• About
  • Blogs of Fellow Pilgrims

Wondering Pilgrim

~ the ramblings of a perambulent and often distracted sojourner

Wondering Pilgrim

Tag Archives: churches of christ

40 years ago today…

22 Saturday Nov 2014

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Ministry

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

churches of christ, ordination

… I knelt on a Melbourne platform and was ordained a minister of Churches of Christ in Australia. 40

Today is an occasion of reflection of what it has all meant.

  • Historically my tradition has had an ambiguous stance towards the matter of “setting apart” or ordaining clergy. After all, are not all ordained and set aside for Christ’s work at baptism? An emphasis on mutual ministry  and the priesthood of all believers  has negated the need for a separate clergy class. The local congregation can equip and appoint people to perform any of the tasks a traditional minister can –  counsel, preach, teach, baptise, preside over communion – so why ordain? On the other hand, churches, in order to thrive, have benefitted from those with particular training and honed skills to lead and “equip the saints for ministry.”
  • My ordination culminated four years of intense study, formation, reflection, prayer and “hands on” work amongst local congregations. It involved dropping a career in retailing, self-funding four years of residential college and tuition, learning to become a student at tertiary level having dropped out of secondary school, and adapting to living in close community. It marked the emergence of a different person than had entered training, and a recognition by the wider church that such preparation had been worthwhile and adequate for the task ahead.
  • There is an “on-going-ness” in the act that took place on that Melbourne platform. Formation and learning continue, formally and informally. In a way, seminary continues in the local congregation. Seeds mutually planted in my churches at Fremantle, Canberra, Modbury, Aldgate Valley and Wembley Downs took root and grew and yielded fruit. To sit at the 40 year marker and gaze back down through the decades is an exhilarating and humbling experience.
  • My stance to ministry and faith has changed over the years. It has become deeper and more expansive. Labels and categories don’t bother me anymore – I can move freely through progressive, contemplative, charismatic, sacramental and evangelical fields of thought and being in my conversations and relations with others. Inter-faith possibilities I find inviting and engaging, where once I might have found them frightening and threatening.
  • The last few weeks have seen efforts to trace and reconnect with those who shared the four year journey – the “Class of ’74.” We are far flung and have only had spasmodic contact over the years. Like an expanding universe, our individual trajectories have been vastly different and unique. Not all will be marking an anniversary of ordination, but all will attest to the transformational nature of the journey we shared. Our efforts to organise a reunion are a work in progress, but the negotiations and conversations by email, SMS and phone have that endearing and enduring quality of resuming an interrupted conversation that can easily be picked up again.
  • The 40 years marks the time when my culture and economy says this is when one should draw up a pension plan and retire. 40 years is also the biblical “generation” suggesting that its time to pass the baton. I find myself resisting – not from denial of time’s relentless march – but from a sense of a task not yet complete. There is still fire in the belly and unfinished projects to see through to completion. There is also an openness to respond to whatever “new thing” emerges from current engagement. This momentary reflective pause is simply a “coffee break.”  (Which is now over – so back to work!)

Breakfast with BJ

15 Sunday Mar 2009

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, Stone-Campbell

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Africa, Christian Church, churches of christ, Disciples of Christ, Great Communion. Restoration Movement, mission, Stone-Campbell, Zimbabwe

gmp-breakfast

Part of the Saturday morning crowd with BJ and Chipo Mpofu (right)

 

Folk from over half a dozen Perth western suburbs churches gathered for an early Saturday morning breakfast with BJ & Chipo Mpofu.

Under his role as President of World Convention of Churches of Christ, BJ opened the proceedings with a celebration of the Lord’s Supper, a reflection of the anticipated Great Communion event on 4th October commemorating 200 years of the Stone Campbell movement around the world.

Later, BJ addressed the gathering, thanking them for their support of aid projects in Zimbabwe, where he and Chipo play an important role in leading and encouraging churches through ministry training and community development, including the negotiation and distribution of emergency aid.great-communion3

Access to clean water has played a crucial role in protection from cholera, particularly in rural communities, BJ said. One had the impression that, while media reports from Zimbabwe highlight real and desperate problems, there is a positive will and strength within the churches to improve living standards and rebuild sound community structures.

BJ and Chipo, under the sponsorship of Global Mission Partners, continue their busy itinerary in Australia and then in the USA over the next two months.

 

200 years

09 Monday Mar 2009

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in Africa, churches of christ, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell, Wembley Downs

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

B J Mpofu, Christian Church, churches of christ, Disciples of Christ, Great Communion, restoration movement, Zimbabwe

Things are beginning to happen amongst the individual and diverse communities of what began to emerge 200 years ago as the Restoration Movement and ended up under a plethora of monikas covering most of the countries of the world – variously Churches of Christ, Disciples of Christ, the Christian Church, churches (small c) of Christ. This movement for Christian unity and church restoration has a chequered history, sometimes punching above its weight in its impact on the wider church scene, but often falling into the bitter divisiveness its origins abhorred. This is us warts and all!

This year sees calls from all streams of the movement to a rediscovery of our common roots and the passion evoked in the hope of a transformation of current vision. Study groups, web-sites and publications are beginning to appear – all with good stuff. It remains to be seen whether this anniversary will have any effect on our self-understanding as a whole. Will it pass like a summer storm with a bit of dampness but little lasting effect? Or will we see some drenching, saturating rains that will bring fresh, verdant growth and a fecundity of wisdom and understanding to contribute to the wider church and the world at large?

What might be possible in this year of  The Great Communion?

Looks like the South Australians are kicking things off with a series of provocative essays.

On Saturday, we host a breakfast attended by B J Mpofu, Zimbabwe Churches of Christ leader and President of World Convention of Churches of Christ. Responses from a few churches are starting to come in.   Maybe a cloud, the size of a man’s hand, is beginning to form on the horizon.

New links

19 Tuesday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

churches of christ, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

I’ve just updated some links in the sidebar to the left, mostly around the Stone-Campbell theme. I find I’m talking in terms of “Stone-Campbell” rather than “restoration movement” these days, as the latter term can be and often is misconstrued. As ever, it is a meeting with individuals who engage the challenges of their time with principles that are transferable from the age of the New Testament to their milieu, and which we can keep on discovering and applying to the unique challenges and opportunities of our own time, that pays dividends. This calls for flexibility rather than rigidity, and all too often (myself included) apologists for “restoration” have been trapped in structures and understanding of New Testament practices that have been brittle and unbending. Stone and Campbell seem to have been effective counterpoints to each other – with Stone’s emphasis on response to the movements of God’s Spirit and Campbell’s concern for doctrine, structure and correctness. Together, perhaps, both eclipse these characteristics with a focus on the unity of Christ’s church so that evangelistic endeavour might be effective.

Anyhow, the Disciples Historical Society link takes you to a range of interesting sources, articles and reflections that explore the Churches of Christ story, and the Great Communion site has lots of ideas on how to prepare for an event that promises significant opportunities for the world-wide Stone-Campbell spectrum of the church at large.

Now here’s a good link to a WCCC summary

13 Wednesday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

Trust the Disciples to put up a succinct yet pithy summary of World Convention that takes us onto the next step – preparing for the “Great Communion.’ See their site here. You will also find a link to a slide show of convention highlights there. My own pictures are on Flickr, albeit with restricted access. Contact me if you want in.

Cooling my heels at LAX

05 Tuesday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

Arrived at LA airport about noon. The plane for Changi leaves in 13 hours so plenty of time to cool my heels – reading, blogging, waiting to check my bag in. A deaf bloke circulates the tables selling pens and little stars & stripes badges. I buy one of each. Shortly after the PA system begins blaring announcements warning passengers they are not obliged to give money to “solicitors.” I’ve been a soft touch all the time I’ve been here – apparently over generous when tipping and falling into conversation with “solicitors” and inevitably slipping the odd buck here and there. I am really surprised at the low rate of pay here. Service people and even “solicitors” go out of their way to be friendly and polite. Should not enterprise in hard times be rewarded, or am I exacerbating “the problem?” This is one cultural reality I think I would find difficult to get used to if living here longer.

Giving thanks where its due

05 Tuesday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

churches of christ, generosity, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

A number of delegates to the convention were impressed when I said that I was present largely through the largesse of my home congregation at Wembley Downs. So this would be a good spot to say thanks to folk like John & Margaret Somerville and Ken Patterson and my church board and elders who prodded me when I was humming and harring as to whether I would attend this gathering. It seems that congregations that are alive to the passion and vision of the Stone-Campbell heritage, while enthusiastic in a local or regional setting, are straining to catch the global vision. Many jurisdictions are experiencing the anxiety of restructure and are thus internally focused. It will always be incumbent upon a few, across all three streams, to be a kind of “global Jiminy Cricket” – voices to keep reminding us that we need to remember where we came from in order to know where we are going. So my thanks to Wembley Downs for their largeness of vision and the will to put strength (and their minister) behind it.

By the way, Jenny tells me a lot of folk have been reading this blog and discussing it. How about bringing the conversation on line and using the “comments” box at the end of each entry. You can sign anonymous!

Post Convention Reflections

05 Tuesday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, pilgrimage, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

Los Angeles

World Convention is an odd animal – difficult to categorise. One passport screener asked whether I was here for business or pleasure. Those who know me well know that I rarely give black & white answers – it’s just not in my make up. I said I’m here for a convention. He said “Oh, business.” But I suspected business had certain conditions on my type of visa – so I said “No! We have no business sessions planned!”
“Oh, then pleasure?”
“Not primarily, it’s a church convention and we come together from all over the world to network and learn from each other. That’s what a convention is.”
The screener just shrugged his shoulders and let me through.
But that’s it – coming together from all over the globe and learning from each other and our experiences and work as part of the Stone-Campbell movement.
Inevitably and importantly, the host country wields great influence on the agenda. As part of the home of the movement that gave birth to Churches of Christ in its various manifestations, Nashville was a great choice. Both Campbell and Stone were present here, and a lot of the history and zeitgeist of their passion is here, reflected not only in the presence of Lipscomb University and the elegant quarters of the Historical Society of Disciples of Christ, but the prolific presence of churches in this “buckle of the bible belt.” The frontier urgency seems prevalent too, in the downtown street scenes where, bars, music and gospel seem to jostle quite comfortably and un-selfconsciously alongside each other.
The effects of the 100 year split are felt very keenly with lamentation by some, but also indifference by others. The passionate diligence of those for whom healing the split is of paramount importance, however, will, I feel, eventually win the day.
For visitors to the US, the emphasis on reconciliation was an education.The issues that separate don’t loom as large elsewhere. US members seem surprised that the Australian scene does not differentiate over much between Disciples and Independent distinctives.
Some felt that the emphasis on healing US divisions, the launching of the Great Communion, etc might have been overstated in an international gathering where there are other concerns – difficulties in several African nations and the Indian sub-continent and South America, indeed the presence of guests from poorer countries where there are differently urgent and important matters to discuss. There were forums and plenary occasions where all received their due, however.
Body of Christ theology tells me that whenever one part is in pain and needs healing – we all send our antibodies in to do the therapeutic work. The significance of the American roots of our movement is so important that if it fails to be strong we all suffer. The hospitality, candid honesty and will to heal exhibited by our host country modelled well what the church can be in any corner of the globe.
Anyhow, that’s my reflection as I sit here in LA waiting for the long plane ride home.

Campbell Country

04 Monday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, pilgrimage, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell, travel

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Shakers, Stone-Campbell, USA history

At last a hot spot at Nashville Airport where the homeland security guard is so friendly he says “Pass right on through, Dennis!” It’s still a few hours before my flight to LA, so I’ll just upload my journal re the journey through Campbell stamping grounds –

Travelling east through the plains of Ohio, we cross the river of the same name into the rolling hills of West Virginia, a north-south panhandle some 20 miles wide and maybe 100 miles long. This is Campbell country. My eyes had still been getting used to the deep green of the Kentucky and Ohio countryside we’d been crossing. Here the green is greener still as we catch a glimpse of the occasional deer (yes – the Bambi kind) skipping off through the heavily wooded mountain sides. The steep winding road takes us to our lodgings in Bethany, renamed from Buffaloe by Alexander Campbell when he applied to run a post office from there. By that stage his writings supporting the Restoration plea had become so prolific that incoming mail warranted its own facility. I was halfway through re-reading Louis Cochran, The Fool of God: a novel based on the life of Alexander Campbell (Standard, 1958).

It was an uncanny feeling of being able to recognise and feel familiar with the various rooms of his perfectly preserved home – a rambling mansion by the frontier standards of the early to mid 1800s. He added to it three times to accommodate his various enterprises, including 14 children to two successive wives, a school, a printing press, and a thriving farm (on which, for some time, he raised merino sheep). To sit in his place at the long dining room table at which he entertained often up to thirty guests, to gaze upon the ornate furnishings of the Stranger’s Hall where he received various luminaries of early American history, to poke around in the cellar where his first wife, Margaret (then with three small daughters), agreed to live so they could accommodate a boarding school), to look through the separate study he built 100 yards from the house, was to find oneself once again in a “thin place.” A tour of Bethany College, a large and imposing liberal arts university founded by Campbell, testified to the boundless energy and enterprise of this man for whom sound education and deep faith in Christ alone as expressed through a church uncomplicated by man-made creeds was the core of his being.

After overnighting in Cincinatti, we visited the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill. The Shakers were a sect to which some signatories of The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery later subscribed. A separatist community something like the Amish, they adhered to a particular millennial view that stated Christ had already come in their leader (a woman) and that their task now was to live out the heavenly simplicity of the perfection of the kingdom of heaven on earth. Consequently their work was their prayer, permitting no flaws . Such visions of perfection led to continuing improvement in agriculture, medicine, hygiene and household items (this is where the flat straw broom originated). Their expertise in such matters was much sought after. Caught in the crossfire of the American Civil war, the millennial vision evaporated and the Shaker communities began to dwindle. Workers were leaving farms for the factories in town. The Industrial Revolution with mass production facilities overtook them. Enforced celibacy did not improve their chances either. Today there are three remaining Shakers living in Maine. One remaining legacy is the a capella music that forms one genre of the Country and Western spectrum.

A platypus at Otter Creek

04 Monday Aug 2008

Posted by wonderingpilgrim in churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

churches of christ, nashville, restoration movement, Stone-Campbell, Wembley Downs

Otter Creek Church of Christ was one of a number of Nashville churches that graciously hosted World Convention visitors today. The church is an adherent of the a capella tradition, but for the last ten years has worked diligently in promoting healing of the divisions within the Stone-Campbell movement. One leader wryly observed that they were sometimes referred to as “Odder Creek” because of this and other positions. A number of us came to Otter Creek because of connections made on the Stone-Campbell tour earlier. We were warmly received and hosted at a luncheon that followed. I was able to share my congregation’s fondness for the platypus, a kind of “Australian otter” that defies easy description. Again, some pictures will be added as soon as I can find a hotspot that my wifi will connect with. Heading home tomorrow, so not sure how soon I can tune in here again.

← Older posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 240 other followers

Follow Wondering Pilgrim on WordPress.com

Recent Posts

  • Seventh Day Musings December 31, 2020
  • A Christmas reflection on a Senior Housing Crisis December 20, 2020
  • Rocky Road August 17, 2020
  • She came asking… August 10, 2020
  • Getting wet feet August 3, 2020
  • Economy of abundance July 28, 2020
  • Riddle me July 20, 2020
  • Let it Be July 13, 2020
  • Wasted Words? July 6, 2020
  • But John held up a mirror… June 30, 2020

Gallery

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Archives

  • December 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • July 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • September 2016
  • December 2015
  • October 2015
  • June 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • March 2011
  • February 2011
  • January 2011
  • December 2010
  • November 2010
  • October 2010
  • September 2010
  • August 2010
  • July 2010
  • June 2010
  • May 2010
  • April 2010
  • March 2010
  • February 2010
  • January 2010
  • December 2009
  • November 2009
  • October 2009
  • August 2009
  • July 2009
  • June 2009
  • March 2009
  • February 2009
  • January 2009
  • December 2008
  • November 2008
  • October 2008
  • September 2008
  • August 2008
  • July 2008
  • May 2008
  • March 2008
  • February 2008
  • January 2008
  • December 2007
  • November 2007
  • October 2007
  • September 2007
  • August 2007
  • June 2007
  • May 2007
  • March 2007
  • February 2007
  • January 2007
  • December 2006
  • November 2006
  • October 2006
  • September 2006
  • August 2006
  • July 2006
  • June 2006
  • April 2006
  • March 2006
  • February 2006
  • January 2006
  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005
  • August 2005
  • July 2005

Website Powered by WordPress.com.

Cancel

 
Loading Comments...
Comment
    ×