{"id":11074,"date":"2015-04-29T07:18:31","date_gmt":"2015-04-29T06:18:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.richardlittledale.co.uk\/?p=11074"},"modified":"2015-04-29T07:18:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-29T06:18:31","slug":"in-praise-of-the-talking-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/2015\/04\/29\/in-praise-of-the-talking-shop\/","title":{"rendered":"In praise of the talking shop"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><strong>Reflections on the London Consultation<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Ukraine is a bloody and unholy mess, with over 1 million internally displaced persons and abuses of every kind wrought upon its people. Not only that, but it is a bloody and unholy mess with the veneer of holiness about it &#8211; as soldiers kneel for a priest&#8217;s blessing beneath the sign of the cross on their flag and a new church is dedicated to the martyrs of the Russian Special Forces.<\/p>\n<p>Set against such a backdrop, what use are a bunch of people talking in the elegant panelled guardroom of Lambeth Palace, surrounded by its jewel-like gardens? The answer, I believe, is to be found three verses into the Bible &#8216;God said&#8217;. God has taught us the value of speech from the first page of scripture until the Spirit&#8217;s last words in Revelation.\u00a0 Ours is a speaking God, and we do well to imitate Him.<\/p>\n<p>What <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bmsworldmission.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">BMS <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/missioneurasia.org\/\" target=\"_blank\">Mission Eurasia<\/a> did yesterday was a gesture of solidarity, described by one speaker as <em>&#8216;a forgotten virtue in public discourse&#8217;.<\/em> What they did was to put significant people in a room together whose combined insights allow them to speak about Ukraine&#8217;s conflict with passion and insight. Seated around the table were Orthodox churchmen in their flowing robes, a Byzantine Catholic with his neatly trimmed beard, British academics and European humanitarian agents. In short, this was a conversation between people who care and people who know. Seated around them were 25 observers, myself included, to see what was done and how.<\/p>\n<p>On display around that table were political acumen, vehement passion, heartfelt sorrow, and faith of the truest calibre. Listen to some of these voices:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>Seeking causes for the war in Ukraine is a waste of time<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The best response to war is our unity<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The situation in Ukraine is knocking on the door of Europe<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>We believe that while we wait, God is working, and God&#8217;s love never fails<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Most important of all is not to lose hope. God is always greater and God is always stronger.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>The Word of God, even in hopeless situations, brings us hope.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether the declaration signed by yesterday&#8217;s participants has any lasting value, only time will tell. However, to bring these voices together in a place of prayer and to speak the unspeakable under the watchful eye of a God whose creative speech fashioned a universe could only be a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Please God that the conversation continues and that the London Consultation is a doorway to hope for the Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/consultation.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-11077 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/archive.richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/consultation-300x247.jpg\" alt=\"consultation\" width=\"300\" height=\"247\" srcset=\"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/consultation-300x247.jpg 300w, http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/consultation-1024x842.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/consultation-365x300.jpg 365w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reflections on the London Consultation Ukraine is a bloody and unholy mess, with over 1 million internally displaced persons and abuses of every kind wrought upon its people. Not only that, but it is a bloody and unholy mess with &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/2015\/04\/29\/in-praise-of-the-talking-shop\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11074"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11078,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11074\/revisions\/11078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}