Ian Cowley
{"id":2439761035364,"title":"The Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre","handle":"the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre","description":"\u003cp\u003eEugene Peterson's bestselling book \u003cstrong\u003eThe Contemplative Pastor\u003c\/strong\u003e has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry as they are engulfed by the busyness of church life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe church landscape has now moved on considerably since Peterson's book was published 20 years ago, both in the USA and the UK. Electronic media, multi-parish appointments and the ever increasing stress and demands of modern-day ministry have continued to challenge church leaders aggressively. Today, many are looking for a different way of being in ministry, a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure that have become the norm. But how?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley, Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in Salisbury Diocese, offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century, drawing on his South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders such as Desmond Tutu. He explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship, creating a shared ministry to allow the leader to nurture faith and spirituality amid the hectic life that is ministry today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is concerned with the central vocation of those who are called to the ordained ministry. As priests, we are called to be people in whom others may see God. There is a great hunger for God among many people today. This is a hunger which is not just for things about God, for sermons, books, talks and videos, but for God himself. A contemplative minister is someone who is called first of all to God and to his heart of love, so that the world may also know God and his love for all that he has made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and since 2010 has led and developed The Contemplative Minister programme in the Diocese, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written The Transformation Principle (2002), Going Empty Handed (1996) and A People of Hope (1993). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo read Ian's lockdown blog, 'Wild times and the love of God', click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wycliffite issue no 1, Review of reprint (2016)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was a time when Christian ministry offered the opportunity to spend your life in the study of God's word, in reading and reflection, in prayer and sermon preparation and in the quiet and faithful pastoral care of a community. The world has changed, and with it most of the expectations that govern church appointments. These days there are very few jobs in full time ministry which do not require a heroic combination of stamina, multi-tasking and change management. This book gives practical advice on how to nurture faith and a sense of calling amid the hectic life that is ministry today. Drawing on his experience of developing and leading training programmes in this area, Ian Cowley assesses the stresses and pressures of the job and shows how to grow into being a 'contemplative minister', prioritising a relationship of deepening love with God. He also offers guidance on leading others into that same relationship, without your own spiritual life running dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReview in \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on \u003c\/strong\u003eJanuary 2018\u003cbr\u003e 'Those who work without prayer - no matter how good the work, no matter how sincere the minister - soon dry up inside.' (John Chittiter) \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Contemplative Minister aims to help us avoid this scenario. It is a good introduction to how to remain prayerful and rooted in Christ in the ups and downs of public leadership, or a good reminder for those who have read around this topic before.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In seven parts it covers vocation, contemplative ministry, prayer, rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. Throughout Cowley refers to a wide body of material and offers practical insights into how to shape a contemplative life. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The chapters on rules and exercises and on spiritual formation are particularly helpful. Cowley outlines eight spiritual disciplines that he has found are core to the contemplative life, including detachment, attentiveness, gratitude and servanthood. For example, he encourages us to use the opportunities daily life affords to learn detachment: when stuck in a traffic jam, when a train is delayed, when we become ill at an inconvenient time, etc. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For Cowley 'spiritual formation means being formed into the likeness of Jesus for the sake of others.' This book certainly helps with that process. My guess is that it will be even more helpful if we study it with others and gain some accountability for putting into practice some of the helpful ideas it contains. \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on\u003c\/strong\u003e is the monthly newsletter of the CPAS \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cpas.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=9c4386d25a49e13c1e4be3e09\u0026amp;id=cd0c8513e9\u0026amp;e=2ba37f7c1e\"\u003ewww.cpas.org.uk\/leadon\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Church Times - 4 November 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough saved by grace, we act as if we are saved by works, busily ministering in a hyperactive Church and hectic world. Ian Cowley's counter-cultural book presents a heady foil to frenetic activity, questioning the need for it, seeing being contemplative as non-negotiable, even seeking it when busyness just cannot be avoided.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his bracing foreword, Desmond Tutu urges us simply to accept that we are accepted. Quoting Evelyn Underhill, 'Christ was trained in a carpenter's shop, but we persist in preferring a confectioner's shop,' Tutu fears that frantic activity is both a distraction and avoidance of faith's core demands - whereas being assured of God's love fires you to truckle to no man, and even face martyrdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley presents an immensely readable tour de force through vocation; several methods of prayer; being rooted in Jesus; and letting go to enable our ministry, living and Church to be grounded in contem plation. Priests are called both to be and to do, finding what is life-giving and doing it; but also, by their sheer holiness, drawing in others to do tasks they cannot or should not do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith poignant examples from his ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge, Peterborough and Salisbury, Cowley is blisteringly honest about when ministry was sheer hard slog, when he projected a 'false self' and failed to 'let go and let God'. The varied strategies that he outlines to reconnect with contemplative ministry have a hard-won and grounded feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a galaxy of quotations. Billy Connolly sees vocation as akin to wandering through a city centre and noting which shop window you are drawn to. Eugene Peterson avoids burnout by diarising two-hour appointments with FD three times per week. FD stands for Fyodor Dostoevsky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe best was from Henri Nouwen: 'The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there.' That rules Henri out of the Lambeth Talent Pool, then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Rt Revd David Wilbourne is the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader Spring 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Remember, Ian, being comes before doing'. These words spoken to the author as a young man are at the heart of this volume. Subtitled 'Learning to lead from the still centre' Cowley is at pains to stress that this is not dependent on outward circumstances, and that we do not need to go out of the world to find God. Seven distinct sections take us on a journey from vocation, through contemplative ministry, prayer, being rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. The book contains not only the author's personal experience but also is full of thought provoking examples and references which will inspire us on our own journey. Written primarily for clergy, there is more than enough food for thought for both established Readers and those seeking their calling. A compelling read at whatever stage of ministry we may be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiz Pacey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e: Learning to lead from the still centre by Ian Cowley Reading is a book for our time, fit for reading over Christmas, before you head back into the maelstrom, to survive the pressures on your time. All of us are ministers; all of us need to be contemplatives. This book, by an evangelically-minded Anglican priest who has imbibed some of the riches of the Catholic tradition of spirituality, is for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas King: The Tablet 10 December 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003ca title=\"The Tablet Books of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/books\/10\/7519\/books-of-the-year-2\"\u003eThe Tablet Books of the Year 2015\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJulian Meeting Magazine December 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was drawn to this book by the title. As a clergy wife and long-time member of Julian Meetings it looked interesting, and I was not disappointed: much of this book is both inspiring and wise. Ian Cowley, as Vocations \u0026amp; Spiritual Adviser for the Diocese of Salisbury, developed a programme for ordained ministers. This book arose from that, so its emphasis is largely for active ministers. However, a lot in this book relates to us all whatever our vocation or calling. The book has many themes but it centres on finding the balance between 'being' and 'doing', and how the need for 'silent waiting on God' is essential in finding this balance. We are called first to a relationship with our Lord and unless that relationship is nurtured and sustained we will fail in our vocation. Alongside this Ian Cowley shows how we have to come to an understanding of our true selves: much of the time our 'false self' drives our actions, particularly our need for control and approval. So part of our journey with God is discovering the qualities of holiness and integrity. Ian Cowley is open and honest about his own experiences. As a South African he witnessed the oppression of his own people and shares insights of his ministry in this country too. I think anyone trying to follow the contemplative way will find a lot here to guide and help them. My own response was 'Alleluia': here is someone who really understands the transformative power of silence and stillness before God and can communicate this to others - quite refreshing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChrissie Rapsey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Reform Magazine - November 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a profoundly attractive book. Ian Cowley is vocations and spirituality coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. Writing for those who exercise ordained ministry, Cowley stresses that we need to lead disciplined, consecrated lives to be effective instruments of God's peace. Daily prayer is a nonnegotiable personal discipline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a society obsessed with league tables and measurable success, many in ordained ministry either burn out or bail out. Cowley challenges this ethos, reminding the disciples of Jesus that being comes before doing, that we need to be rooted in the unconditional love of God.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley calls us to find our deepest identity in Christ through silence, prayer, stillness and Bible reading. To be contemplative is to see that prayer allows us to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, who is ever present, all seeing within you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Cowley, the contemplative minister will only focus on three areas of ministry: Prayer, pastoral care and preaching. Cowley believes that the Church neither accepts nor understands the contemplative minister because prayer and being in the Kingdom of God cannot be easily measured. This book draws heavily on Cowley's Anglican spirituality. Though it is principally for ordained ministers, with a bit of creative imagination, all followers of Jesus will find this book helpful. Cowley's teaching in this book is both gentle and compelling, using personal testimony and judicious quotes. At a time when the United Reformed Church is trying to discern its calling for the future, this little book is worth being still with. It would be all too easy to justify our existence to the world by being busy; Cowley reminds us that, as the Church, we are called to be experts in prayer, and he wonders where, along the way, we managed to move from keeping the Sabbath to the Protestant work ethic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Gordon is a church minister serving in the central Sussex area\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom The Methodist Recorder - 30 October 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is the Vocations and Spirituality co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. His new book, The Contemplative Minister - Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, GBP8.99), is addressed to ministers and priests who 'like swimmers in the open sea are only just managing to keep their heads above the waves'. There was a time when being a Christian minister or priest offered an opportunity of spending a lifetime in prayer, study, delivering sermons and exercising pastoral care within a community. Not anymore! Today the job requires such 'a heroic combination of stamina, multitasking and change management' that any awareness of God gets stifled. There are seven parts to this book - each with a couple of easily read short chapters. The whole book is written in a homely style. One can easily imagine Ian Cowley sitting with a small group of priests within the diocese and giving them the wisdom of his experience as a parish priest in South Africa, Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart One examines vocation and the difficulty of remaining in touch with God. Parts Two and Three spell out the need for the rediscovery of our true still-centre. 'Self -management of self should occupy 50 per cent of our time'. To this end he gives helpful tips about retreats, quiet days, time sheets, quietening the body, living with uncluttered space, the daily office and use of Scripture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Part Four the author begins to draw out biblical insights; letting peace rule our hearts, living 'in Christ Jesus' and fighting 'our adrenaline filled existence'. From part Five onwards he focuses on letting go, establishing a 'rule of life', spiritual formation and servant leadership. The book ends by describing how one establishes a 'contemplative church'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of ecumenical perspective is the main weak ness of the book, as is its failure adequately to address the circumstances of those of us who minister among aged congregations in churches of ever declining numbers. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this book cannot be read with profit by non-Anglicans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf Desmond Tutu is prepared to write its Foreword, then we can be certain that the subject of this book is significant!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Rev Tom Stuckey is a former President of the Conference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimely and relevant. Recommend this to any ordained minister. They will need it. Ministry is a high calling. It's not about finance, admin and committees, but primarily about prayer and service. Yet this vocation is in peril of being swamped by the mundane. Worth reading for Desmond Tutu's foreword alone!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Olliffe, Together Magazine Nov\/Dec 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley writes from a background of life in Christian ministry and as someone now passionately engaged in seeking to help others thrive in ministry. This short, accessible book is filled to the brim with spiritual insight, but it is in concentrated form. You will need to take time to savour it and to reflect on it, and then find ways to implement it in your life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley's contention is that in the increasingly demanding context of the 21st Century church a new way of being in ministry is needed, what he terms contemplative ministry - 'the call to an ever deepening relationship of love for God, to lead others into that relationship and to enable them to respond to God in loving service and mission' (p18).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author is writing mainly for those ordained in the Anglican church, and the book is a call to return to values of the ordination service, and in particular a life of prayer. He urges fellow ministers to nurture their inner life with God and to be deeply rooted in Christ so that they can sustain themselves in the challenges of ministerial life. The rationale for this is that our being must undergird our doing, and that to have authority in our leadership we must first be willing to allow God to change and transform us by the Holy Spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is never simply theoretical in approach. Cowley provides lots of practical ways by which we can deepen our inner life, and his personal illustrations give vitality to his suggestions. He writes with a warm, compassionate tone which is never idealistic or legalistic. His passion for the contemplative life is clear, but he is humble, honest and sincere as he urges his readers to consider how they live and minister.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book though is not just about the inner life. The final section, which I found the most engaging, is about his vision for a contemplative church, a community where there is a life of prayer and deepening relationship with God, of servant ministry and living simply for the sake of others. Such a community he suggests will instinctively be missional, and this is where the future of the Church lies. I suspect his ideas here are not yet fully formed, which suggests there might well be room for a second book on The Contemplative Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome ministers, already aware of the importance of the inner life, will be able to integrate Cowley's teaching into their present ministry smoothly and easily. Others may find to become more contemplative they will have to make significant changes to the foundations of how they live and work. If they do so they will reap enormous benefits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuy this book for yourself or someone you know in ministry. It could be a life-saver. It will certainly be a life-giver.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTony Horsfall, author, freelance trainer and retreat leader\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e","published_at":"2019-01-18T15:21:16+00:00","created_at":"2019-01-18T15:21:17+00:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"Paperback","tags":["Glassboxx","Jun-15","Leadership"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":21769204531300,"title":"Paperback","option1":"Paperback","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857463609","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":{"id":7436619284580,"product_id":2439761035364,"position":1,"created_at":"2019-01-18T15:21:17+00:00","updated_at":"2019-02-01T17:46:05+00:00","alt":null,"width":425,"height":650,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165","variant_ids":[21769204531300]},"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre - Paperback","public_title":"Paperback","options":["Paperback"],"price":899,"weight":183,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857463609","featured_media":{"alt":null,"id":3238876741771,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.654,"height":650,"width":425,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165"}},"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165","options":["Format"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":3238876741771,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.654,"height":650,"width":425,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165"},"aspect_ratio":0.654,"height":650,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857463609-l.jpg?v=1549043165","width":425}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003eEugene Peterson's bestselling book \u003cstrong\u003eThe Contemplative Pastor\u003c\/strong\u003e has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry as they are engulfed by the busyness of church life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe church landscape has now moved on considerably since Peterson's book was published 20 years ago, both in the USA and the UK. Electronic media, multi-parish appointments and the ever increasing stress and demands of modern-day ministry have continued to challenge church leaders aggressively. Today, many are looking for a different way of being in ministry, a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure that have become the norm. But how?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley, Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in Salisbury Diocese, offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century, drawing on his South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders such as Desmond Tutu. He explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship, creating a shared ministry to allow the leader to nurture faith and spirituality amid the hectic life that is ministry today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is concerned with the central vocation of those who are called to the ordained ministry. As priests, we are called to be people in whom others may see God. There is a great hunger for God among many people today. This is a hunger which is not just for things about God, for sermons, books, talks and videos, but for God himself. A contemplative minister is someone who is called first of all to God and to his heart of love, so that the world may also know God and his love for all that he has made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and since 2010 has led and developed The Contemplative Minister programme in the Diocese, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written The Transformation Principle (2002), Going Empty Handed (1996) and A People of Hope (1993). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo read Ian's lockdown blog, 'Wild times and the love of God', click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wycliffite issue no 1, Review of reprint (2016)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was a time when Christian ministry offered the opportunity to spend your life in the study of God's word, in reading and reflection, in prayer and sermon preparation and in the quiet and faithful pastoral care of a community. The world has changed, and with it most of the expectations that govern church appointments. These days there are very few jobs in full time ministry which do not require a heroic combination of stamina, multi-tasking and change management. This book gives practical advice on how to nurture faith and a sense of calling amid the hectic life that is ministry today. Drawing on his experience of developing and leading training programmes in this area, Ian Cowley assesses the stresses and pressures of the job and shows how to grow into being a 'contemplative minister', prioritising a relationship of deepening love with God. He also offers guidance on leading others into that same relationship, without your own spiritual life running dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReview in \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on \u003c\/strong\u003eJanuary 2018\u003cbr\u003e 'Those who work without prayer - no matter how good the work, no matter how sincere the minister - soon dry up inside.' (John Chittiter) \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The Contemplative Minister aims to help us avoid this scenario. It is a good introduction to how to remain prayerful and rooted in Christ in the ups and downs of public leadership, or a good reminder for those who have read around this topic before.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In seven parts it covers vocation, contemplative ministry, prayer, rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. Throughout Cowley refers to a wide body of material and offers practical insights into how to shape a contemplative life. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The chapters on rules and exercises and on spiritual formation are particularly helpful. Cowley outlines eight spiritual disciplines that he has found are core to the contemplative life, including detachment, attentiveness, gratitude and servanthood. For example, he encourages us to use the opportunities daily life affords to learn detachment: when stuck in a traffic jam, when a train is delayed, when we become ill at an inconvenient time, etc. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e For Cowley 'spiritual formation means being formed into the likeness of Jesus for the sake of others.' This book certainly helps with that process. My guess is that it will be even more helpful if we study it with others and gain some accountability for putting into practice some of the helpful ideas it contains. \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on\u003c\/strong\u003e is the monthly newsletter of the CPAS \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cpas.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=9c4386d25a49e13c1e4be3e09\u0026amp;id=cd0c8513e9\u0026amp;e=2ba37f7c1e\"\u003ewww.cpas.org.uk\/leadon\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Church Times - 4 November 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough saved by grace, we act as if we are saved by works, busily ministering in a hyperactive Church and hectic world. Ian Cowley's counter-cultural book presents a heady foil to frenetic activity, questioning the need for it, seeing being contemplative as non-negotiable, even seeking it when busyness just cannot be avoided.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his bracing foreword, Desmond Tutu urges us simply to accept that we are accepted. Quoting Evelyn Underhill, 'Christ was trained in a carpenter's shop, but we persist in preferring a confectioner's shop,' Tutu fears that frantic activity is both a distraction and avoidance of faith's core demands - whereas being assured of God's love fires you to truckle to no man, and even face martyrdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley presents an immensely readable tour de force through vocation; several methods of prayer; being rooted in Jesus; and letting go to enable our ministry, living and Church to be grounded in contem plation. Priests are called both to be and to do, finding what is life-giving and doing it; but also, by their sheer holiness, drawing in others to do tasks they cannot or should not do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith poignant examples from his ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge, Peterborough and Salisbury, Cowley is blisteringly honest about when ministry was sheer hard slog, when he projected a 'false self' and failed to 'let go and let God'. The varied strategies that he outlines to reconnect with contemplative ministry have a hard-won and grounded feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a galaxy of quotations. Billy Connolly sees vocation as akin to wandering through a city centre and noting which shop window you are drawn to. Eugene Peterson avoids burnout by diarising two-hour appointments with FD three times per week. FD stands for Fyodor Dostoevsky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe best was from Henri Nouwen: 'The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there.' That rules Henri out of the Lambeth Talent Pool, then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Rt Revd David Wilbourne is the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader Spring 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Remember, Ian, being comes before doing'. These words spoken to the author as a young man are at the heart of this volume. Subtitled 'Learning to lead from the still centre' Cowley is at pains to stress that this is not dependent on outward circumstances, and that we do not need to go out of the world to find God. Seven distinct sections take us on a journey from vocation, through contemplative ministry, prayer, being rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. The book contains not only the author's personal experience but also is full of thought provoking examples and references which will inspire us on our own journey. Written primarily for clergy, there is more than enough food for thought for both established Readers and those seeking their calling. A compelling read at whatever stage of ministry we may be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiz Pacey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e: Learning to lead from the still centre by Ian Cowley Reading is a book for our time, fit for reading over Christmas, before you head back into the maelstrom, to survive the pressures on your time. All of us are ministers; all of us need to be contemplatives. This book, by an evangelically-minded Anglican priest who has imbibed some of the riches of the Catholic tradition of spirituality, is for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas King: The Tablet 10 December 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003ca title=\"The Tablet Books of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/books\/10\/7519\/books-of-the-year-2\"\u003eThe Tablet Books of the Year 2015\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJulian Meeting Magazine December 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was drawn to this book by the title. As a clergy wife and long-time member of Julian Meetings it looked interesting, and I was not disappointed: much of this book is both inspiring and wise. Ian Cowley, as Vocations \u0026amp; Spiritual Adviser for the Diocese of Salisbury, developed a programme for ordained ministers. This book arose from that, so its emphasis is largely for active ministers. However, a lot in this book relates to us all whatever our vocation or calling. The book has many themes but it centres on finding the balance between 'being' and 'doing', and how the need for 'silent waiting on God' is essential in finding this balance. We are called first to a relationship with our Lord and unless that relationship is nurtured and sustained we will fail in our vocation. Alongside this Ian Cowley shows how we have to come to an understanding of our true selves: much of the time our 'false self' drives our actions, particularly our need for control and approval. So part of our journey with God is discovering the qualities of holiness and integrity. Ian Cowley is open and honest about his own experiences. As a South African he witnessed the oppression of his own people and shares insights of his ministry in this country too. I think anyone trying to follow the contemplative way will find a lot here to guide and help them. My own response was 'Alleluia': here is someone who really understands the transformative power of silence and stillness before God and can communicate this to others - quite refreshing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChrissie Rapsey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Reform Magazine - November 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a profoundly attractive book. Ian Cowley is vocations and spirituality coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. Writing for those who exercise ordained ministry, Cowley stresses that we need to lead disciplined, consecrated lives to be effective instruments of God's peace. Daily prayer is a nonnegotiable personal discipline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a society obsessed with league tables and measurable success, many in ordained ministry either burn out or bail out. Cowley challenges this ethos, reminding the disciples of Jesus that being comes before doing, that we need to be rooted in the unconditional love of God.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley calls us to find our deepest identity in Christ through silence, prayer, stillness and Bible reading. To be contemplative is to see that prayer allows us to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, who is ever present, all seeing within you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Cowley, the contemplative minister will only focus on three areas of ministry: Prayer, pastoral care and preaching. Cowley believes that the Church neither accepts nor understands the contemplative minister because prayer and being in the Kingdom of God cannot be easily measured. This book draws heavily on Cowley's Anglican spirituality. Though it is principally for ordained ministers, with a bit of creative imagination, all followers of Jesus will find this book helpful. Cowley's teaching in this book is both gentle and compelling, using personal testimony and judicious quotes. At a time when the United Reformed Church is trying to discern its calling for the future, this little book is worth being still with. It would be all too easy to justify our existence to the world by being busy; Cowley reminds us that, as the Church, we are called to be experts in prayer, and he wonders where, along the way, we managed to move from keeping the Sabbath to the Protestant work ethic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Gordon is a church minister serving in the central Sussex area\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom The Methodist Recorder - 30 October 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is the Vocations and Spirituality co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. His new book, The Contemplative Minister - Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, GBP8.99), is addressed to ministers and priests who 'like swimmers in the open sea are only just managing to keep their heads above the waves'. There was a time when being a Christian minister or priest offered an opportunity of spending a lifetime in prayer, study, delivering sermons and exercising pastoral care within a community. Not anymore! Today the job requires such 'a heroic combination of stamina, multitasking and change management' that any awareness of God gets stifled. There are seven parts to this book - each with a couple of easily read short chapters. The whole book is written in a homely style. One can easily imagine Ian Cowley sitting with a small group of priests within the diocese and giving them the wisdom of his experience as a parish priest in South Africa, Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart One examines vocation and the difficulty of remaining in touch with God. Parts Two and Three spell out the need for the rediscovery of our true still-centre. 'Self -management of self should occupy 50 per cent of our time'. To this end he gives helpful tips about retreats, quiet days, time sheets, quietening the body, living with uncluttered space, the daily office and use of Scripture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Part Four the author begins to draw out biblical insights; letting peace rule our hearts, living 'in Christ Jesus' and fighting 'our adrenaline filled existence'. From part Five onwards he focuses on letting go, establishing a 'rule of life', spiritual formation and servant leadership. The book ends by describing how one establishes a 'contemplative church'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of ecumenical perspective is the main weak ness of the book, as is its failure adequately to address the circumstances of those of us who minister among aged congregations in churches of ever declining numbers. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this book cannot be read with profit by non-Anglicans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf Desmond Tutu is prepared to write its Foreword, then we can be certain that the subject of this book is significant!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Rev Tom Stuckey is a former President of the Conference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimely and relevant. Recommend this to any ordained minister. They will need it. Ministry is a high calling. It's not about finance, admin and committees, but primarily about prayer and service. Yet this vocation is in peril of being swamped by the mundane. Worth reading for Desmond Tutu's foreword alone!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Olliffe, Together Magazine Nov\/Dec 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley writes from a background of life in Christian ministry and as someone now passionately engaged in seeking to help others thrive in ministry. This short, accessible book is filled to the brim with spiritual insight, but it is in concentrated form. You will need to take time to savour it and to reflect on it, and then find ways to implement it in your life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley's contention is that in the increasingly demanding context of the 21st Century church a new way of being in ministry is needed, what he terms contemplative ministry - 'the call to an ever deepening relationship of love for God, to lead others into that relationship and to enable them to respond to God in loving service and mission' (p18).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author is writing mainly for those ordained in the Anglican church, and the book is a call to return to values of the ordination service, and in particular a life of prayer. He urges fellow ministers to nurture their inner life with God and to be deeply rooted in Christ so that they can sustain themselves in the challenges of ministerial life. The rationale for this is that our being must undergird our doing, and that to have authority in our leadership we must first be willing to allow God to change and transform us by the Holy Spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is never simply theoretical in approach. Cowley provides lots of practical ways by which we can deepen our inner life, and his personal illustrations give vitality to his suggestions. He writes with a warm, compassionate tone which is never idealistic or legalistic. His passion for the contemplative life is clear, but he is humble, honest and sincere as he urges his readers to consider how they live and minister.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book though is not just about the inner life. The final section, which I found the most engaging, is about his vision for a contemplative church, a community where there is a life of prayer and deepening relationship with God, of servant ministry and living simply for the sake of others. Such a community he suggests will instinctively be missional, and this is where the future of the Church lies. I suspect his ideas here are not yet fully formed, which suggests there might well be room for a second book on The Contemplative Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome ministers, already aware of the importance of the inner life, will be able to integrate Cowley's teaching into their present ministry smoothly and easily. Others may find to become more contemplative they will have to make significant changes to the foundations of how they live and work. If they do so they will reap enormous benefits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuy this book for yourself or someone you know in ministry. It could be a life-saver. It will certainly be a life-giver.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTony Horsfall, author, freelance trainer and retreat leader\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e"}
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The Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre
£8.99
Eugene Peterson's bestselling book The Contemplative Pastor has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry...
{"id":14698279764348,"title":"The Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre","handle":"the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre-1","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eEugene Peterson's bestselling book \u003cstrong\u003eThe Contemplative Pastor\u003c\/strong\u003e has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry as they are engulfed by the busyness of church life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe church landscape has now moved on considerably since Peterson's book was published 20 years ago, both in the USA and the UK. Electronic media, multi-parish appointments and the ever increasing stress and demands of modern-day ministry have continued to challenge church leaders aggressively. Today, many are looking for a different way of being in ministry, a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure that have become the norm. But how?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley, Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in Salisbury Diocese, offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century, drawing on his South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders such as Desmond Tutu. He explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship, creating a shared ministry to allow the leader to nurture faith and spirituality amid the hectic life that is ministry today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is concerned with the central vocation of those who are called to the ordained ministry. As priests, we are called to be people in whom others may see God. There is a great hunger for God among many people today. This is a hunger which is not just for things about God, for sermons, books, talks and videos, but for God himself. A contemplative minister is someone who is called first of all to God and to his heart of love, so that the world may also know God and his love for all that he has made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and since 2010 has led and developed The Contemplative Minister programme in the Diocese, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written The Transformation Principle (2002), Going Empty Handed (1996) and A People of Hope (1993). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo read Ian's lockdown blog, 'Wild times and the love of God', click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wycliffite issue no 1, Review of reprint (2016)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was a time when Christian ministry offered the opportunity to spend your life in the study of God's word, in reading and reflection, in prayer and sermon preparation and in the quiet and faithful pastoral care of a community. The world has changed, and with it most of the expectations that govern church appointments. These days there are very few jobs in full time ministry which do not require a heroic combination of stamina, multi-tasking and change management. This book gives practical advice on how to nurture faith and a sense of calling amid the hectic life that is ministry today. Drawing on his experience of developing and leading training programmes in this area, Ian Cowley assesses the stresses and pressures of the job and shows how to grow into being a 'contemplative minister', prioritising a relationship of deepening love with God. He also offers guidance on leading others into that same relationship, without your own spiritual life running dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReview in \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on \u003c\/strong\u003eJanuary 2018\u003cbr\u003e'Those who work without prayer - no matter how good the work, no matter how sincere the minister - soon dry up inside.' (John Chittiter) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Contemplative Minister aims to help us avoid this scenario. It is a good introduction to how to remain prayerful and rooted in Christ in the ups and downs of public leadership, or a good reminder for those who have read around this topic before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn seven parts it covers vocation, contemplative ministry, prayer, rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. Throughout Cowley refers to a wide body of material and offers practical insights into how to shape a contemplative life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe chapters on rules and exercises and on spiritual formation are particularly helpful. Cowley outlines eight spiritual disciplines that he has found are core to the contemplative life, including detachment, attentiveness, gratitude and servanthood. For example, he encourages us to use the opportunities daily life affords to learn detachment: when stuck in a traffic jam, when a train is delayed, when we become ill at an inconvenient time, etc. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Cowley 'spiritual formation means being formed into the likeness of Jesus for the sake of others.' This book certainly helps with that process. My guess is that it will be even more helpful if we study it with others and gain some accountability for putting into practice some of the helpful ideas it contains. \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on\u003c\/strong\u003e is the monthly newsletter of the CPAS \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cpas.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=9c4386d25a49e13c1e4be3e09\u0026amp;id=cd0c8513e9\u0026amp;e=2ba37f7c1e\"\u003ewww.cpas.org.uk\/leadon\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Church Times - 4 November 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough saved by grace, we act as if we are saved by works, busily ministering in a hyperactive Church and hectic world. Ian Cowley's counter-cultural book presents a heady foil to frenetic activity, questioning the need for it, seeing being contemplative as non-negotiable, even seeking it when busyness just cannot be avoided.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his bracing foreword, Desmond Tutu urges us simply to accept that we are accepted. Quoting Evelyn Underhill, 'Christ was trained in a carpenter's shop, but we persist in preferring a confectioner's shop,' Tutu fears that frantic activity is both a distraction and avoidance of faith's core demands - whereas being assured of God's love fires you to truckle to no man, and even face martyrdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley presents an immensely readable tour de force through vocation; several methods of prayer; being rooted in Jesus; and letting go to enable our ministry, living and Church to be grounded in contem plation. Priests are called both to be and to do, finding what is life-giving and doing it; but also, by their sheer holiness, drawing in others to do tasks they cannot or should not do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith poignant examples from his ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge, Peterborough and Salisbury, Cowley is blisteringly honest about when ministry was sheer hard slog, when he projected a 'false self' and failed to 'let go and let God'. The varied strategies that he outlines to reconnect with contemplative ministry have a hard-won and grounded feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a galaxy of quotations. Billy Connolly sees vocation as akin to wandering through a city centre and noting which shop window you are drawn to. Eugene Peterson avoids burnout by diarising two-hour appointments with FD three times per week. FD stands for Fyodor Dostoevsky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe best was from Henri Nouwen: 'The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there.' That rules Henri out of the Lambeth Talent Pool, then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Rt Revd David Wilbourne is the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader Spring 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Remember, Ian, being comes before doing'. These words spoken to the author as a young man are at the heart of this volume. Subtitled 'Learning to lead from the still centre' Cowley is at pains to stress that this is not dependent on outward circumstances, and that we do not need to go out of the world to find God. Seven distinct sections take us on a journey from vocation, through contemplative ministry, prayer, being rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. The book contains not only the author's personal experience but also is full of thought provoking examples and references which will inspire us on our own journey. Written primarily for clergy, there is more than enough food for thought for both established Readers and those seeking their calling. A compelling read at whatever stage of ministry we may be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiz Pacey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e: Learning to lead from the still centre by Ian Cowley Reading is a book for our time, fit for reading over Christmas, before you head back into the maelstrom, to survive the pressures on your time. All of us are ministers; all of us need to be contemplatives. This book, by an evangelically-minded Anglican priest who has imbibed some of the riches of the Catholic tradition of spirituality, is for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas King: The Tablet 10 December 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003ca title=\"The Tablet Books of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/books\/10\/7519\/books-of-the-year-2\"\u003eThe Tablet Books of the Year 2015\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJulian Meeting Magazine December 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was drawn to this book by the title. As a clergy wife and long-time member of Julian Meetings it looked interesting, and I was not disappointed: much of this book is both inspiring and wise. Ian Cowley, as Vocations \u0026amp; Spiritual Adviser for the Diocese of Salisbury, developed a programme for ordained ministers. This book arose from that, so its emphasis is largely for active ministers. However, a lot in this book relates to us all whatever our vocation or calling. The book has many themes but it centres on finding the balance between 'being' and 'doing', and how the need for 'silent waiting on God' is essential in finding this balance. We are called first to a relationship with our Lord and unless that relationship is nurtured and sustained we will fail in our vocation. Alongside this Ian Cowley shows how we have to come to an understanding of our true selves: much of the time our 'false self' drives our actions, particularly our need for control and approval. So part of our journey with God is discovering the qualities of holiness and integrity. Ian Cowley is open and honest about his own experiences. As a South African he witnessed the oppression of his own people and shares insights of his ministry in this country too. I think anyone trying to follow the contemplative way will find a lot here to guide and help them. My own response was 'Alleluia': here is someone who really understands the transformative power of silence and stillness before God and can communicate this to others - quite refreshing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChrissie Rapsey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Reform Magazine - November 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a profoundly attractive book. Ian Cowley is vocations and spirituality coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. Writing for those who exercise ordained ministry, Cowley stresses that we need to lead disciplined, consecrated lives to be effective instruments of God's peace. Daily prayer is a nonnegotiable personal discipline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a society obsessed with league tables and measurable success, many in ordained ministry either burn out or bail out. Cowley challenges this ethos, reminding the disciples of Jesus that being comes before doing, that we need to be rooted in the unconditional love of God.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley calls us to find our deepest identity in Christ through silence, prayer, stillness and Bible reading. To be contemplative is to see that prayer allows us to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, who is ever present, all seeing within you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Cowley, the contemplative minister will only focus on three areas of ministry: Prayer, pastoral care and preaching. Cowley believes that the Church neither accepts nor understands the contemplative minister because prayer and being in the Kingdom of God cannot be easily measured. This book draws heavily on Cowley's Anglican spirituality. Though it is principally for ordained ministers, with a bit of creative imagination, all followers of Jesus will find this book helpful. Cowley's teaching in this book is both gentle and compelling, using personal testimony and judicious quotes. At a time when the United Reformed Church is trying to discern its calling for the future, this little book is worth being still with. It would be all too easy to justify our existence to the world by being busy; Cowley reminds us that, as the Church, we are called to be experts in prayer, and he wonders where, along the way, we managed to move from keeping the Sabbath to the Protestant work ethic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Gordon is a church minister serving in the central Sussex area\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom The Methodist Recorder - 30 October 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is the Vocations and Spirituality co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. His new book, The Contemplative Minister - Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, GBP8.99), is addressed to ministers and priests who 'like swimmers in the open sea are only just managing to keep their heads above the waves'. There was a time when being a Christian minister or priest offered an opportunity of spending a lifetime in prayer, study, delivering sermons and exercising pastoral care within a community. Not anymore! Today the job requires such 'a heroic combination of stamina, multitasking and change management' that any awareness of God gets stifled. There are seven parts to this book - each with a couple of easily read short chapters. The whole book is written in a homely style. One can easily imagine Ian Cowley sitting with a small group of priests within the diocese and giving them the wisdom of his experience as a parish priest in South Africa, Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart One examines vocation and the difficulty of remaining in touch with God. Parts Two and Three spell out the need for the rediscovery of our true still-centre. 'Self -management of self should occupy 50 per cent of our time'. To this end he gives helpful tips about retreats, quiet days, time sheets, quietening the body, living with uncluttered space, the daily office and use of Scripture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Part Four the author begins to draw out biblical insights; letting peace rule our hearts, living 'in Christ Jesus' and fighting 'our adrenaline filled existence'. From part Five onwards he focuses on letting go, establishing a 'rule of life', spiritual formation and servant leadership. The book ends by describing how one establishes a 'contemplative church'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of ecumenical perspective is the main weak ness of the book, as is its failure adequately to address the circumstances of those of us who minister among aged congregations in churches of ever declining numbers. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this book cannot be read with profit by non-Anglicans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf Desmond Tutu is prepared to write its Foreword, then we can be certain that the subject of this book is significant!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Rev Tom Stuckey is a former President of the Conference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimely and relevant. Recommend this to any ordained minister. They will need it. Ministry is a high calling. It's not about finance, admin and committees, but primarily about prayer and service. Yet this vocation is in peril of being swamped by the mundane. Worth reading for Desmond Tutu's foreword alone!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Olliffe, Together Magazine Nov\/Dec 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley writes from a background of life in Christian ministry and as someone now passionately engaged in seeking to help others thrive in ministry. This short, accessible book is filled to the brim with spiritual insight, but it is in concentrated form. You will need to take time to savour it and to reflect on it, and then find ways to implement it in your life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley's contention is that in the increasingly demanding context of the 21st Century church a new way of being in ministry is needed, what he terms contemplative ministry - 'the call to an ever deepening relationship of love for God, to lead others into that relationship and to enable them to respond to God in loving service and mission' (p18).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author is writing mainly for those ordained in the Anglican church, and the book is a call to return to values of the ordination service, and in particular a life of prayer. He urges fellow ministers to nurture their inner life with God and to be deeply rooted in Christ so that they can sustain themselves in the challenges of ministerial life. The rationale for this is that our being must undergird our doing, and that to have authority in our leadership we must first be willing to allow God to change and transform us by the Holy Spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is never simply theoretical in approach. Cowley provides lots of practical ways by which we can deepen our inner life, and his personal illustrations give vitality to his suggestions. He writes with a warm, compassionate tone which is never idealistic or legalistic. His passion for the contemplative life is clear, but he is humble, honest and sincere as he urges his readers to consider how they live and minister.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book though is not just about the inner life. The final section, which I found the most engaging, is about his vision for a contemplative church, a community where there is a life of prayer and deepening relationship with God, of servant ministry and living simply for the sake of others. Such a community he suggests will instinctively be missional, and this is where the future of the Church lies. I suspect his ideas here are not yet fully formed, which suggests there might well be room for a second book on The Contemplative Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome ministers, already aware of the importance of the inner life, will be able to integrate Cowley's teaching into their present ministry smoothly and easily. Others may find to become more contemplative they will have to make significant changes to the foundations of how they live and work. If they do so they will reap enormous benefits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuy this book for yourself or someone you know in ministry. It could be a life-saver. It will certainly be a life-giver.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTony Horsfall, author, freelance trainer and retreat leader\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e","published_at":"2024-10-28T09:35:23+00:00","created_at":"2024-10-28T09:34:25+00:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"eBook","tags":["Glassboxx","Jun-15","Leadership"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":53602661728636,"title":"eBook","option1":"eBook","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857463616","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre - eBook","public_title":"eBook","options":["eBook"],"price":899,"weight":183,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857463616","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/138.png?v=1730134969","\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/139.png?v=1730134913"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/138.png?v=1730134969","options":["Format"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":62923503665532,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/138.png?v=1730134969"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/138.png?v=1730134969","width":1303},{"alt":null,"id":62923497046396,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/139.png?v=1730134913"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/139.png?v=1730134913","width":1303}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eEugene Peterson's bestselling book \u003cstrong\u003eThe Contemplative Pastor\u003c\/strong\u003e has helped many church leaders to keep a strong spiritual centre to ministry as they are engulfed by the busyness of church life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe church landscape has now moved on considerably since Peterson's book was published 20 years ago, both in the USA and the UK. Electronic media, multi-parish appointments and the ever increasing stress and demands of modern-day ministry have continued to challenge church leaders aggressively. Today, many are looking for a different way of being in ministry, a better way of serving Christ than the relentless busyness and pressure that have become the norm. But how?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley, Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in Salisbury Diocese, offers direction for contemplative leaders in the 21st century, drawing on his South African roots and the influence of contemplative leaders such as Desmond Tutu. He explains practically how to prioritise a relationship with God and lead others into that relationship, creating a shared ministry to allow the leader to nurture faith and spirituality amid the hectic life that is ministry today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is concerned with the central vocation of those who are called to the ordained ministry. As priests, we are called to be people in whom others may see God. There is a great hunger for God among many people today. This is a hunger which is not just for things about God, for sermons, books, talks and videos, but for God himself. A contemplative minister is someone who is called first of all to God and to his heart of love, so that the world may also know God and his love for all that he has made.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and since 2010 has led and developed The Contemplative Minister programme in the Diocese, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written The Transformation Principle (2002), Going Empty Handed (1996) and A People of Hope (1993). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTo read Ian's lockdown blog, 'Wild times and the love of God', click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Wycliffite issue no 1, Review of reprint (2016)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere was a time when Christian ministry offered the opportunity to spend your life in the study of God's word, in reading and reflection, in prayer and sermon preparation and in the quiet and faithful pastoral care of a community. The world has changed, and with it most of the expectations that govern church appointments. These days there are very few jobs in full time ministry which do not require a heroic combination of stamina, multi-tasking and change management. This book gives practical advice on how to nurture faith and a sense of calling amid the hectic life that is ministry today. Drawing on his experience of developing and leading training programmes in this area, Ian Cowley assesses the stresses and pressures of the job and shows how to grow into being a 'contemplative minister', prioritising a relationship of deepening love with God. He also offers guidance on leading others into that same relationship, without your own spiritual life running dry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eReview in \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on \u003c\/strong\u003eJanuary 2018\u003cbr\u003e'Those who work without prayer - no matter how good the work, no matter how sincere the minister - soon dry up inside.' (John Chittiter) \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Contemplative Minister aims to help us avoid this scenario. It is a good introduction to how to remain prayerful and rooted in Christ in the ups and downs of public leadership, or a good reminder for those who have read around this topic before.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn seven parts it covers vocation, contemplative ministry, prayer, rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. Throughout Cowley refers to a wide body of material and offers practical insights into how to shape a contemplative life. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe chapters on rules and exercises and on spiritual formation are particularly helpful. Cowley outlines eight spiritual disciplines that he has found are core to the contemplative life, including detachment, attentiveness, gratitude and servanthood. For example, he encourages us to use the opportunities daily life affords to learn detachment: when stuck in a traffic jam, when a train is delayed, when we become ill at an inconvenient time, etc. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor Cowley 'spiritual formation means being formed into the likeness of Jesus for the sake of others.' This book certainly helps with that process. My guess is that it will be even more helpful if we study it with others and gain some accountability for putting into practice some of the helpful ideas it contains. \u003cstrong\u003eLead-on\u003c\/strong\u003e is the monthly newsletter of the CPAS \u003cstrong\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/cpas.us8.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=9c4386d25a49e13c1e4be3e09\u0026amp;id=cd0c8513e9\u0026amp;e=2ba37f7c1e\"\u003ewww.cpas.org.uk\/leadon\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Church Times - 4 November 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThough saved by grace, we act as if we are saved by works, busily ministering in a hyperactive Church and hectic world. Ian Cowley's counter-cultural book presents a heady foil to frenetic activity, questioning the need for it, seeing being contemplative as non-negotiable, even seeking it when busyness just cannot be avoided.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn his bracing foreword, Desmond Tutu urges us simply to accept that we are accepted. Quoting Evelyn Underhill, 'Christ was trained in a carpenter's shop, but we persist in preferring a confectioner's shop,' Tutu fears that frantic activity is both a distraction and avoidance of faith's core demands - whereas being assured of God's love fires you to truckle to no man, and even face martyrdom.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley presents an immensely readable tour de force through vocation; several methods of prayer; being rooted in Jesus; and letting go to enable our ministry, living and Church to be grounded in contem plation. Priests are called both to be and to do, finding what is life-giving and doing it; but also, by their sheer holiness, drawing in others to do tasks they cannot or should not do.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith poignant examples from his ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge, Peterborough and Salisbury, Cowley is blisteringly honest about when ministry was sheer hard slog, when he projected a 'false self' and failed to 'let go and let God'. The varied strategies that he outlines to reconnect with contemplative ministry have a hard-won and grounded feel.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is a galaxy of quotations. Billy Connolly sees vocation as akin to wandering through a city centre and noting which shop window you are drawn to. Eugene Peterson avoids burnout by diarising two-hour appointments with FD three times per week. FD stands for Fyodor Dostoevsky!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe best was from Henri Nouwen: 'The leader of the future will be the one who dares to claim his irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows him or her to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success and to bring the light of Jesus there.' That rules Henri out of the Lambeth Talent Pool, then.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Rt Revd David Wilbourne is the Assistant Bishop of Llandaff\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader Spring 2016\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'Remember, Ian, being comes before doing'. These words spoken to the author as a young man are at the heart of this volume. Subtitled 'Learning to lead from the still centre' Cowley is at pains to stress that this is not dependent on outward circumstances, and that we do not need to go out of the world to find God. Seven distinct sections take us on a journey from vocation, through contemplative ministry, prayer, being rooted in Jesus, letting go, contemplative living, and becoming a contemplative church. The book contains not only the author's personal experience but also is full of thought provoking examples and references which will inspire us on our own journey. Written primarily for clergy, there is more than enough food for thought for both established Readers and those seeking their calling. A compelling read at whatever stage of ministry we may be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLiz Pacey\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e: Learning to lead from the still centre by Ian Cowley Reading is a book for our time, fit for reading over Christmas, before you head back into the maelstrom, to survive the pressures on your time. All of us are ministers; all of us need to be contemplatives. This book, by an evangelically-minded Anglican priest who has imbibed some of the riches of the Catholic tradition of spirituality, is for you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp style=\"font-size: 15px; text-align: left;\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNicholas King: The Tablet 10 December 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e.\u003ca title=\"The Tablet Books of the Year\" href=\"http:\/\/www.thetablet.co.uk\/books\/10\/7519\/books-of-the-year-2\"\u003eThe Tablet Books of the Year 2015\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJulian Meeting Magazine December 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI was drawn to this book by the title. As a clergy wife and long-time member of Julian Meetings it looked interesting, and I was not disappointed: much of this book is both inspiring and wise. Ian Cowley, as Vocations \u0026amp; Spiritual Adviser for the Diocese of Salisbury, developed a programme for ordained ministers. This book arose from that, so its emphasis is largely for active ministers. However, a lot in this book relates to us all whatever our vocation or calling. The book has many themes but it centres on finding the balance between 'being' and 'doing', and how the need for 'silent waiting on God' is essential in finding this balance. We are called first to a relationship with our Lord and unless that relationship is nurtured and sustained we will fail in our vocation. Alongside this Ian Cowley shows how we have to come to an understanding of our true selves: much of the time our 'false self' drives our actions, particularly our need for control and approval. So part of our journey with God is discovering the qualities of holiness and integrity. Ian Cowley is open and honest about his own experiences. As a South African he witnessed the oppression of his own people and shares insights of his ministry in this country too. I think anyone trying to follow the contemplative way will find a lot here to guide and help them. My own response was 'Alleluia': here is someone who really understands the transformative power of silence and stillness before God and can communicate this to others - quite refreshing.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eChrissie Rapsey\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom Reform Magazine - November 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is a profoundly attractive book. Ian Cowley is vocations and spirituality coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. Writing for those who exercise ordained ministry, Cowley stresses that we need to lead disciplined, consecrated lives to be effective instruments of God's peace. Daily prayer is a nonnegotiable personal discipline.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn a society obsessed with league tables and measurable success, many in ordained ministry either burn out or bail out. Cowley challenges this ethos, reminding the disciples of Jesus that being comes before doing, that we need to be rooted in the unconditional love of God.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley calls us to find our deepest identity in Christ through silence, prayer, stillness and Bible reading. To be contemplative is to see that prayer allows us to descend with the mind into the heart and there to stand before the face of the Lord, who is ever present, all seeing within you.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAccording to Cowley, the contemplative minister will only focus on three areas of ministry: Prayer, pastoral care and preaching. Cowley believes that the Church neither accepts nor understands the contemplative minister because prayer and being in the Kingdom of God cannot be easily measured. This book draws heavily on Cowley's Anglican spirituality. Though it is principally for ordained ministers, with a bit of creative imagination, all followers of Jesus will find this book helpful. Cowley's teaching in this book is both gentle and compelling, using personal testimony and judicious quotes. At a time when the United Reformed Church is trying to discern its calling for the future, this little book is worth being still with. It would be all too easy to justify our existence to the world by being busy; Cowley reminds us that, as the Church, we are called to be experts in prayer, and he wonders where, along the way, we managed to move from keeping the Sabbath to the Protestant work ethic.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eJohn Gordon is a church minister serving in the central Sussex area\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eFrom The Methodist Recorder - 30 October 2015\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is the Vocations and Spirituality co-ordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury. His new book, The Contemplative Minister - Learning to Lead from the Still Centre (Bible Reading Fellowship, GBP8.99), is addressed to ministers and priests who 'like swimmers in the open sea are only just managing to keep their heads above the waves'. There was a time when being a Christian minister or priest offered an opportunity of spending a lifetime in prayer, study, delivering sermons and exercising pastoral care within a community. Not anymore! Today the job requires such 'a heroic combination of stamina, multitasking and change management' that any awareness of God gets stifled. There are seven parts to this book - each with a couple of easily read short chapters. The whole book is written in a homely style. One can easily imagine Ian Cowley sitting with a small group of priests within the diocese and giving them the wisdom of his experience as a parish priest in South Africa, Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePart One examines vocation and the difficulty of remaining in touch with God. Parts Two and Three spell out the need for the rediscovery of our true still-centre. 'Self -management of self should occupy 50 per cent of our time'. To this end he gives helpful tips about retreats, quiet days, time sheets, quietening the body, living with uncluttered space, the daily office and use of Scripture.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom Part Four the author begins to draw out biblical insights; letting peace rule our hearts, living 'in Christ Jesus' and fighting 'our adrenaline filled existence'. From part Five onwards he focuses on letting go, establishing a 'rule of life', spiritual formation and servant leadership. The book ends by describing how one establishes a 'contemplative church'.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe lack of ecumenical perspective is the main weak ness of the book, as is its failure adequately to address the circumstances of those of us who minister among aged congregations in churches of ever declining numbers. It would be wrong, however, to suggest that this book cannot be read with profit by non-Anglicans.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf Desmond Tutu is prepared to write its Foreword, then we can be certain that the subject of this book is significant!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe Rev Tom Stuckey is a former President of the Conference.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTimely and relevant. Recommend this to any ordained minister. They will need it. Ministry is a high calling. It's not about finance, admin and committees, but primarily about prayer and service. Yet this vocation is in peril of being swamped by the mundane. Worth reading for Desmond Tutu's foreword alone!\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEddie Olliffe, Together Magazine Nov\/Dec 2015\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley writes from a background of life in Christian ministry and as someone now passionately engaged in seeking to help others thrive in ministry. This short, accessible book is filled to the brim with spiritual insight, but it is in concentrated form. You will need to take time to savour it and to reflect on it, and then find ways to implement it in your life.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley's contention is that in the increasingly demanding context of the 21st Century church a new way of being in ministry is needed, what he terms contemplative ministry - 'the call to an ever deepening relationship of love for God, to lead others into that relationship and to enable them to respond to God in loving service and mission' (p18).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe author is writing mainly for those ordained in the Anglican church, and the book is a call to return to values of the ordination service, and in particular a life of prayer. He urges fellow ministers to nurture their inner life with God and to be deeply rooted in Christ so that they can sustain themselves in the challenges of ministerial life. The rationale for this is that our being must undergird our doing, and that to have authority in our leadership we must first be willing to allow God to change and transform us by the Holy Spirit.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book is never simply theoretical in approach. Cowley provides lots of practical ways by which we can deepen our inner life, and his personal illustrations give vitality to his suggestions. He writes with a warm, compassionate tone which is never idealistic or legalistic. His passion for the contemplative life is clear, but he is humble, honest and sincere as he urges his readers to consider how they live and minister.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book though is not just about the inner life. The final section, which I found the most engaging, is about his vision for a contemplative church, a community where there is a life of prayer and deepening relationship with God, of servant ministry and living simply for the sake of others. Such a community he suggests will instinctively be missional, and this is where the future of the Church lies. I suspect his ideas here are not yet fully formed, which suggests there might well be room for a second book on The Contemplative Church.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome ministers, already aware of the importance of the inner life, will be able to integrate Cowley's teaching into their present ministry smoothly and easily. Others may find to become more contemplative they will have to make significant changes to the foundations of how they live and work. If they do so they will reap enormous benefits.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBuy this book for yourself or someone you know in ministry. It could be a life-saver. It will certainly be a life-giver.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTony Horsfall, author, freelance trainer and retreat leader\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003chr\u003e"}
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{"id":2439813759076,"title":"The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture","handle":"the-contemplative-response-leadership-and-ministry-in-a-distracted-culture","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, in the peace which Jesus promises. Jesus says to each of us in ministry, 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide, rest, dwell, in my love' (John 15:9). This book will seek to show what this might mean for those in Christian ministry in the 21st century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from the success of \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e, Ian Cowley offers new insight and greater depth for church leaders in a distracted world. Cowley emphasises that the true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, and he encourages ministers to minister to themselves as well as to others, and to ensure that, in the peace that Jesus promises, their spiritual lives don't run dry amid the pressures of the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA must-read for leaders wanting to stay the course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written A People of Hope (Highland, 1993), Going Empty Handed (Monarch, 1996) and The Transformation Principle (Kingsway, 2002). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e To read Ian's lockdown blog 'Wild times and love of God' click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Julian Meetings Magazine, April 2020. Review by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book explores being a Christian minister or leader in a 'world of ceaseless busyness, endless demands \u0026amp; seductive consumerism'. How to respond to all that drags us away from intimacy with God. How to cope with our compulsive self-centredness. How to reground ourselves: learn contentment, detachment and self-control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan considers issues of the false self: the desire to acquire, to achieve, to indulge, together with some ways to deal with them. However, the book opens with him studying theology in his native South Africa and the questions thrown up by apartheid. It closes with chapters on the contemplative heart, ending with interior silence drawing on the Rule of Taizé.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rewarding and often challenging read, it is very accessible and sympathetic and is for ALL who seek to follow Christ, not just leaders and ministers. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReview by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal, Advent 2019. Reviewed by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat we live in a distracted culture seems almost too obvious to say. Walk down a street, or sit in a railway carriage, and see how many people have their eyes glued to their phones or tablets. Sit in a restaurant and there are almost certainly fellow diners who, though sitting together, seem not to be interested in each other but only in their devices, as these things have come to be called.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mobile phone is a symbol of our present age, where old patterns of living and working, where old moralities have, in so many ways, been torn to shreds. This pattern of change is not only to be found in the affluent ‘west’ but increasingly across the whole world. Places that were once far removed from advanced technology are now no longer so. Even though there are many people who have not yet caught up or who are neglected, oppressed and set aside, those with power have now found a new means to enforce it. But it is worth noting, too, that the downtrodden are also finding ways of making themselves felt, using new technology to coordinate their protests. The symbol is set in the midst of an affluent culture that seems to set its values as being about how much one has, how successful one is in terms of work position or social status, and how much luxury and comfort a person can grasp, because therein the objectives of life seem to be set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere, in this maze, do we set our compass bearings? How do we distinguish what is false about ourselves and our milieu, and find a direction that connects with the truth of who we are as human beings? How do we meet God in the middle of all this noise? These are the vital questions which this book poses and to which it gives possible answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who was born and grew up in South Africa during the years when apartheid was at its most appalling. He has served as a parish priest in Natal and in England. Before retiring from full time ministry he spent eight years as the Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator of the Diocese of Salisbury. He has travelled widely, and soaked himself in the wisdom of Thomas Merton. He finds that by opening ourselves to the presence of God in a way that is discovered through contemplative prayer we can reset our lives to eternal, true and fundamental reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject matter of this book is of importance for anyone who is trying to follow the Christian way. It is timely, tackling essential problems of discipleship. Primarily, it is written with clergy in mind, and though written from Anglican experience, the quandaries and potential for despair that it addresses are common to clergy of all denominations. Cowley looks the problems in the face, examining them from his own personal context, as he has been 'led to reflect on my own inner life, and the ways in which I tend to respond to the demands and pressures of public ministry. In recent years I have been increasingly aware of my own desires for power and control, for safety and security and for esteem and significance, and of the ways in which these desires are able to rule my heart.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo in peace, I found myself muttering, and pray for me, a sinner, too. His approach gives the book strength, turning it from a self-help manual into a long walk of discussion and suggestion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley looks at how we — I speak, also, from my life as an Anglican priest — who are in positions of leadership, prominence and pastoral care in the Church, can so easily, and maybe willingly, become submerged into the crowd and be swept along in the currents of the day. It seems to me, moreover, that the book applies beyond the ordained ministry and will be equally helpful to lay people, the committed laity who are desperately concerned to live a life of faith in this age of distraction. He compares our situation to that of the swimmer who is caught in the surf of the Indian Ocean beaches of the South African shore, where the waves pick you up and hurl you willy-nilly. We find ourselves in an ocean of change, where new technology and inventions come along every day, making life into a perpetual catch-up, where the idea of Sabbath rest has gone out of the window. Sabbath rest, he says, is, in fact, a lifesaving self discipline which is part of the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe then talks of how, from out of this falseness which so easily infects us, we can discover God as real. He writes movingly of how, as a young white from a farming background in South Africa, who had never met black people other than as servants and farm labourers, he was confronted in his first year at university by huge questions of the relationship between God and justice. He joined the University Christian Movement — a body which was later proscribed — and mixed face to face, for the first time, with students of different racial backgrounds, who were asking very searching questions and proposing very radical answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom here grows a repeating theme of the book, the division between the false self and the real self. The false self is the one that conforms to the culture of the world and succumbs to all its lures and ambitions. The real self is the woman or man who is naked before God, brought to an understanding of their true identity, then clothed with the love of God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we begin to know ourselves we can grow into who we are created to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley discusses the blind alleys the false self can lead us into, such as the need to acquire, to achieve success and position, and to be self indulgent. He suggests remedies, like contentment, detachment and self-control. Fine — we can make resolutions but how do we keep to them? It is here, in the last section of the book, that Cowley truly shines, as he deals with how to build up our strength in God. The last four chapters are an excellent introduction to meeting God in contemplation, based on Merton’s teachings. I, for whom the understanding of contemplative prayer has been difficult and who am barely at the kindergarten stage, found them enormously helpful, especially in his relating contemplation to action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am not being adversely critical in any way when I say the book is incomplete. It strikes me, rather, as the second part of a trilogy, following on from Cowley’s earlier book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/products\/the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=c25d7cb32\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eHe helps those already grounded in their faith to recover their real selves. I wonder if the next step is to ask how we may begin to bring the riches and insights shown, even in our diminutive knowing of God, to those, the majority in the west, who have lost almost all knowledge of God and many of whom are aggressively anti-Christian. Where and how do we meet? I recently read a passage written by a leading particle physicist:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'To have a scientific mind is to respect the consensus of fact … while maintaining an open mind to the still unknown. It helps to have a humble sense of the essential mystery of the world, for the aspects that are known become even more mysterious when we examine them further. … There is not a thing in nature so ordinary that its contemplation cannot be a route to a wordless sense of wonder and gratitude just to be a part of it all.'\u003csup\u003e2\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs this a meeting point that needs to be developed, a contemplative approach to all knowledge, leading to an undreamed of unity? Fr. Cowley, please write further.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Lee Smolin: \u003cem\u003eEinstein’s Unfinished Revolution: the Search for what Lies Beyond the Quantum\u003c\/em\u003e (London: Penguin, 2019), Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis an Anglican priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He has served in various parishes in the northern half of England and, also, for seven years, in Botswana, where he came face to face with some of the struggles of Southern Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader, Autumn 2019. Review by David Gillies\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this book might be summed up in the phrase ‘how to put God at the centre of everything.’ The author tackles head on the compulsions of our consumerist culture and draws on his experience of the close links between contemplation, action and transformation to produce a very practical book for anyone (although its sub-title is ‘Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture’) who is seeking to allow God to be God in him or herself. The middle section of the book, entitled ‘The false self: the compulsions and the remedies’, invites the reader to investigate who they are and to discover their true selves; and the last section of the book is an examination of the importance of contemplative practice in opening one’s heart to the love of God. There are helpful references to all the sources quoted in the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by David Gillies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e___________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaptist Times Round up May 2019. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Ed Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subtitle for the latest book by Ian Cowley sets up beautifully one of the many challenges which we find ourselves facing in the world today: leadership and ministry in a distracted culture. It is easy to be distracted by a whole host of things, few are immune. What is more, distractions come in a variety of ways, catching each of us off guard at different times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroken into three parts, the book guides the reader to initially ground oneself once again ‘Choose this day whom you will serve’, to be aware of the pulls and strains from the world around us ‘The false self: the compulsion and the remedies’, before finally inviting the reader to connect afresh with God as the means of traversing onward: ‘The contemplative heart’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve read anything by Ian before, his style is easily readable and engaging. He writes from personal experience, open and honest to the fact that he doesn’t have it all sorted and totally together, yet never losing his focus or the heart of what he’s seeking to convey and communicate - this isn’t a book where the author takes centre stage, it being all about them. Knowledge of his previous book \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e is not a necessity by any means, although he’s obviously building on what he’s written about before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpeaking into themes of sabbath and rest, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves ‘too busy’, ‘up against it’ or ’on the treadmill’ of life unsure of what to do about this fact. Well worth taking time out to consider all Ian has to share and the impact it could have on your life and ministry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEd Jones is pastor and team leader at Battle Baptist Church in Sussex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e__________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2019-01-18T15:24:43+00:00","created_at":"2019-01-18T15:24:45+00:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"Paperback","tags":["Jan-19","Kindle","Leadership"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":21769973629028,"title":"Paperback","option1":"Paperback","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857466563","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture - Paperback","public_title":"Paperback","options":["Paperback"],"price":899,"weight":168,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857466563","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126","options":["Format"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":3238880837771,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.655,"height":650,"width":426,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126"},"aspect_ratio":0.655,"height":650,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126","width":426}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003eThe true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, in the peace which Jesus promises. Jesus says to each of us in ministry, 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide, rest, dwell, in my love' (John 15:9). This book will seek to show what this might mean for those in Christian ministry in the 21st century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from the success of \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e, Ian Cowley offers new insight and greater depth for church leaders in a distracted world. Cowley emphasises that the true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, and he encourages ministers to minister to themselves as well as to others, and to ensure that, in the peace that Jesus promises, their spiritual lives don't run dry amid the pressures of the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA must-read for leaders wanting to stay the course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written A People of Hope (Highland, 1993), Going Empty Handed (Monarch, 1996) and The Transformation Principle (Kingsway, 2002). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e To read Ian's lockdown blog 'Wild times and love of God' click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Julian Meetings Magazine, April 2020. Review by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book explores being a Christian minister or leader in a 'world of ceaseless busyness, endless demands \u0026amp; seductive consumerism'. How to respond to all that drags us away from intimacy with God. How to cope with our compulsive self-centredness. How to reground ourselves: learn contentment, detachment and self-control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan considers issues of the false self: the desire to acquire, to achieve, to indulge, together with some ways to deal with them. However, the book opens with him studying theology in his native South Africa and the questions thrown up by apartheid. It closes with chapters on the contemplative heart, ending with interior silence drawing on the Rule of Taizé.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rewarding and often challenging read, it is very accessible and sympathetic and is for ALL who seek to follow Christ, not just leaders and ministers. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReview by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal, Advent 2019. Reviewed by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat we live in a distracted culture seems almost too obvious to say. Walk down a street, or sit in a railway carriage, and see how many people have their eyes glued to their phones or tablets. Sit in a restaurant and there are almost certainly fellow diners who, though sitting together, seem not to be interested in each other but only in their devices, as these things have come to be called.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mobile phone is a symbol of our present age, where old patterns of living and working, where old moralities have, in so many ways, been torn to shreds. This pattern of change is not only to be found in the affluent ‘west’ but increasingly across the whole world. Places that were once far removed from advanced technology are now no longer so. Even though there are many people who have not yet caught up or who are neglected, oppressed and set aside, those with power have now found a new means to enforce it. But it is worth noting, too, that the downtrodden are also finding ways of making themselves felt, using new technology to coordinate their protests. The symbol is set in the midst of an affluent culture that seems to set its values as being about how much one has, how successful one is in terms of work position or social status, and how much luxury and comfort a person can grasp, because therein the objectives of life seem to be set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere, in this maze, do we set our compass bearings? How do we distinguish what is false about ourselves and our milieu, and find a direction that connects with the truth of who we are as human beings? How do we meet God in the middle of all this noise? These are the vital questions which this book poses and to which it gives possible answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who was born and grew up in South Africa during the years when apartheid was at its most appalling. He has served as a parish priest in Natal and in England. Before retiring from full time ministry he spent eight years as the Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator of the Diocese of Salisbury. He has travelled widely, and soaked himself in the wisdom of Thomas Merton. He finds that by opening ourselves to the presence of God in a way that is discovered through contemplative prayer we can reset our lives to eternal, true and fundamental reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject matter of this book is of importance for anyone who is trying to follow the Christian way. It is timely, tackling essential problems of discipleship. Primarily, it is written with clergy in mind, and though written from Anglican experience, the quandaries and potential for despair that it addresses are common to clergy of all denominations. Cowley looks the problems in the face, examining them from his own personal context, as he has been 'led to reflect on my own inner life, and the ways in which I tend to respond to the demands and pressures of public ministry. In recent years I have been increasingly aware of my own desires for power and control, for safety and security and for esteem and significance, and of the ways in which these desires are able to rule my heart.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo in peace, I found myself muttering, and pray for me, a sinner, too. His approach gives the book strength, turning it from a self-help manual into a long walk of discussion and suggestion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley looks at how we — I speak, also, from my life as an Anglican priest — who are in positions of leadership, prominence and pastoral care in the Church, can so easily, and maybe willingly, become submerged into the crowd and be swept along in the currents of the day. It seems to me, moreover, that the book applies beyond the ordained ministry and will be equally helpful to lay people, the committed laity who are desperately concerned to live a life of faith in this age of distraction. He compares our situation to that of the swimmer who is caught in the surf of the Indian Ocean beaches of the South African shore, where the waves pick you up and hurl you willy-nilly. We find ourselves in an ocean of change, where new technology and inventions come along every day, making life into a perpetual catch-up, where the idea of Sabbath rest has gone out of the window. Sabbath rest, he says, is, in fact, a lifesaving self discipline which is part of the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe then talks of how, from out of this falseness which so easily infects us, we can discover God as real. He writes movingly of how, as a young white from a farming background in South Africa, who had never met black people other than as servants and farm labourers, he was confronted in his first year at university by huge questions of the relationship between God and justice. He joined the University Christian Movement — a body which was later proscribed — and mixed face to face, for the first time, with students of different racial backgrounds, who were asking very searching questions and proposing very radical answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom here grows a repeating theme of the book, the division between the false self and the real self. The false self is the one that conforms to the culture of the world and succumbs to all its lures and ambitions. The real self is the woman or man who is naked before God, brought to an understanding of their true identity, then clothed with the love of God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we begin to know ourselves we can grow into who we are created to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley discusses the blind alleys the false self can lead us into, such as the need to acquire, to achieve success and position, and to be self indulgent. He suggests remedies, like contentment, detachment and self-control. Fine — we can make resolutions but how do we keep to them? It is here, in the last section of the book, that Cowley truly shines, as he deals with how to build up our strength in God. The last four chapters are an excellent introduction to meeting God in contemplation, based on Merton’s teachings. I, for whom the understanding of contemplative prayer has been difficult and who am barely at the kindergarten stage, found them enormously helpful, especially in his relating contemplation to action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am not being adversely critical in any way when I say the book is incomplete. It strikes me, rather, as the second part of a trilogy, following on from Cowley’s earlier book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/products\/the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=c25d7cb32\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eHe helps those already grounded in their faith to recover their real selves. I wonder if the next step is to ask how we may begin to bring the riches and insights shown, even in our diminutive knowing of God, to those, the majority in the west, who have lost almost all knowledge of God and many of whom are aggressively anti-Christian. Where and how do we meet? I recently read a passage written by a leading particle physicist:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'To have a scientific mind is to respect the consensus of fact … while maintaining an open mind to the still unknown. It helps to have a humble sense of the essential mystery of the world, for the aspects that are known become even more mysterious when we examine them further. … There is not a thing in nature so ordinary that its contemplation cannot be a route to a wordless sense of wonder and gratitude just to be a part of it all.'\u003csup\u003e2\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs this a meeting point that needs to be developed, a contemplative approach to all knowledge, leading to an undreamed of unity? Fr. Cowley, please write further.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Lee Smolin: \u003cem\u003eEinstein’s Unfinished Revolution: the Search for what Lies Beyond the Quantum\u003c\/em\u003e (London: Penguin, 2019), Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis an Anglican priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He has served in various parishes in the northern half of England and, also, for seven years, in Botswana, where he came face to face with some of the struggles of Southern Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader, Autumn 2019. Review by David Gillies\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this book might be summed up in the phrase ‘how to put God at the centre of everything.’ The author tackles head on the compulsions of our consumerist culture and draws on his experience of the close links between contemplation, action and transformation to produce a very practical book for anyone (although its sub-title is ‘Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture’) who is seeking to allow God to be God in him or herself. The middle section of the book, entitled ‘The false self: the compulsions and the remedies’, invites the reader to investigate who they are and to discover their true selves; and the last section of the book is an examination of the importance of contemplative practice in opening one’s heart to the love of God. There are helpful references to all the sources quoted in the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by David Gillies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e___________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaptist Times Round up May 2019. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Ed Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subtitle for the latest book by Ian Cowley sets up beautifully one of the many challenges which we find ourselves facing in the world today: leadership and ministry in a distracted culture. It is easy to be distracted by a whole host of things, few are immune. What is more, distractions come in a variety of ways, catching each of us off guard at different times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroken into three parts, the book guides the reader to initially ground oneself once again ‘Choose this day whom you will serve’, to be aware of the pulls and strains from the world around us ‘The false self: the compulsion and the remedies’, before finally inviting the reader to connect afresh with God as the means of traversing onward: ‘The contemplative heart’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve read anything by Ian before, his style is easily readable and engaging. He writes from personal experience, open and honest to the fact that he doesn’t have it all sorted and totally together, yet never losing his focus or the heart of what he’s seeking to convey and communicate - this isn’t a book where the author takes centre stage, it being all about them. Knowledge of his previous book \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e is not a necessity by any means, although he’s obviously building on what he’s written about before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpeaking into themes of sabbath and rest, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves ‘too busy’, ‘up against it’ or ’on the treadmill’ of life unsure of what to do about this fact. Well worth taking time out to consider all Ian has to share and the impact it could have on your life and ministry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEd Jones is pastor and team leader at Battle Baptist Church in Sussex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e__________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e"}
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The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture
£8.99
The true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, in the peace which Jesus promises. Jesus says...
{"id":14777138282876,"title":"The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture","handle":"the-contemplative-response-leadership-and-ministry-in-a-distracted-culture-1","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, in the peace which Jesus promises. Jesus says to each of us in ministry, 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide, rest, dwell, in my love' (John 15:9). This book will seek to show what this might mean for those in Christian ministry in the 21st century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from the success of \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e, Ian Cowley offers new insight and greater depth for church leaders in a distracted world. Cowley emphasises that the true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, and he encourages ministers to minister to themselves as well as to others, and to ensure that, in the peace that Jesus promises, their spiritual lives don't run dry amid the pressures of the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA must-read for leaders wanting to stay the course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written A People of Hope (Highland, 1993), Going Empty Handed (Monarch, 1996) and The Transformation Principle (Kingsway, 2002). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e To read Ian's lockdown blog 'Wild times and love of God' click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Julian Meetings Magazine, April 2020. Review by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book explores being a Christian minister or leader in a 'world of ceaseless busyness, endless demands \u0026amp; seductive consumerism'. How to respond to all that drags us away from intimacy with God. How to cope with our compulsive self-centredness. How to reground ourselves: learn contentment, detachment and self-control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan considers issues of the false self: the desire to acquire, to achieve, to indulge, together with some ways to deal with them. However, the book opens with him studying theology in his native South Africa and the questions thrown up by apartheid. It closes with chapters on the contemplative heart, ending with interior silence drawing on the Rule of Taizé.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rewarding and often challenging read, it is very accessible and sympathetic and is for ALL who seek to follow Christ, not just leaders and ministers. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReview by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal, Advent 2019. Reviewed by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat we live in a distracted culture seems almost too obvious to say. Walk down a street, or sit in a railway carriage, and see how many people have their eyes glued to their phones or tablets. Sit in a restaurant and there are almost certainly fellow diners who, though sitting together, seem not to be interested in each other but only in their devices, as these things have come to be called.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mobile phone is a symbol of our present age, where old patterns of living and working, where old moralities have, in so many ways, been torn to shreds. This pattern of change is not only to be found in the affluent ‘west’ but increasingly across the whole world. Places that were once far removed from advanced technology are now no longer so. Even though there are many people who have not yet caught up or who are neglected, oppressed and set aside, those with power have now found a new means to enforce it. But it is worth noting, too, that the downtrodden are also finding ways of making themselves felt, using new technology to coordinate their protests. The symbol is set in the midst of an affluent culture that seems to set its values as being about how much one has, how successful one is in terms of work position or social status, and how much luxury and comfort a person can grasp, because therein the objectives of life seem to be set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere, in this maze, do we set our compass bearings? How do we distinguish what is false about ourselves and our milieu, and find a direction that connects with the truth of who we are as human beings? How do we meet God in the middle of all this noise? These are the vital questions which this book poses and to which it gives possible answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who was born and grew up in South Africa during the years when apartheid was at its most appalling. He has served as a parish priest in Natal and in England. Before retiring from full time ministry he spent eight years as the Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator of the Diocese of Salisbury. He has travelled widely, and soaked himself in the wisdom of Thomas Merton. He finds that by opening ourselves to the presence of God in a way that is discovered through contemplative prayer we can reset our lives to eternal, true and fundamental reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject matter of this book is of importance for anyone who is trying to follow the Christian way. It is timely, tackling essential problems of discipleship. Primarily, it is written with clergy in mind, and though written from Anglican experience, the quandaries and potential for despair that it addresses are common to clergy of all denominations. Cowley looks the problems in the face, examining them from his own personal context, as he has been 'led to reflect on my own inner life, and the ways in which I tend to respond to the demands and pressures of public ministry. In recent years I have been increasingly aware of my own desires for power and control, for safety and security and for esteem and significance, and of the ways in which these desires are able to rule my heart.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo in peace, I found myself muttering, and pray for me, a sinner, too. His approach gives the book strength, turning it from a self-help manual into a long walk of discussion and suggestion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley looks at how we — I speak, also, from my life as an Anglican priest — who are in positions of leadership, prominence and pastoral care in the Church, can so easily, and maybe willingly, become submerged into the crowd and be swept along in the currents of the day. It seems to me, moreover, that the book applies beyond the ordained ministry and will be equally helpful to lay people, the committed laity who are desperately concerned to live a life of faith in this age of distraction. He compares our situation to that of the swimmer who is caught in the surf of the Indian Ocean beaches of the South African shore, where the waves pick you up and hurl you willy-nilly. We find ourselves in an ocean of change, where new technology and inventions come along every day, making life into a perpetual catch-up, where the idea of Sabbath rest has gone out of the window. Sabbath rest, he says, is, in fact, a lifesaving self discipline which is part of the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe then talks of how, from out of this falseness which so easily infects us, we can discover God as real. He writes movingly of how, as a young white from a farming background in South Africa, who had never met black people other than as servants and farm labourers, he was confronted in his first year at university by huge questions of the relationship between God and justice. He joined the University Christian Movement — a body which was later proscribed — and mixed face to face, for the first time, with students of different racial backgrounds, who were asking very searching questions and proposing very radical answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom here grows a repeating theme of the book, the division between the false self and the real self. The false self is the one that conforms to the culture of the world and succumbs to all its lures and ambitions. The real self is the woman or man who is naked before God, brought to an understanding of their true identity, then clothed with the love of God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we begin to know ourselves we can grow into who we are created to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley discusses the blind alleys the false self can lead us into, such as the need to acquire, to achieve success and position, and to be self indulgent. He suggests remedies, like contentment, detachment and self-control. Fine — we can make resolutions but how do we keep to them? It is here, in the last section of the book, that Cowley truly shines, as he deals with how to build up our strength in God. The last four chapters are an excellent introduction to meeting God in contemplation, based on Merton’s teachings. I, for whom the understanding of contemplative prayer has been difficult and who am barely at the kindergarten stage, found them enormously helpful, especially in his relating contemplation to action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am not being adversely critical in any way when I say the book is incomplete. It strikes me, rather, as the second part of a trilogy, following on from Cowley’s earlier book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/products\/the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=c25d7cb32\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eHe helps those already grounded in their faith to recover their real selves. I wonder if the next step is to ask how we may begin to bring the riches and insights shown, even in our diminutive knowing of God, to those, the majority in the west, who have lost almost all knowledge of God and many of whom are aggressively anti-Christian. Where and how do we meet? I recently read a passage written by a leading particle physicist:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'To have a scientific mind is to respect the consensus of fact … while maintaining an open mind to the still unknown. It helps to have a humble sense of the essential mystery of the world, for the aspects that are known become even more mysterious when we examine them further. … There is not a thing in nature so ordinary that its contemplation cannot be a route to a wordless sense of wonder and gratitude just to be a part of it all.'\u003csup\u003e2\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs this a meeting point that needs to be developed, a contemplative approach to all knowledge, leading to an undreamed of unity? Fr. Cowley, please write further.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Lee Smolin: \u003cem\u003eEinstein’s Unfinished Revolution: the Search for what Lies Beyond the Quantum\u003c\/em\u003e (London: Penguin, 2019), Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis an Anglican priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He has served in various parishes in the northern half of England and, also, for seven years, in Botswana, where he came face to face with some of the struggles of Southern Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader, Autumn 2019. Review by David Gillies\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this book might be summed up in the phrase ‘how to put God at the centre of everything.’ The author tackles head on the compulsions of our consumerist culture and draws on his experience of the close links between contemplation, action and transformation to produce a very practical book for anyone (although its sub-title is ‘Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture’) who is seeking to allow God to be God in him or herself. The middle section of the book, entitled ‘The false self: the compulsions and the remedies’, invites the reader to investigate who they are and to discover their true selves; and the last section of the book is an examination of the importance of contemplative practice in opening one’s heart to the love of God. There are helpful references to all the sources quoted in the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by David Gillies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e___________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaptist Times Round up May 2019. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Ed Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subtitle for the latest book by Ian Cowley sets up beautifully one of the many challenges which we find ourselves facing in the world today: leadership and ministry in a distracted culture. It is easy to be distracted by a whole host of things, few are immune. What is more, distractions come in a variety of ways, catching each of us off guard at different times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroken into three parts, the book guides the reader to initially ground oneself once again ‘Choose this day whom you will serve’, to be aware of the pulls and strains from the world around us ‘The false self: the compulsion and the remedies’, before finally inviting the reader to connect afresh with God as the means of traversing onward: ‘The contemplative heart’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve read anything by Ian before, his style is easily readable and engaging. He writes from personal experience, open and honest to the fact that he doesn’t have it all sorted and totally together, yet never losing his focus or the heart of what he’s seeking to convey and communicate - this isn’t a book where the author takes centre stage, it being all about them. Knowledge of his previous book \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e is not a necessity by any means, although he’s obviously building on what he’s written about before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpeaking into themes of sabbath and rest, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves ‘too busy’, ‘up against it’ or ’on the treadmill’ of life unsure of what to do about this fact. Well worth taking time out to consider all Ian has to share and the impact it could have on your life and ministry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEd Jones is pastor and team leader at Battle Baptist Church in Sussex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e__________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2024-10-29T09:32:38+00:00","created_at":"2024-10-29T09:31:48+00:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"eBook","tags":["Glassboxx","Jan-19","Leadership"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":53603638804860,"title":"eBook","option1":"eBook","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857466570","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture - eBook","public_title":"eBook","options":["eBook"],"price":899,"weight":168,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857466570","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126","\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/212.png?v=1730980397","\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/213.png?v=1730980389"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126","options":["Format"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":3238880837771,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.655,"height":650,"width":426,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126"},"aspect_ratio":0.655,"height":650,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857466563-l.jpg?v=1549043126","width":426},{"alt":null,"id":63001504416124,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/212.png?v=1730980397"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/212.png?v=1730980397","width":1303},{"alt":null,"id":63001502384508,"position":3,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/213.png?v=1730980389"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/213.png?v=1730980389","width":1303}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eThe true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, in the peace which Jesus promises. Jesus says to each of us in ministry, 'As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide, rest, dwell, in my love' (John 15:9). This book will seek to show what this might mean for those in Christian ministry in the 21st century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from the success of \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e, Ian Cowley offers new insight and greater depth for church leaders in a distracted world. Cowley emphasises that the true self finds peace in resting in the love of God, and he encourages ministers to minister to themselves as well as to others, and to ensure that, in the peace that Jesus promises, their spiritual lives don't run dry amid the pressures of the job.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA must-read for leaders wanting to stay the course.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator for the Diocese of Salisbury and set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme, which has been greatly appreciated by many clergy. He has also written A People of Hope (Highland, 1993), Going Empty Handed (Monarch, 1996) and The Transformation Principle (Kingsway, 2002). He has been a parish priest in Natal, South Africa, and also in Cambridge and Peterborough.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e To read Ian's lockdown blog 'Wild times and love of God' click \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/blogs\/collections\/wild-times-and-the-love-of-god\"\u003ehere\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eMedia reviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Julian Meetings Magazine, April 2020. Review by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis book explores being a Christian minister or leader in a 'world of ceaseless busyness, endless demands \u0026amp; seductive consumerism'. How to respond to all that drags us away from intimacy with God. How to cope with our compulsive self-centredness. How to reground ourselves: learn contentment, detachment and self-control.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan considers issues of the false self: the desire to acquire, to achieve, to indulge, together with some ways to deal with them. However, the book opens with him studying theology in his native South Africa and the questions thrown up by apartheid. It closes with chapters on the contemplative heart, ending with interior silence drawing on the Rule of Taizé.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA rewarding and often challenging read, it is very accessible and sympathetic and is for ALL who seek to follow Christ, not just leaders and ministers. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReview by Gail Ballinger\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal, Advent 2019. Reviewed by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThat we live in a distracted culture seems almost too obvious to say. Walk down a street, or sit in a railway carriage, and see how many people have their eyes glued to their phones or tablets. Sit in a restaurant and there are almost certainly fellow diners who, though sitting together, seem not to be interested in each other but only in their devices, as these things have come to be called.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe mobile phone is a symbol of our present age, where old patterns of living and working, where old moralities have, in so many ways, been torn to shreds. This pattern of change is not only to be found in the affluent ‘west’ but increasingly across the whole world. Places that were once far removed from advanced technology are now no longer so. Even though there are many people who have not yet caught up or who are neglected, oppressed and set aside, those with power have now found a new means to enforce it. But it is worth noting, too, that the downtrodden are also finding ways of making themselves felt, using new technology to coordinate their protests. The symbol is set in the midst of an affluent culture that seems to set its values as being about how much one has, how successful one is in terms of work position or social status, and how much luxury and comfort a person can grasp, because therein the objectives of life seem to be set.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhere, in this maze, do we set our compass bearings? How do we distinguish what is false about ourselves and our milieu, and find a direction that connects with the truth of who we are as human beings? How do we meet God in the middle of all this noise? These are the vital questions which this book poses and to which it gives possible answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who was born and grew up in South Africa during the years when apartheid was at its most appalling. He has served as a parish priest in Natal and in England. Before retiring from full time ministry he spent eight years as the Vocations and Spirituality Coordinator of the Diocese of Salisbury. He has travelled widely, and soaked himself in the wisdom of Thomas Merton. He finds that by opening ourselves to the presence of God in a way that is discovered through contemplative prayer we can reset our lives to eternal, true and fundamental reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subject matter of this book is of importance for anyone who is trying to follow the Christian way. It is timely, tackling essential problems of discipleship. Primarily, it is written with clergy in mind, and though written from Anglican experience, the quandaries and potential for despair that it addresses are common to clergy of all denominations. Cowley looks the problems in the face, examining them from his own personal context, as he has been 'led to reflect on my own inner life, and the ways in which I tend to respond to the demands and pressures of public ministry. In recent years I have been increasingly aware of my own desires for power and control, for safety and security and for esteem and significance, and of the ways in which these desires are able to rule my heart.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eGo in peace, I found myself muttering, and pray for me, a sinner, too. His approach gives the book strength, turning it from a self-help manual into a long walk of discussion and suggestion.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley looks at how we — I speak, also, from my life as an Anglican priest — who are in positions of leadership, prominence and pastoral care in the Church, can so easily, and maybe willingly, become submerged into the crowd and be swept along in the currents of the day. It seems to me, moreover, that the book applies beyond the ordained ministry and will be equally helpful to lay people, the committed laity who are desperately concerned to live a life of faith in this age of distraction. He compares our situation to that of the swimmer who is caught in the surf of the Indian Ocean beaches of the South African shore, where the waves pick you up and hurl you willy-nilly. We find ourselves in an ocean of change, where new technology and inventions come along every day, making life into a perpetual catch-up, where the idea of Sabbath rest has gone out of the window. Sabbath rest, he says, is, in fact, a lifesaving self discipline which is part of the answer.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHe then talks of how, from out of this falseness which so easily infects us, we can discover God as real. He writes movingly of how, as a young white from a farming background in South Africa, who had never met black people other than as servants and farm labourers, he was confronted in his first year at university by huge questions of the relationship between God and justice. He joined the University Christian Movement — a body which was later proscribed — and mixed face to face, for the first time, with students of different racial backgrounds, who were asking very searching questions and proposing very radical answers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFrom here grows a repeating theme of the book, the division between the false self and the real self. The false self is the one that conforms to the culture of the world and succumbs to all its lures and ambitions. The real self is the woman or man who is naked before God, brought to an understanding of their true identity, then clothed with the love of God in Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. Once we begin to know ourselves we can grow into who we are created to be.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley discusses the blind alleys the false self can lead us into, such as the need to acquire, to achieve success and position, and to be self indulgent. He suggests remedies, like contentment, detachment and self-control. Fine — we can make resolutions but how do we keep to them? It is here, in the last section of the book, that Cowley truly shines, as he deals with how to build up our strength in God. The last four chapters are an excellent introduction to meeting God in contemplation, based on Merton’s teachings. I, for whom the understanding of contemplative prayer has been difficult and who am barely at the kindergarten stage, found them enormously helpful, especially in his relating contemplation to action.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI am not being adversely critical in any way when I say the book is incomplete. It strikes me, rather, as the second part of a trilogy, following on from Cowley’s earlier book \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/products\/the-contemplative-minister-learning-to-lead-from-the-still-centre?_pos=1\u0026amp;_sid=c25d7cb32\u0026amp;_ss=r\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister: Learning to lead from the still centre\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cem\u003e. \u003c\/em\u003eHe helps those already grounded in their faith to recover their real selves. I wonder if the next step is to ask how we may begin to bring the riches and insights shown, even in our diminutive knowing of God, to those, the majority in the west, who have lost almost all knowledge of God and many of whom are aggressively anti-Christian. Where and how do we meet? I recently read a passage written by a leading particle physicist:\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'To have a scientific mind is to respect the consensus of fact … while maintaining an open mind to the still unknown. It helps to have a humble sense of the essential mystery of the world, for the aspects that are known become even more mysterious when we examine them further. … There is not a thing in nature so ordinary that its contemplation cannot be a route to a wordless sense of wonder and gratitude just to be a part of it all.'\u003csup\u003e2\u003c\/sup\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIs this a meeting point that needs to be developed, a contemplative approach to all knowledge, leading to an undreamed of unity? Fr. Cowley, please write further.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Lee Smolin: \u003cem\u003eEinstein’s Unfinished Revolution: the Search for what Lies Beyond the Quantum\u003c\/em\u003e (London: Penguin, 2019), Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis an Anglican priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He has served in various parishes in the northern half of England and, also, for seven years, in Botswana, where he came face to face with some of the struggles of Southern Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Reader, Autumn 2019. Review by David Gillies\u003c\/strong\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe purpose of this book might be summed up in the phrase ‘how to put God at the centre of everything.’ The author tackles head on the compulsions of our consumerist culture and draws on his experience of the close links between contemplation, action and transformation to produce a very practical book for anyone (although its sub-title is ‘Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture’) who is seeking to allow God to be God in him or herself. The middle section of the book, entitled ‘The false self: the compulsions and the remedies’, invites the reader to investigate who they are and to discover their true selves; and the last section of the book is an examination of the importance of contemplative practice in opening one’s heart to the love of God. There are helpful references to all the sources quoted in the book.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by David Gillies\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e___________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBaptist Times Round up May 2019. \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Ed Jones\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe subtitle for the latest book by Ian Cowley sets up beautifully one of the many challenges which we find ourselves facing in the world today: leadership and ministry in a distracted culture. It is easy to be distracted by a whole host of things, few are immune. What is more, distractions come in a variety of ways, catching each of us off guard at different times.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBroken into three parts, the book guides the reader to initially ground oneself once again ‘Choose this day whom you will serve’, to be aware of the pulls and strains from the world around us ‘The false self: the compulsion and the remedies’, before finally inviting the reader to connect afresh with God as the means of traversing onward: ‘The contemplative heart’.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIf you’ve read anything by Ian before, his style is easily readable and engaging. He writes from personal experience, open and honest to the fact that he doesn’t have it all sorted and totally together, yet never losing his focus or the heart of what he’s seeking to convey and communicate - this isn’t a book where the author takes centre stage, it being all about them. Knowledge of his previous book \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Minister\u003c\/em\u003e is not a necessity by any means, although he’s obviously building on what he’s written about before.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSpeaking into themes of sabbath and rest, I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who finds themselves ‘too busy’, ‘up against it’ or ’on the treadmill’ of life unsure of what to do about this fact. Well worth taking time out to consider all Ian has to share and the impact it could have on your life and ministry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eEd Jones is pastor and team leader at Battle Baptist Church in Sussex\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e__________________________________________\u003c\/p\u003e"}
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The Contemplative Response: Leadership and ministry in a distracted culture
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{"id":5785318686872,"title":"The Contemplative Struggle: Radical discipleship in a broken world","handle":"the-contemplative-struggle-radical-discipleship-in-a-broken-world","description":"\u003cp\u003eHow do we embrace and work out our call to be disciples in a broken world? In \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e Ian Cowley sets the central themes of the gospel of John alongside each other – abiding in Christ, conflict, light and darkness, obedience, loving one another – and explores how these can be reconciled in daily life. Drawing on his experience of living in his native South Africa during the apartheid era and challenging understandings of contemplative prayer and spirituality as essentially inward-looking, he highlights the urgent need for Christians to be active in bringing transformation to a suffering world and paints a compelling picture of radical discipleship for today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Just as we are all meant to be contemplatives and to hear the voice of God in our lives, we are all meant to answer God’s call to be his partners in transfiguring the world. This calling, this encounter with God, is always to send us into the midst of human suffering.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who has served in parish ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge and Peterborough. From 2008 to 2016 he was Coordinator of Spirituality and Vocations in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme. He is the author of five books on spirituality, discipleship and the local church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is a much-needed book: the story of the battle against racism, injustice, poverty, held in tension with the necessity of time for contemplation. We need to hear it – there is much here that applies to our world today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEsther de Waal, writer and scholar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI do appreciate Ian Cowley’s interleaving of storytelling with spiritual reflection. It is good to have the story of UCM told to a wider audience than South Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan’s tribute to Steve Biko is welcome and true, and so is his account of white students’ struggle on the matter of conscription.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis major concern with contemplation fits well into his account of this crucial time in the South African church struggle... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn D Davies, former bishop of Shrewsbury and one-time national chaplain of the Anglican Students’ Federation of South Africa\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat an incredible book this is! I was deeply moved reading it. It is very inspiring and ignited a hope that we can be agents of change in this world. As someone who has known the value of contemplative prayer and practice in my own life, it felt like a gentle call back to that which I know and love, without being remotely judgemental. In fact, the whole book brings a wonderful balance of challenge without condemnation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that all who read this book will examine afresh their response to the issues raised and explore the riches of contemplative prayer for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLouise Rose, community projects manager, Fresh Hope Ministry, Stamford\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e is a generous gift and a profound challenge. Ian Cowley draws on a deep well of (sometimes painful) personal experience to pour out this vision of contemplation in action. If you’re tired of rootless activism and otherworldly spirituality, and you’re looking for the common ground where prayer and protest can flourish, you need to read this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Webb, deputy warden of Launde Abbey and author of \u003cem\u003eGod Soaked Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eReviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTransforming Ministry Winter 2021. Review by Margaret Ives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are many books about contemplative prayer as a way of finding one’s true self in an experience of the Divine Presence. This book is unusual in that, while it proclaims that the constant awareness of God in our lives is essential, this is not sufficient to solve our current problems unless it inspires us to ‘radical discipleship in a broken world’. Growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Cowley came to realise that ‘being rooted and grounded in love’ is not a hidden treasure, but must be demonstrated in action against racism and injustice. Looking back, he remembers how hope in God, arising from contemplative prayer, enabled him to work alongside the black consciousness movement in their struggle to change the system, even though the odds were against them. Similarly, he believes, Christians today must use a heightened awareness of God’s love for everything in creation to join with those combating climate change and environmental disaster. This is an inspirational book which does not get bogged down in polemics, but offers a guide to contemplative prayer and some practical steps we can all take towards saving the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by Margaret Ives\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal Advent 2021 (Volume 28 no 2). Review by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow ephemeral, and how localised, is our consciousness of history. That is why there have to be historians and history departments, because, so easily, what we know of the horrors some people are living through either goes quickly to the back of the mind or, by the next generation, becomes an unknown. Our attitude of localisation means that what happens to others may seem to have nothing to do with us. So Jewish people, for instance, have to campaign to keep the memory of the holocaust alive, and, while there may be an especially tense rivalry in games of football between England and Germany, how many remember what fascism really meant as a threat to the world? And Tiananmen Square?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI say this because Ian Cowley's short but powerful book finds the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eorigins of what was, to him, the revelation of prayer as contemplation, in the racial cauldron of South Africa in the depths of the apartheid regime of the last century.1 His epiphany came through the University Christian Movement when he was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzberg in the 1970s. There he came to understand the terrible sinfulness of the racial divide that ruled South Africa, and his life's course was changed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor me, Cowley's vivid account of South African life was a revision lesson. I was serving in Botswana at that time and, although it was a country with a quite different ethos, we in the Church were not isolated and were very aware of what was going on with our neighbours, not only South Africa but Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well. I became peripherally involved in some anti-apartheid activity that crossed the border and drew me in, so I relate to Cowley's descriptions. I knew some of the people he talks about, and reading his book I was taken back to a time which, while key in my life, has been overlaid by layers of subsequent life and work. Even experience has an ephemeral quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHence the thoughts about the ephemeral quality of contemporary\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehistory. Who remembers even the word apartheid now, other than in an intellectual sense, apart from those who suffered it? The question applies even more strongly to those who are not South Africans. While there were, in Britain, some noble anti-apartheid activists who helped to cause profound change, their activity was outside the main stream of life and often looked upon with suspicion. Most people got on with life without worrying about South Africa. Now, bar Covid, that country is a favourite of tourists, who return to Europe unbrushed by a history that was all consuming at the time and still has many offshoots. Most were unborn when apartheid reigned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to ask, then, whether for Cowley to use his South African life as a base for his argument is too esoteric. I hope not and I am sure it need not be, for not only does it gain great strength from being so personal, but it also makes us think into situations beyond our own circles. To think ourselves into apartheid South Africa is a good exercise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'There were giants on the earth in those days' is a quotation which comes to mind.2 South Africa was then, and still is, an extraordinary country, captivating, in the sense of drawing you in until you are engrossed. It is a land of wonderful beauty but what astounded me even more were the people one met. The mass of the people are a very interesting historical and anthropological mix, with their histories, cultures and divisions, but I will concentrate on two smaller sets: those implementing the apartheid policy and those who opposed them, struggling for what was later called, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a \u003cstrong\u003e'rainbow nation'.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first thing to say is that these people were honed by apartheid. The giant of apartheid was Hendrick Vervoerd, the SA president who was assassinated in 1966. He gave the philosophical basis to the National Party's policy of racial separation and white dominance, which was implemented ruthlessly. It was a giant endeavour, and the skills developed by the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) were second to none. Their use of technology was as sophisticated as possible for that time, and their information gathering work was everywhere. Furthermore, they knew what was going on elsewhere in the world, and could use it very cleverly in persuading people to conform.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe resistors were also people of exceptional knowledge, understanding and courage. There are great names: Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Helen Suzman, the Black Sash leaders, Beyers Naude, Trevor Huddlestone, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, to name but a few. But there were many, many more who worked and witnessed at continual \u003cspan\u003erisk to themselves, both from BOSS and also from being denigrated by the mass of whites happy with apartheid. Organisations like the University Christian Movement (UCM) were banned and many people had their passports removed or were put under house arrest. I felt both very \u003c\/span\u003efortunate and also hugely humbled to meet some of these women and men. I did not meet Ian Cowley, but I am confident that he would be of these giants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most noticeable aspects of the struggle against apartheid and for justice was how it had such a strong Christian motivation. I have to be careful here, because Christianity was active on both sides. The Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church played a significant part in giving theological justification to apartheid, yet there were some notable DRC giants, the Bonhoeffers of their day, who rebelled against this, and were thrown out of the church. They played a great part. Nevertheless, it was very much among people from other churches that the understanding grew that the Christian law of love meant equality applied universally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley grew up on a Natal farm, with church, Anglican and formal, on Sundays, remembered as very boring. It was at university that faith caught him through the remarkable, if short lived, UCM. He describes how vibrant student worship attracted him and how he worked through the trauma - for it was a trauma - of mixing with people of other races and finding them human. After some vicissitudes, he hears his vocation to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa and eventually he comes to England, where he is first a parish priest and then Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up the Contemplative Minister Programme.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe great question that runs through the book is: what does it mean to be held firm in Christ in the centre of our being and to live with integrity in the 21st century? Through his student days he comes to see the sinfulness of the way power is held and exercised in South Africa, and to long for the justice that he discovers through his Christian faith. How does he hold the two in balance, so that the one undergirds the other? In other words, there is a double question: on the one hand, how can you be an activist, mixing in the hurly, sometimes unsavoury, burly of life and be true to Christ? On the other, how can you be true to Christ without, in some way, being mixed up in the difficult life of practising the love of neighbour in all its roughness? Through friends and mentors and the trial and error of trying to live a life for justice, with mistakes and setbacks and leaps forward, he discovers prayer as God's invitation to see the world with His eyes and to feel it as He feels it. He reads Merton and his development from longing to be solitary to understanding that the world needs the witness of the contemplative if it is ever going to overcome evil with good, and that means that the contemplative has to know and be known.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow in South Africa the struggle against apartheid is over and an enormous wickedness has been demolished. In fact, though, when one injustice is stricken, the hydra of evil raises another. A strength of Cowley's book is that it is not only a memoir but makes use of his experience to show how Christian love is showing up many other aspects of life on the planet which threaten true human living, that is living as the \u003cspan\u003epeople of God. As we are drawn in to the presence of God, how do we live with the divide of rich and poor and with other forms of inequality; with climate change; with war, national ambition and xenophobia; with the continuing oppression of peoples in many parts of the world; with homelessness in our own country? The list goes on and on. Simply, how do we help to make the world more Godly, restoring the creation which \u003c\/span\u003eHe saw was good?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemplative prayer is not shown as an opt-out but as the source of strength and ability. It is a struggle because of our fallen human nature, which is continually being pressed to sway one way or another. A hard struggle, but contemplation shows us how to 'put on the whole armour of God, for our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle \u003c\/em\u003eis written to encourage us workaday Christians as we try to follow Jesus in our daily lives. In this it certainly succeeds, and the author adds an excellent introduction to contemplative practice as an appendix.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo years ago I reviewed Ian Cowley's previous book, \u003cem\u003eThe \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eContemplative Response: Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eI suggested that it needed another volume, looking at how we can bring understanding of the love of God to the world outside the Christian community. In many ways this book does this, but may I ask Ian to set fingers to word processor once more and tackle the question of the contemplative response to the problems posed by today's atheists. When we talk of God in a universe of which astrophysics has revolutionised our understanding, how is He showing us how to talk of Him and act as His people? I find this an urgent question to stir the hearts of many. To ask an author for another book is, surely, a compliment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Apartheid was the policy of segregation and political, social, and economic\u003cbr\u003ediscrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South\u003cbr\u003eAfrica. The extreme racial segregation of apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994 and included such restrictions as where people of certain races could live or own land, what jobs they could hold, and who could and couldn't participate \u003cstrong\u003ein government.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Genesis 6:4\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Ephesians 6 :11-12.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis a priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He was in the kindergarten of contemplation in 2019 and has still to enter the reception class.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChurch Times 25.06.21. Review by John D. Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is a white South African man, born nearly 70 years ago, brought up in the benign rural environment of Natal. If he had fulfilled expectations, he would have become a conventional Anglican gentleman, a superior English-speaking member of the white race.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e But Cowley’s life took a somewhat different course. His book is primarily about spirituality; but, to convey his message, he has to tell something of his life-story. This starts with his entry into the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, to study law and business administration. By the time that he started at university, the 1959 Extension of University Education Act had taken effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis created a scattered establishment of black tribal colleges, segregated on racial and ethnic criteria. The previously ‘open’ universities, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Natal, were restricted to white students only; they became white tribal colleges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut there were vigorous national student bodies; these functioned on these segregated campuses, but they flourished as racially integrated organisations at regional and national level. For both black and white students, their conferences provided a converting experience, an alternative vision of society, where black and white people could meet as genuine friends and not only on a master\/servant basis; and this was at a time when the apartheid machine was grinding ever more successfully, and when hope for change was wearing very thin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe integrated organisations enabled the generation of courageous, independent-minded students, who were prepared to defy the expectations of parents, teachers, and government. They included the Anglican Students’ Federation and the ecumenical University Christian Movement. For Cowley, they opened up a whole new world. They brought him into contact with impressive characters of all race-groups, people such as the dynamic black students’ leader Steve Biko (who would, in my view, have become the natural successor to President Mandela, if he had not been cruelly done to death by the Security Police).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ecumenical organisations were viewed with suspicion by some other Christians, notably by Evangelicals who had been caught up in the newly arrived Charismatic Movement. For them, the ecumenical groups were unbiblical humanists, dangerous quasi-Marxists. For the ecumenical types, the Evangelicals were pietistic, concerned only with their individual salvation, indifferent to the injustices experienced by most of the population. But, for those who were impressed by the Black Consciousness influence, this hassle was merely white people’s games, irrelevant luxury. The Anglican Bishop Alphaeus Zulu summarised their position: ‘We Africans have no need of a Charismatic Movement — we have always been charismatic, without any pressure from outside.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople like Cowley were attracted by the Evangelical emphasis on conversion, but it had to include conversion from the heresies and illusions of apartheid, which were otherwise winning all the battles. A new ingredient was being discovered in the Christian mix. This was where Cowley found himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley was deeply drawn to the insights of medieval spiritual teachers such as Richard Rolle and Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton of our own day. This is the kind of commitment which underlies his book. Readers who are interested in spirituality will be attracted by his excellent summary of the discipline of contemplation. But, to get there, they will need to work through Cowley’s exploration of the demonic powers of racism, financial injustice, and indifference to the degradation of the environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis spirituality has been formed in a situation of loss, of oppression, of cruelty, when all the signs were that the powers of evil were winning. His kind of contemplation draws us to awareness of God’s critique of the disobedience in our human systems, and into commitment to the struggle for the realisation of God’s Kingdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd this is not only for South Africa; Cowley was ordained priest in his native land and served in parish ministry there. But he came to England some years ago, and has been a parish priest and adviser in spirituality in English dioceses. For South Africa and for Britain, his book provides a well-formed and personally validated guidance concerning the claims of our Creator upon our obedience and our energies. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rt Revd John D. Davies was National Chaplain to the Anglican Students’ Federation of Southern Africa, and Convener of the Council of Churches’ Commission which created the University Christian Movement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Nicholas King SJ\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eChristians are often charged with being of 'no earthly use' (because their gaze is fixed on the heavens); evangelicals find themselves accused of giving insufficient time to contemplative prayer; white Christian South Africans often have it alleged against them that their discipleship is pure self-indulgence, because they benefited so largely from the sin of apartheid; and that the Roman Catholic tradition has nothing to offer Christians today. In this splendid book, those four myths are soundly 'busted': Ian Cowley is an evangelical Christian who has given himself to transform this unjust world into something that looks like the Kingdom of God; he has for many years as a busy Anglican priest given himself over to the practice of solitary contemplative prayer (and offers some useful tips about how to approach it). More than that, he is a white South African whose Christianity drove him, at some considerable cost, to engage in student activism against the apartheid regime, and who reveals his immense admiration for Steve Biko, who died that appalling death in the hands of the SA Police. He has, moreover, drunk gratefully of the waters of the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, including Thomas a Kempis, Richard Rolle, and that remarkable Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton. He has, besides, the Protestant gift of a solid grasp of Scripture and the awareness that it can change your life. He was also alert to the dangers of environmental pollution at a time when such interests were dismissed as mindlessly sentimental “tree-hugging”. Nowadays we wish that more students had followed his example, half a century ago. This book is to be warmly recommended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2020-09-17T14:48:53+01:00","created_at":"2020-09-17T14:48:51+01:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"Paperback","tags":["Discipleship","Leadership","Mar-21","Mission"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":36353659338904,"title":"Default Title","option1":"Default Title","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857469823","requires_shipping":true,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Struggle: Radical discipleship in a broken world","public_title":null,"options":["Default Title"],"price":899,"weight":163,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857469823","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823.jpg?v=1600350533","\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823-bc.jpg?v=1600350533"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823.jpg?v=1600350533","options":["Title"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":11679577145496,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.656,"height":1524,"width":1000,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823.jpg?v=1600350533"},"aspect_ratio":0.656,"height":1524,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823.jpg?v=1600350533","width":1000},{"alt":null,"id":11679577211032,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.656,"height":1524,"width":1000,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823-bc.jpg?v=1600350533"},"aspect_ratio":0.656,"height":1524,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/products\/9780857469823-bc.jpg?v=1600350533","width":1000}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003eHow do we embrace and work out our call to be disciples in a broken world? In \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e Ian Cowley sets the central themes of the gospel of John alongside each other – abiding in Christ, conflict, light and darkness, obedience, loving one another – and explores how these can be reconciled in daily life. Drawing on his experience of living in his native South Africa during the apartheid era and challenging understandings of contemplative prayer and spirituality as essentially inward-looking, he highlights the urgent need for Christians to be active in bringing transformation to a suffering world and paints a compelling picture of radical discipleship for today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Just as we are all meant to be contemplatives and to hear the voice of God in our lives, we are all meant to answer God’s call to be his partners in transfiguring the world. This calling, this encounter with God, is always to send us into the midst of human suffering.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who has served in parish ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge and Peterborough. From 2008 to 2016 he was Coordinator of Spirituality and Vocations in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme. He is the author of five books on spirituality, discipleship and the local church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is a much-needed book: the story of the battle against racism, injustice, poverty, held in tension with the necessity of time for contemplation. We need to hear it – there is much here that applies to our world today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEsther de Waal, writer and scholar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI do appreciate Ian Cowley’s interleaving of storytelling with spiritual reflection. It is good to have the story of UCM told to a wider audience than South Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan’s tribute to Steve Biko is welcome and true, and so is his account of white students’ struggle on the matter of conscription.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis major concern with contemplation fits well into his account of this crucial time in the South African church struggle... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn D Davies, former bishop of Shrewsbury and one-time national chaplain of the Anglican Students’ Federation of South Africa\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat an incredible book this is! I was deeply moved reading it. It is very inspiring and ignited a hope that we can be agents of change in this world. As someone who has known the value of contemplative prayer and practice in my own life, it felt like a gentle call back to that which I know and love, without being remotely judgemental. In fact, the whole book brings a wonderful balance of challenge without condemnation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that all who read this book will examine afresh their response to the issues raised and explore the riches of contemplative prayer for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLouise Rose, community projects manager, Fresh Hope Ministry, Stamford\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e is a generous gift and a profound challenge. Ian Cowley draws on a deep well of (sometimes painful) personal experience to pour out this vision of contemplation in action. If you’re tired of rootless activism and otherworldly spirituality, and you’re looking for the common ground where prayer and protest can flourish, you need to read this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Webb, deputy warden of Launde Abbey and author of \u003cem\u003eGod Soaked Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eReviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTransforming Ministry Winter 2021. Review by Margaret Ives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are many books about contemplative prayer as a way of finding one’s true self in an experience of the Divine Presence. This book is unusual in that, while it proclaims that the constant awareness of God in our lives is essential, this is not sufficient to solve our current problems unless it inspires us to ‘radical discipleship in a broken world’. Growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Cowley came to realise that ‘being rooted and grounded in love’ is not a hidden treasure, but must be demonstrated in action against racism and injustice. Looking back, he remembers how hope in God, arising from contemplative prayer, enabled him to work alongside the black consciousness movement in their struggle to change the system, even though the odds were against them. Similarly, he believes, Christians today must use a heightened awareness of God’s love for everything in creation to join with those combating climate change and environmental disaster. This is an inspirational book which does not get bogged down in polemics, but offers a guide to contemplative prayer and some practical steps we can all take towards saving the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by Margaret Ives\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal Advent 2021 (Volume 28 no 2). Review by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow ephemeral, and how localised, is our consciousness of history. That is why there have to be historians and history departments, because, so easily, what we know of the horrors some people are living through either goes quickly to the back of the mind or, by the next generation, becomes an unknown. Our attitude of localisation means that what happens to others may seem to have nothing to do with us. So Jewish people, for instance, have to campaign to keep the memory of the holocaust alive, and, while there may be an especially tense rivalry in games of football between England and Germany, how many remember what fascism really meant as a threat to the world? And Tiananmen Square?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI say this because Ian Cowley's short but powerful book finds the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eorigins of what was, to him, the revelation of prayer as contemplation, in the racial cauldron of South Africa in the depths of the apartheid regime of the last century.1 His epiphany came through the University Christian Movement when he was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzberg in the 1970s. There he came to understand the terrible sinfulness of the racial divide that ruled South Africa, and his life's course was changed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor me, Cowley's vivid account of South African life was a revision lesson. I was serving in Botswana at that time and, although it was a country with a quite different ethos, we in the Church were not isolated and were very aware of what was going on with our neighbours, not only South Africa but Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well. I became peripherally involved in some anti-apartheid activity that crossed the border and drew me in, so I relate to Cowley's descriptions. I knew some of the people he talks about, and reading his book I was taken back to a time which, while key in my life, has been overlaid by layers of subsequent life and work. Even experience has an ephemeral quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHence the thoughts about the ephemeral quality of contemporary\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehistory. Who remembers even the word apartheid now, other than in an intellectual sense, apart from those who suffered it? The question applies even more strongly to those who are not South Africans. While there were, in Britain, some noble anti-apartheid activists who helped to cause profound change, their activity was outside the main stream of life and often looked upon with suspicion. Most people got on with life without worrying about South Africa. Now, bar Covid, that country is a favourite of tourists, who return to Europe unbrushed by a history that was all consuming at the time and still has many offshoots. Most were unborn when apartheid reigned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to ask, then, whether for Cowley to use his South African life as a base for his argument is too esoteric. I hope not and I am sure it need not be, for not only does it gain great strength from being so personal, but it also makes us think into situations beyond our own circles. To think ourselves into apartheid South Africa is a good exercise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'There were giants on the earth in those days' is a quotation which comes to mind.2 South Africa was then, and still is, an extraordinary country, captivating, in the sense of drawing you in until you are engrossed. It is a land of wonderful beauty but what astounded me even more were the people one met. The mass of the people are a very interesting historical and anthropological mix, with their histories, cultures and divisions, but I will concentrate on two smaller sets: those implementing the apartheid policy and those who opposed them, struggling for what was later called, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a \u003cstrong\u003e'rainbow nation'.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first thing to say is that these people were honed by apartheid. The giant of apartheid was Hendrick Vervoerd, the SA president who was assassinated in 1966. He gave the philosophical basis to the National Party's policy of racial separation and white dominance, which was implemented ruthlessly. It was a giant endeavour, and the skills developed by the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) were second to none. Their use of technology was as sophisticated as possible for that time, and their information gathering work was everywhere. Furthermore, they knew what was going on elsewhere in the world, and could use it very cleverly in persuading people to conform.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe resistors were also people of exceptional knowledge, understanding and courage. There are great names: Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Helen Suzman, the Black Sash leaders, Beyers Naude, Trevor Huddlestone, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, to name but a few. But there were many, many more who worked and witnessed at continual \u003cspan\u003erisk to themselves, both from BOSS and also from being denigrated by the mass of whites happy with apartheid. Organisations like the University Christian Movement (UCM) were banned and many people had their passports removed or were put under house arrest. I felt both very \u003c\/span\u003efortunate and also hugely humbled to meet some of these women and men. I did not meet Ian Cowley, but I am confident that he would be of these giants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most noticeable aspects of the struggle against apartheid and for justice was how it had such a strong Christian motivation. I have to be careful here, because Christianity was active on both sides. The Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church played a significant part in giving theological justification to apartheid, yet there were some notable DRC giants, the Bonhoeffers of their day, who rebelled against this, and were thrown out of the church. They played a great part. Nevertheless, it was very much among people from other churches that the understanding grew that the Christian law of love meant equality applied universally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley grew up on a Natal farm, with church, Anglican and formal, on Sundays, remembered as very boring. It was at university that faith caught him through the remarkable, if short lived, UCM. He describes how vibrant student worship attracted him and how he worked through the trauma - for it was a trauma - of mixing with people of other races and finding them human. After some vicissitudes, he hears his vocation to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa and eventually he comes to England, where he is first a parish priest and then Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up the Contemplative Minister Programme.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe great question that runs through the book is: what does it mean to be held firm in Christ in the centre of our being and to live with integrity in the 21st century? Through his student days he comes to see the sinfulness of the way power is held and exercised in South Africa, and to long for the justice that he discovers through his Christian faith. How does he hold the two in balance, so that the one undergirds the other? In other words, there is a double question: on the one hand, how can you be an activist, mixing in the hurly, sometimes unsavoury, burly of life and be true to Christ? On the other, how can you be true to Christ without, in some way, being mixed up in the difficult life of practising the love of neighbour in all its roughness? Through friends and mentors and the trial and error of trying to live a life for justice, with mistakes and setbacks and leaps forward, he discovers prayer as God's invitation to see the world with His eyes and to feel it as He feels it. He reads Merton and his development from longing to be solitary to understanding that the world needs the witness of the contemplative if it is ever going to overcome evil with good, and that means that the contemplative has to know and be known.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow in South Africa the struggle against apartheid is over and an enormous wickedness has been demolished. In fact, though, when one injustice is stricken, the hydra of evil raises another. A strength of Cowley's book is that it is not only a memoir but makes use of his experience to show how Christian love is showing up many other aspects of life on the planet which threaten true human living, that is living as the \u003cspan\u003epeople of God. As we are drawn in to the presence of God, how do we live with the divide of rich and poor and with other forms of inequality; with climate change; with war, national ambition and xenophobia; with the continuing oppression of peoples in many parts of the world; with homelessness in our own country? The list goes on and on. Simply, how do we help to make the world more Godly, restoring the creation which \u003c\/span\u003eHe saw was good?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemplative prayer is not shown as an opt-out but as the source of strength and ability. It is a struggle because of our fallen human nature, which is continually being pressed to sway one way or another. A hard struggle, but contemplation shows us how to 'put on the whole armour of God, for our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle \u003c\/em\u003eis written to encourage us workaday Christians as we try to follow Jesus in our daily lives. In this it certainly succeeds, and the author adds an excellent introduction to contemplative practice as an appendix.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo years ago I reviewed Ian Cowley's previous book, \u003cem\u003eThe \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eContemplative Response: Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eI suggested that it needed another volume, looking at how we can bring understanding of the love of God to the world outside the Christian community. In many ways this book does this, but may I ask Ian to set fingers to word processor once more and tackle the question of the contemplative response to the problems posed by today's atheists. When we talk of God in a universe of which astrophysics has revolutionised our understanding, how is He showing us how to talk of Him and act as His people? I find this an urgent question to stir the hearts of many. To ask an author for another book is, surely, a compliment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Apartheid was the policy of segregation and political, social, and economic\u003cbr\u003ediscrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South\u003cbr\u003eAfrica. The extreme racial segregation of apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994 and included such restrictions as where people of certain races could live or own land, what jobs they could hold, and who could and couldn't participate \u003cstrong\u003ein government.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Genesis 6:4\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Ephesians 6 :11-12.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis a priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He was in the kindergarten of contemplation in 2019 and has still to enter the reception class.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChurch Times 25.06.21. Review by John D. Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is a white South African man, born nearly 70 years ago, brought up in the benign rural environment of Natal. If he had fulfilled expectations, he would have become a conventional Anglican gentleman, a superior English-speaking member of the white race.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e But Cowley’s life took a somewhat different course. His book is primarily about spirituality; but, to convey his message, he has to tell something of his life-story. This starts with his entry into the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, to study law and business administration. By the time that he started at university, the 1959 Extension of University Education Act had taken effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis created a scattered establishment of black tribal colleges, segregated on racial and ethnic criteria. The previously ‘open’ universities, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Natal, were restricted to white students only; they became white tribal colleges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut there were vigorous national student bodies; these functioned on these segregated campuses, but they flourished as racially integrated organisations at regional and national level. For both black and white students, their conferences provided a converting experience, an alternative vision of society, where black and white people could meet as genuine friends and not only on a master\/servant basis; and this was at a time when the apartheid machine was grinding ever more successfully, and when hope for change was wearing very thin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe integrated organisations enabled the generation of courageous, independent-minded students, who were prepared to defy the expectations of parents, teachers, and government. They included the Anglican Students’ Federation and the ecumenical University Christian Movement. For Cowley, they opened up a whole new world. They brought him into contact with impressive characters of all race-groups, people such as the dynamic black students’ leader Steve Biko (who would, in my view, have become the natural successor to President Mandela, if he had not been cruelly done to death by the Security Police).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ecumenical organisations were viewed with suspicion by some other Christians, notably by Evangelicals who had been caught up in the newly arrived Charismatic Movement. For them, the ecumenical groups were unbiblical humanists, dangerous quasi-Marxists. For the ecumenical types, the Evangelicals were pietistic, concerned only with their individual salvation, indifferent to the injustices experienced by most of the population. But, for those who were impressed by the Black Consciousness influence, this hassle was merely white people’s games, irrelevant luxury. The Anglican Bishop Alphaeus Zulu summarised their position: ‘We Africans have no need of a Charismatic Movement — we have always been charismatic, without any pressure from outside.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople like Cowley were attracted by the Evangelical emphasis on conversion, but it had to include conversion from the heresies and illusions of apartheid, which were otherwise winning all the battles. A new ingredient was being discovered in the Christian mix. This was where Cowley found himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley was deeply drawn to the insights of medieval spiritual teachers such as Richard Rolle and Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton of our own day. This is the kind of commitment which underlies his book. Readers who are interested in spirituality will be attracted by his excellent summary of the discipline of contemplation. But, to get there, they will need to work through Cowley’s exploration of the demonic powers of racism, financial injustice, and indifference to the degradation of the environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis spirituality has been formed in a situation of loss, of oppression, of cruelty, when all the signs were that the powers of evil were winning. His kind of contemplation draws us to awareness of God’s critique of the disobedience in our human systems, and into commitment to the struggle for the realisation of God’s Kingdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd this is not only for South Africa; Cowley was ordained priest in his native land and served in parish ministry there. But he came to England some years ago, and has been a parish priest and adviser in spirituality in English dioceses. For South Africa and for Britain, his book provides a well-formed and personally validated guidance concerning the claims of our Creator upon our obedience and our energies. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rt Revd John D. Davies was National Chaplain to the Anglican Students’ Federation of Southern Africa, and Convener of the Council of Churches’ Commission which created the University Christian Movement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Nicholas King SJ\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eChristians are often charged with being of 'no earthly use' (because their gaze is fixed on the heavens); evangelicals find themselves accused of giving insufficient time to contemplative prayer; white Christian South Africans often have it alleged against them that their discipleship is pure self-indulgence, because they benefited so largely from the sin of apartheid; and that the Roman Catholic tradition has nothing to offer Christians today. In this splendid book, those four myths are soundly 'busted': Ian Cowley is an evangelical Christian who has given himself to transform this unjust world into something that looks like the Kingdom of God; he has for many years as a busy Anglican priest given himself over to the practice of solitary contemplative prayer (and offers some useful tips about how to approach it). More than that, he is a white South African whose Christianity drove him, at some considerable cost, to engage in student activism against the apartheid regime, and who reveals his immense admiration for Steve Biko, who died that appalling death in the hands of the SA Police. He has, moreover, drunk gratefully of the waters of the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, including Thomas a Kempis, Richard Rolle, and that remarkable Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton. He has, besides, the Protestant gift of a solid grasp of Scripture and the awareness that it can change your life. He was also alert to the dangers of environmental pollution at a time when such interests were dismissed as mindlessly sentimental “tree-hugging”. Nowadays we wish that more students had followed his example, half a century ago. This book is to be warmly recommended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e"}
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The Contemplative Struggle: Radical discipleship in a broken world
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How do we embrace and work out our call to be disciples in a broken world? In The Contemplative Struggle...
{"id":14777380405628,"title":"The Contemplative Struggle: Radical discipleship in a broken world","handle":"the-contemplative-struggle-radical-discipleship-in-a-broken-world-1","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eHow do we embrace and work out our call to be disciples in a broken world? In \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e Ian Cowley sets the central themes of the gospel of John alongside each other – abiding in Christ, conflict, light and darkness, obedience, loving one another – and explores how these can be reconciled in daily life. Drawing on his experience of living in his native South Africa during the apartheid era and challenging understandings of contemplative prayer and spirituality as essentially inward-looking, he highlights the urgent need for Christians to be active in bringing transformation to a suffering world and paints a compelling picture of radical discipleship for today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Just as we are all meant to be contemplatives and to hear the voice of God in our lives, we are all meant to answer God’s call to be his partners in transfiguring the world. This calling, this encounter with God, is always to send us into the midst of human suffering.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who has served in parish ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge and Peterborough. From 2008 to 2016 he was Coordinator of Spirituality and Vocations in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme. He is the author of five books on spirituality, discipleship and the local church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is a much-needed book: the story of the battle against racism, injustice, poverty, held in tension with the necessity of time for contemplation. We need to hear it – there is much here that applies to our world today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEsther de Waal, writer and scholar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI do appreciate Ian Cowley’s interleaving of storytelling with spiritual reflection. It is good to have the story of UCM told to a wider audience than South Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan’s tribute to Steve Biko is welcome and true, and so is his account of white students’ struggle on the matter of conscription.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis major concern with contemplation fits well into his account of this crucial time in the South African church struggle... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn D Davies, former bishop of Shrewsbury and one-time national chaplain of the Anglican Students’ Federation of South Africa\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat an incredible book this is! I was deeply moved reading it. It is very inspiring and ignited a hope that we can be agents of change in this world. As someone who has known the value of contemplative prayer and practice in my own life, it felt like a gentle call back to that which I know and love, without being remotely judgemental. In fact, the whole book brings a wonderful balance of challenge without condemnation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that all who read this book will examine afresh their response to the issues raised and explore the riches of contemplative prayer for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLouise Rose, community projects manager, Fresh Hope Ministry, Stamford\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e is a generous gift and a profound challenge. Ian Cowley draws on a deep well of (sometimes painful) personal experience to pour out this vision of contemplation in action. If you’re tired of rootless activism and otherworldly spirituality, and you’re looking for the common ground where prayer and protest can flourish, you need to read this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Webb, deputy warden of Launde Abbey and author of \u003cem\u003eGod Soaked Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eReviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTransforming Ministry Winter 2021. Review by Margaret Ives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are many books about contemplative prayer as a way of finding one’s true self in an experience of the Divine Presence. This book is unusual in that, while it proclaims that the constant awareness of God in our lives is essential, this is not sufficient to solve our current problems unless it inspires us to ‘radical discipleship in a broken world’. Growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Cowley came to realise that ‘being rooted and grounded in love’ is not a hidden treasure, but must be demonstrated in action against racism and injustice. Looking back, he remembers how hope in God, arising from contemplative prayer, enabled him to work alongside the black consciousness movement in their struggle to change the system, even though the odds were against them. Similarly, he believes, Christians today must use a heightened awareness of God’s love for everything in creation to join with those combating climate change and environmental disaster. This is an inspirational book which does not get bogged down in polemics, but offers a guide to contemplative prayer and some practical steps we can all take towards saving the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by Margaret Ives\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal Advent 2021 (Volume 28 no 2). Review by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow ephemeral, and how localised, is our consciousness of history. That is why there have to be historians and history departments, because, so easily, what we know of the horrors some people are living through either goes quickly to the back of the mind or, by the next generation, becomes an unknown. Our attitude of localisation means that what happens to others may seem to have nothing to do with us. So Jewish people, for instance, have to campaign to keep the memory of the holocaust alive, and, while there may be an especially tense rivalry in games of football between England and Germany, how many remember what fascism really meant as a threat to the world? And Tiananmen Square?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI say this because Ian Cowley's short but powerful book finds the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eorigins of what was, to him, the revelation of prayer as contemplation, in the racial cauldron of South Africa in the depths of the apartheid regime of the last century.1 His epiphany came through the University Christian Movement when he was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzberg in the 1970s. There he came to understand the terrible sinfulness of the racial divide that ruled South Africa, and his life's course was changed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor me, Cowley's vivid account of South African life was a revision lesson. I was serving in Botswana at that time and, although it was a country with a quite different ethos, we in the Church were not isolated and were very aware of what was going on with our neighbours, not only South Africa but Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well. I became peripherally involved in some anti-apartheid activity that crossed the border and drew me in, so I relate to Cowley's descriptions. I knew some of the people he talks about, and reading his book I was taken back to a time which, while key in my life, has been overlaid by layers of subsequent life and work. Even experience has an ephemeral quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHence the thoughts about the ephemeral quality of contemporary\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehistory. Who remembers even the word apartheid now, other than in an intellectual sense, apart from those who suffered it? The question applies even more strongly to those who are not South Africans. While there were, in Britain, some noble anti-apartheid activists who helped to cause profound change, their activity was outside the main stream of life and often looked upon with suspicion. Most people got on with life without worrying about South Africa. Now, bar Covid, that country is a favourite of tourists, who return to Europe unbrushed by a history that was all consuming at the time and still has many offshoots. Most were unborn when apartheid reigned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to ask, then, whether for Cowley to use his South African life as a base for his argument is too esoteric. I hope not and I am sure it need not be, for not only does it gain great strength from being so personal, but it also makes us think into situations beyond our own circles. To think ourselves into apartheid South Africa is a good exercise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'There were giants on the earth in those days' is a quotation which comes to mind.2 South Africa was then, and still is, an extraordinary country, captivating, in the sense of drawing you in until you are engrossed. It is a land of wonderful beauty but what astounded me even more were the people one met. The mass of the people are a very interesting historical and anthropological mix, with their histories, cultures and divisions, but I will concentrate on two smaller sets: those implementing the apartheid policy and those who opposed them, struggling for what was later called, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a \u003cstrong\u003e'rainbow nation'.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first thing to say is that these people were honed by apartheid. The giant of apartheid was Hendrick Vervoerd, the SA president who was assassinated in 1966. He gave the philosophical basis to the National Party's policy of racial separation and white dominance, which was implemented ruthlessly. It was a giant endeavour, and the skills developed by the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) were second to none. Their use of technology was as sophisticated as possible for that time, and their information gathering work was everywhere. Furthermore, they knew what was going on elsewhere in the world, and could use it very cleverly in persuading people to conform.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe resistors were also people of exceptional knowledge, understanding and courage. There are great names: Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Helen Suzman, the Black Sash leaders, Beyers Naude, Trevor Huddlestone, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, to name but a few. But there were many, many more who worked and witnessed at continual \u003cspan\u003erisk to themselves, both from BOSS and also from being denigrated by the mass of whites happy with apartheid. Organisations like the University Christian Movement (UCM) were banned and many people had their passports removed or were put under house arrest. I felt both very \u003c\/span\u003efortunate and also hugely humbled to meet some of these women and men. I did not meet Ian Cowley, but I am confident that he would be of these giants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most noticeable aspects of the struggle against apartheid and for justice was how it had such a strong Christian motivation. I have to be careful here, because Christianity was active on both sides. The Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church played a significant part in giving theological justification to apartheid, yet there were some notable DRC giants, the Bonhoeffers of their day, who rebelled against this, and were thrown out of the church. They played a great part. Nevertheless, it was very much among people from other churches that the understanding grew that the Christian law of love meant equality applied universally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley grew up on a Natal farm, with church, Anglican and formal, on Sundays, remembered as very boring. It was at university that faith caught him through the remarkable, if short lived, UCM. He describes how vibrant student worship attracted him and how he worked through the trauma - for it was a trauma - of mixing with people of other races and finding them human. After some vicissitudes, he hears his vocation to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa and eventually he comes to England, where he is first a parish priest and then Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up the Contemplative Minister Programme.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe great question that runs through the book is: what does it mean to be held firm in Christ in the centre of our being and to live with integrity in the 21st century? Through his student days he comes to see the sinfulness of the way power is held and exercised in South Africa, and to long for the justice that he discovers through his Christian faith. How does he hold the two in balance, so that the one undergirds the other? In other words, there is a double question: on the one hand, how can you be an activist, mixing in the hurly, sometimes unsavoury, burly of life and be true to Christ? On the other, how can you be true to Christ without, in some way, being mixed up in the difficult life of practising the love of neighbour in all its roughness? Through friends and mentors and the trial and error of trying to live a life for justice, with mistakes and setbacks and leaps forward, he discovers prayer as God's invitation to see the world with His eyes and to feel it as He feels it. He reads Merton and his development from longing to be solitary to understanding that the world needs the witness of the contemplative if it is ever going to overcome evil with good, and that means that the contemplative has to know and be known.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow in South Africa the struggle against apartheid is over and an enormous wickedness has been demolished. In fact, though, when one injustice is stricken, the hydra of evil raises another. A strength of Cowley's book is that it is not only a memoir but makes use of his experience to show how Christian love is showing up many other aspects of life on the planet which threaten true human living, that is living as the \u003cspan\u003epeople of God. As we are drawn in to the presence of God, how do we live with the divide of rich and poor and with other forms of inequality; with climate change; with war, national ambition and xenophobia; with the continuing oppression of peoples in many parts of the world; with homelessness in our own country? The list goes on and on. Simply, how do we help to make the world more Godly, restoring the creation which \u003c\/span\u003eHe saw was good?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemplative prayer is not shown as an opt-out but as the source of strength and ability. It is a struggle because of our fallen human nature, which is continually being pressed to sway one way or another. A hard struggle, but contemplation shows us how to 'put on the whole armour of God, for our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle \u003c\/em\u003eis written to encourage us workaday Christians as we try to follow Jesus in our daily lives. In this it certainly succeeds, and the author adds an excellent introduction to contemplative practice as an appendix.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo years ago I reviewed Ian Cowley's previous book, \u003cem\u003eThe \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eContemplative Response: Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eI suggested that it needed another volume, looking at how we can bring understanding of the love of God to the world outside the Christian community. In many ways this book does this, but may I ask Ian to set fingers to word processor once more and tackle the question of the contemplative response to the problems posed by today's atheists. When we talk of God in a universe of which astrophysics has revolutionised our understanding, how is He showing us how to talk of Him and act as His people? I find this an urgent question to stir the hearts of many. To ask an author for another book is, surely, a compliment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Apartheid was the policy of segregation and political, social, and economic\u003cbr\u003ediscrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South\u003cbr\u003eAfrica. The extreme racial segregation of apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994 and included such restrictions as where people of certain races could live or own land, what jobs they could hold, and who could and couldn't participate \u003cstrong\u003ein government.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Genesis 6:4\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Ephesians 6 :11-12.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis a priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He was in the kindergarten of contemplation in 2019 and has still to enter the reception class.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChurch Times 25.06.21. Review by John D. Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is a white South African man, born nearly 70 years ago, brought up in the benign rural environment of Natal. If he had fulfilled expectations, he would have become a conventional Anglican gentleman, a superior English-speaking member of the white race.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e But Cowley’s life took a somewhat different course. His book is primarily about spirituality; but, to convey his message, he has to tell something of his life-story. This starts with his entry into the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, to study law and business administration. By the time that he started at university, the 1959 Extension of University Education Act had taken effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis created a scattered establishment of black tribal colleges, segregated on racial and ethnic criteria. The previously ‘open’ universities, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Natal, were restricted to white students only; they became white tribal colleges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut there were vigorous national student bodies; these functioned on these segregated campuses, but they flourished as racially integrated organisations at regional and national level. For both black and white students, their conferences provided a converting experience, an alternative vision of society, where black and white people could meet as genuine friends and not only on a master\/servant basis; and this was at a time when the apartheid machine was grinding ever more successfully, and when hope for change was wearing very thin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe integrated organisations enabled the generation of courageous, independent-minded students, who were prepared to defy the expectations of parents, teachers, and government. They included the Anglican Students’ Federation and the ecumenical University Christian Movement. For Cowley, they opened up a whole new world. They brought him into contact with impressive characters of all race-groups, people such as the dynamic black students’ leader Steve Biko (who would, in my view, have become the natural successor to President Mandela, if he had not been cruelly done to death by the Security Police).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ecumenical organisations were viewed with suspicion by some other Christians, notably by Evangelicals who had been caught up in the newly arrived Charismatic Movement. For them, the ecumenical groups were unbiblical humanists, dangerous quasi-Marxists. For the ecumenical types, the Evangelicals were pietistic, concerned only with their individual salvation, indifferent to the injustices experienced by most of the population. But, for those who were impressed by the Black Consciousness influence, this hassle was merely white people’s games, irrelevant luxury. The Anglican Bishop Alphaeus Zulu summarised their position: ‘We Africans have no need of a Charismatic Movement — we have always been charismatic, without any pressure from outside.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople like Cowley were attracted by the Evangelical emphasis on conversion, but it had to include conversion from the heresies and illusions of apartheid, which were otherwise winning all the battles. A new ingredient was being discovered in the Christian mix. This was where Cowley found himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley was deeply drawn to the insights of medieval spiritual teachers such as Richard Rolle and Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton of our own day. This is the kind of commitment which underlies his book. Readers who are interested in spirituality will be attracted by his excellent summary of the discipline of contemplation. But, to get there, they will need to work through Cowley’s exploration of the demonic powers of racism, financial injustice, and indifference to the degradation of the environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis spirituality has been formed in a situation of loss, of oppression, of cruelty, when all the signs were that the powers of evil were winning. His kind of contemplation draws us to awareness of God’s critique of the disobedience in our human systems, and into commitment to the struggle for the realisation of God’s Kingdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd this is not only for South Africa; Cowley was ordained priest in his native land and served in parish ministry there. But he came to England some years ago, and has been a parish priest and adviser in spirituality in English dioceses. For South Africa and for Britain, his book provides a well-formed and personally validated guidance concerning the claims of our Creator upon our obedience and our energies. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rt Revd John D. Davies was National Chaplain to the Anglican Students’ Federation of Southern Africa, and Convener of the Council of Churches’ Commission which created the University Christian Movement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Nicholas King SJ\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eChristians are often charged with being of 'no earthly use' (because their gaze is fixed on the heavens); evangelicals find themselves accused of giving insufficient time to contemplative prayer; white Christian South Africans often have it alleged against them that their discipleship is pure self-indulgence, because they benefited so largely from the sin of apartheid; and that the Roman Catholic tradition has nothing to offer Christians today. In this splendid book, those four myths are soundly 'busted': Ian Cowley is an evangelical Christian who has given himself to transform this unjust world into something that looks like the Kingdom of God; he has for many years as a busy Anglican priest given himself over to the practice of solitary contemplative prayer (and offers some useful tips about how to approach it). More than that, he is a white South African whose Christianity drove him, at some considerable cost, to engage in student activism against the apartheid regime, and who reveals his immense admiration for Steve Biko, who died that appalling death in the hands of the SA Police. He has, moreover, drunk gratefully of the waters of the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, including Thomas a Kempis, Richard Rolle, and that remarkable Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton. He has, besides, the Protestant gift of a solid grasp of Scripture and the awareness that it can change your life. He was also alert to the dangers of environmental pollution at a time when such interests were dismissed as mindlessly sentimental “tree-hugging”. Nowadays we wish that more students had followed his example, half a century ago. This book is to be warmly recommended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","published_at":"2024-10-29T11:35:35+00:00","created_at":"2024-10-29T11:34:31+00:00","vendor":"Ian Cowley","type":"eBook","tags":["Discipleship","Glassboxx","Leadership","Mar-21","Mission"],"price":899,"price_min":899,"price_max":899,"available":true,"price_varies":false,"compare_at_price":null,"compare_at_price_min":0,"compare_at_price_max":0,"compare_at_price_varies":false,"variants":[{"id":53603952853372,"title":"eBook","option1":"eBook","option2":null,"option3":null,"sku":"9780857469830","requires_shipping":false,"taxable":false,"featured_image":null,"available":true,"name":"The Contemplative Struggle: Radical discipleship in a broken world - eBook","public_title":"eBook","options":["eBook"],"price":899,"weight":163,"compare_at_price":null,"inventory_management":"shopify","barcode":"9780857469830","requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_allocations":[]}],"images":["\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/228.png?v=1730980387","\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/229.png?v=1730980378"],"featured_image":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/228.png?v=1730980387","options":["Format"],"media":[{"alt":null,"id":63001501991292,"position":1,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/228.png?v=1730980387"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/228.png?v=1730980387","width":1303},{"alt":null,"id":63001499631996,"position":2,"preview_image":{"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"width":1303,"src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/229.png?v=1730980378"},"aspect_ratio":0.652,"height":2000,"media_type":"image","src":"\/\/www.brfonline.org.uk\/cdn\/shop\/files\/229.png?v=1730980378","width":1303}],"requires_selling_plan":false,"selling_plan_groups":[],"content":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cspan style=\"color: rgb(255, 42, 0);\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eDigital eBook Only - \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/span\u003eHow do we embrace and work out our call to be disciples in a broken world? In \u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e Ian Cowley sets the central themes of the gospel of John alongside each other – abiding in Christ, conflict, light and darkness, obedience, loving one another – and explores how these can be reconciled in daily life. Drawing on his experience of living in his native South Africa during the apartheid era and challenging understandings of contemplative prayer and spirituality as essentially inward-looking, he highlights the urgent need for Christians to be active in bringing transformation to a suffering world and paints a compelling picture of radical discipleship for today.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e‘Just as we are all meant to be contemplatives and to hear the voice of God in our lives, we are all meant to answer God’s call to be his partners in transfiguring the world. This calling, this encounter with God, is always to send us into the midst of human suffering.’\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eArchbishop Desmond Tutu\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eAuthor info\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is an Anglican priest who has served in parish ministry in South Africa, Sheffield, Cambridge and Peterborough. From 2008 to 2016 he was Coordinator of Spirituality and Vocations in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up and developed the Contemplative Minister programme. He is the author of five books on spirituality, discipleship and the local church.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eEndorsements\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHere is a much-needed book: the story of the battle against racism, injustice, poverty, held in tension with the necessity of time for contemplation. We need to hear it – there is much here that applies to our world today.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEsther de Waal, writer and scholar\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI do appreciate Ian Cowley’s interleaving of storytelling with spiritual reflection. It is good to have the story of UCM told to a wider audience than South Africa.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan’s tribute to Steve Biko is welcome and true, and so is his account of white students’ struggle on the matter of conscription.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis major concern with contemplation fits well into his account of this crucial time in the South African church struggle... \u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eJohn D Davies, former bishop of Shrewsbury and one-time national chaplain of the Anglican Students’ Federation of South Africa\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhat an incredible book this is! I was deeply moved reading it. It is very inspiring and ignited a hope that we can be agents of change in this world. As someone who has known the value of contemplative prayer and practice in my own life, it felt like a gentle call back to that which I know and love, without being remotely judgemental. In fact, the whole book brings a wonderful balance of challenge without condemnation.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI pray that all who read this book will examine afresh their response to the issues raised and explore the riches of contemplative prayer for themselves.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLouise Rose, community projects manager, Fresh Hope Ministry, Stamford\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle\u003c\/em\u003e is a generous gift and a profound challenge. Ian Cowley draws on a deep well of (sometimes painful) personal experience to pour out this vision of contemplation in action. If you’re tired of rootless activism and otherworldly spirituality, and you’re looking for the common ground where prayer and protest can flourish, you need to read this book.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Webb, deputy warden of Launde Abbey and author of \u003cem\u003eGod Soaked Life\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch5\u003eReviews\u003c\/h5\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eTransforming Ministry Winter 2021. Review by Margaret Ives\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere are many books about contemplative prayer as a way of finding one’s true self in an experience of the Divine Presence. This book is unusual in that, while it proclaims that the constant awareness of God in our lives is essential, this is not sufficient to solve our current problems unless it inspires us to ‘radical discipleship in a broken world’. Growing up in South Africa during apartheid, Cowley came to realise that ‘being rooted and grounded in love’ is not a hidden treasure, but must be demonstrated in action against racism and injustice. Looking back, he remembers how hope in God, arising from contemplative prayer, enabled him to work alongside the black consciousness movement in their struggle to change the system, even though the odds were against them. Similarly, he believes, Christians today must use a heightened awareness of God’s love for everything in creation to join with those combating climate change and environmental disaster. This is an inspirational book which does not get bogged down in polemics, but offers a guide to contemplative prayer and some practical steps we can all take towards saving the planet.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReviewed by Margaret Ives\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe Merton Journal Advent 2021 (Volume 28 no 2). Review by Ben Hopkinson\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHow ephemeral, and how localised, is our consciousness of history. That is why there have to be historians and history departments, because, so easily, what we know of the horrors some people are living through either goes quickly to the back of the mind or, by the next generation, becomes an unknown. Our attitude of localisation means that what happens to others may seem to have nothing to do with us. So Jewish people, for instance, have to campaign to keep the memory of the holocaust alive, and, while there may be an especially tense rivalry in games of football between England and Germany, how many remember what fascism really meant as a threat to the world? And Tiananmen Square?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan\u003eI say this because Ian Cowley's short but powerful book finds the\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eorigins of what was, to him, the revelation of prayer as contemplation, in the racial cauldron of South Africa in the depths of the apartheid regime of the last century.1 His epiphany came through the University Christian Movement when he was a student at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzberg in the 1970s. There he came to understand the terrible sinfulness of the racial divide that ruled South Africa, and his life's course was changed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor me, Cowley's vivid account of South African life was a revision lesson. I was serving in Botswana at that time and, although it was a country with a quite different ethos, we in the Church were not isolated and were very aware of what was going on with our neighbours, not only South Africa but Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) as well. I became peripherally involved in some anti-apartheid activity that crossed the border and drew me in, so I relate to Cowley's descriptions. I knew some of the people he talks about, and reading his book I was taken back to a time which, while key in my life, has been overlaid by layers of subsequent life and work. Even experience has an ephemeral quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHence the thoughts about the ephemeral quality of contemporary\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehistory. Who remembers even the word apartheid now, other than in an intellectual sense, apart from those who suffered it? The question applies even more strongly to those who are not South Africans. While there were, in Britain, some noble anti-apartheid activists who helped to cause profound change, their activity was outside the main stream of life and often looked upon with suspicion. Most people got on with life without worrying about South Africa. Now, bar Covid, that country is a favourite of tourists, who return to Europe unbrushed by a history that was all consuming at the time and still has many offshoots. Most were unborn when apartheid reigned.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have to ask, then, whether for Cowley to use his South African life as a base for his argument is too esoteric. I hope not and I am sure it need not be, for not only does it gain great strength from being so personal, but it also makes us think into situations beyond our own circles. To think ourselves into apartheid South Africa is a good exercise.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e'There were giants on the earth in those days' is a quotation which comes to mind.2 South Africa was then, and still is, an extraordinary country, captivating, in the sense of drawing you in until you are engrossed. It is a land of wonderful beauty but what astounded me even more were the people one met. The mass of the people are a very interesting historical and anthropological mix, with their histories, cultures and divisions, but I will concentrate on two smaller sets: those implementing the apartheid policy and those who opposed them, struggling for what was later called, by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a \u003cstrong\u003e'rainbow nation'.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe first thing to say is that these people were honed by apartheid. The giant of apartheid was Hendrick Vervoerd, the SA president who was assassinated in 1966. He gave the philosophical basis to the National Party's policy of racial separation and white dominance, which was implemented ruthlessly. It was a giant endeavour, and the skills developed by the Bureau of State Security (BOSS) were second to none. Their use of technology was as sophisticated as possible for that time, and their information gathering work was everywhere. Furthermore, they knew what was going on elsewhere in the world, and could use it very cleverly in persuading people to conform.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe resistors were also people of exceptional knowledge, understanding and courage. There are great names: Nelson Mandela, Albert Luthuli, Helen Suzman, the Black Sash leaders, Beyers Naude, Trevor Huddlestone, Desmond Tutu, Steve Biko, to name but a few. But there were many, many more who worked and witnessed at continual \u003cspan\u003erisk to themselves, both from BOSS and also from being denigrated by the mass of whites happy with apartheid. Organisations like the University Christian Movement (UCM) were banned and many people had their passports removed or were put under house arrest. I felt both very \u003c\/span\u003efortunate and also hugely humbled to meet some of these women and men. I did not meet Ian Cowley, but I am confident that he would be of these giants.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOne of the most noticeable aspects of the struggle against apartheid and for justice was how it had such a strong Christian motivation. I have to be careful here, because Christianity was active on both sides. The Afrikaner Dutch Reformed Church played a significant part in giving theological justification to apartheid, yet there were some notable DRC giants, the Bonhoeffers of their day, who rebelled against this, and were thrown out of the church. They played a great part. Nevertheless, it was very much among people from other churches that the understanding grew that the Christian law of love meant equality applied universally.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley grew up on a Natal farm, with church, Anglican and formal, on Sundays, remembered as very boring. It was at university that faith caught him through the remarkable, if short lived, UCM. He describes how vibrant student worship attracted him and how he worked through the trauma - for it was a trauma - of mixing with people of other races and finding them human. After some vicissitudes, he hears his vocation to the priesthood in the Anglican Church of the Province of South Africa and eventually he comes to England, where he is first a parish priest and then Coordinator of Vocations and Spirituality in the Diocese of Salisbury, where he set up the Contemplative Minister Programme.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe great question that runs through the book is: what does it mean to be held firm in Christ in the centre of our being and to live with integrity in the 21st century? Through his student days he comes to see the sinfulness of the way power is held and exercised in South Africa, and to long for the justice that he discovers through his Christian faith. How does he hold the two in balance, so that the one undergirds the other? In other words, there is a double question: on the one hand, how can you be an activist, mixing in the hurly, sometimes unsavoury, burly of life and be true to Christ? On the other, how can you be true to Christ without, in some way, being mixed up in the difficult life of practising the love of neighbour in all its roughness? Through friends and mentors and the trial and error of trying to live a life for justice, with mistakes and setbacks and leaps forward, he discovers prayer as God's invitation to see the world with His eyes and to feel it as He feels it. He reads Merton and his development from longing to be solitary to understanding that the world needs the witness of the contemplative if it is ever going to overcome evil with good, and that means that the contemplative has to know and be known.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow in South Africa the struggle against apartheid is over and an enormous wickedness has been demolished. In fact, though, when one injustice is stricken, the hydra of evil raises another. A strength of Cowley's book is that it is not only a memoir but makes use of his experience to show how Christian love is showing up many other aspects of life on the planet which threaten true human living, that is living as the \u003cspan\u003epeople of God. As we are drawn in to the presence of God, how do we live with the divide of rich and poor and with other forms of inequality; with climate change; with war, national ambition and xenophobia; with the continuing oppression of peoples in many parts of the world; with homelessness in our own country? The list goes on and on. Simply, how do we help to make the world more Godly, restoring the creation which \u003c\/span\u003eHe saw was good?\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemplative prayer is not shown as an opt-out but as the source of strength and ability. It is a struggle because of our fallen human nature, which is continually being pressed to sway one way or another. A hard struggle, but contemplation shows us how to 'put on the whole armour of God, for our struggle is not against the enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.'\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Contemplative Struggle \u003c\/em\u003eis written to encourage us workaday Christians as we try to follow Jesus in our daily lives. In this it certainly succeeds, and the author adds an excellent introduction to contemplative practice as an appendix.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eTwo years ago I reviewed Ian Cowley's previous book, \u003cem\u003eThe \u003c\/em\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cspan\u003eContemplative Response: Leadership and Ministry in a Distracted Culture. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/em\u003eI suggested that it needed another volume, looking at how we can bring understanding of the love of God to the world outside the Christian community. In many ways this book does this, but may I ask Ian to set fingers to word processor once more and tackle the question of the contemplative response to the problems posed by today's atheists. When we talk of God in a universe of which astrophysics has revolutionised our understanding, how is He showing us how to talk of Him and act as His people? I find this an urgent question to stir the hearts of many. To ask an author for another book is, surely, a compliment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eNotes\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e1. Apartheid was the policy of segregation and political, social, and economic\u003cbr\u003ediscrimination against the non-white majority in the Republic of South\u003cbr\u003eAfrica. The extreme racial segregation of apartheid lasted from 1948 to 1994 and included such restrictions as where people of certain races could live or own land, what jobs they could hold, and who could and couldn't participate \u003cstrong\u003ein government.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2. Genesis 6:4\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e3. Ephesians 6 :11-12.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eBen Hopkinson \u003c\/strong\u003eis a priest, living in retirement in Northumberland. He was in the kindergarten of contemplation in 2019 and has still to enter the reception class.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChurch Times 25.06.21. Review by John D. Davies\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIan Cowley is a white South African man, born nearly 70 years ago, brought up in the benign rural environment of Natal. If he had fulfilled expectations, he would have become a conventional Anglican gentleman, a superior English-speaking member of the white race.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e But Cowley’s life took a somewhat different course. His book is primarily about spirituality; but, to convey his message, he has to tell something of his life-story. This starts with his entry into the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, to study law and business administration. By the time that he started at university, the 1959 Extension of University Education Act had taken effect.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis created a scattered establishment of black tribal colleges, segregated on racial and ethnic criteria. The previously ‘open’ universities, in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Natal, were restricted to white students only; they became white tribal colleges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eBut there were vigorous national student bodies; these functioned on these segregated campuses, but they flourished as racially integrated organisations at regional and national level. For both black and white students, their conferences provided a converting experience, an alternative vision of society, where black and white people could meet as genuine friends and not only on a master\/servant basis; and this was at a time when the apartheid machine was grinding ever more successfully, and when hope for change was wearing very thin.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe integrated organisations enabled the generation of courageous, independent-minded students, who were prepared to defy the expectations of parents, teachers, and government. They included the Anglican Students’ Federation and the ecumenical University Christian Movement. For Cowley, they opened up a whole new world. They brought him into contact with impressive characters of all race-groups, people such as the dynamic black students’ leader Steve Biko (who would, in my view, have become the natural successor to President Mandela, if he had not been cruelly done to death by the Security Police).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThese ecumenical organisations were viewed with suspicion by some other Christians, notably by Evangelicals who had been caught up in the newly arrived Charismatic Movement. For them, the ecumenical groups were unbiblical humanists, dangerous quasi-Marxists. For the ecumenical types, the Evangelicals were pietistic, concerned only with their individual salvation, indifferent to the injustices experienced by most of the population. But, for those who were impressed by the Black Consciousness influence, this hassle was merely white people’s games, irrelevant luxury. The Anglican Bishop Alphaeus Zulu summarised their position: ‘We Africans have no need of a Charismatic Movement — we have always been charismatic, without any pressure from outside.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ePeople like Cowley were attracted by the Evangelical emphasis on conversion, but it had to include conversion from the heresies and illusions of apartheid, which were otherwise winning all the battles. A new ingredient was being discovered in the Christian mix. This was where Cowley found himself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eCowley was deeply drawn to the insights of medieval spiritual teachers such as Richard Rolle and Thomas à Kempis, and Thomas Merton of our own day. This is the kind of commitment which underlies his book. Readers who are interested in spirituality will be attracted by his excellent summary of the discipline of contemplation. But, to get there, they will need to work through Cowley’s exploration of the demonic powers of racism, financial injustice, and indifference to the degradation of the environment.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHis spirituality has been formed in a situation of loss, of oppression, of cruelty, when all the signs were that the powers of evil were winning. His kind of contemplation draws us to awareness of God’s critique of the disobedience in our human systems, and into commitment to the struggle for the realisation of God’s Kingdom. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAnd this is not only for South Africa; Cowley was ordained priest in his native land and served in parish ministry there. But he came to England some years ago, and has been a parish priest and adviser in spirituality in English dioceses. For South Africa and for Britain, his book provides a well-formed and personally validated guidance concerning the claims of our Creator upon our obedience and our energies. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Rt Revd John D. Davies was National Chaplain to the Anglican Students’ Federation of Southern Africa, and Convener of the Council of Churches’ Commission which created the University Christian Movement\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview by Nicholas King SJ\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003eChristians are often charged with being of 'no earthly use' (because their gaze is fixed on the heavens); evangelicals find themselves accused of giving insufficient time to contemplative prayer; white Christian South Africans often have it alleged against them that their discipleship is pure self-indulgence, because they benefited so largely from the sin of apartheid; and that the Roman Catholic tradition has nothing to offer Christians today. In this splendid book, those four myths are soundly 'busted': Ian Cowley is an evangelical Christian who has given himself to transform this unjust world into something that looks like the Kingdom of God; he has for many years as a busy Anglican priest given himself over to the practice of solitary contemplative prayer (and offers some useful tips about how to approach it). More than that, he is a white South African whose Christianity drove him, at some considerable cost, to engage in student activism against the apartheid regime, and who reveals his immense admiration for Steve Biko, who died that appalling death in the hands of the SA Police. He has, moreover, drunk gratefully of the waters of the Roman Catholic contemplative tradition, including Thomas a Kempis, Richard Rolle, and that remarkable Cistercian monk, Thomas Merton. He has, besides, the Protestant gift of a solid grasp of Scripture and the awareness that it can change your life. He was also alert to the dangers of environmental pollution at a time when such interests were dismissed as mindlessly sentimental “tree-hugging”. Nowadays we wish that more students had followed his example, half a century ago. This book is to be warmly recommended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e"}
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