2009 Urban Forum | Opening session

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he 2009 Urban Forum brought together Salvation Army urban ministry practitioners, and others, to talk about new ideas, new ways of reaching the poor and how to better support each other. The four-day event was held in Cleveland, USA in late January 2009 and was a joint project of The Salvation Army USA Eastern Territory and The Salvation Army Canada & Bermuda Territory. Over the next few months theRubicon will provide audio and written material from the conference, beginning today with the plenary address on the opening night by Major Geoff Ryan.

Geoff is the convenor of the Urban Forum, the publisher of theRubicon and the co-ordinator of the 614 Network. Geoff and his wife Sandra minister in Regent Park, a social housing project in downtown Toronto, Canada.

His talk, entitled The City of God, was recorded but due to technical difficulties the opening portion of his presentation is unavailable. We join the session, delivered in the chapel of The Salvation Army’s North East Ohio Divisional Headquarters, as Geoff speaks of an encounter with a wealthy businessman friend of his which is revealing of the ‘poverty porn’ mentality of many evangelicals who are blind to need at home while willingly engaging with need overseas. The introduction to this plenary talk sets up the idea that in a world where everything is changing - culture, the church, social services delivery, the economy, politics, the city - how do the listeners, as practitioners of urban ministry, learn to accept and exploit the change in the context of urban ministry?

This change is viewed through the lens of Augustine’s concept of the City of God, and specifically the tension points of politics and economics as the twin pillars of society and of the cultures and sub-cultures that make up our cities… the hard-edged parameters maintaining and containing and often oppressing and disempowering,  the hard-edged places and the hard-pressed people with whom we preach the Good News, bind up, seek release and freedom for, empower and pursue justice alongside…

There are two ways to hear this excerpt of the opening talk of the 2009 Urban Forum (runs 9:58):

• click on the arrow below
• click here to download the episode from iTunes

Read The City of God liturgy, specially written for the Urban Forum and published last week by theRubicon.

Tags: urban forum

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