The Way Ahead - Week 2: Talk about faith

Many years ago, when I was a junior programmer, I remember doing a sales presentation to an important client. This was something that I had worked on for weeks and the account manager and I really wanted to show this potential client what we could do. As the client entered the room the computer that we were using failed. Since this was the days of mainframes, we were left looking at a blank screen. Phone calls told us that the failure would take a while to fix and we would simply have to wait whilst others fixed the system – in the meantime the other members of staff who were present got agitated / annoyed / angry / and abusive, whilst senior management tried to keep the potential client happy in the other room. Peter, the account manager, and I were both Christians and so we decided that we would walk away from where the other were and in the corner of the room where all the equipment was set up, we decided we would pray – which we quietly did. The reaction that this caused from the others who saw what we did was, frankly, awkward. They ranged from laughter, to suggestions that we were not taking things seriously. Peter and I thought we were taking things seriously, we did the only thing we could think of to do, and this was what our faith at the time said was the most serious thing to do.

I don’t know what your reaction to this story is and whose side you would take if you were there. It did cause a great deal of comment at the part of Raytheon where we worked, and we got quite a few positive and negative comments. That said it also seemed to give other people permission to tell us what they thought about our faith, and there were many conversations that followed from this – and when Peter got into trouble with the police it again caused eyebrows to rise.

In more recent times I ended working very closely with a wonderful colleague and friend called Irfan Khan who is now a Senior VP at SAP. He is a devout Muslim and the regular pattern of prayer that is part of their faith became a regular part of both his and my life in the years we worked together. When we had a lab built for us in the UK to allow us to spend less time in the office in the US, we insisted that we had a space allocated for Irfan’s prayer mat, and we made it clear that at 3:00pm Irfan would be saying prayers and the door would be closed. He and I discussed our faith’s for hours and hours, both as we worked in the office, and as we travelled the world together. Of all the people I have met on my faith journey, Irfan is clearly a person who has had a huge impact on my thinking and spiritual development, and I will never deny the presence of God at work in Irfan’s life.

When John Wesley set up his original bands he had a question to ask the band members “Is it your desire and design to be on this and all other occasions entirely open, so as to speak everything that is in your heart, without exception, without disguise, and without reserve?”. In the material this week there is some discussion of the Church Life Profile that the writers did that suggests that some people find it “problematic and even offensive to be asked to share what is deepest in their heart – this is private”, whilst others find it a real “disappointment when they do not feel that their church is a place where they can talk to other Christians about the issues they face living out their discipleship in the world”.

Stop for a moment and consider the following questions before we carry on:

1)      Why do you think many Methodists find it hard to talk about faith? (Ian extra: do you think that the assumption in this question is true?)

2)      How satisfied (or not) do you feel with the conversations about faith that happen around your church?

3)      With whom, and in what contexts, do you in fact feel most able to open up and share what is closest to your heart? What makes those people or contexts safe and fruitful for deep conversation?

One of the reasons that people often feel uncomfortable talking about their Christian faith is that the terms that we use are foreign to those who we are talking to, and the concepts that we accept can be subject to ridicule – “what do you mean he rose from the dead? – do you really believe this?”. Comedians at the moment seem to delight in pointing out some of the Church’s idiosyncrasies and where we do things that simply cannot be defended. I would want to argue that the discussion on Woman Bishops, both in its nature and the way that it has been conducted is a good example of this.

I have heard many sermons over the years talk about how as Christians we are called to be counter cultural, and I would agree, we are. But in accepting this there is a danger that we also suggest that it is acceptable to be culturally irrelevant – and here I would argue that we are not. On the night before Calvary, Jesus said to his disciples “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another. If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world—therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:17). The fact that there is something different in our lives should be visible to those around us, and we should accept that some people will talk to us about it – but in accepting this I do not believe that we should simply treat this as a license to do things that make no sense. We want people to see that we are different because of the love that Jesus refers to, and because we stand against many of the things that the world accepts (greed, self-centredness, etc).

In my original two examples I think I would now suggest that the first is a classic case of good intentions leading to something that was pompous and made others feel uncomfortable, whereas the second is one of the most precious memories that I have. They were both counter-cultural but the difference was a sensitivity to others and how they felt – being aware of how others would understand the actions that were taken. Surely the same applies to all the things that we do as Christians beyond the boundary of our church buildings – whether it be what we place on our website, the way we walk through our community with a donkey, or the things we do in Christ’s name; we are called to be counter-cultural but we are not called to be irrelevant or frankly, silly.

Our material this week ends by asking us how much we know about the community that we serve, and asks whether part of our issue as Christians is that we do not know these people, their needs, or their ways of working, meaning that any attempt we have at sharing our faith and being disciples to them are almost certain to fail as we do not the right way to approach them and/or communicate our faith. Put simply we do not know how to be Christians in the real world without risking being or doing something that comes across in the wrong way – and the suggestion is that this results in us doing and saying nothing.

Three questions to end:

1)      Who is telling us the truth, and how can we tell?

2)      Are we powerless to influence things?

3)      Who is our neighbour? How can we discern which community we are called to serve in?

The Way Ahead - Week 1: Talk about Discipleship

At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, the final thing that Jesus says to his gathered followers is “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”(Matthew 28 vs 18 – 20). This has to be one of the most mis-used passages of scripture. You do not want to know the number of times that I have heard it suggested that this is a call to evangelism – when it clearly isn’t – this is a call to discipleship. It even goes into detail on what this means – for those who are being charged by Jesus are to make disciples by passing on what they themselves have received in the time that they spent with him – not by embellishing or adding to this, but simply by teaching the next generation what it was that Jesus had taught them – nothing more, nothing less.

It is fairly widely accepted that within the 12 disciples that Jesus chose there were some who were related to him (his brother, and maybe his nephew), people who had known him for a while, and people who literally gave up everything to follow him simply because he called them. We very much view these early disciples as his “inner circle”, the people that he shared his deepest thoughts with, and the ones that were there with him at the key moments in his ministry. Many of these disciples were so close to Jesus that we know their names almost as well as we know Jesus’ own name, Simon Peter, James and John, but then there were others who are less well known, or only known for a particular role that they had. Andrew only even gets mentioned when he is bringing people to Jesus, and others such as Thaddaeus (sometimes referred to as Judas the Son of James) are only names.

The disciples also came from a wide cross section of positions in society; fishermen, tax collectors, and maybe another carpenter. However, one thing is certain, their response to Jesus was complete and total – they gave up everything and followed him. The other thing that we can recognise that they all had in common was that they were all changed drastically by their experience. Leaving out Judas, for obvious reasons, we only have to look at the disciples before and after the day of Pentecost to see how drastic some of these changes were, but this was only the latest in a series of changes that had been happening all the while that they were with Jesus.

When we talk about discipleship we are drawing links between our journey with the risen Christ and the journey of those early disciples – literally we are trying to learn and put into practice all the things that those first disciples learnt in their time with Jesus. We are trying to learn from them what they learnt from Jesus.

The Time to Talk material this week includes a quote “The term ‘discipleship’ designates the whole life response of Christians to Jesus Christ. Everything a Christian believes and does is an aspect of discipleship: the goal of discipleship is to grow ever more Christ-like in every aspect of life” (Time to talk of God pp19), for in the same way that those early disciples were changed by their encounter and journey with Jesus, so are we.

One of the great failings of churches in general, and part of why I was keen that we should undertake “The Way Ahead” together, relates to another comment from the material, it says “much of church culture fails to make the connections between the gospel and our life in the world explicit, people whose primary energies are expended in their working lives, in businesses, public service, schools or the local community can feel that they do not have a ministry or a vocation.”

The material wants to challenge this and frankly so do I – for Jesus and his disciples did not live out their lives in a biblical bubble but instead they lived in the real world, facing the real issues of living in an occupied land with a violent and unpredictable oppressor in their midst. Those original disciples learnt about what God is all about by being with Jesus in real life situations. If we are to grow in our discipleship then what we learn from Jesus must be relevant to our everyday lives beyond the confines of the church, and if we are truly living as disciples, then hopefully others will see that there is something different about the way that we live our lives and will want to ask questions.

In putting together the material, it’s writers produced a paragraph that pulled together what they saw as a consensus of opinions regarding discipleship - before we get into the questions, see what you think “We agreed there was a sense of call – a disciple feels called and chooses to respond. The call is to a two-way relationship, where God keeps us company and we keep company with God. There has to be a willingness to follow – the disciple is on a lifelong journey of faith as a follower of Jesus and must be willing to ‘go for God’. The journey is not straightforward, but can include moving towards and drifting away from closeness to God. The aim is to become more Christ-like, being like Jesus and doing like Jesus. Discipleship is a discipline that can involve pain and cost; in some choices we make, the gospel asks us to be counter-cultural – how should we live, where do we place ourselves, who or what do we really serve? It also involves discipline; we are committed to learn, to pray, and show our faith in action. In our love of God we will also love our neighbour as ourselves. And in order to go on growing, disciples must be vulnerable, curious, able to live with questions, and full of desire to learn. How can the Church help us to be like this?”(Time to Talk of God pp 20)

So, can I invite you to think about this quote for a while – is this how you understood discipleship, and is this how you understood the journey that you are personally on?

In the sessions this week we will be looking at three questions to get us started:

1.       Which of the following quotes about discipleship can you identify with? Which do you disagree with?

a.       A disciple is an active, intentional learner

b.      A disciple is an apprentice and a practitioner – not just a student of the Word but a doer of it

c.       A disciple is a follower of a particular teacher

d.      A disciple is accountable to someone who knows them and helps them to learn and grow and live

e.      A disciple is outwardly orientated, focused on helping others learn what it means to be a disciple.

2.       What would your own definition of a disciple be?

3.       Think about your own life, and us the following exercises as a basis for conversation:

a.       Draw a “life-line” to represent your life so far, and mark on it the points that are crucial in your development as a Christian disciple, or

b.      Draw a large tree shape, with trunk, roots and branches. If the trunk represents your life as a disciple, think about and write in what you see as the important ‘roots’ of your discipleship. Mark on the ‘branches’ where your life reaches out to, and then put in what you believe or hope are some of the fruits.

Feel free to share your thoughts here, as we will be sharing them in the groups.

The Way Ahead - Here we go!!

This morning, the leaders of the different "Time to talk" groups that make up this part of our 'Way Ahead' met to pray, and to talk through what we would be doing this week. In the discussions that we shared, and in looking at the online material that has been produced, we felt that before sharing this weeks material, we wanted to share something from the introduction to the material - it is a description of the priorities of the Methodist Church as laid out in "Our Calling". We used this material when we were looking at our Vision for the church that we called "Which Way", and the famous post-it note that was produced contained its content broken down into "Our Callings" four parts. So just before we begin, listen to what the material has to say . . .

"Our Calling set out the reasons why the Church exists, namely to encourage worship, learning and caring, service, and evangelism, and the ticket of membership applies these to individual members in their continuing discipleship. This includes the calling to 'grow in faith and support others in their discipleship'.

Priorities for the Methodist Church, adopted in 2004, does not mention the term 'discipleship explicitly, but throughout the document there is an implicit vision of imaginative, empowered, confident Christians who are aware of God's presence, with prayer and worship at the heart of their lives, active for justice in the community, and confident in speaking of the things of God to those within and outside the Church. These disciples are to be made and nurtured in a flexible and innovative church culture, which is creating fresh ways of being Church together, and is focused on the growth of people rather than the maintenance of buildings and institutional structures. Clearly, we have agreed to try to create a culture where we intend to be and to nurture such disciples."

Now read on . . . .

The Way Ahead 2014

The Way Ahead

Welcome to the home of the Harwood Methodist Church Blog. We arer beginning 2014 by exploring The Way Ahead for our church family and seeing what God wants us to do to support what he is doing in the community. Watch this space for more exciting new entries when it all kicks off on February 2014.

Called by God

It has been a great week - a week full of visiting architects and discussing hopes and dreams. That has meant lots of good chat, and not a lot of time for writing blogs.



I am aware that some people dont like podcasts, and also how last Sunday's sermon differed from what I had written. So I hope that for this week, you will allow me to just provide the text of what I had written for the sermon, rather than what was preached.



See if it opens up any new avenues of thought.



God Bless,



Ian







There is something therapeutic about clay

In one way, what I want to say is very straight forward

Unless we are willing to be molded by God, like the clay that Jeremiah observed the Potter using, then we cannot be put to all the uses that God has for us

It’s a simple message – and one that we can all nod at if we so choose

But it is when we look at the second half of the reading that we see that this is a great deal less to do with small things and a great deal more to do with big things that define who we are

A friend of mine, called Mark, told me a story

He had been for an interview in a pub, and since this was in the Sybase world, he dropped in my name
as someone he knew. The guy said “Ah yes, he found God didn’t he”.

The subtext to the story is that this IT manager at least, seemed to think that once you have a particular understanding of God, you can’t live in the real world anymore

It’s a negative comment – but in some ways it is also a true comment





You can’t take on board the presence of God and carry on doing what you did before

Certain things have to give

So if we have all “found God” – we should expect to not only be changed by this, but we should expect to continue being changed by this – and the things in our lives which worked before, may not fit any more

And this will seriously impact upon our lives

I wonder if part of Peter’s reticence at following Jesus was that he realised just how much responding to God’s call upon his life was going to change him

Many commentators naturally draw links between this and the almost identical story in John 21. In that case Peter would have a very natural reason for his response – he had denied Jesus and run away, how could he be in Jesus’ presence any more

But here we are in a very different context

Throughout his ministry, Jesus has many stories that he tells that point to how following him results in change and division



You only have to think of the parable of the guests who refuse to attend the wedding but there are many more

Likewise, Jesus is pretty uncompromising on how we need to reject all those things that hold us back

In the English translation we read that you cannot love him with hating your father and mother

Always a fun passage to preach on, until you explain to folk that the problem here is translation

since the word we translate as “hate” – the Greek “misei” is a Semitic expression. It actually means to “turn away from” or to “detach oneself from”.

When we see it in this way, we realise that he is telling us that the cost of being a disciple is that you will need to turn away from your family, detaching yourself from everything that can hold you back

Think of the story that Philip told us the other evening:
How when he came to faith his mother said “my son is dead”. To Philip’s parents – to be in their family was to be a Hindu

Therefore, if Philip was not a Hindu, he wasn’t in the family – full stop




And so it is that I wonder of Peter is going
"I can’t do this, I’ll stick to what I know that I can do"

The issue here is that Jesus’ response to Peter is to tell him that he has plans for him, and once that happened then Peter has to make a choice

He either denies Jesus, and refuses to be changed, or responds to the call, and sets out on a journey, where, like the potter’s clay, he will be moulded again and again

As we set out on the next part of our journey, we too, need to be willing to be constantly being remolded

Now I probably need to stress here something very key – before anyone thinks I am attacking anything to do with past life of the church

Father Ian a priest who used to be at St. Mary's in Willesdon explained to me once, about how, if the Spirit is at work we only belong in one place for a short period of time. For if we are changing and the place is changing, there will be a time when we are the same shape, but then, we end up being a square peg in a round hole. He told the story regarding being a priest or a minister – but I think that it is true of all of us.

There is a point at which you fit. If you are growing and willing to be changed, and the thing that you are called to is also alive and growing and changing and there will come a point where you are the wrong shape for it

So there is nothing in this that says you should not have done something – but we are acknowledging that now we should be doing something else

I wonder how often the work of the kingdom is frustrated by the church that insists on doing what it was called to do 20 years ago

It may well be that the role has changed, circumstances have changed, the people that you are serving may have changed – but if you haven’t, how can you serve them

Story I was told last week, by someone who had visited a building – walked through the door, you knew that it had been modernised in 1957. Story then told – when we did the redevelopment – lots of young people came, now, they don’t come any more. The suggestion being that is was the young people’s fault. In fact, the problem is that the young people that they are equipped to serve, don’t exist anymore, and the young people that are there, they are not now the right shape to meet their needs

And because we constantly try to hold our shape, to change once you have reached this point is painful, because it has to be a major piece of work, rather than a progression

Once you start holding onto things, then you stop changing, and being open to change

Hence why Jesus says that to follow him, you must be open to constant change

You must always be clay in the Potter’s hand

Willing to be moulded, not rigid and refusing to change

Last week we met with all four sets of architects who are bidding for the job of being our architect

Beyond saying that on the basis of last week, we cannot make a bad choice, I will leave it there

But in so much of the conversation that we had – there was a great deal about how the project that we are engaging in is NOT about bricks and mortar and buildings

Hence why we are looking for someone who will engage in the process of journeying and exploring with us, much more than someone who can draw plans

There is no way that we can do what we are doing in isolation

We need to be exploring how we grow and change the worshipping life of the church

We need to see the mission opportunities that we are being called to engage with, both here at home and overseas

We need to think much more about how we grow the spiritual life of all the people who are part of our family here – not just the few who choose to come to house groups, but how we can help everyone

There are so many areas of work that we need to engage with – and now is the time to start that engagement

Now is the time for each and everyone of us to put ourselves in the place of Peter on that boat and ask – OK God, what are you calling me to do going forward

And it may be a very different role that the one that we have had historically

I am not aware of any church members who are fishermen – but if we had, then I suspect that they would agree that fishermen to evangelist and apostle is a fair old jump

In going into this process we need to willing to be clay in the hands of the potter

We need to be willing to be moulded by God to meet the calling that he is laying upon us

And it will require all of us to be willing to change and let go of those things that could hold us back, and make us rigid and unchanging

Jeremiah understood that if a nation, or a group of people, sought to deny the will of God and God purposes upon their lives, then they were “evil”

If we tried to resist change and implementation of the vision that God has given us, then I would argue that we would be in the same place

Will you join with me, over the next four weeks, leading up to harvest, to see what God is calling you to do in the weeks and months ahead and we work for his glory in this place

Will you be willing to be changed, just like Jeremiah’s potter’s clay – being moulded into something new

Will you be willing to listen to the Call of God upon your life, and see what part you are going to play in transforming Harwood Methodist Church

Will you be prepared to come to worship on the morning of the 3rd of October ready to respond to the call of the man from galilee upon your life – even if you are being called from the familiar to the unknown

I realise that these are scary concepts – hey, even Peter, when confronted by Jesus in person, in his boat, responded by telling him to “Go away from me”

But in the same way that Jesus reasssured Peter, so he reassures each one of us that we will not fulfill our calling alone

This is the challenge that this Methodist year ahead brings to us

May we embrace it – and may we always seek to be clay in the hands of Potter who is love, and whose love for us is inexhaustable

Amen

Called Into Life

In the coming weeks, we will be looking at the theme of "Called into Life" - both at church and in our house groups.

The structure of this will be:

w/c Sunday 12th September
“Called by God”
Sermon to be preached at Longsight in the evening of the 12th September and then podcasted via the website.
Housegroups - Tuesday the 14th September at 7:30pm and Wednesday the 15th September in the morning

w/c Sunday 19th September
“Called to conversion”
Sermon to be preached at Tottington Road in the morning and Longsight in the evening of the 19th September and then podcasted
Housegroups - Wednesday the 22nd September in the morning and Thursday the 23rd September at 7:30pm

w/c Sunday 26th September
”Called into community”
Sermon to be preached at Longsight of the 26th September and then podcasted
Housegroups - Tuesday the 28th September at 7:30pm and Wednesday the 29th September in the morning

w/c Sunday 3rd October
“Called into mission”
Theme to be explored at Longsight of the 3rd October and then podcasted
Housegroups - Wednesday the 5th October in the morning and Thursday the 6th October at 7:30pm

So please come back to be a part of these discussions.

God Bless,

Ian

The Transformed Church

This week we are thinking about the Transformed Church, and the Bible Readings are:

Matthew 17 vs 1 - 8
Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. 3 Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 Then Peter said to Jesus, "Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 5 While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, "This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!" 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, "Get up and do not be afraid." 8 And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

1 Peter 2 vs 9 - 10
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.

1PE 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people;
once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

All readings are from the NRSV and copyright © 1989 National Council of Churches, USA

OK, I’ll break the habit of a lifetime (well the last six weeks), and I will actually base the Blog on one of the Bible readings. I love the story of the Transfiguration, it is a glorious story that once you get beyond the imagery actually tells you so much about the way that the world really is. Let me just list a few points to begin with:

• It highlights how God is revealed through the person of Jesus Christ, and the law and the prophets. This reminds me that I need to spend time with my Bible.
• It shows that the disciples had no idea what was going on. I like this – it is where I live most of my life, and the fact that Jesus’ constant companions had missed something as obvious as who he was makes me realise that there is hope for me yet.
• In Peter’s reply it shows that his immediate response is to try to bring it all back down to a level that he understands. Whether this be, as some suggest, by constructing tabernacles because many people of the time believed that after the Son of Man had come, the children of Israel would all live in tents again, or whether this was just the babbling of a confused man trying to be practical, who cares. Peter has no idea what he is saying, but he feels that he needs to do something – great, I make this mistake as well.
• It all happens on a Mountain Top. We all need Mountain Top experiences of God to affirm us in our faith from time to time. If you don’t go there, then you start to run dry. I need to be reminded of this – it is not all about me and what I do.
• And so on . . .

But there is another point, a point that goes back to why we are asking “Which Way?” and why we are wrestling with what the buildings are that we need to support us in the project that we are undertaking, and it is to ask the question, why did Jesus glow?

And the answer goes back to Moses, and what happened when Moses went up Mount Sinai to speak to God. For when he came down, he glowed – he glowed because he had been in the place where God was and is. On the Mountain Top, in the Transfiguration, the veil between Heaven and Earth became so thin, that the disciples who were looking on caught a glimpse of the big picture – and the world became dazzling white – it glowed. Surely, this must be our hope and our dream for our new building. That through all the activities that happen within it, whether they be worship, or community based activities, that those who are gathered are given a glimpse of heaven – a glimpse of the world as God see’s it, and that they will glow, maybe not literally, but through having a new found joy in their hearts that affirms who they are before God, and that they matter, just like the disciples. The disciples understood all that they saw, through the characters of Jesus Christ, Moses and Elijah; but what those three characters represented was a world view that was very different from the predominant view that was around them, and through gazing upon that different world view, they saw a different set of values and understandings, and these revealed a glimpse of heaven – God’s world view.

And to the disciples, just that glimpse was life changing. Surely this must be our primary goal for what we going to do. That it be a place that gives those who enter a glimpse of heaven, a glimpse of a different way of viewing the world, a glimpse that will change them forever, as they meet with the risen Christ who comes to them, and who tells them not to be afraid, because he is with them.

And just in case you think that I am being a bit too ethereal in laying this out in this way, then answer me this; what are we doing in church every Sunday morning, if it is not adding our praises to the worship that goes on around the throne of God, and not spending time listening for God to speak to us?

On March the 7th we will Catch the Vision, and in a full day we will try to hear what God is saying to us. Please be there and be part of the journey that is only just beginning, as we gaze upon the Mountain top, and through reflecting upon Jesus Christ, the law and the prophets, we will attempt to see what God is saying to us, and catch a vision that will change us all, forever.

In our groups on Wednesday and Thursday there were five questions to stimulate the discussion, based on the bible readings quoted at the start – these have been re-produced by permission of the publisher:

1. In the light of our exploration over the last five weeks, what is our dream for our worship space? How can it be re-arranged to speak more clearly of the glory of God, of our life together, and of our concern for those outside?
2. In particular, how should the liturgical foci of font, ambo and altar be so arranged as to do justice to who we are and what we have to offer? What is the liturgical sequence that is best for us?
3. How urgent a priority for us is the re-ordering of our worship space and building?
4. What are the obstacles to the implementation of a re-ordering scheme?
5. How can we best share “good news” about the formative process of re-ordering and liturgical renewal?

Taken from “Re-pitching the tent – Third Edition, by Richard Giles ©2004 Canterbury Press, an imprint of Hymns Ancient & Modern Ltd. Used by permission.