Expert jugglers throw jelly to each other without dropping it...

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No picture to go with this (yet) but it's the image that comes into my mind sometimes when professional theologians from different traditions engage in dialogue. There's a careful mental maneuvering that takes place in order to be in the most appropriate position to catch and hold what the other person is trying to throw to you and then to be able to throw it on in turn. One cannot be slapdash about it and it requires a lot of focus and a grip that doesn't let the whole mass of concepts and language slip through the fingers.
The image came to me the other day in ameeting of the theology and unity group of Churches Together in England. It's not a denegrating image by any means but I think it is a challenging one because it is about the difficulty and the importance of listening to one another. The challenge is that this needs to be able to be done at all levels of the church and cannot just be the domain of professional theologians.

Maybe the recent enthusiasm for 'messy church' needs to embrace what happens when the rest of us throw the sloppy jelly to each other?
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