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

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.

The Power of Testimony

Community Organising l and tagged Lambeth, Speedy Cash, Storytelling, Testimony l March 17, 2015

Rosina St James is on our Buxton Leadership Programme for 2014-15. Here she blogs for us on the power of personal stories in changing the world…

I have always taken for grated the idea of testimony. I grew up around church elders telling me stories of God bringing them through many of life’s challenges.

I remember hearing my first Community Organising testimony. It was from a women called Shirley who moved from the Caribbean with her husband and two very young children. Her husband Kevin had a well-paid job so she could look after their children full time. One evening while Kevin was on his way home from work, he had a heart attack on the train and was pronounced dead at the scene. This came as such a shock to Shirley as Kevin was a young, healthy man – she hadn’t thought about preparing a will or getting life insurance.

Mission: Incarnational… On the art of Community Organising

Community Organising l and tagged Community Organising l March 10, 2015

Revd Dr Simon Cuff is Assistant Curate at Christ the Saviour, Ealing and a Research Associate of CTC. Here he blogs about how Community Organising and building relationships is key to everything we do…

Towards the end of last week, I was asked to turn to the person next me and discuss the mission statement of my organisation. It happened that I was sitting next to a minister from the black Pentecostal tradition. We reckoned that, as Christians, from the Pentecostal and anglican catholic traditions respectively, we should be able to come up with a mission statement that would describe the mission of both of our organisations and would suffice at least until our organisations achieve that unity of mission statements which Christ wills. We each agreed that our mission was ‘to be the body of Christ on earth, by proclaiming the Gospel in word and deed’.

Politics is broken. Help us play a part in fixing it…

Community Organising, The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Community Organising, Parliament, Politics, Thomas Fowell Buxton l March 4, 2015

Co-ordinator of our Buxton Leadership Programme, David Barclay, blogs on how we’re helping to reshape the way politics is done – and how you can join in!

Politics in the UK is broken. As politicians and parties vie for attention, a recent survey suggested that almost half the population is now so disinterested, they haven’t even registered that there is an election this year. Less than one in five of us now expect politicians to tell the truth, and most of us trust bankers and estate agents more than our Westminster elite.

800 reasons we’re glad to be Near Neighbours…

Uncategorized l and tagged Near Neighbours l February 25, 2015

Our Near Neighbours Co-ordinator Revd Tim Clapton blogs on the 800th grant awarded by this pioneering project…

It’s been an exciting week as we’ve been celebrating the 800^th Near Neighbours grant to be awarded to a project bringing together people of different faiths in local social action. Near Neighbours in eastern London continues to be interesting and thrilling. It has been a privilege to have supported small organisations, faith congregations and groups of individuals as they develop local projects. Over the first three years, eastern London received over £500,000 in Near Neighbours grants which have supported creative projects – making a tangible impact. We are continuing this success in this second round of funding.

When the spirit leads us into the desert: a Lenten reflection

Prayer, The Centre for Theology & Community l and tagged Lent l February 13, 2015

We begin Lent with another brief but profound Lenten reflection from our Chaplain, Sr Josephine Canny OA…

To live Lent is to allow ourselves be led by the Spirit into the desert – a place of passage rich with potential if, like Christ, we consent to be who we are: children who receive their life from the Father, marked with a certain void but aspiring towards fullness.

When God addresses Moses “Speak to the whole assembly of the sons of Israel and say to them, “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God am holy,” the invitation might frighten us were it not for the fact that it is followed by a list of things we should avoid in order not to hurt our neighbour and thereby arrive at holiness (Lev.19, 1-2, 11-18).

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