How good are you at waiting? If you ask those closest to me, they’ll be quick to tell you that patience is not my strong suit. I don’t like waiting. Especially behind the wheel of a car.
However, God calls us to wait. “Don’t leave the city. Wait here. Wait for the promise. Wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit.” According to Luke, this is the injunction Jesus gives his early disciples, after the resurrection. I think it’s relevant to our current context.
We live in a culture that seeks quick fixes and is prone to short term solutions. Grant funding is typically given for 2 or 3 years. Our national and local governments are elected for 4 or 5 years. Thinking in decades is a rare commodity. Yet effecting real, lasting change within a neighbourhood or local community typically takes a decade or more.
If we’re to embrace this longer-term perspective in the church, we need to practice the virtue of patience. A decade ago, Alan Kreider, a Mennonite friend and theologian, wrote about how patience was a central virtue for the early Christians. They “believed that God is patient and that Jesus visibly embodied patience.” (The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, p1.) Early church leaders wrote treatises on patience. This patience was manifest in the early Christians’ behaviour. It was shaped by their formation and teaching in preparation for baptism.
I wonder: is this still true in our formation of Christian disciples today? As a younger believer, were you taught to be patient by Christian elders? I wasn’t.
In a recent book, When Church Stops Working, the authors highlight how today’s church needs to embrace the invitation to wait patiently upon God. They contrast this with the contemporary drive towards “acceleration.” This is manifest in our efforts to go faster, fit more in, multi-task more, meet ambitious targets and cover more ground. It’s counter-cultural to resist this. To slow down. To be prepared to wait patiently.
As Jesus depicts it, patient waiting is not passive. It requires an alertness and readiness to respond. We need to be on the balls of our feet, ready to act. To act in response to the actions of the Holy Spirit in the world. Rather than just because we’ve got bored, had an interesting idea, or to feel we need to be doing something.
That means our waiting will be looking to see where we can notice the Spirit’s movement among our neighbours and local organisations. We will seek “resonance” with what God is doing in our locality. THEN we can act, in harmony and partnership with the Spirit.
When: Tuesday, 10 June 2025, 10am – 5pm Where: Coventry Cathedral Cost: £75 per participant. A discount for groups of 5 or more booking together. £45 for students in theological education. A discounted rate for members of sponsoring organisations, including RI’s Reconciling Mission Network.
Being Missional Today is a conference that combines a festival of ideas on missional thinking, offered mostly by published authors, developed in conversation with participants. Experiential learning opportunities are woven into the gathering.
In dialogical pairs, speakers are invited to address one of these questions:
How might social and political disruptions, and disruptions within the church, aid or frustrate our work for the kingdom of God?
In what ways is this current season liminal, for the church and those amongst whom we serve? How might the church need to be reshaped for such a season, and work differently?
How might practices of reconciliation enable us to engage fruitfully in our local contexts today?
Confirmed speakers and workshop leads
New RI Trustee
We are delighted to announce that Richard Westwood has joined the board of Reconciliation Initiatives as a new trustee. Richard is the Team Vicar of St Anne’s Church in Chasetown, Lichfield Diocese, and a graduate of RI’s Reconciling Mission programme.
Richard says, “My involvement in the Reconciling Mission programme in 2021/2 gave me a wonderful mixture of challenge, encouragement and inspiration and I have benefitted so much from what I have learned. I hope and believe that the church and community in which I serve have gained as a result too.”
Richard is also a trustee of Burntwood Be A Friend, a mutual aid charity which supports a wide range of needs in the local community. In addition, he helps to lead the Link for Life Project, enabling young people in the Lichfield area to form partnerships with communities in southern Africa.
Richard has come on board following the resignation of Scott Watts. The RI trustees and staff are grateful to Scott for his service, support and encouragement, throughout in his time as a trustee.
Update on Reconciling Mission
The 4th cohort has made a strong start in the Reconciling Mission programme with three Action Learning Groups under their belts. Next up for them is the annual Reconciling Mission conference, atCoventry Cathedral, on Tuesday, 18 March 2025. Our keynote speaker will be the Rt Revd Smitha Prasadam, the Bishop of Huddersfield in Leeds Diocese, and Chair of the Anglican Minority Ethnic Network (AMEN). +Smitha’s presentation will be available on our website at a later date. Current and past Reconciling Mission participants will share a day of reconnection, learning and encouragement together.
Recruitment for the 5th cohort is drawing to a close with confirmed participation from the dioceses of Durham, Newcastle and Southwark, and Manchester Diocese seriously considering sponsoring a group, to complete the cohort. This cohort begin their journey with a week-long residential at Bestwood Lodge, Nottingham, in May.
Reconciling Mission Book
Alastair McKay and David Brubaker have recently submitted their manuscript for a new book: Reconciling Mission: Realizing God’s Reign through Community Engagement. The book begins by exploring the theoretical framework used in the Reconciling Mission programme, along with two foundational Biblical narratives, of Moses’s and Jesus’ journey with Israel.
The rest of the book offers a number of case studies from England and the USA, drawing on interviews conducted by Alastair and David. The book concludes by drawing together six key threads or themes that emerge from the case studies.
The book should be available in October, and for pre-ordering at the Being Missional Today conference above, where Alastair and David will be offering a seminar discussing the six key threads and themes of the concluding chapter.
Prayer requests
We welcome your prayers for Reconciliation Initiatives. In particular for:
our annual Reconciling Mission conference on 18 March, for encouragement of our programme participants;
finalising the 5th cohort of Reconciling Mission programme who will begin in May;
recruitment of 200 participants for the national Being Missional Today conference, 10 June, Coventry Cathedral, so that many can benefit from the conference – and so that we can break even with the finances;
discernment as we revise RI’s anti-racism programme for white leaders, in light of recent feedback;
plans for recruiting a Kenyan project manager to organise pilot programmes for Anglican Church of Kenya bishops, clergy and spouses.
Thank you for remembering us in your prayers. May you be blessed as you join us in God’s reconciling work.
Grace and peace to you,
Alastair McKay, Executive Director
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