Inspiration from England

So here we are in London, having already spent 10 days in Sheffield, the fourth largest city in England. Finally we have wireless internet!

Sheffield has lots going for it, but it's also a city with some very real urban issues: economic instability, homelessness, middle class flight, racial tension, neighborhoods in decline, and all the symptoms that accompany the transitions when majority populations become the minority. We spent our time not in the city center, where there are resources and where redevelopment efforts are focused, but in outlying areas - specifically the Burngreave neighborhood, now largely a Muslim neighborhood - with trips to various other areas on several occasions.

We're thankful especially for the opportunity to travel one day to Bradford, a once affluent but now struggling industrial city with lots of poverty, also home to the University of Bradford and Bradford College and the site of serious race riots as recently as 2001. We visited the Desmond Tutu House on the edge of the campus, run by a young Anglican priest, Rev. Chris Howson, who is doing some amazing things to help students and other young people connect with spirituality and efforts for peace and justice. Here's a guy who doesn't just talk the talk; he's in the trenches, on the front lines, speaking out passionately with a prophetic message about injustice and a word of hope for the oppressed and forgotten.

Some specifics:

• So concerned about global warming and the depletion of fossil fuels, he doesn't own a car and doesn't drive. He rides his bike and uses public transportation. Period.
  
• We met a young woman, a student, who doesn't consider herself a Christian, but she's been so inspired by Chris that she participates regularly in worship at JustChurch, which focuses on issues of peace, justice, and human rights, and she considers it a spiritual practice to get arrested on a regular basis for standing up for the rights of those on the margins.
  
• The house is also home to Treehouse Cafe, run by the Bradford Centre for Nonviolence, which promotes local, organic, fair trade food. We had a great lunch there!
  
• Sunday worship at the Desmond Tutu House, held at noon, is informal, participatory, and relaxed, intentionally seeking to include those sometimes excluded from the church, including those new to faith, while helping to bridge the gap between personal piety and social justice.

Bradford, England is not Portland, Maine, and every context calls for different kinds of ministries, but it's inspiring to find people who live their passions... whose passions spring from the Kingdom message of Jesus Christ... and who lead communities to proclaim the Gospel of peace and righteousness and justice for all God's children. Our prayer is that New Light will be just that kind of community.

What do you say?