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Burngreave Multifaith Chapel and Library Tree Plaque

Last year on 15 November the Multifaith Chapel and Library, at the top of Spital Hill in Burngreave (or Pitsmoor), planted a Stone Pine.  The first multifaith tree in Sheffield.  Today we unveiled a plaque to mark, as the planting did last year, the start of interfaith week.  Here are some pictures.  First, here's a couple of the tree:

The plaque was unveiled by Revd Inderjit Bhogal, Chief Executive of the Yorkshire and Humber Faiths Forum and a past President of Methodist Conference, seen here with Cllr Alan Law JP, the Right Worshipful the Lord Mayor of Sheffield and Abdool Gooljar of the Islamic Society of Great Britain.

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Lent 32: Frank Viola

The practices of the first-century church were the natural and spontaneous expressions of the divine life that indwelt the early Christians.  And those practices were solidly grounded in the timeless teachings and principles of the New Testament.  By contrast, a great number of the practices in many contemporary churches are in conflict with those biblical principles and teachings.  When we dig deeper, we are compelled to ask: Where did the practices of the contemporary church come from?  The answer is disturbing: Most of them were borrowed from pagan culture.  Such a statement short-circuits the minds of many Christians when they hear it.  But it is unmovable, historical fact, as this book will demonstrate.  (From: Pagan Christianity?  page xix)

This paragraph illustrates the frustrations I have with this book; its uncritical view of the early church and implied rejection of most of Christian history.  However, its importance should not be underestimated.  Many Christians are questioning the practices of contemporary churches, concluding their origins are in imperial Rome.  Would that this book were called 'Imperial Christianity?'.  It is hard to deny the relationship between Christianity and imperialism has had a long and complex history.  Nevertheless, I would want to respond to Viola's book with a number of detailed questions; I am not convinced it is entirely reliable.  It is worth reading Viola alongside In Search of Paul by John Dominic Crossan .  I am attending the 2010 Hugh Price Hughes lectures  at Hinde Street Methodist Church.  The two lecturers, Morna Hooker and Frances Young, are planning a book on this topic in the autumn.  It will cover the issues in Viola's book with a more scholarly approach, identifying the complex nature of these arguments. 

Religion has always been used by imperialists, like Constantine, to control the lives and beliefs of the people.  The first church was a political movement against political control of the religious order of the day.  As it became more successful the imperialists bought into it.  To what extent are we aware of how our faith is formed not by the spirit but by an imperialist mindset?

Lent 21: Charles Wesley

Long my imprisoned spirit lay

Fast bound in sin and nature's night;

Thine eye defused a quickening ray -

I woke, the dungeon flamed with light,

My chains fell off, my heart was free,

I rose, went forth, and followed thee.

(From: And can it be, 216 verse 4 in Hymns and Psalms)

About one fifth of the hymns in Hymns and Psalms are by Charles Wesley.  John and Charles understood people would learn their theology through singing; Methodism was born in song.  I've been singing these hymns for over 30 years, and I am probably unaware of how they have formed my beliefs.  Although John Wesley  is thought of as a theologian, it is Charles' theology which is better known because Methodists still sing his hymns most weeks.  As a preacher, I usually find I've included at least one of his hymns in my services, usually without making a particular effort.  This hymn, best sung to Sagina or Abingdon, is probably the best known.  I've chosen this verse because it speaks (or sings) of the experience of liberation the Christian experiences.  We do not go forth to be enslaved to some ideology, particularly any ideology with the label 'Christian'.

Methodism was a movement of the people.  The clergy were not always happy with this idea but the nature of the movement was always a radical opportunity for the most marginalised to build their own faith as a community.  We need to remember liberation is not only from something but to something new.  What does it mean to be one follower amongst others?

Lent 14: Theodore Runyon

When we focus on divine perfect love and make it genuinely available in today's world, we tap into the energy which, according to the Fathers, renews creation.  It was this energy which found undeniable expression in new lives in the Wesleyan movement.  Indeed, the greatest strength of the Wesleyan doctrine of perfection may lie in its ability to mobilise believers to seek a more perfect future that surpasses the present.  It turns the Christian life into a project consistently open to new possibilities.  As we have seen, it is not blind to negative forces.  However, it does not take them as the inevitable and unavoidable consequences of original sin, but precisely as that which can be overcome.  It was this goal-orientation which Wesley did not want to give up to the critics of entire sanctification.  If the conditions of life are fixed and sin is permanent, the future is robbed of the kind of hope Wesley is convinced is found in the New Testament.  (From: The New Creation , page 227)

This book was recommended to me by a lay Methodist theologian a few years ago.  It is in his view one of the best books about John Wesley .  I don't disagree with him.  Runyon is a member of the United Methodist Church in the United States and takes a radical view of Wesley's life.  I have written at some length on Wesley's doctrine of sanctification , as explained in this book.  (The link will take you to the first in the sequence.)

Wesley was future orientated and contrasted his approach to that of the Calvinists who were past orientated.  They believe in predestination.  God created everything perfect and predetermined who will be saved and lost.  Wesley's view was that God is still at work in creation and therefore, there are new things to come and so no-one is predestined to anything.  This opens up the future to the unexpected and creative change.

 

Lent 2: John Wesley

We have seen how Captain Foy in Bristol had suggested collecting a penny a week from United Society members in order to deal with the debt upon the Bristol New Room.  [The illustration below is John Wesley's statue outside the Bristol New Room.]  John Wesley saw the weekly visit of the class leaders as "the very thing we wanted".  "The Leaders," he wrote, "are the persons who may not only receive the contributions, but also watch over the souls of their brethren."  It became obvious that collecting the pennies each week could be done more easily if the class members were to gather weekly in one place.  The class leader became now not a mere collector of class pennies but more significantly a shepherd of the little flock committed to him or her.  ...  Early Methodism was thus built upon ideals of mutual openness and vulnerability.  Spiritual growth was a group activity, not the "flight of the alone to the alone".  As Wesley himself stressed: " 'Holy solitaries' is a phrase no more consistent with the Gospel than holy adulterers.  The Gospel of Christ knows of no religion but social; no holiness but social holiness."  Within the class and band meetings, and in early Methodism generally, "sin" was not so much about the failings of individuals but was focused rather on those things which distort and disrupt community life.  Among these, the chief failing was pride, but equally dangerous were envy, covetousness, hypocrisy, gossip and double dealing, all of which made fellowship impossible.  In the Christian believer these had to be replaced with the virtues of "social grace" ...  (from An Introduction to World Methodism  by Kenneth Cracknell and Susan J White, page 125)

The Wesleys have grown on me over the years.  John was perhaps a reluctant radical.  His approach, as evangelist and spiritual director, was shaped by circumstances.  This story shows how he brought together property, finance and spiritual direction.  And it was also clear this direction was through fellowship.  The wider context was the early Industrial Revolution.  The poor were of no interest to the established church of the day.  Wesley organised the poor and his methods were widely copied and adapted .  Surely he laid the foundations of the working class , long before Marx?

The Christian story is full of solitaries and those who thrive on fellowship.  Perhaps we need to reflect on the balance between solitary devotion and spirituality in fellowship?  Wesley networked (or connected) many groups of Christians into a single movement; he did it on horseback.  Perhaps our individualism does not help us see the benefits where people of faith explore ways of organising or the barriers they create with their incompatible organisations.

 

Methodists Possibly Thwart the BNP

 

Methodist Conference 2009, agreed that members of the British National Party (BNP) cannot be members of the Methodist Church.   

The BNP started it with their advert depicting Jesus on the cross as racist, which angered many Christians.  The syllogism Jesus was good, Jesus was racist and so racism is good, is somewhat flawed. 

So, the Methodist Church has banned members of the BNP from being members of the Methodist Church.  The reason we did it was because we are able to do it.  We are able to do it because we have members.  Most Christian traditions do not have members.  At least, not like Methodists have members.  We are the only Christian tradition with card carrying members!  This annual card contains an inspirational verse from the Bible, chosen by the year’s President and is signed by a local minister and class leader. 

The card itself is not terribly useful although I once used it as evidence of identity to draw my benefit (a long time ago before they invented passports and driving licenses).  However, as I have pointed out to ecumenical friends, should I meet St Peter I’ll have my class ticket to show him, what will they have?

The privileges of membership are easy to summarise.  We are expected to make a financial commitment in order to ensure assessments are paid so that our ministers and their families do not starve, and we are supposed to sit on committees.  Consequently, members are part of one of the biggest common ownership movements in the country and participants in a highly democratic organisation that means, through Conference, any member can (once there through due process) make decisions about the church’s mission, beliefs and administration.

Loads of people worship in Methodist Churches who are not members of the Methodist Church.  Methodists welcome anyone who wishes to worship with them.  The BNP are welcome to worship, drink tea and presumably be saved alongside Methodists but no longer as Methodists.  They no longer have a stake in church finances and committees.  It makes sense because it excludes them from wielding power in the church.   I’m not sure how central to their plans control of the Methodist Church was but now they are thwarted.