Reverse Contextualisation

I was interested by a comment someone made today about Ambientwonder. We'd been at a Diocese run event today where we were asked to give a taster of one of our events. In itself a bit surreal given that our events are a bit like noticing the tip of an iceberg of all that goes behind it - relationships, how we create stuff, our values.

The comment I referred to was along the lines of AmbientWonder is trying to contextualise faith into a contemporary culture with no experience of church or the Christian Story. Our event today was trying to take our outworking of that into a place whose only experience is of formally expressed Christianity.

So how do you translate backwards without it having the same effect as putting a phrase into one of those internet translation sites, then doing it again and seeing how different the final phrase is from the one you first put in!

I suppose another question is does it matter? I think it does. It's hard to have a dialogue from two positions without something in common. The person doing differently has the capacity to imagine and articulate, perhaps, both positions. And why is a dialogue important? I think dialogue enriches both perspectives. I've been reflecting on this post from Pete Rollins which gives a clue to where I'm coming from.

The Poppy - A weed in all it's Glory

Poem from tonights Remembrance event

I am a bastard.
The illegitimate son of your battlefields churn.
I am a displaced vagrant
Whose home is anywhere but nowhere
A roadside Verge, a cornfields garland.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row

I am a Lord
Who ties a million Afgahan farmers to their fields.
Am I religion?
The peoples opiate; dulling, stilling, numbing,
Binding and escaping, luring away from freedoms grasp.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place and in the sky
The Larks, still bravely singing, fly

I am a warriors head
Bloody, Bowed with glory crowned.
I am the offering to death, a symbol
Of forgetfulness to aid you
In your selective remembrance fest.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place and in the sky
The Larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
We are the dead.

I am your lovers kiss,
Your loyalty, faithfulness, inspiration missed.
I am your offering O Goddess
Demeter of fertility and Diana of the hunt.
Give me your life, your prize and death.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place and in the sky
The Larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below
We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved and were loved and now we lie.

I am your eternal sleep
Embossed upon your aged churches seat.
I am your temporary rest
Forget, remember, catch your breath.
Numb or still I am Christ your promise kept.

We are the dead and shall not sleep though poppies grow.

c Paul Cracknell 2009, after John Mcrae

Remebrance and the importance of choice

I'm enjoying preparing for our Remembrance event on Sunday evening. I'm doing the response stations and feel drawn to offering people a chance to connect with organisations working for peace (including the white poppy people) but also to undertake a ritual for repentance of the church's involvement in encouraging people, well boys actually, to join up during, in particular, the first world war.

I'm very aware that this is a personal response and is quite controversial but I think its ok to offer it as a station as people have a choice whether to engage with it - there will be other ways to respond. I hope people see that when they join in - otherwise we could be in for a stormy ride after the event!