Nigel Wright

emotion & the power of story

"Being true to yourself involves showing and sharing emotion. The spirit that motivates most great storytellers is "I want you to feel what I feel," and the effective narrative is designed to make this happen. That is how the information is bound to the experience and rendered unforgettable." Peter Guber,The Four truths of the storyteller.

Emotion - spirit - narrative - make it happen

Great story communication requires transparency, openness, honesty and passion.

 

 

 

 

thinking about the good samaritan for 21st century teenagers..

thinking about the good samaritan for 21st century teenagers at reality tonight and what I am going to say to them...

"A lawyer stood up. He wanted to test Jesus.

He said to Jesus, “Teacher, what are the things that I must do so that I can have eternal life.”

Jesus asked him, “What are the greatest commandments in Moses’ Law?”

The lawyer answered, “Love your God with all your heart and soul and love your neighbor as you love yourselves.”

Jesus said, “You are correct. Do these and you shall inherit eternal life.”

The lawyer then asked Jesus, “Who are my neighbors?”

Jesus then told him a parable, “Once, there was a Hebrew man from Jericho that travel down to Jerusalem.

On the way, the robbers attack the Hebrew man. They beat him and took away all his clothing leaving him naked in the street. He was very badly wounded.

A priest came down the street, and saw the badly wounded man too but he doesn’t care about him and took the other side of the street and continue his journey.

Then, a Levite happened to pass by the street. He saw the injured Hebrew man lying on the ground. He went to take a look but he did not want to help him. The Levite ignored him and went on his way.

Finally a Samaritan happened to pass by the street. The Samaritan saw the injured man lying there on the ground and he decided to help him. He poured oil on his wounds. Then he put the man on his donkey and takes him to an inn.

He said to the inn keeper,’ Here are two denarii. Please help me to care for this man. If you spend more than that, I will pay you back when I come back.’

So, which of these three men do you think is the neighbor of the man?”

The lawyer replied, “The Samaritan.”

And Jesus said, “Now, go and do the same thing.”"

Simple!

the Church of England invented what is called the Big Society

From the Press office: 

Bishop's Encouragement and Challenge at Diocesan Synod

In his first presidential address to Bradford Diocesan Synod yesterday, Bishop Nick said that the church needs to see its mission and ministry in the wider context and that he wanted to bring together the local with the regional, the national and the international "in order that we get our perspective right."

He emphasised the church's commitment to working for the sake of the common good. He said, "the Church of England invented what is called the Big Society, but should be called, in my view, the Good Society. We founded hospitals and schools, cared for the poor, led communities, supported people through their living and dying."

  

He encouraged greater confidence in the unique vocation of the Church of England with its presence in every community.  "If we have no confidence in God, the Gospel, the church or our changing world, why should anyone else? We must build our confidence to an extent where the rumour about the church is a strong and positive one. And we need to adopt a language of 'thrival', not merely survival."

  

Bishop Nick praised the work of the Cathedral under the leadership of Dean David Ison and underlined the high regard with which it is now held in both the city and the diocese. He also commended the "excellent administration of this diocese's support work under the guidance of Debbie Child".

 

In the national context he robustly defended Rowan Williams' New Statesman editorial, saying: "The Archbishop of Canterbury has not only the right, but the obligation to speak into the public discourse on matters that concern the common good". He said the subsequent media furore was "excrutiatingly misplaced" because it followed a report of what the Archbishop had written rather than the original article. But, he said, "we need to engage with the media confidently and find creative ways to shape our stories rather than simply complaining when things don't go our way."

In the international context he said that he was impressed by the diocese's strong support for the link dioceses in Northern Sudan and the swift response to the current crisis there. He said our own concerns should be set against the backdrop of Sudan: "let us see how our own preoccupations look in the shape of such life and death events".

 

Last night Bishop Nick blogged on Sudan, Positive Bradford and Diocesan Synod - http://nickbaines.wordpress.com/

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One tribe - liking - a lot (Black Eyed Peas)

One Tribe Lyrics

Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Whoa-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!
Woah-oh-oh-oh-ooooh!
Oh-woah-oh!

One Tri...
One Tri...
One Tribe, one time, one planet, one race
Its all one blood, don't care about your face
The color of your eye or the tone of your skin
Don't care where ya are
Don't care where ya been
Cause where we gonna go
Is where we wanna be
The place where the little language is unity
And the continent is called Pangaea
And the main ideas are connected like a spear
No propaganda, They tried to upper hand us
Cause man I'm loving this peace
Man, man, I'm loving this peace
Man, man, I'm loving this peace
I don't need no leader
That's gonna force feed a
Concept that make me think I need to
Fear my brother and fear my sister
And shoot my neighbor or my big missile
If I had an enemy to [enemy]
If I had an enemy to [enemy]
If I had an enemy, then my enemy is gonna try to come and kill me
Cause I'm his enemy
There's one tribe ya'll

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil that they feed ya
Remember that we're one people
We are one people
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]

One tribe, one tribe
One tribe, one time, one planet, one [race]
Race, one love, one people, one [and]
Too many things that's causing one [to]
To forget about the main cause
Connecting, uniting
But the evil is seen and alive in us
So our hopes are colliding
And our peace is sinking like Poseidon
But, we know that the one [one]
The evil one is threatened by the sum [sum]
So he'll come and try and separate the sum
But he dumb, he didn't know we had a way to overcome
Rejuvenated by the beating of the drum
Come together by the cycle of the hum
Freedom when all become one [one]
Forever

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil [evil]
Forget about all that evil [evil]
That evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil [evil]
That evil, that they feed ya [feed ya]
Remember that we're one people
We are one people
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]

One love, one blood, one people
One heart, one beat, we equal
Connected like the internet
United that's how we do
Lets break walls, so we see through
Let love and peace lead you
We could overcome the complication cause we need to
Help each other, make these changes
Brother, sister, rearrange this
The way I'm thinking that we can change this bad condition
Wait, use you mind and not your greed
Let's connect and then proceed
This is something I believe
We are one, we're all just people

One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
One tribe ya'll
We are one people
Let's cast amnesia
Forget about all that evil
Forget about all that evil, that evil that they feed ya
Let's cast amnesia
Let's cast amnesia, forget about all that evil
That evil, that they feed ya
We're one tribe ya'll
We people, we people
One tribe ya'll
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]
One people, one people [One People]

Lets, lets cast amnesia
Lord help me out
Trying to figure out what its all about [what its all about]
Cause we're one in the same [one in the same]
Same joy, same pain
And I hope that you're there when I need ya
Cause maybe we need amnesia
And I don't wanna sound like a preacher
But we need to be one

One world, one love, one passion
One tribe, one understanding
Cause you and me can become one.

Disciples in the workplace - really?

Currently giving thought to the Diocesan day in October and my seminar on discipleship in the workplace. What's strange about it is not the subject matter - how we live out our faith in our daily lives is my passion - but the fact that I haven't as yet met the new Bishop and realising how comfortable I was with our former Bishop and his approach to things.

 Still it's great to be asked and I'm looking forward to it.

Food for thought:

Does God direct to us a stream of communicating energy that can be tuned into by human beings, at any level that is relevant to their own circumstances and experiences. "For instance the Son, the Divine word, speaks to his earthly contemporaries in parables, earthed in the everyday life of Galilee. The Spirit then takes this enfleshed narrative, and interprets it and makes it accessible to those of us at later times and places, overcoming misunderstandings and miscommunications in this continuing work...?" *

In other words, how does God communicate with us and how does that effect our daily lives?

 Through the Holy Spirit (Pentecost is coming)?

 Through the bible's stories and instructions?

How do we then communicate all that for the good of all humankind?

How does that play out for the good of all creation?

 * (Hugh Bowron, Eastern Promises: Remedying the Pneumatological Deficits of Western Theology, Pickwick 2010)

Cheating and tormenting ourselves

"Though hundreds of thousands had done their very best to disfigure the small piece of land on which they were crowded together, by paying the ground with stones, scraping away every vestige of vegetation, cutting down the trees, turning away birds and beasts, and filling the air with the smoke of naphtha and coal, still spring was spring, even in the town.

The sun shone warm, the air was balmy; everywhere, where it did not get scraped away, the grass revived and sprang up between the paving-stones as well as on the narrow strips of lawn on the boulevards. The birches, the poplars, and the wild cherry unfolded their gummy and fragrant leaves, the limes were expanding their opening buds; crows, sparrows, and pigeons, filled with the joy of spring, were getting their nests ready; the flies were buzzing along the walls, warmed by the sunshine. All were glad, the plants, the birds, the insects, and the children. But men, grown-up men and women, did not leave off cheating and tormenting themselves and each other. It was not this spring morning men thought sacred and worthy of consideration not the beauty of God's world, given for a joy to all creatures, this beauty which inclines the heart to peace, to harmony, and to love, but only their own devices for enslaving one another."

Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy (part 1, chapter 1)

The above text was used at the start of a sermon last Sunday to stress the temptations of we "grown ups" and what we miss of life's riches, time and time again!

Say one for me!

Say one for me is a common request and now you can post your prayers at say one for me ,

Here's one take on what's going on:

"Those posting prayers at www.sayoneforme.org, the Church of England’s web-based prayer service for Lent, are valuing happiness for the world and others more than money – analysis of the first 300 prayers reveals. Just two per cent of prayers have brought money-worries before God, whereas 19 per cent have prayed for the world (over a third of them for Japan), 14 per cent for healing for others, 10 per cent for family, and nine per cent for spiritual development.

The Bishop of Dudley, the Rt Revd David Walker, said: “It is beautiful to see people pray for the people and the world around them – and they quite naturally see beyond the realms of their own needs.”

The other main subjects for the prayers are: saying thanks to God (seven per cent), work worries (four per cent), the Church (four per cent), marriage (two per cent), and healing for self (two per cent).

People across the country are having the opportunity to share with God their hopes and concerns, anonymously, in the form of a prayer posted at www.sayoneforme.org, until Good Friday.

Prayers posted online are being offered to God by various parish churches, prayer groups, and three religious communities: St Mary’s Abbey, West Malling; St Peter’s Community, Woking; The Sisters of Bethany, Southsea. They are also being prayed at the retreat centre Launde Abbey, Leicester and placed on the altar at a number of cathedrals and at Westminster Abbey during church services."

Children learn what they live...

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

But!!!

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.
If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.
If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.
If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.
If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.
If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.
If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.
If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.
If children live with fairness, they learn justice.
If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.
If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.
If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

Copyright © 1972 by Dorothy Law Nolte

A hundred years from now....

"A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove... but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child."
Forest E. Witcraft (1894 - 1967)

Courage does not imply the lack of fear...

Courage does not imply the lack of fear but the capacity to overcome it and venture on.

I am privileged to meet many people who demonstrate that courage is just that, the capacity to overcome and venture on. However, rarely do I meet someone who has that courage alone... It comes through another person, present or past... through experience, relationships and people reaching out to the other.

"I exist because you exist" is a humbling statement that can put a whole different emphasis on every relationship. "Man becomes great especially in the degree in which he works for the welfare of his fellow man".

(The first quote is Bonhoeffer and the second is Ghandi.)

What happens when we take every single relationship as a relationship for which we are accountable, from the person on the checkout to our nearest and dearest? How do we really love our neighbour as ourself?

We often think we are helping another to make them better or greater, as if we are doing some sort of favour for them, but the reality is quite different, the greatness is already in the other, by treating the relationship as "loving our neighbour" then we are helping elicit, or bring out, that greatness.

If we demonstrate goodness, kindness, generosity, good fun, joy, forgiveness etc, it is because someone at some point in time has brought those great characteristics out, that were already there in our God given being.

Of course it is almost impossible to find some one who gets all their relationships right all the time and that's where forgiveness comes in... And the one who made it possible for all to be forgiven provides the hope that "does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us"

The courage to dare to overcome fear and genuinely relate to our neighbour in love...