Colourful Dreamer

On Friday we met with all the Bishops of this Province, which was a really good experience. The Archbishop, The Most Revd Carlos Touché-Porter, chaired the meeting the night before with the young people and translated for us. He expressed his gratitude that we had chosen Mexico for our meeting. He commented that several groups  had cancelled their time here due to the media reports about violence. He also said that since they had become and independent province in 1995 they had experienced a very real isolation. (Until that point they had been part of the TEC) The sentiment was echoed by the bishops on the Friday morning. They were all genuinely interested in what the Network does and how it could help their youth ministry. We then met with the Provincial Secretary who was really supportive and offered to help us make contact with several provinces in South America to develop our links with them. Some of us went out that night. I had an Indio beer in a glass with salt around the r...

On Thursday Douglas made us review what IAYN is doing and as a result we decided to develop a focus. We discovered quite by accident (thanks God for the internet) while looking for something else that this year, right now is the UN International Year of Youth. So to help Anglican young people engage with this year, and to pick up the theme that has been a focus of several of the other Anglican Networks, that of eradicating gender based violence. We began working on developing a resource called Ending Violence, which is basically one of the theological reflection processes I learnt as part of the Masters (the paper I did in 2004). On Thursday night we met with young people and young adults from Mexico City, all of whom are part of “the Happening” the youth version of Cursillo.  When Sally-Sue told them about this they were so enthusiastic. I was really taken by surprise. It helped me realise how institutional I can be. I kept thinking that the UN year “our year our voice” should/...

Wednesday we worked on our journal Buenos Nuevas (Good News) this was supposed to come out last year, but we lacked an article from Africa. We didn’t think it was politic in today’s environment to publish it without that.  So we now have that, and it is all go. So we worked that up, and also decided on what our next one would be about (young people and the bible). We also started work on the when and where of the next Provincial Youth Officers Gathering. We are hoping for Hong Kong next August (I can’t go as I am on holiday with Bonnie).   If that falls through we have been invited to South Africa, in which case it would be in October. It is just a lot more expensive for most people to get to SA. By lunch time I was beginning to feel better, which meant I could engage with the food a little more. Here they breakfast at 8.30 after morning prayer (which I didn’t quite make, either due to being asleep or working of various bits of work I agreed to do). This is a three course ...

We were expecting one of our members was due to leave Johannesburg on the Monday afternoon and arrive Tuesday night. But Douglas had a sad email on Monday afternoon saying he had a flight coming through the USA and he did not have a visa, so could not board his plane. Help! What can he do??? Well, the travel agent took some time to find a way to get to Mexico without needing any more visas. It makes you realise how lucky we are as new Zealanders with the ease we travel around the world. Several days later we arranged via Facebook with him (his email stopped for awhile) to get him here by Friday night. It is great to have Maropeng here to add another voice to our thinking. We began our meeting on Tuesday. Breakfast was at 8.30am, which I failed to get to on time. I was really tired, and by lunch was beginning to feel slightly unwell. We plodded our way through reports and began our other business. It was a slow day. We who had travelled were all tired. It was an interesting thing g...

Buenas dios from Mexico!! So, what have we been up to? Meeting mainly. We arrived on Mondayat 5.30am. Highlights of the day, after a short sleep, included going across the road to Sanborns, a kind of mall come department store, owned by the richest man in the world, Carlos Slim, and going to Coyoacan area, a lovely area full of restaurants and bars that night. We ate lots of yummy Mexican food, some of which is hot, and some not. It was grand. Sadly it was also a late night, 11.30 before I got to bed. Blah!

I am stting in Auckland airport waiting to board my place for LAX and then Mexico City, for an International Anglican Youth Network Steering Commitee meeting. I am hoping to be able to put up the odd (maybe really odd) post over the next two weeks about what we are talking about and what we hope to do. Once our meeting finishes we will be staying on for the day of the dead celebrations. It should be lots of fun.

This morning I happened to watch a TV programme on the Crusades. The presenter was a Muslim, which was interesting given the series is about the history of Christianity.  He and those he interviewed made a few really interesting points. They described just how brutal and violent the crusaders were. They butchered their way around the Middle East, killing men, women and children. On some occasions cooking children on spits and eating them (that was recorded by the crusaders themselves). Awful stuff. The first thing they noted was like Muslim extremists today, there was a clear link between this butchery and their faith. The Pope had granted indulgences for the taking of Jerusalem, and these knights saw it as their religious duty to kill as many people as possible for their faith, for Christ.  They entered Holy Sepulchre covered in the blood on civilians, and saw that as part of what they were there for. Their second point is that the people of the Middle East remember, and t...