African Christianity - and it has a presence at St Paul's at Bakery Hill, #Ballarat

Australia is a large continent with a small population.  Congregations of the major historical denominations in Australia are diminishing and ageing.  We forget what happens elsewhere.  

At St Paul's at Bakery Hill in Ballarat, our parish priest is Nigerian and we love him.  He has married this year, and, while we have met and love Faith, we are waiting for her, as she wends her way through Australia's immigration procedures, to come and settle. The people of Ballarat, as they meet Constantine Osuchukwu and get to know him, think well of him.  We are sure this will be the case when Faith comes to her new home. Please pray for a speedy resolution to the immigration matters so that Faith can settle among us.

At St Paul's, we also have African members of the congregation.  At the moment, Botswana, Kenya, South Sudan and South Africa are represented.

As we engage in conversation, and as we read in international Anglican news, we learn how very different are matters Anglican in Africa.  For a long time, the power of the Anglican Communion has lain with its Anglo origins and the former British Empire, now the Commonwealth of Nations.  Things have changed as the Anglo countries find their congregations diminishing and the former colonies of Empire in Africa have found their congregations growing.  This is a massive shift for the Anglican Communion to consider.  How long will it be until there is an African Archbishop of Canterbury?

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Mission Theologian in the Anglican Communion lecture explores African Christianity

Posted on: October 26, 2015 12:06 PM

The Canon Professor Joseph Galgalowith Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby at Lambeth Palace

Photo Credit: Church Mission Society

[ACNS] Christianity in Africa has benefited from sustained exponential growth, with numbers growing from about 10 million in 1900 to just over half a billion in 2015; but the diversity of the different forms of Christian practices and teachings on the continent means that it may be more accurate to see it as Christianities rather than Christianity – that was the message from Canon Professor Joseph Galgalo as he delivered the inaugural Mission Theology Seminar at Lambeth Palace last week.

The lecture by Prof Galgalo, vice-chancellor of St Paul’s University in Limuru, Kenya, was the first in a new series of seminars organised by the Mission Theology in the Anglican Communion project.

“There is no denying that African Christianity is increasingly vibrant and as the populations of the countries keep growing, the churches proportionately take their fair share of this growth,” Prof Galgalo said. “The growth is not limited to any particular denomination and increase in numbers often results into variety of Churches. To cite the example of Kenya, during the 2009 national census, 31,877,734 (82.98 per cent) out of the national population of 38,412,088 identified themselves as Christian (of Catholic, Protestant or other denominations). This translates to about nine points percentage increase compared to the result of the 1999 census.

To read more, please go here. 

Climate Change and Reconciliation Theology

Anglicans mobilise for climate change,

seek common reconciliation theology

  Posted on: September 22, 2015 11:18 AM

Photo Credit: ACNS/Ilona Sābera

Related Categories: acen, Anglican Alliance, climate change, Coventry, England, environment, Reconciliation, theology

Participants from various Church of England dioceses, ecologists, political campaigners, educators and technology experts gathered at the conference, “Reconciling a Wounded Planet” on 18-19 September in Coventryto coordinate responses to environmental crisis and develop a common theology.

Participants recognized the Church as a “trusted convener” for facilitating theologically grounded action on climate change. Various discussion groups tackled political and community engagement, health, education, technology, natural resources and biodiversity topics.

Speaking at the political engagement session, Ben Niblett, Tearfund campaigns team leader, proposed ways of mobilising the Church community in order to convince policy makers to include climate change in their agenda. “The Church is a home of values, a place of social capital. A group of people that come together to prepare and act. Massive changes can happen – you need to prepare to grab the opportunities,” he said.

One of the main issues raised by the speakers was a need to break through fear to address the environmental crisis and “normalise” its discourse. “We need people’s values to change first, so the policies can change,” said Richard Gower, director of Foresight Economics consultancy firm, speaking about the reasons some popular movements succeed in shaping public opinion and achieving systemic change.

In light of the recent fossil fuel divestment decision by the Church of England, Gower said every Christian should understand “it is just not acceptable for your pension fund to be in fossil fuels.”

Participants also acknowledged the role of financial systems and global trade in the current climate crisis, while pointing out climate change should not be considered “a leftist issue” as it affects everyone.

Sir Ghillean Prance, professor of botanics and conference keynote speaker encouraged Christians to lobby at UN Climate Change conference taking place in Paris in December: “If we truly want to reconcile, we need to expand. Let's be a voice in Paris!”

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A variety of dispersed local initiatives, lack of coordinated action and a theological imperative was pointed out by several speakers. “Creation care is not a good thing – it's our mandate from the God. It is an integrated God's mission in reconciling all things. It is not about equipping theologically, but challenging theologically. This is God's will for us,” said Sam Berry, professor of genetics and former Church of England General Synod member.

The Revd Margot Hodson, vicar of the Haddenahm Benefice in Buckinghamshire, referring to the Paul's letter to the Colossians, spoke about the responsibility of all Christians to care for the Earth as God's creation: “Often we say we are the body of Christ and yet we don't think about it. […] God holds the creation as a father holds a wounded child. Christ is the head of the Church and we are his body. Surely in some way we are holding it too and that's why it hurts.”

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Tweets from the “Reconciling a Wounded Planet” conference are available at the Anglican Communion reconciliation initiative @LiveReconcile.
Visit the Living Reconciliation website for bible studies and reconciliation stories from around the Anglican Communion. 

Intersections between war and ecology: Ecological Aspects of War: through religious social teachings and sacred texts

The two Dorothys: Dorothy Soelle and Dorothy Day and A Radical Christian Creed

Into the Editor's email, from time to time, drops this anthology of interesting stuff. The site also hosts lots of blogs.

Among to-days riches, I have discovered Dorothee Soelle.  Seems to me that Dorothee is a wonderful book-end for that English-speaking Dorothy, Dorothy Day.  Both Dorothy-s are worthy of exploration. Here is more about Dorothy Soelle

In among all this, along with the discovery of Dorothee Soelle, has come the discovery of a blog called The Moltmanniac honouring the work of Jurgen Moltmann -- but all that will be saved for another day.  Below I am posting A Radical Christian Creed by Dorothee Soelle.

CREDO
I believe in God
who created the world not ready made
like a thing that must forever stay what it is
who does not govern according to eternal laws
that have perpetual validity
nor according to natural orders
of poor and rich,
experts and ignoramuses,
people who dominate and people subjected.
I believe in God
who desires the counter-argument of the living
and the alteration of every condition
through our work
through our politics.

I believe in Jesus Christ
who was right when he
“as an individual who can’t do anything”
just like us
worked to alter every condition
and came to grief in so doing
Looking to him I discern
how our intelligence is crippled,
our imagination suffocates,
and our exertion is in vain
because we do not live as he did

Every day I am afraid
that he died for nothing
because he is buried in our churches,
because we have betrayed his revolution
in our obedience to and fear
of the authorities.
I believe in Jesus Christ
who is resurrected into our life
so that we shall be free
from prejudice and presumptuousness
from fear and hate
and push his revolution onward
and toward his reign

I believe in the Spirit
who came into the world with Jesus,
in the communion of all peoples
and our responsibility for what will become of our earth:
a valley of tears, hunger, and violence
or the city of God.
I believe in the just peace
that can be created,
in the possibility of meaningful life
for all humankind,
in the future of this world of God.
Amen

Creation, honeybees, and worship

As members of the new Adam, Christians are in a position to perceive the deeper theological significance of the plight of honeybees. Rehabilitating honeybee populations is the theological equivalent of recruiting new timpani for the orchestra; it is a partial effort toward enabling our fellow-creatures to worship. Urban beekeeping is a grace given us to better worship God in creaturely interdependence against the obscuring of these relationships in our modern technological society. Participating in and facilitating scientific research into safer pesticides is akin to Adam’s tilling and irrigating Eden, investigating how best to encourage the mutual flourishing of creatures who share in a common Creator. In view of the freedom God has given to his creation, and looking forward to the final reconciliation of all things to the Creator that has begun in the resurrected Christ, the church should do what she can to facilitate and encourage attempts to rehabilitate honeybees. This would be rightly considered an act of proper praise and worship to our Creator.
 

The extract above comes from the article "The Worship of Honeybees: Colony Collapse Disorder and the Purpose of Creation by Richard R. Glover (BA, M Political Economy) whose interests lie in reflecting theologically on social, political, economic, and cultural issues. He blogs sporadically at richardrglover.wordpress.com.  It was published in Ethos.

World Council of Churches: training Christian leaders on environment, climate change & food security.

WCC launches online survey on theology schools to probe climate justice

16 October 2014
A new online survey supported by the World Council of Churches (WCC) aims to promote the study of issues such as the environment, climate change and food security as part of the training of future pastors, priests and other Christian leaders.

"Activities organized by the WCC in various parts of the world in regard to climate change, environment and ecological justice have highlighted the need to have an assessment of what is being done, share good practices and provide theological insights on climate, environment and the wider creation," said Guillermo Kerber, WCC programme executive for climate justice.

The "Global Survey on Ecotheology, Climate Justice and Food Security in Theological Education and Christian Leadership Development" aims to map the current situation of training, teaching and research on these matters, as well as the resources and examples of good practice that are available.
The survey is open until the end of February 2015 and may be accessed online at: http://bit.ly/ecotheology.

The survey is aimed at teachers, lecturers and students in theological education institutions of all kinds, such as university theology faculties, church-linked theological colleges and seminaries, Bible schools, lay academies and distance-learning courses.

It is also aimed at people in faith-based organizations, specialized ministries and NGOs that have resources that could be used in programmes of theological education, formation and leadership development.

Following earlier discussions this year at the meeting of the WCC Working Group on Climate Change, the survey also will be presented during the Lima Climate Change Conference to be held in December. In June 2015, at a WCC-sponsored conference at the Orthodox Academy of Crete, findings of the survey will help to prepare a handbook on green churches, based on a proposal coming from the Ecumenical Institute seminar held in Bossey this year.

Issues such as ecology and climate justice are among the key elements of the emphasis on “pilgrimage of justice and peace” coming from the WCC 10th Assembly in Busan, Republic of Korea, 2013.

The results of the survey will contribute to an online collection of resources within the Global Digital Library on Theology and Ecumenism (GlobeTheoLib) which is hosting the survey.

GlobeTheoLib is a joint project of the WCC and Globethics.net, a Geneva-based global ethics network. In September, under the title Religions for Climate Justice, Globethics.net published a collection of international interfaith statements on climate change, in cooperation with the WCC.
Stephen Brown, programme executive for GlobeTheoLib at Globethics.net, said: "We look to the results of this survey to promote the genuine sharing of resources between North and South on one of the most crucial issues for the future of humanity, and of creation itself."

In addition to the WCC, the survey is supported by Globethics.net, the German development agency, Bread for the World and the United Evangelical Mission in association with the Orthodox Academy of Crete and Volos Academy for Theological Studies.

More information about the Global Survey

Full project description: Global Survey on Eco-Theology, Climate Justice and Food Security

WCC’s work on climate justice and care for creation

Religions for Climate Justice: International Interfaith Statements 2008-2014
United Nations Framework Conventon on Climate Change