sustain:if:able kiwi

Slogans for the 21st century: cultural exegesis by Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland, who came to fame for his book, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture has an uncanny knack of providing acute descriptions of our contemporary world.

Three young adults who in the midst of this changing world, seek to find their voice,by telling stories.

“We know this is why the three of us left our lives behind us and came to the desert – to tell stories and to make our own lives worthwhile tales in the process.” (Coupland, Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture)

Coupland has gone on to produce 12 books of fiction that seem to capture our changing culture – Microserfs: A Novel, about Microsoft Culture; Jpod, about life after the iPod; Hey Nostradamus!: A Novel, describes a fictitious high school shooting similar to the Columbine High School.

He’s currently working on an art project “Slogans for the Twenty-First Century,” in which he is seeking to “Try and isolate what is already different in the twenty-first century mind as opposed to the twentieth.” In other words, to do contemporary cultural analysis.

The exhibition is currently showing at the Daniel Faria Gallery.

Over recent years I have invited my classes to engage culture, to do “cultural exegesis” by using Third Way magazine’s Icon series, a monthly reflection on a contemporary cultural symbol. This series by Coupland would be another way of undertaking “cultural exegesis.”

For more see
– Coupland’s theologies of salvation here
– Coupland from X to A here

The Sapphires film review: an expression of ubuntu theology

Each month I publish a film review, for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Here is the review for October.

The Sapphires
A film review by Rev Dr Steve Taylor

“Without me, there’s no you.”

1968. The year I was born. The year that Martin Luther King was shot. The year four indigenous Aboriginal sisters, from rural Australia, found themselves in the midst of Vietnam.

Based on a true story, “The Sapphires” is an endearing mix of comedy, song and romance. In response to a newspaper advertisement, aided by out of luck Irish DJ Dave Lovelace (Chris O’Dowd) – Gail (Deborah Mailman), Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), Kay (Shari Sebbens) and Julie (Jessica Mauboy) – sing their way into a war. Travelling through Vietnam, entertaining American soldiers, they discover love and sorrow, dreams and reality.

An indigenous movie demanded an indigenous cast, requiring a scouring through Aboriginal communities around Australia. It is a credit to the emerging indigenous film industry in Australia to find actors as talented as Deborah Mailman. With 11 movies in 2011 and 15 in 2010, it suggests a community both creative and healthy. (In the period 1970-1979, there were 9 indigenous movies, compared with 135 in the period 2000-2009.*) (For more graphs go here).

Indigenous film or films made by indigenous film makers – Australia decadal

The use of black and white archival future – of Martin Luther King, of indigenous Australian campsites – skillfully adds a historical layer to the song and soul. Issues of ethical significance are raised, without the storyline being consumed.

“The Sapphires” began life as a stage musical. Indigenous writer Tony Brigg’s then crafted the song and dance genre for the big screen. He drew on the lives of his mother and three aunts, their love of song which led to and their work in Vietnam in the late 1960s. All four remain alive today, working for health among their indigenous communities.

Kiwi audiences will see similarities with the art of Maori comedian, Billy T James. Both employ the genre of musical comedy. Both share a public story of beginnings in Vietnam and use humour to gently poke at issues ranging from racism to indigenous experience.

Christian audiences will see similarities with the Biblical story of Ruth. First in the sentiments of the handwritten marriage proposal and the display of a sacrificial love willing to embrace “Your people as my people.” Second, in the indigenous smoking experience in which a mother welcomes a long lost daughter, stolen by officials enacting the White Australia policy of the 1950s. It is these scenes that give this movie a real power, the human tragedy made more poignant by the backdrop, including the death of Martin Luther King.

“The Sapphires” offers a poignant reminder of the social, ethical and communal heart of God, through the sacrificial actions of kinsman redeemers who open the way for redemption in community. This is seen most clearly in the Christian tradition through “ubuntu” theology, the concept made famous by Desmond Tutu in which “I am because we are.” The reminder that in God, and thus among God’s people, that indeed “Without me, there’s no you.”

*Source http://www.creativespirits.info/resources/movies/indigenous-film-timeline

I bind unto myself today

It’s quite lovely to wake up this morning and experience this wrapped around my wrist.

It was the result of Church last night. God as creator, redeemer, sustainer – 3 threads woven into one. We are a bead, an invitation to find ourselves woven into the Trinity.

A really embodied worship experience, that lingers into the week. (As a practical expression of this – Seeking holy ground)

seeking holy ground article

I was asked a few weeks ago to contribute an article to Journey, the Uniting Church of Queensland monthly newspaper. It’s become the front page headline for the October edition – titled Seeking Holy Ground. For those interested, it is here, or below … (more…)

homeward bound

I’m back home, Aotearoa New Zealand home, for a few days.

It’s my mum’s 70th birthday and I’m looking forward to that and to family time.

It’s just on 3 months since I became Principal and I’m looking forward to a break from that, to reflect, as my supervisor suggested, on the first lap, and how sustainable (not) the pace of life is.

It’s “home, land and sea”

– and I’m really looking forward to that.

the politics of Christian influence: Christianity and colonisation

James Boyce’s 1835 explores the Founding of Melbourne and in doing so, the conquest of Australia. Such books are essential reading for all those who care about mission and the witness of the church, because they allow us to reflect on the past.

Chapter 5: London 1835 includes a summary of the place of Evangelical Christianity in colonisation. “With the assistance of their …. [evangelicals] …. the British government became focused on the physical and moral welfare of indigenous people to an extent unknown before, or for the most part, since.” (37)

First, it helpfully notes that British Evangelicalism of the early 1800s should not be confused with present day American Evangelicalism.

Second, it notes the motivation. Once Slavery was abolished, indigenous welfare became a priority area of Evangelical concern. “Government control, along with support for enterprising ‘respectable’ settlers, was urgently needed to counteract the harm done to natives by lower-class European.” (38-9) This provides a contrast to the Domination narrative, which is often pinned on Christian colonisers. “The simple fact that evangelicals accepted that people had rights based on prior possession set them apart from the dominant settler discourse, which argued that the right to land arose from using it for farming.” (39)

This produced an ironic tension, that Christians supported colonisation because they saw it as “the primary means of ensuring that Aborigines were not degraded or killed by the lower order of Europeans.” (40)

Third, this advocacy on behalf of indigenous people relied on information. What happened in Melbourne and in the colonising of Australia, was that distance and lack of missionaries on the ground, meant that the Christian politicians lacked data to work for justice.

It’s a fascinating narrative about the relationship between church and society and the attempt to use politics for influence.

(New Zealand readers will want to read Chapter 7 – The Treaty, as it provides a fascinating analysis of a Treaty signing, both the politics and the processes, just a few short years before the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. But that is for another post).

Campfire 2012

I’ve spent the weekend in Western Australia, speaking at an event called CampFIRE. It’s been great fun, joining with around 150 folk to explore mission as the people of God.

It is located at Yearlering, which is about 3 hours drive out of Perth. So it’s rural, with all the beauty that involves.

It’s a unique approach to a camp in that it’s self-catering. You rock up with your tent or caravan – with the constant encouragement to hospitality, to share meals, pool with other families.

The campsite is located beside Lake Yearlering, which provides a gorgeous backdrop for connecting with people and engaging with God.

A standout was the number of children and teenagers, a sign that this part of the Uniting church is in great health, with a bright future being passed onto another generation.

My sessions all seemed to go well, with some great questions asked and what folk experienced as a blend of challenge and hope.

campFIRE: another rural adventure

I’m packing my bags for another rural adventure, this time in Western Australia, joining around 120 folk who are camping over the long weekend at Yearling. It’s called campFire.

Looking at my diary, I realised that it’s the 5th working weekend in 7 (glad I said no to the 6th!). Which is a bit much really. And it meant putting 3 members of Team Taylor on a plane to the home country (Aotearoa) yesterday, while I fly the opposite way for a weekend. Which has been quite hard psychologically.

So I am struggling with how to both cope with the busy and stressful side of being a Principal and to be out among churches. The latter is great for the College, but not for the tasks that keep crossing my work desk. My Scripture reading this morning was 2 Cor 9:10

Now God who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed.

Part of my seed is my creativity and I’m still trying to work out how that gets “supplied” and “increased.”

But enough personal therapy! At campFire I’ve been asked to talk about Fresh Expressions of Mission in the Bible and the Early Church and in order to do that, I’m going to try something I’ve not done before. I’m going to focus the bulk of my time around some creative re-telling of the Biblical stories, mix that with some alternative worship stations – some tactile fabric, some art images, some boat making, some work in groups. Not sure how that more intuitive, less linear approach will go, but looking forward to working in that space.

Theology and Practice of Chaplaincy: new taught topic

On Thursday the Ministries Studies Committee for the Bachelor of Ministry approved a new topic

Theology and Practice of Chaplaincy

It’s part of a larger focus that has been emerging, around training in chaplaincy, which is such a crucial ministry in contemporary mission. So part of my work over the last months has been identifying a potential lecturer and then working with various folk on the Uniting College team on the necessary paperwork.

Here is some of the description –

This unit will introduce students to practices, images and theological themes in a practical theology of chaplaincy. This will include developing skills and habits in areas of pastoral care, mission, leadership and worship from the perspective of actual human experience. This unit will consider a range of questions including

Lectures, tutorials and case studies will explore issues in the Christian life from the perspective of the socially marginalised. This will include a survey of the historical tradition.

We’re hoping to see this new topic being offered in Semester 2, 2013, alongside the first run of a topic specifically for school chaplaincy. Plus there might be a sort of “masterclass” in chaplaincy, a cohort who focus on the place of lament in the ministry and mission of chaplaincy.

All quite exciting IMHO

Who pulled the trigger? Dark Knight Rises film review

Each month I publish a film review, for Touchstone (the New Zealand Methodist magazine). Here is the review for September, written after, and with reflection upon, the tragic events in Aurora, Colorado on 20 July 2012.

Dark Knight Rises
A film review by Rev Dr Steve Taylor

Who pulled the trigger?

Hollywood block buster “Dark Knight Rises” will be forever defined not by plot, character or artistic sensibility, but by opening night. On 20 July 2012, James Holmes, suited in body armour, armed with a Colt AR-15 Tactical Carbine and .40 caliber Glock handgun, walked into a packed cinema in Aurora, Colorado. Movie goers initially thought it was an opening night party trick.

Holmes opened fire, killing twelve and injuring another fifty eight. A premiere that will go down in history as the occasion of the largest mass shooting in US history.

So was James Holmes mad, mentally unable to see right from wrong? Or was he simply bad, clinically choosing wrong from right, death over life?

Or should we point the finger elsewhere, take aim at United States gun laws and the way that allow such easy access to multiple murder and mayhem?

Who pulled the trigger?

Reports quickly emerged after the arrest of James Holmes of how he had described himself as the Joker, a direct reference to an earlier movie in the Dark Knight trilogy (reviewed in Touchstone September 2008), in which evil was personified in the person of the Joker.

If so, might the movie industry in fact be to blame. To what extent does the media influence us as individuals and ourselves as culture? The debate has raged for years, although never as poignantly as in the aftermath of Dark Knight Rises.

Yet the argument prosecutes the one, while failing to consider the many. Millions of people did see the Joker. More have watched murder enacted in Macbeth or heard it described in the Biblical story. Yet only James Holmes pulled the trigger.

Everyone one of us is daily surrounded by suggestion, by products to purchase, sweets to consume and temptations to pursue. Yet we still expect each other to say when.

Putting aside the moral arguments and opening night tragedy, how should the Dark Knight Rises be reviewed? Despite the glitzy star cat – Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne, Anne Hathaway as Catwoman – the movie is hardly worth watching. Directed by Chris Nolan, the glittering special effects fail to hide a reliance on spoken rather than visual storytelling. The repetitive soundtrack remains a stark reminder of the plodding pace.

Dark Knight Rises continues to explore the moral complexity that is Batman. Police and power are ignored, the wealth of the few purchasing an exclusive set of technologies. Rich boys toys become the plaything of a self-appointed vigilante.

The suspension of belief, so essential to movie making magic, remains a bridge too far. The ending needed an edit, for credits to roll with the entry of Robin, rather than the exit of Batman.

Amid the destruction of opening night, Dark Knight Rises as a poorly made finale to a trilogy of disturbing moral complexity.

the writing hut project

Father and daughter have been working in recent months on the writing hut project. A spot, outside, for daughter to create and re-create. A space, inward, in which two humans can tend to relationship through a shared a task. Yesterday it took a highly colourful step forward.

Amazing what a difference, in mood and tone, colour can make.

indigenous movie making: an emerging growth industry

Recently, I was working on a film review of indigenous movie, The Sapphires. As part of my research, I wanted to get a handle on the extent of the Australian indigenous movie industry.

My conclusion (drawing on figures from this website) – It’s quite a growth industry!

Indigenous film or films made by indigenous film makers – Australia decadal

And here’s the 2000 decade broken down into years – and the growth is most obvious in the last few years – specifically 2007, 2008, 2009.

For another article – A Short History of Indigenous Filmmaking – go here.

the feelings of ministry: a Pauline soul window

In this new season as Principal of Uniting College, I’m working my way slowly through 2 Corinthians, wanting to explore spirituality for mission and the inner life of leadership. Today, reading 2 Corinthians 7, as a study exercise, I began to list all the “feeling” words.

harrassed
fear
comfort
longing
sorrow
concern
joy
regret
hurt
happy
sorry
eagerness
indignation
alarm
longing
devoted
refresh
embarrass
affection
trembling
confidence

It strikes me as an astonishing list, a window onto the inner life, the humanity, the emotions of leadership and ministry. I love the way that 2 Corinthians moves between theology and practice, between wonderful theologies of mission and the reality of life.

This list needs to be placed alongside my recent thinking about the place of emotion in formation for ministry and mission. How do we enable leaders to discern God in the midst of this range of emotion? How do we ensure resilience? How do we cultivate classes and learning experiences that will be as emotionally rich as Paul’s experience of ministry?

the clash of mission images in 2 Corinthians

At first glance, the images of mission in 2 Corinthians 5 sit in stark contrast with the images of mission in 2 Corinthians 6.

In one (2 Corinthians 5), the church are ambassadors of reconciliation. This image is central to the formation and identity of the Uniting Church. In 2 Corinthians it is framed by internal conflict. A church body is divided and in response comes the call for reconciliation. This is intriguing, a stark contrast to images of mission that begin with what God is up to in the world, that pay attention, as in Romans 8:22, to the groaning of creation.

In the other (2 Corinthians 6), the church is called to be no longer yoked with unbelievers. How can this be? How to reconcile, without being in relationship? It seems in stark contrast with the images of mission that begin with Incarnation, with listening in and among, of community development.

Are Paul’s images in conflict?

Well, first, the word “daughters”, which Paul adds in 2 Corinthians 6:18 to the Old Testament text he is quoting. Witherington (Conflict and Community in Corinth) decides that Paul “was more egalitarian that many think, and this text shows his desire to be reconciled with both his male and female converts in Corinth.” (406). In other words, reconciliation remains at work.

Second, 2 Corinthians 6 makes reconciliation practical. It involves whom we eat with and talk to. In other words, it is never simply a God-human relationship. It is also a human-human relationship, the interactions with have with others, our moral and social boundaries in all of life.

What appears at first to be a clash in fact becomes a picture of an alternative future, a reconciling faith with radical social implications for God’s people. Which leaves the question: what is the impact of a mission image (2 Corinthians) that begins with a broken church, in contrast to a mission image (Romans) that begins with a broken creation?