Pioneer Spirituality edited by Jonny Baker and Cathy Ross reviewed

Put this up on my review blog earlier. Realised that it may be interesting to readers of this blog too. Pioneering Spirituality: Resources for reflection and practice edited by Cathy Ross and Jonny Baker, published by Canterbury Press, is the latest work from the CMS stable.

Whilst distinctly different from its predecessor , which I reviewed last year -The Pioneer Gift ,it still has the familiar format of having a range of chapters from practitioners in a range of contexts. The work that Baker and Ross do involves seeking to facilitate the hearing of voices which might not otherwise be heard. This has primarily involved seeking to ensure that it is those who would describe themselves as pioneers whose stories and theological reflections are heard.

The scope of contributors to this book seems wider than in previous texts of this kind. It seems that going beyond the traditionally recognised type of fresh expressions and pioneering projects they are engaging more widely with different types of pioneering. This includes hearing the voices of Harvey Kwiyani who is one of a group of Malawian pastors living and working in Nottingham and Berdine Van Den Toren-Lekkerkerker and Benno Van Den Toren who are originally from the Netherlands but have worked in various parts of the world. The former discusses African Spirituality in Western Contexts and the latter From Missionary Incarnate to Incarnational Guest: A Critical Reflection on Incarnation as a Model for Missionary Presence. There is also a chapter by anti-FGM activist Ann-Marie Wilson, who started 28 Too Many, on An Active Spirituality for Mission.

That said there are the familiar type of Pioneers in here too such as Gavin Mart of Engedi Arts who is a Methodist Venture FX Pioneer. Whilst Ross and Baker are careful not to speak with the voices of academics, rather presenting their introductory chapter in a more conversational form the academic voice is here too. Not only via Ross (and to a lesser extent Baker) but also through Stephen Bevans of Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. Bevans chapter Dancing with the Missionary God: Towards a Mission Spirituality seeks to identify six constant features of spirituality which provide a template for those engaged in pioneer mission.

The Bevans chapter is one which seeks to invite the practitioner to reflect on their own spirituality and seek to identify what both unpins it but also what sustains it. This concept of ensuring the pioneers own spirituality is sustained and the sharing of ideas and practices to help with this is the focus of the first part of the book. The most powerful chapters on this topic I believe are Kate Pearson’s on Angela of Foligno as a Model for Pioneer Minstry and Beth Honey’s Pioneers as Pilgrims. Both of these chapters were particularly useful to me personally as I seek to identify how to develop my own spirituality having moved into a lay university chaplaincy role – a role that in her chapter Pearson who is a chaplain at a different university describes as having “been a space for pioneers for a long time.” (p80)

Other chapters particularly in the second half of the book talk more about practice and how to help others develop their spirituality. Johnny Sertin’s chapter on Getting Dirty talked about doing this within a Church of England Parish Context whilst Tina Hodgett talked about it in relation to a group for young mums in her chapter on Doors in the Air: Baby Spirituality. These were interesting chapters telling the stories of what they were doing in a way which readers of the Ancient Faith, Future Mission series will be familiar.

Overall though this is more of a book to help pioneers themselves reflect rather than a book for those outside the system. It is a text to help understanding between different groups and to facilitate a conversation as illustrated by Kim Hartshorne’s We Are One Body Because We all Share in One Bread: Pioneering and the Eucharist. This chapter was focused on explaining to those from lower church backgrounds particularly why the Eucharist is so important to many practitioners from an Anglican tradition. This chapter articulated clearly why the rules matter to some people and why in finding new ways of doing things respect needs to be given to existing etiquettes. Again as somebody who doesn’t at times understand the need for the rules and restraints this was something I found particularly useful.

Overall this is a book which I would highly recommend to those who are seriously following developments in this area of pioneer ministry and mission because it highlights how maturing is now occurring. There is also more space being given to voices of those who have come from elsewhere to the UK which is good. I would also recommend it to practitioners who wish to reflect on their own practice and rootedness. Would I recommend it beyond that readership? I am not sure. Whilst it is a very good book and very readable and far less of a text book than some recent books I have read in this area it is still I believe quite specialist reading. It is clearly seeking to support the growing band of practitioners whilst developing some important conversations. It is a book of sharing ideas and also asking important questions of pioneers themselves.

Advent Reading by Richard Coles and Fiona Joseph

Fathomless Riches by Richard Coles and Beatrice: The Cadbury Heiress Who Gave Away Her Fortune by Fiona Joseph may not sound like the most obvious Advent reading. Yet, they’ve been what I’ve been delving into in recent days.

Why? Well part of it relates to the comments I picked up from one of the Queen’s lecturers whilst I was sitting in college communion (something I tend to do on Tuesday evening). He was talking about Advent being a time to examine our history and look for evidence of God breaking through. It is a time for looking back and looking forward whilst focusing on the difference Christ’s coming makes.

Both books enable you to reflect on the ways in which God’s kingdom breaks through and how this occurs in ways in which you might not expect. They also both, in their own ways, provide challenges for the reader because they show that ethics and actions are not simple.

Beatrice was a book I first heard about when the author gave a talk at Greenbelt a few years ago which I found absolutely fascinating. Somehow, though I never got round to reading the book until this week. It is a biography of Beatrice Boekes (nee Cadbury) whose Quaker roots and understanding of Marxist theory saw her adopt an increasingly radical lifestyle during much of her life. This included outdoors preaching which saw here frequently arrested and at one point giving up the use of money amongst other things. She was also responsible with her husband Kees for setting up a school and helping Jewish children escaping persecution in the Second World War.

This sounds admirable and it might be easy for one to get overly romantic about the world of Beatrice and her family. However, the book veers away from uncritical praise of her actions. Rather it details the difficulties this caused to her family and others who were seeking to ensure the welfare of the family.

Thus it shows that we need to think about our actions. God uses those who are willing to take risks and work beyond the status quo to help build his kingdom but those people have a duty of care towards those around them too.

Before I’d turned my attention to Beatrice and a Brum based book I had read Richard Coles Fathomless Riches or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit. This was a book I had pretty much avoided for a year. I suspect part of it was that I didn’t quite trust what I was going to get from it. I’m not entirely sure why but I didn’t. Then there was the fact the only comments I had heard about it seemed to focus on dogging, (suggesting people had not really gotten past the first few pages).

My view on the book changed in when I went to an event at the Birmingham Literature Festival where Coles was interviewed by Catherine Ogle, a Dean at Birmingham Cathedral. This previous post from my review blog explains something about why that evening changed things.

So it was I read the book, a memoir which does what it says on the cover and tells how a former pop star ended up training for ministry.

The book talks of his family and youth and then moves on to his life within the early 80’s gay scene in London before looking at his life post-fame and his involvement with the rave culture. It then moves on to exploring his interest in religion and the tensions he encountered between an Anglican and Catholic identity. Within this sex and drug use are a part but there is far more within this text.

First is one of the most moving accounts of the impact of the Aids crisis on the ‘80’s gay community I have read. This is something in the Literature Festival talk Coles had said he had not found cathartic to write. The pain within what he writes is clear and it is movingly described.

Scattered throughout the book are accounts of how he messed up and the regrets he has. It’s a book which seems scattered with references to repentance and gives some examples of what this might look like in practice.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading both books. They were both highly readable whilst subtly challenging. They also in their own way did show a real picture of God’s Kingdom breaking in on the margins as well as within the establishment. 

Letter to Miriam (Exodus 15)

Dear Miriam,

I am taking it you were with Moses and the Israelites when they sang a song exalting the Lord for what he had done to the Egyptians.

It is obviously a song of praise mixed with a telling of your people’s story. I find it a hard song of praise to connect with.

You are praising God for his anger against another group of people and for taking the lives of others. Yes, they were oppressors and they were your supposed enemies but they were still people made in the image of God.

In verse seven it talks about God unleashing his burning anger and that is something I can sort of get. I have no doubt God looks at the world at the moment seeing all the pain and senseless killing in it and is both angry and sad. Yet, as I say you are also celebrating violence and the destruction of others.

I could dwell on this but will not. I have recently read the Christmas Sermon on Peace which Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in 1967 and I think that says far more about where my concerns lie than I could.

What I want to enquire about is you and your status. Verse 20 describes you as a prophetess. What exactly did that mean in your context? You are also described as Aaron’s sister but we also know you to be Moses’. Is it the fact you grew up around Aaron which made you identified in that way?

You appear to have the role of leading the women. Was this because yours was a segregated society? Did you, as an Israelite, have a role Moses’ wife ,who was partly foreign, could not?

How did the men relate to you? Were you married and did you have a position of leadership higher than your husband or were you single?

Again you are a figure who seems significant but we seem to know relatively little about.

Then there is the wandering without water. Were you scared? Did people turn on you as well as Moses?

I know a lot of questions but you raise them in my mind and as so often the text can’t answer them.

Letter to a Chariot Driver (Exodus 14)

Dear Chariot Driver,

You are representative of the ordinary service personnel who suffer and die when rulers order you into an action which may be futile. Yet you also represent how ordinary people may be motivated into the actions they are because of fear and the desire to exact revenge too.

I am assuming you had a child or children or brothers or sisters. You had suffered loss and pain over a sustained period of time due to the acts of Pharaoh and God hardening his heart. You would have been in a state of anger and fear I suspect and so we can understand why you may have wished to exact revenge on those who you believed had caused you so much suffering.

I suspect that there would have been a sense of relief you were rid of the Israelites and the suffering which had been caused as Pharaoh would not let them go. Yet, I also imagine that you may have had feelings of hate against them which I cannot imagine or understand which came out of the suffering you had endured.

As I say you were also being ordered into action by the Pharaoh and other senior officials. It would have been almost impossible for you not to comply to these orders.

When the cloud came down as you were in the water what was it like? I imagine the horror must have been unimaginable, with the horses panicking and the noise which would have been generated as people sought not to avoid one another but couldn’t as the wheels got clogged and the screams as people died, even before the waters came over.

You wanted to escape but you were not given the chance. You died in the water in what must have been a horrific event, seeing the events of your life come before you.

I cannot understand your situation or the actions your people took with regard to keeping and abusing slaves, just as I cannot understand much of the horror in the world today.

As I read this living in a situation where people around the world are still dying in violence which is so often rooted in revenge and fear and the acts of those who are seeking to exploit those feelings in others I have to pause.

I have been taught to see the Egyptians who were keeping the Israelites in fear as “the baddies” and the Israelites being led by Moses into freedom as “the goodies”. The truth is in this situation there were too many ordinary people, who are innocent, suffering as victims on sides all. The narrative of the Old Testament is not as I have been taught to read it.

It is complicated, just as the current situation in the Middle East is. The Palestinians are suffering and need their freedom, but at the same time many ordinary Israelis are too.

This part of Exodus has taught me very much to question see things more widely and to identify how far too many people are dying or living with pain, bereavement and injury – leading to fear and a desire for revenge. To reduce things to “the oppressed” and “the oppressor” is too simplistic, just as I think my engagement with the bible (on a non-academic level) has been. 

Letter to Moses (Exodus 10 - 13)

Dear Moses,

I am writing this short letter asking simply how did you cope with the horror which was going on around you?

I am angry God kept hardening Pharaoh’s heart and that more people had to die. I really don’t know if it was the only way that freedom was possible. If so I struggle to understand that.

I hope in some ways this is a narrative put together to explain history, but don’t know if it was. I struggle with this passage deeply.

I could go through the different plagues and festivals but I feel that is not appropriate. I want to know how God’s will could be the slaughter of innocent children.

People tend to try and explain it away saying it was cultural, or it was necessary. I don’t believe the slaughter of the innocents could have been necessary and I don’t believe a God of love would choose to do this.

I am writing to you struggling with what kind of God I worship. If this is true that God did kill in this manner does it mean that mean he still justifies violence which takes place in his name? If he does I cannot worship this God, yet he is not the God I know and so I have to question this account.

The only thing I can take from this is that I come from a nation who has to take responsibility in our past for acts of barbarity and violence too. Perhaps this is another group seeking to explain the worst parts of their history too, where in the complexity of trying to obtain freedom they had to undertake acts of atrocity. 

Letter to Official (Who Took His Cattle & Slaves Inside) (Exodus 9)

Dear Official Who Took Their Cattle & Slaves Inside,

I write to you with intrigue and a mixture of feelings. You were a slave owner, somebody who kept a system of oppression in place and benefitted from the extreme suffering of others. Yet at the same time you were a human being who had the same choices as many to make in terms of whether you lived within the status quo and the norms and values of your context or not.  

You were an official of Pharaoh and by that I take it you were some kind of advisor to him during this crisis. In terms of how God hardened his heart I am wondering if it was done through some hard line advisors who kept pushing for the most extreme action. It seems from this chapter that a split was emerging between you officials in terms of how you felt about it all. People such as yourself seem to be on one side, perhaps urging the more passive approach whilst others seem to be much more hard-line.

What happened once the Israelite livestock survived and the Egyptian livestock had died? Whilst it is not stated I would imagine in that situation, where the Israelites were slaves that their livestock would have been taken from them. If it wasn’t was it through fear, or did somebody try that and then the livestock died?

What did you think when Moses and Aaron took the soot from the kiln? Were they viewed as magicians and sorcerers themselves? I get the feeling they were which is why Pharaoh seems to have produced his own. I cannot imagine the scene of horror which the boils were creating. How did it feel for you? Was the screaming induced almost as bad as the physical pain? Was this the point you started fearing the Lord, or had it occurred earlier?

I find it interesting in this situation that my holy book says “the boils afflicted the magicians as well as the Egyptians”. What ethnic group did the magicians come from? Were they Israelites or from some other nation? This is something I had not picked up before, that they were not your own people. Did they initially come to serve the court as entertainers but were viewed as having other powers too?

When you heard the Lord tell you that he had let you live what did you think? Did it confuse you? I am confused by the Lord throughout this whole thing because it seems just as those of you advising Pharaoh to let the Egyptians go the Lord hardens his heart. As I say earlier I am not sure if this was done via a set of hard-line advisors. That’s the thing which makes sense to me, that there was somebody coming up with some really nasty stuff about the consequences of letting them go which changed his mind. Yet, the Lord was behind that and the messes with my head.

The hardening of hearts caused untold suffering to people on both sides of this, slavery continued for longer as well as the Egyptians going through more suffering. Why? I cannot think of rational explanations.

With the hail thing I find it interesting that God seems to be exploiting the divisions between you officials by giving you the warning and seeing who would listen and who would not. Did he do this to measure the overall feeling in court and see how many people, such as yourself, would listen and how many were still hard-liners? If so I can see the logic.

 

 

Yet it is something else which makes me angry and makes me question how a loving God could do this when it caused human and animal death, including the death of slaves.

You and your family were safe, because you had listened and taken everybody inside and sought to save as much as you could. I wonder through this experience did you seek to treat your slaves at home differently? Did you start to ask them about their God and their traditions? Were you scared of them and what they might do to you and your family? I also wonder if you sent as many as possible back to Goshen. Was that like the townships were in South Africa? Was it a short distance away, like a suburb, and the slaves came in from there each day to you? Yet, Egypt is a vast land and it could not have been like that everywhere unless Goshen was a term for ghetto and each town had one. I wonder if that was the case. It would make sense to me.

You must have felt some kind of relief for taking the right action. It must also have strengthened your resolve to argue the case to Pharaoh for letting the slaves go. I wonder if that is why Pharaoh then says he will let the people go.

I wonder why Moses, who appears to be speaking and doing the work in this narrative, which is clearly different to the one where Aaron is the main orator says you do not really believe. Is it because yours seemed to be a belief of convenience based on fear created by the confusion and pain of the events rather than a real fear based on a conscious choice to believe? I find that interesting. That God demands that our belief and awe/ fear of him to be out of a freely made choice rather than a knee jerk reaction to our experience. Was there some custom linked to the Wheat harvest that you were planning for which indicated that you were not ready to follow Israelite customs and so still following your own gods rather than fearing God? I ask because the mention of what crops had and hadn’t been destroyed, in brackets seems rather random.

I notice that after the hail stops the hearts of Pharaoh and the officials, such as yourself, hardens but on this occasion it is not the Lord who appears to be hardening the heart. Does this mean that once the crisis was over the hardliners who remained amongst the officials gave a strong case which seemed convincing to most of you? What was it that made your own heart harden? Was it the economic case or what? Too often the hardening of hearts comes from fear and I wonder what was said to make you scared again?

This letter to you has been longer than most I write, I guess it is unconsciously allowing me to speak to those leaders in my own world whose decisions I cannot understand. It is also because yours is another story which seems vital to understanding the bigger picture yet which is not fully recorded. The image included is one I found on a wall in the city I live in and photographed. It seems to describe part of what is going on in your context and so I am not going to explain it, rather I leave it to speak for itself.

Letter to Aaron (Exodus 8)

Dear Aaron,

I am getting more interested in you and your story as Exodus continues. I had always thought it was Moses staff being used and you were just the voice who Moses spoke through, but I am realising I was wrong.

You are described in an earlier chapter as a “prophet”, somebody in your own right who is speaking and acting against power to give the message of God. We too often condemn you to being “Moses brother”. This identifying people by their relationship to another rather than in their own right is a common mistake in our society. You remind us there is so much more to the other and their story is vitally important too.

As I read about you I am intrigued about how you were able to do some of the things you did. For example how did you gain access to Pharaoh in the first place? How come you were not put under arrest, or more probably killed for your actions? Then there is the question of how you were able to get to the different rivers and canals to put your staff over them? Did you have to travel all over the country in disguise?

I ask these questions being aware that two versions of this story are interwoven and that there are questions over your existence. Personally I think that you were real and that you acted against the state in order to free your people. I think that the stories of the plagues do describe events which happened at the same time as you were involved in your freedom fighting.

I think it is particularly interesting that your story highlights the overlap between freedom fighting and terrorism. If we look at it in a modern context you would have been viewed as a terrorist. God through you was causing massive disruption in the land. These actions were of a sort which today would be described as environmental terrorist acts. I wonder if that was why Pharaoh’s heart hardened, did he get to the stage where he realised that things needed to change but then think if they did he would be giving in to you? Or was it he realised the implications on the economy and his great civilisation he let you go? I am not sure, but I think the hardening of the heart may be able to be looked at in these terms.

Your story actually reminds me a lot of what I know about South Africa and the ANC actions there. That gives a different question, did the response of the authorities always harden against your people too? We know initially that was what happened but did it happen after each plague too?

How did you cope with the disappointment of thinking on several occasions, this was it you had gained freedom, but then having Pharaoh change his mind? I cannot imagine what that was like for you. How much did you let Elisheba know about what was happening? Did she and the boys have to go into hiding? I am imagining that Goshen was tightly controlled by the Egyptians.

What were your feelings towards Moses? He seems to have your total trust, how was that gained? As you can tell I have lots of questions for you because you intrigue me the more I read about you.

In terms of what you teach me I guess a large part of it is that of having courage to speak out against injustice. I am not in your situation and so am not called to engage in acts against the state. I am not called to speak truth to power like you were either, but I do know there are still injustices in my society which God does call me as a Christian to speak out on. Whilst he does raise up prophets such as yourself many more of us are called to follow the example of the prophet in resisting unjust authorities and speaking up for the marginalised and speaking out against injustice.