Significant Truths

Chivalry or sexism?

2012-01-28T11:15:00.002+01:00

My son has run into some problems with his boxing; his trainer says that when he puts him in the ring to spar with girls, he just lets himself be pummelled and won't fight back. He does his best to dodge the blows and fends them off but he never really punches back other than a few ineffectual and half hearted jabs when the trainer bellows, "HIT HER." After being questioned he has said it is because it, "doesn't feel right to hit girls and that he was taught not to." (We got something right then...)
I am not sure whether to be proud of said son for this attitude or whether it is a sort of inverse sexism. My personal view is that we shouldn't hit boys or girls, but IF you are going to do boxing or any competitive sport then it is a mark of respect to your opponent to engage fully and give them a fair game or match. My son says it doesn't work this way; the sexes do not compete in actual boxing matches and the sparring is just practice (I don't know much about boxing) and on that basis, he would rather get pummelled! He says it is not sexism because some of the girls are fantastic boxers and much better than him. It just doesn't feel right to him personally.
Overall, I am not really worried that my son is going to turn into some sort of complementarian and I don't think his quaint/ old fashioned/ chivalrous/ sexist/ stupid (delete according to your lights) attitudes will hold him back in his pursuit of competitive success, but I have to say that he did look rather the worse for wear when I picked him up from boxing last night.
"Been sparring have you?", I enquired casually.
"Yup", he said.
"Who with?", I asked.
He mentioned the name of one of the girls who is apparently a pretty tough cookie.
I didn't say a word.

Holocaust Memorial Day

2012-01-27T23:56:00.002+01:00

On a related note, Rowan Williams address on Holocaust Memorial Day - which was yesterday. This year's slogan urges us to Speak Up, Speak Out.

Christian voices

2012-01-27T23:27:00.005+01:00

The debate over the capping of welfare benefits, both the Government's defeat in The Lords by the bishops opposed to a £26,000 cap on payments and Lord Carey's criticism of their actions has thrown into relief the issue of how far, as Christians, we should speak out. Those on both sides may try to claim the moral high ground or may see their view as the most truly "Christian" one. The Bishop of Lewes, Wallace Ben, has this week withdrawn his support for a book which, among other things, advocates legalising marital rape. The book was produced by a right wing think- tank called "Christian Voice" - how ironic that a group espousing views which so many find deeply offensive should see itself as a voice piece for Christian values! Indeed, when we hear Christians with diametrically opposed views speaking out on moral and social issues, we may well ask if there is any such thing as a definitive "Christian voice" on complex or controversial moral issues.
I believe that Christians should engage with political and social issues and should speak out against injustice. And yet when we do so it is inevitable that we will sometimes hold different positions depending on our politics, our understanding, our interpretation of scripture and the world around us. Even when it comes to downright atrocity, we may not be united. Many Christians, while deploring the loss of life in war, may believe some wars are morally justified to prevent greater evil. Religious fervour is often one of the most effective weapons of jingoism and propaganda, while sadly there are some "Christian" groups and websites that spew hatred and incite violence against their fellow human beings.
Perhaps this why the bible warns us to be careful how we use our speech, not always to remain silent, but to think carefully about what we commit to words and about the consequences of our words. Perhaps one of the best known verses is the one in James 3 which warns that we should bridle our tongues,
"Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!"
It seems to me that similar advice is given in the whole bible, Jesus warns us that, "by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned."(Matthew 12) while the Psalms ask God to put a guard over our tongues and in Colossians we are told that our speech should always be gracious, seasoned with salt so that we know how to answer all men. It seems that when it comes to our speech, we are constantly told to exercise caution, and to think about our motives for speaking out, that when we speak out we do so from good and honourable motives and that we consider others' points of view and so are able to "make answer to all men".
I do believe that, although the issue of when to speak up can be a difficult judgement call, that we should speak up when we perceive injustice and have decided it is right to challenge it. At the same time, it can sometimes be appropriate to curb our tongue, especially when to speak might do little good, or be for our own personal ulterior motives or might cause unnecessary hurt or pain. As we are told in Ecclesiastes, there is a time to speak and a time to remain silent. The line between wisdom and folly lies not just in what we say but in knowing how we should say it - and whether we should say it at all.

Good news getting a good press

2012-01-20T20:45:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday, John Sentamu made a visit to Macclesfield to see and hear more about the work of the Cre8 Youth group. I didn't attend, although I did read about the visit and the work of Cre8 both in the local press and through comments and pictures on Face book from those who had been involved! What did surprise me was to be asked about the visit by a number of friends and colleagues, most of whom don't live in the immediate area, are not in any way Christians, and have sometimes challenged me with their views about of some aspects of Christianity and religious belief in general ( views which are entirely valid and which in many ways I share.)

I told them what I knew about the work of Cre8 and of churches in the area and the reaction was one of interest and approval. One friend commented on how valuable she thought it was when people of faith got involved in this kind of work and mission. It is nice to know that news travels, not just bad news but good news as well. As someone who believes that Christianity has a message of good news it brought to mind Matthew 5:16 - that Christians should let their deeds shine before men. It was heartening to see such a positive response .

Polite notice

2012-01-17T23:22:00.001+01:00

From time to time I receive comments that I do not think are suitable to be published on this blog. I am quite happy to publish strong opinions as long as they are not expressed in such a way as might offend most reasonable people. I have recently received a few comments about named individuals which I have hesitated to publish and some which I have decided not to, either because they are clearly malicious or indecent or because they make allegations which, whether or not they can be substantiated, seem to arise from some personal grievance which I do not wish to see aired in this space.
I would like to make it clear that I no longer intend to publish any comments mentioning named individuals unless that individual has been mentioned in the blog post or it is strictly relevant to the matter being discussed. This includes comments which might be deemed to be of a "lighthearted" nature, but could be regarded as malicious by the person named or by their associates.
Thank you all for your understanding in this matter.

Don't take care, take risks

2012-01-17T20:45:00.001+01:00

A book that is definitely on my reading list is The Vicar of Baghdad by Canon Andrew White. So I was pleased to read that this truly remarkable man won the US First Freedom Award last week, becoming only the third Englishman to do so after Winston Churchill and Tony Blair. Canon White, despite suffering from multiple sclerosis, works tirelessly for Iraq's beleagured Christian community. He is also director of the Foundation for Reconciliation and Relief which works to build bridges and heal religious division and hatred - perhaps one of the most difficult taks when faced with bitter political interests and divisions.
This article reports on some recent comments made by Canon White; I was saddened to read his predictions that the future of Iraq's Christians does not look positive, but at the same time I felt admiration that, in the face of that bleak future, he still advised courage and the taking of risks above caution. It is sometimes said that it is easier to preach a sermon than to live one, and the lives of some people are living lessons from which we should learn.

Will Jeffrey John sue?

2012-01-15T13:42:00.003+01:00

There are some reports in the news recently that Jeffrey John is considering legal action against the Church of England on the grounds that he was blocked from the position of Bishop of Southwark on the basis of of his sexuality. In any other work environment, the way Jeffrey John has been treated would be illegal. The Church of England is exempt from the Equality Act, but these exemptions are very narrow. The House of Bishops sought advice last year on the legality of debarring people from positions on the basis of their sexuality and was apparently advised that they cannot exclude on the basis of orientation alone, only on the basis of sexual behaviour. They may also be able to exclude on the grounds that a candidate's views might be a cause for division - that they could not act as a "focus of unity."
It seems that the Church of England would be acting illegally if the reason for blocking Jeffrey John from the shortlist was his sexuality alone, given that his civil partnership is celibate. To argue that he was blocked because his views are divisive might be tenuous as there are other existing bishops with similar views, they might equally be seen as a focus of disunity? There has been a suggestion in some quarters that the Church of England might argue that Jeffrey John was blocked on the basis that he is "unrepentant about his previous sexual behaviour." I think to do so would be a mistake! Firstly and the greatest consideration, is that this would be a cruel, ungenerous and unchristian way to behave. Given that Jeffrey John is in a committed lifelong relationship, to require him to "repent" effectively of any intimacy with someone he so clearly loves would be downright shabby and present the Church in a very poor light. Secondly, the question of discrimination would still arise - are the sexual histories of all heterosexual bishops also to be investigated and public repentance for any sex outside of marriage required? Thirdly, according to compelling reports, there are other gay bishops, including some who are in relationships, although they are not open about this fact, leading to accusations of hypocrisy and that the Church rewards dishonesty (which it certainly does!) on this issue.

My first thought on reading the report was that it was a rumour. Taking legal action is not really seen as Jeffrey John's style. Reading between the lines, this has been an ongoing dialogue and one wonders if it is what led to the House of Bishops seeking advice last year? The Daily Mail reports:

It is understood there has been a lengthy correspondence between Ms Downie (John's solicitor) and Church lawyers in an attempt to resolve the dispute. No legal action has been launched but it is thought Dr John has not ruled out the possibility, although one source said Dr John suggested he would drop his legal threat if he felt he would not be ruled out for future posts.

It is important to note, therefore, that this is actually a very mild response from Jeffrey John, he is not yet taking the Church to court, merely trying to make them consider the unjust and possibly unlawful nature of their actions. I hope they do seriously reflect and decide that, as he certainly does not fall into some special category of sinner, that he should be allowed to apply for positions on the same basis as all the other applicants.
One of the saddest aspects of the whole matter (and there are many sad aspects) is that the fact that this story will do little to dispel public perceptions of the Church as bigoted, prejudiced, cruel, hypocritical and obsessed with judging other people. It is possible, of course, that this matter will be milked by the media for all it is worth. It is also possible that the British at large may have so lost interest in the Church and what it does and says that it will only be seen as a minor story, just more of the same from an institution that is seen by many as irrelevant and having little to offer. If that is the case, it may be even more of a cause for grief and reflection.

Most children are happy (shock report!)

2012-01-12T20:54:00.001+01:00

The news that half a million children describe themselves as unhappy was one of the headlines this morning. People are rarely at their most rational on the subject of children; our fear, anxiety, guilt and cherished ideas about innocence often stand in for reality. I was interested and pleased, therefore,to hear this balanced and proportionate interview with John Sentamu in which he stresses that the same report found that ten out of eleven children actually do describe themselves as happy. He also said that, although he sees marriage as the bedrock of society, that other situations, such as single parent, or same sex families should not be demonised and he seemed to acknowledge that they offer excellent outcomes, when the quality of the relationships are good - just as traditional marriages offer excellent outcomes, when the quality of the relationships are good.
That is is the quality of our human relationships that count, not the social wrapper they come in, is so blindingly obvious that I wonder whether the fact that I am rejoicing to hear the Archbishop's views might not be the most revealing factor of all.!Yet thinking back to the sort of remarks made by Rick Santorum recently about same sex parents being worse than criminals , I am glad to hear the sense and decency of someone like Sentamu shine through and can't help feeling a sort of gratitude for the fact that over here we do not generally hear even religious figures, let alone politicians, spout that kind of unjust and nasty stuff. I am not sure if the greater moderation of our Christian spokespeople (usually spokesmen...) in Britain is because they are more moderate, or because they have been brought to adopt a moderate position by a secular society which has relatively little Christian extremism and generally values tolerance - but I will give them the benefit of the doubt...

Of Bishops and Baboons

2012-01-11T18:52:00.003+01:00

An insightful little video about bishops and their behaviour which I found on Anglican Mainstream this evening...
Seriously -enjoy!

Do dogs have souls? ( Part Seventeen)

2012-01-08T18:50:00.022+01:00

I was in two minds whether or not to post the above video which shows dogs saying grace before meals! I am not sure it is evidence that dogs have souls, more evidence of how easy it is to train dogs and possibly quite a few members of the human species to adopt all the signs of religiosity with very little but their own ulterior motives under that pious exterior...
I am sure that all the admittedly gorgeous dogs in this clip are very close to God, I think their owners, who are clearly either deranged or have strange ideas of what it is appropriate to train their animals to do, may be in need of our prayers.

House of Bishop report on sexuality (yawn...)

2012-01-07T18:23:00.000+01:00

I've read quite a few blogs and comments suggesting that the current C of E advisory group/s (there are two of them apparently) which have been set up to advise on human sexuality are weighted in favour of a more conservative bias. The latest group, which will advise the House of Bishops and is made up entirely of - er- bishops, includes Keith Sinclair (Bishop of Birkenhead in Chester Diocese ) who is one of the patrons of the True Freedom Trust. Some people have also noted that the advisory group to the House of Bishops is a bit one sided as it consists entirely of men - well, they are all bishops you see, and...well, you get the picture. At the moment bishops cannot, by definition, be either women or openly gay. This does beg the question of how effectively a group can comment on sexuality when it does not include the perspective of a single woman or a single gay person.
I think we could already predict the conclusions of this rather skewed group and I really can't muster up the slightest interest in what they have to say.

Assisted dying

2012-01-06T23:33:00.003+01:00

I have very mixed views on the topic of assisted suicide and the video above, of Jeremy Paxman interviewing Terry Pratchett, gives food for thought on both sides of the debate. I found it moving when Paxman asked about the sanctity of life and Pratchett answered with his thoughts about the dignity of life. I do believe that life is precious, that it is sacred - I also believe that quality of life is sometimes more important than the quantity of life; that life "at any cost" may in itself be demeaning. I am not sure we ever have the "right" to take a life or to take our own lives - at the same time I worry that it is a form of barbarism to compel people to live when their lives may have become unbearable. I prefer the idea of offering support and good palliative care to the terminally ill - and yet I strongly suspect that even the best palliative care cannot offer adequate relief from suffering and distress in some cases. In short, I am a mass of contradictions on this matter, it is one of those moral issues which presents itself to me in shades of grey rather than in black and white.

I do believe that those who support assisted dying are generally compassionate and believe that to offer people this option enhances human dignity. I would not be able to call such people "murderers", even if I disagreed with their reasoning. Indeed, I know people who support the right to die - often as a result of witnessing the suffering of loved ones- and they are not "murderous" people. Fortunately, I have never had personal experience of the kind of degenerative diseases that lead people to advocate the right to die. I am reluctant to speak out strongly on issues such as this one when I am in many ways ignorant and have not been personally affected. I can also safely say that I sincerely hope I remain untouched by an issue so fraught with pain and anguish for all my days and I hesitate to judge those who have not been so fortunate.

The role of anger

2012-01-04T20:38:00.001+01:00

Two events covered in the news this week have I guess caused a range of emotions in us all. The murder of Anuj Bidve on Boxing Day and the news of the successful conviction of two of those involved in the murder of Stephen Lawrence are linked by nature of the futile loss of a promising life, mindless and unprovoked violence and, in the Lawrence case an established, and in the Bidve a possible, racist motive. The other aspect which has linked both cases is the lack of remorse and seeming inability of the perpetrators to comprehend the evil nature of the acts they committed.
My first reaction when hearing that Kieran Stapleton had given his name as "Psycho" when at the Magistrate's Court was one of intense anger. My reaction when seeing the footage of the Lawrence suspects talking exultantly about murdering and torturing black men, while acting out the same, was equally one of rage and revulsion. To be honest it made me angry that the actions of those who bring nothing to the party should so lightly take away the lives of those who are good and decent and have things to offer. I felt anger at the suffering and anguish they had caused. I wanted them to understand what they had done, and, quite frankly, I really wanted them to suffer.
There is room for anger and outrage in a right reaction to wrongdoing. We cannot always sit calmly by and be understanding when we hear of, or see, or suffer great atrocity. It is important, of course, that we balance our anger, that we try to some exent to step back, that we bring into the mix of our emotion other feelings and responses - that we question, that we grieve, that we despair for and of everything and everyone involved. The response of "psycho Stapleton" , may cause us to react with anger, it might also lead us wonder about what may have happened in someone's life to lead them to think that such a label gave any kind of status. Then our anger is tempered by a kind of horror at what a human being can become.
Is this a man? wrote Primo Levi, survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. And if this is a man, what chance of redemption or restoration? I do not know how far anger, and despair are Christian emotions - both are considered sinful , yet anger has its vital place in the moral response to human evil and an ability to feel a sort of despair is necessary (inevitable) if we are to acknowledge human evil and to be humble enough to admit our own potential for evil.
The Christian response to evil is, I suppose, to hold our anger and despair in tension with our belief in the goodness of God and the hope of grace and redemption. Then our souls can be "still" and at peace in that faith and hope, as suggested in the words of the hymn below.

2012

2012-01-01T14:14:00.000+01:00

Christ has no body on earth now but yours;
no hands but yours;
no feet but yours.
Yours are the eyes
through which the compassion of Christ
must look out on the world.
Yours are the feet
with which he is to go about doing good.
Yours are the hands
with which he is to bless his people.
(St. Teresa of Avila)

A Poem for Holy Innocents

2011-12-28T19:49:00.007+01:00

A Little Boy Lost

Nought loves another as itself,
Nor venerates another so,
Nor is it possible to thought
A greater than itself to know.

'And, father, how can I love you
Or any of my brothers more?
I love you like the little bird
That picks up crumbs around the door.'

The Priest sat by and heard the child;
In trembling zeal he seized his hair,
He led him by his little coat,
And all admired the priestly care.

And standing on the altar high,
'Lo, what a fiend is here! said he:
'One who sets reason up for judge
Of our most holy mystery.'

The weeping child could not be heard,
The weeping parents wept in vain:
They stripped him to his little shirt,
And bound him in an iron chain,

And burned him in a holy place
Where many had been burned before;
The weeping parents wept in vain.
Are such thing done on Albion's shore?

William Blake. A Little Boy Lost

I have chosen this poem by William Blake for Holy Innocents day because Christmas is a time when we should be challenged. Far from being a sentimental festival, Christmas is followed by the feast of the first martyr and a commemoration of the slaughter - although it is probably not historical fact - of the male children under the age of two. We keep pretty quiet about Holy Innocents nowadays, it's not the sort of thing that can be described as "for the children", although it has to be said that it was a very popular element in the medieval mystery plays, apparently the butchers would often act out this scene and you have to admit that a villain like Herod gave great dramatic potential and the chance to boo and hiss to your heart's content.

And that is the perhaps the problem, it is only too easy to see evil and atrocity in others but we can be blind to our own cruelties and abuse of others. Holy Innocents should not be about booing or hissing Herod, but about recognising the potential for cruelty and evil closer to home, in all our systems of power and control. The Church itself has not been immune from hurting and damaging those entrusted to its care, as has been evident in some of the depressing abuse scandals which have emerged in recent years. In Little Boy Lost, a child questions the commandments to love God and others as himself and asks how can this be possible? The priest's reaction of burning anger and "trembling zeal" at this heresy is vividly conveyed and he does no more than seize the child and burn him to death on the altar while his parents weep and the onlookers approve!

What a shocking and radical poem! The little boy in his vulnerablity and innocence represents anyone small or powerless who dares to question the system, and Blake himself as a dissenter would have known about the prejudice and violence that could be condoned and colluded with in the name of religion - or indeed in the name of any insititution or ideology. Blake ends his poem with a question to make us think - "Are such things done on Albion's shore?" We might ask ourselves today whether injustice, abuse and cruelty are still perpetrated in the name of power, greed or ideology, whether abroad or closer to home. On Holy Innocents, and at any other time of the year, we only need to look at the headlines to know the answer.

Vader did you know?

2011-12-27T16:14:00.000+01:00

I'm not really a Star Wars fan, but I can imagine that this might be quite funny if you are! May the farce be with you this Christmas and always:)

Reckless Love

2011-12-24T15:34:00.001+01:00

A wonderful Christmas video. A reminder that Christians believe that God intervened with a plan that was not sweet or sentimental but rather implausible, unthinkable, bizarre, reckless, extravagant and amazing.

Wishing all readers a very Happy Christmas!

Carolling cats and dogs

2011-12-22T19:28:00.001+01:00

Earlier this week we went out to a local (ish) dog friendly pub and - shock, horror- did not take Bessie. The reason for this was that the occasion was a friend's birthday and things might have been a little overwhelming for a small white Westie! Anyhow, while there we were visited by some carol singers, accompanied by a dog (who also Morris dances.) We are going to make things up to Bessie by taking her out for pint of doggie beer in January. I wonder if she would like to take up singing - or morris dancing?

And for those of you who enjoy hearing animals carol singing, we had Deck the Halls last year, but this year's offering is a wonderful rendition of Jingle Bells [ a reasonably high tolerance of cute animals and awwww factor required - I can't be serious all the time - and it is nearly Christmas! :)]

Incarnation as Liberation

2011-12-20T13:05:00.008+01:00

O Key of David and Scepter of the House of Israel; you open and no man closes; you close and no man opens. Come, and deliver from the chains of prison those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. (Antiphon for today: Clavis David)

The beautiful picture above, which depicts the Incarnation, was taken from a card which I gave to someone this year. Today's antiphon holds forth the prospect of Christ as the Key of David and draws on those promises of hope and liberation from Isaiah 22. In the picture, mankind is shown lying in darkness, curled helplessly, bound hand and foot, like a prisoner or hostage unable to break free. The blue colour of the flesh of mankind is corpse-like, mankind is subject to the powers of death. The coldness and stillness of the figure contrasts with the light and heat of the child descending. It offers a moving visual rendering of some of the ideas in today's wonderful, meaningful antiphon.
Today's reflection from the I-Bendectine blog links the antiphon to the reading from Luke and to the way Mary was open to God. The picture above emphasises the relevance of the Incarnation to all; that God enters not just Mary but the whole of fallen mankind to free, restore and redeem. Advent requires all to make room for God within us, or in the words of a well known hymn:

O holy Child of Bethlehem

Descend to us, we pray

Cast out our sin and enter in

Be born in us today

We hear the Christmas angels

The great glad tidings tell

O come to us, abide with us

Our Lord Emmanuel.

Snow and Salvation

2011-12-17T14:51:00.001+01:00

Salvation

By what are you saved? And how?

Saved like a bit of string,

tucked away in a drawer?

Saved like a child rushed from

a burning building, already

singed and coughing smoke?

Or are you salvaged
like a car part -- the one good door
when the rest is wrecked?

Do you believe me when I say
you are neither salvaged nor saved,
but salved, anointed by gentle hands
where you are most tender?
Haven't you seen
the way snow curls down
like a fresh sheet, how it
covers everything,
makes everything
beautiful, without exception.

By Lynne Ungar

H/T to Blue Eyed Ennis for this lovely poem. The Advent before last I was particularly taken with a beautiful post from the Colophon blog (now the i-Benedictine blog) written by the nuns of East Hendred in which they liken the snow to Advent, something that descends softly and gently into our hearts and souls, silencing and transforming the world with its impossible purity.

Iconoclastic Christmas

2011-12-15T21:25:00.011+01:00

The controversial street artist, Banksy, today unveiled what is described as a piece of "anti-Christian artwork" - Cardinal Sin is a replica of an 18th century bust with the face replaced by a series of tiles which are apparently meant to represent the pixellation effect used to conceal the identities of victims of child abuse. The statue is considered to be a statement on the child abuse scandals in the Roman Catholic church. Banksy says it is a sort of Christmas present ...

I have to say that I find modern art interesting although I am dubious about some of it. I rather like Banksy's statue with its representation of new media superimposed upon old stonework. Perhaps he is intending to juxtapose old attitudes to the Church hierarchy, shown through the reverential bust, alongside our modern contempt and anger at corruption in the Church, shown by the obscured and vandalised face. I don't have any problems with artists condemning corruption in the Church or exposing its flaws. What I am more concerned about is the comment from the artist, 'At this time of year it’s easy to forget the true meaning of Christianity - the lies, the corruption, the abuse.'

So, corruption, lies and abuse constitute the true meaning of Christianity ? I don't think so! Christ was a an iconoclast, someone who had a vivid turn of phrase, describing religious authorities as "whited sepulchres"and not hesitating to overturn the tables when he saw lies, corruption and abuse. The Christian Church throughout the ages may have often traded on lies and abuse, but Jesus himself spoke up against power and corruption. The Incarnation should also strike us as iconoclastic because it smashes to pieces some of our ideas about the nature of God. It also challenges our human ideas about power and hierarchy; Mary tells us that it is the work of a God who "hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts and the rich he hath sent empty away."

So, what is the true meaning of Christianity - and isn't it time to reclaim it?

Nativity scenes

2011-12-14T19:23:00.000+01:00

I was quite amused by this post on Bosco Peter's Liturgy blog with some bizarre depictions of the Nativity. It is weird enough depicting Mary, Joseph and Jesus as cats or ducks, but who came up with the idea for the Nativity below, and were they taking a leaf out of Lady Gaga's book?

I know the word became flesh and dwelt among us - but I don't think that means the word became bacon and sausage...

Repentance and hope

2011-12-10T01:35:00.010+01:00

The call to repentance is an integral part of the penitential season of Advent because without the willingness to change and to be changed we cannot be said to have prepared ourselves for the coming of Christ. John the Baptist, with his outspoken message, can be seen an embodiment of the mad sage, a figure found throughout myth and literature, representing someone who lives on the margins of society yet who has a message for mainstream society, often confronting it with uncomfortable truths about prevailing attitudes and behaviour. People tend either to heed such voices or completely dismiss them, rarely is their reaction lukewarm.

When John says that he is a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the way of the Lord, he is echoing the words of Isaiah which foretell the coming of the Messiah. In 1963, in his speech to members of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King also drew on the words spoken by Isaiah and John to call people to a radical attitude of repentance. He said he had a dream that, " one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together" and that his words would help to transform the “desert state of Mississippi” into an “oasis of freedom and hope”. King’s allusion to these two prophets was clear, he too was a voice crying out in a wilderness, and he too is drawing a comparison between inhospitable landscapes and the desert of our hearts. Our attitudes to God, ourselves and each other need to change in order to usher in the Kingdom of God and allow the glory of the Lord to be revealed.
This Advent message of changing our attitudes to others truly needs to be heard. A study just recently suggested that our current economic downturn does not seem to have brought out a spirit of compassion or empathy. In marked contrast to previous recessions we seem more willing to blame others, in particular the poor. Rather than all being in it together, we seem much more interested in getting out of it unscathed, in the meantime feeling resentful about everyone and everything that “caused” the problems – except, of course, ourselves.
The Advent message of changing our attitudes to ourselves also needs to be heard. Advent is often described as an “emptying “- as John says, “I must become less, he must become more.” We’ve lived for too long in a culture that tells we should take everything we can. We’ve been told to aspire to have and buy the best we can - because we’re worth it. No wonder we feel aggrieved, perhaps we might not be worth it after all? I suspect that at the root of a lot of our human anguish is the fear that we might be worthless. It sounds paradoxical, but emptying of the self allows us to find worth. I am really, really bad at the whole emptying lark by the way, but I know it is only when we make room within our hearts that we grow.
Repentance opens up the potential for change and that paves the way to hope.

Joseph - a Nativity poem

2011-12-09T20:51:00.001+01:00

They say there are signs.
Not with her.
I’m no professor

but neither am I stupid.
I asked her who she’d been seeing.
She sat there murmuring ‘Angel’.

She went north a few days
- change’ll do you good.
The solicitors said to forget it.
‘Without proof…’ they smiled.
If anything she started to brighten:
‘They’ll be cousins, same age!’
(I can’t be sure,
but I think I saw him, too.)

We left it too late, of course.
The traffic was solid,
some pop idol on the hire car radio
massacring ‘Hallelujah’.
We stopped at a Little Chef
on a B-road somewhere in the hills.

Crystal midnight it was,
good as daylight.
Then she grew wild-eyed.
Her bawling, a blunt saw,
cut through me.
It wasn’t like in the songs.

Anthony Wilson

I love this modern day version of the events leading up to the Nativity told from Joseph's perspective. H/t to Phil's Treehouse.

Waiting in silence

2011-12-05T22:44:00.000+01:00

Civil partnerships in church

2011-12-04T15:25:00.006+01:00

I set my alarm early this morning in order to listen to the Sunday programme on Radio 4 because I wanted to hear the discussion between Rev. Colin Coward and the Rt Rev John Goddard, bishop of Burnley on civil partnerships in religious premises (the discussion starts twenty five minutes into the broadcast on the link above.) From tomorrow it will become legal for churches to conduct civil partnership ceremonies if they wish to "opt in" - that is if the bill is not derailed by Baroness Caithness - as this Quaker website reports on that matter. The Church of England has issued guidelines saying that no individual churches or vicars may decide to hold civil partnerships until and unless the matter is agreed by General Synod. However, there seem to be no plans to discuss the matter at General Synod, and other bloggers have commented on this.

Peter Tatchell has called on clergy to ignore the ban and urged individual priests and congregations to defy the Church of England's ruling, going ahead with same-sex civil partnerships if they want to. It is very important that it is understood that no clergy person is free to ignore the ban, not least for the sake of the couple involved, as such a ceremony would be unlikely to be legal and valid. The proposed legislation is quite clear that,
" Faith groups may specify a person or body of persons entitled to consent to applications being made for individual premises to be approved for the registration of civil partnerships."
Since the Church of England has deemed that the body of persons entitled to consent is General Synod, any person attempting to register the church building or register a ceremony themselves would be acting unlawfully. The advice of Peter Thatchell in this instance is irresponsible; a couple's big day is not the place for testing of the law.
In July this year, I travelled to York to be present at General Synod. I was involved in a whole range of activities there - from distributing leaflets and talking to people about the Anglican Covenant, to attending a WATCH meeting in which Bishop Victoria Matthews gave a very inspiring speech about overcoming the divisions and difficulties caused by being a female bishop without even so much as a Code of Practice! On the Saturday morning, I stood outside Synod chamber distributing leaflets near to a banner bearing the legend "Civil Partnerships in Church Now!" This year saw a new Synod, and I had read that its composition was generally thought to be more conservative than the former one, so I was expecting a fair bit of opposition and negative comments. There were, of course, those who walked by and would not even look you in the eye, there were one or two hostile looks and comments, but the overwhelming response seemed to be one of interest and support. The warmth that was shown by some people actually took me by surprise. I found it very moving, it has helped me feel I can remain as a part of the Church. My impression of the temperature of Synod this July is, of course, subjective and in some ways neither here nor there. I have no idea how Synod would currently react if faced with a decision on whether to allow CPs and I am not naive enough not to think there would not be considerable opposition - but there seems to be a significant groundswell of what looked like support.
I also noted the number of people who wanted to talk about their own churches and to ask questions about difficult pastoral circumstances or legal matters. One vicar who came to speak to us had a gay couple at her church - long term members of the congregation- and she very much wanted to hold some kind of ceremony or blessing of their civil partnership. She did not know where she would stand legally, she had the full backing of the PCC but was hesitant to go ahead. I believe Colin advised her that you can hold a service as long as you do not call it a "blessing" - but I wonder if she did ever go ahead, many are held back by fear. It is important to understand that fear is also driving factor in the current conservative response to the legislation. Some people are just interested in blocking the legislation because they are fundamentally opposed to LGBT rights, others are genuinely afraid that, if the Church allows freedom of conscience on this matter, rather as it has done on the issue of the remarriage of divorcees, it will fuel further discord and division, not just within Britain but in the global Communion. Others are fearful that it will open the way for individual priests who decline as a matter of conscience to conduct civil partnerships to face legal challenges for discrimination. These fears are exacerbated by the increasing likelihood that the Government will introduce full marriage for lesbian and gay people, bringing about a possible situation where the Church becomes guilty of discrimination in its provision of goods and services.
I think the hierarchy of the Church of England is also fearful at this moment, fearful of the division in the church at large, fearful of falling foul of the law, fearful of allowing discussion, fearfully clinging to an Anglican Covenant which has been far from universally adopted and acclaimed. Fear, hurt - and perhaps a sense of how irresolvable the issues seem to be - has stopped the Church really talking and listening. But I know that most of the people I met at Synod in July, especially those who approached us about people in their congregations that they knew and loved, were glad to have the opportunity to talk, to express their doubts and frustrations, to ask questions. "It's been good to talk about this", someone visiting the stall said to us, "I'm glad you're here."

When we walk in darkness

2011-11-30T22:56:00.002+01:00

“I’ve had plenty of opportunities to be depressed – I just haven’t taken them!”

The statement above was posted on a friend’s Face book page and it caused a lot of heated comment and condemnation, especially as it was reportedly said by a pastor. I have to admit that I agreed with the consensus, which was that such a comment was offensive and tasteless, not to mention possibly very damaging. It made me think both about how we can hurt people by making sweeping statements about very personal issues that we have little or no experience of, and it made me think about mental illness itself.
I also considered the statement in the light of Advent. The link between mental illness and Advent may seem remote, but Advent comes at the darkest period of the year and it involves a waiting, a belief that even if we walk in darkness, there may be light and there may be hope. Having suffered myself from mental illness, I know that it was not in any way an “opportunity” that I wanted to grasp. After the birth of my second son, a few days before Christmas, I developed severe post natal depression. Post natal depression has been described as crawling into a pit of blackness and being unable to find your way out; it’s not the sort of thing you sign up for!
Postnatal depression can progress rapidly from “the baby blues”, to acute depression, to borderline and then even full blown psychosis. I never reached the full blown stage, but I did reach a point where my thoughts began to seem like voices outside my control. When I became ill, and it is an illness, I realised something that I never had before. Before I had thought that the worst things to lose would be things like my job or my physical health. I had not considered the prospect of losing my sanity. I had worried about losing family or friends, but not of losing my identity or sense of who I was. It was as if I had walked out on myself. It was truly the most terrifying experience.
Advent is the promise of God with us. Christ came to the earth and experienced human life among the plain and impoverished, was born in unsavoury conditions, in exile, threatened by danger and persecution. To be human is to suffer; to be born is to die. It is not a pretty story any more than our lives are always pretty stories. So many human beings walk in darkness.
Where was Christ during that black Advent and Christmas? Well, I think he was there in the love and support of my family and of my wonderful husband who did all the practical things and also managed to walk with me – and being alongside someone who is hopelessly and irrationally ill – suffering from an illness that you cannot see, is no easy task. Fortunately, perhaps because I received understanding , not the sort of condemnation which would make my guilt worse, there was light at the end of my particular blackness.
Just as God came to suffer alongside us, to give us his light and to be with us, so we are called to be with others and to walk alongside them, to be Christ to them, especially when they are in dark places that we dread, or fear, or do not fully understand.

World Aids Day

2011-11-30T20:08:00.005+01:00

Tomorrow is World Aids Day. In the video below, Rowan Williams reflects on the sexual violence and the role of sexual violence in the spread of AIDS in Africa.

Grassroots God

2011-11-26T19:48:00.000+01:00

I started thinking about Christmas in July this year, so a bit of a head start there! The above video (ht Blue Eyed Ennis) speaks to me about a grassroots God, one who chose to come not to the rich and powerful but to the poorest and most marginalised and who starts in our hearts and works outwards to transform our lives. John 1: 14 can apparently be translated as "The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us." The wonderful, almost casual image of "pitching a tent" speaks to me of a God who is resourceful, in our midst, on the move, dynamic and not static.The idea of God with us, and the way that God dwells with us and in us, is one of the key message of Advent and one that takes some time to ponder.

Rip! Rip! Rip!

2011-11-25T20:18:00.003+01:00

This evening I read in the The Huffington Post that each school in the UK is to receive a copy of the King James bible with a introduction written by Michael Gove. Let me make it clear that I have no problem with every school having a King James bible, students from all faith backgrounds and none should be encouraged to read the King James, a text which contains much beautiful language, thought and poetry. The bible is a key part of our cultural heritage and it is tragic that there is such ignorance of it and the ideas it contains. I always tell students that if they want to do well in Literature, they should read the bible. My main problem with the proposal lay not with the bible itself but with the nauseating prospect of such a beautiful, challenging and life altering text being sullied by an introduction by Michael Gove.
Some critics have complained that Gove is promoting religious values at the expense of multi culturalism through this proposal. Others have asked whether he will also write an introduction to the origin of the species (please, don't encourage the man...) and put that on display in schools. But while the multiculturalists, Darwinists and Richard Dawkins bleat and complain, I'd like to jump on the band wagon and say that I really object to the likes of Mr Gove using this sacred text to convince blue rinse brigade Tories and outraged Daily Mail readers that he will tackle moral decline, instil right thinking in our youngsters and generally drag us back to the nineteen fifties. I hate to think what Mr Gove will pontificate about in his introduction to the bible, but I am pretty sure it will utterly destroy any sense of awe, mystery or radical thought and reduce it to some sort of right wing formula.
In fact it brought to mind this sketch from Dead Poets society in which one J.Evans Pritchard advocates the use of a graph to measure poetry. If a copy of Mr Gove's bible falls into my hands, my fingers might just be itching to rip out the introduction and leave the pure unadulterated text - because, to modify the quote at the end of this clip, "No matter what anyone tells you, the bible can change the world."

Do dogs have souls? (part sixteen)

2011-11-23T19:35:00.000+01:00

For those sceptics amongst you who have not come to the blindingly obvious conclusion that dogs do have souls, here is more evidence. A dog in China is staunchly keeping watch by his master's grave and it is reported that even attempts to starve him into abandoning the grave have not worked. Perhaps the most famous example of this kind of dogged devotion (I know...I'm sorry...) is the story of Greyfriar's Bobby, a Skye terrier who kept up a fourteen year vigil. There are some doubting Thomas stories circulating on the web claiming the whole Bobby thing was a bit of a hoax and that the dog spent a lot of his time in local restaurants ( well - a dog has to eat, doesn't he?)
Hmmmm...I wonder if Bessie would show this sort of loyalty?

From the Cloister to the World

2011-11-20T13:38:00.002+01:00

"I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed", wrote John Milton in his essay Areopagitica in1634. I guess quite a few people know this quote, fewer may realise that Milton was expressing fairly controversial views about the use of the printing press- a technology that was his generation's equivalent to the Internet. It is hard for us to grasp now just how revolutionary the advent of printing was. A single Renaissance printing press could produce 3,600 pages per day compared to just a few produced laboriously by hand. Moreover, the printing press gave freedom of expression to those who might not previously have had a voice and it enabled people to access literature in their mother tongue, in particular that radical and subversive book - the Bible. Milton saw the potential for printing as a means to allow freedom of thought and disseminate "virtue" more widely. He acknowledged that wrong and dangerous ideas would be expressed, but he had a staunch belief that this was preferable to curtailing access to knowledge and communication.

This is not going to be a post about press freedom, or The News of the World hacking scandals because that is more about responsibility and self regulation than censorship, rather I want to think about the role of the Internet. This vehicle for communication does, it is true, contain many pitfalls and have negative aspects, but it can also be a force for good. Like many things in life, it is not the Internet itself, but how it is used in human hands that makes the difference. One of the blogs in which I love to read is the I-Benedictine blog run by the nuns of East Hendred. In the introduction to the blog, they write:
" We prefer to call ourselves cloistered rather than enclosed because the word “enclosed” may suggest a closed mind. We have a special interest in using contemporary technology to reach out to people who would never otherwise come to the monastery." And reach out they do. I commend to you two recent posts, the first is Vacare Deo which reflects on making space for God in our everyday lives and the second a short but meaningful reflection on anxiety. This is online ministry in a very real sense. Perhaps it is because the nuns are apart from the world that they have so much to offer to the world and they truly use modern technology as a vehicle to bless others.
If Milton were writing today, I am sure he would praise their far from fugitive virtue.

Food as a moral issue

2011-11-18T22:47:00.003+01:00

Food and food econony is definitely in the headlines at the moment; how we feed ourselves , the nation and the world is making the news much more frequently. Radio 4 promoted the toast sandwich this week, an apparently "healthy" snack consisting of a thin slice of toast between two pieces of bread. The fact that this repast was Mrs. Beeton's answer to Victorian austerity was a stark reminder that the kind of squeeze on food bills that the average Briton is facing bears no real comparison to the food poverty of the past, or to that faced in so many other parts of the world. During the Second World War, the food writer MFK Fisher recommended that people should breakfast on piles of toast or a large bowl of porridge, explaining that "You can be lavish because the meal is inexpensive." It is the same principle as the toast sandwich.
Food shortages and the rising cost of food worldwide provides a grim backdrop to the growing need for practising thrift and avoiding wastefulness. Children still regularly die of starvation and in many parts of the world families struggle to feed their children. This is nothing new, the poor always have and always will be with us and most of us - I include myself - are quite good at ignoring the fact.
It is, therefore, positive that we are beginning to be more aware of how we manage food as a resource and that this is being highlighted as an important social, political and moral issue. We still need to seriously rethink some of our attitudes to food, for example there have been moves to try to reduce the scandalous waste in British households by axing over cautious "Best before" labels on food and encouraging supermarkets to be more ethical in the way they source and manage food.
An event that took place today in Trafalgar Square , the biblically named Feeding the 5000, aimed to highlight the practice of supermarkets discarding "imperfect" vegetables by cooking and serving a free lunch made of wonky carrots and other weirdly shaped foodstuffs. The thought that a rather delicious free lunch would otherwise have ended up as landfill, something which happens every day and which damages the environment as well as wasting good food, really should make us stop and think! Just because we are able to afford to waste food - and a lot of people in Britain still are in that position - does not make it alright to waste food. The reading this week shows us that we will be judged on the extent to which we have tried to to meet both physical and spiritual needs of others. It is also clear that when we are told :"I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me", it is simply not going to be good enough to say that we were too busy enjoying our riches, building our careers, stuffing our faces, or generally looking after ourselves to notice...

Canterbury and the Covenant

2011-11-16T22:41:00.037+01:00

It has been a relatively long time since I composed a blog post about the Anglican Covenant. The reason for this, dear reader, is that I have grown bored and weary. I don't mean that the intricacies of the Covenant it self have bored me - although to be honest it is not the most riveting document I have ever read. It is more that I have become increasingly dull and dispirited watching the inevitable squabbling that it has generated. Watching the reactions and voting in various dioceses and provinces around the world, it has become clear that the optimistically named "Covenant" it is not going to be wholeheartedly embraced by the majority of Anglicans. Hard line conservatives are just as likely to reject it for being "toothless" as liberals are for being "restricting". I have come to doubt the certainty of both sides; as I implied when I wrote this recipe for fudge there is no knowing what the thing will actually work out like until we have it - and that in itself seems to me a good reasons to say "No".
The only reason that I am blogging about the whole sorry matter today (when I could be doing more exciting things like watching paint dry) is that my attention was caught by a few posts that I read about it. Lay Anglica reports that there are attempts to rush the Covenant through Synod in 2012 and that pressure will be brought to bear to ensure its acceptance. I don't know if this is true, but it would not surprise me. One thing that is clear is that for the Church of England to reject the Covenant would be a disaster in terms of the position and reputation of the Archbishop of Canterbury. The Covenant is Rowan William's baby, for it to be rejected on home territory would undoubtedly be a humiliating defeat. It might look worse than disloyalty and I suspect it might appear a green light for mutiny in some quarters.

Speaking of the role of the Archbishop of Canterbury, this recent post from Tobias Haller is also worth a quick glance. In it the author questions the need for the four Instruments of Communion and says that we do not find our "identity" in them at all. He opines that to claim to find our identity in the Instruments is " slightly blasphemous" as our identity should be found in Christ alone (isn't that the title of a hymn..?) The instruments of Communion, Haller tells us, " are all relatively recent entities not only in Christianity but even among Anglicans." But...hang on a minute, isn't the Archbishop himself one of the Instruments of Communion? Yes, Haller concedes, admitting that the office is " one that has been around since the sixth century" but emphasising that it "didn't really operate as a voice in the Communion until 1785-89, with the first Lambeth Conference being in 1867. "
Haller says the role is not “foundational or essential or definitional to Anglicanism" and he regards the Covenant as wanting to make some substantial changes in the "deep structures" of Anglicanism without there being much apparent awareness of the implications. Haller is not the first to focus on the role of the ABC, and Lambeth Palace will be aware that Canterbury has its critics and those with their vested interests waiting in the wings. A rejection of the Covenant in England would be a nasty own goal.
I think we might see concerted efforts to get the Covenant through Synod at all costs. It simply can't afford to fail here. I shall be watching events Synodical with some interest again, it might be depressing, I don't think it will be dull.
(Since writing this post it has been announced that Birmingham and Truro have both resoundingly rejected the Anglican Covenant. )

Reading or revising the parables

2011-11-14T22:19:00.001+01:00

I have been wondering recently how wide our scope is for interpreting and reinterpreting scripture.

This weekend I was visiting family and so attended a different church. The sermon was on the parable of the talents, one of those parables which can be rather troubling. The exegesis that I am familiar with concerning the talents is that it is a warning against not using one's gifts to the glory of God, not making the most of the talents in every sense that we have been given. However, in Sunday's sermon, it was suggested to us that the master, far from representing God, was in fact an embodiment of the Pharisees, a heartless and oppressive taskmaster who unjustly set the third servant up to fail and cruelly condemned him for his understandable fear of failure.God, we were told, does not set people up to fail or condemn them for being afraid and Jesus intended to rebuke the Pharisees through this parable.
Now, I certainly agree that God does not set people up to fail or that he condemns us for fear and I do not like to see scripture preached in ways that are damaging or insensitive - but I was not sure that I felt comfortable with such a major reworking of the traditional understanding of this parable. I do not agree that the third servant was set up to fail simply because he was given one talent because I believe this was quite a high measurement , apparently one talent of silver was worth nine man years of skilled work and burying that in the ground does seem a collosal waste! Furthermore, the beginning of the reading tells us that it is a about the Kingdom of Heaven, "Again it (the Kingdom of Heaven) will be like a man going on a journey" and one of the constant themes is that finding the Kingdom of Heaven requires risk, like a man buying a field to find a pearl, and taking care over the small things which matter, like a woman working yeast throughout the "dough" of daily life, or someone planting a tiny seed which grows into a flourishing tree. I think the message of the parable is not just that the lazy servant failed but that his attitude was such that he did not try and he did not risk and he did not search to find a purpose for his life or his talents and for that he was rebuked.
To be honest the parable of the talents is not my favourite. I too find it challenging and difficult - but then there is nothing wrong with challenge or difficulty. As a literature teacher I am aware that alternative readings can have validity, it is good to bring different perspectives, I do certainly do not think scripture always means one thing and one thing only. At the same time, we have to consider the motives behind any reading and I don't want to see messages reduced to safe dimensions but losing their force and power. I wondered if the interpretation I heard wasn't a running away from the challenge that this parable offers into safe territory - the sort of safe territory that the third servant sought when he buried his talents instead of risking them courageously?
What do people think?

Remembrance and reconciliation

2011-11-10T20:24:00.002+01:00

Reconciliation

When you are standing at your hero’s grave,

Or near some homeless village where he died,

Remember, through your heart’s rekindling pride,

The German soldiers who were loyal and brave.

Men fought like brutes; and hideous things were done;

And you have nourished hatred, harsh and blind.

But in that Golgotha perhaps you’ll find

The mothers of the men who killed your son.

Siegfried Sassoon November 1918

This year’s Remembrance Day has attracted particular attention because of the symmetry of the date – 11.11.11. It marks the 93rd anniversary of the end of the First World War and dates back to the armistice at the end of that war marking the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.
One of the things that moves me about Siegfried Sassoon’s poem “Reconciliation” is quite simply its date. Written in November 1918, presumably to mark the armistice, it recognises the difficulty of achieving genuine reconciliation when events are near and feelings still raw, yet it still asks the reader to forgive. The poem courageously articulates what may have been unpalatable truths – that the German soldiers too were “loyal and brave”, that just because someone is your hero does not make them the only hero, that men on both sides, “fought like brutes” ( and that even heroes are forced into atrocity in war), and that our jingoistic hatred is “blind.” Sassoon does recognise that grief is a personal “Golgotha” but gently suggests that in our grief we might meet our enemies and recognise them as fellow victims and sufferers and so overcome our hatred. It is a courageous poem, one that recognises that it is not until we have understood and forgiven that we have really laid down arms.

What makes you happy?

2011-11-06T13:29:00.000+01:00

Some interesting responses from the participants of Question Time when asked "What makes you happy?" I've blogged on this subject before and think it is a question well worth asking ourselves, as the bible says, "Where your treasure lies, there will your heart lie also." Most of the participants gave fairly conventional answers such as their partner or children and interestingly nobody admitted that it was actually amassing obscene amounts of wealth or power or over indulging in alchohol, food or bodily pleasures - but then they wouldn't would they?
The two responses which stood out most were the first and the last. Benjamin Zephaniah (wonderful man) spoke of just breathing and not expecting too much from life and Peter Hitchens said his faith in God brought him happiness (I am not personally keen on Hitchens, but it was a thought provoking answer.)
Happiness is subjective in many ways and different to different people. I don't know what your answer is, it might even be a cigar named Hamlet...

Diagnosing Martin Luther

2011-11-05T15:33:00.020+01:00

Monday, as a commenter on this blog pointed out, was not just Halloween but also Reformation Day- the anniversary of the day that Martin Luther nailed his articles on the door of Wittenberg church, an act which would have far reaching consequences bringing a level of schism and division not seen before or since and in the light of which our current divisions and conflicts will (I hope) appear more as a blip on the graph of religious history than a seismic shift. I first studied the Reformation properly during A level History and it was fascinating to see not only the far reaching consequences that ideas can have but also the journey that individuals go on before those ideas are realised. Luther, for example, was reportedly a very tortured soul who punished himself excessively over his shortcomings ; it was arguably the physical, mental and spiritual exhaustion this caused that brought him to a place where, reading scripture, he rediscovered and articulated more fully to others the idea of salvation through grace rather than works.
While reading through various blog posts this week, my attention was caught by this article called Beating myself up over religion from the BBC "Ouch! (disability) blog. In it the author, who is a Jew, but also describes his Roman Catholic mother experiencing the same reaction, writes,

"While the thread uniting every religion is the belief in revering the deity, improving yourself, and behaving in a proper manner, the dogma and doctrine can easily lead a person with an anxiety disorder to believe that anything less than perfection makes you an utter failure."

The author describes suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and finding that religious belief simply imposed more rituals, as well as the fear that he had to do everything "exactly right" and that the effect of religious faith was intense "worry and anguish". I immediately thought of Martin Luther and wondered if he too suffered from OCD or something similar? How many saints and mystics could be described as completely sane and balanced? I once read that many periods of mystical and extreme behaviour were then followed by periods of practical work and service. How far was this because those individuals, having wrestled their spiritual angels and demons, then found themselves free? I do not want to be too reverential about mental illness. I have suffered from it myself and would not wish a mental health condition, or even the dark night of the soul, upon anyone. And yet sometimes to struggle spiritually leads us to insight. William Blake said that "The road of excess leads to the palace of Wisdom, and Luther's early spiritual obssessions were a form of excess that led to wisdom.
I suspect that Luther might in this day and age be prescribed medication, counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy, no doubt enormously alleviating his problems, but perhaps preventing that journey that led him to rearticulate so powerfully something that was always there in scripture - that we are not perfect, just forgiven.

Signs and blunders

2011-11-05T12:10:00.001+01:00

Some more amusing signs and notices here from the wonderful Ship of Fools to cheer up your weekend:)

Lighting a candle on All Hallows Eve

2011-10-31T20:47:00.002+01:00

The approach to Hallowe'en found below  is thought provoking and rather gentle - educational in all sorts of ways. Everyone knows about Halloween, but how many know that Halloween owes its existence to and has its roots in Christian traditions, being the Eve of the Feast of All Saints, followed by All Souls?

Every year, on Hallowe’en, I sit on the front porch of my house with a bowl of candy, a box of beeswax candles, and a large icon for the Feast of All Saints. Every child who comes to the house gets a piece of candy, and may also light a candle and place it before the icon. Very few kids (even the jaded teenagers) turn down the opportunity.For those who ask, I tell them that the meaning of the word “Hallowe’en” is “the eve of the Feast of All Saints”.
If they press me on the point, I tell them that they can think of the true meaning of Hallowe’en as being that, because of Christ, they can dress up like ghosts and goblins and whatnot, because we do not need to fear those things any longer. I wish I had a few photos of the kids in Satan masks, lighting a candle and placing it before the icon…

I found this post on Silouan - and, with the ghosts, ghouls and goblins ringing on my door as I type, I wish I could see the dressed up kids and teens  lighting candles too!

Cleverbot the priest?

2011-10-29T18:21:00.002+02:00

OK, so this piece which I read on The Guardian comment is free amused me anyhow! I was quite taken with the answer to the question, "What happens at the end of the bible?" The answer: "Harry kills Voldemort. It all ends. " Given that this is a work in progress, I think we may have a solution to the problem of who should be the next Archbishop of Canterbury.

Thinking about idealism

2011-10-28T12:03:00.001+02:00

I did not blog earlier in the week on the events at St Paul's; one of the reasons for this is that I think the issues at stake are rather complex and it irks me somewhat to hear people confidently proclaiming the rights and wrongs of a situation which can quite legitimately be viewed from a number of different perspectives. Firstly, I do sympathise somewhat with the protesters in their stand against the greed and irresponsibility of the financial markets, although I am also a little cynical given that we are all to some extent invested in global Capitalism - do none of the protesters have loans or personal finance, because most of them certainly have homes which, if reports are to be believed, 90% of them conveniently return to at night... I can also see that the custodians of the Cathedral are anxious that the site does not become a permanent fixture, although I wonder to what extent the loss of revenue, rather than the very expedient pleas of health and safety, lie at the root of their eagerness to see the protesters gone. Finally, I do understand Giles Fraser's sense of concern and outrage that the Church should use or condone force to remove peaceful demonstration, although at the same time I question whether his response is a little disproportionate and I know some feel he rapidly backed himself into a corner, or even that he is intent on being a martyr in the whole situation.

The events have made me think about idealism. I am not entirely an idealist, I think I have a healthy dose of pragmatism, not to mention an unhealthy dose of cynicism that tells me that our ideals often cannot be realised given the flawed nature of our own and others motives and understanding and the very imperfect world that we live in. However, I believe that when we are motivated by a desire to create a better world for others our humanity often shows through at its best. We would be poorer without idealists however annoying they may sometimes be! I have a great deal of respect for Giles Fraser, he is certainly committed to ideals of equality and justice. This does not mean I agree with everything that he says, at times I find his "inclusive" theology rather bland and I imagine he represents everything which some people find annoying about his particular brand of Christianity, but he has today shown himself to be someone who stands by his ideals, whether you think them misguided or not.
One of the problems with the Church is that it is an institution and institutions tend to be serve their own financial, political and practical interests , often over and above the values upon which they are meant to be based. I would argue this is true of no organisation more than the Church - you only have to look at the child abuse cover up scandals in the Roman Catholic Church to be aware of this - and the Church of England is also often guilty of putting expediency before its mission to act in Christ like ways. I think the way Giles Fraser has acted has a certain personal integrity, but it could not really be described as expedient or even particularly judicious.
I wonder what would happen if St Paul's really did think "What would Jesus do?" and tried to act on it? It would be naive and silly really, wouldn't it? They'd fall foul of health and safety laws for a start, lose all their money and maybe have to sell the building and give it all to the poor. And imagine if we all did things like that in our personal lives. The world would have us over a barrel and take us to the cleaners. Act like Jesus did! Don't be silly- they'd crucify us.

Fraser resigns

2011-10-28T01:42:00.001+02:00

Pure Poetry

2011-10-27T13:47:00.003+02:00

THE VIEW FROM THE WINDOW

Like a painting it is set before one,

But less brittle, ageless; these colours

Are renewed daily with variations

Of light and distance that no painter

Achieves or suggests. Then there is movement,

Change, as slowly the cloud bruises

Are healed by sunlight, or snow caps

A black mood; but gold at evening

To cheer the heart. All through history

The great brush has not rested,

Nor the paint dried; yet what eye,

Looking coolly, or, as we now,

Through the tears' lenses, ever saw

This work and it was not finished?

R. S. Thomas

I am rather partial to the poetry of R.S.Thomas. Walking Bess across some of the fields close to where we live these last few days made me think of the poem above. On Tuesday the light was so clear that the water was like a mirror reflecting the every detail of the Autumn trees and sky. Yesterday I made sure to take the camera, and although the light was not quite so good, I took these photos which almost do justice to the scenery.

Is religion bad for women?

2011-10-26T00:02:00.005+02:00

In the light of the discussion a few posts below, I was interested to listen to this item debating the question Is religion bad for women? during Women's Hour on Radio 4. Is religious ideology largely a male construct or have women always appropriated and indeed had a key role within religious traditions? Do religions control and subjugate women or is the whole picture more complex than this? A brief but thought provoking exchange of views here.
On the theme of the post below, I noticed that Philomena Ewing had posted a link to BBC Radio 2 discussion of "What has religion ever done for women" on Blue Eyed Ennis. The article is an hour long but worth listening to for its range and variety of perspectives, even if it does play too many Dolly Partonesque type songs!

Freedom of speech and discrimination

2011-10-24T14:25:00.006+02:00

The Daily Mail yesterday reported on the case of Adrian Smith, an employee who has been demoted allegedly simply because he posted on Face book comments which disapproved of the new proposals to allow civil partnerships to be registered in religious premises. This is the latest in a long line of cases which are being brought, and no doubt being supported by the Christian Institute, alleging that Christians are facing discrimination for their beliefs/ opinions in the workplace and that this amounts both to discrimination and suppression of free speech. Recent examples include a builder disciplined over a palm cross on his dashboard and the case of the cafe owner who was questioned by the police for allowing homophobic comments to be played on a video relaying scripture in his Christian cafe (I didn't manage to blog on that one!)

I have blogged on these matters fairly extensively over the past few months and years. I find it depressing that so many of these cases revolve around sexuality, which seems to be a tinder point for many disagreements, although the wearing of crosses and saying of prayers for patients has also featured. I have argued before that each case needs to be looked at on its merits and also that the the law should allow a clause for reasonableness and context , and indeed this has recently been mooted by the Equality Commission. It is a very different matter, for example, if a cafe is playing a looped video of the whole of the bible ( in which case people should put anything that jars in context and live with it in my humble opinion!) from if they are repeatedly playing specific verses with the marked intention of targeting a particular group and causing distress or offence.

As for the case of Adrian Smith, on the basis of what has been reported it sounds as if he has been badly treated both by colleagues and his employers. I am aware, however, that there is often more to these stories than first meets the eye and The Daily Mail sometimes has a reputation for being less than accurate and impartial in their reporting. I note that there is a sentence about a "second colleague" who has complained and, in the Telegraph, a mention of a previous faith based complaint. I am also unsure whether the case doesn't also say just as much about the increasing power of employers over their employees, the pitfalls of social media and the Internet, and our increasing willingness to resort to "law" and not "jaw" to resolve our disputes and disagreements. I can't help thinking that when it comes to disputes the principle of resolving matters informally and amicably whenever humanly possible would benefit us greatly.

Laws and principles

2011-10-21T20:11:00.004+02:00

China has been doing some soul searching this week after horrific video footage showed a two year old girl, Yueyue, knocked over by a van and then ignored by at least eighteen of her fellow human beings. Finally a woman did go to her aid, a true Samaritan , as not only did she not walk by but she was apparently a scavenger, a garbage collector, one of the least privileged in society.
This morning it was announced that Yueyue had died and that there was talk of bringing in a new law which would make it illegal not to go to the aid of a stranger in need, there was also some discussion of why so many had quite clearly knowingly ignored or avoided a child in desperate need, including that some might have been motivated by fear of litigation or of being accused of causing the injuries in the first place. The discussion made me think about laws and our behaviour, particularly as the gospel reading this week includes Jesus telling the experts in the Law that the greatest commandments are to love God and your neighbour and that on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. It is a peculiarly apt and poignant reading in the light of these events, particularly as, in the gospel of Luke, Christ's injunction to love our neighbour as ourselves leads on to the story of the Good Samaritan in answer to the question, "Who is my neighbour?"
All societies have laws and need laws, but rules and regulations arise out of human frailty and can themselves be flawed. We have all heard of instances where the law has been correctly applied but the result has seemed unjust; the law has been a blunt tool in the hands of fallible humanity and might be said to have failed to achieve its intention or to be true to underlying principles. As Christians we are commanded to love God and to love each other; those are not the kind of rules and regulations that can be simply achieved, they are more something we have to devote ourselves to as a way of life, they are overarching principles upon which more specific and measurable rules and laws should be based. Laws are important, but the principles which underlie them give them meaning and make them more than just a set of dos and don'ts. This is why God aims to write his law on our hearts, because laws should not just be sentences written on paper, they should be a living attitude and ethos in the hearts and minds of all of us. He also aims to give us hearts of flesh, not stone, because hearts of flesh respond to the suffering and pain of others.
I am not sure that bringing in a law that compels us to help others is the right approach (although removing a law that makes people afraid to help might be.) We should not go to the aid of a child because we are afraid of breaking the law; it is something we should do instinctively out of compassion and concern for another. A law like that should be written on every heart that is made of flesh and not of stone.

The venomous theology of taint

2011-10-17T20:00:00.007+02:00

Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
Though women all above: But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
Beneath is all the fiends';
There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit,
Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie,
fie, fie! pah, pah!
Give me an ounce of civet,
good apothecary, to sweeten my imagination:
King Lear (IV, vi)

Very few pieces that I have read convey the blind irrationality and fear that lies at the root of true misogyny  as this evocative passage from King Lear. We all know that this kind of fear that women might contaminate and infect existed throughout history and is still alive and kicking in some parts of the world. Perhaps we don't quite expect to find it in the Church of England?
Just recently I received the account below; it was written by a woman who attended the same meeting described in the recent post on the debate on women bishops and describes the views expressed as "bile" and as "venomous". I am not going to name the diocese, but it occurs to me that it must have been quite some meeting! It reads as follows:
     "I recently attended my first Deanery Synod. My expectations were not high; I anticipated a slightly dull evening with a serious, if somewhat worthy, discussion of the agenda items. The main issue was the legislation for the ordination of women bishops.

     My expectations were totally confounded; it was far from a dull meeting. I witnessed a shocking display of misogyny that would have led to disciplinary action being taken in any of the areas that I have worked in. There was a palpable sense of outrage expressed by one of the speakers at the temerity of women in the Church. His forcibly expressed view that the ordination of women transmitted a contagion that was irreversible and rendered those involved with their ordination unfit for ministering to, or in conjunction with, those opposed to women priests was offensive. That these views were allowed to pass unchallenged compounded the offence, and it made matters worse that those attempting to counter this bile were effectively silenced.
            There was much talk of the pain and hurt felt by the opponents of women priests and their desire for an honoured place within the Church but the hurt and distress felt by women exposed to such venomous views was not mentioned."
             Since the meeting I have been assured by a retired clergyman that my concerns regarding the role of women in our diocese are unfounded as our bishop is very tolerant of women. I, and most other women I have spoken to, do not want to be tolerated; we want to be valued and encouraged in the same way that our male counterparts are.

I don't want to comment too much on the specifics of the above, it was not a meeting I attended and it was not my experience, but it does leave me disturbed that, in the midst of what has been an overwhelming groundswell of support for women bishops, views have been expressed in such a manner to have left some women feeling shocked, offended, unvalued, spoken about as unclean. It reminded me of the concerns that menstruating women would transfer taint to the sacrament when women were first ordained. One of the most tragic aspects of all of this is that is so contrary to the gospels, in which Christ was touched by and touched all manner of women with a wonderful disregard for the fact that such association would have probably been regarded as rendering him constantly ritually unclean.
I do understand those who wish to find an "honoured place" for those opposed to the ministry of women, but honouring others cuts both ways. Some of the underlying theologies of those opposed are not sound, not rational, not humane and not bibilical. It is simply not acceptable to describe others in a way that shows contempt, disgust or revulsion for who they are, and such views should be challenged.

Friends, fellowship and getting older

2011-10-16T14:20:00.003+02:00

I spent yesterday in Birmingham with a group of Christian friends. At our last meeting in Birmingham we went for a time of prayer at St Martin's in the Bullring, this time we went to Birmingham City Cathedral. The signs outside and on the website says it is "celebrating Christ in the city" and the Cathedral - a beautiful building- certainly is surrounded by large modern office blocks and is right next to a busy road. There is a sense of past and present, of old traditions and modern life, and of thriving, active bustling life alongside the small oasis of calm and beauty evoked by the Cathedral building and its peaceful grounds.

After our time in the Cathedral and a meal, we walked around the canal area. It was a beautiful bright October day and the area really showed to advantage with the colourful barges, the sunshine on the water, and and groups of people sitting out in front of restaurants and cafes. We ended up at a cafe and by the time we left the light was fading and the waterfront was lit up, a pretty sight with the lights reflected in the water.

The day out seemed just right for this weekend as next week I turn forty five, an age when you really can't deny that you are getting older and when you do reflect on where you are in life and what you value. It was a good day, a day of good conversations and fellowship, something like a gift to be kept and treasured in amongst all the bustle and activity of life.

Young girl in a balloon hat. There was quite a holiday feel down by the waterfront

Father, Son and Fashionista

2011-10-12T19:04:00.006+02:00

The gospel reading this week was the parable of the Wedding Banquet (Matthew 22), you know, that story which is rather touchy-feely until the bit where the King discovers the guest who isn't wearing wedding clothes and then has him bound and cast into the outer darkness, accompanied by wailing and gnashing of teeth. I've read a few anguished posts on this one this week, but I have to admit that I was thinking it sounds fair enough. After all, if you are going to turn up at someone's wedding and scoff their free food and quaff their wine, it seems to me the least you can do is to make a bit of an effort and make sure you look the part. Does anyone have a problem with that?
As I was listening to the reading and thinking about clothes and appearance, it occured to me that it was absolutely ages since I visited Beauty Tips for Ministers in which the wonderfully named PeaceBang spreads the gospel that Christianity does not have to equal frump and offers advice to vicars on matters sartorial because, "God knows you're in the public eye and need to look good."
It was clearly a word from the Lord, so when I got home I logged straight on and I wasn't disappointed. Since my last visit, PeaceBang has continued to dispense sound advice, including articles on whether a vicar can get away with wearing shades, an article on some ground breaking research about how makeup makes you look more competent and trustworthy, a stern post about leggings which warns us all that "you are not to fall prey to the Satanic temptation" to wear them (or presumably PeaceBang may cast you into the outer darkness ), advice for pregnant vicars on how to be "knocked up in style", and even a post on adopting and adapting nun's habits (think that's just for nuns, but I leave it to your discretion...)

Beauty Tips for Ministers is largely a blog for women and not necessarily just for vicars, but Peacebang does offer advice to men. Under the "Advice for my menfolk" link we find articles such as "don't wear a silly tie when making a serious appearance" and some advice on how to shed a dullsville clergy image, although pesonally when I saw the picture to the left I did think most vicars might find it hard to work that outfit and still be trusted to baptise babies...

Anyhow, I commend PeaceBang's blog to anyone who likes to be entertained, or fears the kind of fashion faux pas that leads to wailing and gnashing of teeth, or would simply prefer to truly look as if they are made in God's image ,because as PeaceBang might say, God isn't frumpy, darlings, she's got style.

In the Lion's Den

2011-10-10T19:49:00.001+02:00

I am full of admiration for the personal courage being shown by Rowan Williams in undertaking his current visit to Zimbabwe. Williams stirs mixed feelings in many Christians who hold their faith from quite different perspectives. Many have expressed a sense of frustration, disillusion, sometimes betrayal, a sense that he does not go far enough or conversely acts in ways that are so cautious or expedient as to verge on the pusillanimous.
Those accusation certainly cannot be levelled at him this week. He has ventured into an environment where some have expressed the strongest animosity towards him and shown themselves capable of carrying out violence. He has previously opposed Mugabe and he spoke out strongly against "lawlessness" and the condemnation of "mindless and Godless" violence seen in Zimbabwe. It is admirable that he is prepared to confront Mugabe face to face. Some might say it is naive of Williams to think that any such meeting will achieve anything or foolish that he is not deterred by the very real possibility that Mugabe will turn it to his advantage. Undoubtedly, Mugabe will try to gain some sort of mileage out of the situation, but I am of the opinion that he will find it hard to look anything other than what he is when faced with William's undoubted goodness.
Above all, the greatest aspect of this visit is the moral and spiritual effect it is likely to have upon faithful Anglicans in Zimbabwe, and we have already seen the extent to which the Archbishop's presence and pastoral concern has been a source of hope and encouragement. It should be very clearly stated that the issues at stake here are those of violence and political tyranny, the issue of sexuality has largely been used as leverage by Mugabe and Kunonga to demonise, terrorise and control. I hope and pray that this visit will achieve lasting good and instill a determination in all of us to speak out against cruelty and injustice wherever we find it.

Life in abundance

2011-10-07T20:40:00.008+02:00

I've been thinking recently about how secular songs often contain quite spiritual ideas and I know that Mad Priest has been doing the same in Why should the Devil have all the good songs? This post from Lost in the North is about the death of Steve Jobs and explores the importance of death in our faith. Death makes us ask the big questions. What struck me about both of the videos below is that they are about death - and yet they are full of questions about life - the question of how we live life most fully and most meaningfully. They express a longing to have life and to have it in abundance. Abundance is a wonderful word, the very sound of it suggests richness and fullness - but how do we live life abundantly? Perhaps not by winning the lottery, but by donating every dime we ever had? Perhaps not by worrying about tomorrow but by leaving our fears behind? Perhaps not by following convention, but rather by living life against the grain or taking the path less travelled by? Perhaps not by thinking of our own interests, but by forgiving our enemies?

Who would have thought you'd hear echoes of the gospels in the lyrics of Nickelback?

Misogyny in the Church - the votes for women bishops

2011-10-05T19:19:00.001+02:00

It is extremely positive to hear that the deaneries and dioceses are voting so overwhelmingly in favour of the legislation for women bishops. Having said that, there are disturbing reports from some areas of the level of animosity being expressed at some meetings and some concerns at lack of due process, or lack of clarity about the process. The following is guest post written by someone who comments from time to time on this blog.

Ever felt like a leper? You know, those poor individuals with a serious

infectious disease, who used to be compelled to walk through the streets
shouting ʻUnclean! Unclean!ʼ This way of treating lepers was supposed to
have died out several hundred years ago. But guess what? The Church of
England can still provide you with a taste of that experience. Sorry fellas, this
one is for women only.

The CofE is currently debating the female bishops legislation through local
and regional levels (parishes, deaneries, and dioceses). As a veteran of the
debates about ordaining women to the diaconate and priesthood, I thought I
was pretty inured to the rough and tumble of it. I was wrong.

In my area the subject was on the agenda for 2 successive Deanery Synod
meetings. At the first we had 2 speakers. The first spoke for the Measure (to
ordain women as bishops) and against the Following Motion (legalising
discrimination against female bishops). He was followed by a speaker, R,
who argued strongly for the Following Motion. R used the most extreme
arguments I had heard for many years. The gist was that women are unclean
('nasty, dirty little things, ugh!' is how one woman present summarised it), and
that any man who ordains one or is ordained by one will transmit the taint on
down the line in perpetuity. His talk contained a number of errors in fact.

A time for questions followed, and I made an attempt to correct some of these
errors. I was silenced by the Rural Dean, who said that only questions were
being allowed, and the debate would follow at the next meeting. Following the
meeting it was clear that a number of women were upset and angry at the
way it was conducted. I spoke to two who had had no idea that it was still
legal for such hatred of women to be expressed publicly without challenge,
and entertained as a valid opinion. Itʼs tragic that their only experience of it
should be within their own Church.

Some of us were looking forward to the opportunity to correct the balance
and counter the misinformation at the next meeting, and I had prepared fairly
carefully for the debate. However, in the event no debate or discussion was
allowed. I challenged the Rural Dean pretty strongly on this but he denied
ever having promised a debate. He said the first meeting had been to provide
PCC's with information for their own discussion and decision, and the second
meeting was simply for the Deanery to vote. We were then not given an
opportunity to vote on the Following Motion. We were told that no deaneries
were voting on it, but he Diocesan Synod could add its own Following Motion
if it wants to. The meeting duly voted to approve the ordination of women to
the episcopate.

After the meeting several people thanked me for speaking up, since their
recollection of the previous meeting and the process that had been promised
was similar to mine. They too were disturbed that at no time had a reply to
the extreme misogyny of the speakerʼs views been possible. PCCs had been
expected to vote on the basis of very limited information, and without ever
hearing the views of people in their own deanery.

I am not sure if the Rural Dean was right in saying that the procedure
followed in our deanery is the one being followed throughout the diocese, but
it raises some serious questions about the integrity of the process.

1) If deaneries were not to vote on the Following Motion, why was so much
time and attention given to it during the first Deanery Synod meeting?

2) Are the votes of parishes being recorded and passed up the line? If not,
weʼve wasted the time of our PCC, and the views of many ʻordinaryʼ
churchgoers are not being heard.

3) If the usual Following Motion, or a new one (as has just happened in
Manchester), is introduced at Diocesan Synod, how much weight does the
vote carry when there has been no opportunity to test opinion in the
deaneries?

4) Finally, I am left deeply disturbed that at an official meeting of the
Established Church feelings of such deep revulsion against women priests
should be allowed to be put without being challenged at all. These views
were so extreme that they shocked many of those present, and many of
those who heard of the meeting afterward. In a joint presentation someone
always has to speak last, but their views inevitably have more impact than
those who speak first. This is usually balanced by opening the subject up
for debate, or allowing each speaker a few moments' summary at the end.
In our Deanery Synod this did not happen.

Iʼve been left assuring women to stick with the CofE, there is still a place for
them in it. But how can I encourage lay people to get involved in the Church
of Englandʼs structures, if this is the effect it will have?

Spiritual expression in secular songs

2011-10-04T22:29:00.003+02:00

Secular lyrics often speak of a search for meaning and explore emotions such love, hope and fear. It is not surprising then that we sometimes hear religious or spiritual themes in the lyrics of popular songs. Crossroads by Don McLean seems to me to touch on the idea faith is a journey and that ,although we may find ourselves walking unexpected paths, it is the journeying itself and the closeness to God that the journey brings that matters.

Songs of Praise and the language of hymns

2011-10-04T22:01:00.002+02:00

I am not a particular fan of Songs of Praise, I do listen sometimes if I hear a favourite hymn being sung. This Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of Songs of Praise and I heard an interview on Radio 4 with a hymn loving atheist, it wasn't Dawkins although I believe he does also love rousing hymns. The short clip I heard made me think about the effect of hymns on my own life and it occurred to me that a lot of my earliest thoughts and ideas about religion were shaped by hymns - not the modern day versions, rather those wonderful old hymns which are not so often sung nowadays because they are full of biblical references , usually sourced from the Old Testament, and religious doctrine clothed in obscure language.
When I was five, my dad began his theological training at St Michael's in Wales. My mum worked full time to support him at this point and my dad was responsible for getting me to school in the morning. The college held mass before breakfast and my dad used to take me to the service every morning, after which I would have breakfast - usually boiled eggs with fingers - and would be the centre of attention before being dropped off at school before lectures and tutorials began.
I guess that this arrangement was purely for convenience given my parents' busy working lives, it is true to say though that it did have an effect upon my awareness of both religious faith and language. I loved the cadences of liturgical language long before I fully grasped their import. I remember pondering some of the words and phrases and feeling their emotional weight and wondering what they meant. I can't remember if we sang hymns at the morning prayer service, I do remember hearing hymns in church. One of my favourites was Alleluia, Sing to Jesus, a song which fascinated me with its references to us not being "orphans" and the wonderful images of God with earth as his "footstool" and heaven as his "throne" - language which brought a vivid picture to mind - as well as the songs which "swept across the crystal sea." Other concepts in this hymn completed baffled me, I had no idea what Zion was or why or how Jesus could be "both priest and victim", or what an "intercessor" was. Hymns like that do sow seeds though and I wonder if generations of churchgoers have grasped their theology from hymns as much as from sermons?
Modern hymns are sometimes criticised as being watery versions with less theology and more of a focus on emotion - the "Jesus is my boyfriend" line of thought. I am not sure this is fair, many traditional hymns are also love songs - take "How Sweet the Name of Jesus sounds" which is a declaration of passion,
"Jesus, my brother, Shepherd, Friend, My Prophet, Priest, and King;
My Lord, my Life, myWay, my End."
Each generation has to find new ways and new language with which to worship, and I love all sorts of hymns, some of them modern and others ancient, as well as sometimes hearing reflections on faith in the lyrics of secular songs (see above.)
Someone who comments on this blog told me recently about his love for the hymn "Let all Mortal Flesh keep silence" - another hymn that I love both for the wonderful music and rich language. They really don't make them like that anymore.

Weekend round up

2011-10-01T14:23:00.008+02:00

I'm really busy at the moment, I was out very late two evenings last week and work was hectic - I don't quite know how I found time to blog at all (maybe because Mr M was cooking the evening meals..?) This weekend is NOT looking any more leisurely; the house is a mess because of the work on the kitchen, all the stuff that we transferred out of the kitchen now has to go back in, I have to do one set of marking, plan a general studies lesson and complete several university references.
The reason for telling you all of this is that I am offering a round up of some of some posts and articles I have read this week, thus saving the trouble of blogging myself. The following caught my attention or made me think:
1. What's a girl worth from We Mixed our Drinks was a thought provoking article about the way women are valued - or devalued.
2. Death by Grief from Seven Whole Days thoughtfully explored the idea that many people are in grief for a church they feel may be dying. The post suggested that many Christians are still in the anger stage of grief - and I thought of fear, denial and paralysis as other possible symptoms we experience when faced with the prospect of loss or threat to that which we hold dear.
3. Pilgrim's Progress from Lost in the North reflected on faith as a journey rather than a set of pat answers to difficult questions.
4. Rachel at Revising Reform got to rub shoulders with Rowan Williams this week, and writes about the experience in Rowan Williams- notorious. On the point of notoriety, rebel African bishop, Nolbert Kunonga, has denounced William's upcoming trip to Zimbabwe as nothing more than propaganda for gay rights, suggesting the ABC is a gay lobbyist - well, there's a thought to conjure with anyway!
5. Meanwhile, the Episcopal Cafe has written a list of the Five Common Questions asked by those opposed to LGBT inclusion
6. Finally, Get out of Jail Free reflects on the unseasonal burst of autumn sunshine with Dementors and the sunshine of an Indian Summer and cleverly manages to link this to the idea that Christians should reflect the light of Christ and not be all grim and dementor-like, sucking the heart and soul out of everyone they meet. Really! I know the dementors took over Hogwarts, but surely that could never happen in the Church of England?

Happy reading!

Has failed to meet expectations

2011-09-29T23:30:00.001+02:00

If you have ever attended a parents' evening - and I've sat on both sides of the table at different times, you'll be amused by this cartoon! However, it is more than just simple humour - many people must have felt this way! Many were expecting the Messiah to be a great military leader, who would restore Israel to a position of power. What they had not expected was a lowly carpenter with no weapons, no army, no status. Finally, being crucified is perhaps not what most people would see as the greatest measure of a successful life and career!

We should never forget that Jesus was a failure and that he didn't meet the standard. It is important because we can start to think more carefully about all the things we are told are worthwhile and rethink all our expectations.

Losing my religion

2011-09-26T21:09:00.006+02:00

You may have heard that the band R.E.M have announced they are going to split. This was certainly news to me as I didn't know they were still together (!) but I immediately thought of some of their songs and in particular, "Losing my religion", a wonderful track full of anguished lyrics such as, "That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion." Losing my religion is apparently an idiomatic phrase which means something like "at my wits end" and, according to the Internet, was inspired by attempts to grapple with a guitar chord rather than a Jacob-like wrestling match with the maker of the universe. However, there has to be more to it than that as a whole generation found a mystical focus in the song - yes, it said so on the Internet (who needs religion anyhow with such a source of infallible knowledge and wisdom at the click of a mouse...)
Well, I've done a little bit of questioning, doubting and journeying in terms of faith and religion over the years, so I decided to have a look at the lyrics. I couldn't quite make my mind up if they were "profound" (the Internet told me so...) or " complete bollocks" (the humble opinion of a commenter on one thread I looked at), but they did seem to me to be about more than just breaking a nail on a guitar string. I felt there were two key strands in the song. The first is that our faith becomes poisoned when we cannot be ourselves with God, or when we think that we can hide from him,
"Every whisper, every waking hour, I'm choosing my confessions."
The idea that we can hide ourselves from God goes right back to Genesis when Adam first sins and is aware of his nakedness and tries to hide from God. Of course, it is futile to try to hide from God because he is all seeing, but I am not sure that is the point, the point is more that shame can cause us to hide from ourselves and to hide from God and it is only when we can be open and vulnerable with God that we can understand ourselves to be loved completely and that we can have faith in ourselves and our potential for goodness as made in the divine image (I'm not saying REM was saying all that, you know, most of that is me being profound...)
The second idea that I noticed was very similar - the idea that to have faith we have to be able to trust that God is good. This is by no means as easy as it seems. The concluding lyrics of the song show a desire to believe in a benevolent God, but a doubt and suspicion that overcome this:
" I thought that I heard you laughing, I thought that I heard you sing, I think I thought I heard you try... but that was just a dream... just a dream."
Does God laugh with us, or at us? Is his response to human suffering one of compassion - tears - or the laughter of a cruel or capricious deity? Given all the horrors of human existence, is the belief in a God of love a pipe dream that only the most misguided cling onto? It always affects me when I hear stories of people who have suffered great tragedy - the death of a child is the most poignant example- who lose their faith. It affects me because I know that I cannot say, hand on heart, that I would not be the same, that I would not blame God and feel angry and disbelieving rather than cling to my faith. I wonder how many of us could say the same?

Alpha

2011-09-24T00:05:00.004+02:00

I've just discovered, through Revising Reform blog, this rather interesting weblog detailing one man's journey through the Alpha course. I think we are going to be doing a smaller scale version of this course in church soon, but during services rather than as a separate event. The author of the blog I've linked to certainly approached it all with an equiring mind and a fighting spirit. After reading a few of his posts I'm a bit worried that I might have to watch video clips with Nicky Gumbel in them...

Giles Fraser and Substitutionary Atonement

2011-09-23T22:54:00.087+02:00

I heard Giles Fraser talking about justice and retribution on thought for the day this morning. I like Fraser's ideas and I wasn't surprised to hear that he rejects the whole idea of a wrathful God who must be appeased by his son paying the price for sin, or as Fraser says,
" retribution is the model of justice which underpins the way many Christians have understood Christ's death on the cross, or as the hymn says "there was no other good enough to pay the price of sin."
Fraser then goes on to reject this model as "wrongheaded" because Jesus himself rejected the idea of an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. A God of love, he says, operates out of forgiveness, and that is what the cross is all about.
The theology of the cross is certainly complex. I see it as a multi- faceted symbol which yields a number of meanings. Like Fraser, I am not keen on the idea of propitiation, of a wrathful God demanding blood, but I do not think that means that we should throw out the concept that Jesus "died for our sins" or "paid the price", because that is essentially what the cross is about. I do not understand why people perceive that Jesus "paying the price" on the cross is an act of vengeance on the part of God. If the Father and the Son are one, then when Jesus suffered, the Father suffered too. The cross is a symbol of God absorbing anger within the Godhead as an excruciating alternative to inflicting it on humankind.

The cross is about sacrifice, but it is the sacrifice of both Father and Son, not the sacrificing of one at the expense of the other. The cross offers a new type of sacrifice, or to paraphrase Star Wars, "It's sacrifice, Jim, but not as we know it." This is not the old blood price of more pagan thought, it is not the need to placate an angry and capricious deity but it is about the divine modelling a love so great that it would endure rather than retaliate and woo rather than demand.

Keeping the Sabbath holy

2011-09-22T23:27:00.000+02:00

Unlike Seamus Heaney (see below) rugby player Ewan Murray is not one for missing church on Sundays. Two years ago he announced that, as a result of his Christian faith, he would not be playing on Sundays. True to his word, he will not be playing in the crucial match against Argentinia this weekend. I have to say that, although I believe attending church is important, I really don't think that Murray would be betraying his faith by spending the occasional Sunday using his God given talents on the rugby pitch. He could always go to evensong after all.
At the same time, you have to feel a sort of respect for someone who stands by their convictions to that extent. Also, he is 6 ft 1" and weighs in at 18 stone 13, so you wouldn't argue would you?

Everyday communions

2011-09-22T23:07:00.002+02:00

From 'Clearances'

When all the others were away at Mass

I was all hers as we peeled potatoes.

They broke the silence, let fall one by one

Like solder weeping off the soldering iron:

Cold comforts set between us, things to share

Gleaming in a bucket of clean water.

And again let fall. Little pleasant splashes

From each other's work would bring us to our senses.

So while the parish priest at her bedside

Went hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying

And some were responding and some crying

I remembered her head bent towards my head,

Her breath in mine, our fluent dipping knives--

Never closer the whole rest of our lives.

This poem is one from a series of short poems called "Clearances" written by Seamus Heaney in memory of his mother, Mary Heaney, and it conveys the way that doing things together and just being with others can bring us closer than anything else can. I also think this is a very spiritual poem, even though it is not very reverential about organised religion - the description of the priest who goes "hammer and tongs at the prayers for the dying" is not particularly complimentary. The poem begins with Heaney and his mother having skipped mass in favour of some potato peeling, and yet their work is like a ritual and a communion between them, a wordless moment of grace - although that sounds rather pretentious when this is a poem that is so totally prosaic.

I don't know if you often find most meaning in prosaic things - in everyday moments of peace or joy, or in the simple ordinary doing of mundane things that can forge a connection with others.

I know I do.

The first shall be last

2011-09-18T14:25:00.001+02:00

I have read and heard some excellent sermons on today’s passage from Matthew – the story of the Vineyard owner who hires the latecomers and then pays them the same price as those who have worked a full day in the heat. I was reading around the passage yesterday on the internet and I made the following comment (tidied up a bit!) in response to a sermon on Lesley's blog:

I love this passage- it is certainly about God’s generous, ridiculous love. It also warns us that God’s justice is not the same as the justice of our world. It occurs to me that we are all (at times) like the full day workers, grumbling at God and a bit aggrieved and resentful that newcomers might be as good or “better” Christians than us. At other times we are all like the latecomers, we really need to feel we fully belong and are as “worthwhile” as all those more conventional or seasoned Christians we know. How delighted the latecomers must have been to get a full day’s pay, to feel equal to the rest and to go home able to feed their families properly. It must have felt like gift, not something they’d “earnt”. Those who have felt the full force of being loved when we didn’t really think we were that loveable really value God. To me, that is the message – God’s love is a gift.

After the sermon in church today, I thought a little more about the idea that “the first shall be last and the last shall be first.” It was suggested that we might feel uncomfortable with this idea; I find it rather reassuring. It reassures me because one of the things I find most repellent about organised religion is the way it can treat some individuals as though they are the lowest of the low, the way that some Christians seem to think it is all about respectability, or about some sort of Church hierarchy. I like it that God starts from a completely different premise.

I kept thinking that, in this parable, the first really were the last, not because they received less, but because of their attitude to what they received. The grumblers were paid the same generous wage as the others, but they went home poor because of their resentment over what they “deserved”, what they were rightly “owed”. The latecomers went home very rich, rejoicing because they hadn’t deserved very much, but they were given everything – which is what we should all be like whether we worked all day or not!

Joy

2011-09-18T14:10:00.002+02:00

I had to post this from Blue Eyed Ennis because it is so true. It is also relevant to today's reading, which is at least partly about why all the workers should be full of joy.

Gay marriage

2011-09-17T19:18:00.008+02:00

I've had a pretty busy day, we are having the kitchen done and one of the things we did today was to pay a visit to walk the dog - who is in kennels for a fortnight to keep her out of the way of the building work. I also had my first set of marking to complete. Somehow I managed to miss the news that the UK Government intends to introduce gay marriage by 2015 until just a few moments ago.
Anyone who knows me at all well will know that I am in favour of this move. I believe it is what you do with your sexuality, not what your sexuality is, that counts. I also believe it is the exclusive love and commitment between two people that makes a marriage, not the gender of the participants. I have friends that I know are waiting for this change in legislation before they formalise a personal commitment, and I am glad for them at this news. However, I also know people who believe that marriage is exclusively a relationship between a man and a woman, I do to some extent feel for them. I hope that they will have the grace to accept that just because we have strongly held convictions does not always mean we should impose those upon others, or speak out bitterly against something which has deemed to be a legal and human right.
I don't think in the UK we will see quite the same expressions of anger and hatred on both sides that were seen in the US over Proposition 8. I hope any Christians who speak out, either for or against, will choose their words with care and remember that they are not just talking about an "issue" but about people.

I'm sorry I am a Christian!

2011-09-17T11:00:00.000+02:00

Does anyone else ever want to apologise - or at least explain?

Working towards happiness

2011-09-15T19:13:00.005+02:00

I read today that a recent survey suggests that these are the ten happiest jobs:
1. Clergy - according to Forbes, this is the happiest profession. OK - maybe they didn't interview the guy on the left...

2. Firefighters: Eighty percent of firefighters are “very satisfied” with their jobs.
3. Physical therapists: Social interaction and helping people apparently make this job one of the happiest.
4. Authors: For most authors, the pay is ridiculously low or non-existent, but the autonomy of writing down the contents of your own mind apparently leads to happiness.
5. Special education teachers: If you don’t care about money, a job as special education teacher might be a happy profession.
6. Teachers: Teachers in general report being happy with their jobs, despite the current issues with education funding and classroom conditions. .
7. Artists: Sculptors and painters report high job satisfaction, despite the great difficulty in making a living from it.
8. Psychologists: Maybe there is nothing like hearing about other people's problems to give you a positive slant on your own.?
9. Financial services sales agents: Sixty-five percent of financial services sales agents are reportedly happy with their jobs.
10. Operating engineers: It is also one of the few professions where jobs available still outnumber applicants.

I was quite taken with the above list of happiest jobs, which I found on Stuarts E-church blog. The fact that
vicars and special needs teachers are all so happy does warm the cockles of the heart; it also supports the view held here on Significant Truths that happiness, boys and girls, is not found in nasty things like money but in a sense of vocation and in selfless acts of love and self expression...:)

As with life in general, there are always a few flies in the ointment. For example, the fact that teachers generally report job satisfaction has to be balanced against the hard reality that fifty percent of new recruits leave the profession within five years (hmmmm), while the tales of clergy contentment have to also be balanced against reports that it is a profession very vulnerable to isolation and bullying - as discussed on Bishop Alan's blog.
Also, how come sixty five percent of financial advisors are happy? That means people who chose to deal in the filthy lucre are really quite pleased with the fact. If there is any justice, shouldn't they be wallowing in a pit of their own misery? What about the other twenty-five percent? Perhaps they are the ones with a conscience?

Harrowing hell

2011-09-15T00:19:00.000+02:00

I am trying to look around other blogs a bit more! This is a great post from the blog Faith and Theology on universalism, and reactions to it, inspired by the furore over Rob Bells "Love Wins!"

Do dogs have souls? (Part fifteen)

2011-09-13T19:14:00.000+02:00

I laughed out loud when I saw this photo on a friend's face book page. The reaction of the two dogs certainly suggests they are aware that something is missing...
(I'm almost tempted to run a caption competition!)

Feeding the hungry

2011-09-12T20:04:00.004+02:00

I was shocked to hear an item on the radio yesterday about a large increase in the number of families turning to food banks in order to cope with the rising cost of food and fuel. I was certainly aware that some individuals and families in this country struggle to feed themselves, because the church that my dad was based at set up a "social fund" in order to help meet such needs in a fairly economically deprived Northern town, and that was over a decade ago! In this church-based initiative, the congregation donated food items, or money which was used to buy tins of value or own brand food to be handed out in bags or boxes. People would turn up at the vicarage with a voucher, usually given by the Salvation Army. Sometimes they would request specific items, nappies, for example, or just ask if we had any more of a particular item.
Most of the people who collected food were on benefits. There was some accommodation nearby which housed young people with difficult circumstances, or who were making the transition from care to independent living. Most of the recipients of the goods, or so I understood, were short of money because they were waiting for benefits claims to be assessed due to a move or change in circumstances. What shocks me about recent reports is that a lot of the people now needing help are in work, but their wages do not cover the increasing cost of living. That people who work hard find themselves unable to afford to live is patently unjust and wrong, yet inflation does take a much greater toll on lower income families, and it is undoubtedly true that many do struggle, and may be worse off than some of those on benefits.
I don't know that answer, but the Trussell Trust reports that a lot of the help offered is coming from churches and religious organisations. It has always been the case that churches have played such a role; I wonder if it will become more common as the economic downturn continues.

2011-09-10T21:15:00.002+02:00

The roll call of suffering and waste

2011-09-10T17:13:00.000+02:00

George Coppard, machine gunner at the Battle of the Somme, described it as a "dreadful scene" where "hundreds of dead were strung out , like wreckage washed up." Perhaps the sheer scale of this carnage accounts for the fact that it has led to literature which effectively conveys the horror and grief we feel when human life is quite simply squandered. This extract is from Sebastian Faulk's Birdsong, written in the 1990s.

Price was reading the roll call. Before him were standing the men who had managed to return. their faces were shifty and grey in the dark.To begin with he asked the whereabouts of each missing man. After a time he saw that it would take too long.
Price began to speed the process. He hurried from one unanswered name to the next. Bryne, Hunt, Hones, Tipper, Wood , Leslie, Barnes, Studd, Richardson, Savile, Thompson, Hodgson, Birkenshaw, Llewellyn, Francis, Arkwright, Duncan, Shea, Simons, Anderson, Blum, Fairbrother. Names came pattering into the dusk, bodying out the places of their forebears, the villages and towns where the telegrams would be delivered, the houses where the blinds would be drawn and where low moans would come in the afternoon behind closed doors; and the places that had borne them, which would be like nunneries, like dead towns without their life or purpose, without the sound of fathers and their children, without young men at the factories or in the fields, with no husbands for the women, no deep sound of voices in the inns, with the children who would have been born, who would have grown and worked or painted, even governed, left ungenerated in their fathers' shattered flesh that lay in stinking shell holes in the beet-crop soil, leaving their homes to put up only granite slabs in place of living flesh, on whose inhuman surface the moss and lichen would cast their crawling green indifference,
Of 800 men in the battalion who had gone over the parapet, 155 answered their names. Price told his company to dismiss, though he said it without the bark of the parade ground; he said it kindly...Jack Firebrace and Arthur Shaw waited for them and asked them how they had done, The men walked on as in a dream, and did not answer. Some of them spat or pushed back their helmets, most of them looked down, their faces expressionless yet grained with sadness. They went to their tents and lay down.

Awareness Sunday

2011-09-09T20:21:00.069+02:00

Awareness Sunday from Awareness Sunday on Vimeo.

The short video above is about Awareness Sunday, an initiative which aims to create better understanding between religions and communities as a response to the events of 9/11. The first Awareness Sunday will be the tenth anniversary, this Sunday, and churches and groups all over the world, led in the UK by a service of remembrance and reconciliation in Westminster Abby at 6.30pm, will be drawn together to try to create a better understanding between faiths and cultures. I first read about Awareness Sunday at Synod - I think they had a stall , or some groups was distributing the leaflets. I must admit that (rather ironically) I had not known about this initiative before, nor have I heard of it since.

The events of 9/11 have, of course, been in the news and on our television screens this week. I have mixed feelings about the coverage. The events were so momentous that to say little or nothing seems a travesty, and yet some of the delving into personal stories and lives seems intrusive and voyeuristic. I read a magazine article last week about "the jumpers" - those who fell, or jumped, or were forced to their death. The faces and pictures of those thought to have jumped were on display. The reader could try to match the blurry, grainy photos of them falling to their death, or leaning out of windows waving handkerchiefs, with those other photos, the equally harrowing ones of them living their lives - getting married, hugging their children, smiling at the camera with calm, unknowing eyes. I thought how it might feel for the families left behind, that a decade after their deaths their loved ones are newspaper fodder.

Many people of faith who remember 9/11 this weekend will be acutely aware that religious belief is a force for evil as well as good, that while our faith can help us recognise human dignity and strive for peace, so it can also fuel extremism and hatred. The attacks were made in the name of religion, and yet this can be a simplistic view when politics, cultural ideology and bitterness at injustice, both real and perceived, also played a part. Evil rarely comes from nowhere. The events of 9/11 should leave us grappling with our own propensities for bitterness, fear and hatred. How effectively do we discriminate between justice and revenge or negotiate moral boundaries in a world which is not always black and white, but often rather grey?

The leaflet from Synod is on the desk in front of me as I type. The radio downstairs drones on about the fear that some will use the anniversary of 9/11 to carry out further attacks. The leaflet about Awareness Sunday speaks of its belief that people of all faiths and world views, "will help defeat extremism and enable people to live together in peace, without fear."
It's a nice idea.

Strong views and " impartial advice"?

2011-09-08T23:47:00.000+02:00

What struck me most was this statement,
" With such polarised views can either of these groups be truly said to be independent?"

Nadine Dorries and abortion law

2011-09-07T19:58:00.003+02:00

I heard this evening that Nadine Dorries bill on abortion counselling had been defeated in the Commons and I thought this might be worth some comment. First of all, can I say that I am no supporter of Dorries, some of her proposals and attempts to change law on moral and social issues, such as her call for teenage girls (but not boys!) to be given lessons in abstinence, are on the lunatic fringe. However, I must confess that I am somewhat uneasy about the idea that abortion providers should be the sole source of counselling for women when those providers are set to profit financially from a decision in favour of a termination.

I have previously commented on an undercover report that pro-life organisations are giving women factually misleading advice about abortion and using emotive tactics to pressurise them into making a decision not to terminate. If this is true, then it is clearly not acceptable. I do wonder how far it is even possible for a pro life organisation to offer truly impartial advice on this matter? Some might say that a "pro-choice" organisation, if it is truly concerned with allowing choice, might offer more impartiality - but this argument falls down when the pro-choice organisation is also the abortion provider and has a vested financial interest?

Surely women should be offered truly independent advice - it seems to me the only thing that is right in this situation? I am not sure I would wish to ban organisations such as Marie Stoppes offering counselling, nor to stop pro-life organisations offering counselling - but, in such cases, I would like it to be made clear to women exactly what the underlying ethos and involvement of each organisation is, and for them to be offered alternative, truly independent advice if they so wished.

I thought that Anne Milton, the Government's health provider's response was measured and judicious. Milton told MPs:

"The government is … supportive of the spirit of these amendments and we intend to bring forward proposals for regulations accordingly, but after consultation. Primary legislation is not only unnecessary but would deprive parliament of the opportunity to consider the detail of how this service would develop and evolve."

I hope the Government does bring in a requirement for women to be offered independent counselling. Yet I suspect that if the only solution were to offer such counselling at tax payer's expense they would fight shy of this move. At the very least, I hope that they bring in further regulations of abortion counselling. The decision to bring a child into the world is a very serious one with far reaching consequences, but this does not mean that the same is not also often true of a decision to terminate.

NB: Since writing this piece, I have realised that "independent advice" is not the same as "impartial advice." I realised this after doing some reading around in response to some comments on CareConfidential on this post. CareConfidential is "independent", but it is not impartial, it is pro-life (see video above.) When Dorries says she wants women to be offered independent advice, I think this is because she knows that most such independent charitable counselling is pro-life. Marie Stopes alleges that many women have told them that such organisations pressurised them to continue with a pregnancy and were not honest about their christian ethos. I have also read one article pointing out that Marie Stopes is not "profit making" in the way that Dorries seems to imply. Any profits must be ploughed back into the organisation, no individual benefits financially. Having said this, I am still dubious about an abortion provider offering counselling, even when the financial gain from a decision to terminate would be invested in the organistion. I'd like to see independent and impartial counselling available on the NHS. I don't think this will happen! Why? Well, given the number of abortions carried out, the cost would be significant. Is reducing the number of abortions as much of an issue for our Government as reducing the number of underage pregnancies - well, you know the answers!

In blog we trust!

2011-09-06T23:18:00.003+02:00

A short time ago, while still in a state of shock at the demise of the much missed and lamented Church Mouse blog, I wrote about vanishing blog syndrome - you know, that let down feeling you experience when one of your favourite bloggers decides to hang up their boots and get back to their family and the real world? Well, that has happened to me quite a bit recently and I've decided that I need to be more ruthless in pruning and updating my blog list, for example deleting people who have not written a post for six months or more, and actively seeking out and adding new blogs.
Part of the process of blogging is not only to write your own blog but also to read the blogs that others write and to comment on them. Reading other blogs helps to keep you up to date with discussions or developments in the area you blog about, but, as Freda points out here, it is also essential to build up a blogging community, keep in touch and communicate. I have recently added to my sidebar list a recently started blog Lost in the North, which is written by someone I know personally (yes, I do mean in the real world!) and Blue Eyed Ennis, a blog that I have been reading regularly for some time and should really have linked to ages ago. I hope you will read these blogs and perhaps comment on them. In return, I would love to hear about the blogs you read regularly and would recommend.
Does anyone think I should apologise for the blog title? It is a dreadful pun, isn't it? And I've used it in a previous blog post. You'd think I'd have a bit more self respect - especially as Lesley is producing some lovely colourful graphs charting the ups and downs of the female blogger according to Wikio!

News at home and abroad

2011-09-06T18:34:00.015+02:00

This first fortnight back at work is pretty non-stop for me, and I have been vaguely aware of not being able to comment on new developments concerning the Anglican Covenant or the diocesan voting on women bishops.
There has been more news from NZ ; this weekend both Auckland and Waiapu (East Coast North island) diocesan synods passed similar motions declining to support Clause 4 of the Covenant and declaring that they saw no impediment to the ordination of someone in a commited same-sex relationship.
The two motions were passed by two thirds majorities in Auckland, and by 90% plus in Waiapu. You can read some analyis of the developments in New Zealand on Lesley's blog here and also an article from the conservative Andrew Goddard suggesting that a reform of the instruments of Communion is needed to enable Clause 4 to be effective. I assume here that he would like to see the instruments have greater power to discipline and exclude - although he doesn't say as much. It seemed to sit rather uneasily alongside the news from NZ that indicates that TEC is far from being alone and isolated in its views.

I have no idea whether the Church of England will support the Covenant. I have a hunch that we may, largely because not to do so might be perceived as an act of disloyalty to Rowan Williams. I could well be wrong though - I hope I am. On another key issue, that of women bishops, matters seem to be proceeding apace. Worcester has just become the 12th Diocesan Synod to vote in favour of the Article 8 Women Bishop's legislation. However, a majority of diocesan synods must vote in favour. There are 44 dioceses so 23 favourable votes are required, meaning 11 dioceses must still vote in favour. Furthermore, it seems likely that in some Diocesan Synods a "following motion" will be proposed asking for even more provision for women bishops. The Church of England Evangelical Council has formulated one such motion. If the House of Bishops amends the legislation it will have to go back around the dioceses for debate and voting again, before coming back to General Synod for final approval. The most likely result, based on past voting patters, is that General Synod will reject the amended legislation - although we do now have a different synod from when the addtional provision for those who will not accept women bishops was so resoundingly rejected.
The Worcester vote was by massive majorities in all 3 houses. (ie one cleric against and one abstaining and 3 laity against.)

Internet perils

2011-09-02T22:40:00.006+02:00

It has been a busy week. As a colleague said to me, returning after the holidays is a bit like stepping into a pool of ice cold water. I had two non- work resolutions this week, one was to manage a trip to the gym, the other was to compose a mid week blog post. The blogging resolution fell by the wayside, but I mustered up the energy for a (short) session on the treadmill - I think on Wednesday evening. We went out for a meal (during which I almost fell asleep) on Thursday. Was that only yesterday? My memories of the whole week are starting to get a bit hazy...
Although I did not blog myself, I did find time to take a cursory glance at other blogs I read regularly. My attention was caught by a post on the e-Church blog in which Stuart seemed to suggest self harm could be akin to the sacraments - " blood as liquid emotion". The link was to an article entitled Self injury and the Sacraments by Stacey. I was a little dubious about the idea of self harm as sacrament, partly because self harm does seem to be a growing trend, and can have an unfortunate glamour. Can I be quite clear here that I am not unsympathetic to those who self harm, it is a well documented response to pain and trauma, I just think there may be dangers if it is dignified/ mystified as "sacramental" in some way.
Anyhow, it then emerged that Stacey had also written a rather offensive post and as a result was receiving death threats and having her details published on antagonistic websites. The post was most unedifying and really did say more about Stacey tendency to over react to supposed homosexuals than anything else, but the comments did also shock me and made me think about the way the Internet often brings out the worst in all of us. I am an enthusiastic blogger and I love the Internet, but the instantaneous and potentially anonymous nature of communication it affords can free us to to say and do things that we might otherwise hesitate over.
Most schools have a non bullying policy, but more and more they face the problem of how to deal with situations where a member of the school community bullies another through email or social networking sites. I have heard some awful stories on the news about young people driven to contemplate or commit suicide because of cyber bullying, sometimes involving targeted "hate pages" set up about them. Blogging is a slightly different field to social networking. Bloggers put their opinions, which are sometimes controversial or provocative, out there for comment and , to an extent, should be able to carry the can. There are limits though; on the Internet, as in real life, we should not match hatred for hatred.
All in all, I was quite glad I'd prioritised the gym...

Chillax!

2011-08-29T12:12:00.003+02:00

I was rather amused by a post on The Cantos of Mutabilitie complaining about the use of the word "gutted" by a chief examiner concerning the way in which his board had somehow managed to put unanswerable questions on their papers this year. Some of the comments on the post dwelt on similar linguistic monstrosities, for example the advice given by an Ryanair hostess that her passengers should "chillax" during the flight.
It is fairly unforgivable that an examiner should use slang such as "gutted" in the context of an official statement, especially as teachers regularly receive feedback which emphasises the need for students to avoid "an overly colloquial register." Sometimes the reports give real life examples of things which the board consider ~~totally bang to rights~~ - sorry - utterly insupportable , such as "Cleopatra is a high maintenance lady", or even, "Hamlet was pissed off about his mum and his uncle shagging"(!)
Some colloquialisms are more fitted to a certain context or occasion than a more formal phrase. I dislike a written style that is bland, stilted or engineered to include a lot of latinate words simply in an attempt to impress. The word "chillax" has to be an exception to this rule. I challenge anyone to think of a real life context in which the word "chillax"is anything other than a gross assault upon the person. As for, "God wants you to chillax", anyone using that phrase in a sermon should face severe and immediate disciplinary measures!

Gone surfin'

2011-08-27T12:42:00.001+02:00

Bessie gave up all extreme sports due to a paw injury involving a skateboarding incident last year. Regular readers will be glad to hear that, after seeing this video, she has demanded to be taken surfing, or at the least treated to a trip to a skateboarding park.

To talk the talk and walk the walk

2011-08-26T09:58:00.003+02:00

I blogged a while back about Symon Hill, the journalist who embarked on a pilgrimage of repentance for his former homophobia. I have been vaguely keeping up with his blog and note that Symon's quest has been endorsed by Greenbelt, he is talking about his experience at the festival this weekend. I've been thinking about Symon's journey since I read that he would be at Greenbelt. I don't just mean his physical journey, I mean the spiritual, emotional and personal journey that his pilgrimage is meant to represent. For Symon it is also a personal journey as he now identifies as bisexual, so the homophobia he felt (and practised) was directed against himself as much as anything. The effect of homophobia upon LGBT people is immense. It does not simply cause feelings of rejection/ anger/ depression but also results in a life long struggle to discover and to be one's authentic self.
We all venture on personal journies throughout life and I am glad Symon has reached the place he has. I wonder whether he should really feel the need to "repent" for his former attitudes as I guess he was the main victim of them! I know his pilgrimage is also a call to others, churches and individuals to "repent" of homophobic attitudes. I have mixed feelings about this because, although I certainly think many churches and individuals do need to consider the consequences of their attitudes upon others, I also wonder whether a "call to repent" is not the sort of thing that often leaves people seriously ticked off! The term "homophobia" is nowadays used very generally. I am not sure it is a very helpful term, as it suggests a "phobic" reaction to gay people - thus very few people consider themselves to be homophobic.
It is when people put a human face to an "issue" that their hostilities and assumptions often melt away and they think more widely and carefully and - if they are Christian - more lovingly. I think the most positive thing about Symon Hill's journey is not that he is accusing others, but that he is asking them to have the grace and imagination to talk with him and to walk with him.

The cost of alcohol

2011-08-25T19:46:00.002+02:00

One of the things I've done this year is to almost give up drinking alcohol. I say "almost" because I do have a drink if I go out socially or have a meal with friends. I am not teetotal but I don't generally drink and will often go for several weeks without having an alcoholic drink. Nor was giving up drinking a conscious decision, although ironically it did start around New Year and was partly a response to the huge pile of empties that we accumulated at New Year (we did have several friends around for a party!) I decided to limit myself to fruit juice for a few days and the habit just stuck.

It is clear, however, that Britain does in general have a fairly serious drink problem, and I wonder whether my giving up of alcohol was in some way a response to or protest against the damage that excessive drinking can cause. I work with young people so I often hear some fairly immature attitudes to drink. Some, not all, seem to talk about getting "off your face" on a Friday night as though this were a great achievement or talent, when clearly it isn't! I can just about live with this level of immaturity in teenagers, but I do sometimes hear the same kind of talk from adults. Why is it that people think the fact they drink a lot is something to be proud of, but having a drink problem is something they would be ashamed of?

I am not convinced that making alcohol more expensive is a solution, but ironically alcohol related problems are costing us all more and more as time goes on, and that's just the financial cost let alone the social and emotional cost that so many individuals and families are having to pay. To change we need a widespread revolution in attitudes - not to all renounce alcohol, but just to be a bit more grown up about the whole affair. Grown ups really shouldn't think its hilarious, admirable or even noteworthy that when they drink too much they lose control.

Does anyone have a problem with that?

Forgiveness

2011-08-22T11:07:00.008+02:00

An article in the Huffington Post challenges what the writer feels are some myths about biblical forgiveness, in particular the idea that we must forgive everything unconditionally without the perpetrator needing to show remorse. The writer also suggests that our ideas about the psychological benefits of forgiveness are a modern concept which we apply anachronistically to the bible. The idea that forgiveness is necessary to psychological wholeness one which is readily bandied about in Christian circles.  A quick look on the net and I immediately found a site telling me that, "many people are crippled by an inability to forgive and so block healing." This idea that unforgiveness will leave you crippled is not wholeheartedly supported within the psychiatric profession. A counsellor once said to me that, although holding on to intense bitterness is destructive, "forgiveness",in the sense that we often understand it, is in no way a prerequisite to healing or wholeness. She said she had met more people suffering long term damage as a result of being coerced into thinking that they must forgive unconditionally than those suffering as a result of unforgiveness.

I am not saying for one moment that forgiveness is not emotionally beneficial. Sometimes it is necessary, and I do believe that some form of "forgiveness", even if at the least this is a moving on and putting past pain to rest, is at some point essential for emotional well being.   It is also true to say that sometimes other responses, such as anger, outrage or need to seek for justice, or quite simply a focus upon one's own needs, rather than the imagined needs of the perpetrator for their victim's "forgiveness", are more appropriate and beneficial. I have blogged before about the way that churches often deal rather badly with the subject of forgiveness, often causing damage to those who are dealing with very difficult issues such as abuse, and so I welcome this piece. Scripture should not be used to inflict further pain.
This corrective to some of our rather trite "what-the-bible- says- about forgiveness" formulas  is needed. Nevertheless, there are some striking omissions in the piece, for example that it didn't mention the Lord's Prayer, which did seem quite astonishing. Seeing as the article did purport to be a piece about bibilical veracity, rather than one driven primarily by pastoral concerns, I would have liked it to address scripture more widely.

World's most obedient dog?

2011-08-20T19:15:00.000+02:00

I was going to say that if you want obedience, get a dog. Then I thought about Bessie. One word from us and she does exactly what she wants...

Misogyny and religion

2011-08-20T00:07:00.013+02:00

"So much of religion is about controlling people, usually women !" No, it's not necessarily my opinion, it is something that was said to me by a (male) friend last New Year's Eve. It is clearly true to say that religion has historically a poor track record in terms of its misogynistic depictions of women, although Jesus was actually shockingly radical in his positive approach to women. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Church of England, which has been slow to admit women as equals, and, as Lesley Crawley argues here still fosters an institutional sexism which could be said to shame us all.
My friend's words about religion and the control of women brought to mind a time when I taught Chaucer's wonderful tale of the Wife of Bath - a feisty, well travelled woman who, with her red stockings and five husbands, still managed to live a pretty full and independent life in a time when women's choices were limited. Many critics feel that Chaucer makes the wife his spokesperson against the male dominated society in which she lives, in particular she inveighs against the attitudes of the Church and the way that so many sacred texts, myths and historical accounts have been penned by men. I used to show the students this wonderful tirade by Jack Nicholson in The Witches of Eastwick as part of the discussions about misogyny ( do watch it, it's very entertaining.)

Sometimes I read an article that brings home to me the fact that some types of Christianity really do focus on the control of women. I was amazed to read on Charlie Peer's blog about Michele Bachmann as a submissive or surrendered wife and some of the debate that this has caused in America about what it would actually mean for the President of The United States to be a woman who felt she must submit to her husband's authority and decisions? And if so, why doesn't she just cut out the middle-man and get him to run instead? If this sounds extreme, then it is worth noting that she apparently allowed her husband to decide that she would become a tax lawyer even though she did not personally want to choose this career or agree with his decision at the time!

Now, this "my husband chose my career" garbage that you get in bible belt America is the sort of thing that makes me despair and wonder whether my friend was right or how much we have moved on since Chaucer wrote his Canterbury Tales. Even if you believe in scriptural inerrancy, and I don't, there is absolutely nothing to support the idea that a husband should force a wife into decisions against her will. This is not even to begin to start on the supreme irony that were it not for the feminist movement Bachmann would have no chance of a career at all, let alone a high powered, well paid role as a tax lawyer or as a presidential candidate!

But this news item does not just raise questions about sexism, it also raises questions about the role of women as colluding in misogyny and control - often for very subtle reasons. In Bachmann's case I feel the reasons are not so subtle; flaunting her complementarian stance is reassuring to many of her target voters and so highly politically expedient. I suspect she is as hard as nails , if her husband were to change his mind and tell her to stay at home, he might well get short shrift! Many prominent female advocates often benefit enormously from their conservative stance and effectively "have their cake and eat it", prescribing a submission for others which they only "play act" at in their own lives (can anyone seriously see Sarah Palin submitting to anyone or anything?)

Of course, if individuals decide to obey a husband, that is a personal matter, but it is one I can hardly admire. It is in effect to hand over responsibility for one's life and choices to someone else. When you choose to obey another fallible human being rather than grapple with your own conscience, choice and reason, then you lose a little part of your integrity and of your soul. If you make your own decisions, or in a marriage are fully involved in joint decisions, then ultimately you can blame nobody but yourself. You make mistakes, yes, but they are your mistakes! It isn't just Presidents who need to shoulder responsibility for their actions. Sometimes we all need to be able to say that "The buck stops here!"

Walking moral tightropes

2011-08-17T14:07:00.002+02:00

    I was interested to see that the Equality and Human Rights Act had been cited in letters to an (unnamed) hospital which subsequently accepted the right of two Roman Catholic nurses not to participate in a clinic inducing terminations through the use of abortifacient drugs . I was quite surprised that the hospital had not been aware that their demands amounted to discrimination, I believe that Roman Catholics working as pharmacists can refuse to see the morning after pill on similar grounds and doctors can refuse to participate in abortions. It does demonstrate the act is not always used to support "liberalism" or persecute Christians as some commenters suggest. I also note that the EHRC is asking for guidance on four cases brought by Christians - although it seems to be seeking guidance as to whether the law overstepped the mark in the Shirley Chaplin case, but seems to be asking for confirmation that it was correct in the case of McFarlane and Ladele.
I do agree that medical professionals should have the right to decline to participate in terminations if this goes against their conscience. My main reasons for this is that, if someone believes abortion is murder then this directly infringes one of the ten commandments and  so individuals can claim they would be being forced to act against central tenets of their faith. I do not believe, however, that it should extend to the right to refuse before or after medical care to a patient undergoing a termination. I also think that giving chemists the right not to sell the morning after pill can raise more problems than it answers and it is itself , quite rightly, subject to guidelines that seem to be being enforced more rigorously at the moment (sorry for linking to The Christian Institute!)
I was also interested to read an article by Benn Quinn, written in The Guardian online some weeks ago, alleging  bad practice at faith based abortion services. I thought of blogging about this, I did not, partly because it was difficult to know how accurate the allegations were, or how widespread any bad practice is. I also was unsure to what extent clients who approach such organisations already know of their underlying ethos? Again, such organisation offering "advice" takes us into grey areas. It is clearly unacceptable for any organisation to give women inaccurate information in an attempt to sway their decision in the way that has been alleged. I also think any client has the right to know and understand that it is a pro life, Christian organisation and that that is may be likely to influence the type of advice that they receive. I hope that all such organisations are upfront about this?
I find the issue of abortion a harrowing and difficult one and am always aware of the strong feelings and sensitivities it evokes. As so often happens in these cases, the law seems to have to perform a careful balancing act between very disparate rights and beliefs.

The stuff that dreams are made of!

2011-08-15T21:45:00.001+02:00

I know you have all heard more than enough about the riots, but last night I had a dream that was clearly based on them. In my dream we were holidaying in the Cameron Highlands (a place we used to visit when I was a child and we lived in Singapore) and we were woken up at 3 in the morning by the sound of disturbances and forest fires in the distance. Kev was keen to journey across the island to confront the rioters. I won't tell you the rest of the dream as it gets increasingly bizarre, but when I awoke I wondered about the fact that it was so specifically the Cameron Highlands. I soon realised that, of course, this was my mind playing about with words- the idea of David Cameron and the moral high ground perhaps being suggested.
You may be interested to hear that Kev's analysis of the dream was that teachers get too much time off over the Summer and that it might be time for me to get back to work...

Freedom of religious belief

2011-08-15T21:28:00.005+02:00

I was interested to read on the E- Church blog that there has been a complaint to the Charity Commission concerning the Barnabas Fund. The reasons this subject caught my attention is that a church which I attended about ten years ago used to support this charity and, following its promotion by the vicar one day in a sermon, I signed one of its petitions and pledged a regular donation. The sermon or talk, if I remember rightly, focused on Muslims who, having converted to Christianity in some Muslim countries, faced death threats or murder as a result of their "apostasy". One of the rights which I believe in very strongly is that of freedom of belief. As we have seen in this country the concept of persecution can be stretched rather broadly, but nevertheless the thought that anyone could face death as a result of their religious beliefs should rightly horrify us.
As a result of signing up to the Barnabas Fund ( I am sure it was called the Barnabas Trust back then?) we got sent a monthly magazine detailing the plight of Christians in various Islamic countries. Many of these stories were moving and shocking and an indictment of Muslim fundamentalism, but what started to concern me was the fact that the Barnabas magazine itself increasingly ran articles which expressed controversial views of Muslims in the UK. One article focused on "The Islamisation of Britain" and attacked the Muslim community and seemed to me to suggested that fairly innocuous events, such as the presence of mosques, was an insult to British Christians. One picture in the article, of a Muslim woman and her child, was captioned "A Muslim woman and child walk through Hyde Park" - although why this should have been a noteworthy matter was not really made clear. It seemed particularly ironic that an organisation whose main aim was to promote the right for Christians in Muslim countries to be treated with respect did not seem to accord the same respect when the boot was on the other foot. I eventually wrote a letter of complaint to the organisation, it was written in 2004 but I still have it in my files, and withdrew my donation. They did not respond.
There is a great deal of anti Islamic feeling in this country, some of it is understandable, but at times its ferocity disturbs me. I also particularly dislike hearing that sort of hatred from people who profess to be Christian. Quite often such people will excuse themselves as not being racist or religiously intolerant on the basis that they revere the Jews as God's chosen people (this then gives them an additional reason to hate Islam.) One of the ironies of the type of Christian Zionist ideologies often held by evangelical fundamentalists is that they generally have as their base premise the belief that the Jews will be converted to Christianity before Jesus returns. Thus the reverence for Judaism is not one based on respect or religious tolerance, but purely a marking of time until the Jews can all admit the error of their ways and accept Christ as Messiah. In this respect it can at times be little more than another form of anti-semitism dressed in respectable robes.
It will be interesting to see what the Charity Commission rules on the Barnabas Fund.

Money as the root of all evil...

2011-08-12T18:40:00.003+02:00

Jesus had an awful lot to say about the dangers of the love of money. In fact too much of a focus on one's personal wealth seems to be pretty much incompatible with being a christian -although I don't see many of us embracing this message with great enthusiasm. Yet there is so much of it in the gospels, isn't there? Sell everything you have and give it to the poor seems to be the standard advice. Also don't fill your storehouses to capacity and somehow think this gives you security, because your life could be demanded this very night. Oh, and remember that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Seriously think about where your treasures are, for there your heart will be also.One of the key news items pushed out of the spot light by the recent riots is the volatility of global markets, the problems faced by so many economies, the debt and deficits fuelled by greed and the "buy now, pay later" atttitudes fostered by consumerism. Greed, selfishness and irresponsibile attitudes to money have undoubtedly contributed to the economic - and moral- problems in our country; it looks like Jesus was right, money is a moral issue.

We received a letter the other day telling us that an ISA had matured and did we want to "roll it over" at a low interest rate or did we want to pop down the bank to discuss a range of "more attractive returns"? No brainer really, and so we spent this morning discussing something which promised to protect the capital while at the same time offering potential returns, with a very nice young man who nevertheless made me rather uneasy by his enthusiastic confidence. This product, he told me, "offers you security and the potential for returns." And there you have it, we like to think that money offers us "security", that it wraps us in a warm, comforting blanket. Yet nothing is very secure, none of us knows what the future holds and we are facing problems on many fronts: our jobs may not be secure, we may worry for the employment prospects of our children, environmental problems may lead to all kinds of repercussions, such as food shortages and economic and political unrest. I felt like we needed someone to proclaim," You fool! This very night your life will be demanded of you."

Gentle reader, you will be glad to hear that I refrained and so am now writing this from home while enjoying a nice cup of tea and not from a padded cell after a visit from the people in white coats. I shall end by allowing you to benefit from the Archdruidy wisdom of one who has had the moral courage to abjure worldly riches in favour of simplicity , tea lights, raffia and the moon . Here she reflects on the culpability of us all.

Poverty of mind and prospects

2011-08-11T18:58:00.007+02:00

I am planning to watch Question Time tonight about the possible causes of the recent disorder in Britain’s cities; I’ve already listened to a lot of comment and attempts to explain what we have witnessed on television, radio and the internet. The mantra that this is "just sheer criminality" irritates me somewhat ; it might be true that it is most of the looters and rioters acted with criminal rather than political intent, but nevertheless such widespread criminality still doesn't happen in a vacuum but arises out of a particular social, cultural and political milieu. There are many possible factors contributing to what has happened and they include the breakdown of families and communities, the influence of social media, our current economic situation, a significant underclass in our society and the influence of consumerism. Poverty undoubtedly played a role, but not all of the looters came from the lower socioeconomic groups, and nobody seemed to be stealing food, more designer items and luxury goods. There are societies which face extreme poverty in which individuals do not behave this way. However, poverty should never be thought of as just pecuniary; there is also moral, social and intellectual poverty, there is poverty of opportunity and the spiritual poverty which occurs when someone has never been encouraged to search for some kind of meaning outside of his or her own material existence. I do believe that the attitudes fostered by our consumerist society leaves us impoverished morally, spiritually and intellectually. We do not know how to be rich in the things which matter. There is a poverty of mind, which incidentally I have noticed among many affluent teenagers and is endemic throughout society, which focuses on getting as much as you can with as little possible effort and valuing things such as looks, designer clothes, and technical gadgets. It is epitomised in our celebrity culture, the shallowness of which has literally sickened me for some time.

Nevertheless, it is too simple to say that all people need to do is buck up their ideas about respect and responsibility, go to church, switch off the X Factor and read a few improving books and all will be wellI think we also have to consider the changing nature of Britain - the manual jobs that once sustained a class of people and allowed them dignity and self reliance have gone. There is high youth unemployment and there are not appropriate jobs for many, and this is against a backdrop of the rising cost of living and great uncertainty about the future. Living a life sustained by welfare might meet basic physical needs, it cannot meet the need for dignity and a sense of purpose and place. Young people receive the insidious message that they are literally worth nothing if they do not possess the latest consumer goods or possess real buying power. I hear a lot of "chav contempt”, talk of feral rats; if you are brought up on a sink estate, the message is that you are scum- this does not believe that everyone will live up to that message, but some will.
Cameron has identified the problem as moral and suggested people have not been taught right from wrong – which might lead us to ask about the role of religion. One blog that I read pointed out that many of those involved would have been brought up in the black and Afro-Caribbean communities which have higher rates of church attendance than average. It is unfair though to suggest there is any sort of causal link between church attendance and this type of crime, the situation is more complex and likely to arise from social and cultural factors. Asian communities often have a strong faith base and, where there is social aspiration, they are law abiding. For all the talk of moral breakdown and a sick society, I have not heard one politician so far mention religion, or look to the church for answers. It is sobering to realise that the Church has really no moral authority or role. In the minds of most people, the Christian faith has nothing to offer in this situation. My personal view is that it does, because it offers us transformation and a view of ourselves and others as infinitely valuable.

It is much easier to analyse a problem than to find solutions, in particular there will be no quick fix solutions to problems which have developed over several generations. I think that the Government has taken the right steps to restore order on the streets – at least in the short term- it is the long term changes to people’s values, prospects and the changes to hearts and minds that will prove more of a challenge.

Gentle wisdom

2011-08-09T15:21:00.001+02:00

Peter from Faith is not the same as religion inspired this post! I hope nobody is offended a little humour in these circumstances:)

Philippines just say no to the Anglican Covenant

2011-08-09T13:21:00.002+02:00

For those of you who are sufficiently dull to be interested in the Anglican Communion in the face of panic on the streets of the UK, it appears that the Philippine Council of Bishops has just voted against the Anglican Covenant, describing it as "un-Anglican" in creating a Standing Committe as a Supreme Court against the principle of the autonomous nature of each Anglican Province.

Bishop Malecdan said, “We recognised that Anglicans have many disagreements as a Communion but we still can be agreeable to one another. We can still move towards reconciliation as sisters and brothers as a gift of God to us by persistently talking about our differences."

Amen to that!

Big society?

2011-08-09T13:00:00.000+02:00

Like everyone I've been watching the disgraceful scenes of rioting and looting unfold in London and in other cities across the UK last night. I think it is a little too early to say too much , there is likely to be a number of contributing factors and the media is already speculating about the possible causes and implications. Given the clear disaffection and petty mindlessness of much of the violence and looting, my main thought this morning has been the irony of Cameron's much vaunted vision of the big society!

Listening to the whispering

2011-08-07T13:42:00.005+02:00

We have just returned from a week in Spain where we enjoyed relaxing, swimming, walking and generally eating too much. The holiday was mainly just a chance to catch up and spend some time together, it was fairly low key, although we did manage a visit to the Alhambra where we enjoyed the beauty of the architecture and intricate designs and the lovely gardens. I felt it could be a place of profound contemplative peace if it hadn't been quite so busy and if we had had a little more time to stop and reflect!

We took some holiday reading away with us as always and I don't know quite how we managed it but two of the novels dealt with the theme of abuse or child murder (great!). We tend to pick the books in a bit of a last minute spree and we try pick something that looks thrilling enough to tempt the teenagers. Anyhow, Emma Donoghue's Room, shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, was based upon cases such as the Fritzl crime and other similar cases where women have been abducted and imprisoned for years, giving birth to the children of their abuser during that time. I would not have bought it if the blurb had made this clear, but for all that it was sensitively and movingly narrated from the perspective of the child born as a result of the rape and I *enjoyed* reading it.

The other novel with a similar theme ,although totally different in terms of style, was a book called The Whisperer by Donato Carrisi, a "italian literary thriller phenomenon" picked by one of the boys. This was based around the murder of six little girls whose severed arms are buried in a ritualistic semi circle. The Guardian described it as " A gripping read" and it certainly was a page turner in some ways. Perhaps fortunately (as I was in need of some comedy by now) it was so implausible as to give rise to mirth. How likely is it that three members of the detective team would be in some way implicated or linked to the murders or murderer themselves? Throw into the mix a crazed monk and nun with psychic powers and a session of hypnosis used to uncover a forgotten clue and you get the picture. The fact that Kev kept saying, "Those kids were totally 'armless" didn't help me take it seriously! The Whisperer has little literary merit but one theme that did fascinate me was the quote on which the title was based, " God is silent, the Devil whispers" - the implication being that evil is so much more wide spread and seductive than good. I spent some time pondering this and decided that I am not sure it is true and that the impulse to goodness and decency is at least as pervasive as the tendency to evil. I was quite surprised by this, having always believed I thought the opposite. I must be turning into an optimist!

Solar by Ian McEwan provided some much needed light relief. It is a wonderful comedy based around the rather inept Professor Beard, a Nobel prize-winning physicist who works in the area of climate change but is actually unconvinced of the need to save the world from environmental disaster and more interested in the intricacies of his love life - his wife is having an affair. I always enjoy McEwan's writing, and this book cleverly reflects upon the human condition, the way our selfish preoccupations dominate and even our idealism is laced with ironies. The hapless Beard is slightly overweight at the start of the book and, as it progresses, failed diet after failed diet sees his blubbery girth expand inexorably. One moment he will be resolving only to have a light salad and water and the next he will be accepting a glass of champagne and a rich dish swimming in cream. Beard's struggle with his weight is a wonderful metaphor for greed and excess and for how, in our attempt to use the world's resources wisely, the short term faction wins the day!

My final book was Notes from an Exhibition by Patrick Gale. This was one of our book club novels that I failed to read as it came right in the middle of coursework marking. It tells the story of a gifted artist who suffers from bi-polar disorder and of her life and family. I found this a moving and compelling read, I was particularly taken with the descriptions of Quakerism that ran throughout, especially as I have been occasionally attending Quaker worship over the last few months (more on that some other time.) I liked the balance of this book; there was some real tragedy and horror described - and mental illness is in itself truly dark and horrific - at the same time there was the soothing routine of family life and love, the beautiful Cornish landscape and the enduring search for peace and understanding through the Quakerism. It made me feel that no life, however short or marked by tragedy, is meaningless. Despite ending on the brink of the death of a young life, it had a redemptive quality. It was the right book to end my holiday reading; it made me feel that God whispers.

Blogging off for a bit

2011-07-27T20:04:00.000+02:00

Whenever Mummy took a break from blogging there were these strange people in her kitchen...

Blogging may be light over the next week as I am planning to spend some time with my family. They have already been neglected for two weekends with Synod and retreats and now ~~deserve~~ will be getting some more of my attention.

Like cat and dog?

2011-07-26T11:51:00.000+02:00

Sometimes love blossoms in the most surprising places! H/t to Freda at What's the story in Dalamory.

Vatican recalls envoy

2011-07-25T16:06:00.001+02:00

The Vatican has recalled its Irish envoy Archbishop Giuseppe Leanzabeen from Dublin following strong criticisms of its role in covering up child abuse. Last week the Irish parliament passed a motion deploring the Vatican's role in "undermining child protection frameworks" following publication of a damning report on the diocese of Cloyne in county Cork. The Cloyne report said Irish clerics concealed from the authorities the sexual abuse of children by priests as recently as 2009 after reports from the Vatican seemed to disparage child protection guidelines. As explained in the Irish Times the Prime Minister Enda Kenny made a speech condemning the Holy See in which he said that the "rape and torture of children were downplayed or managed, to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, standing and reputation."

Enda Kenny undoubtedly did use strong words, but they are words which seem entirely justified given the increasing evidence, not only of abuse, but of systematic attempts to conceal it or dismiss its significance. The Papal Envoy has been recalled ostensibly for "consultation", and the Vatican has made a statement saying that this is the case, but has also expressed displeasure at what they have termed the "excessive reactions" of the Irish Government.
In my view this reaction ill becomes the Vatican; it is hard to see in it anything approaching Christian compassion and remorse. The influence and authority of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland has already been severely damaged and many Roman Catholics feel bereft, betrayed and long for the expression of a mature, substantial and commensurate remorse that might allow them to look more confidently to the Church again for moral guidance and support. It is hard to know how this action will achieve anything except to drive a stronger wedge between Church and State in Ireland and to fuel anger and distress amongst those who already feel let down.

Only your presence

2011-07-24T21:11:00.001+02:00

The well known reading from Romans 8 today, that nothing can separate us from the love of God, is echoed in the writings of St Francis about discipleship:
"Therefore, let nothing hinder us, nothing separate us, nothing come between us. Wherever we are, in every place, at every hour, at every time of the day, every day and continually, let all of us truly and humbly believe, hold in our heart and love, honor, adore, serve, praise and bless, glorify and exalt, magnify and give thanks to the Most High and Supreme Eternal God ."
This song seems to echo some of those ideas. It is rather beautiful and just right for the peace and calm of a lovely Sunday evening.

A person with a belief

2011-07-24T19:32:00.000+02:00

It is ironic that the perpetrator of the massacre in Norway tweeted a single quote from the philosopher John Stuart Mill prior to the killing spree, saying: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests" as the thoughts and actions of Anders Behring Breivik would have been deeply abhorrent to John Stuart Mill. At the heart of Mill's humanitarian philosophy lay an acute awareness of and empathy for others, he believed in liberty only insofar as this did not cause harm to others. Mill's championed the cause of women's equality in his essay on "The subjection of women" and promoted the good of the greatest possible number of individuals in a society in his idea of utilitarianism. There is such a disparity between the mindset of a thinker such as Mills and one such as Anders Behring Breivik that one has to wonder whether he was actually tweeting Mills in an ironic sense? Was he actually saying something along the lines that "Mill's empathy for the many is in direct opposition to my lack of empathy and narcissistic assertion of my own ideologies and emotions to the exclusion of the interests of others" - and would he indeed be capable of this sort of degree of self awareness?

Like Mills, Anders Behring Breivik certainly can be described as having "beliefs". Described as right wing politically, anti- Muslim and a fundamentalist Christian, linked to the Tea Party, and known to comment on several political and religious websites, he clearly had an acute interest in ideology. Nor did he lack emotion. I couldn't help noticing that the paper I got this morning described him as "cold and heartless" in one article, whilst explaining in another that "he would have been in the grip of a slow burning anger" against the world. Well, slow burning anger is certainly an emotion - and has to be compelling to find expression in such an extreme way. What Anders Behring Breivik lacked was not the ability to think or to feel, simpy the ability to feel on behalf of others, to experience empathy. It is very likely that he was at the centre of his universe and may not have recognised other human beings (certainly those who were Muslim or left wing) as anything other than "the other."

I do not want to comment at length on this tragic and horrible event, nor the person behind it. Many aspects leave me deeply uneasy, the way that several newspapers initially reported it as an Al Qaeda massacre seems rather ironic given Anders Behring Breivik's anti-Muslim views, and - so close to the demise of The News of the World - I can't help feeling that grubby recognition that this is a gift for the newspapers and media and that what is simply a colossal pointless waste and utterly needless, meaningless heartbreak for so many can be in danger of being turned into entertainment for all of us. There is a bit of a "wow factor" when someone acts in such an extreme and horrific way and there is a fascination in all of us about the mindset behind it - and isn't that reaction partly what Anders Behring Breivik sought?

I come back to the title of this post - a person with a belief. The events in Norway make me feel that it matters very little what our beliefs actually are; just that Christ's commandment to love our neighbour as ourselves should override - or underpin - each and every one of them.

Twelth Night

2011-07-23T01:06:00.005+02:00

I've been pretty busy recently! First of all there was the end of term, then Synod, followed by the retreat, and then Mr M had his first real full day back at work today and I actually had to cook the evening meal! But you will all be glad to hear that I am still finding time to enjoy the summer holiday ( I can actually sense the sympathy vote may not be that high...) and we made a good start by attending an open air performance of Twelth Night at Gawsworth Hall last night. It was a really enjoyable evening, the setting is really beautiful and the performance was excellent. We had a chance to catch up again with the good friends that we went with and, to cap it all, they brought some wine and it didn't even rain!

We are planning to go and see the final episode of Harry Potter tomorrow, very exciting as The Deathly Hallows is my favourite and I have loved all the books and films (don't expect any intellectual snobbery about them from me) - we will also be going on holiday soon.
In spite of all the rain we seem to be having I am still feeling pretty good! Hey ho!