Thnk you to all those who gave so generously to provide goats for Kilimatinde at our harvest services yesterday.   We don't have full results yet, but several hundred pounds have been given - thank you.


Click here for an article about World Vision's earlier Nyasa project in which goats changed the local economy. 

 
 "Yesterday, we snuck out to a local café on “Flower Street”.  Entering through the two heavily guarded entrances, we stepped into a beautiful garden, full of vines and sunflowers, tables and cushions around the sides.  It was a very lovely vibe, and you could almost forget the barbed wire on the surrounding walls.  We all sat in the sunlight reading our books, watching the other groups of Internationals enjoying the sunlight.  Inside, the café was beautifully and tastefully decorated, with vibrant reds and paintings hanging from the walls.  I confess I have felt incredibly starved of “culture” lately; anything vaguely cultural is rarely open to women, and it is one of the things I miss most.  Just having the opportunity to gaze at the art for awhile, I felt enlivened.  In the evening, we went to our favourite restaurant, the Korean one.  Run by Christians, we can relax once inside, taking off our headscarves.  They make delicious Teriyaki Tofu onsite, but what I love best of all is the Korean tea.  Served in octagonal glass teacups, upon octagonal glass saucers, the translucent liquid and its gentle taste, is a piece of art.

"Prior to the bombings, I had a few victories of my own.  Firstly, I taught my first glass, a group of 15 younger girls.  This Semester, we are doing arts, and exploring the idea that “Art is Everywhere”.  Our first class was all about lines.  Having been warned that the kids tend to copy, rather than come up with anything original, I talked to them about Christopher Columbus: how he had set off to find Asia, but instead found America.  How explorer’s aren’t scared off making mistakes and going places no-one’s ever been before.  Story certainly seems a culturally appropriate way of teaching; for they were all absorbed.  But, when it came to drawing, they forgot about drawing lines and started drawing stuff.  So I read out the riot act:  the two rules, one – to draw upon the paper, two – to draw lines.  In groups they worked together, and one group began really having fun with different lines, layering the different colours and being fearless.  The next week, we did rubbings, and it was a roaring success, going around the Skatepark – inside and out – and delighting in textures.  But, the thing that stood the most out was observing the girl’s unhappiness when grouped apart from their friends.  Of course, this is normal in classrooms, but what bothered me was how the more educated girls were unprepared to work together with the poorer girls, even to the extent of ostracising them from the group.  I still don’t know how best to tackle this as an educator, so any advice would go down a treat.  That evening, we were driving back and, on the road, I saw some of my girls, begging amidst the traffic.  When they saw us, they hid – despite our waving – I supposed they felt ashamed.  That made me feel sad.

"Aside from classes, I had a very enjoyable conversation with two of the female Afghan staff members.  One of them works for us fulltime, and is an inspired Educator.  The other is the only woman studying Engineering at Kabul University.  I feel really grateful for my “Eastern” background – my Sri Lankan experience puts me somewhere between these young women and the Western staff-and it was interesting to talk."
 
Hiranya



 
St John's Hillingdon (near Heathrow airport) has operated Rolling Worship for 4 1/2 year now.  This article is copied from their website.

It's fascinating to see how much they have in common with us (though until we began Rolling Worship we had no links at all).  Like us, they are wrestling with "a fallible institution with a frustratingly inflexible building."   And there are parallels between the team they send out fortnightly to run something at a local garden centre, and our involvement with the Boot Sale Project.

If you can see other parallels or things to learn, do leave a comment!


Back in January 2007, our ancient parish church officially laid to rest existing Sunday service structures and adopted a new identity. "Come when you can, Go when you like" has been our strapline ever since. 



It seemed many people looking to the church were prevented from seeing Jesus, hindered by unnecessary obstacles. Embarrassment about arriving late from football practice; ‘churchy’ behaviour; juggling church with family commitments... Actually, these were issues for 'insiders' too. Desiring to relate ‘sacred’ to ‘secular’, to connect Sundays to ‘the rest of life’, our culture had already shifted to being more ‘user-friendly’.



Changing the ‘packaging’ literally incorporated flexibility so newcomers can engage at their own pace. Three congregations: the early morning (traditional), mid-morning (middle of the road) and late morning ('alternative'), now overlap more, via breakfast, coffee and lunch. Ten consecutive half-hour slots allow for varying degrees of participation. More than thirty people take turns leading from the front, via teams, one of which meets each week to prepare. Themes and readings are presented in different ways to suit different congregations over the course of each Sunday.



We believe that we cannot love one another by just staring at the back of each others' heads. Real 'church' happens in the engagements between people, over planning, and in the many opportunities to interact on Sunday and beyond. What goes on ‘at the front’ aims to facilitate this. Liturgical liberties are taken; for visitors used to church, comings and goings might seem unsettling and chaotic. But others speak gladly (and with relief) about finding relevance and 'reality' in the relaxed atmosphere. We laugh a lot.



Church, the theory goes, is not here to keep church going, but to equip us as Christians to work with God in the world. The question is often asked, would God prefer more hymn-singing and ‘feelgood’, or want us to go away and engage in loving our families and others? When we encourage people NOT come every week, we are not always taken seriously, but a fortnightly gathering has been happening in the local garden centre on Sunday mornings for a few years now, sharing with people who prefer 'neutral' territory.



'Open Church', all week, has 'no strings'. Various groups use our medieval building on weekdays, with no pressure to be part of church. We recognise that God is involved whenever people come together. 



We’re a diverse lot. We continue to evolve, and struggle to stay ‘fresh’ in the practicalities of being a fallible institution with a frustratingly inflexible building. Numbers have remained fairly constant, in a relatively mobile demographic, despite a largely elderly membership. Giving people much more choice in how and when they worship, has brought a significant increase in active participation and sense of belonging.