Ministry mission and more... The Revd Dr Val Ogden

Saturday, 15 April 2017

Easter Day 2017

Easter Day!

5.00am sunrise preach in park. 6.00am PTC Chapel & brekky. 8.30am Mass to renew baptismal vows and get sprinkled. Thank you RC friends. Lots of Prots tend to forget this sadly, and it means a lot. Well, to me anyhow. You?

So, simply blogging a snapshot or two with love on this Resurrection Day 2017. May yours be special too.

An afternoon procession of witness with Fiji Council of Churches, and a concert in the town park with young people from a variety of Churches performing songs, dance, drama etc. Here we are following the Salvation Army band, God bless 'em!

Below, some Easter flowers at the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart...

...and the font, dressed so beautifully, with a free rainbow flooding in.

And the name of the little sprinkler you can see sticking out of the silver pail? Like a perforated baby rattle for holding the holy water? Come on you lapsed liturgists!!

............................................................?

It's an aspergillum. From the Latin, aspergere meaning 'to sprinkle'.

Well done if you got it.

Have an Easter egg.

Friday, 14 April 2017

Good Friday 2017

It feels like a tough Good Friday - how about you? There was such terrible cruelty witnessed in the Palm Sunday attacks in Egypt, maybe this has made its presence particularly felt throughout Holy Week? Certainly a talking point on campus here. Special prayers for the Coptic Orthodox family today, and as they prepare for subdued Easter Day celebrations.

Nothing subdued at Nanuku settlement however. The Best Youth Group in the World offered a Good Friday Passion Play. Frenzied practices, bitten fingernails, a few grumpy words and emergency prayers sent up beforehand. But all was well and many who watched were stirred and moved. In contrast to children and young people in the Coptic Christian family, as mentioned above, we were able to act, worship and witness in peace and safety.

An altar call at the end of worship drew sixteen souls across the age spectrum who wanted to commit to 'higher standards of discipleship' - the invitation in the closing word. If Jesus gave all: the highest possible standard of loving obedience to God's purposes, what does that mean for us, practically, in our own small way? Can we notch it up a level?

The Passion Play was filmed by the Methodist Church's Communications Team (thank you so much, friends), so hopefully we can share more in due course. In the meantime, here's the cast.

And so it's goodnight from Good Friday, with a little recessional music. Not generated from Fiji, but still very good indeed for the soul. Be blessed, as they say...

Sunday, 2 April 2017

Standards

There’s an app on my phone called ‘Guitar Tuna’. A picture of a guitar head pops up, you stab on a string, and it obediently replies with a twang of the note requested: standard pitch for E, A, D, G, B and E on an acoustic guitar. Definitely a useful tool for Church, where young people in Nanuku compound still patiently endure my inadequate guitar teaching skills. We frequently need to get ourselves tuned up and standardised, lest we should assault the neighbours’ eardrums too harshly.

I can remember going out carol singing from my childhood Church in Manchester over 40 years ago. Then, vocal standardisation was achieved, before launching into ‘Hark the Herald’ or ‘While Shepherds’, courtesy of the pling of my father’s tuning fork struck on a convenient lamppost. We mostly started together on the same note, but there were always a few nonconformists.

Which leads me to ask: who sets the ‘right’ standard for anything anyway? Using the guitar tuning example, who regulated the pitch of low E to some globalised, universal standard? Sometimes Nanuku young people come with a guitar that’s perfectly in tune with itself because Dad or Uncle (rarely Mum, but occasionally) has been strumming it at home, but it’s not conforming with the app which boasts...

Award winning audio technology
• Built on the world's most advanced audio recognition algorithm - the same technology powering Yousician
• Professional accuracy for advanced players
• Auto mode tuner (for super fast tuning, hands-free, string by string)

‘Hands free?’ My word, can standard tuning by app even guarantee no red creases and ugly corns on the fingertips anymore for guitar novices? No pain? Then very little gain.

Stringed instruments are traditionally aligned and strummed in the Pacific in a range of ways with an easy, natural harmony and a pitch that accommodates to voice. Singers and strummers listen carefully and harmonise readily: sensitive to note and nuance. But those aptitudes are being eroded it seems. I tell the guitar learners at Church constantly, ‘Listen! Let’s use our ears. Does that string on Manoa’s guitar sound like it’s the same note as the one on Jemesa’s? What do you think? Does it need to go up-up or down-down: tighten or loosen?’

I don't think the exercise is quite as scary as it looks in these pictures. Though that woman could certainly give you the creeps...

Some of us really try and tune our ears in at these sessions, but the lure of the app is irresistible. When the note is pitch perfect; truly standardised according to the great god guitar tuna, it gives a congratulatory ping and green lights flash triumphantly on an ascending scale. Ta-da! How can you beat that? So we’re ‘in tune’ if electronic lights flash, not if our ears and voices tell us so.

As a result, the issue of whether it’s useful to have a guitar tuned differently sometimes is generally suppressed. We now know what’s standard and it has to be that way. Oh yes, and if you’re interested in the wonderful world of scordatura, open, modal, drop note tuning and the like, enjoy the research.

The subject of standards in a globalised and formerly colonised world could drive a British mission partner completely round the bend. It’s like a permanent haunting. It lurks in the shadows and leaps out to grab you with an irritating neck squeeze time and again.

Gotcha!

If beautiful music is being played harmoniously and delightfully on stringed instruments that haven’t conformed to standard tuning, sometimes called American Standard Tuning, should anyone worry? Probably not. But who decides what delights and what constitutes harmony in other areas?

I was attending a seminar on Open Education resources at the University down the road the other day. The aspiration of Open Education is frequently to challenge norms. For example, a ‘standard’ textbook for academic purposes is required to be ‘in tune’ with the conventions of global, academic print publishing. The glossy results cost a fortune to buy and ship to the Pacific, excluding many learners.

Open Education says, why not more open textbooks? Make as many quality resources as possible available online, open-access. Flick a switch in the brains of academics and their publishers so they come to see that this way of functioning, along with the necessary bandwidth, should be ‘standard’, not least for the sake of those who are resource deprived through no fault of their own.

(I know you’re smiling benevolently, or turning puce and snorting, at the audacious ability of this blog to reduce phenomenally complex debates to a few snappy sentences. Mind you, the Gospel writers did an impressive bit of that).

Ah yes. Standards, don’t you know. Slipping, would you say, Brigadier? And don’t get me started about the haunting of ‘standard English’ - where that came from and what on earth it’s supposed to look and sound like now in higher education, theological or otherwise. Not to mention what we're all supposed to enforce - or not.

At the same Open Education seminar, a key presenter showed us a power-point which included this line.

There has been quiet a number of research done in this area.

Friday, 24 March 2017

Guests, events, more guests and more events...

House 12 PTC campus has been busy with guests passing through for a few nights. Thank you Mercy and Josiah for the blessing of your company...

...also Ronald and Anne Clements whose visit included a Friday morning and the opportunity to share in the weekly Education by Extension tutorial.

17-18th March was a huge couple of days in College, as the Church History Department led a 500 years of Reformation event. I'll let them explain, using the text that was on their publicity...

500 YEARS OF REFORMATION – A CELEBRATION

We are liberated by God’s grace

These words go to the heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to the soul of the Lutheran Reformation. They are linked to Luther’s key insight that helped trigger the Reformation – Christians attain salvation only by the grace of God. We call this justification by faith alone.

“Liberated by God’s Grace” is the main theme of our celebrations surrounding the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. It will also be the theme of the 2017 Assembly of The Lutheran World Federation in Windhoek, Namibia. All our celebrations, worship, study and engagement will focus on how the gracious love of God, through the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, opens up opportunities for us as faithful Christians to reach out as healers and reconcilers to a world torn apart by strife and inequality.

Workshops offered by the four PTC departments:

Theology and Ethics: Luther's Theology of Creation and Climate Change in the Pacific

Dr Davis will offer an exposition of the key points of Luther's doctrine of creation and discuss this in relationship with the issue of climate change in the Pacific. While climate change was unknown to Luther, key aspects of his theology speak to the issue today, including his theology of the cross and his criticisms of indulgences and humanity's misuse of creation. Finally, the shortcoming of Luther's theology in dealing with climate change in the Pacific will be addressed as a prod to Pacific theologians to do their own theological work on this pressing issue.

Dr Vaai focuses on employing the relational hermeneutical approach fundamental to the Pacific way of thinking and life to reconstruct a relational theology based on Luther’s Reformation teachings to effectively inform eco-justice talanoa and address issues affecting the Pacific vanua such as climate change.

Biblical Studies: Sola Scriptura!? Luther's Biblical Hermeneutics

The workshop will offer a brief introduction to the topic, followed by a discussion based on short texts by Luther. It will centre on three questions: What did Martin Luther mean by "sola scriptura" (by Scripture alone)? How has this influenced hermeneutical strategies ever since? What sense does this make in Pacific Island contexts today?

Church and Ministry: Priesthood of all Believers –

A relevant Option for Ministry in the Pacific today?

‘Priesthood of all Believers’ – a hallmark of Luther’s Reformation – has always been a challenge, first to the Roman Catholic Church and later to the Protestant Churches.

What light does ‘Priesthood of all Believers’ shed on sharing power and authority in the church? Should we redefine titles and ranks in this light? What is the meaning of a church office, when all are called to be priests? What actually does ‘priesthood’ mean to me and my work today? Participants are invited to voice out such questions and, in response, share their related experi-ences and visions.

Church History: Demonizing Dissenters

The workshop will look at the “dark side” of Luther: the excessive, at times outrageous polemics against his opponents, its reasons and its consequences. Luther’s experience of the devil will be highlighted as important background to understanding his enormous resilience, and also his of-fensive behaviour and language. Questions concerning the meaning of the devil and patterns of demonization in the pacific context may lead to discussion.

My humble role in all this was to introduce PTC's Principal the Revd Professor Dr Feleterika Uili Nokise as one of the keynote speakers, get people into discussion groups afterwards, and facilitate a feedback session. Enlightening at many levels.

Hot on the heels of the Reformation 500 event came this one, hosted by our Institute of Mission and Research.

The Guest lecturer for the event was also the Principal of PTC. Sinning by way of 'lazy blogger' syndrome I steal my colleagues' publicity again...

...he will be delivering his lecture on the topic 'Wellbeing: Our capacity to imagine, express new possibilities, and find new solutions to complex issues'. The overall theme of the lecture series 'Churches in Conversation with Society on Issues that Matter' is an attempt to raise awareness and debate on an issue that is far reaching in its consequences to human existence – the ecological crisis. Pertinent to the issue is the question: what are the religious, traditional and cultural resources at our disposal that will help us with reweaving the ecological mat?

As well as being grateful for the events themselves, none would have been possible without the amazing, selfless sharing of the abundant resources and talents of the student community here who - as well as being required to engage academically with the events - prepared meals, decorated rooms, served guests, provided entertainment, set up sound systems, etc etc etc. It would be impossible to add too many 'etcs' to that sentence. Thank you community. You were and are stunning.

If you want a sample of the musical offerings, have a look at our PTC Youth Group in action. Brilliant!

And the PTCEE mail this week has included assignments posted from various islands, some registration forms, the phone bill... oh yes, and a bar of chocolate from Romsey Methodist Church.

PTCEE administrator Nisha kindly obliged with the photo as requested.Signage and location indicated.

Has our chocolate bar travelled the furthest?

Thanks Romsey!

(But in Lent, friends. Tut tut ...)

For Sunday consumption only!

Thursday, 9 March 2017

Serpent and Son of Man

Frequent readers will know I occasionally blog a sermon. Here's the one I preached in PTC Chapel today, picking up on a key verse in the Gospel of John: 3.14. See what you make of it. Comment and critique welcome.

John 3.1-17.

Now there was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, ‘Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.’ Jesus answered him, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above. Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, “You must be born from above.” The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.’ Nicodemus said to him, ‘How can these things be?’ Jesus answered him, ‘Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? ‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life ‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Lifted!

John’s Gospel offers us a very interesting reading of Hebrew Scripture this morning. In John 3.14, reference is made to an incident in Numbers 21.6-9 when the Lord sends poisonous or fiery (depending on how the Hebrew is translated) serpents to bite those travelling in the wilderness for complaining about their rations: we hate this miserable food. Don’t ever complain about the quality of food at a College feast eh – a warning! But it was a serious business. Many Israelites died.

The people recognise their sin and say to Moses – pray to the Lord to take away these serpents: they are bad news, offensive, they kill us. Moses prayed on behalf of the people and the Lord answered. The Lord said, ‘Actually – give them another snake!’ You see how annoying the Lord can be at answering prayer? The very thing they never want to see again, lift it higher, says the Lord, so they can’t miss it. Lift this offensive thing higher. So the Lord instructs Moses to make a poisonous serpent: out of bronze, not a wriggly one, and lift it high. Let them look it this offence, this tempter from Eden, this cursed one wriggling on its belly, with the mouth and the forked tongue and the poison – let them look and tremble. But actually – it will give them life. Or as Wisdom 16.6 puts it, it will be for them ‘a symbol of deliverance’.

And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life – says our Gospel this morning: John 3.14.

How do you feel about that link between serpent and Son of Man: snake and Saviour in the same breath. Offended? What would Nicodemus the Pharisee and other teachers of Israel have made of Jesus’s words? Many commentators now say that comparison is stretching it a bit in the Greek, it’s not made explicit.

But Martin Luther, of whom we’ll be hearing a bit more this year of Reformation 500, liked it. In a sermon from 1538 he says, “Christ nailed to the cross” is our “bronze serpent,” for faith in him frees us from “the threats and terrors of the Law, sin, death, wrath, and the judgment of God.”

Artists over the years have liked it too – there’s a picture of St John the Evangelist, a woodcut and print, around the same time as Luther, and St John is lifting up a chalice but it’s a chalice with added value – let me show you – see a serpent is rising up out of it. The serpent has mingled with the blood of Christ – snake and Saviour. It’s culturally offensive, yes?

Other paintings and artwork over the generations have been interested in this as well. But we don’t need a serpent in our chalice this morning – we’ll send it away!

The thought I humbly offer to our community this morning is that the snake-Saviour connection probably isn’t as helpful as the idea of lifting – being lifted up - which of course runs across the Hebrew Scripture and John’s Gospel too. I’m intrigued and helped by the theme of lifting as essential to the Good News of God in Christ. The bronze serpent was lifted, offensive though it was, for the purposes of healing and saving that community.

Jesus was lifted, on the cross that instrument of torture, a gruesome spectacle, yet for the purposes of healing and salvation. The lifting, the raising high of that which must be seen, confronted, engaged with - however offensive to the eyes, however shocking to the soul - has a place in our faith journeys.

So what will you and I gaze upon today which has been lifted up for us to see? Is it images, perhaps, of the torture marks, the gunshots wounds inflicted on West Papuan elder David Tarko? Deeply offensive, and yet lifted up, via media platforms and through the bravery of those who know, so that we might see and pray, react and act, for a community’s deliverance. Lift it up.

Perhaps there are aspects of church and community life in our world which need to be lifted and looked at again, even if it’s an uncomfortable spectacle. Wiser people than me in the Pacific can give examples on behalf of the Pacific.

In Northern Ireland at the moment, some horrible things are being lifted, literally: the bones of babies and young children. In years past there were Church run ‘mother-and-baby’ homes; supposedly places of sanctuary and care for unmarried mothers and their illegitimate babies, because pregnancy out of marriage was such a scandal. One home in the small village of Tuam – it was in operation from 1925-1961 – has 17-20 underground chambers where human remains have been found: the remains of very young children, 35 foetal weeks to two-three years. We look at this offence and ask in 2017, what on earth was going on back then? And what do Church and society need to repent about and learn for the future? Lift it up. Look at it. It’s deeply offensive but for the sake of our healing – lift it up, don’t avoid it.

These two examples carry a lot of pain. Do they seem like another world from the jazzy chorus we sang at the start of worship about the power of lifting up – I’ll praise the name of Jesus, lift up the name of Jesus, for the name of Jesus lifted me.

They’re not a world away, actually. Many, many followers of Christ do know the reality of being lifted. We can testify to it. We encounter deeply sinful horrors in the world and tremble before the raised serpent, yet we can look upon them and engage with them by the grace and in the power of the one who knew such horror but rose above it. The name of Jesus lifted me, a Christian sings with utter joy and gratitude, because his lifting on the cross and from the grave and to the skies gives me hope like none other.

The human experience of being lifted gives us comfort and delight. Dad scoops the little one up whose legs are tired from walking and has started to shed tears. He sits them on broad shoulders high up.

Lifted! They don’t have to walk in their own strength anymore, they’re carried, and they laugh with delight – on top of the world. We feel the weight of sin and shame very acutely sometimes and need to be lifted from it. And the classic evangelical error is, of course, to think we can earn that elevation, we can make it happen. No. It’s the lifting up of the Son of Man that suffices and releases mercy, forgiveness, grace in such measure it defies logic. It’s a lifting up in love. More than we could ever fathom.

We must forever lift our gaze to marvel at that. As Thomas Kelly wrote many years ago in his hymn, Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters, God is love. When we fix our gaze on that, our hearts overflow. And we find, perhaps, that John 3.14 sets the stage for John 3.16 most wonderfully: if I may take the liberty….

For God so loved the world, that he gave and lifted up the Son, so that all might be lifted.

Amen.