Well we kicked off the first new session on the Living the Questions version of the once a month Exploration Group.  On this evening we looked at the whole issue of faith being based on uncertainty, and the fact that we are growing and changing.  The first session began with listening and responding to a DVD of interviews with a number of different speaker and theologians before breaking down into dialogue groups.

If you missed this group, then please do come to the next one, on TUESDAY 28TH FEBRUARY 7.15 for 7.30pm.  The next area of exploration will be ‘Taking the Bible Seriously’ again in St Mary Aldermary Church.

There were a number of topic issues in this session.  If you would like to raise anything in the comments section, please do.

Rightly people have started to ask me the question, what is new monasticism in our current UK context? To begin to answer this, I am going to start putting up blog postings coming out of the discussions I am involved with at the national CofE Advisory Council for Religious Communities and Diocesan Bishops that I was co-opted onto last year. We have been working hard on a proposal to assist the Church to discern, recognise and nurture New Monastic Communities as authentic ‘Acknowledged Religious Communities’. In this document, there is a section on features of new monasticism that I will be using in this blog for our reflection, to which people are more than welcome to respond in the comment section.

So we start with the focus on ‘belief as faithful action’, (you may want to listen to the current podcast entitled followers of Jesus ….. as it does relate to this subject to).

For Monks, Nuns and Friars – there has been the commitment to take very seriously, the stories of Jesus Christ in the Gospels. In these texts, Jesus gives a number of directions and commandments about faith in action. For Jesus it seems – faith is very much about doing – not just thinking. What we do says as much about who we really are. So Jesus’ commandment to Love God, love ourselves and love others – is the central teaching for a faith that leads to action. Also there is the calling to love your enemies, love your neighbour, and a strong call to non-violence. These callings then are very important to new monastics. As illustrated by St Pauls writing in Galatians 5:19-24 there is a strong commitment to the fruit of the Spirit around love, patience, humility in the place of anger, fear and pride.  So how we do community, how we live out and treat each other not just in ecclesial communities, but also how we relate to people has a huge focus in this model of church.

So for new monastics, life then is about belief as faithful action or what is called orthopraxis (right acting or doing). This is why New Monastics have a Rhythm of Life – of the balance of activity of worship, mission and community. So the Moot Community for example has aspirations, spiritual practices and postures which are about how we live as much as they are about what we believe. This is because new monastics believe strongly in what St Francis kept talking about – experience that leads to understanding. So why is this so important? Well as the cynical but truthful video below demonstrates (sorry for the expletives) is that the world is sick of people who call themselves Christians but do not act like they are followers of Jesus Christ. Rightly – the world is not happy with forms and expressions of Christianity that are oppressive or violent in orientation. So for New Monastics – it is about getting back to the basics. The calling to live with the God of love as the orientation of your life, and the struggle to live with gentleness, kindness and humility in a world dominated by power and the ego, and our increasingly post-christendom context.

I think the video below demonstrates this. It is uncomfortable to listen to, because something of what is being said is absolutely true. And for non-Americans – lets not be smug. These same issues are alive and well in the UK Church and beyond. My hope is that New Monasticism in all its smallness and fragility, can play its part in contributing to a more loving expression of church that seeks to follow Christ rather than act like it is God. In this way we hope that New Monastic Christians can be whole, balancing head, heart and wellbeing or rather Orthodoxy, Orthopraxis and Orthopathy and follow Christ so that we can grow into our potentials as human becomings, where discipleship then becomes a whole of life pursuit about living and doing that brings life to ourselves, to others and to the ecosphere. In my next blog, I will try to unpack what the three levels of aspirations, spiritual practices and postures represent. See the vid below! Any questions – do use the comments section.

On Tuesday 31st January 7.15 for 7.30pm we begin a new group at Moot/St Mary Aldermary building on the work that was done in the Exploration Group last year. Living with the Questions is an opportunity for those who have had experience of Church but not really had the opportunity to question, critique and explore some of the foundational thinking that makes up contemporary expressions of Christianity, drawing on 2000 years of struggle and thought.  Below is a little video that explains what the authors are trying to do – BUT PLEASE HEAR – the intro is quite American in style, so don’t be put off!!

The course has a number of teachers involved in it, Rob Bell from the Iona Community, Brian McLaren, Marcus Borg and many others. The course has 3 main elements with 7 sessions with in these. These elements are the journey, reconciliation and transformation. For more information on the elements and what it is about click here. From those that have tried out this course, I hear that it is a real relief to not leave your brain at the door, and it is for those who are wanting to dig deep and find a more affirming, generous and considered faith.

It would help us to know numbers, so if you are planning to come, please do let us know by clicking here.  Click the link also if you have any further questions….

Happy New Year to Mooters and Moot Friends.
Well another year passes, and a new one begins! I wanted to flag up that we have two saturday learning opportunities and one sunday afternoon lined up.

SATURDAY 28TH JANUARY, 11-4.30, SMA
TOWARDS A DEEPER RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR PARTNER

Following the highly acclaimed saturday learning day on dealing with conflict in community, Pete and Julie Johnson lead a further day looking at the psychological and other needs required for a healthy relationship. This is open to everyone to attend including singles wanting to reflect, those in relationships and those who are preparing for marriage. For more info and to book places click here.

SUNDAY 29th JANUARY, 2-5pm, SMA
LECTIO DIVINA – A DIFFERENT WAY TO READ THE BIBLE REFLECTIVELY

We have talked about Lectio Divina a lot, but not really given people an opportunity to understand what it is or how it works.  We are fortunate to be led on this by a trainer at the London Centre for Spirituality.  This is a treat, and will be at no charge.  Open to participants in the Community, International Friends, and those coming to attend the evening service. For info and to book places click here.

SATURDAY 10th MARCH 10 to 3.30pm, SMA
MOOT PRAYER DEVELOPMENT DAY

Prayer, meditation and contemplation are at the heart of the Moot Rhythm of Life, but many of us have no idea what the various approaches and forms of prayer in Christianity actually are.  This day continues a tradition in Moot, where Julie Dunstan, a friend of the Moot Community, Spiritual Director and Ignatian Spirituality Trainer, takes a day enabling participants to tryout and experience different forms of prayer.  Past attenders of this day of raved about it, as an opportunity to explore prayer with someone who knows what they are talking about.  For more information and to book places, please click here

A Moot friend Mike Angell gave me the heads up on this article. I really like the focus here on all of us mooters being spiritual questers, where we are questing with existential questions, where these questions relate to spiritual and religious experience rather than the answer. Click here for the article.

The main thing I like about questing, is that it is a form of spirituality where you are going deeper with who you are.  One frustration I have with some friends is that they see spirituality as a form of  ’reinventing yourself’ – a consumptive identity – that you just take down from the shelf – one day materialistic the next anti-materialistic, one day prayerful and the next no such thing as prayer, or wanting community but then shunning or keeping away from participation.

What this article echoes for me – is that the spiritual path is one where we don’t reinvent ourselves, rather we go deeper with actually who we are, we seek the essence of what life is, facing ourselves God by living with the questions.  This path has for me three loci – hearing God as an inner voice from within through prayer, meditation and reflection, hearing God through participation in community through the wisdom and pain of friends and fellow travellers, and hearing God through poetry, art and spiritual writing and scripture.

So for me being an authentic quester, is not about reinventing yourself through consumptive-surface-self-definitions as for me this gets very close to self-deception, but rather the need to face your pains, get involved in community and quest through the questions through getting your hands dirty and getting involved in life and not being a spectator who shuns away from participation.

I hope that I will be this type of contemplative CHristian – committed to contemplative-action, where both Christians and Spiritual Questers are hopefully journeying towards the love of God.

This time of year is tough on single people. Believe me I know. Advent and Christmas are whether we like it or not times that are hard for those not in a relationship or from a relationship that has failed recently. Christmas is a reminder of what you hoped would change – the hope of a fulfilling relationship that is just not there. So it is a very hard time, and if this is how you are feeling, with a great concern about seeing relatives that ask inappropriate personal questions about your singleness that just leave you feeling pained and unhappy – I get it and I am absolutely on your side.

I am not going to offer anything contrite or patronising.  I just want to say that this is one of those desert places where we face our fragility and profound humanity where there is a little comfort where things feel very raw.   Just don’t give up hoping and dreaming of what might be, and remember that love is not just human, but there is a place for the ‘Divine-Me’ ‘love-in’ through prayer and meditation.

Sometimes we need experiences that take us away from comfort, and being single in my experience is one of those times.  What keeps me going? Well the 12 step Serenity prayer becomes a bedrock for me – so that I don’t beat myself up for not being in a fulfilling long term relationship, where it may surprise people, but I would love to have children and a stable domestic life.  Just has not ever come close.  So praying the serenity prayer and a refusal to stop hoping and waiting is my only way to cope…  What is the serenity prayer?  See below:

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
as it is, not as I would have it:  Trusting that God will make all things right if I surrender to God’s Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with God Forever in the next.
Reinhold Niebhur

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,  and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge God, and God will direct your paths.
Proverbs 3, 5-6.

So all you single people out there.  Remember you are beautiful and unique people and that God loves you so much, that God came in all humility as a fragile undefended baby as the incarnation of hope.

From this Sunday 27th November from 6.30pm, we start our Advent time of art and spiritual reflection.  There will be a booklet at the suggested donation of £3 available to help get the benefit of engaging with advent as a spiritual season.  Some information is available through the website section called Advent 2011. This includes content for personal weekly devotional reflection and for mini moots.  Click here and look at the subsections on the left side menu.

Starting, sustaining and deepening committed sexual relationships is tough. Many of us grew up in contexts where marriage and long term relationships were not modelled very well. However – healthy, long lasting and life giving intimate sexual relationships including marriage are a very good thing and vitally important to our wellbeing and spirituality. This workshop day is appropriate for a wide range of people who are wanting to explore the whole issue of relationships. It may be that you are a single person exploring the issue, in a boy/girl friend relationship wanting to address issues, a married couple who are wanting to explore aspects of your relationship, or people preparing to get married.

The day begins by reviewing some of the research on marriages and looks at the corrective and repetitive patterns we may have developed from our experience of being parented. As the day is focused on interpersonal relationships, a psychological focus will be used to promote self-understanding and greater insight into your parter.

Cost for the day is £35 a head and run by Pete and Julie Johnson our Senior Pastors through the health and consultancy called Pathways. After paying the church and VAT they get a lot less per day. If you want to come and £35 is too steep for you, please do email us to explore what is affordable for you. Places are limited, so we advise people to book early. To book places and more info click here.

In early 2012, Moot, Christian Aid London Region and SCM are collaborating to support a new Thursday evening gathering in Central London using Moot’s new home at the Guild Church of St Mary Aldermary.

If you are a Christian student in higher education, then we could do with your support.  We are trying to find a name to call it – can you help?  If yes please help us by completing the poll.

Today the United Nations calculate that the world population has reached 7 billion people.  This means that the population has doubled exponentially in the last 30 years.  Further, it is calculated that in the next 30 years we will have to create more food than we have had to find in the last 800 years putting enormous pressure on the world’s eco-diversity and resources.   But – this is not an easy issue.   When it comes to population, what is a sustainable global level?  Again how do such things get decided without giving privilege to the West?  How do we avoid eugenics and stereotyped responses?   I know it is unpopular but China has been an interesting experiment in population control, and they have relieved one crisis of over population but now face another with an increasingly older population.

As Christians I do think we need to engage with this question.  Too often it feels like the Church has no opinion and I do not accept the position of the Roman Catholic Church about family planning approach to birth control is a ‘sin’.  Surely the image in Genesis is about stewardship, and stewardship should not be about reducing the world to a barren resource to meet our own needs.  Surely it is about maintaining the bio-diversity of the planet.  We have as a human race become quite viral, taking over whole habitats and in many places making those habitats unsustainable.  What is our theology and narrative to a Christian approach to population control and stewardship – our silence collectively as Church and Christian on the matter is deafening.

We should not forget the big connection between Capitalism as the dehumanisation of humanity to become little more than economic inputs – a form of violence, and then the same violence being expressed to the planet.  This is oppression of the planet and humanity.  So far the world has relied on the myth of progress, that societies will become better at population control as they progress and that the world will be more valued as we have greater insight into the worlds issues.  However this never quite seems to happen. We forget the distorting effects of the human shadow side and ego – and the distorting effects of greed, anger and fear which resonate with the desire for power and domination as a market value.  So how do we Christians live differently?

I hope protests like that at St Paul’s continue to raise these issues to keep them at a conscious societal level, because it seems we, our churches and our government are more concerned with economics and maintaining our life styles than the prospect of unsustainable population and ecocide.