Al Barrett – författare

"With its compilation of stories and theological reflections, Finding the Treasure uncovers the positives that a local church fosters when it engages with its neighbourhood." - Ann Morisy, Community Theologian and author of the bestselling Beyond the Good Samaritan and Journeying OutThe fruit of two years of 'deep listening' in five different estate neighbourhoods across England, Finding the Treasure brings together local ministers and academic theologians to attend to the voices of estates residents. What do they love about the place they're in? What brings them joy as well as grief? And what do hope and good news look like?Rooted in the real-life contexts of these local communities, rich in theological insights, and bold in the challenges it presents to the wider Church, Finding the Treasure offers inspiration and practical guidance for readers willing to engage in similar deep listening within their own communities.In areas and churches that have all too often been labelled 'needy', 'failing' and 'deprived', Finding the Treasure shines a spotlight on an abundance of wisdom and resourcefulness, faith, hope and love that can be found in our estate churches, neighbourhoods, and beyond.

Beginning with a ‘Street Nativity Play’ that didn’t end as planned, and finishing with an open-ended conversation in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, "Being Interrupted" locates an institutionally-anxious Church of England within the wider contexts of divisions of race and class in ‘the ruins of empire’, alongside ongoing gender inequalities, the marginalization of children, and catastrophic ecological breakdown.In the midst of this bleak picture, Al Barrett and Ruth Harley open a door to a creative disruption of the status quo, ‘from the outside, in’: the in-breaking of the wild reality of the ‘Kin-dom’ of God. Through careful and unsettling readings in Mark’s gospel, alongside stories from a multicultural outer estate in east Birmingham, they paint a vivid picture of an 'alternative economy' for the Church's life and mission, which begins with transformative encounters with neighbours and strangers at the edges of our churches, our neighbourhoods and our imaginations, and offers new possibilities for repentance and resurrection.

How can we develop and embody an ecclesiology, in contexts of urban marginality, that is radically receptive to the gifts and challenges of the agency of our non-Christian neighbours? Drawing on resources from political theologies, and in particular conversation with Graham Ward and Romand Coles, this book challenges our lazy understanding of receptivity, digging deep to uncover a rich theological seam which has the potential to radically alter how theologians think about what we draw from urban places. It offers a game changing liberative theology rooted not in the global south but from a position of self-critical privilege.