Sunday 14th February
I’ve just spent a really enjoyable 24 hours in the Midlands. Sarah and I had a good meeting with those whom we are partnering with on the Crucible Course. It is good when you do business with people who you can regard as friends. Folks from Urban Expression, Salvation Army, Workshop, BMS, Café Church and ourselves ~ a very creative mix of folks predominantly serving in urban contexts.
I was lecturing on the module Becoming Human and enjoyed the experience of researching and delivering two papers on following the incarnate, holy but beautiful Christ and what new monasticism has to say to disciples in a changing urban context. It was also very challenging and the issue of how we relate our vocation, our way for living in urban contexts is a complex but vital area for us to explore and deepen.
It was really good to have Companions like Marg, who is pioneering in the very urban environment of Stoke on Trent, on the course. She is a wonderful blend both in personality and calling of prophetic, creative, pastoral, stimulating and irritating, someone who carries a real love for God, an angst with much of church life yet with a passion for people. I am glad that we have characters like Marg as part of our Community whom we need to listen to lest we lose our heart for the poor and limit our ideas of Community to country houses and retreat programmes. The Christ to whom we pray to be our light is the incarnate God who came and dwelt among us, identifying and engaging with people and situations, not from a distance but involved. The same Jesus who commissioned his disciples with the injunction, as the Father has sent me so I send you.
Let us not forget the poor in spirit.
