The 'Little Service' at Foundation

Last night I was at the 'little service' at Foundation (held at Cotham Church, Bristol). During the prayerful meditation I found I was praying around these images:



Also this reading from Joshua 4
4:4 Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe;

4:5 and Joshua said to them, "Pass on before the ark of the LORD your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel,

4:6 that this may be a sign among you, when your children ask in time to come, `What do those stones mean to you?'

4:7 Then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD; when it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial for ever."


I had watched the Channel Four programme

The Fundamentalists

on Saturday Night and was struck by Mark Dowd's conclusion that:

"Although fundamentalists in all religions claim that they are harking back to a golden age when everyone accepted the divine words of the holy texts, this is clearly not the case. Even if we found the idea appealing, and if there ever really were such a golden age, we couldn't reproduce it in the 21st century.

In fact, as these examples from five major world religions show, fundamentalism is a recent phenomenon that has as much to do with today's global politics and economics as with the religious sources. This marriage of religion with politics has touched many nerves. In the developing world, it appears to offer food to the hungry and power to the powerless. In wealthy countries, it appears to give confidence to minorities who are persecuted or discriminated against, and has been used by those in power to wage war against 'non-believers'.

The longer this goes on, the more polarised the world becomes. Where are today's prophets to help people identify with the fears of others, and check the tide of fundamentalism."

This prayer from South Africa comes to mind:
Let Us Dream. Let us prophesise.
Let us see visions of love, peace and justice.
Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with courage and confidence.
Amen