A Transformed City!

There we were sitting having a conversation about prayer and how the city of Belfast could be transformed and then we were joined by Noel: he had been out with his wife and mother-in-law and while he was having some coffee while they went off shopping he heard us talking and became increasingly inquisitive. he told us that he had resisted making an approach, telling himself it would be impolite but , in the end could not resist introducing himself. He was of the same mind and wanted us to know that. we were in a public coffee shop and he heard us talking so he came and joined in on the conversation. That is what real Christianity is all about and what gossiping the gospel means. For some time I have had the vision of creating a prayer space for anyone to comer and pray; a space in the middle of the community rather than hidden away inside the church. Then once I began to talk about it and took some action I have found that others have the same vision. We have a shop, right in the middle of the Protestant community and right up against the so-called peace line where we can pray.

The vision is for a prayer space which can be a shared space where people from different Christian traditions can pray together and own their own at any time of the day. That by praying in this way the division within our city can be healed and Christian unity can become a real thing. That by coming to this place we can pray for the transformation of this city we call home.

Can I ask the people who read this blog to pray for us as we begin to unpack what this means? Can I ask those who read this blog, even if that be a very small number of people to pray for the unity of the Christian community in Belfast? Can I ask you to pray for the creation of a Christian community in Belfast which will be counter-cultural and a clear demonstration of an alternative community: one which does not depend upon wealth or power or the need to dominate but one which has love as its core value and it's DNA?

Noel is just the beginning, there are people out there who are looking for a way to demonstrate unity and a way to demonstrate that they are not sectarian but desire to live with those with whom they disagree. the whole world looks at our city as an iconic example of division: lets show them how a fragmented city can be totally transformed. Where are the people who will stand with us? Where are the people whose desire it is to see the miraculous change in our city?

United Prayer

I think that most people would say that Belfast and Northern OIreland, not to mention the rest of Ireland and Britain, need to be transformed. The only question concerns how this is going to be brought about. In the simple faith I have I believe that we need to ask God to transform our nation. I have been taught that it is a matter of expressing faith to ask God to do the things He wants to do: so what does God want to do? Is it the will of God that our cities wither and die of moral decay? Or is it His will that they are transformed? is it not God's will that no one should perish but that all should come to life? If this is so then why are we not praying in united prayer for our city? Are there people in the city who are interested in a 24/7 prayer room in the heartland of Protest Ulster?

OUTSIDERS

Bailey entered a strange place, well, strange for him:this was not a place he had been in for a long time. He felt, and looked, very ill at ease. It was like all the eyes of the people were fastened on him. He was all dressed up, and that was very unusual. Stranger still he was on his best behaviour, normally speaking he wouold still be in bed, recovering after the night before. Maybe he was more comfortable than he looked but I don't think so. He had no idea how he was supposed to behave: when to stand, when to sit, when to talk and when to be quiet and his friends were no better. Then there was the singing: he didn't normally sing unless he had been drinking for some time and as he sat down it ocurred to him that he had no money in his pocket and what would happen when the plate came round, how embarrassing?

Fortunately he began to feel a little better as time went on. By the time the sermon came he was feling much better: thankfully the preacher took a more conversational style and encourged inter-action. When one of the other visitors agreed to take some of the honey and when he laughed at a lame joke the akwardness left and the body language changed and there was even the faint glimmer of a smile,

Every time we have people with us who seldom if ever go to church these are the kind of cultural hurdles we expect them to cross. The way our services are arranged suit the people who know what happens and the way it happens: they are the people who have no need to be persuaded by making things suit them. The very ones that we should be helping by the way we worship are the ones who feel like fish out of water and when they don't return we are surprised because we think we have reached out to them. The church that wants to be apostolic in the way things are done and in the way they worship will ask the regular queston about how to make outsiders feel like insidders. Nothing we do will guarentee success, no external changes will ensure that non-believers will flock to the church: that rests in God's hands but that is no excuse for making life as difficult as possible for them.

As the service progressed he felt increasingly tense: would he be bored by the sermon? Would it embarass him? Surprissingly he began to feel less tense and his face reflected that. In fact he actually began to find it all interesting even though it was an involuntary decsion ............................................

Avatar

"Glorious, A winner, Extraordinary, Most Beautiful, Best Ever". Just some of the words used to describe the best selling sensation "Avatar". It's the story of how a paraplegic marine is given a chance to get his legs back by doing some work for the corporate company: all he has to do is to infiltrate the native tribe of Navi who live on the moon Pandora to find out as much as possible about them. The problem for Jake Sully begins to emerge as he gets to know the lovely Neytiri simply because they fall in love. The end game is to get rid of the native tribe who, contrary to all prejudice, are not mere savages who live in tees; they have their own culture, language and religion. The precious metal that is all over the sacred woodland is required for earth and the human beings will do what it takes to get it.
Pandora's Box is opened when Jake begins his work. This is the story of how the strong try to destroy the weak. The earth people have mighty weapons and have devised a way of creating their own computerized people who go in search of the natives. In the end Jake dares to cross over to help the natives and, eventually he leads them in a mighty struggle against all the odds as they try to protect their homeland and drive the aliens away.
This resonates with other situations that we all know about. I cannot help but think of the "war on terror" and the treatment handed out to the Native Americans during the 19th century. I have to consider all those who have been mistreated down through the ages. And then there are the times and places where ethnic cleaning has been common: if we consider the dispossession of the Irish natives from their lands in the 17th century which were given to English and Scottish landlords we have to consider the ethnic cleaning of Protestants on the Border and the Catholic policemen who were shot by the IRA .
In the end Jake decides that the savages are not those who fight with bows and arrows and he decides to stay with them. We need to decide what kind of society we want today. As our politicians make decisions about policing and justice and as we make calls for more police on our streets we need to take responsibility ourselves. We need to understand that the problems we are facing are not just questions for the police. They are not just questions for the government. They are questions that all of us, who share this space called earth, will have to face. Each citizen will have to decide what kind of society we are prepared to fight for. If the war really is over then we need to start working for the peace. We need to start the process of normalization, when we become able to disagree in an agreeable way. It is vitally important that the Christians, who live in this community, start to pray, as one united body for the welfare of our city, that we are transformed by the word of God. Jake was won over by love. I hope that we will be too!