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#epiphany #virgin mary #mary #Instagram

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A blessed Reformation Day! I give thanks for the Church in all of its various forms throughout history and the world. I am grateful for this community of imperfect people that nurtures faith, offers care, and seeks to be faithful. May we be more like Jesus, the one for others, and in being so, find our true selves.

#Reformation Day #Reformation #Church #service #care #faithfulness

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Liam and I disassembled and packed up my Giant Quick-E ebike. I hope it all works out smoothly! I found a company that will ship it with the battery (left with only 30% charge, and mounted in the bike). And a fellow South African who is living near where I will be in the Netherlands has kindly agreed for me to ship it to his home! That may mean that I will have Igor the ebike with me in the Netherlands! I am very grateful! I hope that it will all work out!

#ebike #Giant bicycles #shipping #Netherlands #bicycle

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#GoBokke #Sprinboks #SouthAfrica 🇿🇦

#rugby #rugbyworldcup #springboks #southafrica

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‘...even in a deeply divided world, even in the most deeply divided relationship, the way things are is not the way things have to be.... What we need is not simply better gear and techniques but a story that helps us remember another world is possible. The good news is that God’s story offers us just that. In the midst of our world’s deep brokenness, God’s kingdom breaks in to create new possibilities.’

- Emmanuel M. Katongole, Reconciling All Things: A Christian Vision for Justice, Peace and Healing

#Emmanuel Katongole #hope #peace #justice #imagination

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‘[A]n act of writing is always an act of faith – a stepping out and into resonances that lie within words, between them and beneath them; sounding their depths.’

- Graham Ward, ‘Unimaginable: What we imagine and what we can’t’, (2018: 11).

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Here is a bit of painful, and hopeful, history on Youth Day.

This is an extract from the minutes of the first TEE College meeting that took place on 18 June 1976.

Desmond Tutu was elected as the first Chair of the board of the college. As you will see in these minutes, after opening the meeting, he was called away to Soweto, to support the community after the horrific police brutality in what is now known as the ‘Soweto Youth Uprising’.

TEE College was set up by the Eccumenical Churches to train women and men for ministry during a period when South Africa’s apartheid government would not allow black women and men to study theology at Universities.

In the years since 1976 TEE College has trained tens of thousands of persons for ministry and service via ‘extended’ learning (allowing persons to study while being employed, thus not taking scarce skills and limited resources away from the communities in which they were serving).

TEE College offers a Bachelor of Theology Degree, a Diploma in Theology, and numerous Higher Certificates in Theology and Ministry. We currently have over 3000 registered students.

I am very grateful to serve as the current Chair of the Board of TEE College.

TEEC offers a wonderful service to the Churches and society, with a gifted and dedicated staff based at our Campus in Brackenhurst. See the Facebook page for more details: https://www.facebook.com/TEECollege

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Google Scholar alerted me that a chapter I wrote on Baptism and Ecclesiology in contemporary Wesleyan and Methodist theology was published.

See it here: https://amzn.to/3P4Z2CZ

Here is some of the abstract:

Who are you? Or, stated slightly differently, to whom do you belong? These are crucial questions in contemporary society, and also in contemporary Christianity. Questions of identity and belonging dominate so much of our lives. Racial identity, national identity, gender identity, religious identity, and a host of other identifiers are coming under scrutiny—some would even say under attack—in today’s society. One’s appearance, language, nationality, political views, and sexual preference can all be used as means of inclusion or exclusion. This is not only a challenge in society at large, where issues related to migration, political identity, and religious identity feature as central concerns in social and political interaction. Questions of identity have also become central issues of reflection and contention within the Christian faith and the church. One of the most topical examples of this struggle for identity and belonging in the church is the debate over the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy in The United Methodist Church (UMC). Who is welcome in the church, and what are the theological criteria for belonging? If individuals or groups feel their identity and humanity is not recognized or celebrated within the church, how does this impact upon our students ecclesiology?

#methodist #baptism #ecclesiology #UMC #sexuality #justice #belonging #lgbtqi+ #publication

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When in Rome… I am at the Vatican this morning, and then in a conference at the Anglican Centre in Rome. If a clerical collar is required, then so be it! Fr. Dion it is 🙏🙌

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Congratulations to my dear friend and colleague Rudolf von Sinner on the publication of ‘As Humanidades em Tempos de Pós-Verdade.‘

I wrote a chapter for the book (in English of course, but translated to Portuguese).

You can read more about it here: https://amzn.to/3INyimt

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“It is not necessary to take on the whole world at first. Just take the three square feet of earth on which you are sitting, paying close attention to everything that lives within that small estate.”

- Barbara Brown Taylor

#barbara brown taylor

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'Even now, some Christians have trouble listening to God. Many of us prefer to speak. Our corporate prayers are punctuated with phrases such as “Hear us, Lord” or “Lord, hear our prayer,” as if the burden to listen were on God and not us. We name our concerns, giving God suggestions on what to do about them. What reversal of power might occur if we turned the process around, naming our concerns and asking God to tell us what to do about them? “Speak, Lord, for your servants are listening.”'

- Barbara Brown Taylor, When God is Silent

#barbara brown taylor #prayer #listening

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'As fearful people we are inclined to develop a mind-set that makes us say: “There’s not enough food for everyone, so I better be sure I save enough for myself in case of emergency,” or “There’s not enough knowledge for everyone to enjoy; so I’d better keep my knowledge to myself, so no one else will use it” or “There’s not enough love to give to everybody, so I’d better keep my friends for myself to prevent others from taking them away from me.” This is a scarcity mentality. It involves hoarding whatever we have, fearful that we won’t have enough to survive. The tragedy, however, is that what you cling to ends up rotting in your hands.'

- Henri Nouwen, in Henri Nouwen Society: Daily Meditation from 6-7 May 2012.

#Henri Nouwen #life #abundance

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“All political principles, the good as well as the bad, need emotional support to ensure their stability over time, and all decent societies need to guard against division and hierarchy by cultivating appropriate sentiments of sympathy and love.”

- Martha Nussbaum, Political Emotions

#martha nussbaum #politics #emotion #political emotion

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A blessed workers' day to all those who have the privilege to work, for those who long to work, for those who find joy in their work, and for those whose work brings life. Blessings to those who work to survive, to those who are faithful in spite of struggle or hardship. Blessing to the workers and work seekers. May our work make the world a better place. May we commit our creativity, energy and our time to the work of justice, peace and love, and may it be seen in the things we do and make.

#workers day #may day #mayday

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“The idea of flourishing as a human being has shriveled to meaning no more than leading an experientially satisfying life. The sources of satisfaction may vary: power, possessions, love, religion, sex, food, drugs—whatever. What matters most is not the source of satisfaction but the experience of it—my satisfaction. Our satisfied self is our best hope. Not only is this petty, but a dark shadow of disappointment stubbornly follows our obsession with personal satisfaction. We are meant to live for something larger than our own satisfied selves. Petty hopes generate self-subverting, melancholy experiences.”

- Miroslav Volf, A Public Faith

#flourishing #life #service #solidarity #justice #miroslav Volf

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'This distance between how we live and what we know to be true is painful and tempts us to change the truth rather than change our lives.’

- Hauerwas, Stanley. The Character of Virtue: Letters to a Godson.

#stanley hauerwas #hauerwas #ethics #virtue #theology