Tag Archives: prophetic imagination

Into Culture: Prophetic Imagination II

Last month I reflected on two experiences that highlighted for me the need to engage further in the question of ‘Englishness’ and how we as a country, going through deep self-examination, may be led to a place of redemption and hope. I used the phrase ‘prophetic imagination’. This phrase was coined by Walter Brueggemann and, using Old Testament and other ancient stories, outlines a means by which creative resistance to cultural narratives can lead to liberation and hope of all peoples: oppressed and oppressors.

Over the last two weeks I have found myself preaching on different parts of the Major Prophets (Isaiah and Jeremiah). Some of these passages are, what I might identify as, ‘Zionist texts’. These passages from the great Old Testament prophetic tradition are those that paint a vision of the ingathering of the people of Israel to Zion. With the current reprisal of the long and intractable conflict in the Holy Land these particular passages have taken on a painful and darker tone. They are, however, meant to be visions of hope and of redemption. The majority of Isaiah is a litany of abominations against God’s will and these latter chapters, pivoting in chapter 53, portray the wrongs being righted in God’s gracious economy and an image of God’s reign on Earth being manifested.

The very fact that passages that are meant to inspire hope and open the possibility for change are now seen as passages encouraging oppression and division says something about the spiritual undercurrents at work here. These preaching opportunities have given to me reason, therefore, again to try and inspire a prophetic imagination that currently is dormant in our country; politically, spiritually, and socially.


The first preaching occasion was at a civic service, celebrating the Lord of Mayor’s year in office. The original readings for the evening were Deuteronomy 9:1-21 and Ephesians 4:1-16. My colleague and I didn’t feel as though these would speak to the congregation gathered, many of whom were not Christian and some were from other faiths. We looked at the alternative weekday lectionary and it prescribed Jeremiah 31:10-17 and Revelation 7:9-17. We felt these worked better with the Psalm (112).

Wealth and riches will be in their house,
   and their righteousness endures for ever.
Light shines in the darkness for the upright;
   gracious and full of compassion are the righteous. (Psalm 112:3-4)

The Lord Mayor’s office rightly raised a question about the Bible passages and wanted reassurance that it would not cause offence or distract from the purpose of the service. My task was set!

I began by talking about my impression of the role of Lord Mayor and how the current councillor in this role has held it in particular. I commented on the uniqueness of this year in which he had served; a visit from the King, a coronation, and then, for over half of his term, the Middle East crisis felt particularly strongly here in Bradford. The ceremonial role, like that of a representative of the Cathedral church, brings with it a strange expectation to ‘say something’ at events. These events often do not warrant any input from us who are, in my mind, inappropriately ‘billed’ alongside more impressive and important individuals. What then do we say when asked to speak?

I moved onto the Jeremiah passage. I named the use of this passage for the Zionist cause who have continually quoted this as a basis for division and their vision of exclusive claims on the land and territory of Mount Zion. The prophetic literature, however, does not, collectively, share that vision. Isaiah, similarly has passages which describes the future return of the people of Israel to the land promised to them, but the vision does not stop there. The imagery extends out further to encompass all peoples and particularly foreigners, widows and orphans.

If we place this passage, I said, with the imagery of the revelation/prophecy of John we see this echoed.

After this I looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands… Then he said to me, ‘These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9 and 14b)

What we are lacking in Bradford and, indeed, in the wider culture is a voice that speaks with genuine hope. Hope that gives a vivid picture of the possibility of change. So overwhelmed and captive to the spirit of cynicism, skepticism and apocalyptic paranoia and conspiracy that we cannot bear any possibility of optimism. We are fearful of dreaming because we have been disappointed too much or we have been fed a diet of positivistic lies which have stripped us of substance and trust. We have been collectively abused and traumatised not just from external malignant agents, real and imagined, but also by ourselves. The reason that the public events Lord Mayors tend to be invited to request them to ‘say a few words’ is that people long to have their lives validated and made concrete in the words of symbols of our collective identity.

Despite the prophet Jeremiah painting a positive image of restoration they are deeply rooted in the reality of lament and grief.

Thus says the Lord:
A voice is heard in Ramah,
   lamentation and bitter weeping.
Rachel is weeping for her children;
   she refuses to be comforted for her children,
   because they are no more.
Thus says the Lord:
Keep your voice from weeping,
   and your eyes from tears;
for there is a reward for your work, says the Lord:
   they shall come back from the land of the enemy;
there is hope for your future. (Jeremiah 31:15-17)

Even the Revelation passage has an acknowledgement of grief. This is what is needed in Bradford and in our wider culture: an uncompromising grasp of the real grief, fear and a confident enacting of lament. This should not be the lament which perpetuates the violence of the system we are all trapped in; it is a lament of surrender and sacrifice. This is the path to the richer, more solid, more real hope depicted in the prophetic literature of the Bible.

The second sermon on this theme was a Sunday morning where I was called to preach on Acts 8:26-40. At the heart of this passage is a bible study on Isaiah 53:7-8. I had outlined that persecution and violence had scattered the Early Church and Philip had found himself amongst foreigners (Samaritans) and his evangelistic ministry had seen many new converts from that area. The Spirit of God drives him back to his home; a place of trauma and pain (interestingly the road between Jerusalem and Gaza) and he finds there an Ethiopian who longed to be part of the Jewish faith but, due to him being a eunuch he would not have been able to to perform all the necessary rituals to be a full proselyte, i.e. circumcision. He is reading the prophet Isaiah and he would have read about Ethiopia being paid as a ransom for Israel (Isaiah 43:3); his people being exchanged for this people who will never treat him with full dignity.

Isaiah is unflinching on the many abominable acts of disobedience that had caused the wrath of God to be poured out upon them scattering them into exile. Despite glimpses of hope, comfort and restoration nothing is fully expressed until the later chapters (54 onwards). Chapter 53, the passage this Ethiopian eunuch is reading, is the pivot. It is the three-dimensional description of the Messiah who will enact the change and usher in the Kingdom and rule of God, not through the means of man but the paths of peace. To quote Óscar Romero, he only enacts a ‘violence of love’. After this chapter the eunuch will hear of the extending vision beyond Israel to all nations, including eunuchs.

For thus says the Lord:
To the eunuchs who keep my sabbaths,
    who choose the things that please me
    and hold fast my covenant,
I will give, in my house and within my walls,
    a monument and a name
    better than sons and daughters;
I will give them an everlasting name
    that shall not be cut off. (Isaiah 56:4-5)

For the eunuch to be known as part of God’s family he thought he needed circumcision and baptism. The first had been denied him as a eunuch. The second would not have been considered or if it was it was not complete. In the new vision of God’s Kingdom led by a suffering servant, it was enough and he leaves rejoicing. Another white robed child standing in the great multitude of the intercultural Kingdom of God.

Finally, that same day in the evening, I preached on Isaiah 60:1-14 and Revelation 3:1-13. I repeated my set up that I had done as part of the Lord Mayor’s service and briefly brought in the story of the Ethiopian eunuch and essentially called out for us to awaken our imagination to fight the overwhelming temptation and addiction to cynicism and skepticism. That despite thick darkness covering the earth we must see that God’s light will shine upon us not to divide us off from others but so that all might be drawn to us and thus into that saving light.

Bradford, City of Culture 2025,

Lift up your eyes and look around;
   they all gather together, they come to you;
your sons shall come from far away,
   and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms.
Then you shall see and be radiant;
   your heart shall thrill and rejoice,
because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you,
   the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
   the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
   all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
   and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord…

For the coastlands shall wait for me,
   the ships of Tarshish first,
to bring your children from far away,
   their silver and gold with them,
for the name of the Lord your God,
   and for the Holy One of Israel,
   because he has glorified you.
Foreigners shall build up your walls,
   and their kings shall minister to you;
for in my wrath I struck you down,
   but in my favour I have had mercy on you.
Your gates shall always be open;
   day and night they shall not be shut,
so that nations shall bring you their wealth,
   with their kings led in procession. (Isaiah 60:4-6, 9-11)

This vision, however, is not an easy salve to pour on to make all things well. This vision is hard won. It is a vision that is rooted in the uncompromising experience of real exile, grief and trauma. It is a vision that accepts that what will draw them is not innate but given by grace. The light will shine upon us if we turn to face it, to look at it and acknowledge it. This is the action that I feel will be the prophetic pivot needed in Bradford and the wider culture: honest acknowledgement of pain we have experienced and pain that we have inflicted. To not flinch at our realities and not settle for the same easily reached conclusions and solutions. To neither remain silent when well meaning tropes are forced upon us when we don’t fully understand or agree with them nor to violently shout counterarguments and seek to undermine those who are foreign to us.

If we can use 2025 to commit to each other the posture of humility and curiosity then we may begin to find that we live lives of hospitality, rootedness, innovation and interculturality… which happen to be the values of Bradford Cathedral. Funny that.

Into Culture: Prophetic Imagination I

I finish this month, as Canon for Intercultural Mission and the Arts, having experienced an intense period of engagement in intercultural theory and practice. I helped to organise a conference of intercultural churches and then went into Holy Week where we, as a Cathedral, along with friends from other churches, spent some time each day out in City Park inviting people to talk about faith and Jesus. Both of these have caused me to ask questions about intercultural ministry and about the current evolving culture in the UK.

Back in July I wrote about Bradford (click here), exploring its history and drawing some suggestions as to what categorises something as ‘Bradfordian’ and, in part, also ‘English’. Of course, as with most historic study, there was a large amount of personal bias as to what sources I used and through what lenses I examined them. I received a number of personal responses from readers from Bradford who shared some of my conclusions particularly the questions raised about the opportunities afforded to us as City of Culture 2025.

I don’t want to rehearse those observations again but rather pick up on two points that I raised and further unpack them in light of my intense fortnight of intercultural ministry.


The conference was a gathering of self-selecting ‘intercultural practitioners’ in the Church of England seeking to network with others. The programme was packed with experienced and wise speakers ranging from academics to those engaged in intercultural practice. It was only the second such conference run by the emerging Anglican Network of Intercultural Churches (ANIC) of which I am on the steering group for.

The conference was funded in large part by the Racial Justice Task Group of the Church of England and, therefore, had a particular emphasis on racial justice. During our conversations, however, I started noticing a subtle and uncomfortable experience: it was rare that my culture, my ethnic heritage, my race, was talked about using positive language. 

I understand that being ‘British’ or, worse, ‘English’ is problematic as we rightly face up to and come to terms with our colonial past and our own involvement in slavery and exploitation. I know that this work is important and critical if reconciliation, not just with fellow human beings but also with ourselves, is to be achieved. But, in a space where we were being encouraged to honour each other’s cultures and heritages, I did not feel as though that was being done for me, even by those advocating for such an approach. I found this curious.

As I say, this was done subtly; for example, as with all conferences, there was a timetable. This particular programme, in my mind, was overly tight and unrealistic. I attempted to raise the issue in a planning meeting but my view was dismissed and told that it would be fine. On the first day, however, the timings were in disarray before we had even welcomed people to the conference! We were running thirty minutes late and that impacted a whole lot of things. People from the front (from global majority heritage backgrounds) explained the situation by bringing out the cultural trope, “African time” or ‘South Asian time”; basically, relying on the understanding that “In Britain you have watches. In Africa we have time.”

As someone on the autistic spectrum, who struggles with ‘rules’ changing and who likes order and structure, particularly in regards to time, I attempted to accept this cultural difference but found myself feeling increasingly belittled when this cultural idiosyncrasy moved from a knowing joke to the insinuation that it was something that I needed a form of healing from. When I pointed out that there would be people arriving at the Cathedral for a service which they had graciously changed the time of to suit us, and that we were going to be half an hour late for, my concern was brushed away by an individual with a, “stop being so English.”

I have reflected before about how I feel when someone is late. Back in 2014 I wrote,

…it is not true that they’d rather be vacuuming a house than making the allotted time for meeting me but when you’re the one sat twiddling your thumbs, unable to start something in case you get interrupted, you can feel powerless to their ‘whims’. This is the problem with lateness: it is a power play. Lateness creates an imbalance in a relationship because one person refuses to be changed by the desire of another whilst the second party has committed and become beholden to the first.

CHAPTER 43: LATE-COMERS TO THE DIVINE OFFICE AND MEALS

The difference in timings is, due to my neurodiversity, a particularly challenging cultural difference for me. I don’t expect people to change their cultural approach to time to suit me but I found it hurtful when my embarrassing but instinctive sensitivities were dismissed completely by strangers. I tried to build relationship by being vulnerable and telling some key people that I had neurodiversity and tried to explain what it physically felt like when things are changed; the panic, the fear, the psychosomatic scratching on the inside of my head but they didn’t seem to understand.

I felt alone and frantic.

Of course, as I wrote back in 2014, different notions of time touches on power. As the dominant, ‘host’ culture (being in England) there is a social dynamic in all forms of hospitality and the different cultural approaches to it. I have begun to explore some of these over the last year in relation to working at a Cathedral where we welcome many different guests. For intercultural relationships to develop there must be a mutuality from both sides which is complex when, historically, one’s ancestors have abused such social bonds so profoundly. Much more work on reconciliation is required and that demands much deeper relationships built in safe spaces. I am in favour of ‘Lament Into Action’ but I am unconvinced we have a vision for a fuller, more holistic and prophetic approach to lament, leaving any action hindered in its efficacy.

My familiar neurodivergent response to timekeeping was not the only reason this seemingly petty example was ‘uncomfortable’. The more subtle and disturbing experience was the unbalanced negativity towards white people that appeared at moments during our discussions. This is where more exploration on lament is needed.

One white, male speaker was told that he only mentioned his whiteness four times in a fifteen minute presentation and one of them was not used to critique its impact on others. I was baffled by this comment. I wasn’t sure what the point was and what the error had been on the speaker’s part. On another occasion a Nigerian speaker, who spoke powerfully on intercultural churches as a framework for truth, justice and reconciliation, suggested that Anglicanism continues to be used to extend ‘Englishness’. That was a perceptive and challenging point that deserves fuller unpacking, but it was his response to a question which made me concerned. The question was:

Can you name a positive attribute of Englishness and a then name a negative attribute of Englishness?

Now, he may have misheard or misunderstood, but he began his answer by naming a positive to the Church of England. His salient point about Anglicanism (of which the Church of England is a leading part) being an extension of Englishness may have been in his mind but he never gave a positive attribute to Englishness. I’m not suggesting that he was consciously avoiding the question but it went to highlight my sense that no one had spoken positively about what white, English culture brings to the intercultural party. This can lead to some white, English people (particularly men) feeling shame with no way of moving through that due to the unchangeability of their race or biological sex. This is, many are arguing, in part, a reason there is a tangible growth in more nationalistic, far-right sentiment in England today. The only seeming chance of hope is found in escaping the perceived imbalance of lament, or, rather, the perceived forcing to lament of one by another. The increasingly common response to the ‘woke agenda’ and the sometimes heavy-handed attempts to encourage lament is defensiveness, a refusal to participate and a retreat from relationship. This creates the intractable silos of polarisation.

Which brings me to Holy Week witness in Bradford city centre.

Standing outside, often in the cold and rain, on a lunchtime in our city centre, with a large wooden cross, singing hymns, reading the Bible and delivering a short talk on the importance of Holy Week for Christians was always going to be a tough task. I was surprised by the small number of people who had genuine conversations of faith. For each of these, however, we were also met by aggressive, baffled and insulted faces by many. The act of witness seemed to make many feel uncomfortable. There was a weary revulsion palpable by the passerbys.

Of the people who did stop and talk, many of them were clearly in mental distress, intoxicated or disproportionally aggressive and white. I was spat at, threatened, asked impossibly complex questions about conspiracy theories (“Why has God given me the message ‘1661’ in the clouds?”).

On Thursday it was my time to give a short reflection aimed at inspiring discussion on the topic of Jesus and the cross. Over the previous three days I had watched others attempt to do this in various different ways. Despite their best efforts, nothing seemed to be hitting the mark. I put it down to the context or to the weather but there was something more; something deeper.

I began my public reflection by saying that “talking about personal things, such as faith, is difficult and painful in this place and at this time.” Bradford has a history of conflict in inter-racial, multiethnic, interfaith relations. The riots of 2001 still loom heavy over the social story of our city and the undercurrent of suspicion has not shifted completely. What I was sensing during Holy Week was a return of these hostilities and our innocent presence in the public square was clearly skirting too close to this reemerging reality. In my talk I wanted to name that. To ignite a prophetic imagination in a people to dream and to hope of a better future one must start by acknowledging and lamenting the current state as fully as possible. For something to be healed it must be diagnosed and brought into the light. I wanted to start conversations with the unspoken: the aggression (fight response), the fearfulness (flight response) and the apathy (freeze response) in order that we might seek healing and redemption there. I wanted a shared sense of lament to all aspects of the breakdown in social relationships and trust between us all and to share in the healing together. Like Jesus did by taking on our humanity and reconciling himself to us in his death.

At the conference I tried to do the same thing. I was asked to speak on racial justice and I began my seminar by acknowledging the conflict within me; on the one hand a right sense of the optics of a white man leading a session of people mainly with global majority heritage and on the other a profound sense of how many white people excuse themselves from this important conversation. What was so uncomfortable about my observation of the reluctance to speak positively about Englishness was the unspeakable yet understandable and palpable distrust and unresolved trauma we all are feeling on both sides of the racial differences. I am inspired by Óscar Romero’s words.

Liberation that raises a cry against others is no true liberation. Liberation that means revolutions of hate and violence and takes the lives of others or abases the dignity of others cannot be true liberty. True liberty does violence to self and, like Christ, who disregarded that he was sovereign, becomes a slave to serve others.

Óscar Romero, ‘The Violence of Love‘ (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988) p.40

How do we constructively work towards intercultural relationships? How do we name the complexities of gifts both honoured and unwanted that we all bring to such relationships?

Two words: prophetic imagination.More on that next time.