BeachcomberFX

Category: Sunday@thePub

  • A question of noticing

    A question of noticing

    A question of noticing

     

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok?

    This week Karen was supposed to be writing something on being female, but since we have just done a fair bit on gender, we thought we might kick that down the road until September, so today’s reflection, is based around some thoughts by Nadia Bolz-Weber.

    Maybe you can remember the beginning of the pandemic, when we were all staying at home and going for our daily exercise. You may remember that many people started to notice nature… particularly the birds… apparently at that time people were googling “are the birds getting louder’? 

    Recently I went on retreat, it was organised by a bunch of lay employees across the North, it was the second time I had attended, this year I helped to put some of the program together, we wanted to create plenty of space across the couple of days to let people rest, recuperate and to connect with each other, the environment and the divine. 

    I have realised in recent years that I am much more of an introvert than I first thought, the pandemic taught me that. Don’t get me wrong, I still prefer to be around people, but i’m beginning to recognise I need space. Over the couple of days away I spent a fair bit of time by myself, I especially loved walking around the gardens and particularly the large labyrinth (pictured). 

    I noticed that it took me ages to switch my brain off… I found it was cluttered with all kinds of thoughts. I found I was thinking about work: should I have said that, done that? Food: maybe I should cut down on this or that? Worrying about Karen, my mum, Karen’s parents, my brother, friends… not to mention things like the environmental crisis and world war breaking out as a result of the situation in Ukraine! All of these things seemed to dance together conspiring against me from stopping, and allowing me to just ‘be’. 

    This is backed up by neuroscientist Judson Brewer who says we have two basic networks in the brain.The Narrative Network this is the one we default to and has its uses (in the narrative network our brain can plan and strategise), but about 50% of the time, our brain is occupied with the self; thoughts of self, events in the past, and anxieties or fantasies about the future. Rumination of the narrative mind rarely result in serenity. That’s often how I feel, and maybe you can relate! 

    Back to Judson Brewer, he also suggests that when the Direct-Experiential Network part of the brain is active, rumination ceases and we become engulfed in what is happening in the present moment. While on retreat I did notice moments when that was the case: while deliberately walking the labyrinth, while deliberately stoping and listening I ‘heard’ the birds, I heard nature itself, it was often fleeting, but never-the-less I heard. These were mindful moments and I have tried to do that more… this extrovert that loves noise and distraction has begun to stop… and just be… who knew!! 

    So the birds are singing whether we notice it or not. Hearing them is a pleasure we can ignore or indulge in. But it is difficult to tune in and pay attention if I am also wondering why someone isn’t returning my text and that it’s probably because they just don’t love me anymore after I said that stupid thing last week.

    All this reminds me of Matthew 6 when Jesus says,

    “Do not worry about your life, ….Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by worrying can add a single hour to your span of life? And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

    When Jesus spoke about the cost of worry I do not think it was a coincidence that he said look at the birds and consider the flowers. And I think it’s more than him saying “look, literally birds are better at trusting God than you are”!

    I think maybe Jesus gets that the beautiful things that surround us are meant to be enjoyed today – and they are the exact same things I totally miss out on when I am busy worrying about tomorrow.  I guarantee that if I am in my head about something, the last thing I will notice is if a bird happens to be singing around me – and the second to the last thing I will notice are probably the flowers. Although I am getting better at noticing the trees!

    So I like to think that Jesus’ thing about not worrying and then inviting us to consider birds and notice lilies ….is both permission to let go, and an invitation to joy and even pleasure.

    An abundance of direct-experiences are available to us through our senses and while I’m an admittedly terrible at stopping the noise in my house, I also happen to be desperate for some relief from self-obsession, and the distractions that stop me from noticing, so I am trying to realise when I am “in my head” and to then drop into my body and feel for what, in this moment, there is for me to hear – to see – to touch.

    This too, is itself, a prayer.

     

    Some questions

    What’s your favourite bird or flower?

    What do you remember most about your lock down daily walk? 

    When was the last time you really stopped?

    Do you have strategies to help you stop?

    How can this passage support those with mental health difficulties (Karen hated it when she had chronic anxiety)?

     

  • A question of community

    A question of community

    Hi folks, how we all doing? This week we will meet at Platform 2 at 7.30, it would be great to see you if you are able to join us. This weeks reflection is written for us by John Cooper and he tackles ‘a question of community’.  

    As we begin, I’d like to think about the communities you are, or have been, part of. What makes them community and not just a club, society, organisation or church? Are all these associations and gathering always communities; or is community something else which grows within them?

    Take some time to think and write down or record your thoughts.

    I believe community isn’t something that just happens; neither is it something that can be manufactured. Instead, it’s something that can be nurtured, it’s something that can be fed – it’s like good soil or fresh water that allows for things to grow.

    One analogy which is sometimes used is closed or centre sets. Imagine sheep farms in the UK. Fields are surrounded by walls or fences to keep the sheep from wandering. Now imagine the sheep farms in other places around the world where water is scarce. The farmer sets up their farmhouses near the source of fresh water. There’s no need to hem the sheep in because they will naturally come to the place where the water is. Now think of the groups you thought of earlier. How many had rules, regulations, memberships etc. which designated if you were in or out. How easy was it to join?

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote the go-to book on Christian community – “Life together”. The most famous quote from it is :

    “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.”

    Bonhoeffer set out that we can have an idealistic view of the groups we join. We may think they are the answer to all our problems, or that we are the answer to all theirs. But either view is flawed and doomed to fail. Each group is just a bunch of ordinary human beings just like us – a bit clueless and messed up and searching for something bigger than ourselves. And therefore, if we join thinking it will change us into something else or we’ll change it (in an idealistic way) then it won’t. 

    However, Bonhoeffer suggests that both changes can happen when we join and commune at an open and honest level with those other there. When we listen and learn, allow ourselves to be vulnerable, slowly learn to trust, find out what we love about people, and what really irritates us about them. And when we commit to being alongside them, nevertheless. It’s here that community grows – when we pull down the idol of community in the name of living together with those we meet with in any of these groups. 

    The Northumbria Community describe community as a response of living life together. It changes as we change, we change as it changes. We make room for new people and that alters who we are and who they are, ever changing – ever reinventing – in flux – dancing with each other in community. In this view community is the act of self-giving and service. It is reciprocal. As we give and look to others in the group; so, they give and look to us. In a lot of the churches I’ve been in I think I’ve been tolerated because I’m willing to do a lot of stuff, and not welcome because of who I am. So, Instead of what people can do we could possibly focus more on who people are. Yes, gifts and talents may come to the fore, but our position in. the group should not be transactional, instead reciprocal.

    Lastly, I think groups that are outward looking and open breed community. And groups that celebrate diversity and difference. This may seem counter intuitive, but the need to search for, remember and work at what binds us in all our glorious difference helps to build community. Each year at the Northumbria Community they retell their story, examine their values and ask: where are we living them out and where have we wandered off the path? Sometimes the changes which have happened in the last year are growth, and sometimes there needs to be a course correction. Sometimes values change. But this is told within the story and those who have been there years, and those who are new are all invited to input. I’ve seen this same instinct in BFX and I like it. It invites people to own and participate in the shared values, while bringing all their diversity and difference with them and I believe its in the spaces between these things that community is built. 

    Community happens as we accept and are accepted “warts and all” in a group. But it’s also creates a space where change for all concerned can begin.

     

    Questions 

    What movies, TV programs or books offer the best picture of community? 

    What is the best example of community you’ve experienced?

    What makes a group a community and not just a club, society, organisation or church? 

    What groups have you been part of that seem to have walls that “keep the sheep in”?

    What make you feel part of a community?

    Do you agree with Bonhoeffer’s quote about community?

    What values draw you to BFX?

    Photo by Shane Rounce on Unsplash

  • Summer Walk!

    Summer Walk!

    UPDATE! Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok? This week we are mixing things up again… meeting at 6.15 at Tynemouth Metro to get the 6.25 metro along to Meadowell and then walk back to Tynemouth. We will be walking from the Metro station heading south for a few hundred yards and then pick up footpath which heads east through Smith’s Park and then south through the Royal Quays Water Park down to the Royal Quays Marina and Cruise Line Terminal. From Royal Quays we follow  cycle route 72 along the fish quay and up to Collingwood Monument returning to Tynemouth for a well earned bevvy.

    Its about 3.5 miles taking say 1hr 45 mins. The only climbing is at the end where we have to ascend from  Fish Quay to Tynemouth village.

    If you could let me know you are coming so we know who to wait for. 

    Peace Rob 

  • A question of… of Gender (part 2): A feminist trajectory in Scripture?

    A question of… of Gender (part 2): A feminist trajectory in Scripture?

    Hi folks, this week we are meeting at the Shiremoor House Farm at 7.30. It would be lovely to see you if you are able to join us. This week Caleb has written Part 2 of his blog on Gender.

    A question of… of Gender (part 2): A feminist trajectory in Scripture?

    First of all take a look at the image… Ben Wildflower (2016), Magnificat print. 

    This blog springs off from last week’s one: ‘A Question of Gender (part 1): Gender, sex, and gender ideologies’. This week, I’ll talk about how I think the Bible can support one of the gender ideologies I discussed last week: a feminist/equality perspective. And in a future blog on ‘a question of inclusion’ I’ll talk more about transgender and intersex people and how Scripture can also support a ‘diversity’ perspective.

    (BTW, I realise Scripture is only one source of Christian thinking, but to avoid having to divide this up into a fourth or fifth blog, I won’t go into what Christians learn from experience, using our God-given minds, etc. The Bible is enough for today!)

    Christians traditionally believe the Bible is inspired by God, but it’s also a collection of human writings. These writings show influence from their human contexts, which were all patriarchal societies. They couldn’t read the latest gender theorists or sociological research on gender. The best science and philosophy available to them was by people who thought things like: male dominance is natural, hair is part of genitals, and women are incomplete men.

    We could list many ways Scripture is influenced by patriarchy. I’m more interested in looking at how, within all the patriarchy, Scripture points to feminist/equality perspectives that were radical in the contexts.

    From chapter one of the Bible, we see that all humans from male to female are created in ‘God’s image’. Most cultures only referred to powerful men like kings as being in the image of gods, but the Jewish/Christian tradition says all of us have that important status.

    In the Old Testament, despite a lot of patriarchal content, we also see strong women stepping outside stereotypical ‘women’s roles’—Hagar (Genesis 16, 21), Tamar (Genesis 38), Shiphrah and Puah (Exodus 1), Miriam (Exodus 2, 15; Numbers 12), Deborah (Judges 4-5), Jael (Judges 4), Rahab (Joshua 2, 6), Ruth (Ruth), Abigail (1 Samuel 25), Huldah (2 Kings 22-23; 2 Chronicles 34), Esther (Esther), and the female lover in Song of Songs are all worth reading about (some of them specifically named in Jesus’ genealogy, Matthew 4).

    Jesus’ mother Mary was a strong woman who influenced Jesus with her character and love of God and justice (e.g. Luke 1:26-56; John 2:1-12). Women were prominent among both the disciples (Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha, Susanna, Joanna, etc.) and the early church (Phoebe, Prisca, Junia, etc.). Mary Magdalene and other women who stood firm with Jesus at his death were the first to witness his resurrection and preach this good news (described in all four gospels). Jesus treated women with respect and compassion. He saved a woman from a mob’s sexist execution of a woman who committed adultery (John 7). He affirmed that women should be involved in the theological discussions, not just the cooking (Luke 10; John 11). He had theological conversations and debates with women, often marginalised ‘impure’ women. He tasked one of them with preaching the gospel to her whole town (John 4) and arguably had his mind changed by another (Mark 7; Matthew 15).

    After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension, women like Prisca (or Priscilla) and Junia were church leaders, apostles, and respected teachers (Romans 16, Acts 18 and elsewhere). Phoebe, a deacon, was who Paul trusted to deliver his greatest letter to the Romans, which would have included interpreting it and answering questions about it (Romans 16).

    Jesus was not a stereotypical ‘macho man’ and his teachings contained nothing that would ‘keep women in their place’. In the rest of the New Testament, e.g. the writings of Paul, it’s more complicated. Some of Paul’s quotes about women not having authority in churches sound very bad, especially out of context. He says some things I don’t agree with. Yet even these sexist comments are milder than standard Roman/Jewish sexism: perhaps something of a compromise with the mainstream patriarchy of his time. Paul also obviously didn’t ban female leaders in practice—he affirmed all those in the last paragraph.

    Finally, it was Paul who made this amazing statement:

    “There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28).

    The way that many biblical scholars make sense of the contradictory witness of Scripture on gender is to identify the way God seems to be guiding people to look beyond what was taken for granted in their contexts. This is called the ‘trajectory’, the vision that Scripture points to when taken as a whole. This statement in Galatians is one place where Paul expresses where the trajectory is going: a radical vision where human divisions and inequalities are broken down and made unimportant, as we are united and equal in Jesus. The vision is still in the process of being put into practice, and the church has often moved in the wrong direction on all these topics. In his own life and ministry, Paul went furthest in putting the ‘no Jew or Gentile’ part into practice. Others in the 19th century focused on ‘no longer slave or free’ and pushed for the abolition of slavery (having to fight against other Christians who quoted different Bible verses on slavery). And Christian feminists today are seeking to embody the ‘no longer male or female’ vision by seeking gender equality and abolition of patriarchal oppression.

    This idea of a ‘trajectory’ in Scripture also helps us see that in many ways the Bible was many centuries ‘ahead’ of modern feminist movements in affirming gender equality, even if in many other ways the Bible was very much a product of its time. I believe God meets us where we are at, even in the midst of the world and its empires and idols of death and destruction. And she points to different ways of doing things that flip the oppressive ways of the world upside down. Just like Mary said.

    EXTRA FOR EXPERTS ACTIVITY

    Read about one of the women in the Bible mentioned above, and have a think about what we can learn from her.

    QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION

    1. Have you ever remembered a Bible verse or Bible story wrong? (Hilary’s example: “if your brother chops off your own nose, forgive him 77 times”)

    2. Who is the first woman in the Bible you can think of? Who is the first man in the Bible you can think of? Who is the first nonbinary person you can think of?

    3. What can we learn from some of the women in the Bible mentioned in the blog? (your answer may be inspired by your ‘extra for experts’ reading if you were a star student who did that)

    4. What kind of teaching have you heard in churches about gender?

    5. Is God sexist?

    6. If you look to the Bible as a source of truth and inspiration, how do you make sense of where it seems to contradict itself on things like slavery, gender, violence, etc?

     

    Peace, Caleb.

     

    Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay

  • A Question of Gender (part 1): Gender, sex, and gender ideologies

    A Question of Gender (part 1): Gender, sex, and gender ideologies

    Hi folks, I trust you are good? This week we will be meeting at Platform 2 on Tynemouth station meeting at 7.30. We hope to see you there.

    This weeks blog will be split into two parts, and is written for us by Caleb.

     

    What better person to talk about gender than a straight cisgender man? Fortunately I have studied this a bit at uni and benefited from a lot of wisdom from feminist/queer friends, so hopefully I can give some insight not just from my own limited experience.

     

    This week I’m going to talk about gender/sex ideologies throughout history. Next week, I’ll talk about how I think the Bible can support a feminist perspective. And in a future blog on ‘a question of inclusion’ I’ll talk more about transgender and intersex people and a ‘diversity’ perspective.

     

    Gender/sex is about everything to do with being male/female, man/woman, masculine/feminine, or neither, both, or in between. Some of gender/sex is caused by biology (chromosomes, hormones, physiology) and some is caused by society and human choices (raising children, social interaction, systems that affect different genders differently, ideologies, marriages, workplace structures, culture, ideology, social roles, how we express ourselves, etc). Some people prefer to say ‘sex’ is the biological stuff and ‘gender’ is the social stuff, and this distinction can be useful. But the two are often quite intertwined, and people often disagree about what’s social and what’s biological. In everyday life we mostly use ‘gender’ and ‘sex’ interchangeably.

     

    People have had many different ways of thinking about gender and what should be expected of people of different genders. These ideologies or perspectives shape our behaviour and societies, but also our behaviour and societies shape our ideologies.

     

    Here are four ways people have thought about gender throughout history:

     

    • Explicit Patriarchy: Men and women (and others, if acknowledged) are inherently unequal and should be socially unequal. Men are superior to, and more valuable than, women in most ways: stronger, more intelligent, better at most things, morally better. Women (and others, if acknowledged) are physically, intellectually, and morally weaker. Men should run things and take on most important public social roles; women should support men, and birth and raise the next generation.

     

    • Complementarity: Men and women are inherently equal but should be socially unequal or at least perform different roles. The two genders (this view basically ignores non-binary options) are equally valuable and should both be celebrated, but they have very different characteristics (it’s like they are from different planets—‘men are from Mars, women are from Venus’). Men and women, boys and girls look different, act different, like different things, buy different products, etc. Therefore they should perform different ‘roles’ (and male ‘roles’ tend to have more status/power). The ‘male role’ and the ‘female role’ fit together (or ‘complement’) each other to create a harmonious whole in heterosexual relationship. It can be argued that this is simply patriarchy in nicer packaging, though some versions of complementarity are more overtly patriarchal than others.

     

    • Feminism/Equality: Men and women (and others, if acknowledged) are inherently equal and should also be socially equal. Men have traditionally dominated in patriarchal societies and this is oppressive of women (and others). Nobody should have any more or less power, privilege, or prestige because of their gender. There should be equity between the genders, which doesn’t mean denying gender difference but it does mean not exaggerating gender difference (‘men are from North Dakota, women are from South Dakota’). Certainly, gender differences should never be used to support social inequality.

     

    • Diversity: Gender/sex are complicated; they are on a spectrum; there are people who are neither, both, or in-between, or people whose personal gender identity doesn’t match their social identity or their assigned sex, etc. I’ve put this last, because from our modern Western perspective it probably seems the most recent, but it’s an ancient understanding in most societies. There have always been people who don’t fit, and different cultures have understood them differently (not always positively). I will say more about all of this in my future blog on ‘a question of inclusion’ for transgender and intersex people.

     

    These days the most common attitudes would probably be (a) some kind of  complementarian perspective, and (b) a combination of some kind of feminist/equality and diversity perspectives, with some people having more awareness and openness to diversity than others, and some people being more aware than others of how far short of gender equality we actually are.

     

    However, if we go back just 250 years, feminism and complementarianism as fully articulated ideologies hadn’t been invented yet. There were glimmerings of equality perspectives here and there.

     

    The people rich and powerful enough to write down their thoughts and have them remembered, who were mostly men, tended to endorse explicit patriarchy through most of Western history. Ordinary people, from what we can tell, probably didn’t care that much: gender roles are a luxury when everyone is needed to work the fields and keep everyone alive. They probably took for granted some societal patriarchy, with some having beginnings of equality perspectives.

     

    Among rich and poor, there was more acknowledgement of diversity than we might assume—more on that in ‘a question of inclusion’.

     

    Next week I will turn to Christian tradition, asking how the Bible can point to a feminist/equality perspective.

     

    Questions for discussion

     

    1. What is the most ridiculous example of gender stereotypes you’ve seen in our society? E.g. in media or marketing.

     

    1. What is the most ‘masculine’ thing about you? What is the most ‘feminine’ thing about you?

     

    1. What are some ways you’ve changed your perspective on gender throughout your life? What changed your mind?

     

    1. Do you think gender differences are mostly from ‘nature’ (biology) or from ‘nurture’ (society and our choices)?

     

    1. If you have a faith, how does it influence your understanding of gender? Have you found anything challenging about your faith tradition in relation to gender?

     

    1. What would you like to change about how we do gender (as a society, as Beachcomber, in your family or workplace, etc)?

     

    Image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay

     

  • A question of privilege

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at 7.30 in The Brewery https://www.whitleybaybrew.com/our-sites/thebrewary It would be lovely to see you if you are able to come along. This week we are thinking about ‘A question of inequality/privilege’ It’s written by Rachel.  

    Everything in this blog post I learned – or took directly – from someone else’s work. I especially draw heavily on Chapter 4 of So you want to talk about race by Ijeoma Oluo which is called “Why am I always being told to check my privilege?” It is excellent – I highly recommend it. 

    When I was growing up the word “privilege” was nothing to be ashamed of. If my mum or dad ever said “Wow, what a privilege…” they were talking about a good thing – it meant I was lucky, honoured…like the ‘privilege’ of being allowed to stay up late with the grownups, or the ‘privilege’ of being invited to play a special role at a relative’s wedding. 

    Now though, if someone points out your “privilege” it might feel like an accusation – and it might trigger feelings of defensiveness, dismissal, awkwardness, shame or guilt. Or, you might be tempted to acknowledge your privilege to show how “woke” or “progressive” you are. But what could we do about inequality if we could get past all of that?

    Olua says that ““Privilege, in the social justice context, is an advantage or set of advantages that you have that others do not.” She goes on to explain that even though your hard work might have contributed to some of these advantages, you didn’t 100% earn them. Maybe you were born with these advantages (like your gender, or a paler skin colour than others) or maybe it was easier for you to get some advantages than it was for other people (like a university degree, or your own place to live). 

    Olua says “It is in these advantages and their coupled disadvantages that the health and wellbeing of large amounts of people are often determined.” Privileges can actually determine the outcome of our lives – this cartoon illustrates it really well.

    One of the reasons privileges have such a huge impact, is that they give us benefits that have nothing to do with the privilege. For example, as Olua points out, it makes sense that a college/university degree would give you better access to jobs related to that degree, but “it isn’t deserving of the general reputation that I, as a college graduate, am a smarter, more responsible, and more valuable citizen than those without a degree…” Similarly, your accent has nothing to do with your intelligence, capabilities or work ethic, but regional accents from places like the North of England can be barriers to success in universities and workplaces in the UK (source).

    This means there are advantages that help you get certain benefits, and then once you’ve got those benefits, they help you get more advantages, sometimes in totally unrelated things – so privileges compound over time (seriously, if you haven’t done it already, you should check out this cartoon – it says it better than I can!).

    All of this is often invisible to us. Meanwhile, our hard work and effort is very visible to us. For example, at work, everyone I have met so far can pronounce my name right and correctly gender me on the first attempt, people understand me well when I present, and none of my colleagues speak loudly or slowly to me thinking that I can’t understand them. I also work very hard at work. All of those factors (and many others) contribute to how well I do at work, but I’m much more likely to notice  my late nights on the laptop than I am to notice someone not mocking me for my accent…

    I would very quickly notice if they did though. The reality is that privileges are almost always much more visible to people who don’t have them than they are to people who do.

    None of this means that if you have lots of privileges your life is easy, or that you’ve never been treated unfairly. It just means, as one -person put it, you might not have noticed that relative to everyone else, you’re playing the video game of life on one of the “lowest difficulty settings.” 

    We ALL have privileges (even if we also have lots of disadvantages), and those privileges give us advantages over others. We can’t have an advantage without it being someone else’s disadvantage. That is an uncomfortable truth, but it’s only by acknowledging this inequality that we can begin to change things. If we refuse to acknowledge it, we’re implying that we deserve all the advantages we have – that other people don’t have the same benefits we do because they don’t deserve them. By refusing to acknowledge our privilege we can actually perpetuate other people’s struggles and make them even harder.

    Olua suggests a few things we can do about privilege:

    • List all the advantages you have that you can think of. Don’t be tempted to list disadvantages – this is not the time for that. Do this exercise once a year. (If you’re struggling to get started, you can find lots of ideas to get you started online, by googling “privilege checklist” or “how privileged are you?” Example here – but it is American)
    • Try to get used to the pang of discomfort that comes with recognising your privilege, so that you’re less defensive about it when it comes up in a heated moment and also so that you’re more empathetic when you think other people are not checking their privilege.
    • If someone points out your privilege, even if they do not do it kindly, thank them. It is a kindness that they are making it visible to you, even if it doesn’t feel like it.
    • Seek out work (books, films, social media, podcasts, music, articles etc.) by people who don’t have your same privilege.
    • Listen carefully when people who don’t have the same privileges as you are speaking.
    • Actively notice when you are getting advantages that others aren’t. Those situations – the ones where you are benefiting – are the ones you can do something about. Speak up and use your advantages (finances, political power, influence, voice) to contribute to others getting those same benefits.

    “The possibilities of where you can leverage your privilege to make real, measurable change toward a better world are endless. Every day you are given opportunities to make the world better, by making yourself a little uncomfortable and asking, “who doesn’t have this same freedom or opportunity that I’m enjoying now?” – Ijeoma Olua 

    Questions:

    • Do you remember any fun or special “privileges” from your childhood?
    • Olua says ““We don’t want to think that we are harming others, we do not want to believe that we do not deserve everything we have, and we do not want to think of ourselves as ignorant of how our world works…” Is there anything about the discussion of privilege that makes you uncomfortable?
    • Individually do the exercise of listing out all the advantages you have that you can think of (don’t be tempted to list your disadvantages!), then as a group discuss any ‘aha’ moments you had. (To get you started, you could think about family and caregivers, race, ethnicity, and culture, nationality and citizenship, physical and mental health, religion, gender, sexuality, linguistics, your finances, your work…)
    • Can you think of examples of where someone used a privilege that they have to improve things for people without that privilege? Have you ever tried to do that? How did it go?
    • Can you think of one action you could take from the list of suggestions above?

     

    Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash

  • A question of imagination…

    A question of imagination…

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok, this week we are meeting at the Brewery in Whitley Bay, it would be lovely to see you if you are able, meeting at 7.30pm.

    This week I have struggled to think about what to write… I didn’t fancy one of the Big Questions blogs this week, although like last week you think it is a big question… So here we go… I want to think about imagination… Now hold on to your hats… many of you know I’m not a  big reader, well this year I decided, kind of by accident, that I would try to read a bit more, well, to be honest with you I have said that many times over the years. But this year it’s actually working, as I write I have completed three books and I have started two more! I am being adventurous in my choice as well, a poetry and short stories book, a biography, a crime novel, and I’m currently reading another novel and a book about trees!

    I have to say I am enjoying it because I’m getting to use my imagination – picturing the scenes and the characters… Sometimes I’m so deeply imagining the scene that I find myself in the story! As I was thinking about this I thought about Jesus and the many parables he told… Jesus told these stories to offer the hearers a way to try to understand and picture themselves in these stories… no answers, just wonderings and imaginings to help them in their journey. George MacDonald explains when describing the value of good stories, they serve not “so much to convey a meaning as to wake a meaning.” I think that is what Jesus was trying to do in his storytelling, to wake meaning within us.

    Reflecting on this a little more, MacDonald describes imagination as an:

    “imaging or a making of likenesses. The imagination is that faculty which gives form to thought—not necessarily uttered form, but form capable of being uttered in shape.” He also calls it ‘revelations of thought’.

    If the imagination is about waking meaning within us, then it could lead us to all kinds of places.

    In thinking about this i also came across an article from the Saturday Evening post form October 1929 where Albert Einstein was interviewed  and reflects on his discovery relativity, he states:

    ‘I believe in intuitions and inspirations. I sometimes feel that I am right. I do not know that I am. When two expeditions of scientists, funded by the Royal Academy, went forth to test my theory of relativity, I was convinced that their conclusions would totally tally with my hypothesis. I was not surprised when the eclipse of May 29, 1919, confirmed my intuitions. I would have been surprised if I had been wrong. […] I am enough of an artist to draw freely from the imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.

    So pondering on this a bit more I’m wondering if the imagination is somehow connected to the divine within us, around us, the in and the of, of everything? Maybe the Holy Spirit? What if we used our imaginations to connect with faith and spirituality and the divine? Where could this lead and what could this free us from?

    I also wonder if imagination could lead us to be more creative in the way that we live our lives and go about our everyday existence, our imagination gives us the freedom to go anywhere, be anyone, to invent an entirely different construct about where we can live. Now of course there are limitations to the last part of that, but what if we began to imagine it and try to enable an alternative situation for us. Our current climate emergency would suggest a radical shift in our living and being, maybe our imaginations can enable that to become a reality.

     

    Some questions

    Best book you have read over the last 12 months?

    How is your imagination, how do you use it?

    What do you think Jesus was doing speaking parables/stories?

    What do you think about the ‘imagination waking meaning’?

    Imagination or knowledge?

    The divine/Holy Spirit does it/could it be connected to imagination?

    How could we use imagination to help us live differently?

     

    Peace Rob

     

    Image by 0fjd125gk87 from Pixabay

  • A question of… the edge

    A question of… the edge

    Hi folks, I hope you are doing ok? This week we are meeting at the Enigma Tap at 7.30, I hope you can join us… It’s also my birthday! This week’s blog is kind of a big question… depending on how you view it, you will see what I mean as you read on.

     

    As I write this I’m still buzzing after being away for a singing weekend, it was sheer joy! Not only was it a rare space for Karen and I to attend something without being leaders, it enabled me to just be in the moment without worrying about other things.

     

    As I pondered on the weekend it struck me how people that I hardly knew and those that I didn’t know at all, are now becoming friends, of course friendship takes time and it’s not straightforward. But it felt comfortable to be around these folks, especially without any of the other strings connected to my roles at work. I think all of that is a blog in and of itself.

     

    But what I want to really think about is about ‘being on the edge’, what do I mean? Well, again I find myself on the edge of something new and burgeoning and I also find some similarities as to how I view ‘church’ and my spirituality. Lots of people connected to BFX I think are feeling or have felt a sense of being on the edge, edge of faith, edge of spirituality, edge of friendships, edge of relationships.

     

    It can of course be unnerving, as it’s hard to pinpoint where you belong, what you are, what you believe or don’t believe, who are your people, who aren’t your people. Navigating this can be tough, especially if you have been so used to being in and around the centre, at the centre you tend to take on the perceived truth, trivia and reality of the given situation, the power plays here can be exhausting. As you move towards the edge those things become a little less clear and ambiguous, maybe even unsatisfying.

     

    It is interesting to think about Jesus sending the disciples to ‘preach’ to the nations, to all creation – I wonder if Jesus was doing this to move the disciples out of the centre… to leave their security and the systems that they knew and understood, to leave their friendships and relationships to be pushed in to new spaces. We see some of this at play through Jesus’ instruction to not take anything with them (Mark 6:8) and to accept the hospitality and hostility of others. (Mark 6:10-11) I’m reminded of John Wesley and his crew, moving from the centre of the Church of England and going to the ordinary people, preaching in public spaces, here he had to deal with all sorts! Just as a caveat, I’m not advocating we should go and start preaching on the streets! It clearly met a desired need at the time, but it’s questionable at best today!

     

    The prophets also found themselves on the edge, they were neither in the centre or out of it all together, they were walking the realities between worlds. Jesus again talked about being ‘the gate’ (John 10:7-9) A place between the inside and the outside… on the edge.

     

    I wonder if being on the edge is actually a creative space to be? And maybe its a positive place to be, it might not feel like it of course, it can be tough and difficult, but I write this to encourage you, and me, to try and stay on the edge, to not try and disregard the centre or the other spaces on the other side of the centre, to walk in the in-between spaces, to see things from a wide view, to be in a liminal space.

     

    I wonder if on this edge there is a place of compassion for all, a place for understanding for those who hold different views and values to us. I wonder if on the edge new and burgeoning things can be birthed, lived out, new experiences embraced, even old things can be viewed differently, even creatively.

     

    I am beginning to wonder if that is why ‘Beachcomber’ resonates so strongly for me… to walk along the edge of the sand and the tide coming in and out, in that space new and old things can be brought into the light and uncovered.

     

    And so if you are not sure where you fit, who you are, where you belong, what you believe, maybe you are on the edge and you know what I think, you are amongst great company including prophets and dare I say even Jesus.

     

    Some questions

    • What physical edge scares/excites you?
    • What spaces/places do you feel at the centre?
    • Where do you feel on the edge?
    • How has this reflection resonated or not with you?
    • How do you feel about living on the edge being a place of compassion and creativity? 
    • A moment to ponder – Who do you know who are on the edge? Do they need support? 

     

    Peace, Rob

  • A question of AI

    A question of AI

    If you are joining us this week we are meeting at The Brewery in Whitley Bay at 7:30pm. This weeks blog is written by a special guest.
    Faith and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are two seemingly unrelated concepts that are becoming increasingly intertwined in our modern world. While AI is a powerful tool that can be used to advance and spread religious beliefs, it also raises important questions about the relationship between technology and spirituality. In this blog post, we will explore some of these questions and consider the implications of the intersection of faith and AI.
    Can AI replace religious leaders? One potential use of AI in religion is to create chatbots that can answer questions about religious beliefs and practices. While this technology could help make religion more accessible, it raises questions about the role of human religious leaders. Can a chatbot replace the guidance and wisdom of a spiritual mentor?
    What is the impact of AI on human agency? Many religious beliefs are based on the idea that humans have free will and the ability to make choices. However, as AI becomes more advanced, it may challenge traditional notions of human agency. How does the rise of AI impact our understanding of what it means to be human?
    Can AI have faith? As AI continues to advance, it is becoming more sophisticated in its ability to learn and adapt. However, faith is a complex concept that goes beyond mere intelligence. Can an AI truly experience faith or is it limited by its lack of emotional and spiritual depth?
    How can AI be used to spread religious beliefs? Some religious organizations are already using AI to analyze religious texts and identify patterns in religious teachings. However, there are concerns about the potential for AI to be used to spread extremist beliefs. How can we ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical manner when it comes to religious beliefs?
    What is the role of faith in shaping our relationship with AI? As we continue to develop and integrate AI into our lives, it is important to consider the ethical and spiritual implications of this technology. How can faith help guide us in our use of AI and ensure that we use it in a way that is consistent with our values and beliefs?
    In conclusion, the relationship between faith and AI is a complex and multifaceted topic that raises many important questions. While AI can be a powerful tool for advancing and spreading religious beliefs, it also challenges our traditional understanding of spirituality and human agency. As we continue to navigate this intersection, it is important to consider the implications of AI on our faith and to ensure that we use this technology in a way that is consistent with our values and beliefs.
    Written by ChatGTP to the prompts – Write me a lighthearted questions on the subject of AI and Write me a blog with 5 questions on the subject of faith and AI. Image generated by DALL-E using the prompt a digital render that represents the interaction between the christian faith and AI
    Questions
    1. If AI could have a favorite food, what do you think it would be?
    2. Can AI replace religious leaders?
    3. How does the rise of AI impact our understanding of what it means to be human?
    4. Can AI have faith?
    5. How can we ensure that AI is used in a responsible and ethical manner when it comes to religious beliefs?
    6. How can faith help guide us in our use of AI and ensure that we use it in a way that is consistent with our values and beliefs?
  • A question of …. Addiction

    A question of …. Addiction

    Welcome to this weeks blog. If you are joining us to have a conversation around this then we will be meeting at Platform 2 in Tynemouth.

    Addiction is a big subject and has many big questions around it from Health professionals, psychologists and Spirituality/Faith organizations. So this blog is a snap shot, a small scratch on the surface to this discussion.  

    Addiction is nothing new to the human life or to society, alcohol and drugs are maybe the longest substances of addiction and most likely the stereotypical image when thinking about addiction. Yet, in society today there are many other substances and behaviours that are seen as addiction, sex, shopping, social media, gaming, food, work, exercise, religion, sports, tv binging to name a few.

    “The addictive substance or behaviour can take many forms; the relief it offers centres around the emotion, even though it may comfort us physically, psychologically, relationally and spiritually, before it infests our lives with addiction taking root in our earnest bids to make our emotional worlds comfortable and untroubled. Once the prosses of addiction takes over what once was in the beginning our naïve attempts to make life less painful end up costing us everything emotionally and relationally. … addiction is the attempt to escape how the world is, it becomes a life of pretending and misery. Our attempt to be free of trouble leads us to the slavery (of addiction)”.

     ‘Hope in the age of Addiction’ by Chip Dodd and Stephen James.

    While I do strongly agree with what Dodd and James writes I find myself thinking “well is everyone addicts as we all try to find ways to escape the pressures of life and all that it brings?”  What is classed as addiction and not just finding space to rest and recover from a busy day at work? 

    One proposed definition is made by Nick Heather in their article for the British Psychological Society entitled ‘Rethinking Addiction’, he proposes that “a person is addicted to a specified behaviour if they have demonstrated repeated and continuing failures to refrain from and to radically reduce the behaviour despite prior resolutions to do so.” In other words, if you can stop the behaviour or taking of the chosen substance without any withdrawal symptoms, cravings and other psychologically and emotional dependencies, or substituting another addictive behaviour/substance in its place,  then maybe you’re not addicted. 

    I have an addiction to food with preference to sugar and it became my coping mechanism, however the coping mechanism became my obsession and my obsession became my addiction.  My naïve attempts to comfort myself took root with repetitive behaviour and despite attempt after attempt I would have repeated and continuing failures to refrain and have abstinence from compulsive and emotional eating and addiction. 

    However, what I have discovered over the past few years as I have prayed and search from a way to break this addiction is the conversation about addiction and spirituality/faith.  The 12 step programme has been taken originally from Alcohol Anonymous and become the programme for many other support groups with a specific area of addiction. These are the 12 steps: 

    Step 1: We admitted we are powerless over (name addiction) – that our lives had become unmanageable

    Step 2: Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity

    Step 3: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understand Him.

    Step 4: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves

    Step 5: Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs

    Step 6: Were entirely ready to have God remove all those defects of character 

    Step 7: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings

    Step 8: Made a list of all the persons we have harmed and become willing to make amends to all

    Step 9: Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others

    Step 10: Continue to take  personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it

    Step 11: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understand Him, praying only for knowledge of his will for us and the power to carry it out

    Step 12: Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to all still in addiction and to practice  these principles in all our affairs. 

    In ‘Addiction and Grace’ Gerald G May writes while describing his own search from addiction:

     “I identified a few people who seemed to have overcome serious addictions to alcohol and other drugs, and I asked them what had helped them turn their lives around so dramatically. All of them described some sort of spiritual experience. They kindly acknowledged their appreciation for the professional help they had received but they also made it clear that this help had not been the source of their healing. What had healed them was something spiritual. They did not use religious terms, but there was no doubt in my mind that what they spoke of was spiritual. Something about what they said reminded me of home. It had something to do with turning to God.”

    This is still very much in discussions and research among professionals and lay people as to why and how spirituality/Faith is helping the individual to remain  in recovery and abstinence. 

    For myself I have come to a place where allowing myself to sit in the tension of my emotions and anxieties is building emotional strength, allowing me to befriend all emotions and not just the positive ones. In doing so I am accepting all of who I am the good, the bad and the ugly just as God accepts and loves me for my whole self too. 

    Questions:

    1. How do you like to unwind after a busy day? 
    2. What is it about that unwinding activities that you enjoy? 
    3. What is your initial thoughts about addiction?
    4. What do you think about Dodd and James quote? 
    5. How do you think spirituality/faith play apart in recovery? 

    Photo by Reza Nourbakhsh: