The big Jesuit meeting
I spent easter week at the Jesuit provincial meeting. Every two years all the Jesuits in Britain get together, tell each other what they are up to, hear from their provincial (the head Jesuit for Britain), pray and…er… hang out in the bar together. I was there to tell them what I was up to in their name and learn more about them.
Wood has been doing a series of Things That Don’t Make Me Ashamed To Be A Christian (TM). I approve of this as it's sometimes good for people like us to remind ourselves. I'd like to nominate the work of OCIPE. This quietly spoken priest gave this presentation about how he isn’t a lobbyist, what he does is advocacy. He is the voice of the Jesuits to the EU. "What are the Jesuits saying to the EU?" I hear you ask. What he was saying is that he has just been to the Democratic Republic of Congo to look at how transnational corporations are exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. What he saw wasn't pretty, enormous slums, great ugly heaps of earth which had already been stripped of most of the minerals the companies want but which are left for artisan miners to sift through, wearing no protective gear, no safety procedures, nothing but whatever price the company wants to give them for the minerals they find. Am I glad the Jesuits have a voice in Europe? Damn straight I am.
I was excited to hear about Theology on Tap. Not because it's theology in a pub, although that doesn’t hurt, but because these terribly educated men had embraced a different way of doing theology. Not to lecture but to take their expertise into a neutral space and enter into dialogue with thinking people who want to hear from them but also discuss the ideas for themselves. What came across was that it was this discussion, this dialogue that had been created, was what they valued most about it.
The workshops I wanted to go to most were the ones that were on at the same time as mine. I really wasn’t worried about my twenty minutes of workshop, in fact I wrote most of it on the train there. I knew where I would talk longer about some things and not others according to how responsive my audience was (glad to report my audience largely nodded and smiled and did not throw fruit). When I got there I discovered that my workshop partner who was doing the other 20 mins was terrified. This did nothing for my own nerves, especially as the bit I was worried about was the little "trailer" where I had to stand up and tell everyone what the workshop was about. "Just try to forget that they are some of the cleverest and best educated men in Europe" said my workshop partner. She was a big help. But it was fine, despite me changing my mind about what I was going to say while walking up the podium steps - I'd heard too many statistics and explanations by then, so I told a story.
I wanted to hear about the work of JRS (Jesuit Refugee Services) who sound like they are great. I did want to hear from a former volunteer about promoting justice through non violent action. After the presentations I wanted to hear about peace and justice in Northern Ireland, but I couldn’t cos I had to talk about volunteering. I met the guy doing the Northern Ireland thing in the bar afterwards. He wouldn’t be told anything, just wanted to tell us what he wanted us to think (which I generally frown upon) but he talked about it with a passion that put me in mind of the prophets of old. After all they were probably crazy too. He gave me a card for his website, fakerepublic. His wife was telling me they had their font designed especially for them. You'll love that, wont you? Font snobs. You know who you are.
May I recommend the film Little Miss Sunshine which I saw at the conference and which got a round of applause from the Society of Jesus.
I liked hearing about the interfaith work the Jesuits are doing in Southall. And from the young Muslim guy they got to talk to us about the course he was doing with the Jesuits at Heythrop. When it came to the questions at the end we had a comedy moment when the Jesuit chairing the questions seemed unable to see my hand in air but able to call on the men he knew by name to give a rambling anecdote instead of a question. He approached me after with a grin, "You had a question?" and we talked for a while about how the image of a religion you get from personal dialogue must, by its nature, be distorted because you only get the viewpoint of those prepared to dialogue in the first place. I liked him tho, and was surprised again by how attractive I have found the Islam of those Muslims who have explained their faith to me.
The SJs are lovely guys, for the most part. After the nerve racking "trailer" they were falling over themselves to be nice to me and ask how I was finding the conference and tell me how great JVC was and how great it was that I could be there with them. It was kind of a relief, in the face of all this niceness, to meet the Jesuit novices in the bar, as they didn’t feel they had to welcome me like an honoured guest but related to me like a colleague and as a person rather than a role. I enjoyed their company, they were honest and down to earth, recognising horseshit when they heard it and not afraid to say so, aware that the world in which they would practice their ministry is one where there are no easy answers, where broken and desperate people need solidarity rather than judgement and that there are times when the rules arent important. On the whole, a grounded and intelligent faithfulness was winning out over fake piety.
The liturgy in one of the sessions was praying about their work and the work of those who worked with them, their companions. I went to the conference with ambivalent feelings towards the Society of Jesus, I mean I've always been a fan but I think I'd been forgiven for saying I've not had an easy year and they haven't been the best employers. As I came away, I thought that, all things considered, I didn’t mind being one of their companions. This week, I'll buy that. And if those guys in the bar are their future then I'm optimistic.
Wood has been doing a series of Things That Don’t Make Me Ashamed To Be A Christian (TM). I approve of this as it's sometimes good for people like us to remind ourselves. I'd like to nominate the work of OCIPE. This quietly spoken priest gave this presentation about how he isn’t a lobbyist, what he does is advocacy. He is the voice of the Jesuits to the EU. "What are the Jesuits saying to the EU?" I hear you ask. What he was saying is that he has just been to the Democratic Republic of Congo to look at how transnational corporations are exploiting the natural resources of the Congo. What he saw wasn't pretty, enormous slums, great ugly heaps of earth which had already been stripped of most of the minerals the companies want but which are left for artisan miners to sift through, wearing no protective gear, no safety procedures, nothing but whatever price the company wants to give them for the minerals they find. Am I glad the Jesuits have a voice in Europe? Damn straight I am.
I was excited to hear about Theology on Tap. Not because it's theology in a pub, although that doesn’t hurt, but because these terribly educated men had embraced a different way of doing theology. Not to lecture but to take their expertise into a neutral space and enter into dialogue with thinking people who want to hear from them but also discuss the ideas for themselves. What came across was that it was this discussion, this dialogue that had been created, was what they valued most about it.
The workshops I wanted to go to most were the ones that were on at the same time as mine. I really wasn’t worried about my twenty minutes of workshop, in fact I wrote most of it on the train there. I knew where I would talk longer about some things and not others according to how responsive my audience was (glad to report my audience largely nodded and smiled and did not throw fruit). When I got there I discovered that my workshop partner who was doing the other 20 mins was terrified. This did nothing for my own nerves, especially as the bit I was worried about was the little "trailer" where I had to stand up and tell everyone what the workshop was about. "Just try to forget that they are some of the cleverest and best educated men in Europe" said my workshop partner. She was a big help. But it was fine, despite me changing my mind about what I was going to say while walking up the podium steps - I'd heard too many statistics and explanations by then, so I told a story.
I wanted to hear about the work of JRS (Jesuit Refugee Services) who sound like they are great. I did want to hear from a former volunteer about promoting justice through non violent action. After the presentations I wanted to hear about peace and justice in Northern Ireland, but I couldn’t cos I had to talk about volunteering. I met the guy doing the Northern Ireland thing in the bar afterwards. He wouldn’t be told anything, just wanted to tell us what he wanted us to think (which I generally frown upon) but he talked about it with a passion that put me in mind of the prophets of old. After all they were probably crazy too. He gave me a card for his website, fakerepublic. His wife was telling me they had their font designed especially for them. You'll love that, wont you? Font snobs. You know who you are.
May I recommend the film Little Miss Sunshine which I saw at the conference and which got a round of applause from the Society of Jesus.
I liked hearing about the interfaith work the Jesuits are doing in Southall. And from the young Muslim guy they got to talk to us about the course he was doing with the Jesuits at Heythrop. When it came to the questions at the end we had a comedy moment when the Jesuit chairing the questions seemed unable to see my hand in air but able to call on the men he knew by name to give a rambling anecdote instead of a question. He approached me after with a grin, "You had a question?" and we talked for a while about how the image of a religion you get from personal dialogue must, by its nature, be distorted because you only get the viewpoint of those prepared to dialogue in the first place. I liked him tho, and was surprised again by how attractive I have found the Islam of those Muslims who have explained their faith to me.
The SJs are lovely guys, for the most part. After the nerve racking "trailer" they were falling over themselves to be nice to me and ask how I was finding the conference and tell me how great JVC was and how great it was that I could be there with them. It was kind of a relief, in the face of all this niceness, to meet the Jesuit novices in the bar, as they didn’t feel they had to welcome me like an honoured guest but related to me like a colleague and as a person rather than a role. I enjoyed their company, they were honest and down to earth, recognising horseshit when they heard it and not afraid to say so, aware that the world in which they would practice their ministry is one where there are no easy answers, where broken and desperate people need solidarity rather than judgement and that there are times when the rules arent important. On the whole, a grounded and intelligent faithfulness was winning out over fake piety.
The liturgy in one of the sessions was praying about their work and the work of those who worked with them, their companions. I went to the conference with ambivalent feelings towards the Society of Jesus, I mean I've always been a fan but I think I'd been forgiven for saying I've not had an easy year and they haven't been the best employers. As I came away, I thought that, all things considered, I didn’t mind being one of their companions. This week, I'll buy that. And if those guys in the bar are their future then I'm optimistic.