benedson

Where is God in the Football riots?

I left Sanctus1 last night  to encounter police dresses in full riot gear.  There was a tangible sense of tension in the air and level of nervousness on the streets.  I'd been in the city centre since 17:00 and it was heaving with 100,000 Rangers Fans.  I'd cleaned up vomit from the toilets of Nexus, shut Nexus early because of the threat, had water stolen from us, seen people skinning up on the front step,  been in a crowd where bottles were being thrown and witnessed horrific sectarian abuse.  I'd received many messages throughout the day telling me how 'bad' the city centre was and yet I was still excited about the prospect of entering the city.

As a church, and as a church leader in the city centre, I/we are called to reflect on out context and ask the question: Where do we find God in this?  Where is God in 100,000 pissed football fans rampaging through our city centre?  I cannot believe that God is not there and therefore I will not.  Yet, at the same time we are called to be critical, we cannot blindly affirm all that is happening without criticizing the destructive force that is at work here.

Being a church in the city centre means that this is your context - this is where we outwork our Christian faith. Last night we were exploring three different positive Christian approaches to the environment finishing with Fox's Creation Spirituality.  I finished with a quote from Fox:

Creation spirituality, a path that we choose to take that is distinct from other ways offered us, begins with creation and the cosmos.  Only later does it get to the human story, which then attracts us like jewel set in the larger drama of creation itself.

I read this and then 20 minutes later I left Sanctus1 and saw blue flashing lights and riot police.  Are we really the jewel in the cosmos?  I still believe that we are...

Comments here

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, footy, Manchester

Week Three - Dirty Mother

This week is Christian Aid week so the programme has been stepped up and we have a number of special guests and events:

Tuesday 13th

Lunch Time talk with Jennipher Sakala - 13:20 Nexus

Carbon Vs Condom Debate - 19:30 Nexus

Wednesday 14th

Lunch Time talk with Dave Hardman from Christian Aid - 13:20 Nexus

Sanctus1 - Christianity and the Environment: 19:30 Nexus

Thursday 15th

Lunch Time talk with Fabienne Katy Camm from Christian Aid - 13:20 Nexus

How would you spend £3billion? Drop in between 19:00 and 21:00 in Nexus with clean air now

Friday 16th

Lunch Time talk with very special guest Daleep Mukarji - 13:20 Nexus

Pingu Bingo - 20:00 in Nexus with MFOE

Saturday 17th

Street Theatre with MFOE and Christian Aid: 12:00 - 17:00

Radio GMR

I'm on the radio tomorrow morning - 8:00 am on BBC GMR.

Climate vs Condom Debate

On May 13th as part of the dirty mother programme we're having a debate called Climate vs Condom it starts at 19:30. It's exploring the relationship between population control and climate change. Here are the panelists are their bio's:

Marc Hudson

Marc Hudson was born and raised in Australia (mostly). His life-time carbon footprint is pretty damn big. He set up Manchester Climate Forum in February 2007 as a space for members of the public, activists and 'experts' to meet. He has also organised conferences at and with the Royal Society on climate change, and spent a lot of 2006 working on Climate Camp (the one at Drax).

He's appeared in the pages of the Daily Mail as a green zealot who decided not to have children to save the planet, but would like to point out that virtually none of the words or arguments those stupid hacks put in his mouth were accurate.

He has a BA and a BSC, but no particular training in climate science.

He believes that we should not have children not because of what our children will do to the planet, but what the planet will do to our children.

Nick Reeves
Nick Reeves is Executive Director of the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management (CIWEM), a Chartered Environmentalist, an artist, and a writer and broadcaster on environmental issues.

Nick has been Executive Director of CIWEM since 1998.

His previous roles include Director of Policy & Deputy CEO at the Institute of Leisure and Amenity Management (ILAM); Managing Director of Land Technology Ltd; Head of Environment with a local authority; artist; a freelance journalist writing on cultural affairs, wellbeing and the environment; Adviser to the South East Arts Board; Founder of the CIWEM Arts and Environment Network.

Other Roles and Activities: Co-founder of the Green Flag Awards Scheme - the Government funded environmental awards scheme and member of the CLG Green Flag Advisory Board; Science Council Board Member; Board Member, the Society for the Environment; Board Member, the Sustainable Organic Resources Partnership; Member of the RSA Environmental Awards Forum; Member of the Environment Agency's Thames Region Fisheries, Ecology & Recreation Advisory Committee; Trustee of 'Brumcan', a recycling and environmental charity.

Nick is an Honorary Fellow of CIWEM, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Horticulture, Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Freeman of the City of London and a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Water Conservators.

Dr. Dermot Grenham
Currently studying, full time, for a MSc at the London School of Economics in Population and Development

Previously spent 20 years working in the financial services industry as an actuary (worked for companies such as Prudential, PwC and Ernst & Young).

Studied maths at university (University College London) and did a doctorate in maths at Oxford.

Got interested in demography while at Oxford and has tried to maintain an interest ever since.

Promoted!!

Congratulations to my footy team, Nottingham Forest on our promotion today!! It's been a tense season but has finished on a high note and with Mark Berry's, Derby amassing the worst ever premier league total it's all sweet!! Looking forward to beating them in the championship next season and hoping that we don't even get to play Malcolm's Leicester City - Come-on Stoke!!

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, footy

Images from the Dirty Mother launch night

Dirty Mother

The Dirty Mother blog has been launched. Dirty Mother is a month long programme of events focusing on climate change. The month includes all sorts of events such as an exhibition, quiz nights, open mic sessions, talks by guest such as Barry Taylor and Daleep Mukarji, there will also be panel debates and a variety of other activities.

It's a partnership between Sanctus1, Christian Aid and Nexus and we've also been working very closely with Manchester Friends of the Earth. So come along and see what we're doing - The full programme is here.

A Conjuring Trick with Bones or the Resurrected Vaux?

So it seems that Vaux is back. I'm pleased.

But you can't just commit suicide and then come back to life, that doesn't happen...death, is death, is death, is death. Unless of course you are the son of God...and i don't think that even Vaux would claim that! So this has raised a number of questions for me:

Was it a real attempt at vauxicide?
If it wasn't death then is this simply a conjuring trick with bones?

If as I speculated here, it was part of a rite of passage then, how will the 'mature' vaux differ to the adolescent one?

Was 'vauxicide' a cry for help?
Is meaning found in death?
If this is a resurrected body then how is it different to the previous body?

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, Vaux

The Seven Year Itch and the Bishops Mission Order

Seven years ago i stood in Sheffield Cathedral and made some promises; I did the same in Manchester Cathedral a few months later...I'd made promises to the Church, promises to obey the Bishop and committed myself for the foreseeable future to the good old C of E. Seven years on and I'm feeling rather itchy.

There are a few things that i think that are causing that, and i think that quite interesting they reflect the life of Fresh Expressions over the last 5 year. I think that part of my vocation is to walk on the edge and therefore as Fresh Expressions has got closer to the centre I question if that is where my vocation is... When Sanctus1 was first started 6 years ago there was no Mission Shaped Church Report and no mixed economy. A few months later, with a new arch-bishop there was a mixed economy and Mission Shaped Church was published. Sanctus1 was mentioned in MSC, we were moving towards the centre.

This week the Bishops Mission Order (BMO)has been finally approved (see here) what this means is that we can legally belong, we can legally be part of the C of E. This is fantastic news for Fresh Expressions all over the country including Sanctus1, it is a seismic shift in the C of E and is great, great news for the church. But personally, there is the slight feeling that i will miss the edge. I miss the excitement of not belonging, the excitement of pioneering, the excitement of new things...

I was at a FE conference a few weeks ago and there was talk of crossing the river Jordan, as Joshua did with the Israelites, and moving to the promised land...but everything within me was saying 'maybe I'm not called to settle, maybe I'm called to be a wanderer'. The exilic community of Moses is for me an attractive place to be,a place of pioneering, of survival, of establishing the ground rules...

So I'm itchy, dearly dearly love the C of E, but thinking that i need to move closer to the edge. I'll never leave it, well i don't think that i will, but know that as Fresh Expressions becomes closer to the centre there will be a loss of the exciting pioneering spirit. I've had a cursory glance at other churches, which whilst they may appear attractive on the surface, I know that I'm where I'm called to be. Sometimes, however where you called to be isn't always the easiest of places...

Technorati Tags: Ben Edson, Fresh Expressions, Bishops Mission Order

Subverting the Empire - Blah Tour...

Okay, Blah...mcr has been quite for a while but we're back with a tour! Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat are doing three dates around the UK and they'll be in Mcr on the 5th June under the title of 'Colossians Remixed'! Book here cost is £15 for the entire day, times and venue on the booking site...

Technorati Tags: Blah..., subverting the empire