{"id":2498,"date":"2019-05-19T17:44:55","date_gmt":"2019-05-19T16:44:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2019-05-19T17:44:55","modified_gmt":"2019-05-19T16:44:55","slug":"jubilee-guest-blog-post-simon-topping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/2019\/05\/19\/jubilee-guest-blog-post-simon-topping\/","title":{"rendered":"Jubilee Guest Blog Post &#8211; Simon Topping"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Body\"><b><span lang=\"EN-US\">Our latest guest blog post is from former student Simon Topping. We are looking forward to our jubilee celebrations at the Urban Theology Unit in Victoria Hall, Sheffield on Monday 8th July. Please contact the office for more details.<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-2499\" src=\"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Simon-Topping-300x260.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"260\" srcset=\"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Simon-Topping-300x260.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Simon-Topping-150x130.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Simon-Topping.jpeg 320w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">UTU gave me the opportunity to take forward an idea for a PhD thesis I had been exploring while working as a Methodist minister in Argentina.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">My UTU PhD explored the links between Che Guevara\u2019s \u201cnew man\u201d and Paul\u2019s \u201cnew being in Christ\u201d. In summary, my thesis argued that the consciousness, values and human qualities of the \u201cnew being in Christ\u201d do not happily resonate with the capitalist economic relationships under which the \u201cnew being\u201d must presently live and work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">This led me to explore how Christians might resolve the dissonance between their consciousness as \u201cnew beings in Christ\u201d and their context within capitalist society (where revolutionary change at the national level is not presently viable). With others I launched the Green Cross Co-operative in Gloucester, a Christian Workers\u2019 Co-operative, providing a pedal-powered refill and delivery service in Gloucester. Although the Green Cross Co-op ran for eight years, there still remained for me a felt dissonance created through the need to engage in market competition, the need to calculate value in monetary terms, and the priority of contract over covenantal relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">This has led me, with others, to explore the establishment of a residential intentional Christian community which will seek to model the gospel\u2019s gift economy as a practical challenge to the wider money\/market economy. The 200 year old Brimscombe Methodist chapel will be used as the community house and we hope to launch within the next 12 months.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">Over the years since finishing my PhD I have been able to return to UTU for various events and conferences. It has always been helpful and strengthening to share ideas and proposals with fellow UTU members and I very much look forward to further opportunities to participate in UTU gatherings.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p>Simon Topping 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"Body\"><span lang=\"EN-US\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=TheologyUnion\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our latest guest blog post is from former student Simon Topping. We are looking forward to our jubilee celebrations at the Urban Theology Unit in Victoria Hall, Sheffield on Monday 8th July. Please contact the office for more details. \u00a0 UTU gave me the opportunity to take forward an idea\u2026<\/p>\n<p> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/2019\/05\/19\/jubilee-guest-blog-post-simon-topping\/\"><span>Continue reading<\/span><i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utusheffield.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}