the Just Love Oxford blog

A community of Christian students in Oxford seeking God's justice for the poor, marginalised and oppressed - in Oxford and all over the world.

[justloveoxford]

THE JUST CHRISTMAS GUIDE

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” – John 1:4-5

“The Christmas spirit itself ought to be a mark of every Christian all year round... The Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor – spending, and being spent – to enrich their fellow human, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others – and not just their own friends – in whatever way there seems need.” – J. I. Packer, Knowing God

At Christmas, we celebrate the best possible gift that God could have given us – his son Jesus Christ, through whom we have life and light. However, Christmas can often be a time of consumerism, stress, tension and loneliness for us and for so many others. We are called to bring light into the dark situations, as Jesus brings light into our own hearts. Are we really honouring the God who made himself poor when we buy cheap, cheerful gifts from companies that are using sweatshops or child labour?

At Just Love, Oxford, we know it’s really difficult to know how and where to make changes to what we buy, so we created this guide. It contains suggestions of what this could look like. It contains list of where we can be buying gifts that show concern for the people who have made them, caring for our planet and seeking to enrich our world. It also contains instructions for handmade gifts and a host of other things that can be done this Christmas to make it as just as possible.

Most of all, let’s be remembering what Christmas is truly about. Let’s remember the life that we have been given, the joy, peace and hope we now have and be looking to spread them to everyone we know. Let’s ultimately remember that knowledge of this truth should make our actions and prayer for our entire lives.

Gift Alternatives:

Open Doors Secret Santa: Instead of buying socks/something equally generic, donating £4 to Open Doors will provide a weeks’ worth of essential supplies to someone in Iraq or Syria, who has lost everything due to war, terror and instability. http://www.opendoorsyouth.org/give-now/secret-santa/

Oxfam Charity Gifts: Oxfam sell a range of alternative charity gifts, such as goats, chickens or safe water for those living in poverty worldwide. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/oxfam-unwrapped

Experiences: Instead of giving someone more stuff, you could promise to give them an experience, e.g. a cinema trip, a meal, later in the year.

This website, Buy Nothing Christmas, has a great list of some alternatives to gifts that you could consider getting for your family or friends. http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/alternatives/index.html

Soaps and Bathroom:

LUSH – sells amazing smelling soaps and bath bombs in recyclable packaging. Everything is ethically sourced handmade and LUSH is actively against animal testing.

Faith in Nature – Locally made, environmentally conscious soaps made with all natural ingredients.

PHB Ethical Beauty – provides a range of skin care, hair care and cosmetic products made from safe, natural and organic ingredients that are 100% vegan and palm oil free. 15% of profits go to charity.

Chocolate is one of the best things to give and receive for Christmas. If you buy fairtrade, you know that the chocolate you give has been ethically sourced. Here’s a list of ethical chocolate brands: -  Divine -  The Meaningful Chocolate Company -  Green and Black’s -  Traidcraft -  The Co-operative -  Sainsbury’s -  M&S

Clothing and Houseware:

Local Charity Shops: Super ethical and affordable, often offering a wide range of new and second-hand things.

Some charities also have online shops: Oxfam: Aiming to end extreme poverty in the next 15 years. Oxfam sell clothing, music, books, DVDs and decorations all year round. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop

Amnesty International: work to provide justice, truth, dignity and freedom for those it is denied to. They sell a variety of clothing, accessories, books and homeware on their website. http://amnestyshop.org.uk/

Marie Curie: provide free nursing for terminally ill patients. Their online shop sells stationary, toys and games and other ideas for Christmas gifts. https://shop.mariecurie.org.uk/

Ethical Brands:

The Good Shopping Guide provides information about the ethics of most major companies and how they compare to one another. http://www.thegoodshoppingguide.com/

For clothing, Style with a Heart is an online guide to environmental and ethical fashion brands. http://www.stylewithheart.com/

TraidCraft: Sell homeware, toys, clothing, food and jewellary and accessories. They are committed to ending poverty through trade and have a range made from recycled materials. http://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/

Truth Not Trash: Sells a variety of ethically made clothing and bags with Christian phrases on, such as “perfect love casts out fear” or “eat, sleep, be brave, repeat.” Their products are 100% ethically made and 10% profit goes to “A21 Campaign” and “Porn Scars”. http://www.truthnottrash.com/

Monkee Genes: About to morph into a trading charity called “Stop Taking the Pennies”, Monkee Genes sell jeans that are high quality, eco and fair denim. Stop Taking the Pennies will aim to raise awareness about the ethics within the clothing market. 50cents per item in their latest range goes to providing education for children in the areas where the clothing is made. http://www.monkeegenes.com/

Howies: Make high quality, environmentally friendly sportsgear and other clothing items. http://www.howies.co.uk/

Annie Greenabelle: Sells women’s dresses, skirts, casual and party wear that is made is ethically made in the UK (lowering carbon emissions) from completely organic cotton. http://www.anniegreenabelle.com/

Ethical Design: is a new company selling mens and womens fashion which is sustainably made, 100% organic and complies with the ‘Fair Wear Foundation’ Code of contract. http://ethical.design/pages/about-us

Handmade

Websites like Pinterest are full of ideas for handmade cards and decorations.

Make your own Christmas Cards: Charity Christmas cards are so great and if you don’t have time to make your own, definitely buy from your favourite charity instead of Tesco – but an effective and super fun way to reduce packaging is to make your own!

Knit a Scarf: If you’ve never tried knitting before, it’s a great thing to do while you watch TV or Christmas movies. There are lots of tutorials online that can show you how to do it if you have never done it before. http://www.wikihow.com/Knit-a-Scarf

What else can I do?

- Commit to praying for a justice issue everyday over the Christmas period - Clear out your wardrobe and bedroom; give your books and clothes to charity shops, neighbours or friends. - Avoid flying as much as possible – could you take the train instead? If you do fly, you can offset your carbon impact with Climate Stewards, who support community forestry and cookstove projects in Ghana, Kenya and Mexico https://www.climatestewards.org/ - Reuse wrapping paper or recycle. You can also paint patterns over old sheets of newspaper and use that to wrap presents in. - Buy all your vegetables for Christmas lunch unpackaged. - Do all your Christmas shopping with reusable bags. - Try out some veggie Christmas recipes: http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/vegetarian-christmas - Give to a Christmas appeal. - Check items in your house, such as tea and coffee, and make sure they are fairtrade. - Spend time with people in your community who might be lonely - Check out Tearfund’s Different Christmas rhythm: http://rhythms.org/rhythm/different-christmas/

[justloveoxford]

serving a city that “carries on”

Peter Pang The Long Vac is not a quiet time in Oxford. It is first the tourist season, then also the summer schools season, the conferences season, the projects and research season. It is not until September after St Giles’ Fair that there is some respite -- quieter streets, cool, crisp mornings and warm afternoons under clear skies. But the behind the more conspicuous changing scenes of seasonal transients – tourists, summer schools pupils, conference attendees, and university students and fellows, are in fact a city that ``carries on”. Among these are people who have each night to return to O’Hanlon House, Lucy Faithfull House, Howard, Simon, or Julian Houses (various shelters), or to tents in the woods, in graveyards, garages, shop entrances, or to public benches; people who, if not easy to ignore, are easy to forget about once term ends and the vacations begin -- people about whom JLHO (Just Love Homeless Outreach) exists. And they are the chief reason JLHO tried also to carry on over the previous long vac and also other vacations, as far as it was possible. Here I seek to share the collected reflections of those of us who this summer have continued (sometimes unsuccessfully) the work that JLHO have been doing over term, and what God has taught us in it. It is impossible to separate in my mind, admittedly perhaps not entirely reasonably, Jesus’s powerful parable on sheep and goats, from the work JLHO do, in the face of suffering people. Christ’s assertion that ``whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you have done for him,” is to me a challenge both gracious and wonderful, and frightening. Those who have to sleep at Keble Road Bus Stop in the evenings in a sleeping bag and look for food in bins in Oxford are, by many measures, among the ``least of them” to whom Christ refers. Christ’s challenge is then to serve the people one meets as though one were serving Christ himself. This work is practically and emotionally somewhat different from donating money to various charities helping people variously affected by the nine major on-going armed conflicts in the world, or by natural disasters in distant lands that occur from time to time for which there has been, or perhaps, can be, no adequate preparations, or in helping with people suffering elsewhere from poverty yet more abject than people are ever subject to in Oxford. And perhaps, there is reason for thinking that those near to us in geographical or other kinds of proximities have a greater claim on us than universal humanity have generally. Lewis calls it ``the tether and pang of the particular,” and St. Paul has harsh words for him who does not provide for his family, ``especially members of his household”. This is perhaps a reflection of ability – those near us are people for whom we can (and hence, should) most readily be neighbourly to. Apart from bringing sandwiches and hot drinks, which, though often gratefully received and much appreciated, are to say the least, materially insufficient, JLHO most importantly build relationships. This is part of the ``ministry of reconciliation" that God gave us through Christ. What reconciliation does God seek, what reconciliation can there be, but one pertaining to relationships? Reconciling the credit and debit columns of an account, even of sins and good deeds, is not the fundamental reconciliation Christ set out to do. But rather, it is this, that ``once we were separate from Christ... foreigners... excluded...without hope and without God... But now in Christ...who once were far away have been brought near...He himself is our peace...[he] has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility..." Our friends whom we serve are cut off from society, foreigners in their own city, looked down upon and excluded. Relationship building at JLHO is an overflow from this fundamental reconciliatory work of Christ – for whom JLHO exists. The formal institution of twice weekly sandwich runs is simply the structure that facilitates this. This central aspect of JLHO, on the surface of it, has nothing to do with changing ``the system” (though one is allowed to pray and dream and plan). It operates on a very personal level -- the level of sleeping bags and sandwiches, of first names, of shared food and conversations over coffee, of laying on of and holding hands in prayer, of texts and telephone calls, of gifts and letters, of hospital and prison visits, and of inviting people into one's homes or rooms -- of friends. This rectifies in a small part the injustice of class and economic division, and the ostracization borne of it. Because a large part of JLHO operates on this level, familiar faces – and consistency -- are important, and that is one of the things God has taught us about His work. There is indeed also an aspect of JLHO that more explicitly emphasizes reconciliation to Christ (as all men need, and not just the vulnerably housed or homeless). We do once in a while give copies of the Bible out, sometimes we sit and read with them to whom we have given Bibles. We have invited people to church and seen them come. Often due to various circumstances – the need to make a bit more money to make ends meet that week, or receiving a notice to determine after seeing one’s rental arrears pile up and having to seek urgent help from different agencies, continuing in studying the Bible or going to church prove an insurmountable challenge. Still, very often we are encouraged and humbled by the faith expressed on the lips and in the actions of the people encounter through JLHO. More than a few times we have heard stories of how God has moved in their lives in amazing and supernatural ways, and at times, even how God has answered prayers in which we have been allowed to be participants, through their willingness to open their hearts and share their lives with us. It encouraged us to see that God’s family is very much bigger than that which we see on Sundays or at chapel or CU. We are reminded how Jesus is familiar with every aspect of our lives, and that the display of his splendour, to heal and to save, is richer than flipping a switch in our hearts that labels us ``Christians”. Did someone’s dog die? Christ cares, and comforts and works through that to draw him to himself. Did someone get arrested and have to face the courts? There also Christ is faithful and willing to draw near. Has someone fallen sick and perhaps been admitted to hospital? Christ can and does heal. In these things we saw that Christ’s work of reconciliation is not functionally bipartite. Nevertheless, one should like to see a deeper transformation on Oxford’s streets, and for this we labour and strive, and seek your prayers also. It is very easy in JLHO to position oneself as some saviour bringing light and good things. The reason perhaps in part being that frequently initially, there is a want of that dynamic of casual reciprocity elsewhere found in friendships. Often, this attitude is not evident to our minds but is manifested in our eager desire to plunge headfirst to help to the uttermost of our abilities, and end up exhausted. There are many very entrenched problems people face, most commonly pertaining to housing, finance and welfare, relationships, the Council, the courts, and the police, health, alcohol, and drugs, that we have very little natural recourse to fixing, or even helping, most of the time. Having made other people’s problems part of our own in seeking their friendship, even as far as we are able, being far less than perfectly faithful, far less than perfectly loving, have taught us to fix our eyes on Jesus. The physical realities sometime seem unyielding. The spiritual realities of worry and pain can be similarly devastating and knotty. As over Term, after each sandwich run, and also before, we pray as well for ourselves as for those we met on the streets (or fail to meet but nevertheless know, and otherwise see regularly). The act of lifting up to God the manifold grief and worries shared with us on the streets is not mere postscript to our activities. We have seen God’s hand in faith as we come together to pray for the people we serve. Prayer is integral to JLHO doing the work God allows us to do. It keeps us leaning on Jesus and gives us the strength to continue going out every Tuesday and Friday. Having a team together was very encouraging and an enormous blessing to all of us who have participated in vacation JLHO. Burnout can be a real issue, and going on a sandwich run solo can be extremely draining. The value of a Christian community spurring one another on towards love and good deeds, pointing one another’s focus to Christ was not lost on us. A wise friend shared with me earlier in the summer about the prophecy in Chapter 61 of the Book of Isaiah with which Jesus identified his ministry, as it pertains to the work of JLHO. Who were those who `` will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour?” Is it not ``the poor”, ``the broken-hearted”, ``the captives”, and ``the prisoners”? They have in that prophecy in turn built up and restored. This is something I have not given enough thought to, but a wonderful vision I desire greatly to see happen on the streets of Oxford, having known that there is a limit to human strength in even problems restricted to the individual. My prayer is that people to whom JLHO minister might in the strength of Christ also minister to people around them – other people on the streets, policemen and policewomen, social workers, even – and through JLHO as it perseveres and grows, and through the wider Christian community, God would deepen this ever expanding work of reconciliation and transformation on the streets of Oxford.

[justloveoxford]

fighting for a broken-hearted generation

Tom Christmas

I’ve been praying this summer that we would be a broken-hearted generation.

Three years ago I spent a chunk of my summer in South Africa. We spent a lot of time with kids who were living on the streets; searching for a missing girl who we thought might be a victim of trafficking; talking to people who were homeless and, they told us, close to death as a result of severe addiction to a deadly new drug, whoonga – while the wealthy dealers crawled past in their expensive BMWs; hearing about how the police would beat the ‘street kids’, put them in vans, and dump them outside the city so that the streets would be ‘clean’ for the western tourists who brought in money.

This summer has been quite different. Strategic ‘vision days’ with boards and new staff teams; partnership meetings with various charities; conversations with students at new universities; encouraging people to give to Just Love; writing up resources ranging from theology to leadership to impact assessment; planning and running training days for Just Love committees.

This year doesn’t quite have the same front-line, highly-emotionally-charged, staring-injustice-in-the-face kind of vibe that South Africa three years ago had. Having said that, I am so excited about what I’ve been doing this summer, and what the year ahead holds. Because I believe that this behind-the-scenes, justice-facilitation work will one day turn into the front-line change I have longed to see more of since I went to South Africa.

Just Love is really starting to grow and spread across the country – new groups in Exeter and St Andrews are in the process of starting up, and in 5 years we want to have 50 groups, with at least 50 students involved in each. We believe that this will lead to thousands of events being run; tens of thousands of volunteer hours being mobilised for the local community; hundreds of thousands of pounds being raised for other charities. We believe that this will lead to a culture shift among Christian students towards a greater prioritisation of social justice and sacrificial love - an immensely powerful and biblical witness. We believe that this will help to inspire and release a generation of Christian leaders and innovators in the charity sector; a generation of Christians bringing integrity and change to politics; a generation of Christians setting up ethical businesses and giving their profits away.

‘Social justice’ is not a phase we are going through as students. This is a lifelong fight. It will never be ok that people are victims of violence, that people are going hungry, that people have nowhere to live – and we want God to break our hearts for this. Psalm 97 tells us that ‘righteousness and justice are the foundations of His throne’, and we want them to be foundations of our lives. We want every Christian student to be committed to social justice and doing something about it, but not just while they’re at uni – as a national team we’re developing some things that will help you take the next step into a lifelong pursuit of justice. Watch this space!

We will be a brokenhearted generation.

[justloveoxford]

“An experience I will not be able to forget.”

Josh is a third year lawyer at Coventry University, and led the Christian Union there for a year. This summer he embarked on a holiday to South East Asia with four friends. It was meant to be a ‘lads’ adventure but something he discovered opened his eyes in a whole new way to one big injustice problem.

Jack Wakefield caught up with him over a pint after the trip to find out more about that experience. Here’s what he had to say:“We flew to Bangkok to begin our summer’s adventure and it was here that we witnessed something that I have not been able to shake from my mind; despite occurring over three months ago, it still affects me. One evening we ventured out in search of a bar, we crossed onto a street parallel to the very ordinary street we had been staying on and it immediately became very clear that we were no longer on an ordinary street. There were women (clearly sex workers) lining the fronts of every bar, calling out and beckoning to us, taking great interest in us as European tourists. I expected to see this kind of thing, but nothing could have prepared us for the sheer scale of it. Every bar on this street was a brothel and we must have seen over 500 sex workers in the ten minutes we spent walking down the road to find a bar.”

One experience, which particularly affected him, was slightly further down the same street. As they continued to walk in search of a bar not surrounded by sex workers, they came across a place they could not have prepared themselves for. As they looked inside, they saw a mixture of two groups: the first, middle aged white men; and the second, very young women – perhaps even children – dressed in a way that accentuated their immaturity. It was yet another brothel, but one with a difference. One where age did not seem to be a limiting factor, and one with a very clear cultural split – the white western men and the Asian girls.

Their natural reaction to such a sight was anger. They couldn’t believe what they were seeing, and were absolutely furious. It’s one thing to read about trafficking, or watch a video, but it’s a whole different thing to witness it with your own eyes.

“I know the facts on human trafficking as it is something that deeply concerns me, but seeing it before my face left me horrified and was an experience I will not be able to forget,” Josh said.

Borders with Thailand are some of the worst places for trafficking; from Lao and Cambodia, children and adults in poverty are offered the hope of a future, in the form of jobs, education or marriage. As they enter the country, they’re under the impression that a new, better life is round the corner but the reality is one of coercion, violence and manipulation. Girls will often be ‘trained’ by the traffickers by being regularly raped, and drugged into obedience. The high demand for younger and younger prostitutes means that girls as young as can be sexually abused over and over again in the cause of a day. Based on the International Labour Organization’s 2012 statistics, it’s thought that today there are roughly 8 million women and girls trapped in forced sexual exploitation and, according to the FBI, the average age at which girls first become victims is 12 to 14, but many victims are much younger.

The problem is massive. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, people trafficking is the fastest growing means by which people are enslaved, the fastest growing international crime, and one of the largest sources of income for organized crime; and UNICEF estimate that 1.2 million children are trafficked every single year. The US Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report in 2007 estimated that around 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, whilst millions more are trafficked within their own nation. Of the victims, 80% are women and girls, whilst 50% are minors.  

When faced with such a horrific and massive problem. What can we do?

1. One thing we must not do is to stay silent.

Lets take the anger, pain and tears to God in prayer. His heart is broken for the state of our world and the harm we’re causing on one another far more than we will ever be. Lets ask God to share more of his pain for the world and to empower us to see significant change.

As well as talking to God, we must also talk to the people in authority. Write to your MP, to David Cameron, to leaders of nations around the world demanding action. We’ve seen with the refugee crisis that when a society finds its voice, politicians begin to speak and act in a very different way. This guide from IJM is a helpful place to start http://www.ijmuk.org/learn-about-advocacy

2. Open our eyes

Human trafficking happens globally and closer to home- it’s a wise idea to acquaint yourself with warning signs of trafficking now. As many of us travel abroad in the summer, several anti-trafficking organisations produced this guide to warning signs of trafficking to be aware of at airports. http://edition.cnn.com/2015/07/30/travel/human-trafficking-at-airports/ . Closer to home this guide from our friends at OXCAT on telltale signs is really helpful. http://oxcat.org.uk/open-your-eyes/

3.  Change comes at a cost, so we must be willing to sacrifice.

Sexual exploitation accounts for about 20% of trafficking victims, whilst 68% are in forced labour, in activities such as agriculture, construction, domestic work and manufacturing. Many of our goods will have passed through the hands of a slave, but it doesn’t have to be that way. When we spend our money, we’re voting for the kind of world we want – so lets begin buying ethically certified goods, campaigning for businesses to change their practices and refusing unnecessary items which were made in unacceptable conditions. For example, do you really need that next phone upgrade or could your current model last a few more years?

Charities and NGOs are doing amazing work, taking preventative measures in vulnerable communities, to rescuing victims and prosecuting those responsible. All of this costs money, and many rely on their supporters alongside various grants to ensure their work continues to make a difference. You can contribute to this by signing up to give regularly to an effective campaign.

One example would be Tearfund’s No Child Taken campaign. They’re asking people to fund education, training and support for vulnerable communities to break the current cycle of poverty, trafficking and exploitation. For £6 a month – which is the price of two coffees (I spend that at Combibos without a seconds thought) – you can protect two children from being trafficked.

Find out more, here: http://www.tearfund.org/en/nochildtaken/

[justloveoxford]

the desert and the garden #1 : an introduction

Naomi Grant | 01.09.15

For the most part deliberately, my summer hasn’t been jam-packed with activity for the first time in several years. I envisaged (and desperately needed) rest and reflection. What was unexpected was that my understanding and experience of solitude and prayer, especially in relation to justice, was to be profoundly transformed.

You don’t need to look far to see that the world today is full of injustice, sadness and evil. And you don’t need to read dispiriting hyperbolic thinkpieces on How the Youth Are Doomed Because Of The Internet to know that our world can be busy, shallow and incessantly wordy; and our existence in it often scheduled, calendared and restless.

Even now as I write this, I’m distracted. I reckon Henri Nouwen puts it best in The Way of the Heart:

‘it seems the darkness is thicker than ever, that the powers of evil are more blatantly visible than ever, and that the children of God are being tested more severely than ever…our calendars are filled with appointments, our days and weeks filled with engagements, and our years filled with plans and projects… we simply go along with the many ‘musts’ and ‘oughts’ that have been handed on to us, and we live with them as if they were authentic translations of the Gospel of our Lord…over the last few decades we have been inundated by a torrent of words… Words, words, words! They form the floor, the walls, and the ceiling of our existence.’

(I have refrained from quoting the whole book, but if you have the time read it all- in it Nouwen reflects on solitude, silence and prayer from writings of the Desert Fathers and Mothers and scripture. It’s like healing balm to the soul.)

When faced with this world, it’s tempting to go to one of two extremes.  On the one hand, we can retreat into a bubbled isolation focused on personal religion. Here we can easily close our eyes to the communities we exist in and the injustices of the world around us and settle into a comfortable, unholy self-centredness. Or, the opposite, we channel all our mental and physical energies into striving for justice; determined to right the wrongs of this world. If we are not rooted and established in God we do it all in our own name, with the danger we become burned out, compassionless, prone to despair. I’m exaggerating but I’ve been in both places, and in the church we sometimes over-emphasise either action or contemplation.

But I’ve gradually been recognising that we don’t have to go to either extreme and that the contemplative/activist dichotomy that we can set up is a false one. In reality, we can hold contemplation and solitude and prayer in balance with active work and justice-seeking; and actually that’s how it’s meant to be: in relationship with God people of prayer become people of action with clarified motivations and attitudes.

We see Jesus withdrawing to lonely places to pray, sometimes for long periods (see Luke 5:16, Luke 6:12, Mark 1:35) especially before significant events in his life. When Jesus went into the wilderness and was confronted by the devil, it was a time of great struggle, but also emergence. In Luke this is followed by Jesus going into the synagogue to proclaim his mission from those words from Isaiah:

‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

In Matthew what follows the desert is the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus proclaims ‘blessed are the peacemakers’. And of course, it was in the Garden of Gethsemane where he withdrew into prayerful solitude and submitted to his father’s will before the cross- the ultimate, eternal expression of justice, mercy and grace. The connection between solitude and prayer, and action and justice is deeply biblical.

[justloveoxford]

the desert and the garden #2 : solitude and action

Naomi Grant | 01.09.15

This connection between solitude and action has been lived out throughout Christian history. Many of the greatest people we might describe as ‘activists’ spent much time in contemplative prayer. Many of the people we might describe as ‘contemplatives’ were in prayerful solitude for months or even years, in the desert (as with the 4th and 5th century Desert Fathers and Mothers) or alone in their homes, before they emerged with compassion anew; directly fighting for justice, or inspiring others locally and globally to do so. In the 14th century Catherine of Siena spent three years in solitude in her home before living out ‘love your neighbour as yourself’, visiting the poor and sick in Siena, giving alms so freely that more than once she totally emptied the family larder! Later in life she worked tirelessly for the reform of the church, addressing corruptions and injustices within it. Or Thomas Merton of the 20th century, who spent times in silence, solitude and prayer in a monastery, but transitioned in his later writings to writing powerfully and at times provocatively about peace, non-violence and nuclear policy at a time of heightened world tensions. He drew a helpful distinction between false and true solitude:

‘True solitude is selfless. Therefore, it is rich in silence and charity and peace. It finds in itself seemingly inexhaustible resources of good to bestow on other people. False solitude is self-centred. And because it finds nothing in its own centre, it seeks to draw all things into itself. But everything it touches becomes infected with its own nothingness, and falls apart. True solitude cleans the soul, lays it open to the four winds of generosity. False solitude locks the door against all men and pores over its own private accumulation of rubbish.’

I was immensely struck by this photograph of the Dubai desert. [1] But these deserts we’re talking about aren’t romanticised - they’re often a struggle, we are challenged about who we are and what we’re feeling and what we’re doing, about our relationship with God; but it’s in the emergence we are often able to find great strength to act. 

Retreating for weeks, months or years is impractical for most of us; but solitude and prayer can still be an important part of our ‘everyday, ordinary life—our sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life’. Do we know what it is to be truly alone? Ordinarily, when I think about solitude, I think about removing myself from the world, privacy, ‘me-time’, recharging of batteries.  Now, don’t get me wrong; speaking as an introvert, those things are good and needed.

But what if solitude within the life-transforming relationship with Jesus can be about more, deeper. It is the place our scaffolding and distractions- our friends, books, phones, food, the internet- are removed and it is just us and God, where God has to be sufficient. Where there is space for all that we are and all that we are not and we can truly face ourselves and our brokenness. Solitude becomes less about moving away from the world and more about moving towards something; a transformational encounter with God and onto compassion. Where within the struggle we affirm God at the centre of our identity, we become transformed into the new self of Jesus Christ, and in emergence, become released for action. As Nouwen writes, ‘solitude is the furnace of transformation… and compassion is the fruit of solitude and the basis of all ministry’.

Solitude isn’t a silver bullet. It isn’t going to at once transform us into compassionate justice-seekers for whom every action is motivated by love. It’s isn’t all transformational mountaintop experiences of prayer - although sometimes it is. And it’s really hard –because we’re not used to being truly alone, yes, but especially because it means bringing to light what we would rather leave in darkness, untouched. So let’s be careful to avoid travelling into the depths of our sin and brokenness without journeying towards hope and Jesus, and let’s emerge to seek justice from that place of compassion and love and grace- because God first loved us- rather than wretchedness and guilt and despair.

Let’s not slip into that all-too-familiar quiet-time-guilt. Be released, not guilty. This isn’t about self-improvement or ticking boxes; it’s an abiding in God’s presence. It is solitude as a furnace for transformation, so that we can better do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. And let’s always remember the importance of community in this; working out the relationship between solitude and prayer, and action together. What exactly does a contemplative activism look like? What practically helps you pray faced with the injustices of this world? Where do you find your gardens and your deserts? What are your struggles and joys? Let’s chat.

[justloveoxford]

the desert and the garden #3 : moving forward

Naomi Grant | 01.09.15

Let’s be creative and realistic- solitude will look different for everyone. Maybe it means a day or two not speaking or without technology, or reflecting on a short piece of scripture in prayer in a local park or meadow or by a lake. There’s something about the physicality and removedness of an Actual Garden that helps me get away from my scaffolding and distractions and seek this holy solitude. I’ve returned several times this summer to the garden of the tiny St Julian of Norwich church near to where I live, where in the midst of flats and offices is a somewhat overgrown, largely unremarkable, but nonetheless peaceful little green space. Where here at the heart is Jesus, on the tree.

Of course our garden and deserts don’t have to be literal- I liked this from Alessandro Pronzato;

‘the crowded bus, the long queue, the railway platform, the traffic jam, the neighbour’s television sets, the heavy-footed people on the floor above you, the person who still keeps getting the wrong number on your phone. These are the real conditions of your desert. Do not allow yourself to be irritated. Do not try to escape. Do not postpone your prayer. Kneel down. Enter that disturbed solitude. Let your silence be spoiled by those sounds. It is the beginning of your desert.’

The examen, an ancient form of prayer which Freya taught us in Just Lunch earlier this year, is immensely helpful in doing this; of examining ourselves and our time and our relationship to other people (there’s a good video series on this from 24/7 Prayer here http://www.24-7prayer.com/theartofexamen, including one with a specific justice focus.) Shane Claiborne and friends’ Common Prayer encourages and equips in giving God ourselves to answer our prayers for justice- and there’s a good introduction to contemplative prayer in the month of September. Richard Rohr’s Centre for Contemplation and Action’s daily/weekly meditations also look useful https://cac.org/sign-up  (thanks for the link, Josh).

This time in solitude and prayer might be a key part of a journey towards a more contemplative activism and activist contemplation that’s both richly historical and profoundly forward-looking, which we perhaps neglect too often. This is a part of what is means to live out Romans 12, a practical, workable response to that call to present ourselves to God, to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. It is a part of what it means to dwell and to rest in God’s presence and nature, a part of learning the unforced rhythms of grace. It is a part of impressing upon us the life and character of Jesus; in becoming who God wants us to be and getting us to do what God wants us to do.

Rooting our activism and active service in prayer and time alone with God is key to avoiding social justice burnout, and key to not slipping all-too-easily into the false always-trying-harder, being-more mindset. In solitude we truly abide in God, we remind ourselves of his grace, and can be transformed to partner with him in living justly in our world, manifesting God rather than our false self. In contemplation and solitude we can find the impetus to act and can emerge with more compassion-filled hearts, more conscious of the needs around us, so that more and more we can ‘become the answer to our prayers’.

To finish, from yesterday’s Common Prayer: ‘Lord, help us not to conform to the patterns of this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Give us a new imagination so that we might live in ways that do not compute to the logic of materialism and militarism. Make us into holy nonconformists so that we might see the kingdoms of this world transformed into your glorious kingdom.’

[justloveoxford]

Community Organising: helping others to help themselves

Josh Parkih

Since a bunch of Just Lovers have done the Jellicoe internship this summer we got in contact to hear what they got up to, the wonderful Josh Parikh has headed our request by the form of self interview, what else would you expect!

Hey there!

I hear you’ve been on a month long internship Josh?

That’s right- I’ve been on the Jellicoe internship with the Centre for Theology and Community, along with a load of other great Just Lovers: David Lawrence, Abby Taylor-Baptie and Hannah Coates. Jellicoe sees a group of students who come to London to learn the skills of community organising, and to use those skills to practically benefit churches in East London.

What is community organising, then?

That’s a great question, I’m glad you asked. Community organising is, in my imperfect definition, where people help others to help themselves (rather than speaking on behalf of others) by empowering them to pursue their self-interests for the common good.

Power? Self-interest? They don’t sound very Christian…. 

Well, by power here, we mean the ability to act, and self-interest is appealing to our desires. These are really morally neutral concepts- and while power can be enormously destructive, it can also be used for enormous good. Similarly, I think self-interest is morally neutral- what is wrong is selfishness. People are also corrupted by powerlessness, just as by power, and by duty just as by self-interest. I’m convinced that the problem is the human heart and our sinful desires, not power and self-interest themselves.

OK, that seems fair. So what did you get up to, and how did you find it?

Speaking for me- I was with a church called St John’s Hoxton, which is truly one of my favourite churches that I’ve ever been to. It’s a really exciting place; it’s grown from about 30 to around 150-200 over the last 5 years, aiming to be “a beacon of hope for Hoxton”, and the people there were just such amazing and beautiful human beings. Hoxton itself is a weird place of contrasts; you’ll walk down past an art gallery which has hosted Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst to John Newton’s (slave trader turned priest) old house to an estate where there was a shooting last week. In this weird and wonderful context, St John’s does a marvellous job.

Me and Jeancy (the other intern in Hoxton) had two big projects; one was a road safety project and another was to organise a big garden party for the church. The road safety project was about zebra crossing on a local commuter route, where there have been problems between speedy cyclists and schoolchildren; so for a morning, we helped some school mums to give out lollipops to cyclists who waited for children and red-carded cyclists who didn’t. The garden party was a church-wide party to help to develop relationships across generations and in generations, in a fast-growing church. Both were great successes, with great feedback from all. In terms of positive results: we had a great time and hopefully planted some seeds for future community organising among church members and school mums, and the actual events were an amazing success. A really top month.

Here are some thoughts from fellow interns...

David Lawrence: I worked in St Mary's, Primrose Hill, where I looked specifically at issues of personal debt, mental health and credit unions, built links with the congregation in preparation for the Buxton Leadership Programme, and where I will be doing congregational development in that church while working in Parliament.

How did I find it? Perhaps the main theme that I found in my work was that the church is unique in being a place where rich meet poor. A stone's throw away from the mansions of Elsworthy Road are tower blocks of social housing. St Mary's is situated at the centre of these two worlds, so it is the only place in Primrose Hill where the rich and poor come together. This means that there is huge potential for the church's mission - as stories are shared, a common ground is developed between people different economic backgrounds, and hopefully this will lead to practical outcomes.

Abby Taylor Baptie: I spent the month at St Peter’s Bethnal Green building on the work done by previous interns regarding road safety, and also looking at ways to build communication between the church and the congregation and wider community. St Peter’s was a brilliant place to be working, partially because of the friendliness and enthusiasm of the congregation, and also because of the amount of change currently occurring in the community – it was fascinating to hear about the positives and negatives of these changes. The internship was unlike anything I have done before, and I found the concept of community organising really interesting. I really like the concept of people in a community coming together and speaking for themselves rather than a person, who hasn’t had their experiences, speaking for them. Furthermore, I was really inspired by the amount that the people I spoke to care about their community. Bethnal Green is changing very quickly, and the change has left some people feeling like they no longer have a place in the community, and this was really difficult to hear and led to me focusing on practical ways of making people feel more involved, for example ways of improving communication. The church is a place where people from all walks of life come together, and where everyone belongs, and it was exciting to see members of the church and community engaging with and rising to the challenge of helping everyone see that they have a place in Bethnal Green.

Overall, we had an amazing time, learning and living justice.

[justloveoxford]

let justice roll down like water

Natalie Harrison | 16.08.15

It's 5am and I'm wide awake. Why? Because I'm realising just how hard leaving Uganda is going to be. I've been here for six weeks, and now they're almost at an end. After this one, I only have one more morning in Uganda, then one in Dubai airport and then I'll be back in the UK. That thought is honestly freaking me out! I won't fall asleep or wake up to the sound of crickets and roosters, instead the sun will wake me up too early and I will be able to roll out of bed without taking a mosquito net with me. No more jumping on a boda boda (motorbike) or into a local minibus (matatu), instead I'll be facing planes and trains and safe roads with no crazy drivers where you risk your life trying to cross. But I know it'll be ok - I've done it before, and I know God will get me through all the readjusting and clumsy moments of trying to express just how special Uganda is.

I lived out here for five months last year and its been really wonderful to come back to the same place and people again. I've been blessed to catch up with many of my friends from last years projects, and God has been revealing the importance of long term relationships. Please don't get me wrong, I think there is value to short-term missions, to going in all energetic and impacting for a week or two! It was the short-term trips I've been on in the past which have led me to doing these slightly longer stints. But it's been powerful to see another side of God's heart and the relationships which grow out of the daily grind and rhythm of life here. I once heard a friend say that influence is better than impact, and influence is only felt in the long term. I'm finally starting to understand that.

This last week I've been out in a rural village, staying at a children's home and revisiting those relationships in that community. It was whilst being there that I had the time and space to start working out what on earth to write for this blog. We had a couple of impressive monsoon episodes and I was stood by the door to my house watching the compound dissolve into red streams flowing dangerously close to my feet (one day last year I came home to find a red lake in my house, so I always get a bit nervous watching the water levels rise) and was reminded of Amos 5:24 - "But let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever flowing stream". I often find myself swinging between two extremes regarding justice, especially out here for some reason - between crying out for God's justice to roll on now and right all the awful wrongs in this world, and being in awe of God's glorious redemptive work.

May I tell you of a couple of examples from this trip, of crying out times and praising times? I'll narrow them down to ones from the Acholi Quarters. It's a slum area in Kampala, home to the Acholi people who come from north but fled Joseph Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army in the 1980s-2000s. It's a conflicting place, both heartbreaking and joyful, full of all different types of people, all who carry deep scars from their dealings with the rebellion. It's one of my favourite places, simply because of the incredible people. I did some casual catch up education for children who weren't in school last year, as well as English sessions for 10 women. Coming back this year, I've seen the beauty of continued relationships and have felt both extremes of justice. I found out that my adopted mum, the woman who opened her home to me last year and who I've laughed with, prayed with, eaten with and learnt from, is HIV positive. How can a woman who is so loving and full of life have such a hideous illness? Oh Abba, let your justice flow!

I've knelt in the dust with a small girl, using stones to practice counting. A precious child of our heavenly King who cannot access the education she has every right to! The Acholi Quarters is surrounded by three quarries where many of the women and children pound out a pitiful income. In a beautiful and delicate way, God was doing His redemptive work by letting the stones be used for a moment of innocence and childish education, instead of being hammered to fragments at the hands of the child. There is a new source of income spreading through this community (and much of Uganda too) which is allowing a safer lifestyle. As you walk through the tiny houses, you'll see women and children sat outside rolling long triangles of paper into beads, and threading these to make jewellery and other beautiful handicrafts. This is justice in a necklace, you guys, and I get so excited by it! One bracelet averages at 3,000 Ugandan shillings (60p), which is roughly equivalent to one days work in the quarry. One necklace is about 5,000 (£1) and is the same as a woman and her child working in the quarry for a day. Not only are these products ethical in the sense that they recycle, they also create a better life for two generations! How beautiful. (On a side note, the markets for these beads in much smaller that the supply, so if any of you want to buy or sell on any, or have ideas of where we can access new markets, please let me know!)

I realise this is quite a lengthy ramble and I'm sorry. I'll blame it on the fact that my brain is on a strange 5am adrenaline rush as well as trying to process the last six weeks and vaguely prepare me for the challenge of returning to the western world. Also, when I get talking about Uganda, it's hard to stop. But I pray God will use these thoughts anyway somehow. As I face the goodbyes and packing, I know He's holding me close and will carry me through, and teach me things in the process. And He's doing the same for you, wherever you are, whatever you're doing this summer. I really encourage you to keep investing in relationships! I know it isn't easy at times, but I've been seeing that God's justice is often slow and organic and so beautifully complements (or is because of, even) those deep, real, raw relationships which have been grafted over time and through the seasons.

Jesus, may your justice roll down like water and your righteousness like an ever flowing stream over our Just Love community this summer, may you bless all we are doing in your name and take us deeper into relationships and our pursuit of your heart and Kingdom. Amen.

P.S. An extra thought, prompted by my Bible reading this morning. Psalm 94 is a beautiful and passionate one of God's justice and protection. "For the LORD will not forsake his people; he will not abandon his heritage; for justice will return to the righteous, and all the upright in heart will follow it" (v14-15). That will be on my heart as I go to Acholi Quarters today for the last time this year and face all the goodbyes, that God will not abandon His people. Let us live rightly so His justice comes. "When I thought, "My foot slips," your steadfast love, O LORD, held me up. When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul" (19-20). And this will be on my heart when I travel home and feel like I'm slipping.

[justloveoxford]

Three Justice Reads

Mark Poniatowski

So it’s summer! Time for the 3 ‘R’s, right? Resting, relaxing and recuperating? Reclining, reposing and recollecting yourself? Who are we kidding? We’re Oxford students, and if there’s one thing we do well it’s reading, reading and more reading. So in addition to that humongous list which your tutor has set you and as well as the latest teary rom-com/sci-fi epic/fiction thriller, here’s three books which we at Just Love Oxford think should accompany you this summer. They’re all short, easy to pick up and dead simple to understand. So whether it’s while catching some rays by the pool, perusing the bookstall at that Christian festival, stemming the flow of boredom on a long-distance train journey or simply cramming a few chapters into your library/lab breaks, these are what you need to read…

The Theological Call to Social Justice 1) Timothy Keller – Generous Justice

My word, where do we even begin with this man? As many of us know from his serendipitous series of mission week talks in HT15, Tim Keller just has that way with words. Breaking complex biblical narratives and intricate theological treatises into easy-to-handle English is Keller’s forte, and he does not fail to deliver here. Keller puts forward that the active pursuit of justice is an essential part of the Christian life. It is simply only right that we respond to God’s incredible grace and love by taking part in seeking redemptive social justice for our world. Keller walks us, hand in hand, through the Bible, both New Testament and Old, showing how the narrative of God’s will for his people to lead lives of active justice is vigorously revealed. Keller doesn’t just leave us there, however, but reflects on how this social justice ought to be carried out by us as individuals and churches, and where the call to justice fits alongside the imperatives of evangelism and engaging with a post-modern world. It’s simply one of those books which every Christian ought to read, so if you get your hands on a copy make sure you pass it on to your family and friends. It should surely change the way you think and behave, and reassess your priorities in living a life befitting of children of God.

Practical Application 2) Eugene Cho – Overrated

So you’re sold on the idea of doing God’s justice, but how on earth are we supposed to do that today? Chill, Eugene has got you sorted. In a fantastic little book, he flips the popular view that we have to be superheroes in order to end global poverty and bring God’s justice to the poor. Instead he tells us to look at what God is already doing in our world, and the ways in which he is bringing his kingdom to earth. It’s Jesus who will finish the work, and we just have to join in with what he’s already doing! It’s a super easy book to read, and is even worth lending to your non-Christian pals! Cho gets down with the practicalities, and challenges our modern-day culture of hipster anti-poverty tweets, instead calling us toward God’s sacrificial, costly justice. He’s right up-to-date with the happenings of the here and now, so is perfectly placed to assess how we are to interact with justice minded organisations like TOMs or food banks. Against our culture of short-term emotional thinking, he calls us to persevere with long-term conviction in the fight against global injustice. This book is perfect for thinking through what God’s call to justice looks like in the world of 2015

An Inspirational Tale 3) Shane Claiborne – The Irresistible Revolution

“I know there are people out there who say, “My life was such a mess. I was drinking, partying, sleeping around… and then I met Jesus and my whole life came together.” God bless those people. But me, I had it together. I used to be cool. And then I met Jesus and he wrecked my life.”

Oh Shane! Fresh from our little skype chat last Trinity (I’m sure it was the highlight of his 2015 speaking calendar!) Shane is ripping the Western Christian world a new one. This is a profoundly challenging book about the thoughts and experiences of one ordinary human being and his friends on a quest to get to the root of Christianity. To become people who read the word of God and live like they take it seriously. Who don’t choose to highlight passages they like and conveniently leave those they don’t to one side. I use the word inspiration, but what is really ensnaring about Shane’s story is that it is just so similar to so many of ours, growing up in a comfortable Western Christendom and making excuses to stay there. By his own admission, this is a book of stories about an ordinary bunch of people doing a bunch of things which should be ordinary parts of a Jesus-centred life, but that seem dangerously radical to many outside. Of course his stories are all wrapped up in his bubbly sense of humour, which shines through. Whether he’s recalling his experiences as a student campaigner for Philadelphia’s homeless community, having his life changed forever in the slums of Calcutta, or recounting the day-to-day of living life with his friends at The Simple Way in downtown Philly, his book is a delightfully personable and easy read. Just beware if you’re reading it around others, because they’ll probably ask you what you’re chuckling at! If you’re looking for a little challenge to break out of the western life, there’s no better challenge than from Shane and his pals at The Simple Way

You’ve read all of the above? Sweet! This is just a short list of books we’d love every Christian in Oxford to read, but if you want to explore God’s call to justice a little more then please have a chat with any of us on committee or drop a quick message to the Just Love Oxford facebook page. We’re all fairly well-read so can point you in the right direction!

[justloveoxford]

Plastic Free July

Jack Wakefield

Hi, I’m Jack and I have both good and bad news for you. The good news (and I hope you’ll agree it’s good news!) is that I’m the newest member of the Just Love Oxford Committee. My role? To help us to engage with and combat environmental problems. But the bad news is that I’ve already failed. I’ve failed because for the past month I’ve been trying to join in with a growing movement known as #plasticfreejuly – a challenge for people to eliminate all singleuse plastic from their lives all month. I started off thinking it’d be difficult, but that I could manage it, if I just avoided bottles of coke and remembered to take reusable bags to the shops; but I quickly discovered the challenge was far harder than I could ever have anticipated, and because of that I’ve failed miserably. Every week, and almost every day of every week, I’ve used single-use plastic. But why do such a challenge, I hear you ask? What does plastic have to do with the environment, climate change or Just Love Oxford? And why did I do so awfully at the challenge? To begin the task of answering these questions, I’ve written some short reflections on my month to get you thinking, and hopefully in the next couple of terms we can begin to explore this more thoroughly, and learn to live differently together. Plastic hasn’t always existed, in fact it was invented about 150 years ago, and has only been used as a disposable material since the 1960’s. It’s a fantastic invention which can be used to form all kinds of things, and it’s highly durable. It’s so durable that almost every piece of plastic ever produced still exists somewhere on the planet today; and yet we create 100 million tonnes of new plastic each year. The problem with plastic is that it’s too good. It lasts too long and breaks the normal rules of nature. In nature, things eventually die and decompose and in doing so support future life; but traditional plastic never goes away, it doesn’t decompose. Plastic breaks, tears and falls apart but only ends up in smaller pieces; and these smaller pieces are now being found in all parts of the food chain. According to the United Nations Environment Programme plastic kills one million seabirds each year as well as 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, and it’s been found that 95% of the fulmar carcasses found on the North Sea coast – a kind of sea gull, to you and me –contain plastic in their stomachs, with an average of 45 pieces in each bird. It’s also been reported that there’s now substantially more plastic in the Pacific Ocean than Plankton, which are the tiny organisms that enable all of life to exist – producing half of the worlds oxygen. This is clearly bad news for God’s creation, for both the animals He loves and the delicate systems He’s designed for them. One single plastic bag is enough to kill a small whale, and yet we continue to produce a trillion of them each year. I continue to buy my food in single-use plastic packaging and throw it away. We continue to accept the status-quo of our disposable culture without stopping to think about the consequences. Learning this made me realise something important, I needed to stop and repent. Genesis 2:15 says that God placed humanity on the planet in order that we might work it and take care of it, but with millions of animals dying each year because of our plastic usage, and a changing climate threatening so much of life on earth, it seems we’re not doing too well. This is why I took up the Plastic Free July challenge. I wanted to commit to changing my lifestyle and becoming a better caretaker of creation.  But I failed. And I failed epically. Every week, and almost every day of every week, I’ve used some kind of single-use plastic. It seemed impossible to know where to begin, I couldn’t even make a cup of tea to drink, because my milk was in a plastic bottle and my tea bags are sealed with plastic (I know, how weird is that?!). Through attempting the challenge I’ve realised that shifting away from our normal waste-heavy way of life is going to take a lot of effort and time, but it’s an important and exciting journey to begin and one that I’d encourage you to explore too. July hasn’t been a complete failure, I’ve learnt a lot about the amount of rubbish I produce, about how much God loves his creation and longs for it to be ‘liberated from it’s bondage to decay’ (Romans 8) and about the easy plastic-free alternatives I can choose without too much extra effort, soon it’ll be time to try the more difficult switches. Below are my seven top tips for reducing your reliance on plastic and beginning the journey to a zero-waste lifestyle, why not give some of them a try during our summer of justice? 1. Refuse plastic bags! Instead, bring your own reusable ones along with you. If you have an old tshirt or two lying around, why not turn them into bags like I did? 2. Don’t buy plastic drinks bottles. Pack yourself a reusable bottle; you’ll save a lot of money doing this too. 3. Turn down lids and straws! Make your reusable bottle heatproof so you can use it for take-away coffees, and turn down any lids/straws you’d normally get there or at a fast food outlet. 4. Shower plastic free. I’ve switched to using solid products from LUSH – a shampoo bar in a refillable tin and a body wash block, which means no plastic bottles. 5. Mouth-full of plastic? Buy yourself a bamboo toothbrush and make your own toothpaste, or if you’re not a fan of make-your-own ideas, give tooth-tabs at LUSH a try, well maybe a few tries until you get used to them! 6. Think before you shop! Try and avoid food in plastic packets – buy your veg from the loose buckets in the supermarket or local farmers markets, and don’t use the little plastic bags for them. You could even take your own container for meat & fish, which you can buy unpackaged from the counters. 7. Long live the milkman! Did you know you can still get milk in cute glass bottles delivered to your doorstep? Give ‘milk and more’ a call and ask them to start delivering plastic free milk to you. To learn more about our plastic problem, have a look at this article: http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/ocean-plastics

[justloveoxford]

Viva - Together for Children

Tyler Overton

One of the trickiest aspects of my summer internship with Viva is explaining what, exactly, Viva is. A little blurb on the front page of Viva’s website reads: ‘Viva is all about life! We are inspiring lasting change in children’s lives through the power of collective action because we have a vision to see children safe, well, and fulfilling their God-given potential.’ It’s hard to know what to make of this. ‘Collective action’? How precisely does this vision of seeing ‘children safe, well, and fulfilling their God-given potential’ come about? Thankfully, other parts of the website and the Viva staff members I’ve met over the past month have explained this more fully. Viva works with organizations that work with children. Its goal is to help those organizations coordinate their individual efforts into larger-scale—and more effective—collaborations that can have a greater impact on the children’s lives. Mostly, Viva works with Christian NGOs and churches in the Majority World. It examines the needs of a given city, listening to those experiencing them instead of imposing external objectives, and then helps organizations form networks to address those needs. As the networks develop, they become more independent and influential. Some of Viva’s larger networks are now collaborating with national governments to influence key aspects of public policy that affect children’s lives.

In a purely strategic sense, Viva’s work is important because it ensures that the greatest possible good can come out of organizations’ already-existing work. NGOs and churches can take on bigger goals and do more for children because they are working together. This cooperation also allows them to share knowledge and expertise. Furthermore, Viva’s creation of networks is a step towards the kind of unity between Christians envisioned by Jesus in John 17:

I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

One key aspect of a church that helps guide the world towards Christ is a unity with God that is evidenced in unity with others. Viva’s model of collaboration is important not just because it is looking to God for inspiration and guidance, but because it is an experiment in the type of unity which Jesus prayed for. Equally excitingly, it is proof of how much the church can do when it gets behind a goal in God’s strength.

I, personally, have enjoyed the strategic thinking seen in Viva’s model of creating networks. One of the things that interest me most is the question of how to get God’s people working as effectively and as healthily as possible for justice and evangelism. If we believe that God’s Kingdom is both real and good, we should be seeing evidence of that goodness in how Christian organizations operate, and signs that the Kingdom is coming in the transformative effect of their work. Of course, all of this sounds a lot grander than the day-to-day reality of what I do at Viva. I am not directly involved in any of this strategic thinking. In fact, I spend most of my time looking at spread sheets with lists of foundations that might fund Viva, filling in details like their objectives and organizations they have funded in the past. On good days, I review funding applications, and tweak them slightly: cutting down six pages of highly detailed information, for instance, to two pages that a potential funder might be willing to read. This is not always scintillating—although filling out the Excel spread-sheets has given me the opportunity to listen to the entire Lord of the Rings Symphony, which I’d highly recommend. But there are things I like about it, such as the chance to figure out which NGOs work in the UK and America, and how they are funded. As someone who hopes to work in international development in the future, this is useful information: kind of like taking apart your toys to see how they fit together. In fact, one of the most enjoyable aspects of my internship with Viva is the day-to-day experience of being in the office. I have learned quite a lot from hearing my co-workers talk about what they do, and as I am currently in Oxford for the summer between the end of my undergraduate degree and the beginning of my masters next year, it has been nice to get out of my flat and be around people who are also interested in loving God in the international development world.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about Viva, I’d be happy to chat. Probably the best way of getting involved would be to do the Viva internship (3-12 months, either at the Viva offices in Oxford, or overseas. Link below). The Viva internship wasn’t being advertised at the time of my application, so I’m officially on a volunteer placement, but it seems pretty cool—especially the opportunity to work overseas with one of Viva’s network consultants. This would mean being on the ground and in the midst of all the collaboration I was describing above. It’s not often that interns have the opportunity to get such an up-front-and-central view of some of the most exciting Christian development work around, so this might be one to think about. Anyway, I’ve really enjoyed my time with Viva so far, and would highly recommend it to whoever’s interested. Let the Summer of Justice continue!

http://www.viva.org/work-with-viva.aspx

[justloveoxford]

reflecting on foodbanks: missional community in the face of food poverty

Colin Lim | LMH | 23.07.15

Having just finished my first year at Oxford, I’ve felt encouraged and challenged both academically and spiritually, and I’m sure many of you have too. Whilst the end of Trinity was full of goodbyes and return to the mighty North, it was in many ways a ‘welcome back’, when I got back to Liverpool. In particular, I was excited to get back involved with Foodbanks.

Since 2011, since when I first volunteered, I’ve seen the expression of community which Alex emphasised last time, from 1 John 3, particularly verses 16 to 18. ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ What struck me from this verse was that Jesus died selflessly for everyone, not just his followers. If our love for our fellow brothers and sisters, as described later, is to be modelled on Christ, then our love should extend beyond those that believe into communities where we show people the love of God and how it transforms the way we live, including through what we have.

I found an excellent expression to this passage in the way Foodbanks work.

You could say the first Foodbank was ‘opened’ in 2000 with the founders of the Trussell Trust, a charity which helps support and maintain foodbanks across the country, and to which most Foodbanks are affiliated. Whilst working on a UN feeding programme Paddy and Carol Henderson came across a street child and his mother in a Bulgarian train station. With their help, Baby Boris was kept alive and later taken to an orphanage. However they had seen there that the state of most of the orphanages was horrendous. The conditions were bad but the alternative was for the street children to carry on without a roof under their head or food to eat. Many were being sexually exploited. Many of their mothers were also addicts. Paddy and Carol then went on to help support other children in the train station, and as the project developed, focus turned towards the UK in 2000 when Paddy became aware that there were major poverty issues in the UK, and eventually started the first ‘foodbank’ in his shed.

It speaks to me that, cut this foodbank open and it bled community. Paddy and Carol took what they had, their placement in Bulgaria and their fundraising skills and financial ability to provide for the children, and gave it to create a community where the children lived healthily and ethically.

The architecture of foodbanks today looks similar. People in a financial crisis where they can’t put food on the table will seek help from local care professionals, such as the Job Centre, who will then refer to them to foodbanks for their emergency food, enough to feed their household for three days. Work for the struggling in Bulgaria is also still very much active today as well.  

What really appeals to me about Foodbanks is its ability to bring together communities from both Christian and non-Christian backgrounds. Many schools and businesses are actively involved in collecting food for it and helping out in public supermarket collections. We cannot depend on our own to see transformation in our cities, and reinforcements can come from anywhere. Not only are our communities, beyond the walls of our church, are authentic and effective resource centres of change, but an amazing opportunity for us to act as witnesses of the gospel through our work. Awareness of food poverty and the need for foodbanks has been raised substantially over time as a result.  

There are many ways to get involved in Foodbank, if you wanted to. They always need people helping with admin and sorting out the shelves, as well as engaging with the families who come to receive food. Perhaps donating a tin or helping out at a local collections will be a blessing (and good fun too!) But the main point is that community manifests itself in those that seeks to love their brothers and sisters, and, like Jesus did, take it to those who have not been reached. They may be those receiving help, or maybe even volunteers. The number of children needing foodbanks shoot up in the summer when there is no free school meal support, which means stock runs out quickly. If we can take the communities that exist in our cities and neighbourhoods and use the Gospel to shape the way they tackle social justice together. Paddy and Carol saw that there was a need for people to be fed and since thousands and thousands of people have been mobilised to see that happen, such that 1 million meals were handed out in the 2014-2015 financial year across 445 foodbanks with 35,000 care professionals giving out vouchers and 42,000 volunteers working behind the scenes. That’s what community looks like.

Nevertheless, I wholeheartedly recommend getting stuck in with Foodbank. All we ask if for your friendliness and willingness to work as a team and the 1 million meals distributed becomes a reality. There’s a plethora of things you could get involved in.  You may be handing out shopping leaflets in supermarket collections or sorting out food in your local centre. You may be driving the car which takes the food from the supermarket back to the centre, or helping to consult those who have come to Foodbank to get food, offering them financial advice. We also offer prayer for those who would like it. Or perhaps running a foodbank collections in your local area, schools, businesses might be a way to collect donations as well as engage communities. I took a risk back in Year 11 and pitched the idea of getting my school involved in foodbank, which was taken on so positively! We ran competitions to see which year groups could donate the most amount of good, got students involved in collections. Staff were also willing to donate. I believe the interest is still there in school even after I left. You can really put as much time and effort in as you want to, but it makes all the difference for a family who could even be living a few doors down from you. Theirs is also something magical about those moments where I’ve brought in the bag of food to the families who have come in and you see how much it means; some of their faces glowing with joy, some even shedding a tear because they didn’t think they could feed themselves that night. The impact of Foodbanks goes beyond the tins of soups and touches the heart of people who have been in tough times.

Despite supposed economic recovery, last year there was 38% rise in the number of meals we had to provide. The need is still rising and the need for foodbanks to be supported is as its highest yet. But with that comes a stronger desire to love; to take our ‘material possessions’ and ensure no one ‘has no pity on them’. The love of God has compelled me to get involved and I’m excited to hear the communities and the causes God has called you to this summer. http://www.trusselltrust.org/

[justloveoxford]

Following on from last week’s advice about living justly, here is a quick note from Ruth Miller about an ethical purchase she recently made on her #summerofjustice

Hello all, hope you're having just, great summers! Just a quick heads up for this ecological shoe brand, http://project.veja-store.com/en/ , a much better alternative to the big sporting monsters like Nike etc (I was criticised by someone for wearing New Balance trainers at Stand for Freedom, so thought I'd take a step in the right direction by getting some of these...) XXX

[justloveoxford]

Ten Just Living Tips for your Summer of Justice

Pray

Get your church involved in justice

Recycle

Budget to give

Cut Down on Plastics

Walk or cycle more

Get stuck into community

Buy Ethically

Go Veggie

Do Politics

[justloveoxford]

10 Just Living Tips for your Summer of Justice

[justloveoxford]

A Summer of Justice

by Alex Rattee

As a Just Love community we find ourselves at the end of another term. For each of us Trinity has looked a little different. Some have been sitting swathes of exams, others have spent most of their term punting and some have sneakily managed to do both. The fact of life is that things look different for each of us, but in our differences we are bound together into community through the unity that Christ dying and rising for us all brings.

This term we’ve been looking at what it means to have been ‘created for community’. I want to quickly share some of my thoughts from this little eight-week adventure and then turn my attention to what lays ahead. In our last Just Lunch we dug into 1 John 3, particularly verses 16 to 18. ‘This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.’ 

Laying down our lives is clearly a big call, however following through with it makes no sense if we are only living for ourselves. Yet by looking to the cross we find the motivation to sacrifice for others even in our differences, because Christ in his perfection gave his life for us, vastly different, sinners. By looking to the Trinity we see that we were designed for community because we are made in the image of a God who is, in his very essence, community. It is by acknowledging these two facts that I am convinced that we are called to sacrificial community and it is by the power of the Holy Spirit that it is possible for this call to become a reality.

This passage also shows us that the decision to love and to sacrifice isn’t a happy fluffy optional extra for those Christians who have the time. If you know God you will be compelled by love, to love. It is normal Christianity for us to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters, even if often the choice to do this is so difficult. The decision to lay down our lives is a tangible requirement, maybe for some of us that will actually look like at some point physically giving up our life so that another might live, or maybe it’ll look like as verse 17 suggests dying to ourselves by giving sacrificially to a friend in desperate need. This powerful call will always play out differently, but what we can be sure of is that it does look like something, it isn’t an abstract idea, it’s a call to be a community of living sacrifices who put their love into action.

Obviously discussion of laying down our lives is tough; I have a desire to keep hold of what I have made for myself, but this attitude ignores what we learn so powerfully in 1 Corinthians 6: ‘Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own.’ It is this fact that underlies why community makes sense; in not belonging to ourselves we give up our lives to God and those around us. This is what the early church modelled so well, lives radically committed to each other, holding lightly to what in the world’s eyes belonged to them as individuals, so that as a community there wouldn’t be any needy among them.

Godly community helps motivate us to justice because through it we discover that we were made for dependence, dependence on God and dependence on others. In realising that others really need us we are motivated to fight for justice for them. Yet the joy of godly community is that just as it helps motivate us to justice it also helps us to sustain it. Living sacrificially is far from easy; we need others to help us keep on choosing this lifestyle when we falter. Community does just that; it provides the accountability, the camaraderie and the boldness to ensure we keep going when we want to give up, when we want to start belonging to ourselves rather than belonging to God and others. It is through community that we are released to become the living sacrifices that we were designed to be.

Now where does this leave us? Summer is ahead and some of us might feel out of the loop. Yet a lifestyle of justice can’t stop just because term does. So this is why as a community we want to challenge ourselves to make this a summer of justice, to give these fifteen exciting weeks to God, and to fight for justice in all the ways that we have available to us.

In doing so we’ll be living out what we have just been discussing, we’ll be being a community that challenges and encourages each other when we’re tempted to waiver. To help achieve this we’ll be having weekly updates from different people about what they’ve been doing to lay down their life. We want to hear what you’ve been up to, we want to hear about a new ethical rhythm of life you’re trying out, or the justice you’ve been fighting for on a summer trip, or the part of the bible you’ve been reflecting on and how it is changing the way you live. Nothing is too big or too small as we attempt to live more like living sacrifices this vacation.

Since Christian community doesn’t end when term does, neither can our pursuit of justice. How will you choose to make this a summer of justice? 

Send your updates to [email protected]