Say they are carrying a victim of torture — say it quickly there is a Medical Foundation report
An Amnesty report ….

Ramdan will begin on 1st September 2008, although the exact date is conditional on moon sightings.

Lailat-ul-Qadr will be on 26th September 2009, although the exact date is conditional on moon sightings.

Muharram will be on 29th December 2008 , although the exact date is conditional on moon sightings.

Eid-ul-Adhia will be on 8th December 2008, although the exact date is conditional on moon sightings.

Eid-ul-Fitr will take place on 1st October 2008, conditional on the sighting of the moon.

During Refugee Week 2007 speakers from the asylum seeking community and refugees, who have now been afforded safety in the UK but who do not forget what asylum seekers are enduring, spoke at 27 religious services in Cleveland and North Yorkshire. We were warmly received and many people commented on how little they had really known about asylum issues. Some very good contacts were made that week and we have returned to churches for social events.

We would like to send our speakers out again during Refugee Week 2008, over the weekend of the 14th/15th June. We would ask you to invite a speaker again or, if you did not take part last year, we would ask that you give your congregation the opportunity to meet some of the most remarkable, courageous and misunderstood people in our country today. Unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation in circulation when it comes to people seeking asylum. They are given little chance to put the record straight about who they are and why they are here.

We would appreciate a prompt reply so that we can begin matching up speakers and churches. Could you fill in the form below and return it to Justice First as soon as possible or e mail the information to catherine_ramos@hotmail.co.uk.
The contact for transport for each service is essential as many of our friends seeking asylum receive no support or vouchers. A Mass for refugee week will be celebrated at Sacred Heart Church, Linthorpe Road, Middlesbrough on June 8th at 6.30 p.m. Please publicise as all are welcome.
Yours,

Catherine Ramos

Name and address of Church/es

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Day/Date of service Time Contact for transport

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‘As a fellow of Grey College, Durham, I am delighted to be resident again throughout May.

During my stay I have arranged for a series of public seminars on belief and experience, where I will be joined by people of different faiths and beliefs.

The seminars are open to the public, and the idea is not to debate differences of opinion but to share beliefs honestly, based on life experience.

There will be an opportunity for anyone attending to share their views. The seminar starts at 7.30.p.m. and will be held at Grey College, South Road, Durham, on the following Tuesdays - May 13, and May 20.

Anyone intending to come along is asked to pre-book with Grey College on 0191 334 5591

Marcus Borg’s latest book, now available in this country, is a book that will appeal to a wide spectrum of British Christians. It is an ideal book to invite those Christians who have not yet engaged with the new paradigm thinking to join a PCN group to discuss it in a series of discussions.

It is well written – not at all “heavy” – and has the potential to re-engage many with this fresh and positive understanding of the Jesus of the gospels.

It is written for an American audience, and so addresses and challenges in a very constructive way, some of the pre-occupations of those who take their Bibles literally. He explains the two paradigms, and gives a helpful account of the development in biblical scholarship over the past 300 hundred years.

His explanation of the pre-Easter and post-Easter Jesus, are clear and helpful to those coming to these concepts for the first time.

His descriptions of how he and other scholars make judgments on what is probably history, and what is more likely to be metaphor, are illuminating.

His account of the social and religious conditions of Galilee and Jerusalem in the life-time of Jesus, with its domination system which oppressed the peasants, is very helpful.

When Borg comes to explain Jesus’ activity as a teacher and healer, grounded in his experience of mystical prayer, I felt (even after 50 years of personal and professional engagement with Jesus) that I was encountering him in a new way.

Jesus’ teaching arose from his own spiritual experience – not theory. Borg emphasises Jesus’ ministry was grounded in his personal experience, beginning with his own vision of the Spirit, grounded in deep silent prayer. This is a type of prayer Borg needs to explain to his audience, many of whom are familiar mostly with spoken extempore prayer.

The imagery of Light was very important to this Jewish prophet and mystic. “Mystics know the immediacy of access to God….God is accessible to experience apart from mediators, that is, apart from institution and tradition.”

Borg explores the ministry of Jesus in rural Galilee, the journey from there to Jerusalem, and finally the confrontation with the Jewish and Roman authorities that led to his crucifixion.

Jesus’ message is grounded in the here and now. The kingdom of God that Jesus taught, was, according to Borg, not something in the hereafter, but in building a better world in this one. His God is a God of compassion, with a passion for justice, which he illustrated in a variety of ways.

His communication methods include the parables, and the one-line memorable sayings he adopted as a wisdom teacher within Judaism. He used metaphor a lot, a vivid poetic way of communicating that some people are blind though sighted, dead though alive, in exile, or in bondage, and he teaches them how to be free, to see, to be alive, and to be at home.

He challenged the traditions that bound so many to structures of family, wealth, honour and purity in ways that stunted their spiritual creativity and potential growth.

He taught the people to centre in God as a beloving God, as he also practiced a ministry of healing and exorcism. An emphasis on fellowship meals was also a prominent feature of his way of doing things. Who he chose to eat with, demonstrated his inclusiveness, as it courted criticism from the purists.

He was a revolutionary who advocated non-violent resistance in a variety of ways. With dramatic prophetic actions he rode into Jerusalem from one direction, as Pilate and his soldiers rode in to the city from the opposite direction. Similarly he overturned the tables in the Temple, as part of affirming that the kingdom of God challenged the domination system of the empire and its taxation stranglehold on peasant life.

Borg gives his account of why and how he believes the infancy and the resurrection narratives came to be written. As he makes the point more than once, believe what you like happened at these time, but recognize the powerful truths that metaphors convey. As a historian he treats the most spectacular stories as metaphorical narratives and not as memory, but he is sensitive to those who feel insecure with this line of thinking. That is an important part of why this book is one that has the chance to engage Christians of a traditional way of thinking with the new paradigm.

It is the book that we will be reading in our Middlesbrough Book Club called “Journeyings” of which I am currently the only PCN Member, but which I hope will become a Tees Valley PCN Group. We recently spent five sessions discussing Jack Spong’s book “Jesus for the Non-Religious”. Spong spends three quarters of his book pulling the house down, and his attempts at rebuilding are disappointing. Borg on the other hand is adapting and modernising his building throughout his book, and the outcome is very appealing.

Michael Wright

01642 851919

michael.wright80@virgin.net

As always, a simple lunch will be provided, amidst a range of project displays on refugee and asylum work throughout Britain.

A special CRN coach from London

There will be some serious rail maintenance work on the London-Birmingham train services that Saturday 17th May.

To make life easier for those of you coming from London, or travelling to Birmingham from the South East or South through London, we have decided to lay on a coach.

Travel cost

The price for a coach booking will be £25.- day return; that is £15.- less than the normal train fares, which are about £40.-.for a day return. A fair number of asylum pseeker particiapnts can of course travel for free.

To date we have booked a 33 seater. If many of you promptly come rushing to book, then we will ‘upgrade’ to a larger 50-60 seater coach. Please let us know QUICKLY therefore if you would like to make a coach reservation.

Coach stewards/ mobile travel contact.

If you do book a coach seat, let us have your mobile number in case of travel problems…..so coach stewards can contact you.

You will also receive a coach steward mobile number with your booking confirmation.

Pick-up stops

There will be a stop-off/ collection points on the route at High Wickham .
Another one at Finchley Road Station has been suggested. …..
Please tell us your preferences so we can l negotiate with the coach company what is possible.

Departure/ arrival

Coach point of departure and return; from Westminster Abbey forecourt , The Santuary Broadway, SW1, in London, on Saturday 17 May at around 7am-7.15am in front of the Abbey’s West door.

Getting to the London coach departure point

Nearest underground stations: Westminster or Victoria.
Nearest mainline BR stations: Waterloo , Victoria, Charing Cross
Buses passing Westminster Abbey: from Victoria via Victoria Street to Whitehall: 211, 11, 24.
From Waterloo: 211 to Westminster Bridge/ Victoria Street
From Charing Cross: 24, 88, 87, 91

Map

Map reference: Multimap: http://www.multimap.com/maps/?hloc=GB|SW1P%203PA

Return

The coach will leave Birmingham/ Carswell Church Conference Centre to return to London at around 4.30pm +.

See you in Birmingham!

Puck de Raadt

The Bail Circle

Churches Racial Justice Network

Churches Refugee Network.