#IICSA #CofE - from a heavy heart & troubled mind, some unfinished thoughts on #risk, #leadership, #abuse & #church. 1. "I am sending you out as lambs among wolves...be as wise as serpents & as innocent as doves." Too many in #church manage the doves part - high above, unable to imagine such horrible things could be or that X could possibly be guilty. Ignorance is not holiness.

#poem #FreeSchoolMeals #Poverty

1/4

Little J is slow today
His shoes a size too small
& a bit too thin so the cold gets in,
& his eye's not on the ball.

Little J drops off in class
& his progress drops off too.
Mum works till 8 so his homework's late
& he never has a clue. 2

Little J's quiet in circle time:
Their week sounds fun, now yours?
But the bus was a quid to the clubs they did;
'Free' isn't, if you're poor.

Little J's stuck indoors at break:
He forgot his coat again
So how can he play with friends today
When he can't go out in the rain?

1/20 unfinished thoughts...#online Church has been dismissed for years: a ‘last resort’, a ‘pale imitation’, ‘only just better than nothing’ are 3 verdicts I've heard. Some say how much they #mourn the loss of meeting in church buildings. It's a heavy loss, a significant sorrow. 2/20 But, as with many who #grieve, in our sorrow we must be careful not to #wound others, as #mainstream #church struggles to inhabit what has been the lived, continuous (sometimes total) experience of #disabled #christians, Christians with #mentalhealth struggles...

1/ Not responded to the #CofE's latest #statement before now because I felt it as a body blow - a blow to those members of the #body of #Christ who God gave me as siblings & with whom I am united, whose pain echoes in me though it is not directly my own - & I needed to breathe... 2/ The #statement is thin paper stretched over a seething mass of different, deeply held #identities, opinions, lives & #loves that stand in #opposition to one another, yet somehow mysteriously #united in #Christ. There are #cracks we cannot paper over, divides staggeringly deep.