Church of Scotland Assembly reflections

Last week I attended the Church of Scotland Assembly.Here are a few unsystematic, non-comprehensive reflections:

Highlights:

• the daily worship was unashamedly traditional Presbyterian - unaccompanied metrical psalms, beautifully worded formal prayers, thoughful reflections by the Moderator. Not sure if worship is usually so traditional or whether it reflected the preferred style of the Moderator who conducted all worships. It may also have reflected the marking of the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible from which we read exclusively during the week.
• singing 'Your hand o God has guided' prior to the sexuality debate. It set a wonderful theological basis for the subsequent discussion. The refrain lifted the roof: 'One Church, one faith, one Lord' said it all - goosebump stuff!
• the respectful tone of the sexuality and leadership debate even though they were mainly debating whether or not to set up another Task Group.
• the various formal receptions for guests in exotic locations!

Common themes with Uniting Church

• how to address ageing/declining membership and ministry profile
• size and sustainability of Presbyteries
• justice and community concerns (including Israel/Palestine)
• sexuality and leadership
• emerging church

Quirky things

• proposals are called 'deliverances'
• youth delegates can speak but not vote
• the presence of the Queen's represenative, the Lord High Commissioner (this is clearly a State Church)
• the grand formal entrance of the Moderator each day
• the electronic voting/counting system
• I appreciated the strengths of the 'parliamentary process' although came away more attached to our concensus processes, especially at voting time.
• mobile phones have to be switched off (not just to silent), saw no laptops (and only the odd surreptitious i-pad)

An unexpected crucifixion

Wandering through Glasgow's wonderful Kelvin Grove Art Gallery last week I noticed a darkened room featuring one very large work - Salvadore Dali's Cucifixion. A small reproduction of this work had hung on my father's study wall and to see the original brought back many memories as well as a fresh appreciation of a very fine work. Painted in 1951 the Gallery purchased the piece in 1952 for a then considerable 8000 pounds. Apparently there were large street demonstrations protesting the acquisition - so much to spend on one piece of art! The work also attracted much theological response, both appreciative and critical. Must do some research on that. At some stage a fanatic who clearly hated the depiction slashed and tore it which can be seen if you look very closely. Perhaps the most notable feature of the painting is the perspective. The viewer looks down on the crucified Christ. His face is not visible, just the top of his head. The cross is clearly planted in the earth (the Bay of Lligat, apparently, is the scene depicted) but spans to the heavens. It is a cosmic Christ. There are no nails securing him to the Cross, his body appears unblemished by the violence. Apparently Dali wanted the work to celebrate the beauty of Christ, more, I suspect, in the tradition of John's gospel, than Mark's.

Church of Scotland signals 'trajectory' on gays

This past week I've been representing the Uniting Church as a guest of the Church of Scotland Assembly. The most anticipated item on the agenda was  a Report from a 'Commission on Same-Sex Relationships and the Ministry'. The catalyst for setting up this Committee was the decision of a Presbytery two years ago to induct into a parish placement a Minister who was in a same-sex relationship.

They Commission produced an excellent and very fair Report, building on previous Reports on Human Sexuality (available on the Church of Scotland website). They also extensively surveyed all Presbyteries. In the end the main choice they put to the Assembly was to guide the proposed Theological Commission either to work towards a Report supporting the 'traditionalist' position; or a Report considering 'a lifting of the moratorium on accepting for ordination of persons in a same-sex relationship'. This second option was supported as was a proposal to allow the induction into placements in the next two years of Ministers and Deacons who were ordained before May 2009 who are in a same sex relationship.

The debate was vigorous but respectful and very well handled. The Moderator rightly insisted that there be no applause when the decision was announced out of respect for those for whom the result was a disapppointment. Todays headlines were predictably 'Church of Scotland gives green light to gay Ministers' which somewhat overstates the result. When the Theological Commission reports back in two years time, if they recommend change to the current practice, the decision, if supported by the Assembly, will be referred back to the Presbyteries for concurrence through a mechanism called the 'Barrier Act'. In this instance it seems likely, according to the survey in the current Report, that any fundamental change would fail to receive the necessary support. There will be many around the world taking an interest in how this 'mother church' to so many Presbyterian churches around the world, deals with this issue.

National Ministers' Conference Vanuatu

Last week 42 Uniting Church Ministers gathered in Vanuatu for the first of a series of three National Ministers Conferences to be held this year. The Conference was hosted by our partner church, the Presbyterian Church of Vanuatu, and its congregation at Mele, just outside Port Vila. We started with a reception dinner, along with local church leaders, at the home of the Australian High Commissioner, Jeff Roach. The following day the Conference opened with a colourful 'challenge' by the warrior, pictured, which thankfully morphed into a greeting. We were all then draped with luxurient garlands. This spirit of welcome and hospitality would continue throughout the week.

The program comprised of sessions helping us reflect on 'ministry in a time of transition' led by Rev Jenny Tymms. Then we had a series of inputs from local church and political leaders throughout the week. And we tried to allow enough time for delegates to rest and explore the area. Mele is right on the coast and snorkelling around the coral reefs was a popular recreation.

Early feedback indicates that participants found the experience very worthwhile. Apart from the stimulating input, and opportunities to reflect on this 'odd and wondrous calling', the chance to develop collegial friendships from across the country was appreciated.

Our thanks to Uniting World for all their work with local arrangements and especially to our hosts. I understand that the third of these Conferences (Adelaide in October) is fully booked so any Ministers in placement who want to participate in one of these great events will need to hurry to register for the Alice Springs Conference in July.

Trashing sermons

This past weekend, due to the cancellation of a four day event, some blessed discretionary time opened up. What to do? Time for a purge! Hard rubbish collection is due in our suburb so time to get rid of accumulated junk that has survived the 'will I ever need you again?' analysis for way too long.

The depths of the attic space revealed dusty boxes. Letters to and from my beloved from the early days? Hard man that I am, my purging mood might have prevailed but my marriage would surely not survive such a unilateral decision. Another dusty box reveals sermons and liturgies from my early years in this 'odd and wondrous' calling. I pick through a few and wonder whether any of the sermons were still 'preachable'. Hmm, maybe not.  I don't notice any fundamental shift in my theological orientation (my neurotic side wonders whether I am 'stuck') but they are the reflections of a younger person. I decide, with some reluctance,  and a distrubing lack of ceremony, to put them in the recycling bin with no sense that they are recyclable apart from the neat little cards these hard-wrought words are written on.

I am surprised how easy it is. If there are fifteen years of sermons in that box those little cards add up to nearly a million words, 150 hours of speaking and many times that of preparation. One tilt of the hand and into the rubbish they go - quite salutary. Good riddance to an anachronistic form of communication?

Without getting into the debates about the efficacy of preaching, my decision was based on a growing conviction that good preaching is essentially contextual. It is the (hopefully) faithful attempt to communicate the gospel (Word) in a particular time and place so that it becomes God's living Word. Bultmann referred to preaching as an 'event' and I think this explains my growing reluctance to publish sermons. I've been tempted, when asked for a copy of a sermon, to reply 'sorry, you had to be there'.

At one level such a response sounds deeply pretentious. But at another level it preserves something fundamental about this form of communication that seems so anachronistic, namely, the immediacy, particularity and the contextuality of God's address to us. The words written on my old sermon cards could not be used again. Some of them made me wonder and wince. I could only pray as I tipped them in the bin, that at the time, the Spirit was hard at work, using my feeble, faltering words, to bring good news, bread, not stones, to hungry people.

Even the dogs

I've just returned from five days in the Amata community in the APY Lands - a township about 100kms south of Uluru. A couple of nights before this photo was taken (communion on the Sunday morning) we had done a bible study on the story of Jesus encounter with the Syrophonecian (gentile) woman (Mark 7). She asked Jesus to heal her daughter and he responded tersely 'let the children be fed first, it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs'. She responds to the racist-sounding comment with: 'yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs'. And here we were gathering around the Lord's Table waiting to be fed the children's bread and the camp dogs were everywhere, hovering under and around the table, poised to pounce on any crumbs that fell. I hardly needed to preach that morning!

It was an amazing week. We gathered each evening in or around the church for bible study. I'd prepared maybe 20 minutes of input but after translation it probably took 45 minutes. Paul Eckert is a brilliant translator. We've worked together a few times now and he has taught me so much about using 'translatable language'. I've realised how much abstract language I use and he has helped me be more concrete - story and image-based. It's actually changing the way I speak and preach generally but that's another story.

After the 'input' time it was opened up for response and sharing. The depth of sharing was extraordinary and often we didn't finish til around midnight. I felt more aware than ever of the vast cultural, social and economic gap between our worlds but the language of faith, aided by excellent translation, at times spanned the distance and afforded glimpses of another world.

Pilgrimage to Living Water

Last weekend I had the pleasure and privilege of leading the very first (hopefully of many nationally) 'Pilgrimage to Living Water' Retreat with members of the Presbytery of the Downs (Uniting Church in Queensland). These pilgrimages have been designed by the Spiritual Direction Network of the Uniting Church in response to the Assembly theme 'Living Water, Thirsty Land'. I was a little apprehensive about leading a retreat with such a theme in that particular context. Within the bounds of that Presbytery are some of the worst-affected areas in the recent catastrophic floods. A significant amount of time had been dedicated in that Presbytery meeting to storytelling and debriefing about the impacts of the floods and also the responses of the church at various levels to help assist people materially and spiritually.

But on advice from the Presbytery Minister we persevered! I am not a trained retreat leader and by temperament I tend to be more of a 'fidgety activist' than a 'contemplative'. But I needn't have worried. They were very open to the theme and to the spaces for reflection, prayer, exercise and rest that the retreat offered. We journeyed through 6 'stations' culminating at a creek at the bottom of the glorious campsite at Cunningham's Gap. The highlight for me was the use of Rob Gallagher's stunning icon specially 'written' for the pilgrimages. I understand that to consecrate an icon it needs to be present at a celebration of the eucharist as it duly was. After a brief introduction to icons and how they might nourish our prayer and reflection (new to many) we then followed the icon from station to station engaging with it in various ways. We used 'lectio divina' (sacred reading of scripture), music, silent prayer, sharing in small groups and at the final station, reaffirmed our baptism. Personally I found it a deeply helpful exercise in experiencing anew the presence of the living God in a way that was deeply personal but experienced in community.

My thanks to our Spiritual Direction Network and also to the wonderful people of the Downs Presbytery for their hospitality and their openness to new (and very ancient!) ways of encountering God.

Now I'm off to the photo place to make multiple copies of the icon. Many of the participants want either to introduce it to their own congregations, or to have their personal copy to aid their prayer.