Random Links 78

What’s the Point of Church? (mp3)
I was laughing and brought to some simple deeper reflections after listening to my UK friend Jason Clark He asked a great question, “What if community is a by product of being and doing church?”. A great antidote to the consumer streak in us!

Simon Mayo interviews Rowan Williams (HT: Maggi)
Half way through two answers caught my attention:
One on leadership as Archbishop… “I think what I’d say is, the very first thing in the job is to try and set a tone. That sounds a bit pompous, but what I mean is, you try and talk about and model ways of getting on with other people, that aren’t just about bullying or manipulation or whatever. You try and encourage an atmosphere in the Church of people listening to each other, and being grateful for each other. That’s at the top of my list, and second, I think is: ‘Can you help make sense of people to one another?’ Imagine you’ve got a room with two people shouting at each other. How do you then set about getting each of them to listen to the other and begin to learn their language a little bit? So, a lot of – not shuttle diplomacy in the literal sense but – a sort of shuttling backwards and forwards between different groups of people saying: ‘Look, listen, this is what they are really trying to say. Don’t jump to conclusions.'”

Another on what’s central to him… “The central things for me, what I want to witness to, that the Church doesn’t exist because we’ve decided that it will, because we like the idea, because we get on with each other – it exists because of God. So everything in the church has to begin and end in the worship and praise of God. Nothing, absolutely nothing, is more important than that. And the most important form that takes for a Christian, is gratitude. Something extraordinary has happened to us, something has overtaken us, something we could never have expected. Back to Narnia again, really. What happens is a surprise. The winter breaks, the weather changes. So, that’s at the very heart of everything, and that, I think, ought to put a little bit into perspective our absolute passion for trying to get everything right at every point. We have to try. We make mistakes. And there is always a God great enough to pick up the pieces and give us a fresh start.”

Future Directions in Systematic Theology
Some food for the end of the year …before stepping into the next … “Theology is political. It is a public claim that contests other claims. The purpose and context of teaching and doctrine is to point to the action of God in holding the world open, so it is also a challenge to us to act. Only Christianity can consistently point to a future. Now that gives us plenty to do.”

Jouvert: journal of postcolonial studies
another resource to unpack the word “postcolonial”

Latin Dictionary and Grammar Aid
for mortals like me …

The Little Prince
I’m reading this for the first time!