IBTS Community Blog

Marked by Ashes

Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the Day. . .

This day-a gift from you.

This day-like none other you have ever given,

            or we have ever received.

This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.

This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day,

for we are already halfway home

halfway back to committees and memos,

halfway back to calls and appointments,

halfway on to next Sunday,

halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,

half turned toward you, half rather not.

(. . .)

 This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,

but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes-

we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:

of failed hope and broken promises,

of forgotten children and frightened women,

of more war casualties, more violence, more cynicism;

we ourselves are ashes to ashes (. . .)

(. . .)

On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you-

You Easter parade of newness.

Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,

Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;

Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.

Come here and Easter our Wednesday with

Mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.

From Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2008), 27-28.

Andrii has been taking some photos around the campus a few days ago. Dangerous but beautiful, isn’t it?

Most of Europe is in the grip of an icy blast. In Praha snow has been falling steadily and softly for many hours. About six snow ploughs gritting pass the end of our drive each hour from the City of Prague. Heavy duty Tatra trucks fitted with workman like ploughs. The Czech-made Karosa buses have never stopped going up and down our valley taking us to the metro station and even the pavements have been ploughed this morning.

Meanwhile, the City of Bradford in Yorkshire is struggling. They are running out of grit and their much-lighter more elegant ploughs and gritters are having a hard time of it. If you saw one plough in five hours between Bingley and Eldwick it was amazing. Meanwhile British bus companies with their low-height rear-engined buses have been returning to depots in cities like Liverpool and in Bradford the service to our home at Gilstead has been terminated in Bingley most days.

What lessons are to be drawn from this? Czech vehicles may not be as elegantly designed, but they are engineered for the extremes. 40 cm of snow is not enough to stop them running. Praha is better equipped with specialist equipment for keeping streets and minor roads open unlike, say, the City of Hull, which has abandoned the attempt in pedestrian shopping areas. Above all, Czechs still have plentiful supplies of grit and no emergency national committee has had to be formed to ration supplies. Often, I blog about the failings of Czech politics, but in the midst of the big winter freeze three cheers for Praha DPP, H.M.Praha and Praha Sluzby (Prague City Transport, the Metropolitan City of Prague and Prague Services) !

- Keith

At a time when life can seem dark - nationally, internationally and in our own personal plans - it is important that we remember and remind each other that the promise of Advent is of the coming of the light, the light that shines in the darkness, that the darkness cannot overcome.
Turn our eyes to the light, O Lord, and shine in and through us.

And may all of us in the IBTS community know the blessing of Christmas once more this year

- Ruth (Chair, BoT)

So Nobel Laureate Barack Obama went to Copenhagen but he might as well not have bothered. Eye witness accounts from people in the conference hall report his lack lustre speech - the Obama rhetoric under par - offered nothing by way of action and so it looks like the Copenhagen event will produce no useful outcome.

Our son, Tim, an accredited NGO delegate, was in the hall and felt the disappointment. One African delegate sat next to him expressed deep frustration and sadness. Here was the chance for a grandson of Kenya to do something from the richest nation to stand with the poorest, but the opportunity has been lost.

I confess our family owns various Obama inauguration souvenirs and now we are exchanging emails as to how we can ceremonially dispose of them as the corrupt powers attempt to quench our Advent hope.

- Keith

Have I just become a soft liberal or am I right to be concerned at the heavy-handed tactics adopted by the Danish State Police against those protesting peaceably about lack of progress at the climate change conference?

Sure, there are some anarchist disruptors there - no doubt well known to the Danish secret police, but images broadcast across global TV and comments on blog sites from respectable Christian activists suggest Denmark has “lost the plot” and that the police force is engaged in repressive tactics more reminiscent of China or the “old” USSR than a modern EU member state of liberal ideals.

Shame on the Danish police force and government! If you were not prepared for peaceable activist protest why offer to host the event (which you seem to be doing very badly!)

- Keith

At IBTS, as an Eco-seminary, we are taking a keen interest in what politicians from across the world are up to in Copenhagen. Czech Prime Minister Jan Fischer will be there with other world leaders, but thankfully not Mr Sceptic, President Klaus.

Our IBTS Baptist community has several technical experts in our lecturing team, including Professor Graham Ashworth and the Revd Dr John Weaver. In our module on the Theology of Creation Care we explore issues under scrutiny in Copenhagen from a Christian theological and ethical perspective.

We have our active participants in the Copenhagen events who are keeping us up to date on the inside issues.

Tim Jones, a Deacon of Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church and a policy officer for the World Development Movement is there and providing daily “blog” news. The Revd Alex Alexander, a minister of E1 Community Church, Shadwell, and an alumnus of IBTS, is also there, having cycled from London to Copenhagen with a group from Christian Aid to help raise awareness of the importance of the issues.

- Keith

…is not here yet, but this is how it’s going to look like… at least for this and the next few winters(Copenhagen summit will give an idea for how long, perhaps!).order clomid without a prescription in our online pharmacy

- Lina, with nostalgy