Bradford
Bradford might be called ‘post-industrial’, ‘multicultural’, ‘gritty northern’, ‘historic’ and many not so nice things too. It certainly has a rich history of social movements and an industrial hey-day that is long-since over. It thrives now because of the many people from around the world who have made this city their home often risking their personal safety to defend it. Bradford has a long tradition of peacemaking as the origins of CND it also has a Peace Museum, a Peace Garden, and a Peace Studies department.
We spent two weeks with Revd Chris Howson and his family this summer as part of a placement to explore new models of Christian witness. Chris is a city centre priest who has set up a ‘fresh expression’ of church inspired by Liberation theology.
Exploring the City
We met with folk from the Peace Studies department at the University and went to a talk on the way Bradford has responded to rioting over the last two decades but we also spent time with local city people and places. The week before I arrived there had been a death outside Desmond Tutu House, a member of the Polish community who had passed out drunk. Chris has developed good relationships with many local Poles and so we visited a Polish restaurant so he could find out more. Through conversations with the owner we were able to offer meaningful support and condolences too.
We also took several trips to the abandoned places of the city. Just five minutes from the city centre there are square miles of abandoned mills towering up. Most of these are in a dangerous condition, some have been developed but left un-let and some are stuck inbetween. We wandered through rubble, weeds, and forgotten passages as Chris told some of the past and recent history of the city through its buildings. It gave me cause to reflect on the future of cities as we hit peak-oil and as more of our industrial base disappears. It also reminded me of being a child when all these kind of places were part of your playground – albeit a dangerous part.
Space for Justice
SoulSpace meets on Sundays at noon in a rented church room in the city. The congregation began as predominantly students but has become a widen to include adults of all ages and a few children over the years. These folk are students, locals, asylum seekers, and refugees who have come together with a faith in a God of peace and justice. The liturgy is pretty orthodox except that it is more participatory than many churches but the theology and action has a radical edge showing that ‘fresh’ doesn’t have to involve technical presentations but needs a fresh authenticity.
JustSpace meets each Tuesday at Desmond Tutu House. There is usually a presentation from an activist from abroad or locally focussed or a film followed by discussion. JustSpace includes people who are less geared towards church but still see the importance of social justice and activism and what to get involved and it’s a way into activism for many in the SoulSpace congregation.
Desmond Tutu House
Desmond Tutu House is the hub of a lot of exciting things going on in the city. It is home to Britain’s first Fair Trade Café and a Fair Trade Shop. The regional CND offices are based on site as well as a peace library, a liberation theology library, and the Yorkshire Zapatista group supporting a local resistance movement in South America. Desmond Tutu House is also the centre for much of the work done by Chris and others bringing faith and justice together in the city.
Each morning we would meet at Desmond Tutu House for Morning Prayer and then spend time with those who turned up often with very particular needs. In many ways Chris’ job is that of university chaplain. For Morning Prayer we used Common Worship for Ordinary Radicals. The phrase ‘ordinary radicals’ was coined by Shane Claiborne an American ‘new monastic’ who believes that radical living should be an ordinary to Christian discipleship rather than something glamorous and ‘cool’.
Spaces for Listening
It was a privilege to spend time with Barbara Glasson from Touchstone Centre around the corner from Desmond Tutu House. Barbara set up ‘Somewhere Else’ in Liverpool. It is often known as ‘the bread church’ and was a place where people would make bread, pray together, and have lunch together. Through Somewhere Else a space was made available for anyone to open up and begin to rediscover themselves. The place was a particular important place for the homeless, street workers, and asylum seekers in the area as well as the Christian LGBT community. Under Barbara’s leadership Touchstone has begun to focus on weaving as a metaphor and a means of gathering to work together and listen to one another.
Conferences
The focus for my visit to Bradford was a Practical Liberation Theology conference held at Desmond Tutu house half way through the fortnight. Chris, Barbara, and myself organised the event and I led one of the workshops. A few days before the conference we went to a similar day conference at the Urban Theology Unit in Sheffield a place I have always been inspired by and wanted to visit. The highlight of all this for me was a role-play of the cleansing of the temple involving around thirty people. Not only did we enter completely into our roles but it led to some fascinating insights into the story and opportunities for us all to reflect on our involvement in direct action.
Intentional Community
One of the reasons for the two placements at London Catholic Worker Farmhouse and in Bradford was to explore the do-ability of Intentional Community: Living in an extended household with some or all property in common in order to better serve a wider purpose. We have lived in communal houses many times before but never as part of an ‘intentional’ set-up. It was a good reminder of all the pros and cons to be living as guests for the four weeks but being guests is very different from being members.
We were invited to join with a group of neighbours who met each week for a shared meal in one another’s houses in order to broaden their neighbourliness. This led to other invitations: one to a meeting about Christian Intentional Community and another to a volunteer day at a newly emerging Community Farm.
The Community Farm is in a wilderness of abandoned Allotment spaces that the Council have handed over to the group on a low rent. Much of the ground is splintered with glass, overgrown, and full of junk but a start has been made and ground cleared for a polytunnel. The four of us helped out one afternoon clearing rubbish from the emerging site with some of the members. We are part of a more established group based in Gloucester and Stroud so it was great to see a new project of a similar kind emerging in Bradford too. This is shared life without shared household but there are overlaps in process and intent.
The meeting about Christian Intentional Community involved people mostly involved in SoulSpace. Many were sharing resources already and in and out of each other’s homes. Some had come to the meeting out of curiosity and others because they were keen to get something going. It was the first meeting of what is likely to be a long process. We all shared hopes, visions, and concerns. It was great to hear how similar many of these are and that the barriers to common life are often shared challenges.
Spirituality
I came away from Bradford having met with people for whom spirituality and activism are both deeply important and integral to one another. As part of this experience I learned more about the monastic tradition called the Enneagram: a way of talking about self, sin, and redemption that is as much to do with relationships as with the individual and assumes that we are all capable of effecting change. In both placements I felt that my biggest personal challenge was to learn to live more in the present rather than in the ‘whateversnext’. Something that Bishop Mary from California spoke on in Gloucester Cathedral at the Ordination of Priests this year. This involves a deeper trust in God for things past, present, and future and, I suspect, a greater joy in all of them.
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