

This week the WCC is holding its UN advocacy week in New York, alot of my colleagues from Geneva will be there. However to get a fuller picture of some of the international work involving campaigning by NGOs and others at the UN I've been reading the Ecumenical Women at the United Nations blog for quite a while. There are some fascinating posts there - you can find posts from Cambodia, Kenya and the Middle East among other places: comparing the role of women disciples of Jesus and female followers of Martin Luther King; about female condoms, child brides, shopping and fashion justice, the rich poor divide and much more besides. A few months ago the blog adverstised for new writers and as a result posting is much more regular and more diverse than in the past. It's a useful window onto international campaigns but with personal insights from the authors.
One of the new writers there is Paola Salwan, Programme Assistant for Africa, the Middle East and Europe at the World YWCA and co-founder of the blog Café Thawra, Her blog is in French and English and offers insights into Middle East issues - a special dossier on the Lebanese communist party, where the left is in Middle East politics, as well as promotion of social entrepreneurship.
The Women's desk at the Lutheran World Federation is preparing for next year's LWF assembly with a blog on Give us Today our Daily Bread. As the women in ministries network prepares to meet on the theme of food for the soul perhaps someone would like to write something for their blog. As the issue of food security moves up the world agenda how do women, who grow, harvest and prepare much of the food eaten in the world, think about food justice and spirituality. I'll admit that as a woman who has spent most of her life eating far too much the "stuffed and starved" agenda is one I find particularly challenging. What does the promise of the heavenly banquet mean to those of us who live in permanent food plenty? Lots of issues around food will develop on the blog as preparations for the assembly in July next year advance, so why not drop by from time to time and join the discussions?
(this is a cross post from the Women in Ministries blog)