An extra chance to change the world

Have you been enjoying the sudden summer?

There are five Wednesdays this month, so there is no JM meeting this week, meaning that you have an extra opportunity to make a difference in your own way. How are you going to use your spare Wednesday to make the world a better place? You could invite your neighbours over for a BBQ to build community in your street, or someone from Justice Matters that you would like to get to know better, you could write to your MP about an issue close to your heart, or you could get together with others and pray for each other and the world.

Whatever you choose to do, don't let the evening come and go without thought - be intentional about your time (even if its intentionally relaxing with friends). As the prophet Ferris said, "Life is pretty short - if you don't stop and look around in a while, you might miss it."

We are especially excited about our third Wednesday session this month, when we will he hosting a guest speaker from anti-trafficking organisation, International Justice Mission. Please highlight the date in your diaries (20th June) and invite your friends to join us for what promises to be an excellent and thought-provoking evening. We will kick off promptly at 8pm, so do come along from 7:30pm to get your coffee and cake in ahead of the main event.

Our next gathering will be 6th June for an informal discussion on a subject as yet unconfirmed. Details to follow shortly.


Enjoy the weather and the Jubilee celebrations - see you next week!

Up through the cracks in the concrete

The revolution rises.

Hordes of soundbite politicians roam Westminster professing progress with their words but denying it with their lives. Media jackals haunt the streets, rooting through the recycling to feed their voracious appetites for suffering. They devour their own young on a capricious whim; the dark lords of celebrity fate. High above, in the glassy towers and gilded boardrooms, oil barons and money men plunder the planet's pockets, turning its own riches against itself.

And all the while, weary and disenchanted, the world yearns for something different.

Rumours of revolution abound.

Quietly but irrepressibly, revolutionary souls subvert the status quo, reclaiming and recruiting communities into their revolutionary fold. The tendrils of this revolution spread far and wide, bringing the hum of new life to the ruins and rubble. Green shoots of change break through the concrete jungle, creeping up through the cracks in the pavement, disrupting the carefully maintained constraints of the prevailing system.

The revolution rises.

Its faithful followers don't just sell light at the end of the tunnel, but see the diamonds sparkling in the grimy walls along the way. They collaborate, co-exist and conspire to create lasting change. They have a vision for the future, not just more of the same. Their lives are lived in community; not just knowing their neighbours' faces but their names and their stories as well. They are a new humanity; humankind 2.0.

The revolution rises.

These revolutionaries embrace technology, adopting and adapting rapidly to integrate new tools and toys just as their prehistoric forebears once did. They live on the wire, as comfortable navigating the twitterverse as the tube map. However, they are not consumed by consumerism, nor deafened by digital broadcasts. Their lives are more than the sum of their playlists and podcasts. They delight in discovering the wild heartbeat that sounds in untamed open spaces; they marvel at the stars that exist beyond the mask of city smog.

Such individuals celebrate their membership of the global village, but lament the exploitative implications of globalisation, the systematic corruptions that make our lives better at the expense of others. But they don't just lament: they act, they speak, they go and stand alongside the poor and the broken. There are no boundaries or borders that can stop the revolution; it is inexorably laying claim to the whole world.

The revolution rises.

Nations fall, politicians falter, but the revolution will continue. It is a perpetual rediscovery. A society turned inside out and outside in at the same time. It is radical yet non-violent, unheralded yet long-awaited.

It is Quantum and it has arrived.