Tikhtak

Church response to Gun and knife crime

Here is an interview I did with Rev Andrew Brandon at the recent JEANS event in East London. Download Revandrew.mp3 (12286.0K) I asked him what the church could do practically about the current problem of gun and knife crime.

JEANS - A response to knife and gun crime

On Saturday I attended a conference in Leyton, East London run by the Adonai Amdassadors Assembly called "Make The Difference" The bit I attended was the launch of JEANS (Joint Effort Advocating New Society). It was great that they had managed to engage local community groups like the Police, their Local MP Harry Cohen and the deputy Mayor of Waltham Forest. The speaker for the day was Rev Andrew Brandon who works with gangs, and he shared insights from his work. I also managed to interview a young rap band called "da fellowship" who are dedicating money from their latest EP to victims of the China earthquake. Check out their myspace page. All these interviews will probably come out on trax16 in October. On Sunday Irfana and I took our youth group to Clapham Baptist church where Pastor Les Isaac was preaching. He is a good friend of Andrew Brandon's and was responsible for setting up a street Pastoring scheme in south London. I chatted with him afterwords and he too will be included on October's trax16.

Free For All at Lambeth Conference

We arrived at the Lambeth Conference not sure how Free For All would fit in or indeed whether the Bishops wives would throw themselves into it or not. Unfortunately down to a clash of programming and very modest advertising we will never know as we only got one Spouse, Donna. Her husband is the Bishop of Iowa and she was in fact worth about ten Spouses. She herself is an Actor and she fitted into the team as if she had been with us all year. Check out some pics from the rehearsals on flickr. The performance was attended by about 20 in a the massive spouse conference space but we gave it our all and it was received well.

PIM goes to Cotswold Wildlife Park

As part of the programme for the younger participants at the CMS PIM training this week we visited the Cotsold Wildlife Park. We all had a great time and it was the best mix of a zoo and safari park I think I have been to in Britain. Apart from unwinding in a beautiful part of England we saw some strange sights. A bullock and Goat sparring together and what might have been what we mean at CMS by an acknowledged community. Check more pics on flickr

My Perfect Theatre

I am reading a journal called LIVE that asked a few theatre makers what their ideal theatre would be and why. Couldn't help but draw parallels with the church. I thought I would post a few responses here and let you draw your conclusions

"The work that would happen out in the streets and in the schools and the clubs and the pubs and the homes etc. would be just as important as the work that went on in the space itself." Michael Bogdanov

"It's what I call vertical theatre rather then horizontal - Vertical because it comes from the ground up, from the roots up, and cares and attends to its own community but looks beyond that local community to an international one. As opposed to a horizontal theatre which is basically planing along above the the ground aimed at a middle-class national and international circuit." Mchael Bogdanov

"For us the start of the journey was to look at who wasn't going to the theatre and notice who they were - on the whole the young and the poor - and to begin to think about how the young and the poor might join with us to go somewhere exciting." Ruth Mackenzie

"There are certain companies that we've presented in our theatre where the ritualistic process of the whole thing has been the closest equivalent I feel, to what going to church must be like if you're a believer. It is gathering. It's a shared experience." Lois Keidan

"That's my journey metaphor. You never actually hit a destination in the theatre, you're always going somewhere." Ruth Mackenzie

"We've got to breed a nation of people for whom somebody who's an artist contributes politically, socially, aesthetically and culturally to the life of a country rather then just living on the fringes of society" Michael Bogdanov

trax16 and Tajik Breakdancers at Angel Space

On Sunday Mike North and I ventured down to Rochester Cathedral to interview young people from the Rochester area at an event called Angel Space. Illyos and Vitalek, two Tajik breakdancers who are on tour with CMS over the Summer joined us and entertained everyone with their back crunching routines and a workshop for anyone who wanted to ache the next morning. It was also an opportunity for people to find out what Tajikistan and breakdancing have in common and how they have both been called into mission in this unorthodox way (excuse the pun) We will be featuring this event in trax16 next month.

Tensing Czech Republic

Last week my colleague Paul Thaxter and I met with Terry and Hanka English who are both working with Josiah Venture in the Czech Republic. They are exploring the possibility of becoming CMS Mission partners and it was good to hear about their work with Tensing. Tensing is a creative arts programme set up by the YMCA. It brings both Christian and non Christian young people together to sing, dance and do drama in the community. During my work for IFES in the Czech Republic I actually helped to set up a group in Olomouc back in 1994. Terry and Hanka have established around 10 groups in Ostrava and I hope to see them in action in the Autumn at a "Czechoslovakia Tensing festival"