Pentecost: When the spirit comes, the world is transformed!

In place of our weekly blog, we bring you a sermon preached by our Director, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie, at Magdalen College, Oxford, for Pentecost. In it he covers the Holy Spirit, Social Justice and one of our heroes… Fr Basil Jellicoe.

“Bishops are often told to stick to spiritual matters, and to stay out of politics and economics. Such advice is half right: the Church and its leaders certainly should focus on to spiritual matters. After all, that’s why Bishops get to wear such funny hats. The curious shape of the mitre is modelled on the flames of the Spirit that descended on the Apostles at Pentecost. They remind us that Bishops are “spiritual” leaders, and indeed that the mission of the whole Church is a “spiritual” one.

The problem comes when we assume that political and economic questions – the quality of people’s housing, the wages they are paid, the way a country treats refugees – are somehow not “spiritual” issues.

“Life changing” – spend the summer with CTC…

Community Organising l and tagged interns, Jellicoe, summer l May 12, 2015

The Revd Tim Clapton, Director of our Urban Leadership School, blogs on our upcoming summer internships programme…

I find it useful when people offer their feedback and reflections – it’s the best way of evaluating a piece of work. So when, the other day, I met a young man who some years ago, had taken part in our Jellicoe Internship, I was keen to hear what he had to say. I asked him how he found it. Would he recommend it to others?

His reply, or perhaps the way he replied, gave me quite a shock. Previously we had just been informally standing around in a group sipping wine, but when I asked the question he suddenly turned around and looked straight at me. He said, “Jellicoe totally changed the course of my life.”

Citizens UK Election Assembly – Politicians held to account at unique event

Community Organising, Just Money l and tagged Citizens UK, General Election l May 6, 2015

The Revd Dr Simon Cuff is a CTC Research Associate and Curate of Christ the Saviour, Ealing. Here he blogs about the Citizens UK Assembly – the most vibrant event of the election campaign…

At Mass last Sunday, we heard these words from the first epistle of S. John: ‘My children, our love is not to be just words or mere talk, but something real and active’. The next day (May 4th), Citizens UK held its second General Election Accountability Assembly in its 25 year history. At this event, the agenda born out of thousands of conversations with our members would be put to the three party leaders most likely to be in government by way of 5 clear and specific asks (on social care, sanctuary, Just Money, living wage and a commitment to meet regularly with us).

Citizens, the Election and the Kingdom of God…

Community Organising l and tagged Citizens UK, General Election l May 6, 2015

The Revd Alexandra Lilley is Curate at St Paul’s, Shadwell and a good friend of ours at CTC. Here she blogs about the most extraordinary event of the election campaign. The Citizens UK Assembly…

I am new to this.

When I first attended a Citizens UK meeting several years ago, I walked into a room where everyone spoke a different dialect from me. (Maybe that’s how people feel when they go to church for the first time.)

Doing the ‘rounds’ felt cringey and contrived; I didn’t listen to anyone else because I was worried I had so little to offer. I didn’t want to be ‘organised’ thank you very much, nor did I want to ‘organise’ anyone else – how terribly pushy. And I certainly didn’t want to conduct a ‘listening campaign’ by accosting complete strangers in my neighbourhood. I am, after all, very much an introvert. I popped Citizens on the shelf and allowed it to get dusty.

Clean for Good – the new London Cleaning Company using Justice to shift the grime…

The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged 'Living Wage', city of london, Cleaning, Ethical, St Andrew-By-The-Wardrobe l April 30, 2015

Our Development Director Tim Thorlby blogs about an exciting new project taking off in the City of London, with a little help from CTC…

Last September I blogged about a new ‘ethical cleaning company’ that we were helping a City church to set up. Well, six months of hard work later I’m pleased to say that London’s newest cleaning company is nearly ready to launch!

The vision for ‘Clean for Good’ is simple:

We will provide an excellent cleaning service to customers in London but we will do so in a socially responsible way. We will pay our cleaners properly and treat them decently.

People of Power: Churches, Community Organising & the General Election

Community Organising l and tagged Community Organising, General Election, Power l April 15, 2015

Our Director Angus Ritchie blogs on the need for us to be active citizens in the run up to, and beyond, the election…

Would you like to have more power? The word “power” usually produces a pretty negative reaction, especially among religious people. Our first thoughts tend to focus on the ways it is so often abused. But power is simply the ability to make things happen. Unless you think the world is just perfect as it is, you are going to need some power to change it for the better.

As we approach the election, the depressing and disengaged mood of so many voters flows from their sense of powerlessness. Although we live in a democracy, many voters feel like spectators as our life is shaped by external economic forces. What would it take for these economic systems to be placed at the service of a truly common good?

Easter: run to the tomb!

The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Easter, Resurrection l April 8, 2015

Here we share a beautiful short Eastertide reflection from the Assumptionist order in France which has been translated by our Chaplain, Sr Josephine Canny – herself an Assumptionist…

Run … Run … Run …!

Mary Magdalen ran. Peter ran. The other disciple ran. The stone rolled back from the empty tomb caused everyone to run. “We dont know where they have put Him.” The question is posed and the mystery remains. The gospels tell us nothing of the actual moment of Resurrection. They only report the experience of men and women who had followed Jesus, and had discovered that all did not finish at the cross and the tomb.

Easter: Liberation from oppression and injustice!

The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Easter l April 4, 2015

Our Director, Canon Dr Angus Ritchie blogs on Easter and how it changes everything…

The Church always seems rather better at keeping Lent than keeping Easter. We have forty days of Lent – and many people give up or take up something for the season. But after Easter Day, all too many of us simply go on holiday. (I’ll be away for the next six days, since you ask…)

What would it mean to keep the season of Easter as fully as we keep the season of Lent?

Wasting our life on God – a reflection for Holy Week

The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Holy Week l March 31, 2015

Theo Shaw, who co-ordinates our Church Credit Champions Network in Southwark, blogs for us on John 12: 1-11…

As we journey through the most sacred week in the Christian calendar, we as Christians are encouraged to go through various emotions. It’s a week filled with a range of feelings, as we move from the adulation of Palm Sunday to the desolation of Good Friday and onto the joy of Easter.

One of the reasons I love Holy Week is that it takes us on a journey and we are encouraged to go on this journey in the various services we attend in our various churches. I particularly love the hymns during this season, so to begin our staff Bible study this week, we listened to the hymn ‘When I survey the Wondrous Cross’ by Isaac Watts, before reading our Gospel passage from John 12: 1-11.

Breaking out of the Westminster Bubble – the Buxton 180 Club is launched!

Events, The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Buxton, Community Organising, Parliament, Thomas Fowell Buxton, Westminster Bubble l March 27, 2015

Our Faith in Public Life Officer, David Barclay, blogs on the latest stage of our plans to break open the Westminster Bubble…

Monday 23^rd March saw the first ever Buxton Parliamentary Reception, celebrating our unique Leadership Programme which is helping a new generation of young people to break out of the ‘Westminster bubble’ and reconnect politics with inner-city communities and the local church. The Buxton Leadership Programme is a year-long scheme which gives talented young leaders a combination of time in Parliament working for an MP or Peer alongside a church-based community organising placement.

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