I like the music of Michael Card and one song has long been a favourite of mine:

To hear with my heart

To see with my soul

To be guided by a hand I cannot hold

To trust in a way I cannot see

Thta's what faith must be

Seems impossible doesn’t it

Madness to a world that wants to trust only in what it can see and hold

The song gives us an answer:

Now I understand that there is a key

Its Jesus’ in me, a reality

That God is in Christ and that Christ’s in me

That with faith I can see what is unseen.

We walk by faith not by sight Paul tells us so why do so many Christians want God to sign write and are not prepared to take a risk?

Ok I want it sometimes too but when everything appears right it probably is!

I am back from my 2 day course on Racial Jutsice. I was plesaantly surprised having been told by previous participants in past years that they found it very aggressive. The trainers were all fairly balanced, pushing us to reflect on out own cultural and racial histories and everyone seemed to react well..

It brought back memories of being asked by Prof. Robert Beckford what it meant to me to be white. My reply at the time was that I didn't understand the question, I didn't think of myself as white- just the problem he countered. My early days here in a 90% Asian area brought that question into sharp focus for me and now I understand what it is to be who I am. The sessions also confirmed to me the very strange desire I have to return to the palce of my birth abroad - I only spent 6 months there so have no cognitive memories just a deep longing in my soul and a feeling of connection with that land. One day I will get back there.

The sessions that showed how racial justice had worked out in concrete church situations was very helpful- two very different models, one of whuch appealed to me much more than the other - it was the vision I have always had and try, in a very small way, to have here. Now I have more realistic examples of what can be done.

The issues of justice and discrimination of course are wider than the colour of your skin: age, gender, poverty and disability are also the cause of injustice, along with many other factors. We talked about how many BEM ministers there are in the union - we didn't have definite figures bit I know that woemn only account for now 10% of BU Ministers but the proportionately I suspect BEM minister percentages are higher. (Please let me know if that's wrong)

I did however remain confused: The advice I got was use black images of Christ and try to use our African members' first names rather than their easier middle names. I have tried both here: The lads hate the back images and want a white Jesus and they want us to use their middle names as the hate the fact however musch we try we never pronounce the name right and it irritates them - so now what do I do? (mind you few people pronouce or spell my surname correctly - except non-British who seem to manage fine - and I have a friend whose first name suffers the same fate!) I guess I have to keep trying and be sensitive to whatever makes them feel secure, loved and at home.

Today I opened my paper and found this letter:

The Koran does not put women in burkas

The French President should be applauded for initiating a public debate about the non-koranic burka and niqab

Sir, While I oppose Nicolas Sarkozy’s right-wing and pro-American agenda, I commend the French leader for questioning the validity of full-face veiling for Muslim women (report, June 23). The Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford (Meco) has championed the unequivocal right of Muslim women not to wear either the hijab (headscarf) or face covering (niqab/burka) in the light of pristine Koranic teachings.

For too long a foreign-inspired Muslim clergy that defends female inferiority and gender discrimination has subjected Muslims in the West to virulent indoctrination. This brainwashing stems from the Middle East and South Asia but has no Koranic foundation. It is propagated by nefarious factions, including the hardline Wahhabi-Ikwani-Salafi-

Deobandi sects. These currently ascendant sexist groups in Europe peddle the myth that full body covering and face concealment for women is a religious requirement. On the contrary, it is nothing more than a cultural choice, a personal preference. The mullahs fail to tell their flocks that nowhere in Islam’s transcendent text is there any mention of the word burka or niqab. Since the Koran declares itself to be immutable and that nothing has been omitted from the scripture (vi, 38), why is there a need for latterday misogynists to impose a draconian dress code that is not specifically sanctioned by the holy book? Other than calling for public modesty of both sexes, Islam’s sacred scripture does not prescribe any specific sartorial code.

As with everything else that brings Islam into disrepute today, the Muslim clergy relies on secondary sources, particularly the hadith (sayings of the Prophet Muhammad) to support their questionable theological views, including the need for women to hide their faces. But it is a historical fact that the hadith, many of which are suspect or spurious, were compiled about 250 years after the death of the Prophet. Clearly, where these human statements conflict with the divine text, they have no legitimacy.

While Muslim women should be at liberty to decide what to wear, they have to be truthful and say that they are upholding cultural mores and tribal traditions when they veil their faces. They cannot honestly claim that this trendy fad, which evokes understandable fear and negativity in European society, is a koranic imperative or a religious duty.

Only with the emergence of an indigenous British Islam that is faithful to the uplifting tenets of the faith in restoring the Koran’s total primacy will there be advances in the status of Muslim women in Britain. This naturalised Islam firmly rejects the fabrications and fallacies of a Saudi-funded clergy and will expedite effective Muslim integration into the British mainstream.

In the meantime, the French President should be applauded for initiating an essential public debate about the non-koranic burka and niqab.

Dr T. Hargey

Chairman, Muslim Educational Centre of Oxford

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/letters/article6571025.ece

So if I am working for justice what do I do in this area where this dress is the norm? My first step will be to ask my Muslim friends what they think and see where we go from there....

Had a great service this monring with the two baptism. The Hindu girl's mother, aunt and brother and sister came which was a eal joy but I wonder what they made of it all. The other lady told me afterwards that she had felt physcially better than she had for a long time as she came up from the waters (she's just come out of hospital).

The church was full with visitors from several churches connected to the the two women and was great to have a full church and great singing. A time of thankfulness for all God has done in these two lives and the lves of slo many others and a prayer that God will work in some of the lives of people there who don't know Christ.

The one thing I found hard was the fact that after the service I was told that several of the people visiting did not agree with women in ministry! I just hope that God helped them see that it was he who called, equipped and uses me and it might be the beginning of a journey into a different understanding of this thorny issue.

Just spent nearly 2 frustrating hours going to every jewellers in Leicester trying to find a simple small silver cross as a Baptismal present for the Girl I am baptising. The Christian boo,m shop only had the large showing ones people tend to wear to Spring Harvest and the like. Eventually, having been showen pages of crosses I could order I asked why they weren't in the shop. 'It's not PV to have them in this city - we might offend people of other faiths'. I told them this was rubbish.

I finally found a small shop. run by Muslims, who had tray upon tray of crosses and crucifixes and I made my purchase. I told them my story and they laughed - crosses are thier best sellers! On my way back to the car park I stopped off in the shop and told them where I had bought the cross and they they were a best seller and maybe they were missing out! Their faces were a picture!

The folk here support each other in the practice and symbols of their faith - it is NOT an issue!

Had my first experience of a BU Taskgroup (on Inter-faith issues) yesterday at Didcot. It was an excellent day, well worth taking a day out to attned. The discussion was wide-anging in terms of breadth and depth. There was good listening to one another's diverse experiences of the many issues surounding Inter-faith, the concerns, the fears, the anger - and the joys, the moments of insight, revelation, and challange as we encounter and befriend people who hold a different faith to us.

We have come up with many different things that need to be moulded into the beginnings of a strategy (thank you David for taking this on!) and then we will see what other people think of it (what have we missed?) and then what Council think and who will add to/refine it before someone works out how to actually do it all.

Thanks were extended to JOPPA and its work over 20 years - people who have remained faithful to this issue even when it was deeply unpopular and are now delighted that thew Union is willing to explore these issues on a broader and bigger cnavas.

I learnt so much yesterday listening to other's reflections and experiences - thank you to everyone involved.

I am baptising two people on Sunday - its so exciting.

This afternoon one of my congregation asked are we singing  'I am following' and proceeded to sing it to me. I'd never heard of it. Apparently we 'always' sing it after a baptism! We didn't with the other baptisms I have done here and the two people concerned wouldn't know it. So we won't sing it.

But it got me thinking... at my home church we tended to sing 'he is Lord, he is Lord, he is risen from the dead and he is Lord'.

I know which one I would rather sing because one focuses on what 'I' , the human, am doing, and the other a the confessional statement of who God is. (for those who don't know me it would be the latter!)

Do others have traditional songs they sing at the point of baptism?

How much does/should our theology of baptism affect this choice, if at all?

Tomorrow I go to London to see two of our children and our two grandchildren - what a delight - the elder one old enough to have fun with and the baby so different everytime I see him (which is not often enough) then off to France for two days to celebrate my husband submitting his final pieces of work for his degree. (maybe all those jobs around the house will get done now!)

Back at church for one day to see the two people I will be baptisiing on 21st June- exciting for them and for the church for whom this is a rare occasion. But also an occasion fraught with tension as one is a Hindi convert whose family will not be  happy and she risks alientation from them.

Then one day in sunny Didcot for the first meeting of the new Interfaith Taskgroup - I am looking forward to tackling the immense challanges we face as a group as we tackle the difficult and sometimes contentious issues that suurround our enagagement with people of other faiths.

Then two days to prepare for the baptisms and anything else that needs to be attended to.

A busy, varied and wonderful week and it all starts with French food and wine!

The police believe our visitor will return for a second bite at the cherry so each morning now I wake up and wonder what I will find when I arrive at church.

A real sense of alertness and watchfulness - and fearfulness - is this the state I should be in waiting for Jesus' return?

From ASBO JESUS

We can seriously ponder this question

Or if that is too challanging to our comfortable way of life we can ignore the fact that we are goats and just......