Racial Justice & Multicultural Ministry RJMM Notes & Resources March 2009 Believing in Hope All around us there are a multiplicity of events and happenings that can cause us lose hope. Credit Crunch, failure of our financial institutions, businesses folding up, redundancies, climate change, more conflicts and a host of other negative events are enough reasons for us to despair and become cynical. Yet, in the midst of all these there are also signs or shoots of hope. These signs/shoots may be small or are materialising too slowly. This may be the case with the many small initiatives related to taking the environment and climate change seriously. Who could have imagined the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the removal of Apartheid in South Africa? And, who would have believed that a president of the US would have been someone of mixed and African-American heritages? Believing in Hope is the theme for our overnight RJA gathering. Christian hope draws its strength from a God who is involved in human history, to the point of being incarnate in histories. This means hope needs to be rooted, taking many cultural forms and shapes. Hope calls us to see in every person the face of Christ, as the best in each of us. Through faith and through hope, we are called to watch, wait and believe in spite of the evidence around us. We need to believe in more than what is believable in order to work with others to participate in God’s “fullness of life project”. Believing in hope is critical to any long distance spirituality of resistance necessary in today’s world. So for our overnight RJA Consultation, I invite us to share, in our conversations, a few concrete examples of signs of hope in our contexts and personal journeys? In the meantime, let us hold on to hope in spite of the evidence around us! Michael j The URC is a multicultural church committed to empowering the whole church in transforming mission and ministry! Advocates Consultation Dates: Friday 24 th April, 2009 – Saturday 25 th April, 2009 Venue: St Mary’s Convent, Handsworth, Birmingham Believing in Hope The Meeting starts at 2:00pm on Friday (with light refreshment) and will finish by 3:00pm on Saturday. Multicultural Celebration 2009 Saturday December 5 th , 2009 @ Carrs Lane URC, Birmingham from 10am A Table for All People Keynote Speaker: Revd Roberta Rominger (General Secretary United Reformed Church) This is all age event for the whole Church
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Racial Justice & Multicultural Ministry
RJMM Notes & Resources March 2009
Believing in Hope
All around us there are a multiplicity of events and happenings that can cause us lose hope. Credit Crunch, failure of our financial institutions, businesses folding up, redundancies, climate change, more conflicts and a host of other negative events are enough reasons for us to despair and become cynical.
Yet, in the midst of all these there are also signs or shoots of hope. These signs/shoots may be small or are materialising too slowly. This may be the case with the many small initiatives related to taking the environment and climate change seriously. Who could have imagined the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the removal of Apartheid in South Africa? And, who would have believed that a president of the US would have been someone of mixed and African-American heritages?
Believing in Hope is the theme for our overnight RJA gathering. Christian hope draws its strength from a God who is involved in human history, to the point of being incarnate in histories. This means hope needs to be rooted, taking many cultural forms and shapes. Hope calls us to see in every person the face of Christ, as the best in each of us.
Through faith and through hope, we are called to watch, wait and believe in spite of the evidence around us. We need to believe in more than what is believable in order to work with others to participate in God’s “fullness of life project”. Believing in hope is critical to any long distance spirituality of resistance necessary in today’s world.
So for our overnight RJA Consultation, I invite us to share, in our conversations, a few concrete examples of signs of hope in our contexts and personal journeys? In the meantime, let us hold on to hope in spite of the evidence around us!
Michael j
The URC is a multicultural church committed to empowering the whole church in transforming
mission and ministry!
Advocates Consultation Dates: Friday 24th April, 2009 –
Saturday 25th April, 2009
Venue: St Mary’s Convent,
Handsworth, Birmingham
Believing in Hope
The Meeting starts at 2:00pm on Friday
(with light refreshment) and will finish by 3:00pm on Saturday.
Multicultural Celebration 2009
Saturday December 5th, 2009 @ Carrs Lane URC, Birmingham from 10am
A Table for All People
Keynote Speaker: Revd Roberta Rominger (General
Secretary United Reformed Church)
This is all age event for the whole Church
1. Afe Adogame et.al (ed.). Christianity in Africa and the African Diaspora (Continuum, 2008)
2. Lechion Peter Kimilike Poverty in the Book of Proverbs: An African Transformational Hermeneutic of Proverbs on
Poverty (Peter Lang, 2008)
3. Sally Nash, Skills for Collaborative Ministry (SPCK, 2008)
4. Marvin Sweeney, Reading the Hebrew Bible after the Shoah (Fortress Press, 2008)
5. Jean Zaru, Occupied with Non-Violence: A Palestinian Woman Speaks (Fortress Press, 2008)
6. Torry & Thorley Together & Different: Christians engaging with people of other faiths (Canterbury Press,
2008)
http://www.jrf.org.uk/ The Joseph Rowntree Foundation
http://www.interreligiousinsight.org/index.html Journal of Dialogue and Engagement
http://www.faithinitiative.co.uk/ Journal on Embracing Diversity