Day: 31 December 2009

2009 is the Centenary of Lesslie Newbigin‘s birth. Churches Together in Britain & Ireland decided to celebrate this with a Conference held at Queen’s College, Birmingham.

This post is….

part brief background on Newbigin;

part a quick glance at some of his theology;

part a ‘back of an envelope’ report on the conference;

and part a personal reflection on ‘Uncle Lesslie’

with a comment on the source of the CTBI banner photo above.

and… it should possibly be a ‘page’ rather than a ‘post’ – we’ll see.

Background

Lesslie Newbigin was a Presbyterian minister and missionary who – considering that background, and not really approving of church hierarchies – rather surprisingly became a Bishop of the united Church of South India at it’s formation in 1947. In fact not once, but twice – first in the Madurai-Ramnad diocese, then later as bishop of Madras, as Chennai was then known. In between, he was in Geneva with the World Council of Churches. On ‘retiring’ from Madras in 1974, Lesslie & Helen Newbigin made their way back to Britain overland using local buses, carrying just a couple of suitcases and a rucksack – I love that; sort of reverse hippy, on so many levels!

This photograph shows The Troika, or the Three Graces, as the three ‘girls’ were sometimes Continue reading “Lesslie Newbigin – Bishop of Hope”