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Does Missio Dei (Church language for ‘the mission of God’) require God’s people to use a car?
@churchofengland @DioceseOfYork @cranmerhall
@churchofengland @DioceseOfYork @cranmerhall
This is an emotional and intelligent film about the relationship between society, the car, and the way we turn a blind eye to knowing that 73 people are killed and injured by motorists on British roads every day. Every single day. Day after day after day
How should @churchofengland respond to this casual attitude to random and careless death?
Decreasing numbers of clergy has led to ministers rushing between communities, leading multiple Sunday services. Often the schedule demands a speed of transfer that can only be achieved by car - or time travel
The car is a mobility aid for those with disabilities, or for those whose lifestyles have disabled them, ie the physically able who are physically unable to move themselves around
Clergy working six days a week with the ‘cure of soul’ for thousands of people are expected to be prayerful and attentive to those around them… who has time to move slowly?
Is it any wonder that Sabbath feels abandoned by God’s people. ‘I find my rest in Christ’ comes the reply. Do you? Do you really? Why are so many Clergy ‘burned out’, if they truly find their rest in Christ
Kosuke Koyanna wrote (in 1979) that the speed we walk is three miles an hour, the speed Jesus moved, the speed love moves. It is an inner speed, a spiritual speed. It is a different speed to the technological speed to which we are accustomed. 3mph: the speed the love of God walks
Beyond the immediate urgency of 73 people who will be killed or injured today on British roads – there are calls from our children to put a stop to climate change
Our children don’t want to die: neither under the wheels of a car, nor as a result of climate change
I’ve heard some preachers proclaim we don’t have to worry about climate change because, God is going to come and make everything new again. This abdication of stewardship sickens me in my soul, this disregard for the creation which God looked upon and said, “It is good”
Can the church reform its approach to ministry? It can and it must, before we betray our children and all future generations to drought, water shortages, food shortages, rising sea levels, increased sea levels and more frequent wild weather events
I own a car and sometimes I’m simply not well enough to cycle, or it is inappropriate to cycle. Sometimes ministry in today’s society demands I use a car, but for the most part I choose to cycle
I yearn for a day when travelling slowly - by foot or by bicycle - is the normal way to travel. When the car is the exception not the expectation
I choose to cycle because I want to move in greater harmony with God’s good creation
I choose to cycle because I know that resorting to the car damages the environment
I choose to cycle because I’m more visible as a priest and a person set aside to participate in Missio Dei
I choose to cycle because I’m physically able to
I choose to cycle because it is so much fun
Does @churchofengland and my Diocese @DioceseOfYork have a response to the pollution and death that flows from a culture that thoughtlessly defaults to driving a car?
Perhaps #CycleToWork for clergy?
Perhaps subsidised eBikes?
Perhaps a culture of change that reduces the stress on clergy and enables them to move at the speed of God?
Perhaps subsidised eBikes?
Perhaps a culture of change that reduces the stress on clergy and enables them to move at the speed of God?
Let us pray: Heavenly Father, set us free from the prisons we've become trapped within. Give us joy in that freedom and safety on our journeys. Travel with us, Holy Spirit, and wrap your love around us. In the name of Jesus Christ, our saviour. Amen.
