To change the world

For the last few days I have been in Dublin at the Anglo Nordic Baltic Theological Conference, on Education, Ethos and Social Transformation. The following is a reflection following that conference.


'We teach to change the world'

We preach to change the world,
We pray to change the world.

We live, move, breath to change the world.

'Your kingdom come,
Your will be done':
Let the world be changed.

Let it be energised,
Transformed,
Aligned with your vision

Magnetised
By stroking against you

Lit up, salted, savoured, sweetened.

We pray to change the world.
We preach, I priest, to change the world.

And the world changed.

And then the Church cried out
In pain, in anger.

Decrying change,
Urging return:

Condemning as new and ungodly
The ways of the world
That we have shaped,
prayed in,
Fought for, struggled for,
shed and sweated blood for.

Your kingdom come

Only in polished mahogany
and jewelled crowns?

Your will be done

Only if it be the same
yesterday, today and forever?

We preach, teach, pray, priest
To change the world.

Let the world be changed.


(The title is a quotation from Stephen Brookfield's book 'Becoming a Critically Reflective Teacher')