Reignite

Radical Christianity is about encountering the God of love . It is first and foremost rooted in the discovery of a universal and unconditional source of love at the heart of reality and within each person. God is the name we give to this source of love. It is possible to have a direct and real personal encounter with this God through spiritual practice. We encounter God, and are nourished by God, through the regular practice of prayer, or contemplation.  Radical Christianity is about following a man called Jesus . It is rooted in the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, a Jewish prophet living under occupation of the Roman Empire two thousand years ago. It understands that's Jesus' message was the message of liberation. His message was that when we truly encounter God, and let God's love flow through us, we begin to be liberated from the powers of empire and violence and encounter the  "realm of God" - an alternative spiritual and social reality rooted in love rather th...

 For the service on 19th February 2023

This is a long (long!) delayed article laying out the principles of my work. As I wrote last time I've decided to write down the principles of the work that I do in Cardiff. These are not necessarily in order of importance but simply the order that they have occurred to me. The work, that I feel called by God to do in Cardiff, is a kind of pioneer ministry, community ministry, spirit-led activism. It works by a number of practices and principles that I have developed, borrowed from others, learnt from books, or made up as I've gone along! These principles might change as I am always learning and adapting, but these are my foundations right now. Almost a year ago I wrote that the first principle of my work is the hyper-local . And now, appropriately enough, I want to say that the second principle of my work is slowness. "Slowness" may not totally capture the principle though. A better word might be "organic". This principle is based on the insight that human-...

I was at two different protests recently. Both were in the middle of Cardiff, and both at points were on exactly the same routes. One was a protests, organised by the Cardiff People's Assembly, protesting the cost of living crisis. The other was a procession between two Anglican churches in Cardiff as an act of witness to pray for peace in Ukraine. Now of course those issues are very different, but at the same time it really struck me that I seemed to be the only person who was at both of these different events. Both in the middle of Cardiff, both virtually in the same place, just a few days apart. I was the only person at both the left wing cost of living protest, and the Christian pray for peace in Ukraine event. It really got me pondering - why do I often feel like I'm the only person who goes to these different things? Why is there so little crossover? Now these are two separate things. But I also find it hard to believe that people who care about the cost of living don...

 

I've decided to write down the principles of the work that I do in Cardiff. These are not necessarily in order of importance but simply the order that they have occurred to me. The work, that I feel called by God to do in Cardiff, is a kind of pioneer ministry, community ministry, spirit-led activism. It works by a number of practices and principles that I have developed, borrowed from others, learnt from books, or made up as I've gone along! These principles might change as I am always learning and adapting, but these are my foundations right now. The first principle of the work is the hyper-local. The first practice of my ministry is to live where I live - in Riverside. And to be a neighbour, a resident, a citizen, of my street, of my neighbourhood, of my city.  Riverside is just a few thousand households, you can walk from one end to the other in 15 minutes. Yet it contains multitudes - different identities, classes, ethnicities, ages.  But as an example of the principle of...