Christmas Is Here!
The Christmas tripod is up…
… I have the best flatmates ever…
… and this cup makes me smile a lot…
Written All Over You
Yesterday I shoot a little photo project with kirstymac, “Written All Over You”.
Adjectives. Nouns. I don’t know what you read on my face when you meet me. You know, the saying, it’s written all over your face? I think sometimes it’s a nice little adjective -mysterious, oftentimes it will be truth, other occasions though you won’t know the truth because it’s hiding behind my smiley face.
Adjectives. Nouns. You don’t know what I read on your face when I met you. It was like the saying ‘it’s written all over your face’. Oftentimes it will be truth, other occasions though I wonder about you… I won’t know the truth because it’s hidden. Sometimes I read you like a book, sometimes I think you are that expression written on your face. But today, I wonder what it is you are willing to tell…
You can read a bit about the context here and here on Kirsty’s blog…
… and you can see a few posts from the series here and here.
Keep an eye on her blog for more. The photo’s will be on my flickr.
Brian McLaren :: A New Kind Of Christian
I got to hear Brian McLaren speak last night in Glasgow, on the last of his Scottish dates. The evening was split into a short talk, followed by a panel Q&A session, trying to ground some of what Brian said into a Scottish context. I had to leave after Brian’s talk – flatmate duties called!- but he said a few things that grabbed my attention…
He shared a host of new metaphors that we could translate the metaphor ‘kingdom of God’ into; to reclaim the subversive, political, intense images it evoked among those who first heard it.
I was struck by his comments on John the Baptist, about how he moved out to the margins and began baptising people on the fringe, not at the temple in Jerusalem; how it was this prophetic statement that we can’t depend on what happens at the religious centers anymore.
One metaphor Brian suggested was the sacred ecosystem of God. He talked about the ecosystem as a dance of reciprocal giving and receiving which we are invited to be a part of, and that sin in this metaphor is abusing it, forcing it to dance to a different rhythm.
In a brave move, he suggested the insurgency of God as a new metaphor.
We are the translation that matters most. How do we embody and live out the kingdom?
Perhaps the thing I found most useful was a new metaphor for describing the emerging church: He used the idea of a tree growing.
As a the world changes, the outer ring of a tree has new pressures put on it, and must change as a a necessity. In the same way, the people on the fringe of any tradition are those who will be most affected by cultural & societal changes, which leads them to change and re-imagine new ways of doing things.
[I may create a little graphic for this later, depending on how I feel…!]
All in all, a good evening with some new things to think about. Good to see Stewart again, along with many other friends! Stewart, Neal, & Wendy were all there… care to balance out my view?
Gap Year That Makes A Difference
What other Gap year dresses you up as a fairy, flies you across the world, puts you at the heart of the issues it works on, gives you access to political leaders, has you camping outside student unions in cardboard boxes and filming and writing resources? But not in that order…
Jim, one of my amazing gap year colleagues, wrote a great piece over on the Christian Aid Learn website describing his experiences of the gap year so far. You can read the article here.
It’s also pretty cool to see my photographs on the website! The two photos used in the article were taken by me during our trip to the DRC last month.
Have I mentioned that I love my job?!
Brunch With The Breakeys
Saturday morning entailed a little bit of festive cheer: gingerbread men, baked goodness, musical (Sufjan-inspired) joy, laughter and coffee, all hosted by the delightful Breakeys.
A teaser, for those who missed out…
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