A BBC report gives details of a revision of the Hadith under way in Turkey.
Pehaps this paragraph summarises the significance.
According to Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey from Chatham House in London, Turkey is doing nothing less than recreating Islam - changing it from a religion whose rules must be obeyed, to one designed to serve the needs of people in a modern secular democracy. He says that to achieve it, the state is fashioning a new Islam. "This is kind of akin to the Christian Reformation," he says.
This is a fascinating little book that looks at working as a consultant in an almost spiritual kind of way.
How do you thrive as a consultant, contribute to the world, make friends, and become the person you want to be? more»
I would love to live Like a river flows Carried by the surprise Of its own unfolding
I find this poem, called Fluent, really moving. It entices me to live in an unknowing of what will happen.
It finishes off a kind of obituary to him in the March issue of Third Way magazine, as they quote an extract from a talk that he gave at Greenbelt, from whose web site you can probably download his talk.
Described as an Irish writer and mystic, he talks of how the root of all our fears is death, and the antidote is love.
Two other quotes touched me. In the first he talks of the importance of remaining best friends with ourselves. The second is this:
Meister Eckhard [a medieval German mystic] said: 'There is a place in the soul that neither time nor flesh nor any created thing can touch'. A place inside you that no one has never got to, or hurt or damaged - a place where there is peace, serenity, courage and healing. At your deepest core you don't actually belong to yourself. But you belong to a beauty, an intimacy and a shelter that offers you every freedom that you could ever imagine.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Right Reverend Rowan Williams, has kicked up a bit of a storm with his very public suggestion that Sharia law should be made more legitimate in the UK, in civil matters. This is a difficult position for the head of the world-wide Anglican Church to take when much of British law has been intentionally built on Christian principles, and many Christians are being harshly treated because of (as they understand it) Sharia law.There is a fascinating article by Prof. Mona Siddiqui, in the March edition of Third Way magazine, criticising the way in which the Qur'an has been used to propagate oppression.
It is interesting that so many comments have been extreme, and that Muslims in Britain are not united in their support of his ideas - some saying for example "Which Sharia?" Likewise much newspaper coverage has been biased, and I have been impressed with the very balanced one-pager on Sharia Law in the latest edition of The Week.
I perceive that, for example, many of the difficulties that Muslim women face in Britain (for example to do with forced marriages and "honour crimes") stem from attempts to implement Sharia Law - or at least Islamic culture - so I find it difficult to see how extending an Islamic legal system will improve matters. Would women's testimony be given the same weight as that of men? Would women be the judges?
Commenting on the response of politicians, one journalist commented that when politicians are "running scared" of debate it is a sure sign that a debate is needed. Since I too believe in the need for issues to be discussed openly, I have hope that the Archbishop's courage will bear good fruit. We'll have to wait to see what kind of fruit they are.
This last weekend I attended my second annual conference of Accts MMI. The chain of events that has led me, with little military background, to be trustee of this organisation devoted to the mutual support and growth of Christians in the armed forces worldwide still seems to me very curious
This unassuming conference held in rural Wiltshire is the only event I know where in a little over one day one can hear something of what God is doing, and how Christians are faring, pretty much world-wide. This achievement flows from the ability of military people to be concise and to the point, and from high quality speakers who are able both to give a clear report and present moving testimonies - for example generals and former ambassadors.
Testimonies range from stories of soldiers greatly respected because their Christian faith brings with it an independent integrity, to those who have been killed because of their faith. The context ranges from countries where religion is seen as unimportant, to those where Christians are oppressed, to those where societies are rapidly becoming Christian as a result of years of prayer and effective strategic planning. This is humbling.
In countries where much power lies in the hands of the armed forces, a movement which seeks to encourage the fear of God and not just the fear of man has much to commend it.
Links to Accts MMI partner organisations: Accts (USA) MSO (Mission Support Organisation, South Korea)
To find out more of my history with Accts MMI, search for "Accts" in this blog.
After pancakes enjoyed last night (with Grand Marnier and ice cream), today Ash Wednesday marks the start of Lent. It is a particularly poignant anniversary for our family.
Many people think that Lent is a time for giving up things, and traditionally it is a time of fasting as a way to draw closer to God. In society at large it seems to me that if people think about wrong-doing they usually think of things that they should stop doing. So it makes sense in Lent to give up the things we think are wrong!
On the other hand, wrong-doing is just as much about things that we have failed to do. To quote an inscription at the Holocaust Museum in Israel: For evil to triumph all that is needed is for good men to do nothing. So how about doing something for Lent as well as giving something up?
My extra bit of doing has come about almost accidentally as I ordered a copy of a book about the Prayer of Jabez, with Bible Study, by Bruce Wilkinson and David Kopp (ISBN 1-57673-979-1), to avoid paying for postage on an Amazon order. I shall read it over the next few weeks. It's all about God's blessing based on a little known man called Jabez who crops up just once in the Bible in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 verses 9 to 10.
Last weekend we enjoyed staying with friends in London (officially Kent). Apart from eating well, we saw the musical Fiddler on the Roof for the first time. It was well-produced, but is a sad tale of persecution of Jews in Russia in the early 20th Century. It is famous (in my mind) for the cry to God something like: We know we're Your chosen people, but couldn't You choose someone else once in a while? I found myself sitting next to a woman from Israel who had wanted to see the musical for some thirty years.
This weekend we were back to scuba diving in swimming pools - to enjoy being part of our local diving club and to stay in practice. It seemed a bit tame after near freezing Portland Harbour, but good fun anyway.
