Beauty out of rubble

The story of Coventry is well-known, but our recent visit there was another step forward for me in my recent quest to understand the cross more fully, and in my thinking about how God deals with human evil. 

Coventry was bombed on the night of 14th November 1940. Two-thirds of the city was burned down in the one night - by incendiary bombs dropped by German planes. The medieval cathedral was ruined. But when the cathedral's provost viewed the destruction the following morning, his words were: "Father, forgive" : not "forgive them" - he said "forgive" - in the knowledge that in this war, untold damage had been done on all sides: German cities had been wiped out too. All humanity needs forgiving.  His decision was to preserve the ruin as a memorial, and to build a whole new cathedral to be a symbol and a place of reconciliation.

In the rubble, medieval nails were found lying, fallen from the burned roof timbers. Someone fashioned three nails into a cross, and the "cross of nails" became a symbol of peace and reconciliation. One was sent to Berlin to a church which was also bombed to pieces at that time.

The cathedral stonemason noticed that two of the charred roof timbers had fallen down in the shape of a cross. He took them and nailed them together in that formation, and set them up in the ruins, as a symbol of hope and forgiveness. Once the rubble was cleared, the charred cross was set up on an altar in the old cathedral ruins, with the words "Father, forgive" enscribed on it.

The new cathedral was finished in 1962. It is an amazingly modern, light-filled building. The cathedral has an on-going and active ministry of reconciliation. Sitting right next to the remains of the old cathedral, it is a powerful sign of hope and new life. The whole place has an amazingly peaceful, calm atmosphere, pouring balm on your soul as you wander about.

To me, the message was that although God does not prevent terrible events such as the Blitz, although mankind does wanton harm to one another, although beautiful things are destroyed and lives pointlessly taken, although we cannot explain how human beings can be so stupid, so destructive and so evil - in spite of all of that, God is there in the midst, and he shines a light of hope right into the destruction - his cross falls into the rubble as a sure sign that he has ultimately overcome all of this - there will be new life, there is always hope, there will be redemption. If we can take part in the reconciliation and offer the comfort to others, and freely forgive, we can be part of the good, not part of the evil.

So I found another piece to put into the puzzle, of the meaning of the cross.





This is a tiny replica of the cross of nails, which you can buy in the gift shop.
This cross I like.

Waves

Put yourself here... mmmmmmm....

In England today it is zero degrees, grey-skied and snowing. Mid-March!!!! I could do with this beach right now... You can just hear the waves just gently, continuously, ... hissing? sighing? pshhhing? towards you and frothing right over your toes. And the sun feels warm on your face and the sand is warm and the water is deliciously cool...

This Sunday at our church we had quite a special visiting speaker, Guy Chevreau. He is Canadian and his name is pronounced Gee, like ghee. He is a renewal theologian and wrote the first book looking at the theology and context of the Toronto Blessing (as a believer in it), "Catch the Fire." Since then he has written other books and is a well-known speaker. We use his book Turnings, on revivals, in our courses at WTC. And now Dan and I have a signed copy for ourselves!

Guy talked about how God initiates, and how God's grace is like the waves of the sea, rolling in one after another, without ceasing. He referred to John ch 1, where it says, "from his mercy we have all received, grace upon grace." He told us that research has shown that on average, a wave rolls into the beach every eight seconds, and that in 24 hours, about 10,000 waves come in. So God's grace comes to us wave after wave, grace after grace, grace upon grace. So we should be open to receiving the grace, the goodness, and expect it. He said he himself has had a tough four years, but he has a peace that God has tremendous blessings for him. So he doesn't mean that life is good all the time, rather that God is blessing us all the time, if we only knew it.

Another thing, he said that when we stand on the beach and look out to sea, we can only see a certain distance. But beyond where we can see, the waves are still rolling towards us. So, there are waves of grace coming towards us, for the things that we don't even know are going to happen yet.

It was a good message, comforting in the sense of strengthening, and building and reassuring. So I thought I would pass it on to you.

The archbishops and me...

If you can't name-drop in your own blog... where can you???

Today Dan and I went to the Trustees meeting for the UCU UK Partners, which was held this time at Cuddesdon Theological College, just outside Oxford. We had a really good productive meeting, which was good. Also, it was lovely to visit Cuddesdon, which is in a beautiful rural location, amongst rolling fields and sheep. I don't know how the students concentrate, with such lovely wide views outside the windows...

It happens that Cuddesdon is near the village where my parents lived when I was born, and they went to the church there. And it happened that Robert Runcie was the vicar and principal of Cuddesdon at that time - he later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. Since it was my parents' church, I was baptised there, by Robert Runcie - my Dad remembers how he lifted me up afterwards, right up in the air, facing the congregation, and said, "We welcome you" and I looked out at everyone. I don't remember a thing, of course... But today we called into the church to see it, as I had never been back since we moved away when I was six months old. It is a beautiful, wonky, unspoiled old church, parts dating back to 1124 AD! The side bits  were added in the 1200s, and not much has been done to it since. Amazing.

But I must add here that Robert Runcie is not the only A of C I have had dealings with. Donald Coggin, who was archbishop in the 1970s, came to preach at my university college in 1987, and I sat beside him at chapel breakfast - he tried talking to me in Hebrew but it didn't work and we ate our fried eggs together. George Carey invited me to tea at Lambeth Palace, as an Anglican mission partner - there were a few others there, I might add... We did meet him again later in Harare at the WCC, and in Mukono as a visitor to UCU - he didn't remember me on any occasion... And then Rowan Williams, was my Early Church tutor in Cambridge, and I had tutorials in his college rooms. He made me tea with sour milk that had sat on his outside window-sill (as all the tutors did). I liked him a lot.

So you can understand I am a bit miffed that the new Archbishop, Justin Welby, I have never met, and I do not know him from Adam. Well. Perhaps something should be done about this.

Decision in Harare

Eleven years ago our family left Zimbabwe at short notice, because our contracts were terminated by the newly elected, pro-the president, anti-evangelical, anti-white bishop of Harare, Nolbert Kunonga.

He had proved himself within a few months to be a political appointment, there to promote Mugabe's interests. He locked up churches which had been allowing the opposition MDC to have their meetings in their church halls, he demoted all kinds of good clergy, he got rid of whites and evangelicals in various ways, he usurped large funds from various churches which were designated for other purposes, he took and used various church's cars, he threatened our students, he had the war veterans send a death threat to a clergy who wouldn't allow him to take church money... His wife put a stop to the clergy wives conference that I had been running for years at our theological college - which had been s special time of fellowship for all of us. He put his nephew in as principal of the theological college although that man was also the dean of the cathedral at the same time.  Without going into any more  details, we did support one church which tried to hold a kind of protest, and so we were "terminated."

At that time, we had already formed a connection with Redcliffe College, and so we were able to come here as Visiting Lecturers for a year, which was completely providential for us as a family.

Well, in 2007 Kunonga announced that he was taking the Zimbabwean Anglican church out of the Anglican Communion, and setting up a new Province in Zimbabwe. He made himself its "archbishop" and he made four of his friends, "bishops." Because of this action, the Church of the Province of Central Africa (the part of the Anglican Communion Zimbabwe is in) ex-communicated him. It seemed like the problem should be over... but, it was really only beginning.

Soon the CPCA elected a bishop to replace him in Harare, Sebastian Bakare. But Kunonga said his ex-communication was invalid, he was still bishop of Harare, and so he wouldn't move out of the bishops residence, nor would he stop leading services in the cathedral.

Unfortunately he took it to court, and the court said, it was a church matter, but since they couldn't sort it out amongst themselves, (grr), the judge decreed that the Kunonga people could use the churches for half the morning and the Bakare people could use them for the other half. This seemed to be OK, but then, Kunonga broke the ruling, wouldn't leave churches, and even had police and war vets go into the other services and break them up. As for the cathedral, he chained up its doors, and he held services in there himself - with his tiny following of about six clergy and their families.

Sadly the police gave him their muscle for political reasons - once police went into a Mothers Union meeting with about 500 lovely ladies, some pretty elderly, in their blue and white outfits, and literally beat them up with sticks, and dragged them out of the church by their clothes.

Eventually the "real" Anglicans were only able to have their services in school buildings and even out in the open. A church in exile, in their own city.

Meanwhile Kunonga was rewarded by the President by being given one of the farms taken from white farmers outside Harare, which he promptly moved into...

Our friend and former principal of the theological college was elected Bishop of Harare when Bakare retired, and so he had to take the lead against this renegade. He did well in raising prayer support from Christians all over the world, and he is such a godly, gentle man himself, everyone who knows him loves him. We worried for him, and prayed for him.

Kunonga's next move was to take away the leadership of the Anglican orphanage in Harare, and give it to again his own people. And at the same time, he claimed that all the rectories belonged to him, and so, he gave them all to the clergy he had ordained himself. So, friends and former students of ours who were clergy in the church under Bishop Chad, came home one weekend to find intruders had moved into their houses and put all their stuff outside - and in one case, the clergyman's elderly mother who had refused to leave the house, had been taken and held in police cells. I believe Bp Chad went and spent the time in the cells with her to support her, as well as getting lawyers involved.

Finally there was a much longed for court case, put forward by the real Anglican church (CPCA), to have Kunonga stopped, but sadly, the judge after hearing the first day, then failed to show up again and concluded that he could not make a ruling. That was about three years ago.

But this week, at last, the Supreme Court for the first time heard the case - and the ruling was made on Tuesday, that Kunonga had removed himself from the church back in 2007, and so he had forfeited the right to any claim on church property, vehicles, money, institutions, and rectories. In other words, he doesn't have a leg to stand on as far as the court is concerned. They have said to him, "Get Packing", as one headline put it.

Woooooohooooooo!!! I mean, Praise The Lord!!!!!

He has been given until Friday to move out of all the buildings, the cathedral, and to hand back all the rectories and vehicles.

I do not know what will happen. No doubt he is furious. Much as we, Dan and I and all our friends in Zimbabwe who are in the Anglican church, including our former students there (several of whom we are in touch with) are rejoicing - we are also praying for what will happen over the next few days.

Please if you do, pray for our friend Bishop Chad and for other clergy and their families who will now hopefully be able to move into their old homes, hold services in their churches, and begin to sort things out.

The Eye That Cries

Not really feeling well - I have a cold.... waaaaaaaahhhhh. But sitting in bed with my computer so I might as well write what I have been thinking about the last few days. Even if it might be a bit fuzzy like my head.

So on Tuesday I went to hear Joel Edwards speak about Justice as the Mission of God. He is such a good speaker, very engaging, warm, persuasive, positive... and he packs a lot in. He was the Director of Evangelical Alliance for ten years and is now head of the Micah Challenge, which bases its work on the verse in Micah 6:8 which I wrote about before.

He said just what I used to think, that many Christians see justice as a hobby horse for some, like the environment used to be (?) seen too. But his main point was, that justice should be part of the Christian life we live, for all of us, just as much as our personal devotion. He said that we have tended to make Christianity a matter of private relationship with God, but it should equally be a matter of a public citizenship in the world.

He said how we love to talk about the holiness and righteousness God requires of us, but we don't focus much on the justice, which is also and equally there. And that they should be integrated as the way we live out the Christian life, and not in three separate boxes.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Ps 89:14

Micah Challenge have put together a dvd package called The Jesus Agenda, which is a resource for home groups and churches or anyone else to use, to think through issues of justice and how we can live more integratedly like this.

We saw one small section of it, and one thing we saw impacted me greatly. The section was set in Lima, Peru, and how a group there work with the poor and also in the wealthy communities, to bring in more community and unity. The film crew visited a monument in Lima called El Ojo que Llora = the Eye that Cries - which is a stone sculpture, surrounded by a labyrinth of stones each with the name and dates of a person who died/disappeared during the years of the Shining Path resistance movement, between 1980 and 2000. About 70,000 were killed altogether on both sides of the conflict. The black stone in the centre of the monument has water constantly pouring from it - the eye that cries.

The monument moved me so much because it reminded me powerfully that God weeps when there is violence and hostility. It makes God mourn when there is injustice, when innocent people die. He weeps over the many many deaths in every conflict. How can I be so hard and dry-eyed? Is there anything I can, should, be doing to bring more peace, reconciliation, justice, in my sphere of the world at least?

Flashback

This morning we went to the lovely church we have finally all agreed upon - this has been a long story... - and in the middle of the service I was suddenly back in Uganda, transported by a song.

We normally sing up-to-the-minute songs at our church, songs I have mostly never heard before since our Uganda fare was so South Africa based, or else traditional hymns. But today we had a baptism and so a couple of better-known songs had been chosen. The band started us off on "Oh Lord My God, when I in awesome wonder...." and suddenly I was back in Uganda, in Nkoyoyo Hall, standing in a long row of Ugandan students, lecturers and my family - usually with the Fountains somewhere nearby - if I looked to the back past hundreds of singing swaying students I would see Brian Dennison and the kids up in the higher rows at the back - usually a smattering of American USP students somewhere - often a few other muzungu visitors - but mostly hundreds of African students, staff, nurses, children, Mukono people, singing at the tops of their voices, some arms up in the air, some eyes closed, a group up on the stage in long lines smiling and dancing, making dust rise from the floor with their shifting feet, one student singing over-loud, enthusiastically and pretty often off-key into the mike... The overall emotions evident all around were love for Jesus, love of singing, love of movement, and love of being together. My own mind would enjoy those feelings and enter into them, I was almost always glad I was there, but I would also be aware of the heat, aware that we were singing for a very long time, and knowing that a long sermon was to come...

Church in Uganda was one place where I could feel homesick for my familiar church in Exeter, where we had comfortable seats and carpet, sang songs once or twice through only, had tweny-five minute, orderly, exegetical sermons, and where you knew the service wouldn't suddenly extend to two and a half hours for some function or extra special number... But church in Uganda was also where I sometimes specially felt excited to be living in Africa, when the students rushed onto the stage to dance with abandon to a song from their part of Uganda, or when students did hilarious sketches acted brilliantly (not always...), and when John Senyonyi or Fred Baalwa preached so brilliantly it made me proud to be there hearing them.

I haven't often time-warped back to Mukono so it caught me unawares this morning, but I liked it!

Happy St Bartholomew's Day, by the way.