Super Massive Shiny Crosses

So yesterday I went to a rather auspicious and not a little intimidating conference for Anglican monks, nuns, bishops and priests to discuss new monasticism, new forms of church, new prayer movements and other new stuff. The point of the meeting was to talk about how to get faith communities engaging with British society, and where God might be leading us in this. I've been to a number of these types of meetings before but never one with so many awesome forms of attire, and I can honestly say I've never seen so many big and shiny crosses in one room in my life!! It was all quite impressive, especially situated as it was in Westminster House, surrounded by the architectural grandeur of Westminster Abbey, Westminster Chapel and with the Houses of Parliament not too far away (I found it quite cool that the square in which all these churchy type buildings were located was called 'The Sanctuary.' Maybe that's just me).

Bishop Graham Cray was the main speaker - the bloke in charge of fresh expressions of church in the Church of England (and the guy with the biggest cross) - and he spoke about all these new ways of doing things that actually weren't all that new at all. As the conference progressed, other speakers shared their stories, from old-school monks and nuns wearing variously coloured frocks, to one young guy with bleached blond hair cut into a mid-naughties 'Busted' style, but the same theme was emerging: new stuff is usually just old stuff that was once new stuff itself, repackaged for a new time and place.

As I sat there I couldn't help but consider this.The old and the new, repackaging, learning from the past, understanding the present, building for the future. This is the way of the pioneer. It's so important to remember that there is, quite literally, nothing new under the sun and all that we do today has been done before. Does this make what we do any less valid? Nope. the pioneer's role is to be a student of the past, to be inspired by the past, and to allow the past to be a welcome friend and guide as she steps out to do her creative thing. This is how it's always been, holding in tension the ancient, the imaginative and the contextual. It's not an easy thing to do, as there is SOOOOOO much scope for miscommunication, misunderstanding and mistranslation. Still, there's no getting around it. In this way JC himself was the pioneer par example, being inspired by God's ways of salvation in Israel's history for his brand-new-yet-familiar work of salvation on the cross.

This being the case, I need to get me a super massive shiny cross...a super massive shiny cross that plays mp3s and takes photos and protects you from virtual vampires and locates your precise theological position on the Calvinist scale. Ladies and gentleman, I have just invented the iCross. Awesome.