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Church
Signs & Symbols: Ceilings 1
Acts For Today: No. 8: Philippi
This airline hasn't time to take people on holidays
Quiet hope in a bad world
Attracted to pornography on the internet? Now there is help in breaking
free
One thousand churches now have Fairtrade status
Recycled rubble from tsunami-hit coast to be used to build new homes and
roads
**
Editor: The Rev Dr Jo White continues her series on signs and symbols.
If you would like the earlier ones in the series, we would be happy to
email them to you.
Signs & Symbols: Ceilings 1
A vicar can get a nasty shock when he or she goes into their church for
a late morning service and finds a man lying on his back on the floor.
Has he taken ill? Has he had an accident? Fortunately in many cases all
is well – the man on his back is just looking at the ceiling!
It's a good point – how do you best look at the details in a ceiling in
a tall church building without getting a crick in your neck? In many
large churches or cathedrals there are mirrors on high trolleys, angled
so that you can look down to look up. Other people prefer a warm
cushioned pew to lie on, a pair of binoculars, and a choir or an organ
practising in the background.
Ceilings are often under-appreciated in our English churches, unless
their decoration is very obvious, such as the wonderful wooden
hammer-beam roofs which are nearly always in the eastern counties. Now,
if we were in an Orthodox Church our eyes would be naturally led up and
up by the wall paintings that tell the story of God in every aspect,
until rising quite naturally above the highest level with the apostles
and saints to the heavens above and Christ the Lord of all.
Here our decoration is more likely constrained by the style of the
ceiling materials. The craftsmen worked with the materials they had, and
ornamented what is available in a wide variety of ways: painting the
spaces between beams or rafters, carving the ends of beams where they
protrude across the aisle or where they rest on a wall bracket, carving
'bosses' where stone ribs meet.
You couldn't even say that the themes used are common, though there's
usually a good sprinkling of angels and stars; when we are quite
literally given the idea that we are looking up to the heavens. The
church building is a place where heaven and earth meet.
This month
Have a really good long look (not just a quick glance) at the ceiling in
your usual church and again at a very different one. What do they have
in common? Are there designs or themes that go across them both or is it
simply the fact that you have to look up?
**
Editor: The Rev Paul Hardingham continues his series on the New
Testament. If you would like the earlier articles in the series, we
would be happy to email them to you.
Acts For Today: 'The Growing Church in the Acts of the Apostles'
No. 8: Philippi
'It is not the Church of God that has a mission in the world, but the
God of mission who has a Church in the world' (Tim Dearborn:
Mission-Shaped Church). If God is to use the church in mission, we must
be prepared to let him lead us. This is powerfully illustrated in the
account of the founding of the Philippian church in Acts 16. We find
there three important principles to grasp:
Strategic Vision
The mission to Philippi was clearly God's idea rather than Paul's!
During his second missionary journey Paul was clearly prevented by the
'Spirit of Jesus' from preaching the gospel in Asia and Bithynia.
However, through a vision of the 'man of Macedonia', he was led to
Philippi. In our own church life God both closes doors, as well as
giving us fresh vision for the way forward.
Diversity of People
The church began with a remarkable set of people, including a wealthy
woman called Lydia, a native Greek slave girl (whom Paul delivered of an
evil spirit) and a Roman prison officer. Together they represented 'the
civilised world in miniature' (J.B. Lightfoot). God is still bringing
together a wide diversity of people in the church, including different
nationalities, backgrounds, race, colour, sex and age. In this way we
can demonstrate the gospel of reconciliation with credibility!
The Importance of the Family
The church met in the home of Lydia with her and the jailer's family,
underlining the importance of the household in the life of the early
church. In today's church we also need to be thinking in terms of
'extended families', to ensure that single or older people are included.
So let's ask the question: what does the Philippian church say to us
today?
**
Editor: Many of your readers will be flying somewhere or other this
summer. Here are flights with a difference! This article may be useful
in introducing your readers to a valuable Christian ministry: the
Mission Aviation Fellowship.
This airline hasn't time to take people on holidays
Did you fly somewhere this summer? Did the speed and convenience of
flying matter to you? Then you will understand what a tremendous
difference an airplane can make to mission and development projects in
remote areas. ...
Mission Aviation Fellowship uses light aircraft in developing countries
to bring help to people in remote areas.
In Chad alone, MAF is helping both Bible translators/teachers and also
landmine decontamination experts to do their work.
Without regular Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) flights to Tchaguine,
Southern Chad, Bible translators there would find their work virtually
impossible. Twice a week the regular Southern Shuttle flight visits
remote Tchaguine, where TEAM missionaries Mark and Diane Vanderkooy
would otherwise be cut off by the rains for five months of the year.
MAF planes have also brought work teams into Tchaguine to help the TEAM
missionaries build a 100ft broadcasting tower and studio. Regular
broadcasts are aimed at teaching people basic literacy. Already there is
a church of 400 Kwong believers, all of whom want teaching and
encouragement.
MAF is also helping to rid Chad of landmines. More than 30 years of past
civil conflict have resulted in extensive landmine contamination. In the
north, there are whole areas where travel is unsafe. Here MAG, an
international non-governmental organisation (NGO) is working to destroy
the landmines and left-over bombs, mortars and grenades that make areas
unsafe after war. MAF is providing MAG with 100 hours flying, taking
teams in and out, and providing standby support in case of medical
emergencies.
All in all, MAF is involved at the heart of reaching vulnerable people,
whether they are in spiritual or physical need.
**
Editor: We liked this excerpt from a letter written in the 3rd century.
Quiet hope in a bad world
The following is a letter from Cyprian. He lived in the 3rd century,
became Bishop of Carthage and was martyred for his faith. The letter was
addressed to his old friend Donatus.
“This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I view it from this fair
garden, under the shadow of these vines. But if I climbed to some great
mountain and looked out over the wide lands, you know very well what I
would see: brigands on the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the
amphitheatres men murdered to please the applauding crowds; under all
roofs misery and selfishness. It is really a bad world, Donatus, an
incredibly bad world.
“Yet, in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and holy people. They
have discovered a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure
in this sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care
not. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the
Christians, and I am one of them.”
**
Editor: This is the kind of problem that nobody will admit to having,
but it is certainly out there... even among church-goers.
Attracted to pornography on the internet? Now there is help in breaking
free
More and more church leaders are being asked for help by men addicted to
internet pornography. These are the findings of recent research
undertaken by CARE (Christian Action Research and Education).
Internet pornography can become a serious addiction, and people need
real help in breaking free. With this in mind, CARE has launched a
special website - www.care.org.uk/anon to offer help to those struggling
with this issue. There is also an advice section for the partners of
those caught in the web.
**
Editor: Here is an article that your minister may like to see first, if
you decide to run it. We suggest this because your minister might want
to use it as the basis for launching a Fairtrade initiative in your own
church. We have run it long, for you to cut as suits you.
One thousand churches now have Fairtrade status
A church in York* recently became the 1000th in the UK to achieve
'Fairtrade Church' status from the Fairtrade Foundation. It received
this accolade for promoting the Fairtrade message among churchgoers and
the wider community.
The Fairtrade Churches movement started in May 2004 and the idea has
quickly gained popularity among churches of different denominations
across the country. The scheme also includes cathedrals, parishes and
dioceses.
There are three essential requirements needed to achieve Fairtrade
status. These are: serving Fairtrade tea and coffee at all its meetings,
making a commitment to using other Fairtrade products such as sugar,
biscuits and fruit, and promoting Fairtrade during Fairtrade Fortnight
and through other activities.
Many churches run a monthly Fairtrade stall which boasts an
ever-widening range of products. Some churches have organised other
activities, including a display about Fairtrade at the local library.
Tearfund, the Christian relief and development agency, and the Methodist
Relief and Development Fund have devoted a great deal of effort,
alongside the Fairtrade Foundation, to make the Fairtrade Churches
scheme a success.
Other Fairtrade Churches include Coventry Cathedral and St Mary's RC
Cathedral in Edinburgh. The very first Fairtrade Church was Christchurch
& St Mark's in Watford, Hertfordshire, which was awarded Fairtrade
status in May last year.
The Fairtrade Foundation also runs a Fairtrade Towns initiative, where
town and cities up and down the country work towards Fairtrade status.
Since 2001 more than 100 towns and cities have been registered as
Fairtrade Towns after making a substantial commitment to the promotion
and uptake of Fairtrade goods, both at local authority level and in
shops and businesses in the community.
* The church was Copmanthorpe Methodist Church.
Notes for editors:
The FAIRTRADE Mark is an independent consumer label which appears on
products as a guarantee that disadvantaged producers are getting a
better deal. Today, more than 5 million people - farmers, workers and
their families - across 49 developing countries benefit from the
international Fairtrade system. The Fairtrade Foundation is an
independent certification body that awards the FAIRTRADE Mark to
products which meet international Fairtrade standards.
The Fairtrade Foundation was set up in the early 1990s by agencies
including Cafod, Christian Aid, Oxfam and the World Development Movement
to respond to the human consequences of collapsing world commodity
prices.
More than 900 retail products now carry the FAIRTRADE Mark, including
coffee, tea, cocoa, chocolate, snacks and biscuits, sugar, honey, fruit
juice, fresh fruit, wine and sports balls. Sales of products carrying
the FAIRTRADE Mark rose by 51% last year to reach £140 million. (Figures
for Fairtrade sales are estimated retail values based upon wholesale
sales figures reported to the Fairtrade Foundation as part of its
auditing process.)
Further details: The Fairtrade Foundation, Room 204, 16 Baldwin's
Gardens, London EC1N 7RJ. Tel: 020 7405 5942 Fax: 020 7405 5943 Web:
www.fairtrade.org.uk
**
Editor: Here is a good news story about the tsunami clean-up. If your
church gave to the tsunami appeal, it may be of interest to your
readers. It can easily be cut to whatever length you need.
Recycled rubble from tsunami-hit coast to be used to build new homes and
roads
Tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka may soon be living in homes built from
the rubble of their previous houses, under a radical new recycling
scheme run by Lanka Environmental Recyclers Institute and international
relief and development agency World Vision.
The environmentally friendly concept, in which rubble is crushed to
make dust for bricks and shingle for foundations and road construction,
is the brainchild of the Institute's chairman, Dr Ajantha Perera. The
plan also includes chipping and composting organic debris littering
tsunami-struck beaches and lagoons.
Dr Perera had the idea after seeing the Ampara coastline littered with
rubble, wood and broken plants and trees. She said that recycling this
material would mean so much more to Sri Lanka than just saving money.
“People want something positive in their lives to make up for what they
have lost. By rebuilding their homes with some of the original material,
we are keeping back some of what they have lost. That's part of the
healing process.”
World Vision's Operations Director Andrew Lanyon said that this
revolutionary project would link all areas of the organisation's work.
“Local people collecting the rubble, those working the crushers, they
will all be paid by World Vision for the work they'll do. So will
those rebuilding the houses and roads. That's economic recovery and
shelter.
“Those people clearing the lagoons of debris will be allowing people to
fish again. That's livelihood recovery. And the organic material
taken from the lagoons and chipped down will be turned into compost for
paddy or coconut farming. That's agricultural recovery. This really is a
holistic, environmentally sound project.”
In recent months, World Vision has already worked with more than 1,000
tsunami survivors who were paid to clear the rubble along more than 15
kilometres of the district's 36 kilometres of devastated coastline.
The charity provided heavy engineering vehicles, equipment and other
resources including eight dump trucks, five backhoes, three
front-end loaders, a lorry, a dozer and a 4,500 litre water container.
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