wee beautiful pict

Dreamday Scotland: can we paint a new picture of Scotland

 2009 being the 10th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, Fee  and I thought we'd pop by the book festival to join the Beyond Devolution discussion. 

The panel: Tom Brown, Charlie Jeffery, Hamish Macdonell and Henry McLeish - chaired by Ruth Wishart. 

We setup #beyonddevolution feed in case any floating tweeters in the audience -as a quick way of aggregating any comments or quotes that stick out.

Some good quotes to set tone:

'The status Quo is not an option' - Hamish Macdonell

'Biggest challenge over next 10 years in Scotland - is for scots 

to go through deep attitude change' - Tom Brown

'80-20% inequality and constitutional questions are 2 main 

issues over next 10 yrs' and 

we scots have more memories than dreams - Henry McLeish

Boycott Scotland? I'm McSpartacus (re-edit 2)

The author of www.boycottscotland.com - which encourages 

U.S. citizens to do everything short of haggis and

shortbread burnings on the Whitehouse lawn, in response

to the release of the convicted Lockerbie bomber

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, may not have expected such a blistering 

response.  But the masked boycotter has stung something in scotland.  

Well, stung enough to unleash a stream of caledonian-style 'reposte' 

among it's twitter constituency anyway. 

From the witty:

 'aye, does that mean yer goin tae stop using yer TV's, bridges, 

tarmac, phones' 

to the devastating:

'ooh let me see now: US torturing =good, Scots compassion =bad' 

to the playful: 

'nae mair munching oan yer freedom fries and supersized burgers at 

mac'donalds’

to classics such as: 

‘..daft c**nts n bawbags and ...we'll boycott yer fat mamma’   

(for more hilarious examples: search #boycottscotland on twitter).

The most celebrated reposte came out of Glasgow in the form

of a website www.boycottscotland.co.uk, by local web developer

Aaron Bassett.   It apes the original in it's introduction and

 then skillfully morphs parody into absurdity- and is now, 

currently on a retweet roll, as I write this.   

 what can we learn from this I wonder?

global meltdown: what's in 'your' urban saint survival toolkit?

Feature Post: In this Scotland's 'Year of homecoming'  I'm using me blog to look at what's a happening around a scotland coming out of the mists of an auld world - a world where christianity was in bed with empire - into raging economic meltdown (thaw?).  Can this christianity be rehabilitated in time? it has a crackin story! can it be unfrozen from its entombment to stand before world empires in its robes of comedy and humanity?  

To kick off, here are 3 things we lost under the snow that are erupting all over the world right as acts of defiance and tools of resistance to empire in a global age:   1. outrageous prayer, 2.  gift-economy and 3. imaginative comic non-violent guerilla action... ring any bells with an ancient near east movement sparked off by a young activist called Jesus and brutally put down by the empire of their day?  check it oot!..

global meltdown: abyss opening or heaven coming down?

A series of ecological, economic and political shocks are rocking the world.    

Although the current crises are dreadful - they may be waking many up to the fact that 'empire' (economic or otherwise) may not be an inevitable 'way' of securing our future as we used to think - and that this reality shock could open up some amazing possibilites. 

Christianity in Scotland - where next? part 1

After 25 years of missional work in scotland - there's a change in the air - something is starting to shift in auld granite land:  the saints! there are signs that the saints are at last moving into the land-  engaging with its cry for justice & mercy - here are 3 things that are shifting that are making the demons of christendom squirm like nothing else right now - if you are recognised as a 'christian leader' of some kind - prepare for the most painful detox of your life - compared to this coming off crack is like coming off tetley tea min.   Here they are....

1. Shift landscapes: the current christian landscape of congregations and organisations in scotland is utterly exhausted - but a new one is already here, full of potential and hidden gift, right under our noses -it already has a name - it's your city.

2. Shift practices: if  christian practices are 'fields' then the practices of 'preaching' and 'worship' are dry dustbowls - deviod of  nutrients  - however the other fields which we've let go wild and  fallow: prayer as resistance,  peer-learning,  creative justice-making,  ordinary friendship and eating  together  are FULL of nutrients from the forgotten Christ of the poor and the land.  (thanks to Chris Erskine for this very helpful picture of what many of us think may be happening)

3. Shift positions:   To experience this new landscape of promise - will be impossible if you try and hold on to a 'position' and 'status' of the past and the strings of financial support  given to you to maintain vested interests.