Contributions invited …

The next issue of Jubilee Grapevine will explore the topic of Tenting. We would love to include your thoughts, articles, poetry, artwork, photography, or random ramblings around this topic.  To get you reflecting:

• From marquees to single-dome swags, circuses to soldiers, refugees to revival meetings? Tell us your tenting stories!
• What does it mean for our engagement with our fragile, violent, yet also beautiful world, that God became a human being and came to live with us? How do we value each other in this context? How do we relate to God?

  (If this is not your theological understanding of the Jesus stories, how do you interpret them, and how does your interpretation influence your involvement in the world?)

• Even long-term travellers often have a whole house somewhere else full of stuff. If you really needed to pack your life into a tent, what would be worth taking? How attached to your possessions are you? What is the appeal and/or challenge of simplifying your life? Is it solidarity with the poor or just being cheap?
• How is our Christian faith and culture shaped by our sacred texts featuring stories of nomads in tents?
• Isaiah describes God 'stretching out the heavens like a curtain, like a tent to dwell in' (40:22); Contemporary wisdom knows you don't mess inside the tent. How do we live well together within this 'tent' we have been given?
• Part of the appeal of camping is a sense of getting close to the earth somehow. What is your sense of connection with the land? Is a bit of tenting essential to retain this connection? How do you stay connected while living in the city?
• What attracts or repels you about permanence/ impermanence? How strongly do you seek security, physical or otherwise?
• Wikipedia lists the primary meaning of 'tentmaking' not as constructing polyester shelters but 'the activities of any Christian who, while functioning as a minister, receives little or no pay for his or her church work, and supports him or herself by additional, unrelated work', primarily with regards to evangelism, based on the purported practice of Paul.
• How do you respond to this concept of 'tentmaking'? [Does your view of Paul change at all if Paul was making tents for the Roman Army? (which seems pretty likely - eg. http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/corpus-paul/20031206/004588.html)]

All submissions need to be received by Friday, 13 July 2007.  Please let Clare know prior to this if you intend to contribute. Submissions not related to the theme will also be considered for inclusion.